THE ART OF BODILY SENSATIONS: ARTIST'S NUDE SELF- REPRESENTATION AND POETICS OF REVOLT IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROLIFERATION IZABELLA PRUSKA-OLDENHOF A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN COMMUNICATION & CULTURE (A PARTNERSHIP OF RYERSON UNIVERSITY& YORK UNIVERSITY) YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO NOVEMBER 2008 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90119-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90119-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada THE ART OF BODILY SENSATIONS: ARTIST'S NUDE SELF-REPRESENTATION AND POETICS OF REVOLT IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROLIFERATION by Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof By virtue of submitting this document electronically, the author certifies that this is a true electronic equivalent of the copy of the dissertation approved by York University for the award of the degree. No alterations of the content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are as a result of the conversion to Adobe Acrobat format (or similar software application). Examination Committee members: 1. R. Bruce Elder 2. John O'Neill 3. John Picchione 4. John C. Stout 5. Mike Zryd 6. Steven Bailey 7. Barbara Crow Abstract This dissertation investigates a possible approach of dealing with experimental cinema. Film studies does not provide a framework for understanding the form and elements that comprise experimental films, for it mostly focuses on the content and narrative structure. The fundamental question that this dissertation takes up is how might one deal with films whose form mirrors the experience of the body? The broader contours of this dissertation explore the diminishing role of the human body in the digital age. It investigates the central place of the body in art and, ultimately, in all human experience. This dissertation adopts two means in developing the framework for considering experimental cinema and, its related counterpart, the diminishing role of the body and of the real experience amidst the thrust of technological progress. The first approach concentrates on the phenomenological body, a body as given in the immediacy of experience, and relies on the philosophy of Luce Irigaray and Maurice Merleau-Ponty in describing the experience involved in making art. The second explores the psychoanalytic conception of the body, a body propelled by its internal energies and their repressed traces, and turns to Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva and Anton Ehrenzweig, focusing on the role of the body and the primary process thinking in the art of the avant-garde. The theoretical positions explored in this dissertation permit the assertion that the human body is the source of and site of resistance in the culture of technological progress and technical thinking. Furthermore, this dissertation argues that those forms of the avant-garde art that explore the human body and strive to affirm its importance in human communication are essentially iv feminine. It identifies the characteristics of feminine aesthetics in visual art and experimental cinema by relying on the foundation set by the proponents of ecriture feminin. It insists that radical art today, in order for it to maintain its generative force, must embody the feminine aesthetics; it must assume characteristics of the repressed feminine. The theoretical framework in this dissertation offers a new perspective in the field of experimental cinema and avant-garde art for future artists and scholars. v Acknowledgmen ts Several people have been very generous to me by selflessly providing me with their support, patience, encouragement and inspiration, without which I would not have been able to complete this dissertation and projects. I would like to thank R. Bruce Elder for his supervision, guidance and a lot of patience in every step of the way towards completing this dissertation and becoming an artist-scholar. I am very grateful to him for introducing me, over a decade ago, to avant-garde cinema and poetics, and for his ceaseless inspiration through his films, writings, teaching and, of course, our conversations. I would to thank John O'Neill and John Picchione for their guidance and support with my dissertation, and for encouraging poetics of imagination in my writing. Natalya Androsova, Megan Andrews, liana Gutman, Erika Loic and Angela Joosse (five artist-scholars) have turned my solitary journey into an experience of creative and intellectual jouissance. Thank you. I would like to thank my family for their patience and support during my studies. Thank you to my parents for the sacrifices they made in their lives, including the many difficult years of emigration in hopes of a better life for my brother and me. Lastly, I would like to especially thank my husband John Oldenhof for enduring the life of a student for several more years, for ceaselessly providing me with encouragement and for his support during this difficult, yet exciting, journey. Thank you for being such a wonderful partner. vi Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgments vi Table of Contents vii List of Figures ix I. Introductions 1 Together: Lived-Bodies and Real Experience 6 Conclusion: together - to gather - to unite - the good - what one clings to 39 Freudian Prelude to Revolt and Revolution in Art Practice 41 The Imaginary Walk: The Magic in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams 41 Dreams: The Royal Road to the Unconscious Activities of the Mind 45 Conclusions Regarding the Importance of Freud's "Die Traumdeutung" 62 The Twists, Turns and Torsions of (Re)volt 63 Revolt in Michael McClure's Poetics: Connecting Revolt with the Somatic Dimension of our Existence, with the Body 70 Carolee Schneemann: Through the Dream-Body into Personal Revolt 72 Art, the Revitalizing Force of Life: R. Bruce Elder's Poetics of Experience 87 The Uncontainable, the Uncontrollable, and the Irrepressible in the Art of Carolee Schneemann and R. Bruce Elder 102 II. Carolee Schneemann 111 Schneemann, Olson & Kristeva's Semiotic Pulsions 112 Conclusion 133 Schneemann, Space (installations and sculptural environments), Kristeva & Chora: "The immeasurable, unconfutable maternal body" 134 Madelon Sprengnether's (M)other 139 Kristeva's Pre-Oedipal Mother 147 Conclusion 154 Schneemann & Polyphonic Cinema 156 III. Art and Thought by R. Bruce Elder as "Putting Your Body on the Line" 159 Chaos or the Polyphonic Vision of Artistic Imagination 160 Conclusion 192 R. Bruce Elder & Thinking-Through-Rhythm: A Semiotic Approach to Rhythm in Experimental Cinema 193 Locating Rhythm in Charles Sanders Peirce's Semiotics 194 Rhythm and Cinema: The Semiotic Approach to Cinema of Jean Mitry and Bruce Elder's Thinking-Through-Rhythm 201 Rhythm and the Body: Kristeva's Semiotics 213 Conclusion 217 IV Conclusion 221 Postscript: Towards the Private and the Intimate Encounter as the Ground of Revolt 225 vii Filmographies 227 Ph.D. Projects 231 Bibliography 237 Endnotes 246 viii List of Figures Figure 1 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by R. Bruce Elder, 1979 187 Figure 2 Illuminated Texts by R. Bruce Elder, 1982 190 Figure 3 A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised By Joy by R. Bruce Elder, 1997 191 ix /. Introductions This dissertation investigates a possible approach of grappling with experimental films—films that I fell in love with while I was an undergraduate student, and which have summoned me to care for them however I might. Film studies has not been attentive to the experimental film practice and does not account or provide a framework for dealing with or understanding the form and elements that comprise these works (e.g., rhythm, colour, tone, etc.), for it is mostly focused on the content and narrative structure. So, how might one deal with films whose form mirrors the experience of the body, whether it is during lovemaking, in rage, or in mourning? This is the simple, basic question I have set myself. My interest in experimental cinema and in avant-garde art stems from its ability and, in most cases, its aim to re-activate a more primal mode of experience in the spectator as well as in the maker, one that asserts the importance of the corporeal dimension in human existence.