Since 1950s, the concept of Kongwu (空無, Emptiness, Nothingness) has migrated into American-European experimental performances, including those of John Cage and Cage-influenced artists who developed Happenings, Fluxus, and intermedia practices. This research-through-practice investigates how the concept of kongwu, an intercultural synthesis of Chinese Daoism and Indian Buddhism, may shape the principles underlying performance making and how performance may, in turn, elucidate Kongwu way of making sense the world. The installation-performance, Poem without Language contemplates Kongwu’s distrust of language by undermining the communicative purpose of writing and responds to Nam June Paik’s approach to media language. The research practice, One Street, Three Persons, Different Narratives, and Different Memories responds to John Cage’s use of silence to revise time and measurement, and exposes the habit, how we experience the ‘present’ as accumulations of the past, and how we order experiences as a linear continuity, which we call ‘time’. My performance, … is Present suggests different definitions of the ‘meditative mind’ and ‘being-here-and-now’ and critiques the relationship between embodiment and identity in Marina Abramović’s construction of ‘suchness’. Three works offer one response to the poetics and politics of intercultural encounters in the context of Chan/Zen in intermedia performance. My research-through-practice sheds light on Kongwu way of experiencing, particularly Kongwu’s attitude towards language, time, and self.

Cette thèse présente l'exploration humaine du monde microscopique de règle de la beauté formelle, afin de révéler la loi inhérente de l’univers dans lequel tous les êtres sont connectés et communiqués. La thèse encourage les hommes à découvrir le charme unique de l’univers via les médias d’art, et à découvrir la signification essentielle de l'humanité qui apportera plus de l’esprit d’innovation. Tirer et appliquer de nombreuses formes de beauté des cellules biologiques sous le microscope dans la création de l’art contemporain est un travail totalement innovant et magique, comme les petites cellules contiennent l’essence de l’univers. La loi de l’univers joue un rôle primordial dans la formation de la beauté du monde microscopique. Cette thèse a également étudié comment l’esprit humain participe au processus de l’esthétique microscopique qui améliore la théorie de l’esthétique dans son ensemble. Tout cela enrichit la pensée et la forme de la création des artistes contemporains. Cette thèse vise à promouvoir la construction et la communication de l’esprit du monde microscopique, et à retrouver les inspirations et les natures. C’est un sujet spirituel qui mérite l’attention des artistes contemporains. / This thesis presents the human exploration of the rule of beauty, of forms in the microscopic world, to reveal the inherent law of the universe in which all beings are connected and communicated. The thesis encouraged men to experience the unique charm of the universe via the media of the arts, and to discover the essential meaning of humanity that will bring more spirits of innovation. Learning and applying the beauty of many forms of biological cells under the microscope in the creation of contemporary art is a completely innovative and magical work, since the small cells contain the essence of the universe. The law of the universe plays a crucial role in the formation of the beauty of the microscopic world. This thesis also studied how the human mind involved in the process of microscopic aesthetic that enhances the theory of aesthetics as a whole. All this enriched the thought and the form of the creation of contemporary artists.This thesis aims to promote the construction and communication of the spirit of the microscopic world, and to find the inspirations and natures. It is a spiritual subject that deserves the attention of contemporary artists.

This thesis is a comparative study of the approaches to mental tranquility advanced by the Pyrrhonian skeptic Sextus Empiricus and Huineng, the historically recognized Sixth Patriarch of the Southern Zen School. Relying on the Outlines of Pyrrhonism and the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, the principle texts of the Pyrrhonian and Zen schools respectively, I argue that the Pyrrhonian skeptic’s method of attaining ataraxia (“unperturbedness”) via the use of opposing arguments is essentially identical to that of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng’s employment of “opposition pairs.” Finally, in addition to contextualizing the schools historically, I compare their respective positions on ethical and metaphysical statements.