Yuriko Saito: "Care Relationship with the Material World"

Yuriko Saito, Rhode Island School of Design: "Care Relationship with the Material World: Aesthetic and Ethical"

Abstract
Care is commonly regarded as an ethical attitude and practice regarding others. What is often overlooked is the indispensable role aesthetics plays in facilitating care. At the same time, the notion of care provides a foundation for our aesthetic life. This presentation takes our interaction with everyday objects, not a usual arena in which care is discussed, to explore the aesthetically-guided nature of care and the ethically-grounded nature of our aesthetic life.

The ethical practice of care normally requires an action, but it is not sufficient that the action achieves a certain goal. The care action needs to be expressed aesthetically through the features of one’s bodily comportment. However, what is often overlooked is that everyday objects can also express care for us beyond serving our immediate needs through their specific features when we experience them with sensibility and sympathetic imagination.

The care given to us by everyday objects calls for a reciprocal care act by us for their maintenance and repair. Such care work for everyday objects is often detested as drudgery and is made invisible, despite its indispensable role in running a household and facilitating a society’s smooth functioning. However, some art projects help make them visible and restore dignity to maintenance work. Furthermore, we can cultivate an aesthetic sensibility to appreciate the ways in which engaging in care work enriches our aesthetic life as well as developing an authentic and respectful relationship with the material world.