Awareness of Between-ness: Photographic investigations of an intercultural experience of time, space and memory

Abstract

This practice-led research focuses on Awareness of Between-ness, the name of a concept I use to reference the space between a subject, camera and artist. Between-ness in my practice is also philosophical. As a Japanese-Australian artist, through photography, drawing and painting, Between-ness explores the real and non-real, reconnecting my heritage and culture, as well as Japanese aesthetics and philosophy. My research investigates and theorises Awareness of Between-ness in the context of the Japanese aesthetic of ma. It asks, how can this concept deepen and support the visualisation of the invisible, the subject of in-between and Between-ness, and what methodology can be discovered raise Between-ness as a full protagonist. The conceptualisation and theorisation of Between-ness and its practice reveals the importance of creating place, translucency, visibility and invisibility, and a balance between an accidental and determined mark-making. The methodology behind my research extends art practice into a philosophical realm that creates spectator space. Using my own in-between cultural aesthetic of ma, different cultural aesthetics could be equally applied by other artists who are also in between cultures and seek ways of communicating space. The final project, Awareness of Between-ness: Memory and Time, uses the technical, methodological, theoretical and conceptual findings of my research, and photographic based artworks, to create "place" to display the invisible subject, Between-ness, in a space where spectators would experience entering into Between-ness