Thinking and discussing the everyday experience (original) (raw)
Related papers
Everydayness. Contemporary Aesthetic Approaches
Everydayness. Contemporary Aesthetic Approaches, 2021
The notion of everydayness is currently gaining momentum in scientific discourses, in both philosophical and applied aesthetics. This volume aims to shed light on some of the key issues that are involved in discussions about the aesthetics and the philosophy of everyday life, taking into account the field’s methodological background and intersections with cognate research areas, and providing examples of its contemporary application to specific case studies. The collection brings together twenty essays organised around four main thematic areas in the field of everyday aesthetics: (1) Environment, (2) The Body, (3) Art and Cultural Practices, and (4) Methodology. The covered topics include, but are not limited to, somaesthetics, aesthetic engagement, the performing arts, aesthetics of fashion and adornments, architecture, environmental and urban aesthetics.
Everyday Aesthetic Experience-Explorations by Practical Aesthetics
Experiencing the Everyday, Edited by Carsten Friberg and Raine Vasquez, NSU Press/Aarhus University Press, Copenhagen, 2017
This chapter aims at fostering a novel conceptual framework to address the issue of experiencing the everyday, with a focus on our aesthetic preferences and choices in daily life and their practical implications. Given the persistent weaknesses in the theoretical foundation of the sub-discipline called Everyday Aesthetics (hereafter, EA), a philosophical reflection is crucial for such endeavor. I propose an approach in line with practical philosophy, that is, by starting with a reflective examination of questions and assumptions that are prior to any possible application. In the first part I critically review the recent everyday aesthetics literature, arguing: 1) that the attempts for a better theoretical grounding still are impeded by shortcomings rooted in inappropriate conceptualizations of its key-targets, the everyday, the aesthetic experience, and the experiencing self; and 2) that it is possible to improve the analytical framework for approaching everyday aesthetic life by clarifying EA’s underpinning assumptions and open questions, such as the problems of the unity of the self and the continuity of experience. My contention is that such an improved framework can be provided by conceiving of EA as a practical aesthetics in the tradition of practical philosophy. This claim is then supported in the second part by means of concepts and arguments held by this tradition, especially its version revisited by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his philosophical hermeneutics, followed in the third part by some insights on the characteristics of experience, life, and life-world provided by a sociological phenomenology (Georg Simmel, Alfred Schutz). In the concluding part I briefly illustrate how such a practical account provides new ways of conceptualizing in this research area, in particular the study of everyday life decisions and actions prompted by our aesthetic preferences and taste.
The Definition of Everyday Aesthetics
Contemporary Aesthetics, 2013
The article responds to recent controversy in the aesthetics of everyday life with a succinct definition designed to clarify the domain of study. The article is intentionally designed for brevity and accessibility in order to facilitate usage.
The Aesthetic as a Matter of Practices: Form of Life in Everydayness and Art
Comprendre: revista catalana de filosofia, 2016
A set of phenomena that have been marginalised for a long time are now putting to test the traditional boundaries of aesthetics. Today it's not surprising to find books and essays concerning the «aesthetics» of food and clothing, sport and daily objects and events. Such expansion de facto of the topics covered by aesthetics is sufficiently justified by the fact that the fore mentioned phenomena-although it is often difficult to assess their aesthetic significance from a philosophical point of view-have a decisive influence on the current configurations of taste. This role was in the past assigned mainly to art and to its ability in shaping high cultural styles. But nowadays it seems to have become the prerogative of daily life's practices which include design, fashion, tourism, gastronomy, recreational and leisure activities, wellness, wellbeing etc.-in other words the crucible in which lifestyles (instead of art-styles) are formed.
2009
I believe art is worldly, not otherworldly: not ineffable, untranslatable, or other. But I find myself increasingly troubled by the functionalism that shadows social theories of art, as critics vault over the disparities between individual works and social structures in their eagerness to nail down political meanings. The model of articulation, well known in cultural if not in literary studies, redeems such trespasses by allowing us to do justice to the contingency, mutability, and many-sidedness of cultural artifacts.
Framing Everyday Experience: Blogging as Art
n his 1934 book Art as Experience, John Dewey called for the reintegration of art with the processes of everyday life. According to Dewey, since the industrialisation of western society, art has become a compartmentalised sphere set apart from ordinary culture. This thesis asks, 'what might the reintegration of art and life look like, in the early twenty-first century in Australia?' Utilising a practice-based research approach, I have developed and refined a new method of art practice – bilateral blogging – which works within the rhythms and spaces of everyday life. Inspired by the 'blurring of art and life' carried out by artists such as Allan Kaprow, the projects developed in this thesis – Bilateral Kellerberrin and Bilateral Petersham – extend twentieth century avant-garde art practice into the existing spaces of Australian neighbourhoods. This thesis shows how artworks like these, comprised of localised social relations, might also begin to document the specific interactive experiences which go into their own making. I demonstrate that as a form of art practice, blogging can deepen engagement with everyday experience. It can produce a more dialogical relationship between artist and audience, and, importantly, it is able to generate rich documentation of situated experiences. Blogging is thus a research tool with the potential to bring to light aspects of everyday life which normally go unnoticed. Through close reflection on the processes and outcomes of my own blog artworks, I have also developed a new way of identifying some of the aesthetic qualities of the experiences from which my relational art projects are made. Building on the work of William James, John Dewey and Allan Kaprow, I propose that attention plays a crucial role in transforming social interactions into aesthetic experience. The method of bilateral blogging developed in this thesis uses attention as a framing device, catalysing seemingly incoherent events into an intelligible, expansive structure. This thesis thus makes three substantial contributions: a new method for making relational artworks; the production of an experiential document of the particular environments in which these artworks are situated; and a new approach to understanding the functioning of aesthetic experience. Taken together, these contributions bring a fresh perspective to discussions around the blurring of art and life, and the use of art as a mode of enquiry.