Este trabalho apresenta uma reflexão ensaística sobre minha produção em arte dos últimos dois anos. Os experimentos poéticos e o formato deste texto dialogam com as ideias de transparência e opacidade, expressas no campo da visualidade. Os trabalhos que aqui apresento são divididos em dois conjuntos: o primeiro deles, que se mostra desde o início desse caderno, é um ensaio visual composto pela justaposição de colagens, fotografias e desenhos. O segundo conjunto diz respeito à instalação composta por trabalhos tridimensionais. O estudo procura conjugar poética, práxis e reflexão crítica, apresentando, ao longo da escrita, o plano conceitual em que os experimentos poéticos projetam-se, refletem, e a partir do qual se desdobram / This master\'s thesis investigates, as an essay, my artwork of the last two years. The poetic experiments and the literary form of this text bring up ideas of transparency and opacity visually expressed. The works presented here are divided in two series: the first one, that appears since the beginning of this book, is a visual essay composed by juxtaposition of collages, photographies and drawings. The second of them is about the installation based on three-dimensional works. This study tries to bring together poetics, praxis and critical thinking, presenting, throughout the writings, the conceptual field to which the poetic experiments project and reflect themselves, and from which they unfold.

Esta pesquisa parte da obra do artista norte-americano Robert Smithson (1938-1973), sobretudo de seus escritos deixados. Desde o início, a vontade era a de andar às voltas de um modo específico de conhecimento do mundo: escrever sobre a intricada relação entre teoria e prática no campo das artes visuais. Estudo cujo conteúdo teve por lastro as referências - literárias, artísticas, teóricas e históricosociais - sintetizadas nos textos do artista eleito. Tal contexto de trabalho conduziu as análises deste ensaio, cada forma determinada por seu próprio repertório. Escavando assuntos com palavras, sempre rente à coleção de escritos de Robert Smithson. Experimento por acabar, resta um conjunto composto por dezessete pequenos fragmentos. A execução desta montagem representa uma adaptação ensaiada repetidas vezes diante de um espelho. O tiro partiu de local pouco conhecido; o cartucho era de festim: ricocheteou até perder força e cair, por fim. / This research departs from the oeuvre of the American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973), especially from the writings he left. From the beginning, the will was to surround a specific way of knowing the world: to write about the intricate relation between theory and practice in the visual arts field. Study whose content had as its ballast the references - literary, artistic, theoretical, historical and social - synthesized in the texts of the elected artist. Such work context conducted the analysis of this essay, each form determined by its own repertoire. Excavating subjects with words, always close to the collected writings of Robert Smithson. Unfinished experiment, a set made up of seventeen small fragments remains. The execution of this assemblage represents an adaptation rehearsed repeatedly before a mirror. The shot came from little-known site; it was a blank cartridge shot: ricocheted till it lost strength and fell, at last.

In this research I explore artivist performance proposals that lead to an analysis of the spectator position intrinsic to the spectatorial, as a construction linked to colonial discourses of otherness. This investigation presents the encountering processes of the transnational troupe of La Pocha Nostra and the Puerto Rican persona of Freddie Mercado with their respective spectators, where local-global constructs of coloniality become unveiled, made and unmade spectacle through their re-reproduction of otherness. Side by side with performance art-life, I explore the deconstruction and de-linking possibilities of the spectatorial taking the work of these artists to build and develop the dilemmas and alternatives presented. From these complex hyper-othering performance practices I research the social implications on the spectatorial at a local and global level. The artistic proposals discussed are focused under the decolonial lens and researched as practices that make possible the co-creation of decolonial relationalities. I focus in the trans-possibility these ‘other’ encounters produce and are produced by. This work inserts the issue of the spectator within broader social concerns and it is under this umbrella that the ‘question’ of the Other arises within the mechanisms of the modern spectacle. These artistic practices exert diverse tactics that directly imply the figure of the spectator within this social configuration.

In nineteenth-century literary studies and histories, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) is still largely remembered as the instigator of the doctrine of Art for Art's Sake, mostly because of his novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) and its controversial preface. This recognition is usually accompanied by a retrospective appreciation of Gautier's work in light of the more famous authors who succeeded him and developed some of the precepts of the doctrine, such as Baudelaire. This thesis is a comparative study of Gautier and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) as the two main exponents of the doctrine of Art for Art's Sake respectively in France and Britain. While comparisons between Gautier and Baudelaire have tended to highlight the superiority of the latter, a comparison with Wilde allows Gautier to be seen and understood in his own terms, and simultaneously casts a new light on Wilde's contribution to the development of the doctrine. My study is the first to examine the works of the two authors comparatively from the vantage point of their aesthetic theories. I argue that in order better to assess their contribution, it is necessary to start with an analysis of their experimentations with literary form. The overall aim of the thesis is to re-evaluate their fictional works which, as a result of their commitment to the doctrine, are often seen as lacking in depth and content, and as being too descriptive and decorative. The central argument is that the very decorative form of their works should be seen as the starting point of an ambitious reflection on literature, its aims and its relation to other artistic media, the visual arts in particular.

This thesis investigates rationales behind Live Art documentation, by examining the work of British artists working under the banner of ‘Live Art' since the 1990s. My aim has been to write an account of Live Art's history and major themes that incorporates primary research, analysis and criticism of recent research on documentation. Works by Live Artists are not discussed chronologically, but so that they might function as points of departure for discussions about Live Art's relationship to documentation and its relevance as a contemporary cultural form. The thesis starts with an introduction setting out definitions of Live Art and documentation and contextualising Live Art's relationship to Performance Art. The rationales for documenting Live Art are grouped into three categories: documentation as pragmatic, documentation as memorial and documentation as holistic. The main text is divided into three parts, each part discusses issues relating to one of the above categories. Part 1 addresses practical reasons why artists working under the banner of Live Art document their work. The section includes an exploration of the infrastructure for the development of Live Art in the UK as well as an analysis of the market for Live Art and its documentation. Part 2 interrogates perspectives from the discipline of performance studies on the relationship between live action and documentation, exploring how these issues have been interpreted in Live Art's history. In particular, this section will assess how writers and artists have approached discussion of Live Art in oral and written form. Part 3 proposes models of rethinking documentation based on works by British Live Artists that develop documentation in tandem to live action and enjoy a privileged relationship to technology.

This dissertation investigates thematic unities within Robert Morris's seemingly disparate body of work. It demonstrates the thematic similarities, structural continuities and formal associations used throughout his art despite the great diversity of the media employed. It departs at times from a strictly chronological approach because its primary purpose is to explore how one work begets another or one style morphs into the next. The research involved extensive archival work studying unpublished correspondence and texts, contracts, drawings and emails, along with traditional sources like books, interviews, lectures and Morris's own published criticism and texts. The author also examined many original artworks or reproductions of unavailable ones. Chapter One discusses the definition and problem of style, establishment of artistic influences, and Morris's reluctance to accept traditional boundaries. Chapter Two addresses the choreography and its task-oriented vocabulary, and Morris's minimalist sculptures, examining his ideas on process and the phenomenology of perception. Chapter Three is devoted to Morris's concept of space and exploration of the horizontal as a spatial vector. It studies his interest in structural continuity throughout his lead, mirror and felt works, and touches on both the physical space of the sculptures, and the virtual space of the mirrors, as well as the fleeting evanescent space of the steam. His elaborations on “how to make a mark” are considered, too, from the Blind Time drawings, riding on horseback and body-part imprints, to language and the natural world. Chapter Four turns to Morris's philosophical investigations, his studies of language and imagery—some apocalyptic—and his increasing concern with destructive contemporary attitudes. Chapter Five takes up the works of the last two decades, his interest in memory and his growing cultural pessimism. Finally, analyzing one of the most recent works, the Conclusion makes clear that through its recurrent timeliness, Morris's art achieves a certain sublimity which aims towards a suspension of time—a timelessness.

The thesis explores the relationships between sound and mobility through an examination of sound art. The research engages with the intersection of sound, mobility and art through original empirical work and theoretically through a critical engagement with sound studies. In dialogue with the work of De Certeau, Lefebvre, Huhtamo and Habermas in terms of the poetics of walking, rhythms, media archeology and questions of publicness, I understand sound art as an experimental mobile and public space. The thesis establishes and situates the emerging field of mobile sound art by mapping three key traditions of mobile sound art - locative art, sound art and public art - and creates a taxonomy of mobile sound art by defining four categories: 'placing sounds', 'sound platforms', 'sonifying mobility' and 'musical instruments' (each represented by one case study). In doing so it develops a methodology that is attentive to the specifics of the sonic and mobile of media experience. I demonstrate how sonic interactions and embodied mobility are designed and experienced in specific ways in each of the four case studies - 'Aura' by Symons (UK), 'Pophorns' by Torstensson and Sandelin (Sweden), 'SmSage' by Redfern and Borland (US) and 'Core Sample' by Rueb (US) (all 2007). In tracing the topos of the musical telephone, discussing the making and breaking of relevant micro publics, accounting for the polyphonies of footsteps and unwrapping bundles of rhythms, this thesis contributes to understanding complex media experiences in hybrid spaces. In doing so it critically sheds light on the quality of sonic artistic experiences, the audience engagement with urban, public and networked spaces and the relationship between sound art and everyday media experience. My thesis provides valuable insight into auditory ways of mobilising and making public spaces, non-verbal and embodied media practices, and rhythms and scales of mobile media experiences.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / O presente estudo ambiciona examinar as escritas literárias de Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) e Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) considerando-as como uma forma de presságio de arte na América, ou seja, como uma escrita literária que parece ter sido herdada no ambiente artístico das obras plásticas contemporâneas de Richard Serra (1939-) e Waltercio Caldas (1946-), entre outras. Tal herança endossa a noção de linguagem ordinária, compreendida como o ponto de acolhimento, ou de uma inquietação, que se faz presente nas circunstâncias da contemporaneidade. Por sua vez, o gesto de endereçamento que envolve estas escrituras expressa a marca de uma indecibilidade acerca da continuidade ou descontinuidade da existência de categorias como literatura, filosofia e artes. Assim, a problematização dessas remissões ganha vulto no presente estudo, por meio de uma abordagem em perspectiva comparada entre Thoreau, Emerson, Waltercio, Serra e outros. E deste modo, a questão que se estabelece nesse panorama diz respeito aos problemas do pensamento, que em âmbito plástico parecem se estender para uma tradição crítica no Novo Mundo / The following study aims to examine Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreaus (1817-1862) literary writings considering them as a form of omen of art in America, in other words, as a literary writing that seems to have been inherited from the artistic environment of the contemporary art works by Richard Serra (1939-) and Waltercio Caldas (1946-), among others. Such heritage endorses the notion of ordinary language, understood as the point of reception, or the point of an uneasiness, that was present in the contemporary circumstances. In turn, the addressing gesture which involves these scriptures express the mark of an undecidability on the continuity or discontinuity of the existence of categories such as literature, philosophy and arts. Thus, the problematization of these remissions obtains prominence in this study, by means of a comparative approach among Thoureau, Emerson, Waltercio, Serra and others. In this way, the question that is established in this panorama concerns the thought problems, which in the plastic scope seem to be extended up to a criticism tradition in the New World

Esta pesquisa envolveu a realização de um trabalho de arte o conjunto de vídeos intitulado Programa e, paralelamente, de uma reflexão teórica. A reflexão tomou o Programa como objeto, procurando compreendê-lo, mas ela também constituiu instrumento do Programa, conduzindo as formalizações. Ao dedicar-se à investigação da área de Poéticas visuais, às dificuldades da reflexão sistemática sobre uma obra em andamento e às especificidades da fala do artista sobre o próprio trabalho, enunciou, para o trabalho que então se iniciava, as condições do contexto em que ele iria se produzir. Descrevendo um procedimento geral reincidente nos meus trabalhos, a reflexão apontou-lhe um repertório de operações. Ela foi movimento interno do Programa nas considerações sobre o campo que ele elegeu como objeto: as propagandas de televisão, e sobre aqueles que surgiram de modo incidental, como o vídeo. Também o foi na discussão de cada um dos esquetes que foi esboçada antes da finalização do trabalho e orientou algumas últimas decisões. Depois do trabalho pronto, procurou-se rever e aprofundar os conceitos que vinham sendo utilizados, bem como submeter o Programa a uma apreciação mais distanciada. / This research involved the production of an art work the set of videos entitled Programa [Program] and, simultaneously, of a theoretic reflection. The reflection took the work as its object, trying to comprehend it, but it also constituted an instrument of this work, guiding its formalizations. The reflection was initially dedicated to the investigation of the postgraduate concentration area called Visual poetics, as well as to the difficulties of a systematized conceptual apprehension of an ongoing art work and to the specificities of the artists talks about his own work. In this manner it enunciated, for the work that was, then, getting started, the conditions of the context in which it would be produced. Describing a general procedure that was recurrent in the authors recent works, the reflection unveiled, to the new work, a repertoire of operations. The reflection was an internal movement of Programa while considering the field it had elected as its object: TV propaganda. This was also the case while considering those objects that appeared incidentally, such as the video. In the discussion of each one of the sketches discussion that was outlined before the videos were finished the reflection was also an internal movement as it oriented the last decisions. After the art work was finished, an attempt was made to review and deepen the concepts that had been used, as well as to submit Programa to a more distanced appreciation.

A partir da análise do conceito de \'montagem\' cinematográfica na obra de Jean-Luc Godard e sua identificação com as noções de \'história\' e \'arquivo\', propõem-se \'exercícios\' que procuram explicar, de modo teórico-prático, a hipótese fundamental do projeto: a \'montagem\' é uma ferramenta que, apropriada pelas artes visuais, gera conhecimento e permite reordenar a história. A indagação teórica pensa a \'montagem\' como elemento que desliza do campo audiovisual. O conceito desloca-se no desenvolvimento de um trabalho que gera conexões com a produção artística, tanto quanto com a escrita da história por meio da arte. A primeira parte apresenta um processo de criação em artes visuais onde se desenvolvem \'exercícios de montagem\'. Como artista, coloco-me numa situação de deslocamento, vivendo como estrangeiro na cidade de São Paulo. A série de trabalhos é feita por meio da identificação da história econômica do café, como peça fundamental na construção do estado moderno brasileiro e colombiano. Os trabalhos buscam a emergência de narrações, novos olhares que podem aparecer no choque de imagens, na \'montagem\' como ferramenta para recontar uma história. A segunda parte apresenta um ensaio, que em sua estrutura, é proposto como um \'filme\'. Este exercício literário tem foco na história da arte colombiana e procura ser um contraponto teórico ao processo de criação em artes visuais. / The analysis of the cinematographic notion of \'montage\' in the work of Jean-Luc Godard, as well as its relation with \'history\' and \'archive\', are the points of departure to explain the main concept of this project: \'Montage\' is a tool which, when appropriated by the Visual Arts, produces knowledge and enables the rearrangement of history. The theoretical framework places \'montage\' as an element that escapes the audiovisual field. Here, the concept is widened to enable connections with artistic production, as well as with the writing of history through art. The first part deals with a creation process, where \'montage exercises\' took place. As an artist, I find myself in a situation of displacement, by living as a foreigner in the city of Sao Paulo; works were thereby created by identifying the economic history of coffee as a fundamental element of the formation of the modern states of Brazil and Colombia. The work inquires about narrations and produces a new gaze in the clash of images, and work as a tool in the \'montage\' to retell a history. The second part is an essay, a literary exercise that in its structure is proposed as a \'film\'. It focuses on the history of Colombian Art, and looks for a theoretical counterpoint to the creative process of visual arts.