Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-141). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-102). Also available online.

No description available.

This paper aims to make an investigation into the use of devices as the camera and counter-devices created specifically for photographic portraits as poetic realizations, seeking a new construction of the appearances represented in them, in an attempt to attain a renewed aesthetic of this photographic category, which has been widely requested since the beginning of photography. This study is based on the works of different artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Felix Nadar, Arthur Omar and Sarah Moon, among others, through an observation of the expressions of the portrait that can clarify and ensure a personal poetic achievement that will enrich this subject in the Visual Arts. Secondly, the counter-device plays a key role in the practical and reflective direction of this research. Thus, we seek to analyze the counter-device as a key element and to explore what knowledge it may hold and what action it has in making photography. In this context where devices allow the creation of sensitive objects fitting for reflection, we base our work in Giorgio Agamben, Flusser, Arlindo Machado, Annatereza Fabris and Françoise Soulages among others, and divergent concepts arise throughout the work and problematize the object of this investigation. Finally, we present a series of portraits made during the research that combine theoretical thinking with practice. / Este trabalho tem por objetivo fazer uma investigação fundada no uso do dispositivo e do contradispositivo e criada especificamente para a realização poética do retrato fotográfico, buscando uma nova construção das aparências nele representadas na tentativa de uma estética renovada desta categoria de fotografia amplamente requisitada desde os primeiros passos da fotografia. Este estudo se apoia nas obras de diferentes artistas como Julia Margareth Cameron, Felix Nadar, Arthur Omar, Sarah Moon, entre outros, observando as expressões do retrato que possam esclarecer e nos assegurar de uma realização poética pessoal que venha enriquecer este sujeito nas Artes Visuais. Num segundo momento, o contradispositivo tem um papel fundamental no encaminhamento prático e reflexivo desta pesquisa. Assim, busca-se a análise do contradispositivo como elemento fundamental que demanda o conhecimento do que ele pode ser, bem como sua ação no fazer fotográfico. Neste contexto onde aparelhos permitem criar objetos sensíveis propícios para serem pensados, a reflexão apoia-se em Giorgio Agamben, Vilém Flusser, Arlindo Machado, Annatereza Fabris e Françoise Soulages entre outros, e os diferentes conceitos vão surgindo ao longo do trabalho e problematizando o objeto desta investigação. Por fim, apresenta-se uma série de retratos realizados no decorrer da pesquisa que conjugam o pensamento teórico com a prática.

No description available.

Cette étude que j'ai intitulé «Œuvre monstre, une création informe» s'inscrit dans une recherche dans l'art contemporain sur des phénomènes plastiques liés à l'idée de l'extrême. Ils restent tributaires d'une théorie de la forme vers celle de l'informe et d'une grande plasticité que rehaussent mes œuvres personnelles, mélangeant de façon heureuse la sculpture traditionnelle et le numérique. Or, associer l'image numérique, l'argile et la vidéo au sujet du monstre était une manière de toucher au plus profond des œuvres cruelles et informes, de ressemblances déchirantes et déchirées. La forme monstrueuse n'est donc pas réduite à une simple signification consciente, elle transcrit un discours univoque et le monstre devient alors le concept par excellence dans ma pratique plastique. L'œuvre devient de l'ordre de "monstrum", l'image est d'essence "monstrative". Chaque image, telle qu'elle soit, numérique, photographique ou vidéographique est une monstrance. La sculpture serait la représentation du corps déchu, ou de l'image de la mort, qui surgit dans le miroir de Narcisse qui n'a plus rien à faire de la ressemblance, donnant un reflet qui appréhende le masque de Méduse. Cette recherche qui s'attache à l'informe, débusque les mythes sous des pratiques violentes et accidentées, appuyée par une recherche théorique qui s'est développée notamment autour de la pensée de Georges Bataille, ainsi que des anthropologues et de la phénoménologie, et par leurs pensées, l'œuvre ramène les différentes expériences d'extrême, d'excès, et de perte, à la dimension du sacrifice. / This study I entitled "Monster Work, a Formless Creation" is to be inscribed within a contemporary art research that deals with the idea of the extreme in relation to plastic phenomena, for the latter depend on the theory of form and on a great plasticity enhanced by personal creations that happily melt traditional sculptures with digital technology. As a matter of fact, combining the digital image, the clay and the video, with the monster, was a way to reach what is profound within formless and cruel works of art that are of painful and torn resemblances. The monstrous form is, thus, not reduced to a simple conscious significance, it transcribes an unambiguous discourse and the monster becomes the concept, par excellence, of my plastic practice. The work of art becomes connected to the "monstrum" and the image is inherently endowed with a visual power (in French "monstrative"). Every image, be it digital, photographic or video graphic is a monstrance. Sculpture would be the representation of the fallen body or the image of death that appears in Narcissus Mirror and that is no longer related to any form of resemblance, showing a reflection that grasps the Mask of Medusa. This research that is focusing on formlessness serves to dispel the myths under violent and rugged practices supported by a theoretical research based on the philosophy of Georges Bataille as well as that of anthropologists and phenomenologists, and through their thoughts, the work brings the different experiences of extremes, excess and loss to the dimension of sacrifice.

A importância da tragédia clássica, assim como da arte grega em geral, tem sido analisada não só individualmente mas, também, em relação a muitas obras que foram produzidas na história da literatura. William Shakespeare, por exemplo, escreveu várias peças que contém elementos de tragédia, ou possuem uma visão trágica da vida Hamlet, uma das obras mais conhecidas do autor, pode ser lembrada como sendo uma tragédia moderna. A própria ideia de tragédia moderna é importante neste trabalho, já que através de alguns conceitos, pode-se explicar a transposição de elementos de tragédia clássica a s obras de diferentes períodos históricos, com as necessárias e naturais transformações que a tragédia sofreu devida a s diferenças de tempo, espaço, cultura, etc. De qualquer modo, o efeito duradouro desta antiga forma de arte pode dar origem a inúmeros estudos. Será analisada nesta dissertação a visão trágica do romance The Portrait of a Lady, de Henry James, publicado em 1881, atrav6s das ações da personagem principal e nas mudanças que ocorrem no rumo dos acontecimentos dentro do romance. Isabel Archer, a heroína do romance em estudo, enfrenta ambiguidade e contradições internas ao julgar e escolher a ação que ira tomar, ação esta que ira modificar o rumo de sua vida. Apesar de haver, também, na tragédia clássica, um herói, ou heroína, enfrentando a difícil questão de decidir qual ação deve tomar, esta decisão não só depende muitas vezes de fatores externos ( questões familiares, de estado, ou influencia divina), mas pode influir nestas próprias questões. / The importance of classical tragedy, and Greek art in general, has been analyzed in itself and in relation to many works which were produced throughout the history of literature. The idea of "modern tragedy" is important in this sense, since it will explain the transportation of elements of Greek tragedy to literary works of diverse historical periods, with the necessary and natural transformation tragedy went through due to the differences of time, place, culture, etc. In any case, the long-lasting influence of this ancient form of art is a source of a great number of studies The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, published in 1881, is a modern novel which will be analyzed in this dissertation as having a tragic view of life. This can be seen through the actions of the principal character and in the turn of events which occur. The modern elements of tragedy present in the novel will be related to the classical ones to analyze the dilemma the heroine, Isabel Archer, faces, and to describe the ambiguity and contradictions this heroine deals with in judging and choosing the action she will take The necessity to organize the narrative patterns which indicated the tragic view in James' novel, led to a brief review of some ideas taken from semiotics, specifically those connected to the study of the polarity of signs in language. In this way, signs could be extracted from the novel to form two pairs of poles which functioned as a means of interpreting the tragedy of the heroine, Isabel, through the ambiguity present in the images used in narrative.

Följande uppsats behandlar fyra hovporträtt av konstnären Bronzino föreställande fursteparet Cosimo I de’ Medici och Eleonora di Toledo speglade mot de litterära källorna Machiavellis Fursten och Castigliones Boken om hovmannen. Uppsatsen empiriska material kommer således att bestå av ovanstående material placeras framför varandra för att belysa dess beröringspunkter, både i fråga om likheter och olikheter. Analysens teoriangrepp kommer med avstamp i Roland Barthes semiotiska bildanalys att närma sig porträttens denotativa men främst konnotativa uttryck. Vidare har Shearer Wests bok Portraiture använts för förståelsen kring porträttet som genre i dess historiska kontext. Undersökningens disposition består av två huvudrubriker varav den första behandlar den historiska kontexten och den sista delen själva bildanalyserna. Resultatet visar på att samtliga porträtt av Cosimo och Eleonora finner flera beröringspunkter i Machiavellis furstespegel som Castigliones hovmannaideal, men skiljer sig delvis beroende på porträtt. Vidare har undersökningen visat på att Cosimo i sina två utvalda statsporträtt – valde att i det senare gestalta sig själv i en måttfullare stil – inte helt olik den måttfullhet som skildras i såväl Castigliones litterära verk som visuella porträtt. Cosimos tidigare porträtt svarar dock bättre mot Machiavellis idé om imitering. De två porträtten av Eleonora finner även dom olika samband med textmaterial och där Eleonoras senare statsporträtt tycks besitta flera av hertiginnans drag – något som inte med samma tydlighet framträder i det tidigare porträttet. Gemensamt för alla porträtt är deras avsaknad av sprezzatura som den allra viktigaste egenskapen för en person vid hovet.

PRETÉRITO IMPERFEITO DE TERRITÓRIOS MÓVEIS é uma pesquisa que busca diferentes maneiras de explorar fotograficamente o rosto - e até a ausência dele -, no universo dos álbuns de Redes Sociais. As experimentações poéticas se dividem nas séries EGOSHOTS, BIOSHOTS e THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE 127.0.0.1., criando-se imagens que são chaves, portas e espelhos que refletem o eu, o outro e o lugar. Tendo como mote os conceitos de Rostidade e de Nomadismo de Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari e de Michel Maffesoli, cada série propõe pensar o rosto como um território que migra conforme os fluxos de interação social, e como tal adotá-lo como uma espécie de plataforma para múltiplas inscrições. Os rostos que se apresentam nesses ambientes virtuais são móveis e multifacetados. São muitos como se fossem um só, e únicos em suas particularidades. São fragmentos visuais de territórios móveis, de passado incerto, presente inconcluso e futuro fragmentado em pixels. / THE PAST IMPERFECT OF MOBILE TERRITORIES is a research which aims to photographically explore different ways to the face - and even the lack of face - of the universe of a/bums of Social Networks. The trials are divided into the poetic series EGOSHOTS, BIOSHOTS and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE 127.0.0.1., creating images that are keys, doors and mirrors that reflect the se/f and the other place. Having as its the concepts of Faciality and Nomadism of Gi//es Deleuze & Felix Guattari and Michel Maffesoli, each series proposes to discuss the face as a territory which migrates as the flow of social interaction, and therefore adopt it as a kind of platform for multiple applications. The faces that appear in these virtual environments are mobile and multifaceted. Many as if they were one and unique in their particulars. They are fragments of territory visual furniture, obscure past, present and future unfinished fragmented into pixels.

This research project makes use of photographic art practice as an investigative tool, through which a variety of strategies have been employed in order to picture the traditional photographic portrait studio. The thesis provides both a context within which to understand this art practice and expands upon and develops the themes proposed by it. The history of the photographic studio is presented in traditional narrative form and as a discursive formation; being analysed at two specific junctures within this narrative. This historical and cultural contextualisation allows the studio to be viewed in terms of a space and apparatus that embody particular characteristics. It is suggested that whilst these characteristics are explicitly located within discourses relating to class and aesthetics they also incorporate an implicit psychical dimension. The studio as an apparatus is analysed as constituting particular subject positions. These are discussed in relation to ideas drawn from film theory that utilise Lacanian psychoanalytic concepts. The studio is considered as a space in which the presence of the Lacanian Gaze becomes suggested with particular prominence. As an architecture that embodies the presence of the gaze, the studio is discussed in relation to a number of theories around the nature of space and modernity. The possibility of transference as an element of the studio encounter is also posited. Four artists (Helmut Newton, Jemima Stehli, Broomberg and Chanarin and Christopher Williams) are identified as producing work that critically engages the space of the studio. Analysis of this work serves to develop the arguments made so far and provides an extended consideration of the particular subject object relationships that become played out in the studio. This becomes developed further in relation to commercial portrait practices and is demonstrated through analysis of portraits by Mike Disfarmer and Suresh Punjabi both of whom have been the subject of significant theoretical discussion. The thesis concludes with a reflection on how the practice produced for this research has both been conceived and executed in relation to theory but also on how it can be thought of as providing, in itself, a unique and valuable contribution to knowledge. It is argued that the practice not only makes visible a coercive discourse and psychic economy implicit within the studio but that it also promotes a particularly compelling and pertinent consideration of how the two might be related.