School of Performing Arts - Theses
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Item"Dwelling" and "un-dwelling" into auto-ethno-topographic performance( 2016)In this thesis I explore questions about home through two important philosophical groupings: “dwelling” and “un-dwelling.” Tuan’s notion that place is a “pause in movement,” a “dwelling,” invites us to see migration and exile as “un-dwelling,” as a loss of home. My childhood exposure to the Chernobyl disaster and subsequent migration/exile to Australia is personal, and it creates for me a sense of displacement and the loss of my former self. Through performance practice and dissertation this research is a practical and theoretical investigation into complex ideas about home, “dwelling” (an attachment to place) and “un-dwelling” (loss) in relation to the self and others. The study engages with philosophy, geography, memory studies and environmental ethics, which open up a wider political, social and philosophical engagement, paying attention not only to the politics of place, but also to the political potential of performance. Drawing on these ideas, I propose a concept of an auto-ethno-topographic model of performance/installation and, through this model, argue that this mode of performance can be political and social. Applying qualitative, heuristic and practice-based research methodology, I theorise my use of this new mode through particular dramaturgical strategies: installation, immersion and audience participation. The relationship of the creative work to the written dissertation follows the “Research Question Model” – where both the dissertation and the performance address the research question in complementary but different ways. My creative work 4383 days of the child (December 2014) investigates how home, “dwelling” and “un-dwelling” can be “re-created” (Heddon, 2008) through live performance/installation. In the practice I attempt to create a haptic, visceral and experiential performance that can convey personal story in a powerful and resonant way, identifying and giving access to a connection between my own story and “social identity” (Tilley, 2008) and between my memories and the memories of audience members/participants.