A1 Journal article (refereed)
Ambivalent Emotional Experiences of Everyday Visual and Musical Objects (2019)

Maksimainen, J. P., Eerola, T., & Saarikallio, S. H. (2019). Ambivalent Emotional Experiences of Everyday Visual and Musical Objects. Sage Open, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019876319

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Maksimainen, Johanna P.; Eerola, Tuomas; Saarikallio, Suvi H.

Journal or series: Sage Open

eISSN: 2158-2440

Publication year: 2019

Volume: 9

Issue number: 3

Publisher: Sage Publications

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019876319

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/65566

Abstract

Art brings rich, pleasurable experiences to our daily lives. However, many theories of art and aesthetics focus on specific strong experiences—in the contexts of museums, galleries, and concert halls and the aesthetic perception of canonized arts—disregarding the impact of daily experiences. Furthermore, pleasure is often treated as a simplistic concept of merely positive affective character, yet recent psychological research has revealed the experience of pleasure is far more complicated. This study explored the nature of pleasure evoked by everyday aesthetic objects. A mixture of statistical and qualitative methods was applied in the analysis of the data collected through a semi-structured online survey (N = 464). The result asserts the experience of emotional ambivalence occurred and was composed of a variety of nuanced emotions and related association, rather than just a combination of contradicting emotions. Such paradoxical pleasure is defined as a self-conscious hedonic exposure to negative emotions in art reception. The study also depicted four types of attitudinal ambivalence: loss, diversity, socio-ideology, and distance, reflecting contextual elements intertwined into experience, and the connection between ambivalence and intense emotional experience.

Keywords: art forms; music; everyday life; experiences (knowledge); art experiences; emotions; pleasure; attitudes; ambivalence

Free keywords: ambivalence; arts; attitude; daily life; experience; emotions; music; pleasure

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2019

JUFO rating: 1