Istanbul Okan University Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture

Manifest’ou 2nd International Symposium on Art and Design

March 10–12, 2026 | Istanbul Okan University, Tuzla Campus

Everyday Life: The Aesthetics and Politics of the Quotidian in Art and Design



The Manifest’ou 2nd International Art and Design Symposium, organized by Istanbul Okan University Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, will be held both in person and online. This year, under the theme “Everyday Life,” the symposium aims to open a discussion on how the everyday is addressed, represented, and transformed within the art and design disciplines of the 21st century.

Although often considered mundane, trivial, or invisible, everyday life constitutes the sphere where social structures, cultural codes, and personal experiences most intensely converge. Routines, habits, objects, and spaces extend far beyond mere functionality; they carry aesthetic, political, and cultural significance. In this sense, art and design emerge as powerful instruments that make the everyday visible, transform it, and imbue it with new meanings.

Since the second half of the twentieth century, everyday life has been a crucial site of inquiry in both social theory and artistic practice. Henri Lefebvre identified the everyday as the most invisible yet decisive domain of modern capitalist society, while the Situationist International developed strategies of creative action to subvert the mechanisms that turn individuals into passive consumers, thus transforming the quotidian into a space of resistance and invention.

Art and design, therefore, do more than represent daily life—they actively reshape it. From bringing ordinary objects into the realm of art, to turning everyday gestures into aesthetic performances, or reimagining familiar objects in terms of form, function, and meaning, these practices reveal the aesthetic, political, and cultural dimensions embedded in the everyday.

Guiding Questions

·       How is everyday life approached and critically engaged within artistic practices?

·       Can art become a method of resistance within daily routines?

·       How might the ordinary and the invisible be rendered visible through art and design?

·       In what ways can the performative dimensions of daily life—embodied in gesture and action—be articulated through art and design?

·       How can the reconfiguration of everyday objects, spaces, and practices through design contribute to cultural and social transformation?

·       Might re-examining the conventional relationships between people and spaces through design foster new perspectives in both individual and collective perception?

·       To what extent do artworks that inhabit or represent everyday life shape cultural and aesthetic values, and can such influences serve as catalysts for future artistic production?

·       Could the intersections of daily routines and artistic experience play a strategic role in fostering environmental awareness?

·       How does digitalization alter the experience of everyday life, and what implications does this shift hold for art and design practices?

The Manifest’ou 2nd International Symposium on Art and Design invites scholars, artists, and designers to engage with these and related questions. Together, we will reflect on how everyday life is represented, reimagined, and transformed within art and design in the 21st century, and what aesthetic, cultural, political, and social questions emerge from these engagements.