This work has been submitted to NECTAR, the Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research. Thesis Title: The screen as a site of division and encounter Creators: Marchevska, E. Example citation: Marchevska, E. (2012) The screen as a site ofR division and encounter. Doctoral thesis. The University of NorthampAton. Version: Accepted version http://nectarC.northampTton.ac.uk/6130/ NE The screen as a site of division and encounter Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At the University of Northampton Year 2012 Elena Marchevska © Elena Marchevska, 20th of November, 2012. This thesis is copyright material and no quotation from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. 1 Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. 5 PRELUDE OR HOW TO READ THIS THESIS ........................................................... 7 THE SCREEN, THE PAGE, THE WINDOW ............................................................. 12 Diary entry, Day 4 ........................................................................................................................ 15 1.1 . RESEARCH STRATEGY ....................................................................................................... 15 1.1.1. Practice as research ......................................................................................... 16 1.1.2. Field review (contextual analysis) ..................................................................... 18 1.1.3. Performative reflective writing – auto-ethnographic strategy ............................ 18 1.2 KEY TERMS / WORDS ........................................................................................................... 20 1.2.1. An approach to the screen as site .................................................................... 22 1.2.2. An approach to the border as encounter .......................................................... 24 1.2.3. An approach to personal as political ................................................................. 26 1.3 CHAPTER OUTLINE .............................................................................................................. 28 THE SCREEN AS A BORDERING SITE .................................................................. 31 2.1 PLACING THE RESEARCH ..................................................................................................... 31 2.1.1. Living in a terminal ............................................................................................ 31 2.1.2. The screen as a site of/for reflection ................................................................. 35 2.1.3. Reflective screens ............................................................................................. 37 2.1.4. Into the screen .................................................................................................. 38 Diary entry, Day 129 .................................................................................................................... 40 2.2 FIELD REVIEW, PART 1. ........................................................................................................ 42 2.2.1. Guillermo Gómez-Peña and the screen as a border ........................................ 42 Diary entry, Day 98 ...................................................................................................................... 45 2.2.2. Ana Mendieta and the tracing of borders .......................................................... 46 2.2.3. Performing the crossing – Coco Fusco, NSK and Tanja Ostojić ...................... 49 Diary entry, Day 91 ...................................................................................................................... 55 2.3 BETWEEN CROSSINGS – BODIES ON THE LINE ........................................................................ 55 BORDERS WITH/IN SCREEN .................................................................................. 57 3.1 ASSEMBLAGE AS A PROCESSUAL APPROACH – FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE ............................ 58 3.1.1. Theoretical overview of assemblage as method ............................................... 58 3.1.2. Concept applied in my practice ......................................................................... 60 3.2 ASSEMBLING THE PRACTICE – PAR APPROACH ..................................................................... 61 3.3 EVOCATIVE AUTOETHNOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 63 3.3.1. Autoethnography between autotopography and autobiometry ......................... 65 3.3.2. Autoethnographic practice in the context of mobile-imaging ............................ 68 3.3.3. Assembling the autoethnographic processual practice in the Practice as Research context ............................................................................................................... 70 3.3.4. Performative walks as an assemblage ............................................................. 72 3.4 THE PROCESS ..................................................................................................................... 73 3.4.1. Walking ............................................................................................................. 73 3.4.2. Performing ........................................................................................................ 76 3.5 VALID UNTIL… .................................................................................................................... 78 Diary entry, Day 43 ...................................................................................................................... 80 3.6 WHAT THIS PROCESS BRINGS ............................................................................................... 81 Diary entry Day 134 ..................................................................................................................... 81 ENCOUNTERING THE SCREEN ............................................................................. 84 4.1 EXTENDING THE RESEARCH SCOPE OR HOW THE BODY BECAME A BORDER ............................ 84 Diary entry, Day 86 ...................................................................................................................... 87 2 4.2 FIELD REVIEW, PART 2 ......................................................................................................... 89 4.2.1. Split body – Ana Mendieta in-between two cultures ......................................... 89 Diary entry, Day 126 .................................................................................................................... 91 Letter to my daughter, Number 56 ............................................................................................ 93 4.2.2. Waiting in line – Bracha Ettinger and the borderlinking .................................... 94 Diary entry, Day 74 ...................................................................................................................... 96 4.2.3. The screen as a division, the screen as an encounter-Landau’s wire .............. 99 Letter to my daughter Number 76 ........................................................................................... 101 4.2.4. Lines, dots, borderlines – Alys and Almeida drawing lines with body ............. 101 4.3 LINE AS ELEMENT OF THE PROCESS ................................................................................... 104 4.3.1. Lines on the ground, lines on the skin ............................................................ 104 4.3.2. How the work on lines was developed ............................................................ 105 4.3.3. How the line can disappear ............................................................................. 106 INSIDE THE SCREEN, OUTSIDE THE HOME ...................................................... 107 Letter to my daughter Number 56 ........................................................................................... 108 5.1 MATERNAL AS ENCOUNTER ................................................................................................ 108 5.1.1. Encountering from inside - Susan Hiller observing pregnancy ....................... 110 5.1.2. Encountering from outside – Pipilotti Rist ....................................................... 112 Diary entry Day 124 ................................................................................................................... 114 5.2 MOTHERING AS A MIGRANT, BORDERING AS MOTHER ........................................................... 115 5.3 STITCH, SHADOW, GAP ...................................................................................................... 117 5.4 STICH AS ELEMENT ............................................................................................................ 118 Letter to my daughter Number 96 ........................................................................................... 119 5.4.1. Last place where we were together ................................................................ 120 Letter to my daughter Number 59 ........................................................................................... 122 5.4.2. Sewing the border ........................................................................................... 122 5.5 SHADOW AS ELEMENT - TRACING THE INVISIBLE .................................................................. 125 5.6 GAP AS ELEMENT