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On the Experience of Encountering Art in Museum Spaces: an Inquiry with Gilles Deleuze's Concepts of Desire and Assemblage

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On the Experience of Encountering Art in Museum Spaces: an Inquiry with Gilles Deleuze's Concepts of Desire and Assemblage ON THE EXPERIENCE OF ENCOUNTERING ART IN MUSEUM SPACES: AN INQUIRY WITH GILLES DELEUZE'S CONCEPTS OF DESIRE AND ASSEMBLAGE by Marie-France Berard B.A., The University of Montreal, 1992 M.A., The University of Montreal, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Curriculum Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2017 © Marie-France Berard, 2017 ABSTRACT Framed by the theoretical concepts of assemblage and desire from philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and his collaborative writings with psychoanalyst Félix Guattari (Deleuze and Guattari, 1983, 1987), this study inquires into the qualities and productive potential of the art encounter in a gallery setting. The study brings together my practice in the field of art museum education, and my interest in the art encounter to inquire what the art encounter does. Thinking with Deleuzian concepts enacts a view of the art encounter as a milieu of experimentation where affects move a body to create assemblages, connections with things, human and non-human bodies, expressions, qualities, ideas, spaces. Assemblages allow desire (as a force) to circulate; desiring-assemblages move bodies to produce connections with other human or non-human entities, thoughts, they produce subjectivation as a mode of existence. For Deleuze, one does not 'have' an experience of an artwork or exhibition detached against the background of life; experience is a milieu which contributes to actually making life. My study inquires how working within a philosophy conceived in terms of relationality, connections, flows and multiplicity (rather than fixed identities) enact a view of the art encounter as a milieu of immanent ethics. By immanent ethics, Deleuze means that encountering increases the potential for new connections, it can actualize the possibilities already in life. The experience of encountering art is inviting one into experiences of living. This post-qualitative study followed a process of research as assemblage formed by: the research site at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the dynamic constellation of interconnected objects, bodies, ideas such as my field notes, photographs, the writing of personal narratives of my encounterings in the gallery space, and scholarly texts. Throughout ii the research process, two guiding questions remained present: 1) With the production of data in autobiographical fieldnotes, how does Deleuze’s concepts of desire and assemblage help me inquire about my art encounters, and what insights can I bring forth on the art encounter? 2) In what ways does thinking with Deleuzian concepts enlarge received discourses in art education and museum education about the art encounter within the art museum? iii LAY SUMMARY This research is about the experience of encountering art in a gallery setting. It brings together my practice in the field of art museum education and my interest to understand what the art encounter does, alongside the concepts of desire and assemblage from philosopher Gilles Deleuze. To Deleuze, experience is a milieu providing various opportunities to be affected, and allows for encounters to happen. Thinking with the Deleuzian concepts of desire and assemblage was generative to consider the experience of encountering art as a complex milieu where affects produced in the encounter with art move a body to create assemblages allowing the flow of desire (as a force), the production of ideas, and subjectivation as a mode of existence. An implication arising from this study is that encountering art invites us into experiences of living because we never know how we will be affected, and what possibilities will be actualized. iv PREFACE This dissertation is original work by the author, Marie-France Berard. I conceptualized and crafted this research following the guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Dónal O'Donoghue and my committee members Dr. Rita Irwin and Dr. William Pinar, and building on the support of the Vancouver Art Gallery and many other peers and classmates recognized in the acknowledgements. This research received a certificate of approval from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Office of Research Services on September 16, 2014, and with the UBC Behaviour Research Board certificate number H14-01500. An earlier and modified version of the narrative encounter "Eight hundred and eighty- six wooden stools" has previously been published in: Higgins, M., Madden, B., Berard, M.-F., Lenz Kothe, E., Nordstrom, S. N. (2017). De/signing research in education: Patchwork(ing) methodologies with theory, Educational Studies, 43(1), 16-39. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..............................................................................................................................ii Lay summary..................................................................................................................... iv Preface................................................................................................................................v Table of contents...............................................................................................................vi List of works………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ix Glossary..............................................................................................................................x Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................xvii Dedication.......................................................................................................................xix Prologue - Scenes of an encounter in Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery.........................1 Introduction- Three background moments to the study.................................................4 Purpose and focus of the study............................................................................................4 First moment - My academic studies in art history and professional career in art museum ducation..................................................................................................................7 Second moment - A visit at Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery........................................12 Third moment- An impromptu reading; View of Delft by Timothy Brook........................14 Opening a line of flight - The study.....................................................................................18 Site of the study.................................................................................................................... 21 Some preliminary words on the structure of the study......................................................25 Encounter - Eight hundred and eighty-six wooden stools...............................................27 Chapter 1 - On the experience of encountering art: An inquiry with Gilles Deleuze concepts of encounter, desire and assemblage...............................................................35 Why Deleuze?......................................................................................................................35 On Deleuze's concepts of encounter, assemblage and desire..........................................41 So why Deleuze?..................................................................................................................46 vi The research as assemblage ................................................................................................48 Encounter - Ripped plastic bags, dry yellow corn shavings and Chinese landscape painting............................................................................................................................ 60 Chapter 2 - Art experience............................................................................................... 68 Overview concerning the notion of art experience........................................................... 68 The concept of experience in the writings of Gilles Deleuze............................................ 79 Revisiting John Dewey's understanding of art experience................................................ 82 Thoughts on art experience following a Deleuze-Dewey conceptual encounter............86 Encounter - Stepping into Shan Shui................................................................................90 Chapter 3 - Encounter.......................................................................................................96 The concept of encounter in the writings of Gilles Deleuze..............................................97 Revisiting Maurice Merleau-Ponty's notion of "the tutelage of perception"...................102 Thoughts on art experience following a Deleuze-Merleau-Ponty conceptual encounter ....................................................................................................... 106 Encounter - Of ghost st0ries and things..........................................................................110 Chapter 4 - Assemblage....................................................................................................118 The concept of assemblage in the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.............119 Revisiting Hans Georg Gadamer's concept of play...........................................................128 Thoughts on art experience following a Deleuze-Gadamer conceptual encounter........133 Encounter - Silent words, visualizing time......................................................................137
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