Making Sound Visible : Synaesthesia and Spectatorship in Media
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UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL MAKING SOUND VISIBLE: SYNAESTHESIA AND SPECTATORSHIP IN MEDIA ART THESIS PRESENTED AS PARTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE DOCTORAT IN ART STUDIES AND PRACTICES BY NELSON L. HENRICKS JUNE 2018 UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL Service des bibliothèques Avertissement La diffusion de cette thèse se fait dans le respect des droits de son auteur, qui a signé le formulaire Autorisation de reproduire et de diffuser un travail de recherche de cycles supérieurs (SDU-522 - Rév.07-2011 ). Cette autorisation stipule que «conformément à l'article 11 du Règlement no 8 des études de cycles supérieurs, [l'auteur] concède à l'Université du Québec à Montréal une licence non exclusive d'utilisation et de publication de la totalité ou d'une partie importante de [son] travail de recherche pour des fins pédagogiques et non commerciales. Plus précisément, [l'auteur] autorise l'Université du Québec à Montréal à reproduire, diffuser, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de [son] travail de recherche à des fins non commerciales sur quelque support que ce soit, y compris l'Internet. Cette licence et cette autorisation n'entraînent pas une renonciation de [la] part [de l'autet;1r] à [ses] droits moraux ni à [ses] droits de propriété intellectuelle. Sauf entente contraire, [l'auteur] conserve la liberté de diffuser et de commercialiser ou non ce travail dont [il] possède un exemplaire.» UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL RENDRE LE SON VISIBLE: SYNESTHÉSIE ET SPECTATORSHIP EN ARTS MÉDIATIQUES THÈSE PRÉSENTÉE COMME EXIGENCE PARTIELLE DU DOÇTORAT EN ETUDES ET PRATIQUES DES ARTS PAR NELSON L. HENRICKS JUIN 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in the form of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Financial support was also provided by the Doctorat en études et pratiques en art at the Université du Québec à Montréal in the form of a Bourse de recrutement du Fonds à l'accessibilité et à la réussite des études. I am grateful to both of these sources for helping to make this work possible. My thesis directors Joanne Lalonde and Claire Savoie guided me with skill and intelligence. Their support, persistence, and good humour helped to bring this project to completion. Graduate programme director Pierre Gosselin offered generous advice throughout the entire process. My professors Yves Jubinville, André Martin, and Patrice Loubier made invaluable contributions to this project: some of the writing in the following chapters was generated in their courses. I appreciate the space they made for my research-and creation. Ann Ramsden and Eduardo Ralickas offered decisive feedback at the project exam phase. My fellow students-often without knowing it-also helped to shape my thinking. Finally, thanks also to Xander Selene for her informed and thoughtful text revision. Dazibao, a Montreal artist-run gallery, hosted the creation aspect of my doctoral research. Gallery staff France Choinière, Amélie Brault, Jennifer Pham, and Drew Bamet all assisted in making the presentation of A Lecture on Art a reality. Financial aid from the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Professional Development Fund contributed in the creation and exhibition of works included in the show. Finally, as always, thank you to Pierre Beaudoin, who accompanied me through this as he has through so many other things: with patience, encouragement, and tendemess. DEDICATION For Neil Henricks ( 1940-2013) and Zelda Nelson (1943-2015) whom I lost on the way. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... vii RÉSUMÉ ................................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ xi INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 0.1 Description of the Creation Project ................................................................. 1 0 .2 Autobiographical Anecdote: Synaesthesia ..................................................... 5 0.3 Synaesthesia: A Brief Description .................................................................. 6 0.4 Theoretical Framework and Anecdotal Theory ............................................ 10 CHAPTERI HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK & RESEARCH OBJECTIVES .......................... 14 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 14 1.1.1. A Brief History of Time-Based Art ................................................... 15 1.1.2 Video Installation and Multiscreen W ork .......................................... 24 1.1.3 My Previous Work ............................................................................. 30 1.2 Presentation of the Research Problem .......................................................... 39 1.3 The Creation Project: A Lecture on Art........................................................ 40 1.3.1 A Lecture on Art: Supplementary Works ............................................ 44 1.4 Research Question and Objectives .............................................................. 47 1.5 Implications and Relevance of the Research Project .................................. 50 , CHAPTERII METHODOLOGY: INTERDISCIPLINARITY, RESEARCH- CREATION AND THE STUDIO ......................................................................... 52 2.1 Video, Interdisciplinarity, and Intermedia .................................................... 52 2.2 The Margins as a Space for Radical Openness ............................................ 56 2.3 Research-Creation as Methodology ............................................................. 60 2.4 Autobiographical Anecdote: Fake Studios ................................................... 63 2.5 Studio-Based Research ................................................................................. 64 2.6 Autobiographical Anecdote: Bad Ideas ........................................................ 70 Vl 2. 7 The Studio as Research Laboratory .............................................................. 71 2. 8 A Space for the Reader ................................................................................ 7 5 CHAPTERIII SYNAESTHESIA, AETHETICISM & MARGINALITY ................................... 81 3 .1 Autobiographical Anecdote: The Studio Visit ............................................ 81 3 .2 Oscar Wilde, The Aesthetic Movement, and Synaesthesia .......................... 85 3.3 The Emergence of Communications Technology in the Nineteenth Century: Helen Potier, Victorian Vocal Culture, and Gender .............................. 97 3 .4 Mediums and Media .................................................................................. 103 CHAPTERIV SYNAESTHESIA & SPATIALIZATION: BETWEEN ENGAGEMENT AND DISENGAGEMENT .................................................................................. 107 4.1 Introduction: Frames and Contents ............................................................ 107 4.2 Synaesthesia Since 1900: Abstraction and Expanded Cinema .................. 108 4.3 Spatialization and Video Installation: Engaged Disengagement. ............... 122 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 133 5.1 Autobiographical Anecdote: Outing Aesthetics ......................................... 133 5.2 Aesthetics and Anti-Aesthetics .................................................................. 136 5.3 Autobiographical Anecdote: Foley Sound and Research-Creation ............ 141 5 .4 Affect and Aesthetics ................................................................................. 144 5 .5 Studio-Based Research: Monochromes, Life Session, and Other Projects ............................................................................................ 148 APPENDIXA A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIDEO ART .............................................................. 159 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 166 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page O. I A Lecture on Art, screens 1 through 4, Nelson Henricks (2015) ..... 3 1.1 The Ballad ofDan Peoples, Lisa Steele ( 197 6) ............................ 19 1.2 Steve Reich's Pendulum Music (1968) at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1969) .................................................. 20 1.3 Violin Tuned D.E.A.D., Bruce Nauman (1969) ............................. 21 1.4 If 6 Was 9, Eija-Liisa Ahtila (1995) .............................................. 27 1.5 Electric Earth, Doug Aitken (1999) .............................................. 28 1.6 & 1.7 Fuzzy Face, Nelson Henricks (2001) ............................................ 33 1.8 & 1.9 Happy Hour, Nelson Henricks (2002) .......................................... 33 1.10 Satellite, Nelson Henricks (2004) ................................................. 35 1.11 The Sirens, Nelson Henricks (2008) ............................................. 3 5 1.12 Untitled (Score), Nelson Henricks (2007) ..................................... 36 1.13 Unwriting, Nelson Henricks (2010) .............................................. 37 1.14 & 1.15 2287 Hz, Nelson Henricks (2011) ................................................. 38 1.16 & 1.17 A Lecture on Art, Nelson Henricks (2015) ..................................