This PhD is project and theory based. The project component of my PhD, The Palace at 3 a.m. (Ordo Inversus), consists of an exhibition, i.e. a site-specific installation in the Cloister of the Alpirsbach Monastery (Black Forest, Germany). The written thesis, The Palace at 3 a.m. (Ordo Inversus). A Woodcut (Re-) Invention in Resonance with Merleau-Ponty’s ‘Chiasma’ investigates the hypothesis that my woodcut method represents a historical rediscovery of this time-honored medium as well as a new radicalization within contemporary printmaking. The investigation places a particular emphasis on self-referential conceptualization and (simultaneously) the programmatic use of the Chiasma image, which the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty reintroduced into contemporary discourse. My own artistic approach and method is, moreover, characterized by a distinctly sculptural understanding of the printmaking medium, which is the impetus for the printing block – with its outward sculptural affinity – to take on a coequal and integral role in a confrontational constellation with the print. This sculptural quality, which often tends towards expansive installations, leads to a conscious and offensive treatment of space and spaces manifested in site-specific installations. In addition, this thesis places a particular emphasis on the relationship between print and printing block, which are examined through the lens of Unity and Difference, the Loss of Unity, the Phenomenon of Mirroring, In- Betweenness, Invisibilities and Chiasma – all aspects which culminate in the installation The Palace at 3 a.m. (Ordo Inversus). In art history and its scholarly literature – there are no comparable examples in which the connection and interplay between print and printing block arises so inevitably and naturally, in a truly intrusive manner and celebrated on a formal level. This relation is not just a subservient or aesthetically free 4 interaction, but rather – nolens volens – a conditional relationship creating an integral-genealogical entanglement with one another. From the trunk section of a tree very thin leaves of wood are peeled off radially. While the wooden cylinder serves as printing block the wooden leaves become the prints. Although the relationship between print and printing block is absolutely fundamental to the woodcut medium, there is hardly any relevant literature on the subject, much less a full-fledged study or monograph. In this respect, the present thesis can also be seen as a long overdue contribution to this aesthetic and philosophical discourse. If nothing else, this PhD project should show that it is possible to breathe new life into a tradition, which is even sometimes considered passé these days, and to even make a significant contribution to a potential renaissance of the medium.

This is a practice based PhD which follows several different lines of inquiry in order to pursue the ideas and territories which the practical works themselves lead to rather than imposing a question which the practical work had to speak to. The practical works ore as much a port of the submission as the text and each chapter includes a DVD with either the work, or if it was site specific, the documentation. The text never seeks to explain the work but to expand and contextualise it. Although each chapter of the document is specific to a particular inquiry - mistranslation through subtitling, representations of the self through performance, art in public space, and artist-run exhibition initiatives, there are also threads that run throughout. Questions of identity can be read into all the work whether it be in the costumed performance or through questions about the identity of on artist or on audience within particular systems of distribution and in education. Although some of the work has been shown in a traditional gallery setting there is a concern for alternative modalities for presenting art and much of the work is situational and responsive to opportunity. This PhD is really on examination of how an artist thinks through practice and in the end I hove sought to approach areas of interest and to open up questions without too much concern for finding closure in answers.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-107). / "MIDI Gesamtkunstwerk and a Schema for Creative Design" formulates a model for creative thought and examines its impact when applied to the making of art. Use of the Schema as a system of design has propelled my work from sculpture to multimedia performance, specifically under computer control. :MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is proposed as a solution to multimedia performance as Gesamtkunstwerk, with examples from my own experience and research. The Schema for Creative Design derives from and cross-pollinates three systems: I) William Glasser's theories of perception; 2) semiotic theory as formulated by Umberto Eco and others; and 3) Lowry Burgess' "Tools for Thought." The model makes conscious use of subconscious processes to exploit them in stimulating expanded and unique creative thought. The use of MIDI to create a unique interaction between media is postulated as modem "Gesamtkunstwerk." Gesamtkunstwerk is a term associated with composer Richard Wagner's music-dramas of the 19th century. It characterized not only a performance mode, but also a philosophical orientation. This thesis considers a contemporary version of this philosophy as influenced by the changes in available media and methods of interaction. Because MIDI can interface physical objects, electronics, lighting, sound and special effects into a single score, composition and orchestration elements can be conveniently recorded, replayed, rehearsed and refmed. The data from a MIDI light board, MIDI mix board, and MIDI synthesizer are interchangeable. The artist has immediate access to sound, light, and video image. Specific intermedia control is a unique development which allows exact timing to program convincing intermedia gesture. Computer-control over the various media enables the artist to perfect performance similar to the way film is edited for maximum effect, and brings the ideal Gesamtkunstwerk - all the artforms working together toward a common expression - closer to realization. A MIDI Gesamtkunstwerk was attempted in the performance the "midicube." The MIDI-ized media performers are members of the evolving "MIDI Robot Orchestra," hybrid objects developed from preexisting items, such as toys and tools, that usually produce sounds. The sounds are underscored by hybrid digital samples. The Macintosh computer records and plays back the code to form a precise musical ensemble. MIDI Gesamtkunstwerk considers practical aspects of scored multimedia performance, proposes a computer-controlled intermedia studio and discusses the advantages and limitations of a MIDI modified system. Concepts of deconstructed forms, reconstruction via permutation and the conflicted tension of the hybrid object also figure into the realization of MIDI Gesamtkunstwerk. / by David Atherton. / M.S.V.S.

This thesis is about studio habits. Specifically, it considers what happens in practice in the artist's studio and ways in which creative acts have been visualised and disseminated. The chapters of this thesis are organised around views of the studios of four twentieth century painters: Francis Bacon (1908-1994), Lee Krasner (1909-1984), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Agnes Martin (1913-2005). Each of these artists' studio habits has been fundamental to their respective mythologies and the studios they occupied in their lifetimes have inflected discussion of their work. Drawing on critical theories of sexuality, gender and space, this thesis argues that the idea of the artist as a master continues to dominate as an explanation of art-making but that this characterisation is called into question by these four artist's specific practices in the studio. Close readings of the studio habits in these case studies, considered here as a situated negotiation between artist and studio, challenges the idea of mastery that studio-view exhibits and images tend to promote. Notions of mastery are inclined to construct practice as a paradigm between an active artist and passive studio materials and these, in turn, are apt to be read in terms of masculinity and femininity, respectively. Thus, the role of studio artist has tended to privilege a male lead. Therefore, analysing particular performances of masculinity by these artists provides a means to contest reading studio-view images as statements of mastery and the damaging and inequitable connotations this designation implies. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the recent trend to preserve studio material, or to otherwise encompass traces of practice in exhibits, films and photographs, may be correlated with theoretical shifts which took place in latter half of the twentieth century as a response to philosophical losses entailed in the critique of authority and objecthood and the rise of performance and conceptual art practices.

Early 17th-century Antwerp, despite political and religious troubles, was a thriving European art centre and home of such renowned artists as Peter Paul Rubens and other painters of his circle, like Jan Brueghel I, Frans Snyders, Anthony van Dyck and Hendrick van Balen. This interdisciplinary thesis in Technical Art History, after a general introduction to this specific art scene, looks at how specific aspects of their studio practice, such as collaborations within and outside their studios or the many copies and versions of their paintings, found manifestation in their works but also in their theoretical concepts. For this an in-depth study and examination of c.20 paintings from mainly Scottish collections (National Galleries of Scotland Edinburgh, Glasgow Museums, Hunterian Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow, Talbot Rice Gallery of the University of Edinburgh, Hopetoun House South Queensferry) was conducted, using detailed photography, multispectral imaging, tracings, dendrochronology, polarised light microscopy and SEM- EDX-analysis of paint samples in cross-sections. The technical examination and analysis, informed by art historical research, significantly aided the answering of questions regarding these paintings’ materials and techniques, as well as they helped to authenticate sometimes contested authorship and date. Four main chapters discuss Frans Snyders’ studio practice focussing on reappearing motifs, Rubens’ tronies, Jan Brueghel’s minute staffage figures in collaborative works, as well as Rubens’ and Brueghel’s painting Nature Adorned by the Graces. An own chapter critically discusses the test results of the application of Stable Lead Isotope Analysis on paint samples, which were carried out at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC).

L’impression 2.5D est une technologie à mi-chemin entre l’impression couleur traditionnelle, à laquelle elle emprunte son procédé et la qualité de reproduction des couleurs, et l’impression 3D qui crée des reliefs et des formes. Par ses qualités visuelles, elle pourrait permettre la reproduction réaliste de multiples surfaces, mais un frein s’oppose à cette perspective : les encres brillent. En modulant la rugosité des surfaces imprimées à l'échelle du micromètre, en fréquence et en amplitude, nous avons réussi à réduire et contrôler le brillant des encres. Des stratégies d'impression différentes ont été proposées et étudiées pour diminuer l’effet scintillant et permettre l’impression d’une couche couleur mate : la création d'un espace à cinq dimensions dans lequel le brillant et la couleur sont modélisés aboutit à l'uniformisation des niveaux de brillant colorés. Les protocoles d'impression développés ont ensuite été appliqués à des cas concrets issus de la conservation – restauration du patrimoine. Plusieurs exemples distincts sont présentés, qui abordent un point particulier sur lequel l’impression 2.5D est pertinente: comblement de lacune, création de répliques réalistes, intérêt de l'aspect visuel mat pour la lisibilité des œuvres. / 2.5D printing is between traditional color printing, for the process and its visual quality, and 3D printing, which makes forms and reliefs by ink superposition. Because of its properties, 2.5D printing could allow the realistic reproduction of objects and surfaces, but inks are too glossy. To reduce and control this glossy aspect of inks, we modulate the roughness of the printed layers, at the micro-scale, both in frequency and amplitude. Influence of parameters was measured, and different strategies were suggested to reduce sparkle and to allow the creation of matte colored layers: by constituting a 5D space where gloss and color are modeled, we can make gloss level of colored surfaces uniform.Several case studies form the Conservation of Cultural Heritage were considered, where 2.5D printing could help the curator, the conservator or the archivist. We studied in particular the issues of the the gap filling on an archaeological object, the realistic reproduction of surfaces, and the creation of matte objects for readability.