The felt quality of encountering something as beautiful, moving or strange.
Ways in
Phenomenology, experimental aesthetics, neuroscience, surveys.
The longer story
Aesthetic experience is what happens when we engage with art—the felt encounter with beauty, interest, or meaning. Phenomenology describes what experience is like. Experimental aesthetics measures responses. Neuroscience looks for correlates. Philosophy asks what makes experience aesthetic. The questions are old and fundamental: What is beauty? Why do we seek aesthetic experience? What does art do to us?