Richard Shusterman is a prominent pragmatist philosopher. Author of several highly influential books in philosophical aesthetics and founder of the field of somaesthetics, he is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida Atlantic University.Bálint Veres is a Hungarian scholar of aesthetics and an award-winning teacher. He is a tenured Associate Professor at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest (MOME), and the head of its PhD-in-Practice Program.

"I hope that Somaesthetics and Design Culture will introduce new ways of thinking and doing to designers and educators via its pragmatist approach; and somaesthetics will continue to create its own community to heal the world via transformative experiences." - Erdem Üngür, in: The Design Journal, 2024“What makes the somaesthetic approach unique is that it implies 'a project of appreciating and cultivating the body not only as an object that externally displays beauty, sublimity, grace, and other aesthetic qualities, but also as a subjectivity that perceives these qualities and that experiences attendant aesthetic pleasures somatically'. [...] Shusterman and Veres (do) focus on a previously ignored range of meanings of design, which complements the capitalist counterpart: 'design as something sensual, pleasing, emotionally significant, and engaging.' - Ármin Tillmann, in: Disegno, Journal of Design Culture, VIII, no.2, 2026 "This volume aims to initiate an interdisciplinary platform, bringing together different perspectives for analysis, critique, and inspiration. [...] To conclude, more than directly appropriable guidelines, what is offered here is an invitation to take on somaesthetics as a bridge and connect design research with other disciplines through a holistic lens." - Estelle Berger, in: Somaesthetics and Design Culture, 2025

• AcknowledgmentsList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Somaesthetics and Design CultureRichard Shusterman and Bálint VeresPart 1Studies on Limitations1 A World Is Born: Craftsmanship, Mediality, and the Somatic Implications of Plato’s TimaeusBálint Veres2 From Making to Lighting a Candle: On Functions, Meanings, and Bodies in Ritual DesignMădălina Diaconu3 Can That Be Taught? Lessons in Embodied Knowledge from Memoir Writing for Craft and Design EducationJessica Hemmings4 Soma and Symbol: The Bridging Function of Style in Design History and CultureSteven LeutholdPart 2Bodies, Senses, and Power5 Sensing Kalasatama: Design Culture and Neoliberal BodyhoodGuy Julier6 Bodies Under the Weather: Selective Permeability, Political Affordances, and Architectural HostilityMatthew Crippen with Illustrations by Mareike Joleen Timm7 Across the Threshold: A Somaesthetic Approach to the Design of Extended RealitiesTom McGuirk and Alan SummersPart 3Transformative Experiences8 Bespoke Healthcare DesignDina Shahar and Jonathan Ventura9 Sensory Activation in Design, Art, and Architecture – a Somaesthetic PerspectiveElse Marie Bukdahl10 Designing for Somaesthetic TransformationRichard Shusterman and Dag SvanæsIndex

Richard Shusterman is a prominent pragmatist philosopher. Author of several highly influential books in philosophical aesthetics and founder of the field of somaesthetics, he is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida Atlantic University.Bálint Veres is a Hungarian scholar of aesthetics and an award-winning teacher. He is a tenured Associate Professor at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest (MOME), and the head of its PhD-in-Practice Program.

"I hope that Somaesthetics and Design Culture will introduce new ways of thinking and doing to designers and educators via its pragmatist approach; and somaesthetics will continue to create its own community to heal the world via transformative experiences." - Erdem Üngür, in: The Design Journal, 2024“What makes the somaesthetic approach unique is that it implies 'a project of appreciating and cultivating the body not only as an object that externally displays beauty, sublimity, grace, and other aesthetic qualities, but also as a subjectivity that perceives these qualities and that experiences attendant aesthetic pleasures somatically'. [...] Shusterman and Veres (do) focus on a previously ignored range of meanings of design, which complements the capitalist counterpart: 'design as something sensual, pleasing, emotionally significant, and engaging.' - Ármin Tillmann, in: Disegno, Journal of Design Culture, VIII, no.2, 2026 "This volume aims to initiate an interdisciplinary platform, bringing together different perspectives for analysis, critique, and inspiration. [...] To conclude, more than directly appropriable guidelines, what is offered here is an invitation to take on somaesthetics as a bridge and connect design research with other disciplines through a holistic lens." - Estelle Berger, in: Somaesthetics and Design Culture, 2025

• AcknowledgmentsList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Somaesthetics and Design CultureRichard Shusterman and Bálint VeresPart 1Studies on Limitations1 A World Is Born: Craftsmanship, Mediality, and the Somatic Implications of Plato’s TimaeusBálint Veres2 From Making to Lighting a Candle: On Functions, Meanings, and Bodies in Ritual DesignMădălina Diaconu3 Can That Be Taught? Lessons in Embodied Knowledge from Memoir Writing for Craft and Design EducationJessica Hemmings4 Soma and Symbol: The Bridging Function of Style in Design History and CultureSteven LeutholdPart 2Bodies, Senses, and Power5 Sensing Kalasatama: Design Culture and Neoliberal BodyhoodGuy Julier6 Bodies Under the Weather: Selective Permeability, Political Affordances, and Architectural HostilityMatthew Crippen with Illustrations by Mareike Joleen Timm7 Across the Threshold: A Somaesthetic Approach to the Design of Extended RealitiesTom McGuirk and Alan SummersPart 3Transformative Experiences8 Bespoke Healthcare DesignDina Shahar and Jonathan Ventura9 Sensory Activation in Design, Art, and Architecture – a Somaesthetic PerspectiveElse Marie Bukdahl10 Designing for Somaesthetic TransformationRichard Shusterman and Dag SvanæsIndex