The Aesthetics of Mirror Reversal

1. The orientation of symmetric objects is irrelevant Hold this page to a mirror. OTTO in OTTO DIED seems unreversed. However, the illiterate mirror reflects all words equally. OTTO only appears to be unchanged because of its vertical symmetry. This becomes manifest as you position a mirror beneath OTTO DIED. Since OTTO is not horizontally symmetric, its horizontal reflection is asymmetric. Just the reverse holds for DIED; it appears unchanged when the mirror is held below. If someone claimed that the original OTTO is prettier than its flop, we could reply that the change in orientation did not change the identity of the OTTO inscription. Since the flop of OTTO just is OTTO, and OTTO cannot be prettier than itself, it follows that the change in orientation did not affect the aesthetic merit of OTTO. A second reply will occur to those familiar with the literature on the question whether perfect fakes can differ aesthetically from their originals. Perceptually indistinguishable objects are aesthetically equivalent. Since the flop of a symmetrical artwork is indistinguishable from its original, the principle implies that these flops are aesthetically equivalent to their originals.