Paper short abstract:

By looking at industrially produced objects, whose original functions were subverted in street protest, we aim to reflect on how the relationship with the everyday environment is transformed in the midst of a social crisis and how these reinterpretations may nest more profound changes.

Paper long abstract:

In October 2019, fueled by a collective discontent with the lifestyles and inequalities generated by the capitalist model, social protests took Chilean streets. People massively manifested demanding profound changes to the system. Known as the "Estallido social" (Social Explosion), the demonstrations paralysed an important part of the country and managed, after a few weeks of revolt, to initiate a process that will end up with a new Constitution.

These events triggered a process in which the country was re-imagined, subjectivities were re-written and also objects and the environment were heavily transformed. This study places its focus on a set of industrially produced objects, whose original functions were subverted in the streets to enable new uses and meanings. Kitchen items such as pots and ladles were used to make noise; road signs and pieces of urban furniture were re-located to block the streets; and gas cylinders were re-shaped to protect against police forces. While specialized literature generally seeks to recognize the new social forms and models that emerge from the crisis, this article aims to reflect on the ways in which the relationship with the everyday environment is transformed in the midst of a social crisis and how operations of resignification and reinterpretation may be also necessary to nest more profound changes. As such, this study seeks to characterize these operations of mutation, and from there to move towards elucidate the practical and symbolic repercussions that this new material reality has had on the social body and daily life.