Finding the Place of Everyday Beauty: Correspondence as a Method of Data Collection

Abstract

Researching aesthetic engaging with one's surroundings in everyday life led the author to use correspondence as a method of data collection. In this paper she presents her research design and discusses correspondence as an underused method. She introduces the concepts of invisibility, time, and tangibility in defining correspondence as a method. The topic of the correspondence in her research was beauty. In common use beautiful signals that which is desirable. As an evaluative and a future-oriented statement everyday beauty seems to have a place in steering our lives. The participants accounted as beautiful the different meaningful relations they had formed over time to their surroundings. These relations were in constant change as the participants themselves changed over time. The author argues that correspondence is a method that works well in cumulating data for research. It has also proven to be a rewarding method for the participants.