Combining artistic practice with teaching is not unusual for teachers in the visual arts. A dual professional practice, which can be found throughout the field of art education with art teachers in all levels of education, requires a negotiation of roles and positions on a personal level and has impact on pedagogy. However, the binary opposition of artist versus teacher fails to comprise the diversity of practices where art making and teaching are combined. Not only does identification with artist or teacher vary, so does the extent to which the two disciplines are fused, to the point where it can be called a hybrid practice when the distinction between art and teaching is no longer relevant. The democratic nature of contemporary visual art making further problematises a singular model of artist teacher practice. In order to do justice to the personal strategies artist teachers employ in balancing their dual professional roles, this thesis proposes a multifaceted concept of artist teacher practice. In this thesis, the notion of hybridity and diversity in artist teacher practice and the implications for democratic models of teaching and learning is subject to both theoretical, empirical, and artistic inquiry. The employment of different lenses enables a multi-layered approach to a complex practice. By focusing on the knowledge incorporated in the practice of two Dutch artist teachers this thesis informs how artist teacher practice relates to models of democratic teaching and learning. The miniature dioramas visually explore my own perception of democratic learning spaces and add an extra auto-ethnographic layer of understanding to artist teacher pedagogy. Central in this thesis is the notion of a pedagogical thirdspace. A spatial representation of social realities helps to create a critical understanding of human life. A thirdspace is a place in the margins between reality and ideals (Soja, 1999). When binary models of understanding are exchanged for real-life knowledge of the pedagogical practice of artist teachers an ambiguous open space emerges, where there is room for experiential learning, uncertainty, risk-taking, care, equality, inclusion, tacit experience, sensitivity, play, flexibility, and conflict. The engaged pedagogy (hooks, 1994) of artist teachers emancipates learners because of the fact that the duality of the artist teacher invites learners to join in a democratic, living model of artistic practice.

During the last three years, my practice has mainly consisted of installation works; compositions of images, texts, video, constructions, produced and found objects, drawings etcetera. This thesis serves to present an overview of my practice during these three years, to contextualize my work and work method and to discuss my future artistic intentions.

Past Interference connects the subjects of religion, spirituality and sports, through an examination of my own personal and political connections to football culture, as well as through my attempt to intervene artistically, using a strategy of conflating various historical references into the media of the National Football League. The question at the heart of this paper is what it means to be on the inside of a spectacle, specifically trying to puzzle out how one comes to know that about oneself.

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The immediate catalyst for having taken up this study was the violent outbreak of weeks of public unrest in the Paris banlieus in the wake of the shooting of young man on the run from the police on October 27 2005. The obvious inability of local municipalities and police forces to explain, let alone to anticipate the swelling discontent with a system which is generally assumed to work effectively and to benefit all has led me to the assumption that we have entered a stage where the concept of representational democracy is seriously compromised. The sheer scale or projected growth rates of urban agglomerations worldwide is certainly a strong, if not the only indicator for the radical change of ‘lived experience’ in the wake of globalized economies, politics and communication networks. If once the lack of a ‘unitary theory’ was attributed to the field of urbanism (Lefebvre, 1991 [1974]), from a contemporary point of view the range of issues and problems at stake far exceed the boundaries of any discipline in particular. Furthermore, to start the inquiry by reasserting the importance of the human condition will allow us to delve into the process of individuation, the diverse realities of individuals, their gathering in groups, their dialogue amongst each other and with their environment in its totality in order to account for the complex interrelations within a highly dynamic network of associations, since the emergence of a fully emancipated Many – as opposed to the One of the state – requires more than the flawed promise of representational democracy to act for the ‘common good,’ or ‘general will’ (Rousseau, 2009 [1762]) of all. Clearly this task is ambitious, for we have to bridge the gap between the needs, aspirations, emotions, anxieties and dreams of individuals on the one hand, and the temporal emergence of collective co-operation on the other. ‘Official’ knowledge, incorporated by endless columns of statistical data, gathered and administered meticulously thanks to the firm grip of institutionalised observation, is of little help though, for we have become increasingly conscious that the representations thereof are a poor match for the complexity of networked realities ‘on the ground’. My artistic practice conducted together with Alexandra Berlinger under the name of Tat ort is precisely aimed at looking into “matters of concern” as opposed to “matters of fact” (Latour, 2005) in order to gain a genuine insight into the workings of existing settings, where we introduce ourselves as intermediaries for the initiation of a process of active participation by means of interventional apparatuses, conceived specifically for the context in question. Our respective experience has led me to the conclusion that instead of providing alternative representations based on presumed universal identity, the full-blown heterogeneity of the multitude thrives on the general intellect and the activity of the speaker. To speak is to act, and to act is the predominant trait of political praxis. It is through our acts and deeds that we disclose ourselves in public in the presence of others (Arendt, 1998 [1958]). And it is through acting that we start anew and leave our mark in a situation the moment we intervene in the circulation of empty signifiers upon which we assign a name, the name of an event. It is through our interventional participation that we allow for novelty to emerge in time, as a process without representation and based on sustained fidelity. My research is centred around two questions: First of all, is it possible to devise an interventional apparatus (physical infrastructure) which would work independent of contextual factors, and secondly, is it possible to retain the site-specificity through a process of dynamically mapping the amalgamation of existing information and the data obtained by participants based on face to face communication in order to draw up the ‘portraits’ of existing communities beyond the scope of institutionalised representation. Emancipating the Many therefore is a statement about difference marked as intervention. This intervention requires the presence of others and the intention to act. It is the emergence of a ‘constitution of time’.

O objeto desta tese enfatiza a minha prática artística desenvolvida durante 2010 e 2012, período que freqüentei o mestrado de Poéticas Visuais da Universidade de São Paulo. A produção escrita aqui apresentada acompanhada de imagens, permite uma descrição crítica e contextualizada dos trabalhos em questão. A narração da sua linha de construção e a concepção justificada através de associações. O evento como objeto de trabalho, e ponto de partida. A vivência de algumas situações como prática, para a representação de objetos, criando intersecções de acontecimentos, períodos históricos, ou mesmo ficções (A), através de um processo de tradução em esculturas (B). Este processo de transferência de A para B contém uma série de conexões invisíveis: como réplicas de objetos, articulações de sentidos, associações, para a construção de escultura, ou de imagem. Estas peças surgiram da possibilidade de tornar material uma relação. A relação que tenho estabelecido entre dois lugares: Portugal e Brasil, os dois países onde tenho vivido nos últimos quatro anos. / a period that I attended the Master of Visual Poetics, University of Sao Paulo. The written production accompanied by images presented here, allows a contextualized and critical description of the work in question. The narration of its time line of construction and design justified through associations. The event as an object of work and starting point. Direct experience as a practice for the representation of objects, for the intersection of events, historical periods or even fictions (A), translated into sculptures (B). This transference process from A to B holds some invisible connections, such as replicas, different meanings in articulation and associations for the construction of a sculpture or image. These pieces came from the possibility of making material a relation. The relation I have established between these two places: Portugal and Brazil, the two countries I\'ve been living in for the past four years.

O objeto desta tese enfatiza a minha prática artística desenvolvida durante 2010 e 2012, período que freqüentei o mestrado de Poéticas Visuais da Universidade de São Paulo. A produção escrita aqui apresentada acompanhada de imagens, permite uma descrição crítica e contextualizada dos trabalhos em questão. A narração da sua linha de construção e a concepção justificada através de associações. O evento como objeto de trabalho, e ponto de partida. A vivência de algumas situações como prática, para a representação de objetos, criando intersecções de acontecimentos, períodos históricos, ou mesmo ficções (A), através de um processo de tradução em esculturas (B). Este processo de transferência de A para B contém uma série de conexões invisíveis: como réplicas de objetos, articulações de sentidos, associações, para a construção de escultura, ou de imagem. Estas peças surgiram da possibilidade de tornar material uma relação. A relação que tenho estabelecido entre dois lugares: Portugal e Brasil, os dois países onde tenho vivido nos últimos quatro anos. / a period that I attended the Master of Visual Poetics, University of Sao Paulo. The written production accompanied by images presented here, allows a contextualized and critical description of the work in question. The narration of its time line of construction and design justified through associations. The event as an object of work and starting point. Direct experience as a practice for the representation of objects, for the intersection of events, historical periods or even fictions (A), translated into sculptures (B). This transference process from A to B holds some invisible connections, such as replicas, different meanings in articulation and associations for the construction of a sculpture or image. These pieces came from the possibility of making material a relation. The relation I have established between these two places: Portugal and Brazil, the two countries I\'ve been living in for the past four years.

This study investigates how a choreographer, through the abstract language of contemporary dance, generates emotional states/nuances which can be recognised but at the same time allow for ambiguity in the reading of the work. This investigation was addressed through a series of performance projects, culminating in the final dance work Inhabited Space. The setting for the work, triggered by Bachelard's The Poetics of Space, became the imagined spaces of a domestic urban environment, specifically the lounge and bedroom. In order to create a work reflecting emotional states and nuances, a range of choreographic processes were explored to inform the construction of movement vocabulary, framed by performer/space/object relationships. This studio-based study with performative outcomes was supported by a hybrid methodological approach of predominantly practice-led research, incorporating aspects of action research and phenomenology. Findings and understandings emerged from reflective practice in the exegesis but were primarily embedded within the creative work itself.

This thesis explores the creative processes of intercultural performance in an Asian context, through projects undertaken with Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre, the national dance company in Hanoi. Background research to the study has enabled previously elusive research areas to be made available to English-language scholars and artists - namely, contemporary preservation of Vietnamese dance traditions and professional practice of Vietnamese dance in the đổi mới (open door policy) period. This contextual background highlights the importance of cultural specificity in intercultural performance practice, revealing insights into how and why artistic and aesthetic sensibilities shift when choreographic processes are transferred from an Australian to a Vietnamese setting. The study began with a premise of intercultural performance practice as an equitable sharing of ideas and has ended with the experience of intercultural collaboration as a transforming process, involving cultural translation to and by the local context - in this study through a process of Vietnamisation. Transformations are seen to occur via alteration of professional practices and the metamorphosis of meaning, metaphor and myth, providing substantially new readings of the original ideas. Importantly, the study points to the body as the central site of cultural difference, cultural commonalities and complex intercultural sensibilities. A dual methodology for the research combined artistic practice with theoretical reflection, resulting in a polyphonic text of written, visual and kinetic data. From the extant practice of the researcher/choreographer, a model of intercultural performance was devised which was refined as the two research projects of the pilot and case studies progressed. Reflective analysis of the model was undertaken through the framework of intercultural performance theories, parallel to the artistic practice. Throughout the research process, privileging the voices and bodies of the Vietnamese artists in both their practice and their perceptions of that practice have been fundamental to the outcomes of the study. This is the first in-depth study of contemporary professional dance practice in Vietnam and of intercultural performance practice between Australia and Vietnam.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable rise in the use of walking in artistic practice. Artists explore, map, narrate, draw, follow and procrastinate through the use of pedestrianism. This rise in an artistic output that uses the walking body has coincided with a burgeoning literature in this field; a literature that, I argue, has yet to find its feet, frequently repeating, and so depoliticising, the dominant narrative that casts walking as a strategy of resistance to the high-speed technological demands of late capitalism. Beyond its role as emancipatory gesture, I show, walking is enmeshed in histories of gender, labour, punishment, power and protest; something that a focus on the art of the 1960s and ‘70s can help to uncover. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to place the recent rise of ‘walking art’ in a specific historical context, positing that the uses of walking by artists today find the key to their legitimation in moving image and performance work of the 1960s and ‘70s. Through chapters on the work of the Judson Dance Theater (1962-7) and Trisha Brown (early 1970s), Bruce Nauman’s studio films and videos (1967-9) and Agnes Martin’s only film Gabriel (1976), I argue that these artists used walking not only to deconstruct the mediums out of which they worked (dance, sculpture, painting), but also to negotiate the wider socio-political issues of the era, from protest marching and the moon landings to much more clandestine concerns such as surveillance and controlled viewership. These chapters reveal a walking body as supported by technology, subject to self-discipline, and negotiating a new relationship with the natural world. A final chapter on Janet Cardiff’s audio walks, which she first developed in the late 1990s, makes explicit a feminist problematic, as I ask where the female body resides in a long history of male walkers, and explore the broader question of how we write the history of ‘walking art’. Via Cardiff, I reflect on the place of the 1960s and ‘70s in our historical imagination today, arguing for a more uneasy reading of the art of these decades than we have previously been used to.