Abstract
The ‘aesthetic in everyday life’ is about finding beauty and appreciation in things and experiences of day-to-day life. Can everyday objects be considered aesthetic objects? Can experiences related to everyday life be intrinsically aesthetic in nature? How is everyday aesthetics similar to and different from mainstream aesthetics? Contemporary explorations of the ‘aesthetics of everyday life’ (also known as ‘everyday aesthetics’) raise these fundamental questions. This chapter looks at such questions from a slightly different perspective by using the Buddhist concept of vikalpa (mental constructs) and by positing the notion of an ‘in-between space’ between living (the flow of life) and freezing (art/aesthetics). It then examines the nature of this ‘in-between space’ in relation to art and living. In doing so, it wishes to suggest that even ‘everyday aesthetics’ involves a certain amount of freezing whereas the ‘aesthetic in everyday life,’ as an integral part of the flow of living, defies rigid articulations.
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Notes
- 1.
Here ‘non-aesthetic space’ implies that which is not of any aesthetic value and should not be confused with that which is not perceivable through the senses.
- 2.
Lars Ellestrom writes, “Medium means ‘middle’, ‘interval’, ‘interspace’ and so on” while talking about media borders (Ellestrom 2010, 13). Similarly, I wish to draw attention to a middle ground between the rigid conceptualization of things and experiences and the very fluid flow of living.
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Patnaik, P. (2017). The ‘Aesthetic in Everyday Life’: An Exploration Through the Buddhist Concept of Vikalpa . In: Higgins, K., Maira, S., Sikka, S. (eds) Artistic Visions and the Promise of Beauty. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43893-1_18
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