"Inter" als aisthetische Qualität

If we perceive of intercultural encounters as confrontations of preconceptions, we can ask for what dynamizes the exchange. Interest seems a promising candidate, as it suggests »being in between« of both the observer as well as the observed. This paper states that interest is, rather than one-sided intentionality, a primordial state of being in this world that corresponds to the »intermodal« character assumed for infants’ perception. Determination of a felt »I« as well as conceptual meaning are accomplished as accumulations and abstractions of felt qualities. Our understanding of the world and the »I« is thus aesthetically coded and the »place of the I« is characterized by an aesthetic quality of »inter« – we are basically always in-between our inter-modal perception but usually dissociated thereof by habituated interpretive patterns. It is argued that the state of being interested can be practiced such that it resets those habituations and free ourselves for new familiarization.