Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemAcross the lineaments of figuration: posthuman subjectivities and boundary work with art( 2023-09)Abstract The twenty-first century heralds significant transformations in matters of collective, existential concern for human and nonhuman subjects. These include the processes of accelerating technological mediation, the climate crisis, social and ecological disparity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Posthumanism, in discourse with these conditions, emerges as a heterogeneous field of transdisciplinary inquiry that includes an intersection with artistic research and practice, with a corresponding diversity in how the confluence is studied, practiced, and ultimately understood. Conducted between 2016 and 2023, this thesis-only PhD project responds to this critical and creative juncture. Its primary aim is to investigate the performative process of how art works across boundaries of knowledge and across multiple modalities of practice. As part of this investigation, I seek to contribute new accounts, concepts, processes, and creations that challenge paradigms of human-centred subjectivity. To achieve this aim, I propose and then apply an overarching methodology of boundary work with art for my transdisciplinary and multimodal research. In Part I, I provide a scholarly and artistic context for this undertaking, establishing key discourses that lead the research through the field of posthumanism, the worlding work of art, posthuman subjectivity, and the thesis’s methodological framework. Two contextual chapters cover my readings of these literatures in order to arrive at the project’s aims. In Chapter 1, I address Rosi Braidotti's call to account for the specificity of art practices at a posthuman interface. I consider this through Barbara Bolt’s framework for a material performativity of art, which proposes to open creative practice to knowledges, processes and worldings beyond representationalism and the art world. I then propose my methodology in Chapter 2. This methodology of boundary work with art contextualises and defines three ethical accountabilities for performing the research and practice: first, the situating of working boundaries within transdisciplinary and partial perspectives; second, attending to posthuman subject-matters; and third, the contribution of affirmative responses. In Part II, I present the outcomes, discussion, and findings generated by applying this methodology in three key studies. Study 1: Boundary work in a posthuman virtuality explores critical concepts of virtuality, and reveals the processes by which contemporary conditions of technological mediation shape boundary work with art, which are reiterated in the following two studies. This discussion includes my analysis of the networked assembly of co-production, the enduring cyborg figure in my contributing paper "The Cyborg Endures: Towards Posthuman Figuration of Virtual Subjectivities", and a rising algorithmic subjectivity as conceptualised in my speculative fiction "Apocope in the Suture Zone.” Study 2: Artwork with avians and a multispecies invitation builds my case for an ethics of multispecies invitation; it is accompanied by the published account of multispecies artwork "Unseeing Elegy of the Tetrachromats" and attendant art-science collaborations. Study 2 reveals how the research methodology may challenge human-centred subjectivity without necessarily seeking consensus between disciplinary perspectives. Study 3: Virtual nature and posthuman wellbeing(s) consolidates my arguments for the significance of virtuality in the work of art’s world, demonstrated by propositions for biophilic design beyond human-centred understandings of both wellbeing and nature, which are mobilised in the speculative fiction "No Longer (..) Not Yet" and my art-health collaboration as documented in the paper "Virtual Nature, Inner Forest: Prospects for Immersive Virtual Nature Art and Well-Being". The figurations (outcomes) that emerge from each study expand, challenge, and enrich both scholarly knowledges and practices at an intersection of posthumanism and art. The thesis thus advances understandings on the performative process of how art works as a worlding practice, with my boundary-led methodology revealing and attending to the present epoch of collective, transformative and imperative significances of ‘the human’ in a planetary ecology of relational becoming.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableWho's Afraid of Aboriginal Art?( 2022-12)WHO’S AFRAID OF ABORIGINAL ART? investigated how intercultural curatorial models reframe and redefine narratives and understandings of Aboriginal art. Through a series of three original curated exhibition projects, this practice-led research expanded the framework through which the curation of Aboriginal art has historically been approached and/or confined. Each exhibition brought together diverse Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian visual art practices to generate profound intercultural resonances. Furthermore, each curatorial model was informed by an Indigenous worldview that acknowledges the interconnection and interdependency of life, materiality, and place. Collectively, the exhibitions form the core creative outcomes of this practice-led research and comprise 'one (&) another' (2020–22), 'In and of this place' (2021–22), and 'breathing space' (2021–22). Each exhibition deployed a different intercultural curatorial model for the presentation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian art as a means of investigating how Aboriginal art is presented and how Aboriginal artists are represented in the broader context of Australian art. This was achieved through a visual and spatial levelling of artworld hierarchies (such as those that are identity-based, geographic, and/or medium-specific) that have historically informed the selection and display of Aboriginal art. For the purposes of this practice-led research, this exegesis presents each exhibition outcome within a respective chapter – “Chapter 1: one (&) another”, “Chapter 2: In and of this place”, and “Chapter 3: breathing space”. While the exegesis presents the exhibitions sequentially, they evolved concurrently. “Chapter 1: one (&) another” presents a dual-format exhibition featuring two distinct bodies of work: a collection of brightly coloured fibre baskets by Tjanpi Desert Weavers (Aboriginal) and a series of video works by Taree Mackenzie (non-Aboriginal). By bringing Tjanpi baskets together with Mackenzie’s video works, the exhibition interrupted artworld categories and binaries to emphasise the importance of opening up curatorial engagement with Aboriginal art that moves beyond the generalised identity-based tropes. “Chapter 2: In and of this place” is focused on an online collection-based exhibition that included a series of twelve “artwork pairings” that each comprised a historical landscape painting from the Benalla Art Gallery Collection (non-Aboriginal) and a work of art by a contemporary Aboriginal artist responding to Country in varying ways. This model disrupted the hierarchical power dynamics typical within collection-based exhibitions of Australian art. “Chapter 3: breathing space” examines a group-format exhibition that featured video, sculpture, text-based work, installation, and audio by four Aboriginal artists and two non-Aboriginal artists. The exhibition interrupted hierarchical curatorial notions of expertise by considering Australian contemporary art within an Indigenous knowledge framework that understands knowledge as collective as opposed to individualistic, and that operates across time and place. This practice-led research emerged from the curatorial hesitation that often exists between works of art by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian artists in exhibitions, particularly in the context of Australian art. Each exhibition disrupted standard institutional curatorial methods of approaching, viewing, and understanding Aboriginal art. Collectively, they engaged a broader conversation about the curatorship of Australian art. As a diplomatic action in alignment with Indigenous protocols, each chapter begins with a contextual discussion that provides a synthesis of a range of curatorial histories and exhibition precedents. These initial discussions frame an in-depth curatorial reflection on each intercultural curatorial model and exhibition outcome because it is important that the reader understand my practice in the context of a lineage of curatorship of Aboriginal art and Indigenous curation.
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ItemCommitment, Courage, & Caution: On the playwriting practicability of Alain Badiou’s materialist dialectic( 2022)Drawing on Alain Badiou’s theory of the ethic of truths and objective phenomenology—part of what he calls the materialist dialectic—this thesis develops a dramaturgical practice for playwriting. This results in the active maxims of ‘commitment’, ‘courage’, and ‘caution’. To elucidate their utility, I circulate between the philosophical and the personal, the generic and the specific, and between inaesthetics and aesthetics. From my own education in what theatre and playwriting are and can be, I outline my personal history and position my own experiences within a broader socio-cultural context. I then explore Badiou’s philosophy itself, which becomes a theoretical foundation for my endeavours. I illustrate how inaesthetics and objective phenomenology serve as an intervention into my own thinking and practices. Finally, I combine the two in order to analyse others’ artistic works, as well as participate in this situation as a writer. I show how Summer of the 17th Doll by Ray Lawler operates as a foundational text to the contemporary state of Australian theatre, concluding that this situation is one saturated by the aesthetic of naturalism. I outline my journey from passive spectator to active participant of the theatre community, summarised as ‘commitment’. I then analyse the work of Sisters Grimm, in particular Summertime in the Garden of Eden, Calpurnia Descending and Lilith: The Jungle Girl. These works utilise the dominant conventions of naturalism, while also finding elements of theatre to invert through camp and queer practices, embodying the ‘for all’ nature of a truth procedure. I consider my own play that similarly undermines and relies upon conventions of naturalism, in this case linearity and time, the work For Love nor Money. In the next section, I analyse the work of Nakkiah Lui, in particular Black is the New White, to understand how to utilise naturalism as a more radical conventional form in a contemporary setting. I point to the way in which continuing within a situation demonstrates ‘courage’. I write a play that seeks to uphold these characteristics, Dirt. Finally, I examine the halting points in naturalism by studying the work of Zoey Dawson: The Unspoken Word is Joe, Conviction, and Australian Realness. I point to the limits of artistic sequences and show that, while the ‘state’ of theatre is saturated by naturalism, theatre is an infinite set of possibilities. I use this to ‘caution’ against any discourse or practice that seeks to exhaust itself in naming and evaluating every example of an artistic form. My final play, Cavemxn, accordingly incorporates elements of both naturalism and other theatrical styles. In conclusion, I articulate how my journey through contemporary playwriting culture, guided by Badiou’s philosophy, serves a practical purpose. I argue that his concept of truths provides a generic utility for an artist as an ethical framework. I illustrate the ways in which a playwright might be or become an active subject in their own specific situation — how to commit, to have courage, and be cautious.
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ItemLightning in the middle( 2021)Lightning In The Middle (LIM) Methods of Creative Practice Bon Mott acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the ancient land named Australia by Matthew Flinders from 1804 and the peoples of the Kulin Nation where Bon Mott lives and works. Bon Mott acknowledges that the land, sea, and sky were never ceded and pays deep respect to First Nations people past, present, and emerging. Lightning in the Middle (LIM) draws from transdisciplinary transformative mixed method (TTMM) research methods from a neurodiverse perspective. The creative outputs of LIM are driven by transdisciplinary processes that focus on installation activated by performance (IAP) informed by sculpture, choreography, industrial design, and performance art. Emphasis is placed on this as marginalised or misunderstood experts are integral to this research. LIM’s process driven IAP is achieved through developing and utilising transdisciplinary, transformative mixed methods (TTMM) research to produce creative outcomes. Lightning in the Middle (LIM) IAP examines gender identity by bringing together concepts from Indigenous Knowledge, astrophysics, and feminist philosophies to consider the beneficial impact of nonbinary identity on contemporary society. AC/DC songwriter Bon Scott was aware the band’s name also meant ‘bisexual’, and when a journalist asked Bon if they were the AC or the DC, Bon replied, “Neither, I’m the lightning flash in the middle.” Bon Scott embodied the role of the trickster, an archetype common in First Nations traditions of the world. To the Lakota (Lakhota Lakhota), Teton Sioux (Thithunwan) people of the northern Turtle Island (North America), the trickster is called Heyokha, a person in the community who connects with the science of lightning that engages in unconventional and contrarian behaviour. Artist Bon Mott embodies this concept through their artistic practice by departing from the normative binary approach to gender by identifying as neither man nor woman, but as lightning. The name Intergalactic Plasma comes from emerging scientific research that shows the plasma/energy we call lightning is powered by cosmic rays. Originating from supernovae (dying stars) explosions in intergalactic space, cosmic rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere and produce a runaway breakdown of quantum particles that create a pathway for lightning. As feminist philosopher and physicist Karen Barad and writer and performance artist Amrou Al-Kadhi argue, the quantum world is one filled with contradictions and non-binary states of being. LIM concluded with Intergalactic Plasma: a way back to go forward: a photographic collaboration of artists who are immersed in the performance and creation of lightning to challenge exclusive gender norms and promote inclusive social and artistic practices. Bon Mott’s collaborative portraits of these artists are featured on high-quality silk, which performs like plasma when activated by choreography and movement. By looking back to the ancient knowledge systems of Indigenous people, collaborating with queer and Indigenous communities, and researching modern astrophysics, we may consider expansive and inclusive states of being to find our own quantum pathway forward.
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ItemHeidegger's hesitations: Mise-en-scenes of unreliable narration( 2020)Modern Australian identity is impacted by historically romanticised images and narratives of the occident which in post-colonial Australia remain oddly familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. This research explores certain romanticised narratives as the question of their reliability becomes the catalyst for a collision between art, lived-experience, identity and representation. ‘Heidegger’s hesitations: Mise-en-scenes of unreliable narration’ examines this concern primarily through interrogating the effects of this collision. As a figure of substantial philosophical consequence whose ideas have significantly informed art theory, Heidegger and his Greek sojourn is pursued through the retracing as being experientially-unanalysed. If ‘retracing’ is the ‘way of the image’, what if anything, can be specifically recuperated from retracing philosopher Martin Heidegger’s 1962 sojourn across Greece that might inform art today? In the European Spring of 2017, the project of retracing followed Heidegger’s journey to Greece uncovering a series of points that provided the basis for a critique of his concept of aletheia. Tourism emerged as a practical method for exploring certain narratives. Metaphorically, tourism provided a useful image for the exploration of ideas. For the tourist, a dislocation occurs that characterises an un-belonging. It is this sense of un-belonging that is apparent in the many hesitations Heidegger recalls in his narrative account ‘Sojourns: The journey to Greece’. Both Heidegger’s sojourn and the retracing of it, are explored as mise en scenes of unreliable narration where the abjectness of each romanticisation is formed in the perceived authority of narrative imagery, asking why is it that certain narratives hold weight and are carried whilst others are jettisoned, dropped or simply forgotten?
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ItemWitnessing Virtual Realities: Mediating perspectives through Novel Technology( 2019)The historical techniques of journalism were orientated around an ideology of disinterest where the educated democratic subject would be informed and “hear both sides” – but today with new algorithmic techniques of affect management (virtual reality, VR) and discovery (social media), any such disinterest is clearly not central to how journalistic knowledge is transmitted, if it ever was. Therefore, what are the techniques of visual mediation that are appropriate to these new conditions? By locating my research with this question, I aim to use it as a conceptual basis for making artwork that positions the viewer outside the sphere of contemporary journalism looking in. Works that heighten and reveal the fallacy and contradiction of contemporary journalism practices through novel technologies to spark a critical dialogue of it
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ItemTaskscape: Caring for Migrant Materials( 2019)This practice-led research examines concepts of value in art through the materiality of domestic space, and the personal experience of a migrant. The research locates the displaced or migrant entity – be it human or non-human – as a by-product of economic conditions related to standardisation, abstraction, invisible labour and the dematerialisation of the economy. The thesis and project are centred on this question: What diverse artistic methodologies, both in the studio and in the writing, can be pursued to counter standardisation, dematerialisation and revalue invisible labour? Through several projects initiated in the studio, my artistic exploration led me to adopt the concept of rematerialisation or material correspondence as care for materials: Rematerialisation is understood here as a method for revaluation and is tightly linked with the concept of a taskscape. Taskscape – a term borrowed from the anthropologist Tim Ingold – escapes the dichotomy between labour and leisure, and the separation of land from labour. The final outcome is a mixed media installation that counters economic abstraction and standardisation, creating parallels between the conditions of fragile economies and circulating invisible bodies. The text and the installation reflect the process of material correspondence that was developed in the studio. While the writing uses academic referencing, it is not in a pure academic style. Two chapters have been written in a fictional experimental style, which helps attune the writing to my concepts of rematerialisation as care and taskscape. It also establishes a correspondence between the studio and the writing. In chapter two, I write through the voice of a devalued coin, drawing on multiple sources related to theories of value, as well as literary examples. In chapter five, an industrialised pine wood pole comments on my studio practice. My research explores geographically dispersed artistic examples that present material processes of revaluation, rather than a mere critique of value. These examples are compared to twentieth-century artworks, which are considered critical of standardised value. Drawing on affect theories, that rematerialisation (through care and attention) may offer a “reparative” process that posits an alternative, in addition to exposing economic structures. Drawing parallels between the experience of the human body and objects (both in the studio and through the writing) my practice-led research led me to coin the term “migrant material.” This term is capable of embodying the devalued coin, the pine pole, my studio materials and my own experience as a migrant.