Comrade Siri
Everyday in Times of an Uncertain or No Future
Conceptual Investigation of Architectural Cyborgs and the Banal
In collaboration with Elena Markus and Janina Sieber
2019
The narrative of Everyday has followed so far the 'either/or 'logic– an escape zone for various bottom-up resistance strategies against the upside-down reproductions of dominant ideologies. The dichotomy paradox implies Everyday as a critical concept only in opposition to (feast, routine, culture or alienated labour). Nevertheless, these are ideological constructions following the Western tradition of appropriation regarding the economy, progress or nature and consequently supporting the boundaries of class, race and gender. If so, the work with everyday resources based on polarities no longer represents the potential of the opaque terrain. That's why we suggest rethinking the notion of Everyday as 'cyborg reality' – introduced as Comrade Siri, a hybrid of bodies, technologies and social interactions. With the cyborg as 'a creature in a postgender world' (Haraway), there is a possibility to disassemble and reassemble the Everyday in a new way. Instead of reproducing 'natural' boundaries emphasising the everyday oppositions (which are no more) we want to show in our installation a concept of hybrid Everyday between animal and human, organism and machine. It's a new fiction to become reality represented in the installation by a variety of bizarre combinations, introducing the everyday economy of the posthuman era.