This thesis proposes a framework for the 'embodied presence' that emerges out of the transitional spaces created in the avatar-mediated virtual spaces of Machinima filmmaking practice. At its root, Machinima is a form of cinematic expression that documents life within virtual spaces and draws connections between virtuality and reality. Drawing upon the writings of Gaston Bachelard and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, this thesis examines how the contemporary notion of the virtual and its relationship to the imagination has changed our understanding of embodiment and presence. The analysis of the imaginative effects of my Machinima film, I Am My Mother's Son (which provides the practice-based study for this thesis), demonstrates a mode of artistic exploration of the particular combination of user-generated and avatar-mediated spaces. An analysis of a phenomenology of practice in avatar-mediated virtual spaces utilising a method of interpretive phenomenology analysis reveals that presence is experienced as embodied. Moreover, a materiality to space is identified through an imagination of the senses that responds to the presence of the (imagined) body of the avatar. This thesis argues that the conditions for the embodied presence in Machinima filmmaking practice are best generated in avatar-mediated virtual spaces, where the experience of space is heterogeneous and where the plasticity of mind-body-space relationships is articulated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:695659 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Lynch, Alvin |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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