Cinderfella Residency: A Proposal Skate across your newly brushed and mopped floors. Admire yourself in the mirror of your polished surfaces. Slide books off shelves without trails of dust. Create alchemy in your spick and span kitchen. Slip and slide in your newly buffed-up bath surrounded by scented candles.
Is there anything like the perfection of the household to make you feel at home in the world? Please read on for why I am suitable for this month-long adventure in domestic labour. ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ
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The process of documenting everyday life is a chief fascination of mine My record of domestic labour will be rich: I will write; I will take pictures, preferably low-fi ones with my phone (more real that way); and with my Flipcam I will record in moving images the choreography and gestures of cleaning , ZLOO XVH D V\VWHP RI Âľ&RPSDUDWLYH 'RFXPHQWDWLRQÂś HPotions and sundry affects will be recorded as sensation-data on spreadsheets; times and other factual details will be realised in micro-narratives H ELL YEAH! I am an obsessive cleaner and sorter OLNH \RX ZRXOGQÂśW EHOLHYH 2IWHQ , KDYH considered cleaning as a part-time job. Sadly my dream has never been realised Not a day goes by when I GRQÂśW think about the relationship between domestic labour and intellectual work. My Mum has made me neurotic: work naturally follows the perfection of the household ODERXU Âľ$ WLG\ KRXVH LV a WLG\ PLQGÂś WKLV PD[LP KDV PDGH ÂľQHVWLQJÂś an ultimate necessity prior to bouts of academic work. (But are thinking and writing ascetic practices?)
My record of domestic performance will weave in and out of the following themes: Cleaning is philosophical . Domestic labour anticipates hospitality. Is the welcome you extend to guests in your sparkling clean house pure and unconditional hospitality? Derrida amongst the Domestos? Cleaning is psychoanalytic. Domestic labour is about the pleasure principle even if it sometimes feels like the death drive. It separates life from death to sustain the feeling of being alive. Welcome, I have cleaned this space to allay your anxiety over bodily contamination and fear of the abject. In this house your gag reflex can relax. Cleaning is literary. FURP ÂľD FOHDQ FRQVFLHQFHÂś WKURXJK WR ÂľVZHHSLQJ LW XQGHU WKH FDUSHWÂś DQG HYHQ ÂľIURP GXVW WR GXVWÂś GRPHVWLF ODERXU LV ULFK LQ PHWDSKRUV DERXW PHWDSK\VLFV DQG psychic strategies of resistance and defence Cleaning is capital . Row after supermarket row of cleaning products and equipment all designed to do roughly the same thing cast greedy eyes on your hard-earned cash. 'RPHVWLF ODERXU PHDQV PRQH\ DQG GRHVQÂśW FDSLWDOLVP NQRZ LW +Dve I mentioned hired help...? Cleaning is the social order . Domestic labour makes way for free time. The perfection of the household holds rich rewards. Division of rights follows division of labour: class and gender follow equally in their wake Cleaning is spiritual renewal . Why ÂľVSULQJ FOHDQLQJÂś DQG QRW ÂľZLQWHU FOHDQLQJÂś" &RXOG LW EH WKDW QDWXUHÂśV UHQHZDO LV PLUURUHG E\ RXU RZQ" Yours obligingly Dr Per Silovsky