The practice of everyday (virtual) life : a participatory and performative artistic enquiry

In contemporary culture, human-to-human communication is becoming mediated through digital screens and virtual communication1. Our everyday lives are now lived in and between physical and virtual spaces, in a 'hybrid space', augmented with technologies, in which individuals increasingly perform online as digital versions of themselves: avatars. As a result, 'everyday life' has become 'everyday virtual life' in which new communication practices and social behaviours emerge. This research is a critique of everyday (virtual) life. As with Michel de Certeau’s analysis of the practice of everyday life in the 1980’s, in which the day-to-day practices of human behaviour were critiqued, the increased familiarity of 'everyday virtual life' necessitates new critical questioning: How do we live online? What are the common virtual communication practices? And how can this emergent 'hybrid space' be critically questioned through a participatory performance enquiry? This is an embodied practice, in which the contributions to knowledge are gained through the action and reflection of participatory performance; each raising new critical questioning and an embodied understanding of the critique of everyday (virtual) life: specifically the communication practices and human behaviours present in the digital, which are brought to the foreground through their re-framing and reperformance in a physical space. The research is presented as a textual-visual thesis and online platform, which together reveal the context, methodology, documentation and critical analysis of a body of practice-led research carried out by the author. The reader is invited to view both alongside each other: www.thepracticeofeverydayvirtuallife.com.