156 Approaching Religion • Vol. 6, No. 2 • December 2016 HENRIK ÅHMAN The aesthetic turn Exploring the religious dimensions of digital technology T he arena for developing digital technology has undergone an aesthetic turn, broadening the focus from a functionalist approach produc- ing centralized systems in the 1970s and 1980s to an increased awareness of the aesthetic aspects of the individual user’s interaction with technology in the 1990s and 2000s. Within the academic research fields studying digital technology (e.g. Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design) the aesthetic turn has resulted in a shift from a strong emphasis on user behaviour to an increased interest in aesthetic perspec- tives on the role of the designer, the design process, and the design material. Within these fields, aesthetics has often been interpreted as belonging to the realm of the individual; personal experiences such as pleasure, engagement, and emotions have been emphasized in both technology development and technology research. Aesthetics is not, however, only an individual phenom- enon but also has relational and structural components that need to be acknowledged. Structural aspects of aesthetics condition the possibilities for individuals interacting with digital technology. Thus, the tension between individual and relational aspects of aesthet- ics in digital technology also reflects a tension between freedom and limitation; between change and perma- nence; between destabilizing and stabilizing forces. Such a broadened understanding of aesthetics of- fers a model of digital technology that roughly corre- sponds to Mark C. Taylor’s definition of religion. Taylor argues that religion is constituted by, on the one hand, a figuring moment characterized by structural stabil- ity and universality, and, on the other hand, a disfigur- ing moment characterized by disruption, particularity, and change. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the aesthetic turn and Taylor’s definition of religion to illus- trate similarities between the two, suggesting possible religious dimensions of digital technology and how that can inform our understanding of people’s interaction with digital technology. The aesthetic turn in digital technology Up until the 1980s, designing computer systems mostly meant programming large, centralized sys- tems for use in professional contexts (Grudin 1990). hese systems aimed at task solving and were charac- terized by functionalism rather than aesthetic value. With the arrival of the personal computer, the focus for computer developers changed and focus came to lie increasingly on the sotware interface with which the user was to complete his or her task. he main goal of the system was, however, still to ofer func- tional tools by which a planning, rational user could solve deined, professional tasks. hus, the dominant view of the user was that of a rational creature driven by logic and cognitive rules (S. Harrison et al. 2007, Rogers 2012). In the 1990s, the aesthetic resources of the graphical interface became increasingly recog- nized, which, combined with cheaper technology and increased computer mobility, resulted in a paradig- matic change in the industry strategies surrounding computer development (Tractinsky 1997). With the computer now moving out of the professional con- text, controlled by centrally identiied requirements, and into the everyday life of individual users, com- puter development moved from a strict functionalism to a broadened realization that interaction with com- puters has more layers than mere task solving. his does not mean that questions regarding functionality have been removed from the agenda, but that they