Abstract

In this essay, I intend to focus on De Certeau’s ideas of use as consumption, as well as his theory of play, and then to place them both in conversation with Agamben’s conception of the ‘ assolutamente improfanabile’ (hereafter ‘AI’) – the absolute impossibility of profaning. I intend to apply De Certeau’s and Agamben’s ideas to an exploration of some recent trends in the high tech market regarding the creation of goods (not commodities) to which the notion of ‘AI’ may be particularly salient. I hope to show, in contrast to Agamben’s overall deeply disillusioned analyses of late capitalism, that in such a market populated by various forms of ‘AI’ there are indeed new resources for resistance and nodes of creativity, as high tech consumers play with, and thus reconceptualize, both products and their use in terms helpfully articulated by De Certeau.