The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library Summer 8-5-2017 Non/Disclosure: Documentation and Participant Observation as Hybrid, Nonfiction, Artistic Research Methodology for Ethnographic Media Production, Contemplative Discovery, Social Practice and Catharsis Cyle P. O'Donnell University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Art Practice Commons, Civil Law Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Conflict of Laws Commons, Courts Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Fine Arts Commons, First Amendment Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, Litigation Commons, and the Photography Commons Recommended Citation O'Donnell, Cyle P., "Non/Disclosure: Documentation and Participant Observation as Hybrid, Nonfiction, Artistic Research Methodology for Ethnographic Media Production, Contemplative Discovery, Social Practice and Catharsis" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2775. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2775 This Open-Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NON/DISCLOSURE: DOCUMENTATION & PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION AS HYBRID, NONFICTION, ARTISTIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC MEDIA PRODUCTION, CONTEMPLATIVE DISCOVERY, SOCIAL PRACTICE, & CATHARSIS By Cyle Patton O'Donnell B.A. Journalism, Indiana University, 2008 B.A. Environmental Studies, Indiana University, 2008 M.S. Multidisciplinary Studies, State University of New York, 2011 A THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts (in Intermedia) The Graduate School The University of Maine August 2017 Advisory Committee: Susan Smith, Associate Adjunct Professor, Advisor Sean Taylor, Project Mgr/Fab Technician, Advisor Owen F. Smith, Director, Chair © 2017 Cyle O’Donnell ii NON/DISCLOSURE: DOCUMENTATION & PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION AS HYBRID, NONFICTION, ARTISTIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC MEDIA PRODUCTION, CONTEMPLATIVE DISCOVERY, SOCIAL PRACTICE, & CATHARSIS By Cyle Patton O'Donnell Advisor: Dr. Owen F. Smith An Abstract of the Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts (in Intermedia) August 2017 As if presaged by the physical, fine and philosophical arts that preceded it, the amelioration to the process of documenting the wonted human existence, political strife, and sundry cultural phenomena through the neo-normative medium of film (and eventually digital video) inaugurated the true scope and importance of anthropological research among a vastly wider audience who would use it, and its intrinsic capacity for the augmentation of artistic expression, to proliferate an expansive accompaniment to the field which would all become recognized platforms for demonstrative presentation of individual oeuvres. Intermedia has worked in this way to amalgamate concepts like Futurism, Dadaism, and other expressionist movements within (and yet intentionally excluding) fine art. Film and video, while maintained as the mediums of choice for this author’s preference for creative and professional praxis, are discussed herein, as well as the other, more intermedial, forms of creative articulation which have been used explicitly throughout the latter half of graduate study in the program if its namesake. As a lifelong visual media enthusiast, this author has witnessed the paradigm shift of mediums like photography, videography and multimedia design evolving from analog instrumentation to the digital spectrum of non-mechanized vehicles of expression. Having not only maintained a long-held fascination with these media, but also a vested interest in the avenues which they forge, this author considers himself fortunate to be counted as an observational proponent of the exhaustive, global, artefactual transposition consistent with no other industry over the same period of recent years. The purpose of the discussion directly related to that digital medium within the context of this paper is to more definitively characterize this author’s contributions to the substance and content of that pool of collective change - and the effect that change has imposed on his individual work as it relates to programmatic and academic scholarship. This is, herein, referenced as the prior half of those programmatic studies. On the whole, the components of the ensuing discussion will also draw in the latter half of progression through the Intermedia program, wherein this author was faced with two extreme challenges: a life-changing, personal attack in the midst of an accelerated terminal graduate curriculum; and the apposite realization that Intermedia, and not necessarily the creative medium with which this author has spent the bulk of his professional and creative life becoming familiar, was the consummate medium necessary to address and overcome that traumatic event - which momentously presented the opportunity to gerrymander the circumstances to the benefit of the thesis work found below (as well as a wide swathe of lagniappes inadvertently proffered as a result in other spheres of personal and professional life). As such, this paper will be framed by two constituent methodological discussions: Section One: Visual Multimedia, and Section Two: Intermedial Adaptations. Each will work to bring specific conclusivity to the implications admitted of their appellation and demonstrate how the major contributing factors to each such subset of praxis have informed the evolution of this author’s most contemporary practice. Additionally, each will employ a notion of exposition incongruent with the other segment, detailing individualistic development specific to that work. The third and concluding section, which will lend itself to particularizing the composite commonality of individual works, the discussion of their historiographic endowments, and the unifying factors of their generally misapprehended miscellany, will draw on the collective evolution and distill the subsequent objectives upon which the same contemporaneous successes have garnered educational momentum. DEDICATIONS This thesis is dedicated to Jessica Veronica Farley, whose continual reminders both centered and motivated me to concentrate on what really matters; whose ambitious tactics stand as the measure of why we must only focus our energy on positive results; and whose own fate provides a visage of rationale for always pursuing a just endeavor. It is not the storm that defines us, but what we do when it inevitably hits our shore. -- Cyle O’Donnell iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A debt of deep gratitude is due to the warm, generous and supportive fellow students, friends, coworkers, mentors and advisors in the Intermedia department, without whose help this project would never have been possible. A special thanks is also due to the University of Maine which, through the challenges that brought fruit to this project, its thesis and the community of people it benefitted, supported me in so many ways over and above standard protocol in order to push me to remain steadfast in my program. I’d also like to thank those who challenged me with the wonderful opportunity to turn their attempted incursion into personal, professional and academic success. These people, whose intention it was to dismantle my social network, destroy my professional reputation and disrupt my academic progress, but which instead worked to strengthen my relationships, enhance my standing and ensure my programmatic success, may never know the tremendous outcome of their vainglorious efforts. Yet those who contributed to my success, visited the final presentation and read its ensuing thesis, will forever know them. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATIONS................................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................................ ix Chapter 1. VISUAL MEDIA....................................................................................................................... 1 Bridging the Gap between Art and Documentation ........................................................ 1 Current System of Inquiry in Retrospect……………………………………………………………………….6 Nontraditional Methodology…....................................................................................... 10 Early Methodological Development .............................................................................. 13 2. THE PRIOR HALF.................................................................................................................. 16 Intermedial Adaptations................................................................................................. 16 3. THE LATTER HALF….............................................................................................................. 20 Personal Context and Inspiration................................................................................... 21 The Challenge