Aesthetics of Everyday Life

Abstract

Aesthetics of everyday life is one of the branches of aesthetic knowledge. Until the 20th century, classical aesthetics focused on the subject of visual arts and paid less attention to the formation of fine arts in the context of human and nature’s daily life experience. During the last few decades, a movement emerged that, by avoiding that one-sided art-oriented approach, tried to create a close link between the experience of fine arts and the experience of other areas of daily life. This led to the emergence of a new field of study called the aesthetics of everyday life. Pragmatist philosopher John Dewey explained his views on the concept of aesthetic experience of everyday life in the book Art as Experience. The main purpose of the article is to find out what is the beauty of everyday life based on John Dewey’s views. Therefore, after examining various concepts and theories about the aesthetics of everyday life, two analytical examples of the aesthetics of everyday life in the architectural art of traditional Iranian houses (Mollabashi House of Isfahan) and the art of poetry (Sohrab Sepehri) are examined. The result is that the aesthetics of everyday life is the “aesthetics of presence” which, when confronted with anything, both beautiful and ugly, causes a change in the type of human presence in the new global life with a haptic pattern. The compilation of this article is in the form of taking samples from library sources and reliable internet sites, and the research method is descriptive-analytical.