Genres of Everydayness

two photographic series
2017
1st series, 6 photographs, Lambda prints, 120x90 cm
2nd series, 7 photographs, Gelatin-silver prints, 60x40 cm

The growth of the service sector and the permeation of digital technologies into our lives is transforming the types of work we perform. One of the first manifestations of these societal processes is the possibility to perform the majority of human activities in one place at a single place and at the same time. The centres of our cities are full of offices, cafés where one can see individuals crouched over the glowing screens of laptops, tablets or smartphones. It is difficult to discern what type of human activity these people are performing. Are they working? Are they taking care of pressing matters that cannot be put off regarding their family or friends? Or are they merely procrastinating, consuming music, films, television serials?

This everyday activity has become a genre phenomenon, one of the elements of the urban landscape. In it, the remains of agricultural settlements and modern parks merge with the industrial heritage of the last two centuries. At the same time most of us are comfortable lazing around within the framework of the hackneyed ideology of the 1990s. So, what is it that forces us to work on a regular basis? Probably several moral imperatives that are literally burned into our minds. They have been with us for a long time, almost since the beginning of history. Such as my own dictate: Get to work, Jirka!

photo: author’s archive, Martin Bražina and Martin Netočný