scholarly journals The Everyday Aesthetics of Public Space

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Mateusz Salwa
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
A Site

The main claim of the article is that everyday aesthetics conceived as a philosophical analysis of everyday objects and situations offers a theoretical perspective that may be applied to the aesthetics of public space. Analysed in aesthetic terms, the public space may be thought to be a space that offers an aesthetic experience to the widest possible public. I contend that the aesthetic quality of public space should be a quality that favours positive experiences of the everyday, banal practices taking place in it. Accordingly, designing public space should consist in making it “everyday experience-friendly.” My argument will be illustrated by the example of a site-specific installation, the Oxygenator, created in Warsaw by Joanna Rajkowska, whose intention was to offer people an ordinary place where they could meet in a “healthy atmosphere.”

scholarly journals Towards an expansive object and a restrictive experience in Everyday Aesthetics: A Chestertonian metaxological approach

Kepes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 197-231
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Romero-Ramírez ◽  
Duncan Reyburn
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Original Intention ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One

This article proposes to resolve an internal ambiguity in the subdiscipline called Everyday Aesthetics (EA), systematized by the researcher Horacio Pérez-Henao, according to whom the extension of aesthetics to the everyday has been done, on the one hand, by means of a consideration of an expansive object and subject according to aesthesis itself, as mainly proposed by Katya Mandoki, and, on the other hand, by means of a restrictive object and subject according to the parameters of an authentic aesthetic experience, a theory headed by John Dewey. Methodology: To resolve this tension, a hermeneutic methodology known as the fourfold sense of being, related to Hegelian dialectic, albeit with important modifications supplied by William Desmond was used. This methodology allows a suitable way to explore and discuss different approaches in everyday aesthetics epitomized by Mandoki and Dewey, and makes possible the proposal of a third way, epitomized by G. K. Chesterton. Results: Bearing in mind the original intention of EA—according to which the everyday must be revitalized from an aesthetic perspective, as explained by Joseph Kupfer, it is argued that the two alternate positions of Mandoki and Dewey are unsatisfactory; an attempt is therefore made to respond to this through the analysis of the aesthetic approach of G. K. Chesterton. From his aesthetic reflections, it can be ascertained that to revitalize daily life, the object must be expansive and the subject, restrictive, from a certain méthodos and according to patterns that qualify an everyday aesthetic experience. All of this seeks to pave the way for subsequent investigations of EA being both expansive and restrictive. Finally, it is argued that this Chestertonian EA converges with and extends the aesthetics of design of Jane Forsey, and thus shows that design itself can be revitalized in keeping with a restrictiveexpansive approach to everyday aesthetics. Conclusion: aesthetics should be expansive every day, in that it should concern itself with any aspect of daily life, and restrictive, in that it should set certain limits on the self and its intentions with regard to the possibilities of aesthetic experience.

scholarly journals Plastic (in) Paradise: Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Michaela Keck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Historiographic Metafiction ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

This contribution examines the magic-realist metaphor of the Matacão in Karen Tei Yamashita’s (1990) debut novel Through the Arc of the Rain Forest as a trope that invites us to imagine, reflect on, and explore plastic’s cross-cultural meanings, aesthetic experiences, and materialist implications. I contend that through the Matacão, Yamashita engenders a narrative about, as well as an aesthetic experience of, plastic that is inherently ambivalent and paradoxical. While it provides societies with material wealth and sensual pleasures, it poses at the same time a profound threat to life – human and nonhuman. The main part of the article is divided into two major sections: in the first part, I read Yamashita’s story about the Matacão as historiographic metafiction that parodies the socio-cultural history of plastic and its utopian promises and failures. In the second part, I draw on Catherine Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity to explore the Matacão’s material agency, as well as the social mobility and economic connectivity of Yamashita’s human protagonists in their plastic environments. The theoretical perspective of Malabou’s concept of plasticity shifts the focus to the agentic forces of the waste material and allows us to read Yamashita’s Matacão as both a site and material that, notwithstanding its devastating impacts, also holds potentialities for resilience and repair, and even the possibility for an, at least temporary, utopia.

The Aesthetics of Emptiness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriko Saito
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Chinese Character ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ubiquitous Presence

Art is the most effective vehicle for unearthing and highlighting the aesthetic potentials of the everyday life that generally do not garner attention because of their ubiquitous presence and ordinary familiarity. Recent art projects, termed ‘sky art’ for the purpose of discussion in this chapter, illuminate the aesthetics of the sky and celestial phenomena. This chapter analyzes several examples of ‘sky art’ by utilizing the notion of ‘emptiness,’ deriving an inspiration from the identical Chinese character used for both ‘sky’ and ‘emptiness,’ as well as the Buddhist notion of ‘emptiness.’ Despite the connotation of ‘emptiness’ that is devoid of any content or substance, different ways in which sky art facilitates the act of ‘emptying’ enrich the aesthetic experience of the sky and sky art. Sky art thus illustrates how art helps turn the otherwise ordinary into the extraordinary and facilitates its aesthetic appreciation.

Aesthetics of the Everyday

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crispin Sartwell
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Popular Art ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
Art Activities ◽  
Art As Experience ◽  
The Aesthetic

‘Everyday aesthetics’ refers to the possibility of aesthetic experience of non-art objects and events, as well as to a current movement within the field of philosophy of art which rejects or puts into question distinctions such as those between fine and popular art, art and craft, and aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences. The movement may be said to begin properly with Dewey's Art as Experience (1934), though it also has roots in continental philosophers such as Heidegger. The possibility of everyday aesthetics originates in two undoubted facts: firstly, that art emerges from a range of non-art activities and experiences, and, secondly, that the realm of the aesthetic extends well beyond the realm of what are commonly conceived to be the fine arts.

scholarly journals The Role of Art in Society with Particular Reference to the Problem of Violence$

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-167
Author(s):  
Camilla Pagani
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual

Background: According to the Latin poet Virgil, art is capable of revealing to us what no science can ever reveal to a human mind. The main thesis of this paper is that art can play an extremely beneficial role in society as it can strongly foster humans’ efforts to attain a deeper and broader comprehension of reality. Objective: The experience of art can provide a powerful contribution to the efforts to avoid resorting to violence and to address conflicts constructively. Violence or, more exactly, unjustified violence, basically rests on an irrational and short-sighted analysis and interpretation of reality. Results: The psychological processes relating to the aesthetic experience and to its connections with violence are described. It is also pointed out that this theoretical perspective does not fully coincide with the theoretical theses underpinning art therapy. In fact, in this paper art is not considered as a mere therapeutic instrument. Instead, an attempt has been made to consider art and our relationship with art in their more complex and partly still unexplored aspects, where neither art or the individual is “at the service” of the other. Conclusion: Art can provide the possibility to experience a new dimension, where no power relations exist and where new ways of seeing and feeling are made possible. It can hence foster the development of less primitive and richer personalities. In this way violence should lose its raison d’être. So it appears that this theoretical approach might be particularly helpful in order to better understand and countervail violence.

«Oj, skal vi gjøre dette i dag?» Lærerstudenter og lærerutdanneres meningsdanning i en estetisk workshop med fokus på skapende dans

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-41
Author(s):  
Birgitte Nordahl Husebye ◽  
Kristine Høeg Karlsen
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Bodily Expression ◽  
Physical Education Students ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract This study aim to investigate the perceptions and experiences of student teachers and teacher-educators when participating in an interdisciplinary workshop in which they were to create and explore their own expressive movements and others’ bodily expression. The study employed a qualitative approach, and in order to acquire access to the informants’ lifeworld and their immediate and mediated experiences, open focus group interviews were conducted after the workshop. We base our analysis on inductive coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2015), which then were interpreted in the light of Dewey’s (1934) understanding of the aesthetic experience and Merleau-Ponty’s (1994) phenomenological notion of the body. Our analysis demonstrates that the informants are unfamiliar with using bodily expression, nor do they believe that they have the knowledge or skills needed to create movement and dance, which may explain why they struggle to engage with the creative process. By observing the dances others had created, the informants discovered that there was no right or wrong way of expressing movement. They became a little more open and the experience acquired what Dewey (1934) describes as an aesthetic quality. The music students and teacher-educators are inquisitive and open to using these kinds of creative processes in school. The physical education students have a more reserved attitude to the inclusion of dance, confirming findings in other studies. Based on these results there seems to be a need to create more room for processes that aim for aesthetic abilities in teaching-education.

Creative Engagement in Everyday Life – Learning from Aesthetic Experience

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K. Pałęga
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Art Galleries ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract In recent years the concept of aesthetics has become broader and more focused on the aesthetic experience resulting from the interaction between the person and the environment. A lot has been written about the way people experience settings that are explicitly designed as sites for aesthetic engagement, such as museums and art galleries, but very little attention has been given to ordinary people and how they make sense of such experiences in their everyday lives. This research study explores the everyday aesthetic experiences that lay people find meaningful in their daily encounters through a phenomenological approach. The findings indicate that everyday aesthetic experiences result from being open to creatively engage, are a blend of serendipitous events and planned encounters and a significant dimension of lived experience.

scholarly journals The Aesthetic Actualization of Gestalt Image in English Translation of Chinese Poems

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Chong Su
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Image Study ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Translation Study ◽  
Mental Experience ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
The Aesthetic

As significant schools in contemporary cognitive science, gestalt psychology and cognitive linguistics provide the conceptual model and theoretical framework for the multidimensional research on cognitive translation study. Their major theoretical perspective makes them as the methodological principles of gestalt image study in cognitive translation which could be viewed from both mental and linguistic perspectives. The paper focuses on making a tentative and exploratory study of the aesthetic actualization of gestalt image in English translation of Chinese poems and thus aims to discover the conceptual mental experience of actualizing aesthetic quality of image-G through cognitive processing in English translation of Chinese poems. 

scholarly journals Art, experience and alterity: reflections in the horizon of ethical and aesthetic education

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (33) ◽  
pp. e15315
Author(s):  
Maria Regina Johann
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Aesthetic Education ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Artistic Experience ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Aesthetic

Oriented by the theoretical perspective of philosophical hermeneutics, this text addresses the ethical and aesthetic dimension of education, and it has the arts teaching as a reflexive field, emphasizing the artistic experience as a possibility for knowledge and self-awareness beyond the instrumental rationality frameworks. I emphasize, therefore, the artistic experience as an opportunity of (re) approximation among the student, the work and the artist as a way of self-investigation in the field of authorship, with reference to the experimentation of the artistic game and the tensions of the creative process. This creative process triggers a dialogue, which would be in the basis of ethics, since the moral action would be based in the process of co-creation of the aesthetic experience in relation to the work of art.

scholarly journals The everyday at the border: Examining visual, material and spatial intersections of international politics along the ‘Balkan Route’

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik ◽  
Gemma Bird
Keyword(s):  
Visual Object ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Political Work ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Border Politics ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
Insight Into

This article examines the intersections between the visual, spatial and material and considers how these interactions capture the border politics of everyday ‘banal’ objects. We do this by looking at some of the objects and things that constitute the ‘Balkan Route’ through Europe: posters, signs, directions, notices, flyers and maps produced by state authorities and volunteer-led aid networks. We use objects to reflect more broadly on how seemingly banal and everyday things become incorporated into the political work of states and become constitutive of fluid borders. We argue that everyday objects become visualisations of states and authorities, and help to make and regulate physical spaces. We show how each visual object encountered along the route gives us a broader insight into the macropolitics of European border regimes, specifically the effects of ‘closed borders’ and the criminalisation of aid networks. The article pushes forward the ‘aesthetic turn’ debate in international relations by bringing in insights from political geography and materialism, and suggests that a walking methodology can be a productive way of encountering the visual and understanding how its physical location creates political effects.

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