Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemConsciousness is a Technology in its Infancy: Mapping qualia via electroencephalographic improvised group performances and speculative consciousness exploration( 2020)This artistic practice based research explores the central hypothesis: consciousness is a technology in its infancy. I have employed this hypothesis as a provocation for art making and research, rather as a statement to be proven. I conducted five audiovisual electroencephalographic (EEG) improvised group performances, which engaged with qualia (essential phenomena of consciousness). In order to examine the performances and consider this research I devised a Tlonian (Borges and Hurley 1998) methodology which allows for multiple subjective viewpoints concurrently. A Tlonian perspective, I will argue, is necessary in order to incorporate the importance of qualia, rhizomia, and iteration within this project. The performance rig, all the associated software and hardware I made and assembled, and the performances were the main artistic outcomes of this practice based research project. Herein I present the videos and Pure Data (Pd) patches as the artworks of this project. Pd is an open source framework or development environment designed for building audio, visual, and interactive software programs, these programs are known within that community as patches. Pd can be downloaded freely, for a variety of operating systems from: http://puredata.info/downloads Chalmers’ The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers 1995) essentially states that science will not discover a mechanism of consciousness in the brain because this is an incorrect approach to the problem, and furthermore that qualia are essential phenomena of consciousness. The performances I produced engaged with qualia by sonifying and visualising the EEG data of the participant-performers and playing it back in real time in the performance space. In this way, the participant-performers and I, created a qualia feedback loops. Currently, there are many competing theories of consciousness among philosophers and scientists. According to Philip Goff (Goff 2019) we need a new post-materialist science to address consciousness as Galileo never intended hard science to address qualia, in fact he designed it not to. In this research I propose an approach which incorporates art & expression, and qualitative exploration as legitimate forms of research. My research highlights the need for alternative approaches which incorporate some agency on the part of the observer (participant). By considering consciousness as a technology in its infancy and attempting to embrace the unknown and explore it artistically. So we, as conscious beings, have numerous conceptions about ourselves as individuals. We also hold notions about group dynamics; the way we interrelate. I speculate that if we view consciousness as a technology it could be developed, like other technologies that have been refined over time. Thus, our notions of self and other may be more malleable than we currently think. Qualic explorations cannot follow a logical process in a traditional ‘academic’ sense. For this reason I have employed a bricolage approach, which I refer to as a tlonia. I settled upon a tlonian approach because the nature of the investigation brought together seemingly disparate elements; combining improvised performance, live biometric data, theories of mind, and theories of art. This research began with questions which led to more questions and more possibilities rather than a linear approach honed to a point. Thus, qualitative investigation suggests possibilities. I consider this practice based art research project successful because work lead to further work, rather than reaching an end point. An open edged, ever-growing jigsaw puzzle. The fragmented imagery of the pieces continued resolve as I found where each fit, and not before. I am primarily concerned with using consciousness as a medium for art making, And art making as a method of experimental investigation and exploration. How can the fruit of collaboration be articulated? The momentary spark of interaction. Through this investigation I employed various participant-performers, with different relationships to each other and their audiences. I used live data technologies and various sonification and visualisation techniques. I combined these elements together into a performance series, over a number of years, undergoing constant development via experimentation, intuition, and reiteration. There are certain aspects of human experience that cannot be held, maybe that cannot be named, but maybe they can be performed. In this research I set out to investigate some of these processes through audiovisual interactive improvised performances using live data.
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ItemHoming Away from Home: Identity Through a Transnational Cree-Métis Arts Practice( 2020)This research exemplifies the important role Indigenous art practices have within the development and maintenance of identity formation whilst practicing away from home and community. The artwork created within this research has come from experiences of carrying artistic and cultural practices from Canada to Australia. It was done as a response to the complex challenges which arise from establishing identity and cultural practices through instances of displacement. I discuss the value of working cross-culturally between various nations, and the influence it has had on my creative project. The artwork and research provide examples of how engagement with Indigenous arts practices can help foster and maintain cultural connections unaffected by geographical location or place of practice. My research culminated in six bodies of work: Ground in Stone, an installation of stones gathered across Melbourne and Canada, Spirit Threads, a hanging installation of threads embroidered with stones and seed beads, Flora, a series of seven beaded works, Bad Medicine, one-hundred hand sewn pouches, Blak Apothecary, an installation of living plants and antique apothecary bottles, and a series of photographic documentation of these works and their processes. These works have been presented as photographs in the thesis and exhibited throughout the course of the research. The creative works are related through a focus on materiality and Indigenous knowledge, particularly focusing on native plant knowledge and botanicals. Through these artworks I ask why Indigenous art is often defined as either contemporary or traditional. I reflect on these terms in relation to Western ideology and perceived notions surrounding Indigenous representation, cultural authenticity, validity, and values of Indigenous artistic practices. I contemplate ways in which I can rebuke these ideas through the use of art. I consider how other Indigenous artists and researchers are using artwork to foster identity and as a method of breaking down this possession of Indigeneity and representation. Done in calm gentleness, this work is ensnared within a duality that both challenges the violence of our colonial history which caused chaotic disruptions to be rooted throughout generations, and the celebration of the reactivation and assertion of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. (50% creative practice and 50% written dissertation).
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ItemAboriginal contemporary dance practice: embodying our ways of being, knowing and doing through dance storying( 2020)Abstract The Master of Fine Arts project embodies a practice of journeying to identify the connection between my Lama Lama Ayapathu Gugu Yalanji identity and dance practice. This is realised in a rematriating learning paradigm that enables a distinct dance lexicon and pedagogy specific to my Aboriginality, while emphasising heterogeneity with Aboriginal Contemporary dance and Aboriginal peoples. The project employs a transdisciplinary method encompassing Aboriginal worldviews, protocols and values specific to my Lama Lama Ayapathu Gugu Yalanji identity to safely navigate and negotiate Pama|Bama ways of being, knowing and doing within the academic space. This is inclusive of practice-led learning, dance cycle, storying, life writings and old ways for new ceremonies. In the cycle I learn of the social structures and socio-cultural disruption of my cultural identity to establish a social, cultural and political standpoint in the project, together with the herstory of Indigenous contemporary dance in a chronological order, including its social and political foundation, to situate myself within the Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) contemporary dance genealogy. With the knowledge I place my embodiment as an Aboriginal woman, mother and dancer central to the learning. In the project, I engage narrative, autoethnography and embodied writing techniques to create an immersive mapping of my embodiment of Country to contextualise Aboriginal contemporary dance within its artistic and cultural entirety. This is practiced through a body of creative work: four exhibits embodying my sense of belonging, and a written thesis in autoethnographic representation within a colonial ethos and practice. In this project, I learn my cultural knowledge comprises of both fluid and fixed consciousness, and Aboriginal contemporary dance is a means of expression for cultural revitalisation, healing and education. Therefore, in this practice Aboriginal contemporary dance performs as a medium for knowledge transmission within contemporary society. The connection between my Lama Lama Ayapathu Gugu Yalanji identity and Aboriginal contemporary dance is a manifestation of self-knowledge, elevating social, cultural and political perspectives of my Aboriginality.
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ItemUnlocking the Song Within: Applied process for writing collaborative songs with youth-at-risk( 2020)Songs and song-writing are an integral part of society. Positively engaging youth in the medium of music and song-writing holds significant benefits for the whole community. Youth crime, recidivism, unemployment, and disengagement from education, and consequent alienation from mainstream society within this cohort exists. Increasing numbers of youth are becoming exposed to the Victorian justice system, with record numbers of secondary education ‘dropouts’, makes these problems exacerbate. The project intends to outline a possible arts-based process for ameliorating this. The broad aims of this project are to document a song-writing process with youth-at-risk based on my practical/personal experience, and to publish the outcome for similar facilitators. This outcome is intended for those with no formal training in Music Therapy. Song-writing is well documented as having beneficial effects with youth-at-risk, though there is currently little documentation on actual processes for collaborative song-writing with youth-at-risk. This is identified as a problem, as idiosyncratic processes are normally used by facilitators, and there is a lack of knowledge sharing. By developing and publishing actual processes, new approaches may be used and then interrogated further by practitioners. In over six years of song-writing with youth-at-risk in different contexts and settings, I have found that self- expression through song-writing can help achieve a better self-worth and lead to a healthier, happier, and more productive life for the individuals I have worked with. The approach to this study is to examine relevant literature, develop a process for collaborative song-writing with participating youth-at-risk, test this process through co-writing songs with youth-at-risk, and document the co-writing activity to further develop the process. The value of this process to the participants will be assessed using questionnaires before and after the song-writing activity. The participants are youth deemed ‘at-risk’ by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and were identified through Living Music Australia.
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ItemYou, Me and Everybody Else: Explorations of self through filmmaking in the domestic setting( 2020)The self plays a central role in artistic practice, as artists have long used their work to explore conceptions of the broader human condition. In film, the temporally reflexive nature of the medium has allowed filmmakers to create a positioning of characters, sharing emotional experiences with an audience. However, to position oneself in film is perhaps less clear and more complex than that of a protagonist. This dissertation draws upon the practices of filmmakers Jonas Mekas, Max Draper, Chantal Akerman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Moyra Davey, to discuss how key elements of film, including diarism, duration and place, can inform an exploration of the subjective condition. As an accompaniment to my own moving-image artwork, You, Me and Everyone Else., the dissertation draws parallels between each artist’s use of visual techniques and my experimentations in practice, to initiate an intimate unravelling of self. I find the acceptance of the banal and the everyday through diarism and durational techniques clarify a process for examining self. Likewise, the embeddedness of these filmic techniques within the deeply personal context of my own home, emphasises the importance of place in affirming; and reinforcing, undulating and shifting notions of self. I additionally note, however, that the forces of context and place uncover deep insecurities and strong negative internal emotions greatly impacting artistic voice. Here, the subjective self emerges through elements of my personal artistic condition, that appears to exist beyond the influence of conscious structure, technique and the influence of others. While the making of a singular artwork may demonstrate hints of the self to both audience and maker, the recurrent, self-reflexive making of artworks clarifies the unseen self only to the artist. Thus, I conclude that there is no firm understanding of self navigable through techniques alone.The artwork is merely the by-product of a process that recognises that the self is as whimsical and subject to change as the forces which surround it.
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ItemMaking Cake Daddy: dramaturgies to ‘fatten’ the queer stage( 2020)This thesis examines the dramaturgical strategies used in making performance about fat identity. The research responds to fat activist performance scholar Jennifer-Scott Mobley’s (2019) call for of a ‘Fat Dramaturgy,’ and attempts to further the field by presenting unique insights and findings from within the process of making new performance work. The inquiry is framed by my dramaturgical practice, and that of the creative team, in the process of making Cake Daddy, an original stage work performed by fat- and queer-identifying artist Ross Anderson-Doherty. Given the powerful influence of queer activism and theory in consolidating and galvanising the nascent field of fat activist performance—and the queer identification and aesthetic of the Cake Daddy creative team—I address how queer performance strategies can be used to highlight the negative impact of dominant, medicalised narratives and the societal urge to pathologize fatness and, in doing so, encourage meaningful dialogue around other aspects of the lived experience of fat people: the social, cultural, political and sexual. Thus, I ask: what dramaturgical strategies can be used when making queer performance that frames and celebrates fat identity? By analysing moments of the Cake Daddy performance, I articulate how and why certain choices in composing these moments were determined in the creative process. I draw on the fields of fat studies, performance studies (dramaturgy) and queer theory, and situate the work within the wider field of fat activist performance. The thesis also offers an important and needed shift in the way fat activist performance is analysed by presenting perspectives from within the process of making it. Of particular significance, then, is my position as a practitioner-researcher embedded in the creative process.
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ItemHolding space and taking time: locating quiet resistance through artistic practice( 2020)The research considers daily rituals, tactics and actions for artistically reimagining lived experience. Using a variety of distributed, site orientated and lens-based methods, I speculate upon ways that daily routines can be utilised as forms of restoration, resistance and care. In developing the creative outcomes, presented in conjunction with a dissertation, particular notions of feminism and postconceptual methodologies are drawn upon. These contribute to the imagining of ways in which artistic gestures of holding space and taking time might suggest more mindful and empathetic engagements with the world.
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ItemTraces, fantastical futures and the crystalline( 2020)Traces, Fantastical Futures and the Crystalline employs digital modelling and analogue drawing process to propose speculative utopian architectures. The thesis examines the relationship of the creative works to the German Expressionist and Crystalline movement that arose in the early 20th Century. Key figures like the architects and artists Bruno Taut and Wenzel Hablik, envisioned crystalline cities and architectures and proposed societal transformation through the use of glass in architecture to create utopian cities and buildings. The presented multi-discipline work exploits and interrogates the interplay between the physical and non-physical and postulates a biography and abstraction of the body beyond materiality through the generative constructive art process. Drawing upon a variety of precedent strategies, the creative work ultimately presents a speculative, fantastical, crystalline architecture as a digital projection of virtual space in an actual installation.
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ItemInvestigating Mrs. Nolan: an exploration of G. C. Menotti's opera The Medium from a performer's perspective( 2020)The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the preparation of a minor role for performance, specifically that of Mrs Nolan from Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera The Medium, whilst also hoping to demonstrate that small roles both benefit from and are deserving of thorough research. This study offers contextual information on the composer, with regard to his personal and musical influences, and an outline of the synopsis and background of the opera in question. It also investigates the social, cultural and musical climate in which The Medium was written with the intention of deepening understanding of Menotti’s compositional style, with specific regard to the musical and dramatic choices he made in order to create the character Mrs Nolan. With a view to understanding how Menotti creates and develops his characters, the score of The Medium is explored both musically and textually, with reference to the Russian actor and theatre director Constantin Stanislavski’s writings regarding character development and dramatisation, and conductor and author Donald Barra’s theories on musical analysis. In conclusion, the observations and discoveries from this investigation greatly influenced the dramatic choices made in preparations for the performance of the role of Mrs Nolan, whilst also supporting the argument that even minor operatic roles are deserving of and benefit from serious consideration and preparation. As a result of this study, the author was able to create a clear image of Mrs. Nolan’s physicality, her vocal tone and colour, as well as create justifications for her intentions, actions and her personal journey throughout this dramatic event. Reviews of the resulting performances of The Medium in June 2007 for Lyric Opera Melbourne at Chapel off Chapel Theatre have been included in the Appendix.