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Abstract

This project investigates the relationship between durational actions and
the (re)presentation of documentation within time-based installation.
Examining the potential displacement, distortion, and transcendence of
time effectuated by the manipulation of recorded information, this
project also explores the self-reflexive experience of the artist through
controlled actions devised to reflect these altered temporal perspectives.
Repetition and rhythm are key conceptual and formal attributes of this
project, in relation to both the actions performed and their mode of representation.
The research has been informed by Deleuze's concept of the
synthesis of time detailed in Difference and Repetition and Albert Camus'
essay The Myth of Sisyphus in particular his position that 'one must
imagine Sisyphus happy'. This perspective is complemented by Buddhist
philosophy and informs this research through my personal meditation
practice.
In the context of this project time has been treated as both material and
subject matter; a medium that can be suspended, erased, extended, and
ultimately transcended through the use of recording and replay
technologies. The transmutation of time as it is experienced has been
comparably examined through cognitive means such as meditation and
prolonged repetitive action. Within this project several works by Christian Marclay, Douglas Gordon,
Daniel Crooks and Steve Reich provide examples of artists who employ
the manipulation and reconfiguration of film, video, and sound to
investigate temporal plasticity. While the relationship between the artist's
experience of performing actions and the viewer's encounter of
documentation is notably evident in the work and process of Tehching
Hsieh, Bas Jan Ader and Song Dong and is supported by the writing of
Allan Kaprow in Essays on The Blurring of Life and Art.
The actions in this project have been performed to no audience. The
rationale for this approach is an attempt to preserve the immanent cognitive
state of the artist while performing, emphasising the artist's experience as an
isolated, integral component of the work. This methodology also removes
the privileged position of witnessing a live, originary event and via its
documentation, presents a single, and infinitely repeatable, point of view.
The understanding and analysis of the viewer's encounter with performance
documentation is informed by Philip Auslander's The Performativity of
Performance Documentation, and Amelia Jones' essay "Presence" in
Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation.
The works developed through this research apply diverse forms of
installation practice, incorporating video, sound, performance and sculpture.
The outcomes of studio experimentation present a range of temporal
phenomena that collapse, suspend and interminably extend time.

Item Type:	Thesis - Research Master
Authors/Creators:	Cook, Darren
Keywords:	time, performance, documentation, recording, video, sound, installation, meditation
Additional Information:	Copyright the Author
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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