The Everyday
My work is primarily an exploration into noticing the unnoticed within the everyday. For instance, at the present time I have been heavily influenced and intrigued by the notion of drawing attention to that of which others plainly overlook in their everyday routines. We often find ourselves going about our daily routines and not observing what is actually glaringly apparent. It is these things that we see every day but do not observe that I am aiming to bring to light once more. I wanted to create some digital drawings utilising both adobe and procreate as part of my Masters Degree work. This also came with some academic writing in regards to other working artists whose works have been of influence to my own.
The everyday, mundane and unnoticed are often overlooked or disregarded by many. However, to a minority which study the everyday closely, it is a significant and at times celebrated, intrinsic factor of common daily practice.
It is what is happening whilst nothing is happening. It is the objects, places, buildings and routines of human existence. It is the core structure of humanity, hence its preponderance and magnitude in correlation to a being's routines and habits. It is “each day continued in exemplar.”[1]As Les Back states, “Is there any form of life that does not happen everyday?”[2]
As an exemplar, it is comparable to the tourist attraction, the London Eye. Primarily, the general public pay to obtain an enhanced viewing experience of the City of London. Metaphorically speaking, a microcosmic example of living within the confines of the everyday. People have a tendency to look at the bigger picture rather than what is close at hand; the seemingly insignificant details. However, it is these minuscule properties of life that make the more significant moments memorable. For example, the viewing experience of the Eye would not be possible if it weren’t for the nuts and bolts maintaining the robust structure. It is these crucial components in life that the majority do not perceive. These are what should be considered the most striking features within contemporary living.
This dissertation will illuminate the areas of life which are seemingly deemed “ordinary” or “mundane” in order to underline the importance of paying homage to such banal routines, objects and experiences. Furthermore, this leads to the inevitable questioning of why the everyday is classified as such and whether it warrants increased appreciation. Additionally, what is the variance and the significance of the mundane, unnoticed and everyday? Why are these subdivisions perceived as inconspicuous amongst many day to day lives? All of which will be deliberated and surveyed within this thesis. Nonetheless, at its inception a single, salient thing must be considered. The defining of the terms: everyday, unnoticed and mundane.
In the first instance, an attempt to term the everyday itself must be considered. The comprehension of the everyday is not possible without defining the entity itself. How does an individual begin to wade between definitions to determine what each facet of the everyday really entails? The interchangeable definitions of these terms alter from person to person as each individual will have withstood differing experiences, resulting in altering understandings and ideals. These are universally constructed from alternating backgrounds and demographics; the ethnographic approach to understanding the everyday and its origins. This emanates in the formulation of many depictions of the everyday and mundane, making an accurate definition almost impossible to accept.
The terms everyday, unnoticed and mundane might suggest something different to each individual. As an exemplar, to one person it is the ultimate fascination due to their morals and principles, and to another it is banal and tiresome. Traumatic or memorable experiences in a person’s life may be cause for different perceptions of the everyday, mundane and unnoticed. Yariv Orgad states that ‘There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony.’[3]Thus connoting that each person’s set of values is constructed around their circumstances such as tragedies and other generalized events.
It is on occasion that the everyday is sporadically deemed ordinary and futile. These portions of life where ‘we are neither born nor do we die: hence the weight and the enigmatic force of everyday truth.’[4]The parts where nothing out of the ordinary occurs. But what would be classified as ordinary? And does it warrant noting that the perception of the everyday may alter due to the person’s viewpoint and individuality, and should this be brought into consideration?That being said, does it warrant exploration into the psychological workings of the viewer themselves? Their perception of the everyday is, after all, what gives the unnoticed and mundane their definitions; however impressionistic this may be.
It is a rather objective thing to consider, particularly within the context of contemporary art practices. The same applies to the everyday; a person’s life may not be mirrored by another’s yet their everyday is still defined by the things they do or that transpire in their daily lives.
Addressing the everyday as a stand alone item, the Whitechapel book, The Everyday,defines the matter as being somewhat abstruse to many. Henri Lefebvre writes his own understanding of the everyday in his book The Critique of Everyday Life. His answer to, what do the words mean?provides insight into a possible, educated definition of the everyday. His response is completely understandable to many, but may be arguable and simplistic to others. He states that ‘everyday life does not exist as a generality. There are as many everyday lives as there are places, people and ways of life.’ [5]Upon interrogation about the subject matter, he feels as though the everyday is almost too broader thing to pin point and should be left as such.
Throughout his own inquisition surrounding the everyday, he addresses that it is not just the routines in which people partake, but the time scale of which it takes for them to complete them. He attempts to answer his own query about everyday life and whether it is ‘merely the humble and sordid side of life in general, and of social practice?’ and his answer is not so unassuming,
‘To repeat the answer, we have already given: yes, and no. Yes, it is the humble and sordid side, but not only that. Simultaneously it is also the time and the place where the human either fulfils itself or fails, since it is a place and a time which fragmented, specialized and divided activity cannot completely grasp, no matter how great and worthy that activity may be.’[6]
With time now being a considerable aspect of everyday life, what Lefebvre could be alluding to, is that it is not the routines that take place in the everyday, but how one utilizes their time within the duration that they have the ability to do so. With that being said, does that aid in search of the definition of the everyday or does it just widen the parameters? With reference to Lefebvre’s writing, he has made countless attempts to define the everyday. He claims that ‘it surrounds us, it besieges us, on all sides? And from all directions. We are inside it and outside it. No so-called ‘elevated’ activity can be reduced to it, nor can it be separated from it.’[7]
Seeing as the everyday could be a collation of contributing factors, the next step is to define the mundane and the unnoticed in order to support the understanding of the commonplace.
With that in mind, how are the mundane and unnoticed of notable variance to the everyday? Does it stand isolated or should it be associated with the commonplace? It might be simply that the everyday is an aspect of the mundane for some, for others it is more of a sanctuary from reality.
The Oxford English dictionary defines the mundane as something which is, ‘In weakened sense: ordinary, commonplace. Hence: prosaic, dull, humdrum; lacking interest or excitement.’[8]. So should it be viewed as the same as the common place? Or are they of different origins? And what about the unnoticed? As the definition of noticing states, it is the ‘observant, disposed to notice things.’[9]Its inquisitive antonym, ‘not noticed. Also occasionally as n., with the: that which is not noticed,’[10]alludes to the paradoxical description of noticing the unnoticed. If the unnoticed is noticed, the terms undermine one another, making the act of noticing contradictory. It is how something is noticed that is important and its placement in the commonplace that will be explicated; along with an investigation into what goes unnoticed and the reasoning behind its dismissal.
Segmenting the dreary, disregarded and overlooked aspects that can be seen as one of the same, may need to be addressed as subsections of the commonplace rather than as stand alone elements. Nonetheless, we must pay a certain amount of deference to the everyday, mundane and unnoticed. Even though each may differ slightly from the other, they share the same core classifications and categorizations i.e. routines and regularities.
In order to truly delve deeper into the realm of the banal, the possible views in which people take upon the world and the everydayness of individual livelihoods, must be explored and inspected. This should be done before before gazing upon the creative portrayal of the subject matter.
This dissertation will address different artist’s, theorists and psychologist’s beliefs, perspectives and perceptions of the unnoticed, everyday and the mundane. For example, chapter one highlights key facets of the everyday; defining, evaluating and addressing its subjective, objective and sentimental features. Artists such as Jessie Brennan and L.S. Lowry are noted, alongside how each of them highlight differing sordid areas of life. Chapter two addresses what can go unnoticed within the confines of the commonplace. Heather Benning, Tracey Emin, Holly Farrell, Lee John Phillips and Sarah Fagan each share common ground on what it means to illuminate the unnoticed within the everyday. Sound and ambience are also noted through references to John Cage and his portrayal of sounds, which most uncomprehend within their day to day, enlightens areas of life which go unheard and unappreciated. Finally, the concluding chapter surrounds the conceptual understandings of the mundane and banal. John Berger discloses how we view things but do not always observe them; evident throughout Martin Creed’s works which are made comparable to that of renowned artist Marcel Duchamp.
It could be queried as to why these divisions of human existence are worthy of an entire thesis worth of research. A quote from a sociology article has remained of significant prominence when considering the topic of the major critical study. Within its introduction to Why Everyday Life Matters: Class, Community and Making Life LiveableLes Back notes that,
‘focusing on everyday life allows us to attend to the inherent liveliness of social life and its time signatures. This is the first reason why everyday life matters: it makes us take the mundane seriously and ask what is at stake in our daily encounters with neighbours or the people we brush past at the bus stop. It also means we have to think about the wider spectrum of life experiences from despair and social damage to the ordinary triumphs of getting by,’[11]
Thus, the collation of basic definitions is a must. It is providing a barrage of perspectives, representations and interpretations. Alongside artist portrayals and explanations of the everyday, this ensures a well researched, unbiased and factual understanding of the preponderance of the commonplace in relation to contemporary art practises.
[1]OED Online."Everyday, n. and adj.".oed.com. June 2017, Oxford University Press. (Is ascertainably available from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/65342?redirectedFrom=everyday#eid[Accessed: October 24, 2017.]
[2]Bac, Les. (2015) Why Everyday Life Matters: Class, Community and Making Life Liveable .(5), SAGE, Sage Journals , Vol. 49, p. 820. [Accessed October 26, 2017]
[3]Orgad, Yariv. (2016)On wabi sabi and the aesthetics of family secrets: Reading Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.Culture and Psychology, Sage, Vol. 23, May 24 2016, pp. 52-73. [Accessed October 25, 2017]
[4]Blanchot, Maurice.Everyday Speech // 1962. Stephen Johnstone. The Everyday. London : The MIT Press, 2008, p. 42.
[5]Lefebvre, Henri. Approaches Clearing the Ground // 1961. In: Johnstone, Stephen.(2008) The Everyday, London: The MIT Press. P. 26.
[6]Ibd. P.27.
[7]Ibd.P.29.
[8]OED.oed.com. “Mundane, adj. and n.” Oxford University Press, June 2017. (is ascertainably available from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/123748?redirectedFrom=Mundane#eid. [Accessed: October 24, 2017.])
[9]OED. "notice, v".oed.com. Oxford University Press., June 2017. (Is ascertainably Available from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/128592?redirectedFrom=noticed. [Accessed: October 24, 2017.])
[10]OED. "unnoticed, adj. (and n.)".oed.com. Oxford University Press, June 2017. (Is ascertainably available from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/417523?rskey=zPi3RU&result=1#eid [Accessed: October 24, 2017.])
[11]Bac, Les. (2015) Why Everyday Life Matters: Class, Community and Making Life Liveable, SAGE, Sage Journals, Vol. 49, p. 821. [Accessed October 26, 2017]