The essays in this issue of Art Journal explore some of the complex meanings generated by the concept of the aesthetic within contemporary art and culture. The contributors pursue the aesthetic through a range of sites and domains: from the slivered corpse of Joseph Jernigan floating in the ether of cyberspace, to the multimedia spectacle of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., to the creation of wall-sized digital montages in London's Docklands. There is a common interest throughout in expanding the conceptual scope of the aesthetic beyond the sanctioned domain of the solitary artist and work of art to include a range of practices and conditions that inform everyday life.