Pieces of a city The art of making speculative cities, bodies, & texts Natalie Collie, BA(Hons) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 Principal supervisor: Dr Glen Thomas Associate supervisor: Professor Greg Hearn Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Abstract This practice-led doctorate involved the development of a collection – a bricolage – of interwoven fragments of literary texts and visual imagery explor- ing questions of speculative fiction, urban space and embodiment. As a sup- plement to the creative work, I also developed an exegesis, using a combina- tion of theoretical and contextual analysis combined with critical reflections on my creative process and outputs. An emphasis on issues of creative practice and a sustained investigation into an aesthetics of fragmentation and assem- blage is organised around the concept and methodology of bricolage, the eve- ryday art of ‘making do’. The exegesis also addresses my interest in the city and urban forms of subjectivity and embodiment through the use of a range of theorists, including Michel de Certeau and Elizabeth Grosz. Key words: bricolage, speculative fiction, writing, urban, space, embodiment, subjectivity, Elizabeth Grosz, Michel de Certeau, assemblage, collage Contents Statement of original authorship Acknowledgements Chapter 1: introduction…………………………...…………………1 Part One: Dis-assembly Chapter 2: bricolage, the art of making do…………………...…....17 Chapter 3: making a city…………………………………...…....…37 Chapter 4: making urban bodies……………………………...…..65 Part Two: Re-assembly Chapter 5: conclusions (making it/the work)…………….…..….87 Dwelling: an illustrated bricolage of a novel…….….…95 Bibliography……………………………...……………..….……...211 Statement of original authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet the requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institu- tion. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: Date: Acknowledgements To my supervisors, other QUT staff, fellow students, work colleagues, beloved family and wonderful friends: Your kindness, guidance and patient support helped me to explore, develop, complete, endure...even love. Thank you. 1 Introduction This introductory chapter functions as an introduction to my whole thesis – both the exegetical and creative components. The chapter outlines my research question, objectives and the contribution that this research makes to the field. It then outlines how the rest of the thesis is presented. Finally, it introduces my use of the term ‘speculative fiction’. 1.1 Research questions This project began with an ‘enthusiasm of practice’ (Haseman, 2006), rather than a specific research question: a desire to read and write a kind of literary speculative fiction that works at the intersection of various genres (science fic- tion, dark and urban fantasy, horror, gothic and fairytales) and that has an ur- ban focus. More specifically, the project explores a range of thematic and aes- thetic influences, including: fantastic and futuristic speculations on the city and urban culture the visuals and noir atmosphere of movies such as Dark City, Blade Runner and The City of Lost Children decadent and gothic literature feminist explorations of the body and subjectivity, space, and speculative fiction an aesthetic of genre-play, parody, appropriation, and fragmented, or dis- continuous, yet interconnecting narratives. The specific issues and questions that this project interrogates broadly fall into the following areas of investigation: a practice and aesthetics of bricolage; questions of urban space; and embodiment. The thesis explores the possible relationships between these, and the specific ways they are inflected by specu- lative fiction. 1 Out of these interests and questions developed the trajectory of my reading, and this in turn (along with my practice itself) has informed my interests and questions. This ongoing process coalesced into the following research ques- tion: What kinds of relations can be explored between a practice and aesthet- ics of bricolage, urban space and embodied subjectivity? And how does speculative fiction - as less constrained by realist conventions, more ful- ly and literally able to explore and speculate on urban fantasies, futures and nightmares – specifically inflect these relations? 1.2 Research objectives In response to these questions, I formulated the following research objectives: 1. To develop a book-length collection of poems, short stories and/or other form of creative material that explores these issues. (Although it was not originally my intent to include visual work, this emerged quite organically from my engagement with the fine art metaphors of brico- lage and assemblage through which I framed my methods of working as a creative writer.) 2. To research and document relevant theoretical and contextual material and critical reflection on the process of making in order to produce an exegesis that would function both as a supplement to the creative work (something akin to an extended form of ‘artist’s statement’) and a piece of theoretical and textual analysis in its own right. The final weighting of each component is 50% of the total work presented. 1.3 Research contribution The project: makes a significant contribution to culture through the development of an original and experimental creative work that successfully combines elements of different genres, creative practice and media; 2 contributes to scholarship on practice led research via an exploration of 1) bricolage as a guiding methodology, and 2) the relationship between the exegetical and creative components of doctorate-level research; contributes to the growing body of scholarship that focuses on ques- tions of space and place via an engagement with geography, architec- ture, and urban studies, as part of the ‘spatial turn’ in cultural and lit- erary studies; explores the particular contribution speculative fiction can make to this scholarship, and questions of corporeality, subjectivity and urban space; and draws together a unique constellation of contemporary creative works (few of which have received any scholarly notice) and critical ques- tions to consider in the accompanying exegesis. 1.4 Outline The thesis is organised into two parts. The first – Part one: dis-assembly – com- prises most of the exegetical material of the thesis. The exegesis addresses the key issues explored in the creative work and contextualises these with rele- vant theoretical and textual analysis. Part two: re-assembly presents a conclusion to the exegesis and then, finally, the creative work itself – Dwelling – presented as a bricolage of text and image. Part two also includes a bibliography. Each of the exegetical chapters includes the following material: Introduction Frameworks (theoretical material and approach) Contexts (contextual review relevant to this particular aspect of the topic) Conclusion Each of the exegetical chapters also incorporates some reflection (either threaded throughout the discussion or given its own section of the chapter) 3 that attempts to make connections between the discussion and my own crea- tive practice. PART ONE: DIS-ASSEMBLY Chapter two explores the concept and practice of bricolage. It introduces the aesthetics and metaphorics of decay, scavenging and recycling that come out of this bricolage methodology and that threads itself throughout my whole work, both exegetically and creatively. Contexts: Kathy Acker; William S. Bur- roughs; Angela Carter; and Jeff VanderMeer. Chapter three examines possible relationships between writ- ing/reading/making (as bricolage) and the city. It draws on the work of ur- ban theorists and literary research. Contexts: cyberpunk; the new weird; and Alastair Reynold’s Chasm City. Chapter four, in light of the previous chapters, attempts to theorise the place of bodies and subjectivity within these arguments and my approach. The chapter starts by reading de Certeau for a model of urban subjectivity, along with other models such as the flâneur. I then explore the limits of these models in terms of gender and sexuality in particular. I use the work of Elizabeth Grosz to help explore other ways of thinking about the relationship between cities and bodies. Contexts: China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station; Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve. This first half of the thesis thus functions at one level as an unweaving, un- picking, tearing apart, unraveling, cutting up, and deconstruction of the dif- ferent bits and pieces that have informed the final creative product. But it also has a focus on beginning to weave these things (writing and cities for exam- ple) together. In fact, I would say that the main focus of my analysis is the productive connections between, for example, writing and cities, cities and bodies. In doing so, on another level, this process of analysis, review and doc- umentation, in effect, assembles, collects, and weaves together an exegetical 4 text. The exegesis not only documents some of the thinking behind the crea- tive component and gives a context for the work. It also functions as a theoret- ical and critical response to the central research questions of this project. PART TWO: RE-ASSEMBLY Part two is focused on bringing all of this material, all the scraps of fabric, all the broken tiles, all the