Articulating Thresholds ~ Artistic Techniques for More-Than-Human Sensitivities
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Articulating thresholds ~ artistic techniques for more-than-human sensitivities Ally Bisshop A thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy National Institute for Experimental Arts UNSW Art and Design March 2018 Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname/Family Name : Bisshop Given Name/s : Allison Abbreviation for degree as give in the University calendar : PhD Faculty : UNSW Art and Design School : National Institute for Experimental Arts Thesis Title : Articulating thresholds: artistic techniques for more-than-human sensitivities Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) This practice-based research proposes thresholding techniques as a contribution to processual artistic practices. It argues that such practices engage matter not as readymade form, but as a flux of creative becomings, active within compositional processes. Following Henri Bergson, it proposes that such becomings are ‘more-than-human’, habitually eliding ‘human’ perception. This project engages process-based philosophy and process as ways of encountering matter’s movements, through and beyond human ‘subjects’ and material ‘objects’. Through this research, I develop an image of the threshold as the field through which ‘bodies’ are linked and elaborated, via matter’s creative becomings. The investigation of these concepts engages Erin Manning and Brian Massumi’s artistic process of research- creation, where the intersection of thinking and doing is a generative threshold for the invention of techniques.Through artistic experimentation, I propose four thresholding techniques for composing in relationto material-force, and for opening on to more-than- human experience. My own techniques are developed in concert with an analysis of those at work in artistic praxes engaging process as compositional force: Pierre Huyghe; Nina Canell; Olafur Eliasson; Senselab (space for collective research-creation). Pausing~displacing proposes a technique for expanding the interval of duration, and accessing the more-than-human rhythms that it fields. It is elaborated through my initial multimodal sculptural experiments that slow and attend to different temporalities. Holding~circling proposes a technique for thresholding the tensions between framing/deframing. It emerges from sculptural and performative experiments in framing the event of sunset, and opening onto its morethan-human thresholds. Feeling~following proposes an intuitive engagement with matter’s more-than-human movements. This technique emerges across sculptural/installation works that follow material lures for composing. Through further sculptural and textual experiments, swelling~spilling is proposed as a technique for amplifying the virtual potentials of material-forces within experiential thresholds, and making their difference felt. Thresholding techniques offer artistic propositions for becoming-sensitive to material becomings, such that matter is understood as creative force. They therefore articulate an ethics that situates the creative act as emergent from the relational threshold. This project proposes a new understanding of processual practice as a mode of encountering more-than-human material becomings, and contributes research-creation techniques for engaging this relational threshold. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). …………………………………………………………… ……………………………………..……………… ………28.03.18.……………………...…….… Signature Witness Signature Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………..........01 July 201.................8 AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………..........0001001 July 2018................. Originality statement ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed ................................................... Date Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Introduction{an opening, an entry, a passage} 1 (Interval) A temporal grammar of blueness (I) 19 Knotting~Weaving: four threads for composing threshold practices 20 (Interval) A temporal grammar of blueness (II) 59 Pausing~Displacing: experiments in thresholding time 60 (Interval) Trembling in the balance 96 Holding~Circling: thresholding tensions between framing and deframing 106 (Interval) A temporal grammar of blueness (III) 141 Feeling~Following: threshold movements as lures for composition 146 (Interval) A temporal grammar of blueness (IV) 188 Swelling~Spilling: amplifying threshold potentials 189 (Interval) A temporal grammar of blueness (V) 223 Postscript | Addendum: IT MATTERS WHAT MOVES. 226 Works Cited 245 List of Figures 254 Acknowledgements There are so many people without whom this task would have been impossible. No amount of words can express the depth of my gratitude, so I will try to keep it brief. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Anna Munster and Michele Barker – for taking a chance on me, for knowing when to let me go, and when to rein me in, and for gently tending me toward something like concrescence. Thank you both infinitely. Thanks to Erin Manning and all at the Senselab (in Montreal, and all of its nodes) for their generosity in allowing me to stay with them for three months of research-creation, to redefine my relationship to art and philosophy and its in-betweens, and to understand how thinking and doing might be bridged by artistic technique. My residency and participation in other Senselab events was made possible by support from an Immediations partnership grant funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Canada – for which I’m very grateful. I’d also like to thank the Senselab for introducing me to Justy and Margaret, who offered me a chance to compose with rocks (and so much more). Thanks also to Olafur Eliasson, Christina Werner and the continued support of the Institut für Räumexperimente: for introducing me to Bergson long ago, for the opportunity to exhibit in two stellar locations (the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin), and for feeding into this research process through the lively traces of collaborative thinking-doings. I’d like to thank all of my collaborators in my experimental artistic processes: I learned much from the hyphenated movements of thinking and composing as a multiple with each of you. Thanks go to UNSW Art and Design for supporting me through this process, and allowing me to spend three months of lived experimentation at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. To my family and friends: thank you for forgiving my extended absences, and for staying with me through the difficult moments.