“La Perruque” in De Certeau is that practice of getting bits of one’s own work done whilst ostensibly working for one’s employer, like for instance the secretary who spends time composing love letters rather than getting on with legitimate typing. (But does it also include the academic whose mind wanders creatively fromt the stated focus of study? Probably not. But such work is enshrined in non-ordinary practice and language and thus has the stamp of the expert about it). The Boss has to decide whether to penalise this behaviour or turn a blind eye to it. In the first of the two, the boss runs the risk of having to perform a sort of infinitesimal iteration of the practice of control to wipe out the poachers, in the process reducing her/his productivity to nil. In the second, a tacit relationship springs up between the practice and the ordered power it transgresses.

I was wondering what the internet means for things like this. Say one was a person who worked with wood. One’s incidental practice ‘la perruque’, would consist of things one could make out of scrap. The internet, on the other hand, finds new forms of mediation and new depths of mediation all the time. In the last few years one has gone from the ability to write a letter on the fly, to the possibility of trying to finish editing your movie before the lunch break.

As important as this, is the fact that a worker with access to the internet is more than ever connected to their ongoing private practices. Despite employers’ efforts to oversee access,

workers find ways to access materials pertinent to themselves that are not relevant to the job they are employed to do. Whilst this is an important problem for employers to face, it is a development of the age-old ‘perruque’ that must have been part of employment ever since there was such a thing. There have always been, ruses, tactical smugglings-in of one’s own agenda, poaching on one’s traded time. The extension concerns digital media’s tendency to embrace other media, and the character of access. One could have access to any document, and to an ongoing portfolio of materials. The secretary can now embark on a novel, not merely a letter.

This is not to say that previously, people did not join up the various aspects of their practice, but rather that the ease of carrying on an extended personal practice has been greatly augmented. The nature of our media changes the available tactics for ‘the practice of everyday life’.

Technorati Tags: reading, studio log