The Kraken’s Reach: Manipulating Subjectivity through Dissociative Play Christopher Patrick Bond ORCID: 0000-0003-3734-2576 Doctor of Philosophy (Visual Art) February 2018 School of Art Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music The University of Melbourne SubMitted in partial fulfilMent of the requirements of the degree i Abstract The research considers the role of dissociation in Manipulating subjectivity by exaMining its influence upon dissociative play– a generative Method where thought, feeling, action and production are undertaken within Multiple dissociated fictional subjectivities. Central to the thesis is a question surrounding the workability of this practice in a conteMporary visual arts setting doMinated by static unitary self-representational Modes. The paper distinguishes dissociative play froM existing fictive and deceptive self-representational strategies in the visual arts that share surface siMilarity, and asserts that dissociative play differs by its reliance on self-deception, a key feature of dissociation that allows for Multiple, often contrapuntal positions to be held by the Mind. The research finds that the creative Manoeuvrability of this state of mind allows it to freely function with liMited conscious awareness, separating it by definition and depth of experience froM coMMon fictive and iMaginative processes. The expediency of a wilfully self-deceptive, dissociative approach in shifting perception, Memory, subjectivity and agency pushes hard against dissociation’s negative legacy in pathology. Addressing this issue requires both a reassessment of individual agency in pathological instances and an account of the benefits of dissociation in practice. In bridging pathology and practice, the research argues against the idea that dissociative states are entirely coMpartMentalised froM non-dissociated subjective experience, instead positing that each bleed into the other for the primary benefit of the host. The enquiry reaches into disparate areas to provide evidence of that bleed, drawing froM dissociative practices and phenoMena in behavioural psychology, acting methodology, auto-fictive literature, heavy metal Music and cultural possession - alongside the development of the author’s work creative work Kraken, exhibited at VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery in February 2018 - to deMonstrate that not only is it possible to create within a dissociated mind, but particularly advantageous. It finds that dissociative practices assist in the avoidance of expectation, predilection and self- liMitation, and allow artists to work outside their iMagined capacity, steered largely by self- initiated hypnotic suggestion and self-deception, and that the generation of novel thoughts, feelings and actions froM within a dissociated consciousness have the capacity to translate into seeMingly autonoMous and unlikely outcoMes, affecting practitioners, audiences, and generated Material. ii Declaration This is to certify that (i) the thesis coMprises only My original work towards the Doctor of Philosophy (ii) due acknowledgeMent has been made in the text to all other material used (iii) the thesis is 38,418 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices Christopher Patrick Bond iii Acknowledgements With thanks to Jan Murray, Ted Colless, Bernhard Sachs, Stephen Haley, Kate Just and Joanne Moloney for their support and advice. iv Table of Contents List of illustrations vii Preface ix Introduction 1 1. MoveMent in the Depths: The Science and Shape of Dissociative Play 7 1.1 Deception, Art Fiction and Dissociative Play 8 1.2 Self-Deception and Dissociative Play 13 1.3 Dissociation: Pathology, Norm and Practice 15 1.4 Hypnosis and Creative Dissociation 19 1.5 Actors as Alters: Triggering Response 23 1.6 Embodied and Evasive Action 26 1.7 To Suggest and Short-Circuit 28 1.8 Building Dissociative Play 30 1.9 The Rules of the Game 31 2. Alter Agents: Creators as Characters within Dissociative Play 39 2.1 A Vessel for Carriage 40 2.2 Agency and the Dissociated Author 42 2.3 Autofiction 44 2.4 Self-Insertion 46 2.5 Author Surrogates 47 2.6 Author Avatars 48 2.7 The Artist as Character 49 2.8 Self-Characterisation: LiMit and Risk 52 2.9 Alters of Satan 54 v 3. Altered States of Consciousness and the Bleeding Self in Dissociative Play 69 3.1 An Ideal BodyMind 72 3.2 Voluntary Possession 75 3.3 Involuntary Possession 79 3.4 AutoMatic and involuntary processes, practices and phenoMena 82 3.5 Mask Play in IMprovisation 86 4. The Material Aftermath of Dissociative Play 95 4.1 Characterisation: Dissociation, Distance and AutonoMy 96 4.2 Kraken: Suggestion and Influence 103 Conclusion 133 Bibliography 138 Appendix A: Kraken: Text [nuMbered pages 1 – 66] 144 Appendix B: Kraken PhD examination exhibition docuMentation, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, 202 February 2018 [30 iMages] vi List of Illustrations Figure 1.1. Visitors interact with Iris Häussler’s He Named Her Amber 36 Figure 1.2. Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera’s Centaurus Neandertalensis 37 Figure 1.3. A group engaged in a structured Vampire LARP event, Poland, 2016 38 Figure 2.1. Werner Herzog plays an unwitting version of hiMself in Incident at Loch Ness 61 Figure 2.2. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #10, 1978 62 Figure 2.3. Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Double Game 63 Figure 2.4. A selection of biographical dictionaries containing fictionalised entries of Patrick Pound 64 Figure 2.5. Gaahl in corpse paint 65 Figure 2.6. Gorgoroth live in Krakow, 2004 66 Figure 2.7. Russell Menzies 67 Figure 2.8. Russell Menzies as Sin Nanna 67 Figure 2.9. Varg Vikernes as Count Grishnack 68 Figure 3.1. Leland Palmer and Bob reflected in a mirror, Twin Peaks 89 Figure 3.2. Linda Blair as the deMonically possessed Regan MacNeil, The Exorcist 90 Figure 3.3. Ouija and Planchette in operation 91 Figure 3.4. Table-turning in 19th century France 92 Figure 3.5. Dowsing: use of a divining rod observed in Britain in the late 18th century 93 Figure 3.6. The Magic Pendulum in motion 93 Figure 3.7. Ingrid Von Darl and Dennis Cahill engaged in mask play 94 Figure 4.1. Alfred Stieglitz, Fountain (photograph of assisted readymade by Marcel Duchamp) 108 Figure 4.2. Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Trompe l'oeil. The Reverse of a Framed Painting 109 Figure 4.3. Guy Benfield, French Pup / live action 110 Figure 4.4. Marcin Wojcik, Bay Voyage 111 Figure 4.5. Marcin Wojcik, Magic If 112 Figure 4.6. Chris Burden, Shoot 113 Figure 4.7. Yves Klein, Leap into the Void 114 Figure 4.8. Kraken/Tor RasMussen 115 vii Figure 4.9. Printed book of eMail correspondence 116 Figure 4.10. Alter Chris Bond 117 Figure 4.11. Julie Redfern’s business card 118 Figure 4.12. Kraken’s crate 119 Figure 4.13. Implanted suggestive materials and tools 120 Figure 4.14. Implanted artwork suggested by email correspondence 121 Figure 4.15. An aMalgaMation of two images featuring alters Kraken and Chris Bond 122 Figure 4.16. Kraken wields Chris Bond’s Cane as a weapon 123 Figure 4.17. Kraken sits on top of a woodpile 124 Figure 4.18. Kraken at work gouging holes 125 Figure 4.19. Post-possession docuMentation of gouging 126 Figure 4.20. Post-possession docuMentation of a stripped tree branch 127 Figure 4.21. Kraken’s psychological gesture 128 Figure 4.22. An email froM Kraken/Tor RasMussen 129 Figure 4.23. Burnt book sent froM Kraken/Tor RasMussen 130 Figure 4.24. A painted book using the authorship and persona of Kraken/Tor RasMussen 131 Figure 4.25. Drawing Made in character as Kraken/Tor RasMussen 132 Figure 4.26. Painted book showing the use of imagery generated in character 132 viii Preface At the conclusion of an artist talk I gave in early 2015, an audience MeMber asked, soMewhat exasperatedly, ‘So…who are you, exactly?’ While ‘The Kraken’s Reach: Manipulating subjectivity through dissociative play’ denies her any outright answer, I hope that it Makes clear the Many benefits of working in the Minds and bodies of iMagined others. ix Introduction The research considers the capacity of dissociative play - an invented terM that describes the process of thinking, feeling and working within a fictionalised dissociated subjectivity - to iMpact conventional modes of expression within a visual arts practice and enable unlikely, uncanny or novel material outcoMes. The research questions whether such a methodology can assist visual artists in side-stepping self-conditioned responses to ideas, Materials and forms. I hypothesise that the ability of an artist to fabricate and eMbody Multiple subjectivities through fictional self-representation is useful in the avoidance of expectation, predilection and self- liMitation, and enables a degree of autonoMy in forms generated through the process. The potential of the Methodology to reach these aiMs is discussed here through the writing, and Materialises through the creation of the fictional self-representation Kraken. The nature of the research demands that the approach taken Matches the required psychology for dissociative play– one that is fragMented, far-reaching and flexible. The tentacles of enquiry reach into disparate fields, drawing froM dissociative practices and phenoMena in behavioural psychology, acting Methodology, literary fiction, heavy Metal music and cultural possession to demonstrate that it is possible to work within the Mind of an iMagined other, and particularly advantageous. In locating the dissociative play psychology in the visual arts, an acknowledgement of existing conceptual and theMatic constructs within the arena is necessary to distinguish it froM parallel approaches. Within the visual arts, fictive strategies in which characterisation or fictional self- representation is used for the primary purpose of deception share soMe coMMonality in appearance with the dissociative practices advocated here, but differ significantly in Motivation and construction. The research aiMs to Make these differences clear, and posit dissociative play as an entirely new approach.