Abstract The paintings in White Noise are a response to temporal lighting conditions that occur at night. A discussion of sensory affect demonstrates how perception is inextricably connected to the body’s sensory capabilities such as sound and touch. By examining Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of phenomenology and looking at Gestalt Psychology based experiments it is made clear that seeing whole and complete forms in the world is a product of embodied perceptual experience. I recall early experiences of being affected by light describing the optical illusion of the afterimage and then move into the everyday perceptions that inform my current painting practice. The painting studio process is examined as a beacon from which to reconcile the affecting nuances of observed lighting at night. I discuss the importance of allowing trial, error and patience to take place while making paintings to in turn seek out optimal colour relationships and shape interaction. By developing a specific painting vocabulary that responds to the colour, texture and sound associated with perceptual experiences I reconcile through the abstract process of painting how affecting experiences can be re-presented and reinvented onto the canvas.

Abstract The paintings in White Noise are a response to temporal lighting conditions that occur at night. A discussion of sensory affect demonstrates how perception is inextricably connected to the body’s sensory capabilities such as sound and touch. By examining Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of phenomenology and looking at Gestalt Psychology based experiments it is made clear that seeing whole and complete forms in the world is a product of embodied perceptual experience. I recall early experiences of being affected by light describing the optical illusion of the afterimage and then move into the everyday perceptions that inform my current painting practice. The painting studio process is examined as a beacon from which to reconcile the affecting nuances of observed lighting at night. I discuss the importance of allowing trial, error and patience to take place while making paintings to in turn seek out optimal colour relationships and shape interaction. By developing a specific painting vocabulary that responds to the colour, texture and sound associated with perceptual experiences I reconcile through the abstract process of painting how affecting experiences can be re-presented and reinvented onto the canvas.

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In 2013, the 55th Venice Biennale, the world's oldest bi-annual international contemporary art exhibition, opened under the title The Encyclopedic Palace, organized by Italian curator Massimiliano Gioni. The international exhibition section is always flanked by an amalgamation of distinct national spaces, a dual exhibition model that has been the hallmark of the Biennale since 1998. In 2013, the United States pavilion was devoted to American artist Sarah Sze's work Triple Point and her signature arrangement of everyday objects and materials, such as Q-tips, water bottles, painter's tape, and desk lamps. The title of Sze's multi-room installation, culled from earlier works as well as created from new materials, refers to the thermodynamic equilibrium of any given substance--specifically, a "triple point" is the temperature and pressure at which a substance is solid, liquid and gas at the same time. The quasi-scientific installations provide constantly shifting viewpoints as the viewer circumnavigates the interconnected spaces of the U.S. pavilion, moving amid, around, and through the work, but also focusing on different individual objects before pulling back to catch glimpses of the work as a whole. In this thesis, I apply a phenomenological analysis to Triple Point in order to make sense of its scientific references in conjunction with its complex form. I view Triple Point as a culmination of the ideas that Sze has sustained and explored over the course of her career--such as the investigation of everyday objects in relation to site, space, and viewer--that situates the viewer in an experience caught between empirical order and individual perception. To examine Triple Point using the idea of "embodied perception," I formally analyze the work in relation to its scientific meanings as suggested by its titles of individual works--Gleaner, Planetarium, Eclipse, Scale, Orrery, Pendulum, Observatory, and Compass. I then trace the discourse surrounding phenomenology and the rise of installation art through the writings of art historians Michael Fried, Rosalind Krauss, and Claire Bishop, before finally situating French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology as an apt theory for analyzing this work. In embracing both the scientific objectivity implied by Sze's installations without sacrificing the import of physical perception, I contend that Triple Point invites the viewer to look at--but also beyond--the array of familiar objects, emphasizing a shifting sense of the work that is never exhaustively fixed. Thus, Triple Point does not expose the classic dichotomies between art and science, natural and manufactured, image and object, but instead opens up the moment of their confluence--the paradoxical achievement of an embodied perception as described by Merleau-Ponty. Understood phenomenologically, Triple Point invites viewers to get caught-up in the dynamic experience of "between-ness" invoked by the installation's title and to engage with their everyday experiences of contemporary life in a new way.

This project takes a research through design approach, presenting the design process of an interactive sonic installation – SoundEscape – mounted on a walking bridge in Ørstedsparken, Copenhagen. SoundEscape makes people interact with sounds from rural areas of Denmark into the middle of the city. Featuring speakers and motion sensors, the prototype uses people crossing the bridge as an input for building up a soundscape – layer by layer as the person detected moves on. SoundEscape is just one prototype exploring how people can build up a soundscape through their movement across the bridge. The paper suggest more areas of the interactive design space to explore. Designing the installation, we went through four phases: field research, exploration synthesis, and concept development. Participants where included in the process to collect sound input from rural areas in Denmark. In all phases, we kept a close dialogue with the context, grounding design decisions in the observations and explorations we did on the bridge. We made two tests of the prototype: on a mini-scale model and in the park context. The paper presents a framework for interactive sonic installations that are used to analyse SoundEscape and compares it with another sonic installation on a bridge that have a different form of interactivity. Based on this analysis, the findings from the design process, and the two tests, the paper discuss the interactivity in the prototype. The paper suggest how the interactions with the soundscape can be further extended.