Anu Besson: On aesthetic practices of residing 65edb40f7a7742d091135ed8216f8458

In this presentation, I discuss some key findings of my ongoing case study exploring the sense of authenticity and rhythms embedded in aesthetic practices. My case study involves thematic interviews with Finnish people living abroad to discuss aesthetic practices relating to residing, or creating and managing a home and attaining homeliness. Particular activities covered by my study are interior decoration (including cleaning, tidying and decluttering), cooking and baking, and handicrafts relating to the home. Aligning with the theorising by Pauline von Bonsdorff (2022, 2023) and Yuriko Saito (2022), my findings indicate that everyday aesthetic practices of residing have deeper existential meaning to the enactors as a vehicle for self-expression, self-care and identity building; and such practices are temporally more ‘stretched’ than perhaps previously recognised. For example, planning and preparing for an activity as well as remembering and sharing it afterwards, appear to be key elements of the aesthetic arc of the experience, parallelling the importance of the activity itself. Furthermore, in the case of emigrants, this temporal stretching spans from the past generations to the future: traditional-cultural and personal aesthetic practices inform each other and gain value and weight through this interplay. Finally, my interviewees report that their self-image would change if they were unable to continue certain aesthetic practices; thus, aesthetic practices build and support self-identity and can be seen as irreducible.