Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Sciences religieuses--Paris--École pratique des sciences religieuses, 2004. Titre de soutenance : La philosophie et la théologie de l'image artificielle dans les "Libri Carolini. / Bibliogr. p. 499-521. Index.

An expanse of research literature has confirmed that a significant percentage of women are concerned about their body size and appearance. Western cultures have emphasized that women must look good to be worthy. Media attention that alludes to the benefits of a thin, fit body exacerbates women's beliefs that they need to look a certain way to be acceptable and to fit in. How though, can the majority of women fit into a world of contrary ideals? Being strong and healthy does not absolutely mean a woman has to be model thin with conspicuous abdominal muscles and extreme body definition. In the field of art therapy, there has been no specific research to demonstrate the advantages of clay for the exploration of body-image, male or female. The research undertaken focuses on and evaluates the manner and methods in which clay can be employed as an enabling material for body-image issues with women within art therapy practice. With the help of small groups of female participants who were invited to attend sessions in my pottery to make their body-images from clay and join in discussion, I was able to explore within a safe and contained environment the ways in which clay can be utilised within an art therapy setting. None of the women who took part in the research had a diagnosis relating to body-image issues. By pursuing the methods of Participatory Action Research (PAR) for Study One I employed the fundamental features of Cycles of Reflection. The results of Study One assisted me in choosing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to further the research. In this way, I would be able to identify the most robust of themes within the dialogues of the three women who attended the individual sessions that comprised Study Two. The final results of the research point to a positive and contained means of working with clients and patients in order to provide a significant resource to help women explore and be more accepting of their bodies.

Double Bind: Splitting identity and the body as an object is a research project consisting of studio-based practice presented mainly in video installation format. This work looks at hysterical symptoms as a performance of a body’s split identity. The project draws on the Lacanian theory of Mirror Stage which proposes that the self experienced by the subject, and the image of that self (represented in a mirror-like reflection, or an image) are different to each other, and the development of self-awareness as misrecognition of one’s self. As a conspicuous example of split body, Chapter One describes how the hysterical body, in clinical and artistic representation, is dissociated into multiple selves. In Chapter Two, I discuss some examples of contemporary performance artists who use themselves as subjects, but whose bodies become objects that do not portray the self. In the final chapter I explain how, in my video work, I objectify my own body and how I assess whether this is a mode of self-portraiture. / During the course of this research, I studied a wide range of medical resources and psychoanalytical literature, much of which employed visual illustration and documentation. For example, I have drawn inspiration from Jean-Martin Charcot’s photographic documents of female hysterics whom he treated as patients at the French hospital of La Salpêtrière in the late 19th century; in particular the figure of his most famous patient, known as Augustine. My research also involved studio-based investigation, such as experimentations with the performance of my own body in video format, and the contextual study of artistic and critical texts relating to contemporary media art. / The aim of this research is to demonstrate the ways in which my video performances split the body, creating an Other within one body that can be compared with the hysterical body of a patient, like Augustine, performing for her doctor. In this condition, I perform as the subject and the object of the gaze at the same time. My self-portrait is split in this way: it creates a body double, which I misrecognise as myself. But in doing so, I am both the director and the performer of the image. This is the double bind that my video work puts me into.

Double Bind: Splitting identity and the body as an object is a research project consisting of studio-based practice presented mainly in video installation format. This work looks at hysterical symptoms as a performance of a body’s split identity. The project draws on the Lacanian theory of Mirror Stage which proposes that the self experienced by the subject, and the image of that self (represented in a mirror-like reflection, or an image) are different to each other, and the development of self-awareness as misrecognition of one’s self. As a conspicuous example of split body, Chapter One describes how the hysterical body, in clinical and artistic representation, is dissociated into multiple selves. In Chapter Two, I discuss some examples of contemporary performance artists who use themselves as subjects, but whose bodies become objects that do not portray the self. In the final chapter I explain how, in my video work, I objectify my own body and how I assess whether this is a mode of self-portraiture. / During the course of this research, I studied a wide range of medical resources and psychoanalytical literature, much of which employed visual illustration and documentation. For example, I have drawn inspiration from Jean-Martin Charcot’s photographic documents of female hysterics whom he treated as patients at the French hospital of La Salpêtrière in the late 19th century; in particular the figure of his most famous patient, known as Augustine. My research also involved studio-based investigation, such as experimentations with the performance of my own body in video format, and the contextual study of artistic and critical texts relating to contemporary media art. / The aim of this research is to demonstrate the ways in which my video performances split the body, creating an Other within one body that can be compared with the hysterical body of a patient, like Augustine, performing for her doctor. In this condition, I perform as the subject and the object of the gaze at the same time. My self-portrait is split in this way: it creates a body double, which I misrecognise as myself. But in doing so, I am both the director and the performer of the image. This is the double bind that my video work puts me into.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [331]-346).

Thesis (MA--Art and Design) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004. / Also held in print (40 leaves, col. ill., 22 x 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 704.9421 JAN)

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-290).

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-13T09:10:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Vilma Claro dos Santos.pdf: 1261089 bytes, checksum: 5f0fece0d70f8f74deb419c5429a6afd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-13T09:10:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vilma Claro dos Santos.pdf: 1261089 bytes, checksum: 5f0fece0d70f8f74deb419c5429a6afd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The subject of this thesis is the monstrous body. This topic has been addressed by authors such as Jean-Jacques Courtine (2013; 2008), who explored the difficulties faced by human beings coping with (so-called) abnormal body types. However, the main goal of the present work is to analyse how a monstrous body can lead the individual to other forms of existence, over and above the stigmas that frequently paralyse the self. Based on the discussions taken up by Antonio Negri (2007, 2003) and Barbara Szaniecki (2014), the monster and the singular characteristics of monstrosity can be viewed as triggers for political and communicational processes and not merely as physical bodies which are socially excluded. In this sense, the monstrous body can be seen as a corpusmedia constituted from its co-evolutionary relations with the environment. The main hypothesis of this thesis is that artistic creations have contributed at a fundamental level to recent changes in our understanding of the monstrous body, undercutting recurrent interpretations that placed monstrous bodies solely within the scope of the exotic and led to their consistent marginalisation as an object of study. It is not merely a question of integrating a stigmatised body into society, but of analysing the power of art to reveal alternatives to our preconceptions of how to look at and represent a body that has been excluded from society. The empirical corpus of this research is derived through dance and theatrical presentations performed mainly in the 2000s, whose performers ranged from backgrounds as immigrants, foreigners and individuals of African descent to artists with physical disabilities. Among these presentations are included works by choreographers such as Jérôme Bel, Claire Cunningham, Faustin Linyekula and the theatre companies Theater Hora and Back to Back. The relevance of this thesis lies in demonstrating how these bodies can subvert stereotypes which have been rooted for centuries in social discourse and media. This work also seeks to highlight the construction of discursive practices that recognise monstrosity when compared to normal standards but which are not confined to pre-conceived interpretations, leading to new patterns of subjective analysis / O tema desta tese é o corpo monstruoso. Ele tem sido estudado por autores, como Jean-Jacques Courtine (2013; 2008), que explicitam a dificuldade em lidar com este tipo de alteridade. No entanto, o objetivo principal da pesquisa é analisar como o corpo monstruoso pode ser acionador de outros modos de vida, para além dos estigmas que o paralisam. Ao partir da discussão proposta por Antonio Negri (2007; 2003) e Barbara Szaniecki (2014), o monstro e as singularidades monstruosas são considerados acionadores de processos comunicacionais e políticos e não apenas excluídos da sociedade. Neste sentido, considera-se o corpo monstruoso como um corpomídia constituído a partir de relações co-evolutivas com seus ambientes. A hipótese principal é que alguns processos de criação artística têm colaborado de maneira fundamental com a recente mudança de entendimento do corpo monstruoso, desestabilizando as leituras recorrentes que apenas o restringiam ao âmbito do exótico e da marginalização. Não se trata de transformar o corpo estigmatizado em um corpo inserido socialmente, mas de afirmar a potência da arte para apresentar outro modo de olhar e constituir um corpo até então excluído. O corpus empírico da pesquisa são espetáculos de dança e teatro, criados especialmente a partir dos anos 2000, que apresentam em cena artistas imigrantes, estrangeiros, negros e deficientes. Entre eles, destacam-se os trabalhos dos coreógrafos Jérôme Bel, Claire Cunningham, Faustin Linyekula e das companhias Theater Hora e Back to Back. A relevância da tese está em demonstrar como é possível lidar com estes corpos de modo a subverter estereótipos arraigados durante séculos em nosso discurso (social e midiático). Busca-se evidenciar também a construção de práticas discursivas que reconhecem a sua monstruosidade em relação aos padrões considerados normais, mas não se deixam enclausurar em leituras pré-concebidas, acionando novas redes de subjetividades

Believing that ideas about evolution and genetics are playing an increasing role in popular conceptions of who we are and what it means to be human, I sought ways to express this through my art. In particular I tried to articulate these notions through figurative sculpture. As the role of figurative sculpture in expressing current ideas about being human has declined in the West, I saw this as a challenge. It was the intent of my Masters program to reposition the sculpted body back within contemporary western cultural contexts. For an understanding of those contexts I relied heavily on my own culturally embedded experience and observations. I took as background my readings of evolutionary inspired literature and linked it with my interpretations of the genetic mythologies so prevalent in recent movies. The result was an image of contemporary humans as multifaceted, yet subservient to their genes. These genes appear to be easily manipulated and the product of technological intervention as much as, if not more than, inherited characteristics. As part of developing a sculptural form able to manifest this, I investigated some non-western traditions. I used field trips and residencies to research Buddhist and Hindu sculptures of the body and developed an interest in the spatial and conceptual relationships between those bodies. Through making figurative work in the studio, I came to realise the figures' inadequacy in expressing temporal relationships. As temporal change is a fundamental element of evolution and genetics, I needed to explore this element. The result was a number of series; groups of works that create their own context of relationships. Not all these groups use sculptures of the body but they evoke the notion of bodies, naturally or technologically hybridised, mutating, transforming, evolving and related to each other generationaly through time.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Concordia University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-151). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ66691.pdf.