Session Information
29 SES 04, Parallel Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of this project is twofold, firstly to develop a method to observe social practices within the context of the gallery informed by arts-research, and secondly to develop a theoretical framework to analyse how meaning emerges when ‘documenting an encounter’ on the example of Tacita Dean’s FILM using digital moving image media.
This research is funded by the ESRC NCRM and as such, the main focus of the inquiries are innovations in methods for social research within the context of digital environments. My interests lie in the interface between arts research and social research with a focus on education, and as such this research investigates how visual methods can be developed within arts education at secondary level. The idea of framing my research as ‘Documenting an encounter’ opened new trajectories and connections in ways that I could begin to explore the complex dialogues that take place between the ongoing process of research and that of the actions/activities/practices that are part of the research object: the encounters made between subjects and objects within the gallery space. Firstly, it revealed possible ways to analyse how the art-object (FILM and documents) perform in dialogue with social research and secondly, it enables me to consider how the thesis as a digital document could be reconceptualised through the notion of ‘encounter’.
This inquiry began with a workshop at Tate Modern, which involved the production of short digital films to investigate the notion of ‘not-forgetting’ when documenting the ephemeral nature of site specific art exhibited in the Turbine Hall. It was an idea inspired by Reesa Greenberg’s paper ‘Remembering Exhibitions’: From Point to Line to Web (2009), which examines how exhibitions in galleries are remembered in the digital age. The theme of ‘not-forgetting’ was used to frame the activities and the practice of making short digital documents, which were used as a method or tool for students to consider how their encounter with FILM through their use of digital media is not only directed towards making a response to FILM, but also to consider how their action within Tate constitutes the production of meaning.
Further to this, the research situates the meaning making potential of the students - as agents in relation to and part of the network of heterogeneous relations that emerge between art object, architecture, documents and technology, as well as the performativity of spectator as (re)maker-viewer. In this conceptualisation of relations, the artwork - FILM also has agency. It asks, in a similar vein the question posed by W.J.T. Mitchell’s: “What do pictures want?” (2005). As such how does FILM in silence speak and with whom and how. Therefore, the digital documents produced before the workshop (interactive resources) and during (student, artist teacher and my digital videos) are used as data to explore how meaning emerges and where meaning is located within this network. In other words, by developing an analytical framework inspired by a theoretical structure of the moving image, which could explore the circulation and movement of meaning between documents.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bal, M. (2001). Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide. London: University of Toronto Press. Bal. M (2010). After-Images: Mère folle. Nomadikon, http://www.nomadikon.net/ContentItem.aspx?ci=172 Barthes, R. (1997). Image Music Text. (S. Heath, Trans.). London: Fontana Press. Dean, T. (2011). 'FILM'. In N. Cullinan (Ed.), Tacita Dean FILM (pp. 15 - 47). London: Tate Publishing. Dean, T. (2011). FILM (pp. 11 min). Gourney. (2012). Digital Dissertations and Thesis. In R. Andrews, E. Borg, S. Boyd Davis, M. Domingo and J. England (Eds), Digital Dissertations and Theses (pp. 339 - 354). London: Sage. Greenburg, R. (2009). ‘Remembering Exhibitions’: From Point to Line to Web. In Tate Papers, Tate Online Research Journal. Kress, G. (2012). 'Multimodal Duscourse Analysis'. In J. Gee and M. Handfor (Eds), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 35-50). London: Routledge.Kress, G. (2012). Krauss, R. (2012). Tacita Dean. Lecture at Tate Modern 8th March 2012 Law, J. and Hassard, J. (1999). Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Mitchell, W. T. J. (1984 Spring). 'What Is an Image?'. New Literary History, 15 (3), 503-537. Osbourne, P. (2004). 'Distracted Reception: Time, Art and Technology'. In V. Todolí (Ed.), Time Zones. London: Tate Publishing. Schwab, M. (2012). 'The Research Catalogue: A Model for Dissertations and Theses'. In R. Andrews, E. Borg, S. Boyd Davis, M. Domingo and J. England (Eds), Digital Dissertations and Theses (pp. 339 - 354). London: Sage. Tinari, P. (2011). 'Meditations on Time'. Tate Etc. , Autumn (23).
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