Suppose an artist's task is to produce a drawing that obeys a set of (possibly informal) pre-determined specifications. The goal of low-complexity art is to represent the depicted object's essence by achieving two conflicting goals simultaneously:
Goal 1. Given the specifications, the drawing should ``look right''.Goal 2. (a) The Kolmogorov complexity of the final design should be provably small. In other words, the algorithm computing the drawing (by generating appropriate instructions for a printer, say) should be short. (b) It should be easy for an informed observer to perceive the algorithmic simplicity of the drawing and to see the object's essence extracted by the low-complexity artist.
It is predicted that the observer will like drawings that achieve both goals. The next section addresses the extent to which both goals are subjective.