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This explorative research examines a contemporary representation for suicide. Utilizing a dualistic framework of biology and technology, I codify diverse theoretical discourses into why people commit suicide. My practical research then merges opposing binaries of 'fact' (the need to understand) within 'fiction' (the need to tell narratives). In context of this study a person who has taken their own life is the 'author' and the researcher is the 'reader' of this event ‐ I investigate how the reader imposes their own narrative upon the author.

As members of extended families and genealogical lines we collect and view photographs to remember. By situating the present investigation within the context of archival family photographic collections, this research seeks to understand the assumptions surrounding the interplay between the practice of viewing photographs and notions of remembering. Historically, photography has been connected to concepts of stability and truth with photographic images acting as a metaphor for ‘real lived experiences’. When a photograph is viewed, whatever was present before the camera is verified. In his seminal text Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1980), French theorist Roland Barthes describes this as ‘a truth to presence’ (Barthes 1980: 84). Barthes links this position to Poststructuralist theory, by determining that photographic signifiers, denotative data, are stable where as the signified, the idea or meaning, is contingent on what a viewer brings to that particular ‘text’. Therefore the viewer relies on denotative data to process meaning. This research explores the ways photographers play with photographic processes to disrupt ideas of stability of meaning surrounding this medium. The visual component of this research explores the expectations that socio-cultural groups, specifically extended families, have when viewing photographs. The subsequent work will endeavour to lay bare the interplay between such expectations and the supposed reliability of the photograph in respect to both meaning and perception. Using an archive of my own extended family’s collection of photographs, this thesis seeks to disrupt the story-telling qualities of photographs. This interruption strategy points to poststructuralist discourses surrounding the stability of the photographic image and the context in which photography is grounded. The work will challenge viewers to re-assess what the photograph can or cannot do. The final work will be comprised of 80% practice and 20% exegesis.

Master of Visual Arts / Digital/video games1 have entertained for 40 years and are a medium with the ability to reach a vast audience. In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Charles Purcell reports that; “Globally, Halo 2 has sold more than 7 million copies. Both in the US and Australia it broke the film box-office record for the most earnings in the first 24 hours of release. The worldwide Halo 2 community on X-box Live has about 400,000 players… at the World Cyber Games in Seoul. Last year, gold medallist Matthew Leto won $US20,000 ($AUS27,0000) after his second consecutive Halo title.” 2. Game consoles have become a part of many lounge rooms just as the television did before them. Games are even commonplace in many coat pockets and carrying bags. This dissertation is concerned with the medium of digital/video games in relation to its effect on Game Art. It is also concerned with the concept of my studio work that deals with “evil” and the “uncanny” which are discussed in chapter four. My research looks at games and how they have developed and the relationship to contemporary art. A history of this development is explored in chapter two. My research will help me in developing an interactive piece. Throughout my current research the thoughts of author of The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit Sherry Turkle resonate: “…not what will the computer be like in the future, but instead, what will we be like? What kind of people are we becoming?” 3 It is interesting to consider the video/digital games as experiments of who we are or who we would like to be, little fantasies of empowerment. In a game we are able to live out our frustrations or fantasies in a closed and predictable experience.

Thesis (M.A.)-- Vanguard University of Southern California, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 310-325) .

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A casa da infância é uma entidade bipartida: uma, a casa vivida na experiência indiferenciada de ser, um lugar-tempo do inaugural, do espanto, do afeto; outra, aquela que este lugar-tempo produz no imaginário daquele que dela se afastou, geográfica e temporalmente, a casa onírica. No sujeito, memória e imaginação não se dissociam, e somente assim é possível retornar ao lugar-tempo mítico desta casa primeva; a memória é então fonte (ou ponte) para esta celebração da ausência retornada viva através da transmutação da lembrança em narrativa processo constante nos indivíduos que as obras ficcionais buscam reproduzir. A presente tese, Do imaginário à narrativa: a memória da casa da infância, pretende explorar a memória da casa e a ficção indissociável a esta na construção de um pre-texto gerador de narrativa no sujeito e a forma como este processo é ficcionalizado em produções literárias contemporâneas que recorrem a ela como temática e estrutura / The childhood home is a double entity: one, the house lived in the experience indistinguishable from being, a place-time of the inaugural, of the awe in face of the new, of affection; the other, that which this place-time produces in the imaginary of one who distanced themselves from it, both geographically and in time, the oneiric house. In the subjects, memory and imagination do not dissociate one from the other, and it is only so that it is possible to return to this mythic place-time of the first house; memory is, thus, the source (or bridge) to this celebration of the absence come alive through the transformation of recollection into narrative constant process in the individuals which fictional works try to reproduce. The presente study, Do imaginário à narrativa: a memória da casa da infância, aims at exploiting the memory of the house and the fiction inalienable from it in the construction of a pre-text generator of narrative in the subject and the form in which this process is fictionalized in contemporary literary productions that recur to it as theme and structure

The thesis primarily engages with Proust and China from the following three aspects: the Chinese translations and retranslations of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu, contemporary mainland Chinese writers’ intertextual engagement with Proust, and the transcultural dialogue between Proust and the Franco-Chinese author, François Cheng. Part I Chapter I compares and contrasts different – integral and selective – Chinese translations of La Recherche, and explores their different emphases as well as negligence of Proustian themes, e.g. time and memory over anti-Semitism and homosexuality, due to the former’s strong resonance with Chinese philosophical and aesthetic traditions. The chapter is further substantiated by a close examination of various strategies employed to translate passages on sadomasochism and homosexuality in Proust’s work, which reflect changing discourses on and attitudes to the subjects in China. Chapter II focuses on the creative reception of Proust’s work in China. It explores how three mainland Chinese writers’ intertextual engagement with Proust is influenced by the first integral translation of La Recherche, and how they cite Proust partly to enhance the cultural prestige of their own works, while creating a horizon of expectations and a favourable climate of reception of Proust’s work in China. With a shift of focus to the Chinese diaspora in France, Part II explores Cheng’s French-language novel Le Dit de Tianyi as the author’s intellectual and artistic dialogue with Proust’s work. In addition to the intertextual relations, this part particularly examines Cheng’s conceptual and structural engagement with Proust’s novelistic conceptions of Bildungsroman and Künstlerroman, his approach to the fine arts, and finally his use of mythological motifs. Through the case of Proust, the thesis tries to gain a better understanding of the interaction between literatures and cultures, and particularly, the phenomena of cultural appropriation and dialogue in literature. More specifically, it demonstrates how the cultural heritages of China and the West can be re-negotiated, re-thought, and put into dialogue through the fictional and creative medium of literature.

Reading the Transformation: The Relationship between Literature and Territory in Contemporary Veneto aims at investigating the interrelation between a geographically defined entity and the literary word. Placed in the context of a broader reflection on the dynamics of such relation, this thesis aims at outlining a specific set of theoretical references in order to analyse the case of contemporary Veneto through a close reading of some particularly relevant works by two authors from this region, Massimo Carlotto and Marco Paolini. Developed from an interest in the literary tradition of Veneto and in the theme of landscape and territory representation in literature, this thesis is comprised of two parts: the first one is dedicated to tracing the theoretical, historical, and literary coordinates that define the scope and frame of reference for the thesis; the second one conducts an in-depth analysis of the context in which the works of Carlotto and Paolini are situated. Drawing on concepts pertaining geography, cultural anthropology, and landscape theory, the premise of this thesis is that territory is a complex geographic, historical, social, economic, and cultural entity of which landscape constitutes the visible stratum. Siding with arguments that sustain the centrality of the role of landscape in the process of formation of people's identity, this thesis adopts such concept and employs it as a key to understand the relation between territory and literature. Through the analysis of La verità dell'Alligatore and Nordest by Carlotto and Il Milione and Bestiario Veneto - Parole mate by Paolini, the objective of this thesis is, on one side, to provide an insight into how the transformation of a territory can shape the formation of a collective identity, on the other side, to shed light on the means through the reflection on territory enters the literary space.

L’art contemporain africain a fait son entrée dans le système globalisé, d’abord par les manifestations artistiques, ensuite dans les maisons de vente. Depuis les années post-indépendances, une nouvelle vision de l’art contemporain africain a émergé avec l’avènement des discours postcoloniaux. Ces idées inédites ont entraîné une lecture différente de l’esthétique contemporaine africaine avec l’appui de certains commissaires d’exposition. Parallèlement, une vision de l’artiste « authentique » subsiste dans les manifestations et donne de l’artiste africain une image qui peut paraître quelques fois figée. Les artistes contemporains africains se retrouvent aujourd’hui dans une situation conflictuelle ; ils doivent soit se rapprocher des centres d’impulsion artistiques c’est-à-dire du marché de l’art occidental ou rester sur le continent africain et tenter par des initiatives diverses et variées d’intégrer un marché qui reste encore en occident. Les zones périphériques arrivent cependant peu à peu à se muter en centres d’impulsion mais restent pour le moment modestes.Avec l’avènement des nouvelles technologies, des opportunités s’offrent aux artistes des périphéries en termes d’usages mais aussi en tant que medium. Leur application pousse à la réflexion, et à une tentative de compréhension des enjeux qui se profilent pour l’art contemporain africain et des perspectives qu’il faudra entrevoir à travers le paradigme des postcoloniales studies et à travers l’avènement des technologies de l’information et des communication. Est-il possible de proposer de nouvelles approches pour promouvoir la diffusion de l’art contemporain africain à travers les dispositifs socio-techniques disponibles mais aussi à travers la gestion de l’information. ? Dans une première partie, cette thèse tente de montrer la diversité des arts de l’Afrique pour en comprendre la complexité aujourd’hui. Puis en analysant les liens qu’elle a eus avec l’occident, d’en comprendre l’histoire.Dans une seconde partie la place de l’identité de l’artiste africain mais aussi son positionnement puis les initiatives qui sont menées sur le continent permettront de mieux appréhender les enjeux et perspectives qui dans la troisième partie, permettront d’avoir un point de vue global sur ce qui régit aujourd’hui l’art contemporain africain. / The contemporary African art has made its entry into the globalized system, first through artistic exhibitions then in the auction houses. Since the 1960s’ a new vision of contemporary African art has emerged with the postcolonial discourse. These ideas have led to a different reading of the contemporary African aesthetic with the support of some curators. Meanwhile, a vision of the “authentic” artist remains in many European and American exhibitions. African artist give an image that can sometimes seem fossilized The contemporary African artists today find themselves in a situation, which can be source of conflicts. They can get close to the artistic centers pulse which means the Western art market or stay on the African continent and try by different initiatives to include a market which is still outlying areas like western countriesThe other areas however gradually mutate into centers pulse but remain modest for the time being. With the advent of new technologies, opportunities exist for artists from the third world in terms of use but also as media. Their application pushes the reflection, and then attempt to understand the challenges that lies ahead for contemporary African art and perspectives that will glimpse through the paradigm of postcolonial studies and through the advent of technologies of information and communication. Is it possible to suggest new approaches to promote the dissemination of contemporary African art through socio-technical devices available but also through information management? The first part, this thesis attempts to show the diversity of the arts of Africa to understand it’s complexity today. Then by analyzing the relationship it has with the West, to understand it’s history.The second part tries to understand the identity of the African artist but also its positioning and initiatives that are carried out on the continent will better understand the challenges and opportunities.The third part will give a point of view overall which today governs contemporary African art.