Seeing things : making sense of life

Abstract

This thesis is a reflection on the ideas and process involved in making a body of art work which deals with singular experiences of looking and personal efforts to grasp meaning through vision. These projects grew from my understanding that vision is subjective and always mediated, both by technologies and by other bodies. Experientially, the theoretically clear distinction between subject and object is confusing: the viewer is always part of the picture, always implicated in the process of making sense. As a contemporary medium that claims to offer direct records of the living world, digital video is both a compelling, but inadequate, simulacra of the real thing and fabulous realization of our dreams of visual acuity. Neither the written nor the visual work included here is intended to illustrate or explain the other. Language and image work best in conversation with one another; both are powerful and satisfying ways of playing with ideas and finding new knowledge. In Chapter 2, I explore a number of different theories that have contributed to my thinking and to my making. This theoretical work is not an explanation of the visual work. It is, rather, another way of thinking through some of the same concerns.