scholarly journals The Aesthetic Interior as Incubator of Health and Well-Being

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 277-301
Author(s):  
Richard W. Hayes

ABSTRACTDomestic interiors created during the Aesthetic Movement have often been interpreted in terms of the ideas of aesthetic autonomy associated with Théophile Gautier, Walter Pater and Joris-Karl Huysmans. This essay takes a different tack by analysing the aesthetic interior in light of concerns with health reform. It focuses on the writings and designs of architect E.W. Godwin (1833–86) who pursued interior design as part of an effort to foster a healthy life, one that consisted of hygiene, relief from urban stress, and an enlargement of the aesthetic responsiveness of his clients. He conceived of spare and calm interiors that were healthful alternatives to dust-infested Victorian clutter while concomitantly offering psychological respite from the ‘high-pressure, nervous times’ endemic to metropolitan life. This goal accords with Godwin's related interest in dress reform, a preoccupation that led to his participation in the Health Exhibition of 1884. By unpacking Godwin's specific contribution to the sanitary discussions that prevailed in Victorian Britain, I align the aesthetic interior with the central imperative of sanitary reform: promoting health through ameliorating Britain's urban environment.

Author(s):  
Angelo Riccioni

“Olalla” (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson has usually been neglected by critics interested in late-Victorian culture. Preceding of just a few weeks the publication of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), this novella has been judged as a derivative work, a story whose interest lies in its different sources, ranging from Edward Bulwer Lytton’s A Strange Story to E.A. Poe’s tales. My analysis aims to prove that in writing this work, Stevenson is probably drawing inspiration from the imagery exploited by some members of the Aesthetic Movement, among them Walter Pater and Edward Burne-Jones.


Author(s):  
Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols

This chapter examines the phenomenon of “Pompeian” (or “Pompeian Revival”) interior decoration in elite US houses and hotels from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The “Pompeian Room” functioned in the popular press and wider discourse of that era as a metonym for an increasingly inaccessible pseudo-aristocracy. The Pompeian Revival Style in the United States must also be seen within the larger scope of the Aesthetic Movement of the last third of the nineteenth century, through which beautification of the American home became a topic of heightened national interest. Pompeian decoration most strongly conveyed the impression of luxury and elevated social status. However, the complex range of contemporary reactions to the Pompeian style, colored by unease about the expansion of private wealth and luxury building projects during the Gilded Age and the years surrounding it, likewise had a national slant. Finally this chapter aims to transcend a singular emphasis on the self-fashioning of patrons in order to incorporate a wider spectrum of contributors and interpreters, such as designers and taste-makers who shaped these spaces.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110051
Author(s):  
Annekatrin Skeide

Unlike sonographic examinations, sonic fetal heartbeat monitoring has received relatively little attention from scholars in the social sciences. Using the case of fetal heartbeat monitoring as part of midwifery prenatal care in Germany, this contribution introduces music as an analytical tool for exploring the aesthetic dimensions of obstetrical surveillance practices. Based on ethnographic stories, three orchestrations are compared in which three different instruments help audiences to listen to what becomes fetal heartbeat music and to qualify fetal and pregnant lives in relation to each other. In the Doppler-based orchestration, audible heartbeat music is taken as a sign of a child in need of parental love and care cultivated to listen. The Pinard horn makes esoteric fetal music that can be appreciated by the midwife as a skilled instrumentalist alone and helps to enact a child hidden in the belly. The cardiotocograph brings about soothing music and a reassuring relationship with a child but also durable scripts of juridical beauty. This material-semiotic analysis amplifies how well-being is shaped in midwifery prenatal care practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
I. A. Peremislov ◽  
◽  
L. G. Peremislov ◽  

Japanese culture with its unique monuments of architecture, sculpture, painting, small forms, decorative and applied arts, occupies a special place in the development of world art. Influenced by China, Japanese masters created their own unique style based on the aesthetics of contemplation and spiritual harmony of man and nature. In the context of "Japan's inspiration" the work refers to the influence of the art of the Land of the Rising Sun on American decorative arts and, in particular, on the silver jewelry industry in trends of a new aesthetic direction of the last third of the XIXth century, the "Aesthetic movement". The article provides a brief overview of the history of the emergence and development of decorative silver art in the United States. The important centers of silversmithing in the USA and the most important American manufacturers of the XIXth century are described in more detail. The article also touches on the influence of Japanese aesthetic ideas on European creative groups and on the formation of innovative ideas in European decorative arts. At the same time, an attempt is made to trace the origin, development trends, evolution and variations of "Japanesque" style in American decorative and applied art, in particular, in the works of Edward Moore and Charles Osborne (Tiffany & Co jewelry multinational company).


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ruth Payne ◽  
Jamie Mackrill ◽  
Rebecca Cain ◽  
Jason Strelitz ◽  
Lucy Gate

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Kevin Jacobs

The affective labour debate has become mainstream in communications studies. In this paper, I The affective labour debate has become mainstream in communications studies. In this paper, I suggest the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century as inspiration for how users can use Facebook with the knowledge that their data is being used for profit. I present Facebook usage as art, creating an analog with aesthete Oscar Wilde’s essay, “the critic as artist” (1891/2010), where he presents critics as artists. Other theorists, especially Walter Benjamin provide grounding for making the argument that Facebook usage is an artistic expression. I then turn to my inversion of Walter Pater’s “art for art’s sake”, the seminal idea of Aestheticism and propose Facebook for Facebook’s sake as a method for Facebook use. While more advanced remuneration concepts have yet to arrive with such force that they could provide the proper payment to users, Facebook for its own sake is a way to appreciate Facebook’s beauty in the meantime. Baudelaire and Debord’s psychogeographic theories provide methods for navigating cities that I apply to examine Facebook as a digital city. The central claim of this paper is the following: By using Facebook for Facebook’s sake, users take back some of the dignity taken away from them in the exploitation of free labour. Finally, I turn to critiques of Aestheticism and how contemporary software might provide insight into using Facebook in an ethical manner. Users will have to consider each action differently; how would liking something affect users’ artistic expression of themselves? In this way, while the affective labour debate continues, users can use Facebook for its own sake.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Florence Mangan

<p>Joyless rows of monotonous houses are be- ginning to define the suburban typology of tomorrow. Quality and innovation is being compromised for speed and quantity and there is a distinct lack of consideration for the home’s potential to enrich and influence the life-styles and well-being of its occupants.  This thesis is a reaction to the researcher’s dis- satisfaction with New Zealand’s suburban typology and seeks to identify and demonstrate an alternative design approach. The research- er considers that a house should enable its occupants to flourish by instigating moments of joy and surprise whilst maximising economy of space.  The thesis uses an investigative research method of five different design tests. Each test reveals strategies to aid the approach of designing the suburban typology, focusing on maximising joy, surprise and economy of space.  Both digital and manual methods are used, revealing their respective strengths and flaws. The Digital method used in the Data House and Rigid x Fluid house tests lacked the ability to apply tangible aesthetic qualities to a de- sign. The manual hands on method of used in the Patchwork House and House Reformed tests was hugely beneficial for the aesthetic qualities of design, however it lacked the rigor and capacity to apply individuality on a mass scale.  Discoveries made in the thesis investigations are collated in a final design outcome, the House Reformed. This house design demonstrates a compilation of the successful strategies identified in the research and reveals the benefits of approaching home design with qualities of joy, surprise and economy of space. The most successful strategies used to achieve these aims were establishing a great- er connection with the outdoors, providing flexible spaces through the use of innovative partitions and furniture and injecting unexpected aesthetic moments through the use of interesting texture and colour.  Overall the research reveals a successful de- sign outcome and provides interesting in- sights into design method. It explores worth- while questions and issues related to the lived domestic experience such as the lack of joy, surprise and economy of space in suburban housing and demonstrates the importance of designing with such qualities.</p>


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