Cultivating Aesthetic Sensibility for Sustainability

Noora-Helena Korpelainen

Abstract


Our aesthetic practices, by which we aim for better well-being, are intertwined with fostering sustainability. This article focuses on Yuriko Saito’s aesthetics of sustainability, an idea denoting a new kind of aesthetic sensibility informed by and featuring both environmental and cultural sustainability. Saito’s idea is based on our aesthetic relationship with everyday experiences. In this article, I defend the idea, on the one hand, by considering the immanence of change as a sense of contemporary everydayness and, on the other hand, by regarding mindfulness as a practice. Situating the discussion in the European context emphasises the aesthetics of sustainability as a sustainability transformation, that is, an ongoing societal change powered by the continuous cultivation of aesthetic sensibility.


Keywords


Cultivation; Aesthetic Sensibility; Everyday Activities; Mindfulness; Sustainability Transformation

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5866518

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