WHAT MAKES THINGS BANAL

• Authors: Makky Lukáš
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper, I investigate the origins of banality and the reasons why some phenomena appear banal to us. I discuss the issue by analysing three interrelated areas of aesthetic investigation: artworks, everyday objects, and banal things. By identifying the source of banality, my goal is to understand what makes banal things different from other kinds of things. I consider the following questions: 1) when, why, and how does an object become banal?; 2) what happens when something becomes banal?; 3) are banal things aesthetically appealing? Drawing on Wolfgang Welsch’s notion of anesthetization and Walter Benjamin’s account of aura, I argue that banality consists in the absence of both an ontological and an axiological character in objects, which makes them appear trivial or insignificant to us. I conclude by showing that although art, everydayness, and banality represent different aesthetic dimensions, objects constantly move from one of these dimensions to the other.

Keywords

EN

BANALITY; ART; EVERYDAY AESTHETICS

• Publisher: Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia ad Institute of Aesthetics and Art Culture
• Journal: ESPES
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 94 – 104

Contributors

author

Makky Lukáš

• University of Prešov, Faculty of Arts, 17. novembra 1, 080 01 Prešov, Slovak Republic