The Gesturing Screen Art and Screen agency within postmedia assemblages Charu Maithani A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Phiolosophy School of Art & Design February 2021 1 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates screens as key elements in postmedia assemblages where multiple technical devices and media platforms function relationally to activate new capacities. I characterize the agency of screens as a gesturality that re-arranges and sustains medial relations with and between other components. The gestures of screens reformulate mediality, but also shift experiences and open elements to novel formations and affects. In each re- organisation of the postmedial assemblage, the function and relations of screens are not pre-defined but emerge in process. I develop this dynamic conception of screens and assemblages to account for their diverse manifestations in postmedia. Here I employ an agential realist framework found in the work of Karen Barad and draw on the concept of gestures set out by Giorgio Agamben. This research contributes to a new understanding of postmediality in conjunction with a new conception of the agency of screens. The thesis focuses on mainly digital screen-oriented artworks, repositioning these as heralding or firmly engaging with the postmedial condition. By challenging an understanding of screens that limits them to mere casings for images, this thesis expands the scope and role of screens in postmedia art practices stretching as far back as three decades. It argues that such art works and practices foreground the gesturality of screens and offers in-depth studies of works by Shilpa Gupta, Ulrike Gabriel, Natalie Bookchin, Blast Theory, Ragnar Kjartansson, Sandra Mujinga and Sondra Perry. Such works highlight how screens come to be relationally enacted in postmedia and how that enactment occurs through their performance of medial gestures. I identify two kinds of gestures of postmedia screens that support and connect the technical, aesthetic and in some cases political components of an 2 assemblage. I turn to the multiplicity of frames both on-screen and distributed across screens observed by theorists of media such as Lev Manovich and Anne Friedberg. But the postmedial frame is consistently accompanied by what is out-of-frame – scrolling, swiping and ‘pinching’ continually calls on the out-of-frame to be moved on-screen. The out-of-frame is a postmedial screen gesture, then, that maintains an ongoing relation to the ‘inside’ of the frame, supporting and conditioning it. The multiple temporalities of postmedia assemblages – such as that of images, participants and software – allow an ‘out-of-frame’ to endure beyond the framed image. The second gesture is observed in the pervasiveness of chroma screens — blue and green screens used for compositing other images in postproduction. I suggest that this now ubiquitous technique suspends images from screens. Through a relational analysis of colour, and focusing on Perry’s work, I draw upon ways in which the blankness of chroma screens can be made to gesture a different enactment of race – ‘blackness’ as productive difference. Such gesture in postmedia entails the circulation and transference of social and cultural setting. These two gestures of screens highlight multiple dimensions of the relations of postmedial screens beyond that of framed images, offering us ways to be attentive to enactments of screens as they continue to gather relevance in our expanded visual setting. As screens multiply, this research suggests alternate ways of conceiving the aesthetics and experience of screens’ persistent medial configurations. 3 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Small sections of this thesis are included in the following papers: Maithani, Charu. “Blan/ck Screens : Chroma screens performing race.” Media-N [forthcoming]. Maithani, Charu. "Chroma Screens–Intra-Actions, Connections and Gesturalities." In RE: SOUND 2019–8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology 8, pp. 253-257. 2019. Maithani, Charu. "Intermediality of Screens in Post-Media Assemblages." Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies 17, no. 1 (2019): 63-80. Maithani, Charu. "Screens as Gestures in Interactive Art Assemblage." AM Časopis za studije umetnosti i medija 17 (2018): 147-155. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………i List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………… iv INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………1 1. Defining Screenness: Capacities and Intra-Actions of Screens…………………………………………………………………………………………..41 Screens in post media art assemblages 45 Screenness of Screens 51 Screenness in an agential realist framework 61 Screenness in and through material-discursive practices 66 Intra-Actions of contemporary screenness 76 2. Gesturality Of Screens………………………………………………92 Gesturing potentialities 97 Affective gestures 117 Who/What is gesturing 126 Distributed self and circulating gestures 135 The Third gesture 139 INTERLUDE ……………………………………………………………………….156 3. >>(Out-of) Frame Gestures<< Enactments of Multiplicities and Temporalities of and by Screens………………………………161 From Multiple Screens To Multiplicity Of Screens 164 Framing Frames of Space-Time 184 1 Out-Of-Frame 198 Multitudinal Temporalities In And Of Out-Of-Frame 209 Frames in Crystalline States 225 4. >>Blan/ck Screens, Absent Images<< Screen without Images Performing Race……………………………………………..233 Image-screen entanglement 238 Blan/ckness: Chroma screen practices and blue-green matterings 261 Blan/ck Opacity 278 POSTSCRIPT ………………………………………………………………………284 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………295 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout this research, I have received guidance and support from people around me. I am indebted to many people for their love, patience and kindness that has sustained me on this journey. Thank you to my supervisor, professor Anna Munster who showed faith in me and gave me the opportunity to pursue research at UNSW. Over the years, she has encouraged me to be entangled with concepts and practices but, also guided me and reigned me in when I was getting lost in them. Her invaluable discussions and feedback have encouraged me to express myself better. Prof. Munster’s intellectual generosity, academic rigour and research ethics are inspiring, and I hope to carry what I have learnt about these values throughout my academic life. Over the last one year with my flailing motivation in a pandemic ridden world, her words infused me with much needed energy and confidence. With her guidance I have never regretted even once to move to Australia. A teacher, a mentor, an inspiration, her support has been integral to this project. My gratitude to professor Edward Scheer for his encouragement and valuable support. Your comments have been enlightening. Thank you to my friends and colleagues on the fourth floor D block in the Paddington campus, particularly Anastasia Murney, Aneshka Mora, Mitchell Ryan, Alia Parker, June Kim, Scarlet Steven, Skye Wagner, Kirsten Drews for creating a comfortable space to share apprehensions, and acknowledge shortcomings. And for the laughter and silliness that have helped me get through a lot over the years. Most of all thank you for helping me to settle into a new country and a PhD routine. A special thanks to Anastasia Murney for being a wonderful neighbour and collaborator, Skye Wagner for sharing i sharp, critical feedback on various versions of chapters and cheering me on in this journey, and June Kim for ideas and discussions that enriched the otherwise sloppy middle months of this journey. Thank you to the short-lived but intense Reading Group, particularly Scott East, Sam Spurr and Scarlet Steven to help in activating some of the thinking employed in this thesis. Thank you to artists Shilpa Gupta, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Natalie Bookchin and Matthieu Cherubini for enlightening discussions about their work. A big thank you to Ellen and Sally for putting up with the craziness of the fourth floor. I also wish to express my appreciation for the professional and administrative staff at Art and Design – Steven Shears, Denis Cooper, Ant Banister and Tobias Gilbert for helping to solve myriad issues while going about teaching and other duties on campus. The academic staff Astrid Lorange, Uros Çvoro, Tim Gregory, Katherine Moline and Verónica Tello who have chaired various review committees over the years. Your feedback and optimism have helped tremendously. A special thank you to Michele Barker for her valuable support while teaching. I would also like to acknowledge the helpful suggestions of Shivaun Weybury at the (former) Learning Centre for her assistance at the early stages. Thank you to Peter Blamey for his keen eye in proofreading this thesis. Thank to my family who have supported me through their unconditional love. My parents whose love and support gave me confidence to venture out. Thank you to Ammaji and Babuji for their numerous expressions of deep care and love. Thank you to my brother Parth and his partner Neelam for their loving wishes, and the lip-smacking delicacies that have brightened dull days. My gratitude to extended family members, Ashish Nauriyal, Neelam Nauriyal and Avi for welcoming me in their home and helping to familiarise ii with Sydney. A big thank you to Judith Martinez and Craig Billingham for their open-hearted reception and generosity. The comfort and support provided by you both has certainly enriched these years. I am also thankful to Rewa Wright for motivational advice and always ready to lend a hand. My warmest and biggest