Exposition

GEOART AS A NEW MATERIALIST PRACTICE. INTRA-ACTIVE BECOMINGS AND ARTISTIC (KNOWLEDGE) PRODUCTION. (2018)

Dorota Golanska
open exposition

About this exposition

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.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsgeoart, new materialism, creative practice, knowledge production, art and science, eco-sensitive activism
date29/01/2018
published16/03/2018
last modified16/03/2018
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationDepartment of American Studies and Mass Media, University of Lodz (POLAND)
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/427704/427706
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/ruu.427704
published inRUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
portal issue9. Practicing New Materialisms in the Arts


Simple Media

id name copyright license
427709 SAND_landscape 1 Jim Denevan (jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427711 SAND_landscape 2 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427713 HELICOPTER (BLACK ROCK DESSERT) Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427715 HELICOPTER (VANCOUVER) Jim Denevan (@jjimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427717 PLANE (Australia 2011) Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427719 BULDOZZER Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427744 JIM AT WORK 2 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427746 JIM AT WORK 3 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427753 VANCOUVER 1 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427755 VANCOUVER 2 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427757 VANCOUVER 3 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427759 VANCOUVER 4 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427768 BLACK ROCK DESSERT 1 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427770 BLACK ROCK DESSERT 2 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427772 BLACK ROCK DESSERT 3 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427774 BLACK ROCK DESSERT 4 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427782 BAIKAL 1 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427784 BAIKAL 2 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427786 BAIKAL 3 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved
427788 BAIKAL 4 Jim Denevan (@jimdenevan.com) All rights reserved

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