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The Everyday Always Happens to Someone Else: An attempt at practising an endotic-based art Gerry Smith Ph.D University of Edinburgh 2016 I declare that: This thesis was composed by me and is my own work It has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification Gerry Smith Edinburgh College of Art University of Edinburgh 2016 The Everyday Always Happens to Someone Else: An attempt at practising an endotic-based art This thesis is an account of my three sites-in-endotics, each project resulting in a participatory artwork: Thaw (2012), Northern Venetians (2013) and The Recollective (2015). I base these projects upon the writings of Georges Perec (1936-82). Perec saw endotics as a form of quotidian studies characterised by an internal perspective: everyday situations should be described from the vantage point of those already immersed in them, not from the position of an outsider. Hence the participatory character of these works. Through these projects, the participants explore their spatial practices as they engage in a collective writing. In this thesis I write my own spatial practice, describing my construction of the frameworks that enable the participants to tell their stories. My methodology outlines the theoretical and practical approaches I adopt, and explains my reasons for doing so. My literature review contextualises them. My case studies offer a reflective account of my practice based research. I conclude by returning to the potential usefulness of an endotic approach. Research Questions What are the ways in which I can use Perec’s endotic writings to construct a participatory art practice exploring everyday situations? Can we talk of participants as being the meaningful co-authors of an artwork? How do multilayered narratives portray the participants’ spatial practices? CONTENTS NOTES ON THE TEXT.....................................................................................4 FRONTISPIECE...............................................................................................5 PREAMBLE.....................................................................................................6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................24 Overview..............................................................................................................24 1.1 Prologue.........................................................................................................24 1.2 Three Endotic Projects.................................................................................. 25 1.3 Perec and the French Quotidian.....................................................................27 1.4 I Remember... Past Practice and Personal Motivations....................................28 1.5 The Everyday Always Happens to Someone Else.............................................33 1.6 Approaches to What?.....................................................................................33 1.7 Approached from Where?...............................................................................35 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY.......................................................................38 Overview..............................................................................................................38 2.1 Approaches to Writing....................................................................................38 2.2 Approaches to Practice...................................................................................39 2.3 The Modified Ethnography.............................................................................42 2.4 Deep Readings...............................................................................................44 2.5 Media Archaeology.........................................................................................45 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................50 Overview..............................................................................................................50 3.1 Perec’s Endotic Writings.................................................................................50 3.2 Perec and the Literature of the French Quotidian...........................................53 3.3 Art and Everyday Life.....................................................................................54 3.4 Media Archaeologies.......................................................................................58 3.5 Tactical Re-writing: Appropriation and Constraints........................................61 3.6 Music.............................................................................................................65 CHAPTER 4: THAW (CASE STUDY 1).............................................................70 Overview..............................................................................................................70 4.1 An Approach of Sorts: Thaw as Site-in-Endotics.............................................70 4.2 Anthropology and the Other...........................................................................72 1 4.3 The Booksellers..............................................................................................74 4.4 Commonplaces: The Threat to Books and Bookshops.....................................75 4.5 Thaw – An Outline..........................................................................................79 4.6 Notes on the Sound-Pieces.............................................................................80 4.6.1 Timeframe and initial pieces..................................................................80 4.6.2 Narrative lines.......................................................................................81 4.6.3 The artist as ethnographer....................................................................82 4.6.4 Concrete tracks.....................................................................................83 4.7 Remediated Forms: Noise and the Thaw e-book..............................................85 4.8 The Installations............................................................................................89 4.9 Participation..................................................................................................91 CHAPTER 5: NORTHERN VENETIANS (CASE STUDY 2)..................................95 Overview..............................................................................................................95 5.1 Introduction...................................................................................................95 5.2 Origins of Northern Venetians........................................................................95 5.3 Generation: The Framework...........................................................................97 5.4 The Webpage..................................................................................................99 5.5 Venice..........................................................................................................101 5.6 The Interrogation of the Spatial Metaphor.....................................................105 5.7 De Certeau: The Practice of Everyday Life.....................................................107 5.8 Writing the City............................................................................................110 5.9 Machines for Text Production: Hypotexts for Northern Venetians..................111 5.10 Afterwards: Another Athens........................................................................113 CHAPTER 6: THE RECOLLECTIVE (CASE STUDY 3).....................................115 Overview............................................................................................................115 6.1 Typewriters and Computers..........................................................................115 6.2 Reverting To Type: The Recollective and the Technological Regression..........118 6.3 The Recollective and Memory........................................................................123 6.4 The Writing Ball...........................................................................................126 6.4.1 Pattern poetry....................................................................................133 6.4.2 Concrete poetry..................................................................................134 6.4.3 Typewriter poems...............................................................................135 6.4.4 Codeworks.........................................................................................138 6.5 Interface: Humans and