Urban and Visual Culture in Contemporary Iran argues that everyday life in Iran is a rich domain of social existence and cultural production. Regular patterns of everyday practice in Iran are imbued with multiple forms of expressivity that are unmarked and inconspicuous, but have remarkable critical value for a cultural study of contemporary society. Blended into the rhythms of everyday life, they create non-conformities to be lived in public in subtle ways and suggest non-confrontational modes of resistance to the established societal norms and structures.
This book focuses on such creative forces of everyday life in Iran as they are lived in space, visualised in cultural forms, and communicated through media. In its analysis of familiar everyday experiences, the book covers a wide range of ordinary practices – such as walking, driving, shopping, and doing or watching sports – and spatial conditions – such as streets, cars, rooftops, leftover spaces, shopping centres and stadiums. It also covers a variety of cultural formations: films, photography, architecture, literature, visual arts, television programmes, YouTube videos, and other online platforms. The book offers new ways of thinking about visual and urban cultures by highlighting a politics of everyday life that is conditioned on concerns over visibility and presence.