Transformations of the Everyday: The Social Aesthetics of Childhood

Abstract

In this article I approach everyday aesthetics through play, especially but not exclusively the play of children. Play constitutes a bridge between the everyday and art, and I argue that it is existentially and ontologically important as a field for the articulation, negotiation, and transformation of the social world, and a construction of the life-world in its complexity. Play also gives opportunities for the sharing of intimate feelings. As a thoroughly social phenomenon, play can contribute to a more nuanced and deeper understanding of the social constitution of aesthetic phenomena in general. In play the participants perform together and for each other, sometimes creating performances that can be repeated (with or without variations), sometimes creating complex fictional worlds. A significant characteristic of play is its interactive character: the participants transform structures and themes from their life-world, mostly through improvising with other people. The empirical examples come from my own family. This is methodologically motivated since play, like art, is best understood contextually. An even stronger reason, however, is that the core meaning of play is created within the play. The materials represent two kinds of play. “Scripted performance” play has a limited number of roles or participants and a limited theme. It can be similar to jokes or action songs in having a rather definite structure, but it can also allow for more improvisation. Structure and form, however, make such play analogous to performance arts, and allow the participants to remember and reflect on the play. The other kind of play that I discuss builds on the creation of parallel, fictional worlds. The creation and presentation of such worlds can be used in negotiations about the everyday, for example where a child’s social status or competence would not be given enough weight as such.