The aesthetic value of the unnoticed

Abstract

This paper comments on a paradox that seems to be the crux of everyday aesthetics: the aesthetic character of the non–aesthetic. The ‘everyday’, characterised as the routine, familiar, taken for granted, or just unnoticed, seems to be opposite to that marked as worth looking at, and aesthetically contemplating. The aim of the article is to hold that the unreflective consciousness of objects, environments and events in everyday life permits their aesthetic appreciation. The paper considers the role that art and memories play in bringing into consciousness that which was previously ‘unnoticed’.