This thesis focuses on the contextualization of my artistic practice, which explores digital glitch as a disruptive force and an aesthetic treatment in the contemporary technological world. While the body of work draws on the methodology of glitch art, this paper attempts to relate the idea of glitch to a wider range of philosophical and artistic frameworks stemming from Lettrism, Situationist International, Punk, and Nihilism. The aim of this investigation of a digital disturbance through its categorization into natural, stimulated and assimilated glitch, is to facilitate an understanding of the glitch event as both something threatening and attractive, while it transitions from a spontaneous to a controlled process in a photoreal image. The passing of the destructive glitch from life to art is placed against the backdrop of the apocalypse, which one may imagine as a literal and metaphorical disaster in the physical world and value systems of western society. / vii, 113 leaves ; col. ill. ; 29 cm

This dissertation explores the aesthetics of contemporary Indigenous identity— its various manifestations, simulations, hybridizations, (dis)appearances, and liminalities. It is a project about the lived experience of ancestry conceived of through narratives of shapeshifting, virtuality, sacrifice, hauntings and possession. This project is representative of a period of time in an on-going journey that began long before these first words were written…and one that I intend will continue long after this book’s completion. The methodological approach to this work is multifaceted, encompassing the fields of Indigenous philosophy, digital media art and cultural studies. It is a project comprised of several interrelated strands of theoretical speculation, philosophical inquiry and creative engagement. This dissertation is in many ways an autobiographical text—a meditation on my own Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) heritage and the spaces I occupy in the world as Onkwehonwe (an Indigenous person). At its core it is about exploring different modes of engagement with my own ancestral ‘territories’, while at the same time it endeavors to ask larger questions about collective memory, community, and cultural inheritance. In being representative of a journey, the interrelated strands of writings in this text are meant to be traversal, and are about surveying and mapping different intellectual and creative territories. This text is about crossing interdisciplinary zones of theoretical inquiry that occur at the intersection and hybridization of Indigenous and Western philosophies, contemporary First Nations performance art and post-structuralist theory. It is a work comprised of ebbs and flows, movements, refrains, and cascades of articulation that interpenetrate and cross over into one another. This text is therefore best thought of as a series of theoretical passageways—a multiplicity of thoughts and critical engagements in motion, translation and conversion. It must be said that the traversals and crossings in this text are not necessarily about establishing a synthesis between differing ideologies, philosophies or cosmologies. It is not intended to be dichotomous, but rather should be read as a remix-theory that passes in-between different fields of critical inquiry. For while on the one hand this text seeks to explore different zones of intellectual and creative proximity, it is also a work that emerges from within a multitude of contradictions and myriad incommensurabilities. / Graduate

How interactive new media art can effectively communicate an indigenous philosophical concept. The sophistication and complexity of the philosophical concept concerning relationships between land and people and between people, intrinsic to the laws and customs of Australian Indigenous society, has begun to be communicated and accessed beyond the realm of anthropological and ethnological domains of Western scholarship. The exciting scope and rapid development of new media arts presents an innovative means of creating an interactive relationship with the general Australian public, addressing the urgent need for an understanding of Indigenous Australian concepts of relationship to land, and to each other, absent from Western narratives. The study is framed by an Indigenous concept of place, and relationships between land and people and between people; and explores how this concept can be clearly communicated through interactive new media arts. It involves: a creative project, the development of an interactive new media art project, a website work-in-progress titled site\sight\cite; and an exegesis, a Novella of Ideas, on the origins, influences, objectives, and potential of creative practices and processes engaged in the creative project. Research undertaken for the creative project and exegesis extended my creative practice into the use of interdisciplinary arts, expressly for the expression of philosophical concepts, consolidating 23 years experience in Indigenous community arts development. The creative project and exegesis contributes to an existing body of Indigenous work in a range of areas - including education, the arts and humanities - which bridges old and new society in Australia. In this study, old and new society is defined by the time of the initial production of art and foundations of knowledge, in the country of its origins, in Indigenous Australia dating back at least 40,000 years.

The thesis examines the role that Australian graphic satirists play in the theatre of public life. The main focus of the thesis is on newspaper cartoonists but for the purposes of comparative analysis, there is a discussion of a representative selection of satiric texts across different media (essentially, television and radio) since the mid-1960s, and also an historical survey of the development of graphic satire from its origins during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Apart from a small number of references, this study does not venture into the vast field of on-line satire, a topic more properly addressed in a separate scholarly investigation. Graphic satire in the medium of the newspaper is of particular interest because of its consistent production and wide circulation, its relative freedom from censorship and libel laws, and the ability of the cartoon image to condense and concentrate issues which would be too complex or defamatory in print or on television. Political cartooning as it is understood today emerged during the early nineteenth century, at about the same time as the modern newspaper and the profession of journalism, but graphic satire also has links with a venerable tradition of the artist as social critic and has historically been associated with movements for social justice and democracy. It is in the context of these latter associations that I consider political cartoonists as belonging to the sphere of the public intellectual. The discussion of cartoonists as public intellectuals is framed against a discourse of decline that has been circulating for more than a decade, acquiring an urgency in this country during the later years of the Howard administration. This declinist narrative covers a number of areas of cultural and political life and is not confined to the Australian context; as British writer Helen Small points out, it is “an increasingly transnational conversation” (02:1). Briefly outlined, there is a perception that the terms of public debate have narrowed; that citizens have become disengaged from the democratic process; that between the ‘celebrity intellectual’ and the tenured academic, the life of the mind is not what it used to be, and even political satire itself has been seen by some commentators as being in terminal decline. The different arguments about cultural and social decline can be placed under the more encompassing subject heading of an ongoing debate about democracy and in particular, whether it is functioning as well as it should. With the adoption of neo-liberalism as an overarching political ideology by most western governments in the early 1980s, anxieties about whether the principles of democracy were gradually being usurped or even eroded by the primacy of market values have gathered momentum during the past two decades. The volume of these concerns has been amplified in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent ‘war on terror’, with the state’s increased emphasis on security and control of its citizens being interpreted as threats to some of the basic tenets of the democratic system, such as free speech and the rule of law. In contrast to the various narratives of decline, my thesis proposes that democracy is still very well served by the kind of vigorous and long-standing practice of dissent that the public intellectual represents, and more specifically, the embodiment of this tradition in contemporary newspaper cartoonists. By definition, graphic satire questions and challenges the status quo and at least since Hogarth in the eighteenth century, it has always been a public art-form. Hogarth’s personal involvement in many of the social issues and philanthropic schemes of his day (such as anti-gin legislation and state care for orphans) also exemplifies an important aspect of the extra-professional work of graphic satirists which further links them to the public intellectual. A commitment to social activism and making use of the different platforms available (for example, public speaking and donating work to charities) in order to support, publicise or promote issues of social justice began with Hogarth and continues with contemporary Australian cartoonists.

The thesis examines the role that Australian graphic satirists play in the theatre of public life. The main focus of the thesis is on newspaper cartoonists but for the purposes of comparative analysis, there is a discussion of a representative selection of satiric texts across different media (essentially, television and radio) since the mid-1960s, and also an historical survey of the development of graphic satire from its origins during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Apart from a small number of references, this study does not venture into the vast field of on-line satire, a topic more properly addressed in a separate scholarly investigation. Graphic satire in the medium of the newspaper is of particular interest because of its consistent production and wide circulation, its relative freedom from censorship and libel laws, and the ability of the cartoon image to condense and concentrate issues which would be too complex or defamatory in print or on television. Political cartooning as it is understood today emerged during the early nineteenth century, at about the same time as the modern newspaper and the profession of journalism, but graphic satire also has links with a venerable tradition of the artist as social critic and has historically been associated with movements for social justice and democracy. It is in the context of these latter associations that I consider political cartoonists as belonging to the sphere of the public intellectual. The discussion of cartoonists as public intellectuals is framed against a discourse of decline that has been circulating for more than a decade, acquiring an urgency in this country during the later years of the Howard administration. This declinist narrative covers a number of areas of cultural and political life and is not confined to the Australian context; as British writer Helen Small points out, it is “an increasingly transnational conversation” (02:1). Briefly outlined, there is a perception that the terms of public debate have narrowed; that citizens have become disengaged from the democratic process; that between the ‘celebrity intellectual’ and the tenured academic, the life of the mind is not what it used to be, and even political satire itself has been seen by some commentators as being in terminal decline. The different arguments about cultural and social decline can be placed under the more encompassing subject heading of an ongoing debate about democracy and in particular, whether it is functioning as well as it should. With the adoption of neo-liberalism as an overarching political ideology by most western governments in the early 1980s, anxieties about whether the principles of democracy were gradually being usurped or even eroded by the primacy of market values have gathered momentum during the past two decades. The volume of these concerns has been amplified in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent ‘war on terror’, with the state’s increased emphasis on security and control of its citizens being interpreted as threats to some of the basic tenets of the democratic system, such as free speech and the rule of law. In contrast to the various narratives of decline, my thesis proposes that democracy is still very well served by the kind of vigorous and long-standing practice of dissent that the public intellectual represents, and more specifically, the embodiment of this tradition in contemporary newspaper cartoonists. By definition, graphic satire questions and challenges the status quo and at least since Hogarth in the eighteenth century, it has always been a public art-form. Hogarth’s personal involvement in many of the social issues and philanthropic schemes of his day (such as anti-gin legislation and state care for orphans) also exemplifies an important aspect of the extra-professional work of graphic satirists which further links them to the public intellectual. A commitment to social activism and making use of the different platforms available (for example, public speaking and donating work to charities) in order to support, publicise or promote issues of social justice began with Hogarth and continues with contemporary Australian cartoonists.

The thesis examines the role that Australian graphic satirists play in the theatre of public life. The main focus of the thesis is on newspaper cartoonists but for the purposes of comparative analysis, there is a discussion of a representative selection of satiric texts across different media (essentially, television and radio) since the mid-1960s, and also an historical survey of the development of graphic satire from its origins during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Apart from a small number of references, this study does not venture into the vast field of on-line satire, a topic more properly addressed in a separate scholarly investigation. Graphic satire in the medium of the newspaper is of particular interest because of its consistent production and wide circulation, its relative freedom from censorship and libel laws, and the ability of the cartoon image to condense and concentrate issues which would be too complex or defamatory in print or on television. Political cartooning as it is understood today emerged during the early nineteenth century, at about the same time as the modern newspaper and the profession of journalism, but graphic satire also has links with a venerable tradition of the artist as social critic and has historically been associated with movements for social justice and democracy. It is in the context of these latter associations that I consider political cartoonists as belonging to the sphere of the public intellectual. The discussion of cartoonists as public intellectuals is framed against a discourse of decline that has been circulating for more than a decade, acquiring an urgency in this country during the later years of the Howard administration. This declinist narrative covers a number of areas of cultural and political life and is not confined to the Australian context; as British writer Helen Small points out, it is “an increasingly transnational conversation” (02:1). Briefly outlined, there is a perception that the terms of public debate have narrowed; that citizens have become disengaged from the democratic process; that between the ‘celebrity intellectual’ and the tenured academic, the life of the mind is not what it used to be, and even political satire itself has been seen by some commentators as being in terminal decline. The different arguments about cultural and social decline can be placed under the more encompassing subject heading of an ongoing debate about democracy and in particular, whether it is functioning as well as it should. With the adoption of neo-liberalism as an overarching political ideology by most western governments in the early 1980s, anxieties about whether the principles of democracy were gradually being usurped or even eroded by the primacy of market values have gathered momentum during the past two decades. The volume of these concerns has been amplified in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent ‘war on terror’, with the state’s increased emphasis on security and control of its citizens being interpreted as threats to some of the basic tenets of the democratic system, such as free speech and the rule of law. In contrast to the various narratives of decline, my thesis proposes that democracy is still very well served by the kind of vigorous and long-standing practice of dissent that the public intellectual represents, and more specifically, the embodiment of this tradition in contemporary newspaper cartoonists. By definition, graphic satire questions and challenges the status quo and at least since Hogarth in the eighteenth century, it has always been a public art-form. Hogarth’s personal involvement in many of the social issues and philanthropic schemes of his day (such as anti-gin legislation and state care for orphans) also exemplifies an important aspect of the extra-professional work of graphic satirists which further links them to the public intellectual. A commitment to social activism and making use of the different platforms available (for example, public speaking and donating work to charities) in order to support, publicise or promote issues of social justice began with Hogarth and continues with contemporary Australian cartoonists.

[EN] During most of the XXth century, while animation only told its story, classified artists and at most described their techniques, the film built one of the most brilliant intellectuals corpus of art history. With few exceptions, there was no animation theory; film theory did not included it in their case studies, relegating animation to a totally irrelevant plane. In recent years all this has changed, because it also changed the dimension of what we understand as animation. This new theory, reflects on the fact of animate expansion, since it occupies a privileged place within contemporary visual production. Today we have to resize a set of knowledge and processes that in the XXth century was mostly centered on a specific type of production, which currently involves almost all moving images produced. Obviously, this is a product of social needs, economic determinants, ideological constraints and technological possibilities: the change that the introduction of digital technologies meant at all levels. So animation resignified their role in this new audiovisual universe, using digital technology. The ways of doing animation changed and new ones emerged. In this expansion, the use of these specific knowledge of animation in the media art unveiled an exciting new landscape: a discipline always dependent on its technical artifact, which achieves to be involved in the convergence of art and technology providing specific concepts and issues. Animation, in turn, could incorporate computer cultural forms and techniques. For this and paraphrasing the concept that once inspired talking of Expanded Cinema, we propose Expanded Animation, referring to all animation that exceeds the precepts of what is commonly known as animation. This is a theoretical and practical thesis, where the latter served as generator of theoretical reflection through a creative and intellectual process that lasted the recent years. The experimental practice is used too as a case study for the construction of an argument that finally proposes a series of elements, applications and tools, from the general to suggest a new horizon in the field of animation as part the current audiovisual universe, and from the particular, to analyze the representation of movement that uses databases and fragmentary and spatial narratives. / [ES] Durante gran parte del siglo XX, mientras la animación solo contó su historia, clasificó sus artistas y a lo sumo describió sus técnicas, el cine constituía uno de los más brillantes corpus intelectuales de la historia del arte. Salvo honrosas excepciones, no hubo teoría sobre la animación, y la teoría cinematográfica no la incluyó entre sus casos de estudio, relegándola a un plano totalmente irrelevante. En los últimos años todo esto cambió, porque cambió también la dimensión de lo que entendemos por animación. Esta nueva teoría, reflexiona sobre el hecho de la expansión de lo animado, dado que ocupa un lugar privilegiado dentro de la producción audiovisual contemporánea. Hoy toca redimensionar un conjunto de saberes y procesos que durante el siglo XX se centró mayoritariamente en un tipo específico de producción y que actualmente involucra a la casi totalidad de la imagen en movimiento producida. Evidentemente, esto es producto de necesidades sociales, determinantes económicos, condicionantes ideológicos y una posibilidad tecnológica: el cambio que significó a todos los niveles la introducción de las tecnologías digitales. Así la animación resignificó su papel en este nuevo universo audiovisual, a caballo de las tecnología digitales. Las formas de hacer animación cambiaron y otras nuevas surgieron. Dentro de esa expansión, la utilización de los saberes propios de la animación en el media art desveló un interesante nuevo paisaje, el de una disciplina siempre dependiente de su artefacto técnico, que logra involucrarse en la confluencia entre arte y tecnología aportando problemáticas y conceptos específicos. A su vez la animación pudo incorporar formas culturales y técnicas propias del ordenador. Por esto y parafraseando el concepto que en su momento inspiró el de Expanded Cinema, proponemos hablar de Animación Expandida, refiriéndonos a toda aquella animación que se sale de los preceptos de lo que habitualmente se conoce como animación. Es esta una tesis teórico-práctica, donde este último elemento sirve como generador de la reflexión teórica a través de un proceso creativo e intelectual que abarca los últimos años. También la práctica experimental es utilizada como caso de estudio para la construcción de una argumentación que propone finalmente una serie de elementos, usos y herramientas que, desde lo general, pretenden sugerir un nuevo horizonte en el campo de la animación como parte del audiovisual actual, y, desde lo particular, analizar la representación del movimiento con bases de datos y narrativas fragmentarias y espaciales. / [CAT] Durant gran part del segle XX, mentre l'animació sol va contar la seva història, va classificar els seus artistes i a tot estirar va descriure les seves tècniques, el cinema constituïa un dels més brillants corpus intel·lectuals de la història de l'art. Excepte excepcions, no va haver teoria sobre l'animació, i la teoria cinematogràfica no la va incloure entre els seus casos d'estudi, relegant-la a un plànol totalment irrellevant. En els últims anys tot això va canviar, perquè va canviar també la dimensió del que entenem per animació. Aquesta nova teoria, reflexiona sbre el fet de l'expansió de l'animació, atès que ocupa un lloc privilegiat dintre de la producció audiovisual contemporània. Avui toca redimensionar un conjunt de sabers i processos que durant el segle XX es va centrar majoritàriament en un tipus específic de producció i que actualment involucra a la gairebé totalitat de la imatge en moviment produïda. Evidentment, això és producte de necessitats socials, determinants econòmics, condicionaments ideològics i una possibilitat tecnològica: el canvi que va significar a tots els nivells la introducció de les tecnologies digitals. D'aquesta manera, l'animació va canviar el seu paper, en aquest nou univers audiovisual, a partir de les tecnologies digitals. Les formes de fer animació van canviar i altres noves van sorgir. Dintre d'aquesta expansió, la utilització dels sabers propis de l'animació en el media-art va desvetllar un interessant nou paisatge, el d'una disciplina sempre depenent del seu artefacte tècnic, que assoleix involucrar-se en la confluència entre art i tecnologia aportant problemàtiques i conceptes específics. Al seu torn l'animació va poder incorporar formes culturals i tècniques pròpies de l'ordinador. Per això i parafrasejant el concepte que en el seu moment va inspirar el de Expanded Cinema, proposem parlar d'Animació Expandida, referint-nos a tota aquella animació que se surt dels preceptes del que habitualment es coneix com animació. És aquesta una tesi teòric-pràctica, on aquest últim element serveix com generador de la reflexió teòrica a través d'un procés creatiu i intel·lectual que abasta els últims anys. Tambéla pràctica experimental és utilitzada com cas d'estudi per a la construcció d'una argumentació que proposa finalment una sèrie d'elements, usos i eines que, des del general, pretenen suggerir un nou horitzó en el camp de l'animació com part de l'audiovisual actual, i, des del particular, analitzar la representació del moviment amb bases de dades i narratives fragmentarias i espacials. / Dematei, MA. (2016). La animación expandida. Repesentación del movimiento en el media-art y el audiovisual contemporáneo [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/61437 / TESIS

[EN] The issue of the primacy of the visual perception of new technologies and the role of the haptic perception, through the intensification of sensory stimulation of digital culture, constitute a landmark reference in analysis and critical reflection in the field of aesthetics. A large part of the contemporary artistic discourses operates on the body, in search of new dimensions through the senses, promoting a cognitive agency out of the interstices of the rational-mediation logic. This research assumes that the digital image leaves the Cartesian tradition and demand a response in which the phenomenological technological images find their primary sense in the body. In this way, the body appears as a center of the most avant-garde arrangements of artistic objects in the video art and contemporary visual arts. Of the time-image, image-body, fluid and interactive. It is in this framework that the concepts linked to the speech has undergone a profound Visual recontextualization in contemporary art and that new approaches claim in rupture with the models of representation based on realism of the image. Thus, video art has questioned the perception of reality through sensory consciousness and is a preferred mean of exploration of the new regime of haptic Visuality, as a ultimate symbol of the apotheosis of postmodernism. Emerges from the metamorphosis of the body and of the visual objects a proposition video-body, which integrates the experiences of transgressive haptic arrangements of the new media. The video- haptic arises, in this context, as promoter of the perceptive interweaving of synesthetic intertranslations of the sensory modalities within the contemporary art. The haptic territories of the video are therefore seen as instances that establish their own construction video processing. This research focuses on the current scenario of haptic perception in contemporary art and the new fields of action on the border of the video-haptics and outlines the relocation to a haptic aesthetics in contemporary art. / [ES] La cuestión de la primacía de la percepción visual con las nuevas tecnologías y el papel de la percepción háptica mediante la intensificación de los estímulos sensoriales de la cultura digital, se constituyen como un marco referencial en análisis y reflexiones críticas en el ámbito de la estética. Gran parte de los discursos artísticos contemporáneos trabajan sobre el cuerpo, en busca de nuevas dimensiones a través de los sentidos, promoviendo una apropiación cognitiva fuera de los límites de la mediación racional-lógica. Esta investigación parte de ese presupuesto, de que la imagen digital abandona la tradición cartesiana y busca una respuesta fenomenológica en la cual las imágenes tecnológicas encuentran su sentido primario en el cuerpo. De este modo, el cuerpo se nos aparece como el centro de los logros más vanguardistas en prácticas artísticas, tanto en los discursos del videoarte como en las artes visuales contemporáneas. De la imagen-tiempo pasamos a la imagen-interfaz, una imagen-cuerpo, fluida e interactiva. Es en este marco, donde los conceptos vinculados al discurso videográfico han sufrido una profunda recontextualización en el arte contemporáneo y donde las nuevas propuestas se plantean como forma de ruptura con los modelos de representación basados en el no-realismo de la imagen. Así, el videoarte ha cuestionado la percepción de la realidad a través de la consciencia sensorial y se constituye como un medio privilegiado de exploración del nuevo régimen de visualidad háptica, como un símbolo máximo de apoteosis del pos-modernismo. Emerge de la metamorfosis del cuerpo y de los objetos virtuales una proposición de video-cuerpo que integra las experiencias transgresivas de la potencialidad háptica de los nuevos media. Lo video-háptico surge, en este contexto, como promotor del cruce perceptivo y de las inter-traducciones sinestésicas de las modalidades sensoriales en el seno del arte contemporáneo. Los territorios hápticos del video son, por tanto, vistos como instancias que se establecen en el procesamiento de la propia construcción videográfica. Esta investigación incide sobre el actual escenario de la percepción háptica en el arte contemporáneo y los nuevos campos de actuación en la frontera de lo video-háptico y anuncia la deslocalización para una estética háptica en el arte contemporáneo. / [CAT] La qüestió de la primacia de la percepció visual amb les noves tecnologies i el paper de la percepció hàptica mitjançant la intensificació dels estímuls sensorials de la cultura digital, es constitueixen com un marc referencial en anàlisi i reflexions crítiques en l'àmbit de l'estètica. Gran part dels discursos artístics contemporanis treballen sobre el cos, a la recerca de noves dimensions a través dels sentits, promovent una apropiació cognitiva fos dels límits de la mediació racional-lògica. Aquesta recerca parteix d'aquest pressupost, que la imatge digital abandona la tradició cartesiana i busca una resposta fenomenològica en la qual les imatges tecnològiques troben el seu sentit primari en el cos. D'aquesta manera, el cos se'ns apareix com el centre dels assoliments més avantguardistes en pràctiques artístiques, tant en els discursos del videoart com en les arts visuals contemporànies. De la imatge-temps passem a la imatge-interfície, una imatge-cos, fluïda i interactiva. És en aquest marc, on els conceptes vinculats al discurs videogràfic han sofert una profunda recontextualització en l'art contemporani i on les noves propostes es plantegen com a forma de ruptura amb els models de representació basats en el no-realisme de la imatge. Així, el videoart ha qüestionat la percepció de la realitat a través de la consciència sensorial i es constitueix com un mitjà privilegiat d'exploració del nou règim de visualitat hàptica, com un símbol màxim d'apoteosi del postmodernisme. Emergeix de la metamorfosi del cos i dels objectes virtuals una proposició de video-cos que integra les experiències transgressives de la potencialitat hàptica dels nous mitjans. El video-hàptic sorgeix, en aquest context, com a promotor de l'encreuament perceptiu i de les inter-traduccions sinestésiques de les modalitats sensorials en el si de l'art contemporani. Els territoris hàptics del video són, per tant, vists com a instàncies que s'estableixen en el processament de la pròpia construcció videogràfica Aquesta recerca incideix sobre l'actual escenari de la percepció hàptica en l'art contemporani i els nous camps d'actuació a la frontera del video-hàptic i anuncia la deslocalització per a una estètica hàptica en l'art contemporani. / Aguês Da Cruz Silva, SD. (2016). DO PARADIGMA DO VER AO DO TOCAR. O DEVIR HÁPTICO NA CRIAÇÃO ARTÍSTICA CONTEMPORÂNEA [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/61441 / TESIS

The Name is a Guest of the Substance brings together works of video, installation, live performance, sculpture, and print to investigate the constructions of kinship that organize us into the world as historical, ecological, and political subjects. Herter Gallery’s 1600 sq. ft space is utilized in full for this project. The work in both galleries evaluates systems of categorization in light of their power to foster or discourage kinship within overlapping local, global and ecological communities. While the West Gallery uses my own multi-racial American genealogy to challenge the authority of historical and autobiographical origins, the East gallery uses manipulations of scale to emphasize the overlooked and ungovernable ways non-human forms of life frustrate our constant attempts at establishing a stable hierarchy of biological relations.

This thesis describes my artistic practice as essentially project-based, site-responsive and hypermediating. Hypermediacy—i.e. the tendency of certain media or objects to keep their various constituents separate from their structure—is to be understood as opaque, juxtaposed and after a recurring contiguity with different kinds of interfaces. Accordingly, and within the context of the various projects that constitute this thesis, it is demonstrated how, in response to the particular places I work and to the various people I collaborate with, different kinds of materials and methodologies are incorporated in broader hybrids that are mediated (interfaced) in miscellaneous ways to this way result in original works of art. Materials and methodologies are shown to be intertwined and interdependent with each other as well as with the different ways in which they are interfaced, which accounts for an explicitly projectbased, rather than artwork-based, approach which, on its turn, de-emphasises the finished artefact in favour of process, performance, research and exploration. Projects are, then, shown to be explicitly site- or situation- responsive, as they are not implementations of preexistent ideas, but rather emerge as my original response to the particular sites, materials, people and the various other constituents that are involved in their very production. Interfaces to such hybrids as well as their very material and methodological elements are also shown to be hyper-mediated. It is finally argued that such an approach essentially accelerates multi-perspectivalism in that a project may spawn a number of diverse, typically medium-specific and/or site-specific, artworks that all exemplify different qualities which are congenital to the particular nature of each project.