The aesthetics of the possible

Amid growing concerns that our era may be defined as a ‘crisis of sensibility’, possibility studies have predominantly addressed the possible from a pragmatist stance. While this approach is valuable in explaining how people navigate possibilities, it is limited in its capacity to account for the affective component that precedes and shapes their engagement with the world. How are people affected by the signs emitted through their ongoing engagement with possibilities as events of life? Adopting a vitalist stance, this article introduces the Aesthetics of the Possible. It is defined the degree of bodily affect and emotional experience elicited by the signs one either recognises or encounters, as emitted by people and things, which influences one’s awareness, representations, and engagement with possibilities. Awe, wonder, serendipity, and insights are phenomena embedded within this framework. The article theorises how ongoing engagements with the practice–arrangement tandem of the social complex elicit experiences of what is introduced here as ‘authentic’ possibilities. These refer to an awareness of possibilities arising from the randomness of events, altering one’s worldview.