Philosophy
Saito extends aesthetic judgment beyond fine art to weather, clothing, streets, domestic objects and ordinary conduct.
Aesthetic theories built around art treat everything else as would-be art or second-rate art. Applied to clothing, weather, streets or housework, they miss the rich and varied content of everyday aesthetic life.
In art appreciation we step back from practical concerns. In daily life aesthetic judgments prompt us to act: to clean, repair, buy or throw away. Saito argues that the detached stance fails for everyday objects and environments, because the aesthetic and the practical cannot be neatly separated.
Feelings of comfort and discomfort count as aesthetic when they respond to the sensuous qualities of the objects and surroundings we live among. On this view, how a chair feels or a room breathes belongs to aesthetics, not only to convenience.
Dismissing something as an eyesore without looking at its context imposes one taste on everyone. Saito urges close attention to circumstances before rejecting what offends the eye.
Everyday aesthetic experiences make up a large part of our aesthetic life, but because they are so common and mundane we rarely notice or examine them. Saito argues that this blind spot comes from prejudice, not from any lack of richness in ordinary experience.
A thing gains aesthetic value when it shows its quintessential character, the distinctive quality that makes it what it is. The appeal lies in fit to its own kind, not in conforming to a general standard of beauty.
Everyday things have an optimal state and then decline from it, and words like "decay" and "get dirty" show that we judge them by that standard. Saito separates appreciating something in a way that wants it to continue from appreciating it in a way that does not, so we can value transient qualities without endorsing every one of them.
A home should be cleaned, tidied and organized, but a space where people actually live should also allow some mess and disorder. Perfect order belongs to a showroom, not to a dwelling.
People often judge artifacts using moral terms such as "respectful," "considerate" or "sensitive," so design is read as expressing care, or failing to. The same mixing appears when an unshaven, rumpled appearance draws a negative moral judgment of the person.
Everyday aesthetic preferences have far-reaching effects on the environment, on moral life, and on how we act as citizens and consumers. Saito therefore argues that people should be taught the consequences of their tastes, and she warns that businesses can exploit efforts to make ordinary life more art-like.