My research project explores conventions in art-making and viewing via the notion of the performative art object. The performative (derived from J.L. Austin and Judith Butler’s formulations of the word) is here used predominantly as a term to denote a generative, experiential and iterative process (in this case outlined by art theorist Barbara Bolt) in which intuitive or playful actions of both artist and spectator dictate the route of research. The project, following an A/r/tographical cycle of theoriapraxis-poesis (or theory/research - doing/learning - art/making) as defined by Rita Irwin, thus investigates the relations inherent between artists, spectators or viewers, and objects, and how these may change according to the spaces they are conceived in; from art gallery to urban “non-art” environments. It deals with the inclusion of process or performativity within, or in relation to the art object and how this take on the traditionally static object may have the capacity to change how artworks are envisaged, and more significantly, how they are received, in terms of the effects they (in combination with the viewer) have on the world around them. Blurred in the context of performativity, the art object may become a means of documenting process and in a sense may act as a ‘prop’ for artistic research. This enquiry has involved the study of process and play, as related to creative practice, via a series of object-based events or interventions (including gallery exhibitions and other “non-art” events initiated by the artist outside of conventional art-related space) which have been documented and included in the theoretical research as a means of providing a first-hand narrative of theoretical ideas put into practice. Here Diana Taylor’s understanding of interrelated modes of storing and enacting knowledge as posed in the notion of the archive and repertoire has been utilised as a means of collecting and collating performative and ephemeral research. These events/interventions have further served as a means of gauging viewer interaction and participation, thus actively involving the viewer in the creative act. Jacques Rancière’s notion of the emancipated spectator is here utilised to activate the role of the viewer. In this regard, Martin Heidegger’s concept of handiness or handling serves as a means of “emancipating” spectators by encouraging tactile viewership. It is my intent to open up or reveal new modes of thinking or doing within the viewer when he or she enters a state of performative play within these events. Here the status of the art object is challenged and in this way has the potential to subvert or confront problematic repetitions, both in the identity of the viewer and the space occupied in each event.

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M.Tech. (Fine Art) / In this thesis I attempt to show that it is possible to resolve 'difference' most effectively in non-verbal ways. One method is in making art. To demonstrate this, I first describe my own thought system and belief structure, as part of western culture. I try to show the impasse this has reached. I then offer art-making, particularly within Post-modern premises, as a potent means of resolving 'difference'. I use my own and Barbara L 'Angie's work to show that this is possible, not only for black artists with Western influences, but also white artists with African influence on their largely European-based outlook.

It is commonly accepted that our relation to inanimate objects is different than to biological entities. When movement comes into play, however, this relation can bring about ambiguities and transfigure familiar relationships between the animate and the world of things. This thesis investigates this relationship and the role of movement. The main focus is on humans' perception of movement, in particular how this affects the relationship to technological objects. It is a known phenomenon that humans tend to focus on life and lifelike processes. This propensity affects the creation as well as the observation of things. As social and emotional beings, humans experience a living presence of objects, and tend to not treat them as dead matter. Apparent for example in emotional attachments to devices like the computer, cell phones or robots. We have a long-standing practice of projecting social roles onto our surrounding as a way to relate and interact with things in the world. Differences in these relationships are affected by the appearance as well as movement of things, a phenomenon that is well-established, for instance, in cognitive psychology and gestalt/animation theory, where it has been demonstrated that abstract objects and shapes, when they move, tend to be interpreted less object-like and more as social and animate beings. Equally, in human-robot interaction, studies with real robots illustrate that people tend to 'anthropomorphise,' and attribute life-like properties to these technological objects with certain human or animal characteristics. The affinity towards the living affects not only the experience and observation but also the creation of technologically animated things. For a long time artists and inventors have been trying to mimic nature and develop technology simulating life-like qualities. These creations, as reported in this thesis, manifest for instance through animated creatures, artistic sculptures and artefacts, the creation of artificial systems, and robotics. The aim of this thesis is to learn more about the role of movement for human perception of the animate/inanimate by presenting movement as the common denominator on three levels. First, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the phenomena by bringing together work from various contexts and as such presenting an interdisciplinary approach to the topic. Second, as a result, a novel methodology is presented that provides a relational approach to examine move ment as a determinant of variances in the interpretation of an entity. Based on a feature-space, used to compare peoples' interpretative relationship to entities, the method allows to evaluate how an entity's movement characteristic affect the way thoughts and actions are directed to them. Third, results are obtained from the application of the methodology in an empirical study, assessing peoples' interpretation of a ready-made object, a technologically modified hairbrush moving autonomously. These show that the movement of an everyday object motivates an interpretation closer to humans and animals. The results correspond to the findings mentioned above. However, as the empirical work brings together people and an autonomously acting robotic object, which lacks anthropomorphic/zoomorphic or mechanoid morphology, in a real world scenario, it transfers these findings from cognitive psychology and computer graphic animation to the field of human-robot interaction.

Evidence suggests that action representations associated with the functional and volumetric properties of an object are part of its conceptual representation (Bub, Masson, & Cree, 2008; Jax & Buxbaum, 2010). To further examine the dynamic interplay between functional and volumetric action representations during object perception, a series of experiments was carried out in which participants made a reach and grasp response in the context of an object pictured either upright or rotated. When trained to identify a colour cue as a prompt to make a specific hand action, with the cue presented at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA), participants showed priming effects as early as 300 ms before the presentation of an upright object prime for both functional and volumetric actions. With pictures of hand posture cues, at similar SOAs, participants showed the same pattern of consistent priming effects for both actions types. Surprisingly, a dissociation between the action types occurred when the object primes were rotated, in that only the volumetric and not the functional action representation was evoked. Furthermore, at 0 ms SOA, the primed V-action was associated with the canonical rather than the depicted view of the object. The results clarify the dynamic pattern of F- and V-grasps evoked by visual objects. For upright objects, both F- and V-grasps are strongly evoked over time. Rotated objects show a tendency to evoke only volumetric action representation. The latter result suggests that the V-grasp associated with a rotated object is based on a skeletal form of the object that does not include its functional properties. / Graduate

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Glasgow, 2004. / BLDSC reference no.: DX242270.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (457-472).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (457-472) Also available in print.