Inhabiting the Anthropocene. Aesthetics of Everyday Life in Times of Crisis

Reconciling the seemingly incompatible concepts of the Anthropocene and the everyday, this paper argues and demonstrates that (1) despite the disconcerting effects of its truly planetary scale, the Anthropocene is not absent or invisible in the realm of everyday life; (2) the everyday is not simply a neutral background solely meant for times of stability, but it is in fact a dynamic system that responds to various scales of change and absorbs the new and the unfamiliar into the familiar. Moreover, the paper also shows that the ways in which change is lived and navigated on an everyday scale, in times of the covid-19 pandemic and climate change, are a unique field for aesthetic enquiry. Everyday material objects such as tote bags, water bottles, masks, and habits like working from home and second-hand wearing are discussed as examples of the everyday experience of relating to the Anthropocene and its crises.