The Rhythm of Time in Everyday Aesthetics

Abstract

Anglo-American research on aesthetics as well as that being carried out in continental Europe are increasingly interested in the topics pertaining to everyday life. However, the label “Everyday Aesthetics” apparently conveys a surprising oxymoron. After exploring the relation between Everyday and Philosophy, I shall analyse the principal theories on Everyday Aesthetics. Then, by means of anthropological interpretative tools, such as those offered by Henri Lefebvre, I will bring to the fore the concept of rhythm, as what can shed light on the fundamental value of daily life and its cyclical alternation of ordinary and extraordinary moments. According to Lefebvre, there’s no rhythm without repetition in time and space. Referring also to Ellen Dissanayake’s theory, I focus on the concept of “making special” and the positiveness of repetition. As Lefebvre employs the notion of rhythm in order to explain the alternation of celebration and daily life within a cyclical understanding of time, he provides an interpretative tool to discover inner richness under the seeming poverty of everyday life and to reach the extraordinary in the ordinary.