IN BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS: FRAME, FOLD, JUDGEMENT DENISE THWAITES A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of New South Wales September 2013 PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: THWAITES First name: DENISE Other name/s: PENELOPE Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: PhD School: HUMANITIES Faculty: ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Title: IN BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS: FRAME, FOLD, JUDGEMENT Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) This thesis looks at the relationship between art and politics. It produces concepts that embrace the unstable impurity of artistic and political distinctions, identifying an interstitial plasticity between these fields. Extending Deleuze's cinematic language, it unfolds as a four-stage montage of diverging authors, traditions and ideas. Chapter One reviews how the artistic-political relationship has been discussed through two historically dominant perspectives: 'art for progress' and 'art for art's sake.' By examining the principles behind them, inherited from Plato and Kant and criticized by Nietzsche and Derrida, the chapter emphasises how despite efforts to conflate or isolate art and politics, an unstable region of cross-contamination between them persists within both perspectives. Chapter Two proposes Derrida's concept of the frame as a figure of the constitutive, co-implicating in­ between, examining its artistic and political applicability with reference to texts such as Danto's Artworld and Derrida's Politics of Friendship. Through a critique of the artistic and political frame of metaphor, Malabou's motor­ schema of plasticity is proposed as a necessary addition to this liminal figure in between art and politics. Chapter Three considers the in-between of art and politics as situated within a continuous landscape of plastic folds. Through this image, it elaborates a differential, generative plasticity in-between continuous artistic and political singularities. In light of Nancy, Deleuze, Bergson and Massumi's concepts of creative movement and event, a neuronal image of complex relations emerges to contextualise the artistic and political relation. Chapter Four examines subjective transformations in between art and politics in relation to the mittelglied of judgement. With reference to Nancy, Zask, Bal and Malabou, it reconceptualises the mutations of artistic and democratic spaces after accounts of neuronal trauma and resilience. Kant and Arendt's discussions of judgment and communal sense are then used to expand the creative aspect of this middle-articulation. Its creativity is then elaborated as it resonates with Deleuze's concepts of jurisprudence, taste and style. Working in a space in-between academic disciplines, this thesis composes a fragmented image of the artistic and political in-between, through which their relationship can be reconceptualised rather than totalized. 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). ..... 3/9/2013 ...... ... ... .... 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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 ………………3/9/2013…………………………….............. iii 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 ………25/05/2014……………………………………........................... 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 …………25/05/2014…………………………………........................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... VIII INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 1 UNSTABLE AND IMPURE DISTINCTIONS ......................................................................................... 15 INTRODUCTION: THE SCENE OF TWO TRADITIONS .............................................................................................. 15 ART AND POLITICAL FORMALISM ............................................................................................................................ 16 ART FOR ART’S SAKE AND THE POLITICS OF FORMALISM .................................................................................. 48 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................................ 83 FRAME: THE PLASTICITY IN-BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS .................................................... 86 INTRODUCTION: THE IN-BETWEEN AS FRAME ...................................................................................................... 86 UNSTABLE LIMITS OF THE PARERGON .................................................................................................................... 87 FRAMING THE WORK OF ART AND THE POLITICAL .............................................................................................. 93 AFTER METAPHOR: THE PLASTIC FRAME BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS .................................................... 124 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................. 145 FOLDS: THE IN-BETWEEN WITHIN A COMPLEX CONTINUUM ............................................... 148 INTRODUCTION: COMPLEX PLASTICITY ............................................................................................................... 148 PLASTIC FRAME TO PLASTIC FOLD ....................................................................................................................... 149 DIFFERENTIAL PLASTICITY IN BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS ......................................................................... 160 EXPLOSION AND EVENT WITHIN COMPLEX CONTINUITY ................................................................................. 187 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................. 201 v JUDGEMENT: MITTELGLIED & COMMUNAL SENSE .................................................................... 203 INTRODUCTION: