The Art of Queering the Ordinary (SCL Works-in-Progress)

What do a canceled immoral concert, the sight of a crow eating a dove’s egg, and an eye for the strange experience of creating experimental art in Amman, Jordan, have in common? Based on fieldwork and research on activism in the art scene in Amman, Jordan, I explore how the contours of an ethical otherwise emerges through artistic work and attunement to everyday life. The cancellation of the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila in Amman, and a conversation about violence at an exhibition of photographs documenting war crimes during the invasion of Iraq show how the experience of ethical relations through art are not abstractions, but rather intense, enraging, playful and puzzling engagements with creating more space to exist within the ordinary, in direct relation to moral and social limitations. Creating synergies between phenomenological and political strands in the anthropology of ethical life, I propose renewed attention to how we understand the art of querying, and therefore also queering, ordinary life through artistic engagements with creating spaces for an ethical otherwise.