Beyond After Death: Constructing Experiences of the In-betweenness Based on Contemporary Thai Sacred Spaces and Near-Death Experiences

Abstract

Living within the many faiths and cultures of Thailand and experiencing the effects of modernisation, consumerism and globalisation, my practice-led research aims to develop installations that can capture and offer experiences of inhabiting ambiguous, disruptive and playful states through the concept of in-betweenness. One of the most emotive states of in-betweenness in Thai culture is the idea of transition between life and death. My installations draw on the transformed aesthetics of sacred scenes and near death experiences (NDEs) in Thailand. The question I ask is: Through installation art, how can I make present the experience of in-betweenness that is found in both NDEs and the altered aesthetics of Thai sacred scenes to bridge the gap between science and faith and express the disparate state of contemporary Thai consciousness?

The in-betweenness in this research is a state of flux and mutability situated somewhere in-between two extremes. It portrays imaginary spaces that contain a dynamic process of transformation, with the properties of flux, openness, ambiguity and ambivalence. The concept of in-betweenness is delivered through three approaches 1) immersive installation 2) visual illusion strategies that merge two-dimensional and three-dimensional techniques in real space 3) multi-perspective approaches. Conceptual and formal development in this practice-led research has been divided into episodes through three immersive installations. My fieldwork in Thailand involved surveying popular sacred spaces and the effect of contemporary culture on devotional offerings, and interviewing Thai people who have had NDEs. The fieldwork findings are used as key narratives for the final studio work, which explores the entanglement of science, faith and globalised culture through explicit visual and experiential associations. Show more