Examining Aesthetic Subjectivity in Embodied Environments
Date
2019
Authors
Nevin Berger, Rebecca
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Abstract
This inquiry has been concerned with identifying aesthetic
languages that make visible relationships and processes that
connect body and world beyond the surface of the skin. It
hypothesised that aesthetic language provides a material
connection which co-enables this exchange. Examining the
aesthetic dimension of the embodiment-environment intersection,
this inquiry reasoned, could make tangible the material continuum
generated through transient processes of living. The key sites of
the home and the landscape framed the scope of this research.
The methodology used to undertake this research combined
multi-artform practice spanning sculpture, video, installation,
and drawing, visual diary-led observation and critical
reflection, theoretical research, and critical engagement with
the work of other artists and practitioners working in two- and
three-dimensions.
An examination of subjectivity and of aesthetics as an
intersection of body and world centres this research. A new
materialist perspective provides a logic and drive for
scrutinising this intersection. New materialism unsettles
traditional assumptions about the passivity of matter. It
provides a framework for re-imagining the materiality of the
world and the position of human subjectivity within it: a
re-imagining, this research contends, that the current ecological
crisis demands.
The notion of aesthetics used in this inquiry is an embodied
aesthetics that refers to the meaningful sensuousness that
adheres and orients the body in the world. Ideas from John Dewey
and the field of everyday aesthetics informed critical engagement
in this embodied aesthetics through creative practice. This
approach enabled a dialogue between special aesthetic
experiences, everyday aesthetics, and habitual perception to
emerge in the research.
This research used aesthetics to examine how spaces are
demarcated and different experiences enabled. Over time, the home
as it is situated within the landscape became analogous for the
body’s intertwining with the environment. In this context, the
material passage of water through the home provided a powerful
and instructive embodiment of this intertwining, revealing both
the demarcation and the continuity of disparate spaces.
The final body of artwork is an installation that integrates the
key aesthetic languages developed through this inquiry to form a
three-dimensional river that is animated with the everyday sounds
of water and the textures of domestic warmth. It is titled Oikos,
the Greek root for ecology. ‘Oikos’ means ‘whole house and
dwelling place’. The artwork reflects the multi-layering of
aesthetic relationships through which our bodies fuse with this
world.
Description
Keywords
aesthetic, embodied aesthetic, everyday aesthetics, aesthetic language, language of landscape, everyday materials, feminism, ecology, ecology of water, ecological crisis, ecological feminism, materiality, new materialism, multi-artform practice, installation, immersive installation, textile installation, image making, practice-led research, home, house, home and the landscape, post-colonial landscape, representationalism, colonial landscape painting, mapping, practices of habituation, practices of the everyday, water and the domestic space, subjectivity, feminist subjectivity, reimagining subjectivity, space making practices, connection, habitual perception, aesthetic connection, situated listening, situated inquiry, carnal knowledge, body and environment continuum, entropy, entropy and the home, soundscape, sound installation, bathroom, cleaning, cleaning practices, sensory language, assemblages, intra-action, vital materialism, oikos, domestication of water, urban water, Australian landscape, space, high altitude video
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Type
Thesis (PhD)