Habits play a key role in aesthetics. Artists and audiences rely on perceptual, imaginative, affective, cognitive, and appreciative habits, while everyday practices of taste are shaped by cultural habits. Yet, despite growing scholarly interest, a comprehensive account of the relationship between habits and aesthetics is still lacking. One reason is that the very notion of habit remains contested. Philosophical research has identified 2 main views: habits as dispositions acquired through repetition that tend to constrain behavior, and habits as practical forms of life that enable and organize interactions between humans and their environment. These contrasting conceptions lead to different views of aesthetics. If habits are understood primarily as repetitive routines, they appear to hinder aesthetic experience and artistic creativity. If they are understood as intelligent ways of engaging with the world, they can instead be seen as conditions for aesthetic and artistic practices.

HABITUS aims to develop an interdisciplinary framework for understanding the role of habits in aesthetic experience, artistic practices, and everyday life. The project pursues three interconnected objectives:

1. developing a philosophical theory of aesthetic habits through historical and conceptual research, clarifying how habits shape perception, imagination, creativity, normativity, and aesthetic agency;
2. empirically investigating the relationship between habits and aesthetic experience by combining philosophical inquiry with psychological and neuroscientific research, including experimental studies on habit formation in action and perception;
3. applying the concept of aesthetic habits to a range of artistic and everyday practices in order to examine how habits both organize and transform aesthetic behavior. Through this integrated approach, HABITUS aims to explain how habits can foster creativity, well-being, and sustainable forms of individual and collective life.

The methodology of HABITUS reflects the three dimensions identified in its title: Theories, Uses, Studies.
Theories refers to a historical-conceptual investigation aimed at developing a philosophical account of aesthetic habits and clarifying their role in aesthetic experience and behavior.
Studies refers to empirical research in psychology and neuroscience, designed to test key aspects of the theoretical framework through experiments on habit formation in aesthetic contexts.
Uses refers to the application of the concept of aesthetic habits to artistic and everyday practices, including music, visual and performing arts, cinema, design, fashion, and food.
While methodologically distinct, these three approaches continuously inform one another, generating an integrated understanding of aesthetic habits across theory, empirical research, and practice.

HABITUS is expected to deliver the first comprehensive interdisciplinary account of aesthetic habits. The project will clarify how habits shape aesthetic experience, artistic practices, and everyday forms of aesthetic behavior, while showing how aesthetic engagement contributes to the formation and transformation of habits. It will introduce and refine the concept of aesthetic habits as a key tool for understanding the relation between perception, expressivity, creativity, and normativity. A central result will be the development of a view of habits not as rigid routines but as plastic and responsive forms of behavior, capable of sustaining improvisational adaptation to changing situations. Through the integration of philosophical inquiry, empirical research, and the study of artistic practices, HABITUS will provide new insights into habit formation, behavioral plasticity, aesthetic agency, and the role of improvisation in individual and collective flourishing.