Research
Visual and Material Everydayness
This cluster aims to decipher the profound layers of meaning behind the seemingly mundane visual and material world of everyday life. Spanning a broad spectrum from family archives and digital visual culture to artistic interventions in public space and consumption habits, we examine the impact of visual and material practices on identity, memory, and belonging. Our focus is to demonstrate that objects and images are not merely tools but active agents that construct social relationships and cultural heritage.
Digital and Platformized Everyday Life
This cluster examines how algorithms, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms reshape our daily decisions, social relationships, and cultural production. We focus on the intricate relationship between technology and the ordinary, ranging from streaming services and game cultures to data-driven living practices and the formation of digital norms. Our primary objective is to demonstrate that in the era of "platform capitalism," human-technology interaction is not merely a technical process, but a force that fundamentally transforms the politics and subjectivity of everyday life.
Memory, Affect, and Temporality
This cluster focuses on how everyday life is constructed not only within space but across layers of time and affect. We conduct research in a wide range of areas, from domestic memory practices and nostalgia culture to gender roles and the affective realms created by media. By examining how rituals and habits organize time, and how the past and future intertwine within the mundanity of the present, we aim to reveal that emotions are, in essence, social and political constructs.
Real Life Methodologies Lab
Serving as the methodological powerhouse of LAB-OR, this cluster focuses on developing innovative research methods capable of capturing the complexity of everyday life. By employing a diverse toolkit—ranging from visual and sensory ethnography to AI-mediated analysis, and from micro-documentary production to posthuman approaches—we push the boundaries of traditional academia. Our objective is not merely to collect data, but to construct new narrative forms and research languages that can integrate the scents, sounds, and affects of the field into academic knowledge.