The materiality of biographical knowledge – ethnography on aesthetic practices

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article aims to develop a theory of biographical knowledge and practices of aesthetic articulation. Thus, it examines the aesthetic practices of young people beyond their verbal utterances. Using seven video case studies, it demonstrates the extent to which biographical knowledge is articulated in aesthetic practices – drawing, dancing, making music, etc. Aesthetic practices of articulation are theoretically defined as modes of relation between people and objects and between people and spaces. The article introduces a new ethnographic approach in biographical research that takes into account the lack of research into the significance of aesthetic practices in non-formally institutionalized areas and is thus also an epistemological guide that goes beyond highly cultural patterns and contexts. This has also proved particularly relevant for investigating subjectivation processes of vulnerable groups or, more specifically, the emergence of unequal subject positioning.