A. Dewdney, P. Ride (2006) The New Media Handbook, The practices of everyday life p301-302
The Practices of everyday life
The Practices of everyday life
De Certeau build upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1930 - 2001) to define culture not as a collection of texts, artefacts and fixed structures, but as a set of practices. Culture as practice emphasised the process and operations that each of us perform on text-like structures. De Certeau shifted our attention from representations in their own right to ways in which representations are used and consumed. Representation here is taken to mean anything from a newspaper to the street layout of the city. How we negotiate our encounter with representational space, media and institutional representations, all thought of in the structuralist and semiological sense as texts to be read, constitutes the practices of everyday life. The practices of everyday life are, according to de Certeau, not simply our conditioned responses to a given order of things, but acts of creative rebellion. Consumption is not a passive act, but a two-way process of resistance, through which the consumer can gain a temporary reversal of the flow of power. The idea that each one of us, in our everyday life, in work, in leisure, in consumption, practices a set of complex tactics through which we assert power, can be applied to the new practices of online communication and the strategic power of representational space can be tactically disrupted by the user/consumer. The group Tactical Media make direct use of de Certeau's work in defining the tactical (new media) practitioner who, they argue, can 'take us beyond the rigid dichotomies that have restricted thinking in this area for so long, dichotomies such as amateur vs professional, alternative vs. mainstream, and even private vs. public' (Garcia and Lovink 2006).
This texts talks about how our everyday practices can be perceived from other angles and be applied for more creative purposes. A french scholar called Michael de Certeau is mentioned and his work mentions how our attention from representations can be shifted to how they are used and consumed. How representation can be taken to mean anything from newspapers to city layouts rather than what they may be in their own initial right. This extract also explains how the everyday has restricted ourselves. How media and institutional representation are just thought of as texts to be read, as a part of the practices in everyday life. According to de Certeau, the practices of everyday life are not simply our conditioned responses to a given order of things, but acts of creative rebellion. Even though we go through a set of practices they can be asserted. The things each of us do in everyday life can be used to be applied to new practices such as online communication.
I think that in terms of graphic design this can strongly relate to the development and experimental processes used within projects. Some graphic designers tend to work within a set formula that they have been moulded into, which can ultimately lead up to mundane work. However the routines carried out through any graphic designer's life could be applied within their creative practice. For example people could incorporate their commute into work by documenting the journey perhaps? Or even apply their thought processes used in other tasks throughout the day into their design solutions. Being able to apply new methods of creative thinking and explore mediums differently can allow for graphic design to be much more effective. I feel that more people within the graphic design industry should take more risks with their work and push the boundaries further. Design in my opinion needs to be exciting, interesting, structured, well thought out and be able to communicate with others effectively. Being more open minded in design and allowing our everyday life experiences into our creative work is something people should consider more often.
This texts talks about how our everyday practices can be perceived from other angles and be applied for more creative purposes. A french scholar called Michael de Certeau is mentioned and his work mentions how our attention from representations can be shifted to how they are used and consumed. How representation can be taken to mean anything from newspapers to city layouts rather than what they may be in their own initial right. This extract also explains how the everyday has restricted ourselves. How media and institutional representation are just thought of as texts to be read, as a part of the practices in everyday life. According to de Certeau, the practices of everyday life are not simply our conditioned responses to a given order of things, but acts of creative rebellion. Even though we go through a set of practices they can be asserted. The things each of us do in everyday life can be used to be applied to new practices such as online communication.
I think that in terms of graphic design this can strongly relate to the development and experimental processes used within projects. Some graphic designers tend to work within a set formula that they have been moulded into, which can ultimately lead up to mundane work. However the routines carried out through any graphic designer's life could be applied within their creative practice. For example people could incorporate their commute into work by documenting the journey perhaps? Or even apply their thought processes used in other tasks throughout the day into their design solutions. Being able to apply new methods of creative thinking and explore mediums differently can allow for graphic design to be much more effective. I feel that more people within the graphic design industry should take more risks with their work and push the boundaries further. Design in my opinion needs to be exciting, interesting, structured, well thought out and be able to communicate with others effectively. Being more open minded in design and allowing our everyday life experiences into our creative work is something people should consider more often.
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