Using this material

What you may do with what is on this site, who the underlying material belongs to, and what this site does with you. Three short answers.

Licensing and attribution

The 73 Aesthetics in the collection cite 1,042 sources between them. Licences are recorded one source at a time; these are the 50 recorded so far.

proprietary: 38 sources
unknown: 8 sources
cc by sa 4 0: 3 sources
cc0: 1 source

48 of those 50 require attribution, and the text they require is stored with the source rather than paraphrased. Anything you take from a record that rests on one of them carries that requirement with it.

Who owns what

The source material — posters, pages, artefacts and scholarship — belongs to the institutions and authors listed under Sources. Nothing here relicenses it.
The structured records — the rules, postures and claim addresses — are our editorial work, built on top of that material.

Privacy

This site is a set of static files. The following are facts about the build rather than promises about intent.

No accounts. There is no sign-in.
No cookies. Your browser's local storage can hold six things: the light-or-dark choice, when you set it; a random reader id that keeps your verdict yours (it names a browser, never a person), created when an Aesthetic page first loads; the name you sign contributions with, only if you type one; the Aesthetics you save; the Aesthetics you have commented on or added a reference to; and, only if you opened one of Annie's early-access links, your answer to the note it shows: either that you said no, or, if you chose to share, a random key for this browser, your current visit, whether the Feedback button has already been highlighted for you, and, once you stop, your participant code (see Early-access links, below). Clearing site data removes all six.
Page views are counted, anonymously. Every page loads one script from our host, Vercel: /_vercel/insights/script.js (Vercel Web Analytics). It records which page was opened, the site that linked you here, and your country, browser, operating system and device type. It sets no cookie and writes nothing to your browser; it tells visits apart only within a day, by a hash of the request that Vercel discards after 24 hours.
Our own scripts. 46 first-party JavaScript files exist and at most eight run on any one page. The votes and comments on every Aesthetic page talk to our database host (Supabase) to load and save verdicts, comments and contributor images. The Favorites page reads your own verdicts from the same database by your reader id, and the Community page reads recent comments from it. cultural-review.js sends an offer to review to the same database when you press Send, and reads nothing back. research.js transmits nothing unless you open an early-access link, and then only what is described below; feedback.js loads only when a browser that is sharing usage opens Feedback, and sends only a note you write. Every other script reads files from this same origin and transmits nothing.
Forms send exactly what they show. A verdict, a comment, a specimen image with its caption, and the optional name beside them go to that database, with the reader id attached. The reader id on a comment or image is never shown or readable by the public. Unsigned is a first-class choice.
Product updates, if you sign up. The Get product updates form sends your email address, which form you used and the page it was on. Nothing else is attached, not even the reader id. The address is used only to send occasional news about Aesthetary. It can't be read back through the site, and it is kept until you ask to be taken off, by writing to hello@aesthetary.com.
Offers to review. The cultural review form sends what it shows: which reviews, your name, what you do, your expertise and why this review, and, only if you fill them in, your connection to the tradition and a link. If you say we may write to you, it also sends your email. Nothing else is attached: no reader id, and nothing is kept in your browser. Only Annie reads offers; none is published, and nobody can read them back from the site. An offer is deleted automatically 12 months after you send it, or sooner if you ask at hello@aesthetary.com. Sending one doesn't make you a reviewer; if you later review and agree to be credited, that is asked separately.
Early-access links. While Aesthetary is being built, Annie sends some people an early-access link, and they sometimes pass it on. Whoever opens one, however they got it, sees a short note as the page opens, and the link's code (?i=…) is taken out of the address bar straight away. The only thing sent before you choose is that code, to check the link is still open. Nothing about your visit is recorded unless you choose Explore + share anonymous usage. If you choose Explore without sharing usage, or close the note, this browser remembers only that you said no, so it won't ask again, and nothing is sent. You use the site like anyone else.
If you choose to share. Your browser is given a random key, and that key is the participant: it identifies a browser, not a person. On another device, or after clearing this site's data, you would be someone new. No name, email or account is asked for. From then on research.js records the pages you open, what you search for (the words, once you stop typing), what you put on the Mix bench and when you copy a Mix link, which search result you pick (its position in the list), when you open the Build menu, the name of any outside site you follow a link to (the site only, not the page), what you download or save, your verdicts, when you send a comment or image, and when you send feedback, each with the time, the site that linked you here and a rough screen width (narrow, medium or wide). It records no keystrokes, no mouse movement or scrolling, and nothing else about your device. The database also keeps when you chose to share and which version of the note you saw. Your research record is linked to this browser's random reader id, the same id attached to any verdicts or comments you post, so your own contributions can be connected to your record.
Feedback, if you send some. The Feedback button opens a small form. Nothing is sent unless you write something and press Send. A note holds what you wrote, what you would change, if you chose to add that, the page you were on and, if you pointed at something, which part of the page, plus any image you chose to attach. No name or email is asked for, so a note on its own is anonymous. If this browser is sharing usage, the note is also linked to its participant record, so Annie can read it next to what you explored. That feedback is part of your early-access research record: it is kept with the rest of it for up to 12 months and then deleted, including any image you attached.
Stopping, deleting, and what stays. If this browser is sharing usage, a button just below lets you stop: one click, and nothing more from this browser is recorded. Stopping doesn't delete what was already recorded. It shows this browser's participant code, and if you email that code to hello@aesthetary.com Annie will delete your research record straight away. Otherwise that record (visits, pages, searches, clicks and any feedback you sent, images included) is deleted automatically once it is 12 months old. Kept separately is a small permanent note that this browser was one of Aesthetary's First Impressionists: its participant code, since when, which link it came through and when you agreed to share, so that early people can be recognised later (for example "First Impressionist · 2026" on a future account). It holds no browsing history and no feedback, and Annie will delete that too if you ask at the same address. Clearing this site's data also stops the recording, but it throws away the code.
Outbound links to museums, publishers and journals are ordinary links. Following one takes you to their site under their terms.

If accounts, saving or recipes are ever built, the lines above change again, and this page gets rewritten before that ships — as it was rewritten for the Swiss comments.

Terms of service

There isn't one, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

Binding terms are legal work, not copywriting. A page of plausible-sounding clauses would be exactly the kind of confident filler this project exists to argue against, and it would be worse than useless the first time it mattered.

Until a reviewed document exists: this is an alpha, offered with no warranty of any kind, and the licence terms above govern the source material.