The strange potential of ordinary things

The creative component of this thesis is a novel, Ordinary Things, which explores the potential meanings of ordinary things that are typically ignored in day-to-day living, with rubber tires as the main focus. This novel has a framing narrative that follows a contemporary individual whose day-to-day life and significant life events depend on rubber tires. These episodes are reflected in framed stories related to the history of rubber tires. The critical exegesis includes discussion of some of the central themes of, and influences on, the creative work, such as the cybernetic interaction of people and things within global systems and the ethics of reading and writing with a diverse, international and historic scope. The ways form, content and style in Ordinary Things have been influenced by literary sources related to the history of rubber tires is also discussed, concentrating on the literatures of Mesoamerica, the Congo region and Japan.