The application of computing to aesthetics, and the formation of art and design, has a long history, which resulted in the emergence of computer art as a new art form in the1960s, with the integration of hardware, software, and cybernetics. We propose to look at the complementary area of applying aesthetics to computing. Computing, and its mathematical foundations, have their own pre-existing aesthetics; however, there is currently a difference between the relative lack of variety of these aesthetics in contrast to art, which has a long history containing of a multitude of historical genres and movements. We wish to strike a balance between cognitive and material aesthetics. Software as written in text or drawn with flow-charting may be considered elegant. But that is not to say that the software could not be rephrased or represented given more advanced media technologies that are available to us today, as compared with when printing was first developed. Such representation need not compromise the goals of abstraction, which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for mathematics and computing, as meaning, comprehension, and motivation may be enhanced if the presentation is guided by a pluralism of aesthetic choices and multiple sensory modalities.
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A 2003 study studied this question.