In my group review this week, it was suggested that I think a little more about mindfulness and the theory behind my work. Simon also suggested I look at Michel de Certeau in one of my previous tutorials, so I feel like now is a good time to take a further look as I continue to think more about what I really want my project to represent.
Michael de Certeau was a French scholar of the social sciences. From what I understand through my research… his book, ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’ (1980) explores the way in which people individualise mass culture, language, law, objects and spaces; ways in which they operate in the social practice of ‘everyday life’. Certeau suggests in his book, that research of everyday life should focus on the consumption of cultures, commodities, art, media etc. through ‘ordinary’ people (i.e. the general public). He concludes that this allows an understanding of how people who don’t produce these widely absorbed areas of society, can still manipulate them to their own needs and desires.
Although difficult to understand, I think de Certeau’s writing has been useful in reminding me to establish what my key ideas are in this project. It’s given me much more direction in terms of what I would like to communicate through my work. From the beginning of my project, I’ve wanted to express this idea of individualism through our everyday surroundings, and the beauty that comes with that. We are all consumers of the same things; we live in a world dominated by art, media, Capitalist ideologies etc. that make up our culture. But still, as individuals, we shape who we are through how we choose to perceive and use these things. And who we are (as Nigel Shafran so often claims) is very much reflected in the spaces we exist in and the way we place and do things. That is why I want to photograph these seemingly simple and ‘ordinary’ things – because there’s really nothing ordinary about the everyday.
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