GEOART AS A NEW MATERIALIST PRACTICE. INTRA-ACTIVE BECOMINGS AND ARTISTIC (KNOWLEDGE) PRODUCTION.
(2018)
author(s): Dorota Golanska
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Situated within a new materialist philosophical framework and inspired by its posthumanistic, postdualistic, and affirmative orientation, this article looks at instances of geoart, understanding it in terms of intra-active knowledge production processes. I look specifically at the artistic projects by Jim Denevan and, by doing so, I intend to examine the concept of a non-academic artistic practice with an aim of exposing that a detailed inspection of the processes involved in the artistic production sheds an altogether different light on the nature of all research practices. As such, it lets us engage more thoroughly with the “how-question” of generating knowledge, highlighting its processual material-semiotic character. As instantiated in my case studies, an inquiry of different relationalities involved in the process of artistic (knowledge) production enables a study of how subject and object emerge as a result of “intra-activity” (Barad 2007).
Using his own body as both a tool and an active corporeal entity merging with the surrounding landscape, a geoartist Jim Denevan rhythmically and in a dance-like movement creates ephemeral gigantic drawings on sand, soil, or ice. They emerge out of a dynamic assemblage of the artist’s body (and his tools) and the local geophysical situation (with different sorts of matter or forces present there). The natural environment operates as an agent actively engaged in the whole process of artistic creation—of both making and unmaking of the drawings. When finished by Denevan, his works of art remain dynamic; they are being gradually modified and eventually erased by the undulating waves, tides, gusts of wind, the working of erosion and weathering, until they completely disappear. Focusing on the engagement of the artist with the environment and the random audiences present on site, I want to make clear that such eco-sensitive creation may serve as an illuminating example of what forms the entanglements of art and research could take and what material-semiotic effects such creative activities produce for all actors involved.
Desperfilar as artes visuais, o objeto enlouquecedor e o movimento das coisas
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): OVF
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Exposição do seminário "Desperfilar as artes visuais, o objeto enlouquecedor e o movimento das coisas", organizado dentro do programa “Arquipélago” promovido pelo ID_CAI - IDENTIDADES_Coletivo de Ação/Investigação (i2ADS). O evento pretende no âmbito das artes visuais e performativas fazer uma aproximação de uma análise transdisciplinar do perfil histórico, epistemológico e categórico no qual o sujeito e a natureza são percebidos, o território é pensado e a ciência se funde.
Este evento se insere no programa do projeto de investigação “From the top of the moutains we can see invisible monuments: transnational artistic investigation on landscape environmental changes caused by infrastructure space” (i2ADS), e acontecerá nas instalações do Instituto de Investigação em Arte, Design e Sociedade, na cidade do Porto, nos dias 3 e 4 de Outubro de 2024.