Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemBeing scripted( 2012)This thesis examines the role of materiality and site-specificity in generating performancebased film work. In focus, is how the body can be scripted, prompted, or instructed by thephysical characteristics of objects and spaces that it encounters. Historical and contemporaryvideo art and filmmaking practices are surveyed bringing into question the parameters of“object” and “performance” shaped through the medium of film. This paper and the creativework that has subsequently developed, considers the potential of film, to facilitate performancethrough its embodied sense of time and durational framing.This thesis is separated into three sections, which examine the foundations and outcomes of myproject with reference to creative practices that have influenced and shaped my understandingof the dynamic nature between performance and film. The first section identifies with myrelationship to sculptural practice, and works to unpack the elements of this discourse withreference to objects, space and the performing body. The second section revolves around“repetition” as a generative force within the context of performance. Practices and texts areexamined that illustrate the relationship between actions and futile outcomes. The final sectionof this paper focuses on the impact of specific cinematic practices, which have played a seminalrole in the development of my conceptual and technical relationship to performance and themoving image. This thesis is separated into three sections, which examine the foundations and outcomes of my project with reference to creative practices that have influenced and shaped my understanding of the dynamic nature between performance and film. The first section identifies with my relationship to sculptural practice, and works to unpack the elements of this discourse with reference to objects, space and the performing body. The second section revolves around “repetition” as a generative force within the context of performance. Practices and texts are examined that illustrate the relationship between actions and futile outcomes. The final section of this paper focuses on the impact of specific cinematic practices, which have played a seminal role in the development of my conceptual and technical relationship to performance and the moving image.
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ItemFolio of compositions( 2012)The selection of works presented here represents an attempt to refine and give direction to my artistic aesthetic through the exploration and synthesis of some ideas and approaches that have interested me for some years. The works consist of a set of three sonatas and two orchestral movements. (From introduction)
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ItemDe-trivialising music torture as torture-lite( 2012)Music torture is an important interdisciplinary issue in need of great research, particularly in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001. It is an issue that ties into the broader context of torture, a topic of heated debate in the US-led “War on Terror”. Arising from this debate is the concept of “torture-lite”, a term that has emerged within political, social and academic discourse. Although using music as torture is not a new phenomenon, its importance as a research topic is heightened within the current political and social climate sensitive to the ethics of torture. Such sensitivities have resulted in certain interrogation methods, one of which is music torture, being loosely categorised as torture-lite. However, this categorisation is fraught with misconceived ideas on the relationship between sound and body, and mitigates the destructive potential of music torture. Thus, I am arguing that music torture is not torture-lite, as the term “torture-lite” trivialises the severity of music torture and favours the continuation of its use.
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ItemWhat's wrong with your voice?( 2012)The research component of my project investigates voice as a vehicle of meaning and voice as an aesthetic material but also an understanding of voice as an object, as a lever of thought. The main impetus of the paper is how the voice operates after death and the consideration of reattaching my disembodied voice to my dead body in the future event. The works of John Cage, Samuel Beckett, On Kawara and Mutlu Çerkez (among others) inform my current investigations into the position of voice. Situating the voice as a material within a sculpture and spatial practice, my project investigates the voice as it stands between body and language, between subject and other: afterall it is the sound of the voice that will remain as a trace and resonate our absence.
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ItemThe portrait as parasite - imaging the dispersal of self within network culture: strategies of convergence, contamination and representation within contemporary painting practice( 2012)The Portrait as Parasite examines the social, material and psychological conditions specific to the rise of ubiquitous computing and the integration of everyday life into vast and powerful technological networks. The conceptual figure of the parasite is explored through the social, economic and theoretical model of the network in relation to portraiture within the expanded field of contemporary painting practice. The research-subject area deals with new technologies and types of image construction in relation to the practice of painting and dissemination of self within the network. The creative work developed and presented for final examination for the Portrait as Parasite takes the form of large-scale digital images as well as paintings. The project explores ‘network culture’, a term used to describe aesthetic and socio-technical elements of new media and computing and apply them to contemporary painting as a means of conceptualizing the portrait genre. Painting practice is examined in relation to new modes of distribution and conditions of transience bought about by the conditions of network culture. The synchronic triangulation of painting, photography and new media are unpacked in parallel with conceptual concerns regarding the breakdown of boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds. The concept of the parasite provides a model for thinking indeterminacy and communication as positioned between binary oppositions. The research paper explicates how parasitic artistic strategies are utilized in the production of the creative works in order to bring to light the impact of new technologies upon the creation and distribution of art and the construction of self within the web. Issues relating to the imaging of self within a virtual dimension are considered through post-structuralist conceptions of subjectivity. Human and machinic subjectivity are positioned in relation to the investment of human cognition and emotion in increasingly organic technological structures. Algorithm and the increased use of automated guidance within online arenas are reflected through artistic process and the articulation of the portrait subject.
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ItemHurdy-gurdy: contemporary destinations( 2012)The aim of this dissertation is to bring the fact of presence of a relatively unknown musical instrument – the hurdy-gurdy – to reader’s attention while focusing on the musicality of the instrument and its constant evolution throughout the history to modern times. The hurdy-gurdy is often considered a musical oddity – a novelty – often misunderstood due to its inaccurate etymology and – oddly enough – suffering a stigma of marginalisation which originated from outdated social class divisions throughout our history of culture. Those who decided to uncover the true past of the instrument often had to confront problems of a logistic or economic nature – e.g. the hurdy-gurdy is not easy to acquire, to build or to purchase. Those conditions though lead to the creation of a special bond with the instrument, which I as a composer, researcher and hurdy-gurdy player, find unique and very rewarding; a bond which I could not successfully form with any popular and widely available musical instrument. While enthusiasm and dedication is necessary to become a competent player, the appreciation of the past of the hurdy-gurdy is very satisfying and inspirational adventure taking aspiring players through the sounds and musical idioms which are not easily found in popular streams originating from past three centuries of popularized tradition. By presenting the current status quo of this instrument, I am aiming at delivering an accessible compendium of information and insight into the plethora of potential musical application for the hurdy-gurdy, – with respect to currently available instruments, performed and recorded music and areas for further experimentation and development. In doing so, I decided to utilise descriptive analyses of samples of existing music representing different artistic approach to the instrument; interviews with selected players and makers and my own personal experience with technical aspects of the hurdy-gurdy. Knowing the instrument without hearing its traditional oeuvre and playing it for the first time without knowing ‘what to play’ is probably one of the most important moments in one’s own discovery of a new world of sounds. While the chronological brief included in this work addresses a wide historical scope, the main objective is to present the hurdy-gurdy as an able and adequate instrument for music students today, amateur and professional performers and enthusiasts alike, as well as for musicologists. The chapters discussing technical solutions allowing the hurdy-gurdy to be adequately incorporated into contemporary styles of music and its idioms require an intermediate level of understanding of musical terminology and physical aspects of sound-production, conductivity of the sound waves and a basic level of knowledge on instrument maintenance and handling. A certain level of knowledge on electrification, amplification, recording and MIDI equipment is advised yet not critical for an understanding of this dissertation. The existing knowledge about the instrument suffers from inadequacies in its scope – historical treaties are lacking musical application for contemporary player and many modern-day enthusiasts of the instrument are often limited in perceiving their instrument as a passable tool for contemporary improvisation and musical experiments. I therefore believe that this dissertation will encapsulate the majority of the aspects of the instrument and shed a wider light on its presence in musical culture.
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Item“Without the room to roam we are but contained”( 2012)“Without the room to roam we are but contained” is an investigation into why the body travels between the security of one place, and on to foreign ‘unknown’ spaces. This research has been achieved through my direct experience of places with high public circulation: the airport and the hotel room, in countries such as Japan and India. My observations about Nomadic movement in these surroundings were reinforced by this ‘Neu Nomad’s’ reading list of classic literature. This included Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Rimbaud and Jack Kerouac, to name but a few. Further research on the spatial philosophies of Henri Bergson and Yi Fu Tuan has been contrasted with a personalised spatial ethos. In order to visualise themes of Nomadism and connection to place, I created temporary studio sites in selected overseas locations. This study addresses the notion that ‘the spaces in between’: breaks in dialogue, the halts within space and missed connections, are the key factors in a Nomadic existence. These are the things that provide us with opportunities to roam in ‘duration’ beyond containment.
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ItemEmbodied practice, experience and intuition( 2012)This thesis presents an account of the means by which I have attempted to overcome a time of major crisis for me as an artist where I have not enjoyed ‘the making’ aspect of my practice. Practice has led me to this research, and it is imperative that research revitalizes and rejuvenates my practice in turn. Three kinds of movement guide the direction of this analysis. Firstly: rehabilitative exercises as an extension and continuation of my ‘making’ practice. Secondly: pedalling a bicycle as a conceptual model for a sustainable practice where ‘the thinking and the making coax each other into being.’ Thirdly: standstill, in which my studio practice becomes concerned with the particularity of this time, when the artist, ‘despite the urgency of the situation … [is] haunted by the question, one worth of the idiot: we [artists], what are we?’ These movements in turn propel discussion in the four subsequent chapters: the framing of embodied practice, the harnessing of the potential of experience, the philosophical critiques of the position given to the artist in the production of the readymade, and the notions of abstraction, relation and intuition and their role in material practices. Through examining writings by Gilles Deleuze, Elizabeth Grosz, Boris Groys, Agnes Martin and Isabelle Stengers and others, as well as other modes of production such as cooking and football, this thesis explores my approaches to my ‘making’ body’s state of crisis and how new ways of generating movement may become possible for that body. This thesis is accompanied by a presentation of a body of artistic work comprising of a sculptural installation titled Enquiry on Porosity.
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ItemIn the realm of phobia: exploring the duration of repetitive schizogenesis and ambiguous morphs( 2012)This research explores the ‘in-between’ as a field of encounter, collision, penetration and fission in visual art practice. I accommodate my own phobia and its power as the main discourse to traverse the gap between the conscious and the unconscious, and to retrieve latent memories along with emotions and sensations. By examining how fear influences me, and triggers paranormal phenomena in perception, I acknowledge fear as a predominant impulse in making art for it constantly reaffirms its significance within my work. I have referred to Freud and Jung’s ideas about the function and meaning of dreams in order to adequately inform my metaphysical and psychoanalytic approaches to investigating the ambiguous mind, thought processes and the recursive nature of fear. I have drawn on discourses by Bergson and Deleuze for my commentary around transitioning between psychical and physical manifestations of fear. This is followed by an exploration of Kristeva’s theory of the abject to highlight the subversive terrain of the ‘in-between’. Thus as a metaphor for unnameable frailty or want, which is to be faced and overturned, then acknowledged in its indispensability, I spit out my own phobia through the process of spontaneous thinking, making and becoming. My thesis accompanies a set of drawings that are made with combination of unassuming and conflicting materials; charcoal, shellac, paper and aluminium, in order to achieve unusual or unexpected phenomena that perturb mundane thoughts. Through the repetitive process of (de)activating the materials’ natural properties, I ultimately experience a contemplative state of mind that embraces transcendental memories. In this arena I explore the possibility of art making as a pathway to understanding the self. I have gained a deeper understanding about my practical processes in the studio, and the prevailing psyche that motivates, drives and informs my art. Hence, this research has allowed me to explore what has been overlooked in the continuum of my daily life, and to revisit things that were sacrificed over the course of obedience to social or cultural standards, values and conventions. Furthermore, my investigation around the process orientated approach to creative work has reassured me of the liberating force and cathartic potential of making art.
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ItemAestheticised violence: images of distant suffering( 2012)These images are the icons of the contemporary political theology that dominates our collective imagination. These images draw their power, their persuasiveness from a very effective form of moral blackmail. After so many decades of modern and postmodern criticism of the image, of mimesis, of the representation, we feel ourselves somewhat ashamed by saying that such images of terror or torture are not true, not real (Grois 2008, p. 125). This thesis is an exploration and questioning of the aestheticisation of violent imagery. It examines the structure of ‘issue’ and ‘response ‘as a way of tracking the image from the event to its representation. It is the image that is documented, and paid for by suffering. The uneasy truth is that these images are real and discussed from a distance, which I join, as a stranger looking at another stranger’s suffering. The first part of the thesis, Issues, explores the image connected to suffering and possible overuse in popular culture. A predominant concern is that the habitual looking perhaps causes responses of otherness and alienation. With empathy to distant suffering linked to technology, proximity and lack of context the image, the case studies in this thesis deal with possible latencies in the communication of trauma. The second part of the thesis examines social responses of avocation, activism, denial and responsibility. The emotional and cognitive responses are analysed via mainstream media representation and the reciprocal relationship to images of suffering in art. Theorising the influence of aestheticisation to an image, I question if it is enough to promote a deeper understanding or if it only provokes a shallow, detached, habitual response. My Masters project, discussed in the final chapter, was built upon disparate violence to flatten the images, by removing distance and sub-context. photographic images. Employing my own distancing techniques, I used aestheticization, stylis I consider the presentation of the aestheticisation of violence as a way to engage, represent and retell through art by invented language, exchange and voice. The collage narrative of global news, photography and personal history allowed my Masters project to exaggerate moral and physical distance. Represented in the form of Stop Animation and Works on Paper, the fragments of fact and fiction facilitated otherworldly perspectives. I have hypothesised the viewer’s imagination from the function of photography, as an act to the photographer’s intention. Through the meditations of Vilém Flusser (2000), I recognise the camera as a tool becoming a kind of human apparatus to produce an image as a piece of culture flattening or obscuring reality. The bewildering ‘normalising’ of imagery comes from a habit of looking, allowing misinterpretation and juxtaposition to manifest a kind of ‘disturbance’ visualisation. I delve into the uneasiness I felt while correlating material for this research.