Practicing In The Space Of The Everyday

“prisoners who have become aware of their own creative capacity will not be content to decorate their cells with original graffiti”

Lautre'mont -The Revolution Of Everyday Life.ⁱ

Introduction

This essay considers a type of practice that operates with the complexity of a preexisting context. Through the utilization of artistic processes, elements, disparate to those within the context, are introduced in order to construct a 'situation'. The situation attempts to amplify various relationships within the context, thereby allowing certain aspects to become more apparent than they would otherwise be. the situation is not a device employed to communicate specific material, it rather sets relationships into a certain 'play' in which an experience of this 'environment' is possible.

The situation generates the possibility for an experience which is direct, necessitating the avoidance of various mediating constructs associated with the practice of making art. A directness is sought that provides a 'ground' for a perceptive opportunity, not a moment of clarity facilitated through an 'understanding' of the work, effectively a disturbance or a moment of disequilibrium is constructed in which unfamiliarity acts as a catalyst for perception.

These opportunities are sought in the space of the everyday. In particular, the aspects of the everyday lying outside the privacy of domestic space, broadly speaking, both public and privatised space, inclusive of the relationships contained therein. Space articulated through social relations, relations that are inseparable from that which mediates them.

To a degree, the practice in question is inherently resistive. The space of its articulation – the everyday, being inseparable from the mediation that the dominant hegemony subjects it to. It enters into a relationship with power as it manifests itself in the spectacle, seeking to establish a form of disruption in a place appropriated by the dominant hegemony. Engaging within this space contests the rationale of the very space, that things are given, and therefore any interaction is determined by these preexisting elements. Defective aspects of this space are not made apparent per se, rather any relevance is in the act of engagement itself. The hegemony seeks to negate participation beyond sanctioned, mediated activities. No invitation is extended for people to engage in the articulation of everyday life, certainly not to manipulate the constituent elements for their pleasure or to satiate any creative desire. Creativity is allocated its own space. Messing with aspects of the everyday lies beyond the jurisdiction of such space. The dominant hegemony is totalitarian in that it attempts to be the sole manufacturer of the 'images of reality', whilst simultaneously disguising the fact that it is merely a projection of its own 'values'. these images of 'reality' make an appearance as societies 'shared' values (not that anyone necessarily believes in them as such), whilst in actuality they are merely the imposition of values formulated without society.

This type of engagement can however only ever be considered as a facet of resistance. Whilst power creates an image for itself in the everyday, it does not reside within the space of this image generation. Power, or more properly the manifestation of power cannot be located to a specific locale. A practice that makes forays into the space of the manifestation of representations is therefore limited by the fact that this space is merely one of appearance. That is not to depreciate the significance of the pressure exerted in this sphere, the effects of which often have a tangible impact. It is just to acknowledge that resistive activity must be posited to engage not merely with the image of power but with the generation and articulation of power as it imposes itself as well as areas that have evolved without inherent reliance on external mediation.

The task becomes increasingly complex as power utilises devices that accelerate its own fracturing and fragmentation, where it is abstracted further from the realm of 'concrete' relationships.”Information technology quickly divorced power from the spectacle and power now wanders invisibly in the cybernetic realm outside of everyday life”ⁱⁱ. Wherever power attempts to position itself as the sole regulator of life is where resistive practice needs to establish itself, in particular those area that are yet to be totally co-opted.