Aestheticization

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Aestheticization means placing an object in an aesthetic context in which it is perceived from the point of view of being beautiful or ugly . While works of art are by definition in an aesthetic context, this does not apply to most other objects: Landscapes, street scenes, scientific findings or events of all kinds are initially not aesthetic objects. However, they can become if appropriately contextualized. Photographs of suffering people in crisis areas, for example, generally do not show any “beautiful” motifs. Still, photography can aestheticize such situations. Even museums aestheticise their exhibits by put them in a context in which these exhibits are perceived aesthetic point of view. This specifically aesthetic character, as Andreas Dorschel shows, cannot be explained by a special (increased) 'intensity' of the feeling: "Anyone who tries to complete the decisive arithmetic task two minutes before the end of the test has the most intense feeling of being here and now But the arithmetic problem remains a theoretical problem and practical test: the full presence of his attention makes it neither 'aesthetic' nor 'more aesthetic'. " Aestheticization is therefore not just a psychological quality, but a social one. With a view to societies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, sociologists speak of an “aestheticization of the living environment”; This means that personal experiences, but also one's own lifestyle, are increasingly perceived from an aesthetic point of view. Gerhard Schulze was one of the first sociologists to deal both theoretically and empirically with the development of an everyday aesthetic in his work Erlebnisgesellschaft (1992).

literature

  • Andreas Dorschel : Design - On the aesthetics of the useful. University Press C. Winter, Heidelberg 2002.
  • Berthold Bodo Flaig, Thomas Meyer, Jörg Ueltzhöffer: Everyday aesthetics and political culture. On the aesthetic dimension of political education and political communication. Dietz, Bonn 1993.

Remarks

  1. Andreas Dorschel , 'The better for the application', in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 267 (November 20, 2007), supplement literature, p. 16.