Le texte suivant est une réflexion sur la création et la théorie derrière mon projet de maitrise appelé ‘Of course I love you, the flower said’. Cette installation, basée sur la littérature classique pour enfants, est composée de plusieurs éléments dont trois cabanes distinctes et un environnement qui les entoure. Cette installation a comme but d’entièrement transformer la salle d’exposition afin de créer une possibilité d’immersion pour le visiteur. Elle est de l’ordre du fantastique et de l’imaginaire et prend son point de départ dans la dualité entre l’enfance et l’état adulte. Chaque cabane présente un diffèrent type d’art à l’intérieur, notamment un surplus de dessins, une muraille et une projection d’images virtuelles. Ainsi chaque forme d’art, l’élément de la cabane et le jardin entourant sont discutés prenant en compte comme ensemble, ils créent l’effet d’immersion désirée. / The following text is a reflection on the creation and theory behind my master’s project titled ‘Of course I love you, the flower said’. This installation, based on classic literature for children, is composed of various elements such as distinct cabins and the environment around them and aims to entirely transform the gallery space in order to create a possibility of immersion for the viewer. The installation itself is of the order of the imaginative and the fantastic and has a starting point in the child-adult duality. Each cabin features a different type of art on the inside, namely a surplus of drawings, a mural and a projected slideshow of virtual images. Hence each of these different art-forms, alongside the element of the cabin and the outside ‘garden’, are discussed with special regards to how together, they achieve the aimed for immersion.

Ce mémoire vient rendre compte du parcours qui m'a menée à l'exposition Lourd comme un cheval mort présentée dans la galerie de La Chambre Blanche. Ma recherche s'est axée sur l'ouverture des formes, des dimensions et des matériaux afin de faire évoluer l'oeuvre. Elle s'est de plus inspirée du cinéma pour exploiter les procédés de la narration à même un espace ouvert : celui de l'installation.

See file 01 / Art History, Visual Arts & Music / (M.A. (Visual Arts))

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Contemporary South African artist William Kentridge’s experimentation with the visual strategies of European modernism and nineteenth-century optical devices, particularly the fragmented figure and shadow perception, has been well documented in contemporary cultural discourse. It is, however, something for which he is often criticized. In this dissertation I will demonstrate that Kentridge’s enduring interest in European modernism and the processes of human perception are in fact inextricably linked. I will further argue that the significance of this connection resides in that they are both critical visual strategies for exploring the fragmented nature of a postmodern postcolonial subjectivity in a South African contemporary cultural context. Kentridge’s concern with the subjective nature of the construction of knowledge, of the space between seeing and knowing, memory and reality, is a central motif in his art practice and is understood to be a personal attempt to reconcile his present with the past, South Africa’s colonial history with Western history and modernism with postmodernism. Shaped by theories of altermodernity, neomodern anthropology, and the relationship between the observer and ‘the gaze’ in contemporary discourse, my dissertation will thus also argue that Kentridge’s interrogation of the fragmented nature of human subjectivity could be regarded as being ethnographic and Gothic in nature. His multi-channel video installation, I am not me, the horse is not mine (2008), will provide the key visual text for my argument, for it is in this artwork that the inseparability of these concerns are best exemplified, particularly in his experimentation with fragmentation, the Russian avant-garde and shadows. I conclude this research with a discussion of my own creative work, which is a re-imagining and critical investigation of my maternal grandfather’s archive of late eighteenth-century family silhouette portraits. As such, I interrogate notions of subjectivity, human perception and an ‘altermodern’ anthropological quest through a personal lens, in the context of the broader concerns raised by Kentridge’s work. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar William Kentridge se eksperimentering met die visuele strategieë van die Europese modernisme en negentiende-eeuse optiese toestelle, veral die gefragmenteerde figuur en skaduwee persepsie, is goed gedokumenteer in die hedendaagse kulturele debat. Dit is egter ook waarvoor hy dikwels gekritiseer word. In hierdie verhandeling sal ek aantoon dat Kentridge se volgehoue belangstelling in die Europese modernisme en die prossese van menslike waarneming onlosmaaklik aan mekaar verbind is. Ek sal verder aanvoer dat die betekenis van hierdie verband daarin geleë is dat albei krities belangrike visuele strategieë is waardeur die gefragmenteerde aard van 'n post-moderne, post-koloniale subjektiwiteit in ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse kontemporêre kulturele konteks verken kan word. Kentridge se besorgheid oor die subjektiewe aard van die konstruksie van kennis, van die ruimte tussen ‘om te sien’ en ‘om te weet’, herinneringe en die werklikheid, is ‘n sentrale motief in sy kuns. Dit word beskou as 'n persoonlike poging tot versoening tussen sy hede en die verlede, Suid-Afrika se koloniale geskiedenis en die Westerse geskiedenis, en modernisme en post-modernisme. My verhandeling is gebaseer op die teorieë van alter-moderniteit, neo-moderne-antropologie, en die verhouding tussen die waarnemer en ‘die staar na’ in kontemporêre debat. Ek neem dus ook standpunt in dat Kentridge se ontleding van die gefragmenteerde aard van die menslike subjektiwiteit beskou kan word as etnografies en Goties van aard. Sy multi-kanaal video-installasie, I am not me, the horse is not mine (2008), sal die sleutel visuele teks in my beredenering wees, aangesien dit is in hierdie kunswerk is dat die onlosmaaklikheid van hierdie verskynsels die beste beliggaam word, en veral ook in sy eksperimentering met fragmentering, die Russiese avant-garde en skaduwees. Ek sluit die navorsing af met ‘n bespreking van my eie kreatiewe werk, wat ‘n herinterpretasie en kritiese ondersoek van my grootvader aan moederskant se argief van die laat agtiende-eeu se familie silhoeët portrette. As sodanig, sal ek, in die konteks van die breë knelpunte wat in Kentridge se werk voorkom, die begrippe van subjektiwiteit, menslike waarneming en ‘n ‘alter-moderne’ antropologiese strewe deur ‘n persoonlike lens ontleed.

Digital art installation is the result of informatic materials entering gallery spaces and challenging the establishment of media forms. This thesis contends that the open, recursive and recombinatory process of looking at digital installation is in fact the result of noisy relations between information and the spatial temporal contexts of the art gallery. In order to focus on the processes of informatic materials within gallery spaces, this thesis identifies four key modulations of noise and materiality ? emergence, feedback, entropy and delay. I demonstrate how these impact on a range of recent digital installations by Australian and New Zealand artists. The lens of digital materiality shifts from an informational context into that of art history where it is found to highlight the systemic relationality of the installation. The thesis opens with a consideration of histories of media-specificity, and argues for a necessary separation of our concepts of media and materiality. This context provides a set of tools by which the remainder of the thesis investigates a range of digital material flows that are not tied to fixed media definitions. I draw on a range of theorists including Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Claude Shannon and Jack Burnham to further locate these material flows within two strands: experimental sound and information theory. This discussion forms the basis of the thesis? re-appraisal of media distinctions and highlights the complex relationship of informational materials to both sonic and visual histories. The second half of the thesis undertakes an appraisal of emergence, feedback, entropy and delay in specific works and suggests dimensionality, movement and duration as key determinants of the digital installation. These chapters demonstrate that what is at stake in digital installation is the viewer?s implicit role in the shifting relationships of digital materiality. Overall, this thesis presents a framework for emergent materiality in digital installation. I develop a theory of emergent materiality as a process specific to digital installation, and argue that digital installation is in fact a subject-forming assemblage of information-noise in which relations of dimensionality, movement and duration coalesce without cohering. And, within which gallery spaces begin to get noisy.

Digital art installation is the result of informatic materials entering gallery spaces and challenging the establishment of media forms. This thesis contends that the open, recursive and recombinatory process of looking at digital installation is in fact the result of noisy relations between information and the spatial temporal contexts of the art gallery. In order to focus on the processes of informatic materials within gallery spaces, this thesis identifies four key modulations of noise and materiality ? emergence, feedback, entropy and delay. I demonstrate how these impact on a range of recent digital installations by Australian and New Zealand artists. The lens of digital materiality shifts from an informational context into that of art history where it is found to highlight the systemic relationality of the installation. The thesis opens with a consideration of histories of media-specificity, and argues for a necessary separation of our concepts of media and materiality. This context provides a set of tools by which the remainder of the thesis investigates a range of digital material flows that are not tied to fixed media definitions. I draw on a range of theorists including Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Claude Shannon and Jack Burnham to further locate these material flows within two strands: experimental sound and information theory. This discussion forms the basis of the thesis? re-appraisal of media distinctions and highlights the complex relationship of informational materials to both sonic and visual histories. The second half of the thesis undertakes an appraisal of emergence, feedback, entropy and delay in specific works and suggests dimensionality, movement and duration as key determinants of the digital installation. These chapters demonstrate that what is at stake in digital installation is the viewer?s implicit role in the shifting relationships of digital materiality. Overall, this thesis presents a framework for emergent materiality in digital installation. I develop a theory of emergent materiality as a process specific to digital installation, and argue that digital installation is in fact a subject-forming assemblage of information-noise in which relations of dimensionality, movement and duration coalesce without cohering. And, within which gallery spaces begin to get noisy.

Digital art installation is the result of informatic materials entering gallery spaces and challenging the establishment of media forms. This thesis contends that the open, recursive and recombinatory process of looking at digital installation is in fact the result of noisy relations between information and the spatial temporal contexts of the art gallery. In order to focus on the processes of informatic materials within gallery spaces, this thesis identifies four key modulations of noise and materiality ? emergence, feedback, entropy and delay. I demonstrate how these impact on a range of recent digital installations by Australian and New Zealand artists. The lens of digital materiality shifts from an informational context into that of art history where it is found to highlight the systemic relationality of the installation. The thesis opens with a consideration of histories of media-specificity, and argues for a necessary separation of our concepts of media and materiality. This context provides a set of tools by which the remainder of the thesis investigates a range of digital material flows that are not tied to fixed media definitions. I draw on a range of theorists including Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Claude Shannon and Jack Burnham to further locate these material flows within two strands: experimental sound and information theory. This discussion forms the basis of the thesis? re-appraisal of media distinctions and highlights the complex relationship of informational materials to both sonic and visual histories. The second half of the thesis undertakes an appraisal of emergence, feedback, entropy and delay in specific works and suggests dimensionality, movement and duration as key determinants of the digital installation. These chapters demonstrate that what is at stake in digital installation is the viewer?s implicit role in the shifting relationships of digital materiality. Overall, this thesis presents a framework for emergent materiality in digital installation. I develop a theory of emergent materiality as a process specific to digital installation, and argue that digital installation is in fact a subject-forming assemblage of information-noise in which relations of dimensionality, movement and duration coalesce without cohering. And, within which gallery spaces begin to get noisy.

Digital art installation is the result of informatic materials entering gallery spaces and challenging the establishment of media forms. This thesis contends that the open, recursive and recombinatory process of looking at digital installation is in fact the result of noisy relations between information and the spatial temporal contexts of the art gallery. In order to focus on the processes of informatic materials within gallery spaces, this thesis identifies four key modulations of noise and materiality ? emergence, feedback, entropy and delay. I demonstrate how these impact on a range of recent digital installations by Australian and New Zealand artists. The lens of digital materiality shifts from an informational context into that of art history where it is found to highlight the systemic relationality of the installation. The thesis opens with a consideration of histories of media-specificity, and argues for a necessary separation of our concepts of media and materiality. This context provides a set of tools by which the remainder of the thesis investigates a range of digital material flows that are not tied to fixed media definitions. I draw on a range of theorists including Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Claude Shannon and Jack Burnham to further locate these material flows within two strands: experimental sound and information theory. This discussion forms the basis of the thesis? re-appraisal of media distinctions and highlights the complex relationship of informational materials to both sonic and visual histories. The second half of the thesis undertakes an appraisal of emergence, feedback, entropy and delay in specific works and suggests dimensionality, movement and duration as key determinants of the digital installation. These chapters demonstrate that what is at stake in digital installation is the viewer?s implicit role in the shifting relationships of digital materiality. Overall, this thesis presents a framework for emergent materiality in digital installation. I develop a theory of emergent materiality as a process specific to digital installation, and argue that digital installation is in fact a subject-forming assemblage of information-noise in which relations of dimensionality, movement and duration coalesce without cohering. And, within which gallery spaces begin to get noisy.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Otago Polytechnic, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. / Thesis typescript. Supervisors: Adrian Hall, Michele Beevors. Otago Polytechnic department: School of Art. "October 2008." Accompanied by a website of the exhibition of the author's artistic.

See file 01 / Art History, Visual Arts and Music / (M.A. (Visual Arts))