Everyday Life Theory

I’ve been thinking about everyday life theory, lately, thanks to the book Attention Equals Life by Andrew Epstein. I have a lot of thoughts, but very little time at the moment. Too much everyday, not enough theory, is what it is right now. I have taken on too many things, but with the hope that in a few weeks, my balance, precarious though it always is, will be more or less restored.

That said, you might enjoy reading a review of the book here. I think it pairs interestingly with another book I’m enamoured by, Ordinary Affects by Kathleen Stewart. Of course, I come to this interest via blogging, still life, photography, and also poetry. Noticing, recording, hoping, adopting the stance where one is expectant, waiting for beauty, believing it can appear out of thin air. But I’m also interested in the privilege of noticing. Who gets to notice? Perhaps there’s this idea that it’s available to everyone, attention as prayer, and that noticing is a sort of superior space or stance. But it really isn’t. I like to think of myself, in some ways, as an artist of the everyday. I’m taking photographs, taking notes, I’m blogging, posting on Instagram. But just owning a fancy camera, having a computer to do all the rest, having a vase of flowers to capture, these all say a lot about my social status. My everyday life is not everyone’s everyday life. I think a good question to ask oneself is what is everyday life? what is ordinary? who is left out?