Sociology Plus
Definition
The term “aestheticization of everyday life” refers to the increasing importance of aesthetic perception in the consumption and consuming processes. The ability of aesthetics to affect and even shape society and quality of life is considerable. Benjamin said that the liberation of innovative creativity by mass consumer goods had spread into daily life so that individuals began to see themselves and their surroundings as works of art. Consumers have dismantled the distinction between high and low culture.
Two senses
The idea that there is a blurring of the lines between art and daily life is referred to as the aestheticization of everyday life. There are two ways to interpret this: (1) artists transform commonplace items into works of art; and (2) by attempting to create a unified aesthetic across their clothing, looks, and home furnishings, individuals are turning ordinary activities into artistic endeavors.
It draws attention to the fact that more and more parts of daily life are susceptible to the rules of aesthetics (the enjoyment of beauty and art), and even the most ordinary forms of consumption may be expressive and fun.
The “aestheticization of ordinary life” has come, and the twenty-first century’s developing digital economy has made this change harsher.
Social Discrimination
Additionally, aesthetics is accused of being a fundamental justification for the social oppression of racially, sexist, or gendered bodies. People with bodies that fall short of the standard aesthetic experience numerous forms of injustice and discrimination in the workplace, in society, in interpersonal relationships, and terms of economic standing due to the false belief that one’s competence, intelligence, and moral character are directly correlated with one’s physical appearance.
People with bodies that fall short of the standard aesthetic experience numerous forms of injustice and discrimination in the workplace, in society, in interpersonal relationships, and terms of economic standing due to the false belief that one’s competence, intelligence, and moral character are directly correlated with one’s physical appearance.
The ideal body’s aesthetic requirements may be publicly institutionalized, as in Nazism or workplace dress codes, or they may be mentioned subtly to support the oppressed groups’ existing stereotypes.
Aesthetics and consumerism
Therefore, the aestheticization of everyday life has been troubled by the use of aesthetics to further consumerism and political agendas. But on the other hand, the aesthetic appeal can persuade individuals to embrace, support, and advance problematic causes that may eventually be inimical to their well-being and quality of life, as well as the ideals of justice and democracy.
The aestheticization of everyday life is frequently used to cultivate market consumers, spectators for political spectacles, and complicit participants in the repression and injustice of others instead of encouraging citizens and civil society to engage in thoughtful and informed exchange, discussion, and critical reflections on ideas. However, this threat of the aestheticization of daily life is not always present. Some contend that encouraging an aestheticization method is both feasible and essential if we are to advance justice, democracy, citizenship, and civic dialogue.
Simmel and Aesthetics
According to Simmel (1906), daily life has an aesthetic component consisting of various aesthetic interactions, constellations, and combinations. Simmel, who adheres to Kant’s aesthetics, sees the importance of aesthetic pleasure in its emphasis on objects’ forms since, to an uninterested aesthetic judgment, an artwork is represented by the forms connecting its constituent parts to one another.
Since physical reality varies from its aesthetic dimension, which enables the play of pure forms while referring not to material objectivity but rather to subjective response, aesthetic judgment is seen from this formal viewpoint as relating to the image, appearance, and shape of objects. A piece of art’s interior experience builds a full meaning of its disintegrating existence as a whole out of its parts. Simmel says that contemporary aesthetics relates to the interaction between the objective and subjective points of view and between personal taste and its societal origins, thus relating the fragmented to the individual.