Aesthetic flux: inquiring into the sensuous dynamics of children, matter and environments with a more-than-human lens




Renlund Jenny, Kumpulainen Kristiina, Byman Jenny, Wong Chin Chin, Sintonen Sara

PublisherRoutledge, Taylor & Francis

2024

Environmental Education Research

30

7

1076

1092

1350-4622

1469-5871

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2350675

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2024.2350675

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/404650136



Although sensuous and embodied engagement is an integral part of child–environment relationalities, the intersections of aesthetics, children and environments remain scarcely addressed. As a response, this study develops a concept of ‘aesthetic flux’ to delve into the sensuous dynamics of matter and bodies in the context of a storying workshop in a forest with first graders in a Finnish primary school. An arts-based, post-qualitative methodology guided our analysis of video recordings from the workshop, resulting in visual-sonic montages that draw attention to the intense movements and sounds of children, soap bubbles, air, a research camera and trees. Thinking through the concept of aesthetic flux, our study experiments with the abundance, indeterminacy and potentiality of sensuous dynamics where bodies (human and otherwise) become together and linger. Thus, our study reconfigures aesthetics as a creative and unpredictable force that materialises in both embodied and conceptual ways in environmental education and research with children.



Last updated on 2025-18-03 at 11:01