Aesthetics Of Care

Building upon her previous work on everyday aesthetics, Yuriko Saito argues in this book that the aesthetic and ethical concerns are intimately connected in our everyday life. Specifically, she shows how aesthetic experience embodies a care relationship with the world and how the ethical relationship with others, whether humans, non-human creatures, environments, or artifacts, is guided by aesthetic sensibility and manifested through aesthetic means. Weaving together insights gained from philosophy, art, design, and medicine, as well as artistic and cultural practices of Japan, she illuminates the aesthetic dimensions of various forms of care in our management of everyday life. Emphasis is placed on the experience of interacting with others including objects, a departure from the prevailing mode of aesthetic inquiry that is oriented toward judgment-making from a spectator's point of view. Saito shows that when everyday activities, ranging from having a conversation and performing a care act to engaging in self-care and mending an object, are ethically grounded and aesthetically informed and guided, our experiences lead to a good life.

"From fussing over your personal appearance to digging in the garden, Yuriko Saito shows us how we can improve the quality of everyday life by sharpening our aesthetic sensibility. Introducing us to the unseen assumptions and ideals guiding our daily actions and routines, Saito redirects our aesthetic focus back on objects, environments, and activities and away from the fine arts that have dominated Western discussions, opening the door to Chinese and Japanese ways of thinking about aesthetics. Using examples and situations we all recognise, Saito identifies core questions lying at the heart of the subject, such as: ̈How do you make informed, well-considered aesthetic judgements? ̈Are aesthetic experiences always gained as a spectator contemplating an object? ̈Can you gain aesthetic experience when you take part in an activity? By revealing how paying aesthetic attention to day-to-day matters impacts everything from how we hang laundry or weigh up the environmental consequences of eating meat, this introduction teaches us how we can enrich our understanding of philosophy and everyday life when we expand our aesthetic experience"--

Everyday aesthetic experiences and concerns occupy a large part of our aesthetic life. However, because of their prevalence and mundane nature, we tend not to pay much attention to them, let alone examine their significance. Western aesthetic theories of the past few centuries also neglect everyday aesthetics because of their almost exclusive emphasis on art. In a ground-breaking new study, Yuriko Saito provides a detailed investigation into our everyday aesthetic experiences, and reveals how our everyday aesthetic tastes and judgments can exert a powerful influence on the state of the world and our quality of life. By analysing a wide range of examples from our aesthetic interactions with nature, the environment, everyday objects, and Japanese culture, Saito illustrates the complex nature of seemingly simple and innocuous aesthetic responses. She discusses the inadequacy of art-centered aesthetics, the aesthetic appreciation of the distinctive characters of objects or phenomena, responses to various manifestations of transience, and the aesthetic expression of moral values; and she examines the moral, political, existential, and environmental implications of these and other issues.

With this nuanced and interdisciplinary work, political theorist Mihaela Mihai tackles several interrelated questions: How do societies remember histories of systemic violence? Who is excluded from such histories' cast of characters? And what are the political costs of selective remembering in the present? Building on insights from political theory, social epistemology, and feminist and critical race theory, Mihai argues that a double erasure often structures hegemonic narratives of complex violence: of widespread, heterogeneous complicity and of "impure" resistances, not easily subsumed to exceptionalist heroic models. In dialogue with care ethicists and philosophers of art, she then suggests that such narrative reductionism can be disrupted aesthetically through practices of "mnemonic care," that is, through the hermeneutical labor that critical artists deliver—thematically and formally—within communities' space of meaning. Empirically, the book examines both consecrated and marginalized artists who tackled the memory of Vichy France, communist Romania, and apartheid South Africa. Despite their specificities, these contexts present us with an opportunity to analyze similar mnemonic dynamics and to recognize the political impact of dissenting artistic production. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, the book intervenes in debates over collective responsibility, historical injustice, and the aesthetics of violence within political theory, memory studies, social epistemology, and transitional justice.

This book applies ecofeminist ethics to the realm of aesthetics, offering instances of how alternative configurations of the self, of nature and of non-human animals can go hand in hand with different and viable experiences and visions of environmental welfare. Preceded by an insightful introduction on the history of ecofeminism and of ecofeminist literary criticism, the chapters included in the volume illustrate the continuing theoretical influence of seminal ecofeminists such as Carolyn Merchant, Rosemary Ruether, Karen Warren, Val Plumwood, as well as an awareness of more recent trends in ecofeminist formulations such as those proposed by Greta Gaard, Serenella Iovino, or Vernon Gras. The book also includes instances of contemporary nature writing such as the text by Irish poet Grace Wells, as well as case studies of the application of ecofeminist tenets in contemporary poetry and fiction written by both men and women. As the contributors demonstrate, contemporary writers are currently deploying a sound interest in the envisioning of alternative visions of healthy and ethical relationships between the human self and the natural environment. This book will be of interest to those researching the use of language for posthumanist ethics, the deconstruction of gender dichotomies and the ethics of care and environmental justice, as well as to those studying the wider field of ecofeminist literature. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women’s Studies.

What if the work of a nurse, physio, or homecare worker was designated an art, so that the qualities of the experiences they create became understood as aesthetic qualities? What if the interactions created by artists, directors, dancers, or workshop facilitators were understood as works of care? Care Aesthetics is the first full-length book to explore these questions and examine the work of carer artists and artist carers to make the case for the importance of valuing and supporting aesthetically caring relations across multiple aspects of our lives. Theoretically and practically, the book outlines the implications of care aesthetics for the socially engaged arts field and health and social care, and for acts of aesthetic care in the everyday. Part 1 of the book outlines the approaches to aesthetics and to care theory that are necessary to make and defend the concept of care aesthetics. Part 2 then tests this through practice, examining socially engaged arts and health and social care through its lens. It makes the case for careful art exploring the implications of care aesthetics for participatory or applied arts. Then it argues for artful care and how an aesthetic orientation to care practices might challenge some of the inadequacies of contemporary care. This is a vital, paradigm-shifting book for anyone engaged with socially engaged arts or social and health care practices on an academic or professional level.

Do you own a skin care business or are you an esthetician wishing for new opportunities? Discover the business, treatments and skills needed to work in a medical setting.Estheticians have an increased value to the medical profession now more than ever. The role of the esthetician in a clinical setting be it surgical consultation, medi-spa, or general practice office is a fast-growing one. Pre- and post-operative care is oftentimes a secondary concern, despite the fact that it is absolutely crucial to the overall health and well-being of the patient/client and a requisite regimen toward realizing the results desired or promised from the medical procedure. Demand continues to grow for non-surgical services including chemical peels and microdermabrasion. In addition, physicians are offering cosmetic treatments, pre-and post-surgical treatments, and skin care products. For the esthetician and medical professional alike, this book emphasizes a working philosophy that esthetic treatment should benefit the mental and emotional well-being of the patient/client, along with healing the body. In eight well-organized sections comprising 32 chapters, Wojak discusses topics that include: The Science of Beauty Regulatory Implications to Treatment and Proper Documentation Procedures Common Skin Conditions, including but not limited to Acne, Rosacea, and Age-compromised Skin LED and IPL Therapy Understanding Ingredients and Products in Order to Make Proper Recommendations and Applications Ultrasound Microneedling and Microcurrent Advanced Esthetic Treatments, such as Dermaplaning and Chemical and Oxygen Treatments Techniques for Building Your Esthetic Business and Client Roster And more...

Yuriko Saito explores the nature and significance of the aesthetic dimensions of people's everyday life. Everyday aesthetics has the recognized value of enriching one's life experiences and sharpening one's attentiveness and sensibility. Saito draws out its broader importance for how we make our worlds, environmentally, morally, as citizens and consumers. Saito urges that we have a social responsibility to encourage cultivation of aesthetic literacy and vigilance against aesthetic manipulation. Yuriko Saito argues that ultimately, everyday aesthetics can be an effective instrument for directing the humanity's collective and cumulative world-making project for the betterment of all its inhabitants. Everyday aesthetics has been seen as a challenge to contemporary Anglo-American aesthetics discourse, which is dominated by the discussion of art and beauty. Saito responds to controversies about the nature, boundary, and status of everyday aesthetics and argues for its legitimacy. She highlights the multi-faceted aesthetic dimensions of everyday life that are not fully accounted for by the commonly-held account of defamiliarizing the familiar.