The invention of everyday life, by Rita Felski

1. The Invention of Everyday Life
Rita Felski
ID 501 Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design
Utku Ay

2. Rita Felski
• Professor of English at the
University of Virginia
• Editor of New Literary History
• Interests: Feminist theory,
modernity and postmodernity,
genre (especially tragedy),
comparative literature, and
cultural studies.
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

3. Everyday Life
• Key concept in cultural studies, feminism
• Important reference point for other analysis (e.g. History)
• Actually it is more than our everyday life, the life that we spend
uncounsciously
• In order to understand it different perspectives should be adopted
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

4. Everyday Life
• However, there are few deep analyzes about it. (Spesific names like
Lefebvre, Heller, Schulz etc.)
• It can be seen as an ordinary concept; but, it is measure of all things
(Guy Debord)
• No clear boundaries, difficult to identity, habitual, ordinary vs
organizing the world according to certain assumptions and criteria
• Everybody has got his/her own daily life. Billions of everday life exist.
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

5. Everday Life
• Lefebvre:
-a modern phenomenon-19th century
*depending till ancient Greece
-capitalism (industrilization) created masses
• It is; secular (no dominance of myths, magic, everyday is everyday)
democratic (everbody is an element, can do same thing)
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

6. Everyday Life
• Attached with negative, non intellectuality, grey, inauthentic,
degradation
• Some groups are associated with it;
Women, working class
• Grounded on three key factors;
-time / repetition
-space / home
-modality / habit
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

7. Repetition
• The cyclical structure of our daily routine
• Linear time (forward moving, dynamic) vs Cyclical time (little changes,
static)
• Time; not only measurement, but also a metaphore
Men; linear time / Women; cyclical time
-biologically
-repetitve works’ responsibility
-mass consumption
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

8. Repetition
• Daily life; intersection of two modes of repetition, cyclical and linear
• This is also a life maintaning system, autonomy.
• Change was subject to people’s own will, today change is being
forced. So it is also a resistance
• Everyday can not be the same
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

9. Home
• A privileged symbol in different spaces. The most related one with
routines
• Start/end point
• Protection, familiarity, warmth
• Can be seen banal or low level, unmodern
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

10. Home
• City (outside); curiousity, action, hero / home;familiar, dull, anti hero
• Women; personification of home (former home for all bodies/Freud)
• Subject to different emotions, fights, decisions
• Museum, storage, personal identitiy
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

11. Habit
• Automatic behaviors, routine, natural attitude in order to survive, get
things done in our places
• Disappearence of routines; problematic results
• Connects us to our environment
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life

12. • Every life has its own peak moments, episodes
• The attempt to systematic and continous questioning, dramatic-sudden
changes will be unrealistic
• The symbolic meaning is much more than its reality
Questions:
-What about another groups besides women?
-Change is in every second and every place
-Enlightening study of the foundation of everyday life, few perspectives
-Everyday life space: only home?
-The time for woman
-The other elements that affected daily life; beliefs, moral laws, traditions
-Controlling everyday life-possible?
ID 501 – Advanced Project Development in Industrial Design – The Invention of Everyday Life