Rethinking Aesthetics: The Role of Body in Design

256 Pages·2013·4.81 MB·English

by  Ritu Bhatt

r e t h i n k i n g a e s t h e t i c s
Rethinking Aesthetics is the fi rst book to bring together prominent voices in the fi elds
of architecture, philosophy, aesthetics, and cognitive sciences to radically rethink the
relationship between body and design. These essays argue that aesthetic experiences
can be nurtured at any moment in everyday life, thanks to recent discoveries by
researchers in neuroscience, phenomenology, somatics, and analytic philosophy of the
mind, who have made the correlations between aesthetic cognition, the human body,
and everyday life much clearer.
The essays, by Yuriko Saito, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Richard Shusterman, among
others, range from an integrated mind-body approach to chair design, to Zen Buddhist
notions of mindfulness, to theoretical accounts of existential relationships with
buildings, to present a full spectrum of possible inquiries. By placing the body in the
center of design, Rethinking Aesthetics opens new directions for rethinking the limits
of both essentialism and skepticism.
Ritu Bhatt received her PhD in history, theory, and criticism of architecture at MIT
and has taught at departments of architecture, rhetoric, and comparative literature at
UC Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, USA.

rethinking aesthetics
the role of body in design
edited by Ritu Bhatt
First published 2013
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Taylor & Francis
The right of the editor to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rethinking aesthetics : the role of body in design / Ritu Bhatt [editor].
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Design--Human factors. 2. Human body. I. Bhatt, Ritu, editor of
compilation.
NK1110.R48 2013
701’.17--dc23
2012027479
ISBN: 978-0-415-53474-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-53475-8 (pbk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Acquisition Editor: Wendy Fuller
Editorial Assistant: Laura Williamson
Production Editor: Alanna Donaldson
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my mother,
Varsha Bhatt (1940–2011)

c o n t e n t s
List of Image Credits ix
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction
Ritu Bhatt 1
Part One
Role of Aesthetic Response in Everyday Life 11
1 Everyday Aesthetics of Embodiment
Richard Shusterman 13
2 Dewey’s Big Idea for Aesthetics
Mark Johnson 36
3 Attention and Imaginative Engagement in Marcel Breuer’s Atlanta
Public Library
Sonit Bafna 51
4 From Buildings to Architecture: Construing Nelson Goodman’s
Aesthetics
Remei Capdevila-Werning 85
5 The Extended Self: Tacit Knowing and Place-Identity
Chris Abel 100
Part Two
Modes of Aesthetic Response: Tacit Perception and
Somatic Consciousness 141
6 Somatics and Aesthetics: The Role of Body in Design
Galen Cranz 143
contents
7 The Moral Dimension of Japanese Aesthetics
Yuriko Saito 158
8 Traditional Knowledge for Contemporary Uses: An Analysis of
Everyday Practices of Self-Help in Architecture
Ritu Bhatt 181
9 Environmental Embodiment, Merleau-Ponty, and Bill Hillier’s Theory of
Space Syntax: Toward a Phenomenology of People-in-Place
David Seamon 204
10 Mental and Existential Ecology
Juhani Pallasmaa 214
Index 231
viii
l i s t o f i m a g e c r e d i t s
3.1 Source: Myung Seok Hyun. 55
3.2 Source: Myung Seok Hyun. 63
3.3 Source: author. 64
3.4 Source: author; base drawings courtesy of David Yocum and students
in graduate options studio, Georgia Tech, Fall 2009. 66
3.5 Source: Tician Papachristou, Marcel Breuer: New Buildings and
Projects, 1960–70, Praeger, 1970. 69
3.6 Source: author. 70
3.7 (a), (b), (c) Photo credits: Myung Seok Hyun, author; base drawings
courtesy of David Yocum and students in graduate options studio,
Georgia Tech, Fall 2009. 72
3.8 Source: author. 74
3.9 Source: author; base drawing courtesy of David Yocum and students in
graduate options studio, Georgia Tech, Fall 2009. 75
5.1 Source: Glenn Murcutt. 102
5.2 Source: Chris Abel. 105
5.3 Source: Chris Abel. 110
5.4 Source: Artists’ Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/F.L.C. 112
5.5 Source: Douglas Fraser, 1967, George Braziller, New York. 113
5.6 Source: Chris Abel. 113
5.7 Source: Sports-Photos.com 118
5.8 Source: Foster + Partners. 132
6.1 Source: author. 148
6.2 Source: author. 149
6.3 Source: author. 154
6.4 Source: author. 155
7.1 Source: author. 160
7.2 Source: author. 167
7.3 Source: author. 170
7.4 Source: author. 171
8.1 Source: Offi ce of Alex Stark, Feng shui consultant. Redrawn by
Andrew Blaisdell. 186
8.2 Source: The Timeless Way, p. 314. 189