Entkunstung is a term coined by philosopher Theodor W. Adorno to describe the disintegrating influences of mass culture on the production and reception of modern art. It characterises what he understands as the fate of art in the 20th century, the dissolution of boundaries between its media as well as between art and other cultural productions. In my thesis I discuss this process not as a fate but rather as an enabling principle of artistic production since the beginning of the 20th century. I delineate a history of Entkunstung, a history of artists who attempted to desert the field of art in reconstructing its means and materials in accordance with the popular culture of their time and its schemes of production. Starting from the productivist artistic approaches of the Russian Revolution and their understanding of art’s possible dissolution into a general characteristic of a revolutionized form of industrial labour, I proceed to discuss the practices of a group of architects, artists and critics who introduced practices of popular culture into the arts in Western Europe in the early 1950s. The London-based Independent Group’s exhibitions, discussions and works, I argue, operate as actualizations of the practices of Russian Productivism in an altered political and economic context. The figure of "actualization" (from Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project) is a central methodological principle of my project. Benjamin introduces it to critique historical narratives of progress and replace them with the notion of history in flux, a web of figures in actualization. He suggests that historical moments are never sublated within their aftermaths but reappear in unresolved and still open aspects. I consider the actualisations of Productivism in, first, the affirmation of American popular culture in the Independent Group, and second, in the "dematerialising'" practices in American Conceptual art in the 1960s. Where Production Art sought to assimilate artistic to industrial practices, and the Independent Group explored the implications of consumerist models for art production, certain Conceptual practices aimed at disassembling art into a set of practices and performed gestures, into an action in and also outside of art. The thesis seeks to assemble the fragments of a history of Entkunstung, a history of artistic models for the end of art.

When Peter Townsend was appointed editor of Studio International in November 1965 it was the longest running British art magazine, founded 1893 as The Studio by Charles Holme with editor Gleeson White. Townsend’s predecessor, GS Whittet adopted the additional International in 1964, devised to stimulate advertising. The change facilitated Townsend’s reinvention of the radical policies of its founder as a magazine for artists with an international outlook. His decision to appoint an International Advisory Committee as well as a London based Advisory Board show this commitment. Townsend’s editorial in January 1966 declares the magazine’s aim, ‘not to ape’ its ancestor, but ‘rediscover its liveliness.’ He emphasised magazine’s geographical position, poised between Europe and the US, susceptible to the influences of both and wholly committed to neither, it would be alert to what the artists themselves wanted. Townsend’s policy pioneered the magazine’s presentation of new experimental practices and art-for-the-page as well as the magazine as an alternative exhibition site and specially designed artist’s covers. The thesis gives centre stage to a British perspective on international and transatlantic dialogues from 1965- 1975, presenting case studies to show the importance of the magazine’s influence achieved through Townsend’s policy of devolving responsibility to artists and key assistant editors, Charles Harrison, John McEwen, and contributing editor Barbara Reise. Reise’s work with the Minimalists cemented their reputations in the UK. Seth Siegelaub, the innovative New York art dealer guest edited the exhibition in the July/August 1970 issue. Harrison’s support of Conceptual art led to SI May 1971, an exhibition venture with the New York Culture Center. McEwen was responsible for the Fish issue, May 1974. Peter Townsend’s papers are the only known surviving papers in the magazine’s history. They are independent of the publication and provide off- scene accounts into the commissions. Leads found in Townsend’s archive trace connections to other archives which led to interviews. In interviews and archives often it is the anecdotal story that raises circumstantial evidence giving fuel to reconsider familiar accounts.

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"Haunted Tropicality: Gothic Motifs and Melancholic Imagery toward an Aesthetics of Darkness" is a practice-based research on the language of the Gothic in an intercultural perspective, and on its application in the specific visual artistic context. The theoretical part of this dissertation focuses on an analysis of dark imagery in Thailand and how it is manifest in contemporary culture through its most representative expressions: the haunted aesthetics of urban and natural space; oral tradition; and contemporary horror cinema. Through living, narrating and representing the dark side, the peculiar imagery of Thai Gothic takes on a precise shape in which the three elements coexist and merge, each indissolubly linked to the other, all of them pervaded by a peculiar mood of melancholy. Melancholy indeed seems to be the key to access Thai Gothic and to understand a series of topics, images and feelings that repeatedly occur in approaching this theme. The exploration of the concepts of Gothic and melancholy - in their wider meanings and in a transcultural perspective - thus constitute the first chapter of this work, introducing the following three chapters devoted to space, myth and cinema, The rich lexicon of motifs resulting from the theoretical analysis of Thai Gothic has then been extrapolated, transformed, experienced and elaborated in a purely aesthetic and symbolic manner, as a tool for creating a specific visual language materializing in the artistic work that constitutes the practice part of the thesis. Employing as visual media a combination of photography, video and performance, the artwork resulting from this research - and presented in the last chapter of the work - is a reflection on the complexity of the real and unreal, on the coexistence of different layers of reality - some visible, others only guessed at - and on the idea of melancholy as ephemeral (in bodies and places), as a reversal, as a matrix of desire in the extreme loneliness of loss.

This dissertation explores the pre-Columbian occupation at Cerro Castillo, a coastal settlement in the Nepeña Valley, Peru. The study examines the site’s internal organisation as well as its relationship with regional cultural phenomena during its most important period of occupation (circa AD 600-1000). Characterising the Moche presence at the site is one of the main subjects of this investigation. Moche was one of the grandest civilisations that developed in the pre-Columbian Andes, dating from circa AD 100 to 850. Its high levels of complexity are materially expressed in the archaeological remains of urban centres, monumental temples, irrigation systems, funerary practices and fi nely made artefacts. This work builds on decades of previous research to assess the nature of Moche at Cerro Castillo questioning uni-directional approaches to cultural interaction, social complexity and the secondary role attributed to small to mid-scale communities in their own development and in the regional affairs. This investigation relies on an archaeological approach and methodology on analysis of contextual data obtained from excavations at Cerro Castillo. This information is examined within a theoretical framework that integrates and evaluates perspectives of boundaries, cultural identity and social practice. By articulating material evidence with different lines of interpretative models, this thesis demonstrates that settlements such as Cerro Castillo were not passive recipients of the agency of a stronger political entity. Alternatively, it postulates that Cerro Castillo was a competing community that experienced its most signifi cant period of development in times of profound regional transformations. Rather than a political or military imposition, Moche is seen as a belief system that dovetailed with Cerro Castillo’s growing power and economy as its inhabitants embraced the lifestyle of a worldview that brought prestige and innovative cultural features.

For many societies, the world of the dead reflects the world of the living. Studies of mortuary practices are a fundamental way for scholars to research ancient societies, rituals and belief systems. This thesis examines the transformations in funerary practices in the North-Central Andes from AD 1000 to 1799, a period covering both the Inca and Spanish colonisations. This research demonstrates how historical events, political actions and manipulation can affect the habitus of a society. By studying the ways that people treat their dead, scholars can track changes in the social and cultural practices of ancient groups. This research has a multi-disciplinary approach that combines archaeological and ethnohistorical data. It investigates the ideology related to the use of tombs, within a framework of changing social organisation. By drawing on the existing archaeological and historic reports, a unique database has been created which catalogues the tombs of the Ancash highlands in a systematic way. This includes basic formal descriptions of the tombs and analysis of their variability in order to propose specific time periods for tomb use. Archival work completed in Spain and Peru provided information about what people continued to do, or had changed, in their mortuary practices after the arrival of the Spanish and Catholicism. Archival documentation also provided details about the religious organisation and evangelisation of the region. The results demonstrate that there were no drastic changes in mortuary practices with Inca and Spanish colonialism. This would suggest that, in the Ancash highlands, changes in mortuary practices were not a priority for the Incas, who probably ruled the region indirectly through administrative centres. During Spanish colonisation, data reveals two types of behaviour, a continuity in the use of Prehispanic mortuary customs and an adoption of the new ones. Nevertheless, this dualistic practice is a more complex process, where both groups actively adapted and negotiated their cultural identities over two centuries.

When Spain gave up its colony of Spanish (now Western) Sahara in 1975, it was annexed by Morocco and Mauritania. A sixteen-year war ensued, leaving the country divided between Morocco and the Polisario Front. This unresolved conflict left indelible scars on the landscape, mainly battlescapes, made up of numerous field fortifications littered with the detritus of war, and ‘the berm’ (or ‘berms’) a succession of fortified earth and stone walls constructed by Morocco between 1980 and 1987, partitioning a formerly pastoral landscape, and excluding pro-independence Saharawis from the western four-fifths of their country. This dissertation will explore how this desert landscape has been transformed by colonialism and war, and how in some ways, the Saharawi people are actively reappropriating their land. This will be done by looking at the landscape at three levels of resolution. The broadest, or national level, will chart the growth and spread of the berms, illustrating the material extent of Moroccan colonial control, and the exclusion of Saharawis within and outside the territory. The middle, or regional level, will explore the militarisation of one settlement – Tifariti – which was fought over during the war, and which hosted a unique art festival between 2007 and 2010. The third, finer level, will look at the land art that was created as a result of the art festival, and which is now a new stratum of contemporary archaeology, overlying the extensive prehistoric archaeology evident in the region. A great number of national barriers are at this moment being raised around the globe, with countries adopting siege mentalities with their neighbours. This dissertation will explore how archaeology can apply a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing upon a variety of resources, to help us understand the contemporary phenomena of conflict and exclusion, through the unique example of Western Sahara.

Studies of social complexity increasingly recognize the role of maritime communities in the development of large sociopolitical systems. The Central Andes present an ideal region for understanding maritime aspects of ancient social complexity, due to one of the most productive sea biomasses in the world. In this study I investigate Samanco, an ancient seaside town, and its contribution to urban transformations along the North-Central coast of Peru during the mid-1st millennium BCE. I consult a theoretical framework of performance and its influence on community organization as a framework for analyzing sociopolitical development. Mapping and excavation at Samanco documented a densely occupied settlement. Materials recovered imply that ancient Samanco was a community of low status inhabitants focused on day-to-day subsistence and trade. The discovery of animal enclosures, diverse cultigens, primarily domestic ceramics, and most importantly a dense array of marine goods support the inference of an early urban town centered on food production. I argue that trade to inland residential centers of Samanco’s vast food products, likely through the aid of camelid caravans, played an important part in early urban political economy and the overall success of the community. Daily interactions, seen as culturally important performances, promoted subsistence industry as a site identity. Patios at the heart of neighborhood compounds served as venues for learning, socialization, and communal interactions which shaped and negotiated Samanco society. Neighborhood compounds were built and materialized in a way that emphasized exclusion and autonomy among various co-resident groups living in separate compounds. Limited social hierarchies were enacted through public performances inside monumental plazas. Results bring new insights into social complexity, arguing for non-state urban societies which challenge neo-evolutionary ideas of state formation. The results also advocate exploration of past ii experiences and communal interactions as a way of bringing humans back to the forefront of archaeological inquiry. This thesis also advocates approaching sites as biographies by detailing various site performances at Samanco up to the present. One example includes site re-use for tombs during the 16th century CE ascribed to a performance of ancestor veneration associated with site ruins. The thesis also analyzes contemporary engagements with Samanco’s archaeological heritage to understand how local Andean communities experience and perform with archaeological ruins. I argue that local communities conceive of sites as dangerous but also fortuitous places inseparable from the rural and mystical Andean landscape, commanding a performance of respect. Moreover, interactions with archaeological sites and the stories told about them are integral in the construction of rural mestizo identities. These results emphasize the importance of collaboration and the promotion of local knowledge in archaeological research.