Being-in-the-world in terms of place and its relations to the work of art in Yi-Fu Tuan, Gaston Bachelard, and Martin Heidegger

  • Yuval Bar Shalom

Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis

Abstract

This thesis aims to examine the notion of place in our being-in-the-world. The special concern of the thesis is to investigate the role of the work of art in the awakening of an experience that creates place. My intention is to investigate how place, as a worldly spatial experience, can be manifest via a work of art. Drawing from the work of Yi-Fu Tuan, Gaston Bachelard, and Martin Heidegger, place is understood to be the result of human perception, interaction, and experiences with space and the objects contained within, while place is defined as open, uncertain, and free, containing a possibility for movement and change, and is readily available around us. Once interacted with, experiences in space are set as memories, images of our past, and tie to the location of their happening, their setting place. As a form of truth, place belongs to aletheia, meaning it is a truth that comes out of concealment, a mode of disclosure that reveals a way of being. Following Heidegger, I argue that art is able to play a unique role in this disclosure. My examination of this role centres upon the remarkable significance of art found in Australia's First Nation people's relationship with place is as shown in the traditional Songlines and their expression in songs and paintings. These artistic expressions enable one to create place out of space without visiting its physical location, meaning without experiencing it first hand, and communicate this experience to others.
Date of Award2021
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • place (philosophy) in art
  • Tuan
  • Yi-fu
  • 1930-2022
  • Bachelard
  • Gaston
  • 1884-1962
  • Heidegger
  • Martin
  • 1889-1976

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