Aesthetics of the Familiar

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriko Saito
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Household Chores ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
Effective Instrument ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Aesthetic

Everyday aesthetics was recently proposed as a challenge to the contemporary Anglo-American aesthetics discourse dominated by the discussion of art and beauty. This book responds to the subsequent controversies regarding the nature, boundary, and status of everyday aesthetics and argues for its legitimacy. Specifically, its discussion highlights the multifaceted aesthetic dimensions of everyday life that are not fully accounted for by the commonly held account of defamiliarizing the familiar. Instead, the appreciation of the familiar as familiar, negative aesthetics, and the experience of doing things are all included as being worthy of investigation. These diverse ways in which aesthetics is involved in everyday life are explored through conceptual analysis as well as by application of specific examples from art, environment, and household chores. The significance of everyday aesthetics is also multi-layered. This book emphasizes the consequences of everyday aesthetics beyond the generally recognized value of enriching one’s life experiences and sharpening one’s attentiveness and sensibility. Many examples, ranging from consumer aesthetics and nationalist aesthetics to environmental aesthetics and cultivation of moral virtues, demonstrate that the power of aesthetics in everyday life is considerable, affecting and ultimately determining the quality of life and the state of the world, for better or worse. In light of this power of the aesthetic, everyday aesthetics has a social responsibility to encourage cultivation of aesthetic literacy and vigilance against aesthetic manipulation. Ultimately, everyday aesthetics can be an effective instrument for directing humanity’s collective and cumulative world-making project for the betterment of all its inhabitants.

The Power of Everyday Aesthetics in World-Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriko Saito
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
The World ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter argues for the importance of cultivating aesthetic literacy and vigilance, as well as practicing aesthetic expressions of moral virtues. In light of the considerable power of the aesthetic to affect, sometimes determine, people’s choices, decisions, and actions in daily life, everyday aesthetics discourse has a social responsibility to guide its power toward enriching personal life, facilitating respectful and satisfying interpersonal relationships, creating a civil and humane society, and ensuring the sustainable future. As an aesthetics discourse, its distinct domain unencumbered by these life concerns needs to be protected. At the same time, denying or ignoring the connection with them decontextualizes and marginalizes aesthetics. Aesthetics is an indispensable instrument for assessing and improving the quality of life and the state of the world, and it behooves everyday aesthetics discourse to reclaim its rightful place and to actively engage with the world-making project.

scholarly journals Everyday aesthetics and world-making

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
Yuriko Saito
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
The State ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
The World ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Collective Enterprise

The project of world-making is carried out not only by professional world-makers, such as designers, architects, and manufacturers. We are all participants in this project through various decisions and judgments we make in our everyday life. Aesthetics has a surprisingly significant role to play in this regard, though not sufficiently recognized by ourselves or aestheticians. This paper first illustrates how our seemingly innocuous and trivial everyday aesthetic considerations have serious consequences which determine the quality of life and the state of the world, for better or worse. This power of the aesthetic should be harnessed to direct our cumulative and collective enterprise toward better world-making. Against objections to introducing a normative dimension to everyday aesthetics, I argue for the necessity of doing so and draw an analogy between everyday aesthetics and art-centered aesthetics which has dominated modern Western aesthetics discourse.

Indigenous Metaphors and the Philosophy of History in Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Rivett
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Verse Forms

Chapter 8 explores how a fascination with a “native language” emerged in literary circles through a simultaneous indebtedness to traditional British prose and verse forms, and Anglo-American linguistic affiliation with indigenous-language roots. By 1815, the “Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society” would declare this “native language” a uniquely “American idiom” to be discovered on the American continent through the “numerous novel forms” of Indian languages. In his early novels, James Fenimore Cooper seized upon the aesthetic value that could be constructed from Indian languages and from the figure of the noble savage. I show how Cooper’s novels build upon beliefs in the prelapsarian quality of indigenous languages. I argue that the regenerative potential that Cooper’s novels portray as arising from Indian words functions as aesthetic compensation for the violence and repeated violation of treaty agreements that characterized US and Indian relations in the early nineteenth century.

Consequences of Everyday Aesthetics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriko Saito
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indigenous Plants ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
The World ◽  
Ongoing Project

Despite the charge of triviality and insignificance, everyday aesthetics has a surprisingly powerful impact on the quality of life and the state of the world, for better or worse. From popular attraction to certain natural creatures, landscapes, and fashionable consumer goods to rejection of ‘inglorious’ fresh produce and landscaping with indigenous plants, this power of everyday aesthetics leads to environmental consequences, promotes nationalism, and exacerbates rampant consumerism. Aesthetics is also a vehicle through which to express moral virtues or lack thereof, such as respect, thoughtfulness, and care toward the other, whether it be an object or a human being. By exploring these examples, this chapter demonstrates how everyday aesthetics makes a significant contribution to humanity’s collective, cumulative, and ongoing project of world-making.

scholarly journals Everyday Life Experiences of Independence in Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gintarė Levulytė ◽  
Evelina Lamsodienė
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Incurable Disease ◽  
The Individual

Background. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an incurable disease which affects the human body and day to day activities. Diffcultly completing daily tasks is the main problem associated with rheumatoid arthritis. This chronic disease causes a large number of restrictions when dealing with daily life. Restrictions can be simple as having diffculty with basic activities such as looking after themselves and their homes, and too diffcult in more advanced tasks which require greater effort. These restrictions not only affect the ability of the individual to complete daily tasks but can also have a negative impact on the individual’s emotional and social relationships and their overall quality of life. The aim – describe everyday life experiences of women with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods. A qualitative study was carried out where 3 women who suffered with rheumatoid arthritis were interviewed. The average duration of the disease was 15 years and the average age of women interviewed was 56 years. The interview consisted of 7 questions, including how independent women were in conducting daily activities when they had the disease. The study was carried out in February– April, 2017. Each woman was interviewed individually and the conversation was recorded with a Dictaphone and the conversation was then transcribed. Data were analysed applying the method of content analysis. All the data was then analysed and later sorted in subcategories, which were then grouped into larger categories. The interview period lasted from 30 minutes up to 1 hour. Results. The results revealed that women had problems with the symptoms of illness in their daily lives such as dealing with self-care, clothing, food and work. Conclusions. 1) Women with rheumatoid arthritis had changes in daily activities in the following areas: personal hygiene, dressing and undressing, preparing food, having problems showering, the pain they had in the shoulder did not allow them to complete daily activities as desired. 2) As the conditions of the joints worsen, everyday activities become more painful, performed slower and require greater effort, it becomes diffcult to grab and hold small objects. 3) Activities performed by individuals with rheumatoid arthritis are decreased due to the presence of symptoms, but women took measures to complete these activities easier.Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, independence, life experiences, daily activities, occupational therapy.

scholarly journals Everyday Life Experiences of Swedes Age 70+ During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 23-23
Author(s):  
Torbjorn Bildtgard ◽  
Peter Öberg
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Volunteer Work ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Loss Of Contact

Abstract As many other countries Sweden has been hit hard by the Corona pandemic, with high numbers of dead in the older population. Since march 16, 2020, the authorities have encouraged people 70+ to voluntarily quarantine and avoid contacts outside the household. How has this affected older people’s everyday lives? This study reports on results from a web-survey on the everyday life experiences of Swedes 70+ carried out between May 28 and July 13, 2020 (n=1 926). The presentation focuses answers to an open-ended question: “Describe with your own words how your life has been affected by the Corona pandemic”. A qualitative content analysis was used to investigate changes in the everyday lives of the respondents and their appreciations of these changes. Results show that older Swedes have mostly adhered to public recommendations of self-isolation and withdrawn from social and family contacts, as well as paid and volunteer work. The vast majority (76%) of the respondents describe what they see as negative life changes, such as loss of structure in their everyday life, loss of contact with children/grandchildren and friends, loss of meaningful activities, loss of abilities due to forced unemployment and experiences of ageism. Experiences of loneliness, depression and drop in quality of life are common. Some positive changes were reported. We argue that the experience of the 70+ population during Corona needs to be understood in relation to the promise of the third age, where everyday restrictions are experienced as a forced disengagement into a fourth age life style.

scholarly journals Peran Cahaya Dari Jendela Pada Foto Alam Benda (Konfigurasi Objek, Cahaya dan Komposisi)

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 017-030
Author(s):  
Nofria Doni Fitri
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Real Object ◽  
Still Life ◽  
Physical Quality ◽  
The Real ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
The Aesthetic

Enchantment of still life Photography is often seen from the unique side of the real object. Obsolete objects age consumed by the photographer is commonly chosen as a photo object. In addition to reviving memories of these objects, old artifacts are always interesting to see because they are rarely found today. Photographs of identical objects with art photographs are created to meet the aesthetic satisfaction of the photographer and are free from commercial purposes. Objects with the uniqueness of the form have a specific meaning for the photographer, life experiences that intersect with the object it becomes the reason to choose it as an object. In addition to the physical quality of the object, there is another factor that is not less for an object as an object, namely light, and composition. How the process of making a still life object by the window lighting of the work of Bertina De Moiij so it has a good dimension. In this discussion will be disclosed.

Das tue ich nicht, weil es nicht Pflicht ist. Das Argument der Supererogation und sein Unanständigkeitsproblem

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-104
Author(s):  
Marie-Luise Raters
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Double Effect ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Anglo American

Most arguments of Applied Ethics (e.g.slippery slope argument, argument of double effect) are well analyzed. An exception is the argument 'I do not do this because it is not my duty'. It makes sense to call the argument the 'argument of supererogation' (ASE): Since J. Urmson's essay Saints and Heroes of 1958, those actions are called 'supererogations' which (despite of their moral value) are not supposed to be duties. The argument is widely used not only in Applied Ethics, but also in ordinary moral everyday life. Nevertheless, there is a need of investigation because it has an indecency-problem. The argument is convincing if an actor does not want to risk his life. It seems indecent, however, if an actor refuses a simple favor or a service of friendship with the 'argument of super-erogation', although they both constitute no duties. This paper reconstructs the 'argument of supererogation' as a syllogism. It analyzes its formal structure by benefitting from current Anglo-American literature on supererogation. The overall aim of this paper is to solve the problem of indecency.

George Eliot’s Promise of More

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Auyoung
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Literary Realism ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Adam Bede ◽  
Mill On The Floss ◽  
Literary Description ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter recovers the aesthetic significance of a reader’s mediated relation to the objects and experiences represented in realist fiction. When George Eliot’s intrusive narrators in Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Middlemarch cue readers to form impressions that are as distinct as possible, they expose the indeterminacy that persists in the most concrete passages of literary description, alerting us to the limits of how much we can ever know about a fictional world. By drawing on the aesthetics of indeterminacy advanced by Edmund Burke, this chapter reveals that Eliot’s commitment to narratives of disillusionment exists in tension with a surprisingly Romantic aversion to finitude, and that literary realism enchants ordinary things by freeing them from the solidity and determinacy they possess in everyday life.

Musical shape and feeling

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Leech-Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Sensorimotor System ◽  
Musical Sound ◽  
Sensory Mode ◽  
Daniel Stern

The concept of shape is widely used by musicians in talking and thinking about performance, yet the mechanisms that afford links between music and shape are little understood. Work on the psychodynamics of everyday life by Daniel Stern and on embodiment by Mark Johnson suggests relationships between the multiple dynamics of musical sound and the dynamics of feeling and motion. Recent work on multisensory and precognitive sensory perception and on the role of bimodal neurons in the sensorimotor system helps to explain how shape, as a percept representing changing quantity in any sensory mode, may be invoked by dynamic processes at many stages of perception and cognition. These processes enable ‘shape’ to do flexible and useful work for musicians needing to describe the quality of musical phenomena that are fundamental to everyday musical practice and yet too complex to calculate during performance.

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