EVERYWHERE FOR GOING: MAPPING LANDSCAPE PERCEPTION THROUGH PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC SPATIAL INTERACTION Belem Z. Lett BFA Hons Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts by Research University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts July 2012 1 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date ……………………………………………................. 2 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date …………………………………………….............................. 3 AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... 4 Table of Contents THESIS DIAGRAM 7 PREFACE 9 INTRODUCTION 10 PHASE ONE: MEMORY 14 SHIFT ONE – FUNCTIONAL PERCEPTION 15 PART ONE – SIGHT AND SEEING 15 PART TWO – VISUAL PERCEPTION 16 PART THREE – REMEMBER REMEMBER 17 SHIFT TWO- CONSTRUCTING THE LANDSCAPE 20 PART ONE – WILD WORLD 20 PART TWO – VIRTUALLY MEMORY 22 PART THREE – RE-VIEWING THE LANDSCAPE 23 SHIFT THREE – REPRESENTED 25 PART ONE – LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY 25 PART TWO – TRACKING/TRACING 27 PART THREE – KLEE 29 PHASING MEMORY TO PRACTICE 32 PRACTICE AND MEMORY 33 PHASE TWO: SPACE 38 SHIFT ONE – PHYSICAL SPACE 39 PART ONE - TRADING SPACES 39 PART TWO - MULTIPLICITY 41 PART THREE – WHAT MATTERS 42 SHIFT TWO - QUESTIONABLE SPACE 45 PART ONE – THREE STANDARD STOPPAGES 45 PART TWO - CITY RE-VIEW 46 PART THREE - MONOLITHIC SPACE 49 SHIFT THREE - RECONFIGURED 51 PART ONE - CUTTING SPACE 51 PART TWO – WALL SPACE 54 PART THREE - PHYSICAL PAINTING 56 PHASING SPACE TO PRACTICE 59 PRACTICE AND SPACE 61 PHASE THREE: MAPPING 66 SHIFT ONE – IN RE-VIEW 67 PART ONE – OLD MAP 67 PART TWO – VIRTUAL WORLD 70 PART THREE – FOLDING UP 71 SHIFT TWO – PSYCHO-MAPPING 73 PART ONE – TRACING GPS 73 PART TWO - THE TRAVELLER 75 PART THREE - A NEW WORLD VIEW 77 5 SHIFT THREE – RECOLLECTED 79 PART ONE - CONSTANT 79 PART TWO – SHIFTING TOPOGRAPHIES 81 PART THREE – MAPPING TODAY 85 PHASING MAPPING TO PRACTICE 88 PRACTICE AND MAPPING 90 CONCLUSION 97 IMAGE LIST 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY 106 6 Thesis Diagram Concept: This Diagram models an experimental, research based, artistic practice. The Traditional chapters of a thesis are replaced by the three phases, Memory, Space and Mapping, which form three interrelated positions from which my work has evolved. The areas where the circles in this diagram overlap visualize the point where seemingly disparate elements of practice begin to merge within the mind. These points of cross over are visualised in the overlapping circles between the parts, the shifts and the phases. The various parts filter back, through this diagram, into the central core of artistic practice, visualised as the triangle, from which artwork is produced. 7 Each phase posits a presiding concept from which the three corresponding shifts are examined. Each Shift furthers this examination through three conceptual Parts. The mirrored structure of each phase creates a framework which positions each part as being able to be read from within the context of corresponding parts, within the other phases. Finally the triangular centre is where the artist stands considering the swirling mass of information from which artistic practice emerges. Consider the diagram as a map, which you are able to physically interact with. Walk through each circle encountering, as I do through a contemporary psycho-geographic disposition, encountering the parts of information, which inform my practice. 8 Preface Our sensorial perception of a reality is the basis for our interaction and understanding of the world. The bombardment of visual, sensory information encountered is interpreted and ordered into sensible digestible information from ‘within the brain’ (Smith 2005, p. 46). Exploration of the processes involved in spatial interaction, memory and recollection of space inevitably leads to questioning the nature of our reality and our ideology surrounding spatial construction. In contemporary society we have constructed environments that systematically remove us from the so- called natural world while ever increasingly surrounding ourselves within a concrete space. Furthermore the emergence of virtual mapping has radically shifted our perception of the world. The term landscape, in the historic naturalistic sense encountered within this thesis, is taken as a departure point from which memories are constructed. This coupled with emerging theories in physics, on the very nature of space and matter, creates a context in which reality itself seems to exist in a state of multiple spatial ambiguity. This ambiguity is important in that our conceptualization and visualization of this concept temporally has wide implications for the layering of visual information within artistic abstraction. The term contemporary landscape is a phenomenon applied to the broad spectrum of landscape based abstraction and experimentation, which exists today. I am applying this term, contemporary landscape to artistic practice, which investigates aesthetic spatial interpretation. Spatial is used in the sense of the perceived reality which we interact and conceptualise within physics. As such the following questions are raised within my practice. What role does perception and memory play in our understanding of the landscape — as a historically layered construct — within the exploratory context of contemporary landscape practice? How is psychogeographic spatial exploration — based upon a historic understanding of this terminology — repositioned within contemporary culture, through evolving definitions of space in theoretical physics, rapidly emerging spatial technology and the visualisation of this information within artistic practice? 9 What impact does the concept of mapping — positioned historically as a scientific depiction of topographical environments — have upon our sense of space, when we interact with the world as explorers, traversing unfamiliar terrain, in an ever increasingly globalized and imaged world? Introduction This thesis is structured so as to reflect my integration of theory and practice. The structure of my practice is experimental, poetic and critically reflective. As such a traditional thesis structure has been set aside in place of an experimental structure, which places the reader within the context of exploratory contemporary psychogeography. The concept of my practice, and as such this thesis, is derived from the notion of a psychogeograpic dérive as a means of re-viewing and questioning contemporary landscape practice. The exploratory nature of the dérive is inbuilt as much within the meandering structure of this thesis as it is within my intuitive and reflective works which the reader shall encounter throughout this thesis. Psycho-geography is described as being ‘the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals’ (Debord 1955, p. 1 of 4). While a dérive is ‘[a] mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. The term also designates a specific uninterrupted period of dériving’ (Debord 1958, p. 1 of 2). This concept is carried throughout this thesis in the structured encounters with parts of information. The contemporary dérive is informed by the encountered theories, concepts and artworks, which are diagrammatically laid out for the reader to explore. The dérive is used here to reposition the landscape concept which can be defined within a contemporary context as ambiguous aesthetic space, interpreted by both the individual