Furniture Music, Hotel Lobbies, and Banality: Can We Speak of a Disinterested Space?

Accusations of empty formalism are something of a cliché when it comes to Kant’s ethics and aesthetics. Nevertheless, in the case of the latter, the accusation might well be justified. Kant’s failure to put disinterestedness in place means that numerous questions remain unanswered concerning the spatiality of aesthetic experience. The purpose of this article is to ask whether a specific spatial context can influence the emergence of Kant’s disinterested delight. The author hence asks two questions: First, is there a definite distinction between interested and disinterested delight? Second, if there is such a distinction, do there exist any factors that would facilitate disinterestedness to occur? Making recourse to an essay by Siegfried Kracauer, as well as compositions by Erik Satie and Brian Eno, the author argues that context does have an influence on the distinction between disinterestedness and interestedness and that the hotel lobby is an excellent illustration of a spatial context that facilities disinterested delight for the reason that it is largely impersonal, indifferent, and so universal.