ABSTRACT
The third chapter of Aesthetic Sustainability focuses on the durable flexible aesthetic expression. This includes an investigation of flexible object design as well as the nature of beauty: the fleeting elements of beauty, and the long-lasting beauty of decay. In relation to the beauty of decay, the concept of slow aesthetics is outlined, including an exploration of how to make the aesthetically pleasurable experience last longer. A prime example of slow aesthetics, which also supports one of the chapter’s main hypotheses, namely that decay in fact contains renewal, is wabi-sabi aesthetics. Wabi-sabi, embracing the traces left by the wear-and-tear of time and common use, and even considering them beautifying, is a way of viewing beauty as consisting of both changeability and constancy. Furthermore, the chapter presents methods for conducting Zeitgeist analyzes, focusing on the values and basic underlying assumptions of a time era and its cultural phenomena.
