Everyday Aesthetic Experiences.

摘要

This dissertation explores the everyday aesthetic experiences that lay people find meaningful in their daily encounters through a phenomenological approach. This topic has not been adequately explored within environmental psychology, as it largely draws from philosophy and art and focuses on visual qualities and the exceptional. In contrast, this study explores the multisensory nature of everyday aesthetic experience through in-depth interviews with a small and diverse sample of adults in New York City. It reveals clearly that aesthetic experience is not primarily about the formal qualities of objects; it is a transactional relationship between the affective state of the perceiver and diverse and idiosyncratic range of features of the physical environment. Aesthetic experiences are meaningful because they are a blend of affect, (pleasure, happiness, excitement, contentment and relaxation) cognition, (contemplation, reflection) and conation (planning, arranging and striving). The stories of the participants reveal that everyday aesthetic experiences are those small surprises that seem to come out of nowhere and, are also more elaborate engagements that are planned and, when woven together, are not a supplement to one's life but a way of life. It is a quality of being in the world. The relevance of the research to environmental planning and design, for the raising of environmental awareness and for future research are discussed.