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Paper short abstract:

This project studies minimalist lifestyle through sensory and visual ethnography. It explores people's experiences of finding time when changing their approach to life, and ways in which they translate fewer things and more time into a sense of happiness and simplicity in the everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

The project presents an ongoing research project on minimalist lifestyle in Iceland. Based on in-depth interviews, visual ethnography and qualitative questionnaire responses, the project investigates minimalism as a social movement and the diverse practices and experiences of individuals who decide to de-clutter their lives and adopt a minimalistic lifestyle. In most cases, minimalism starts out with dissent toward consumerism but gradually develops into a way of life. It goes from tidying up your home to tidying up your life. Delving into minimalist lifestyle is a means of simplifying for the individual, having fewer things to attend to but noticing the ones they have even better.

One’s ordinary is somebody else’s spectacular. Living a minimalist lifestyle compels the person to look at their everyday life in a new way. Their ordinary routines become visible through their own inward inspection. Simplifying their life requires their them be aware of the practices of everyday life, that most simply overlook day to day. Questioning practices like folding the laundry or how to prepare for the day. it involves a re-evaluation of every aspect of daily life, every routine, indeed one's whole life.