We are embodied, perceiving, feeling, and thinking creatures embedded in an inexhaustibly rich environment. By virtue of this, we have the capacity for two forms of deeply meaningful experience: aesthetic experience and social experience. These forms of experience help to make life worth living, but they are under threat by technological and sociopolitical forces. In this talk I will identify a potential remedy that I call everyday aesthetic activism. Everyday aesthetic activism is a kind of gift that people give to others in their community, re-enlivening our capacities for embodied aesthetic experience while also reconnecting us to each other. Through case studies, I will suggest that everyday aesthetic activism has the potential to heal some of the rifts that trouble us, and I’ll identify some features shared by effective instances. Then we can think together about what participation in everyday aesthetic activism might look like for us, given our diverse communities, identities, interests, and social positions.

 Sherri Irvin is Presidential Research Professor of Philosophy and Interim Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is author of Immaterial: Rules in Contemporary Art (Oxford University Press, 2022) and editor of Body Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her current work focuses on the intersection of aesthetics and justice.