Capturing disappearance : a visual-phenomenological investigation of Sydney's irregular performance spaces

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

This practice-based thesis explores what might be discovered about a city's being, through a phenomenological study of its most vital and dynamic alternative arts and performance spaces. Philosophy and photography are brought together to reveal and explore the networks that exist within Sydney's alternative scene and the irregular spaces that bring it to life. This doctoral research first establishes the historical and cultural context surrounding Sydney's alternative arts and performance spaces, before delving into the intimate and ephemeral environments that exist within these irregular spaces. The methodological approach combines Actor Network Theory (ANT), hermeneutic phenomenology and photography to expose the sensorial and tacit dimensions of these spaces through a variety of visual assemblages. My photographic practice illuminates, tracks and links the assemblages of human and non-human actors that form inside and outside irregular spaces, and connects them to the wider urban networks to which they contribute. This work seeks to capture the essence of irregular spaces beyond documentary representations and to disturb the binary logics of inside/outside; space/time; and human/non-human embedded within urban environments. In this, the research makes a practice-based, reflexive contribution to analysing the city and its spaces, particularly the discourse on 'space' and 'place'. This research offers a mode of linking seminal and notable elements, patterns and associations of irregularity identified through my photographic investigation. In doing this, it aims to create a real and tangible contribution to the collective imagination of past, present and potential ideations of the city.
Date of Award2014
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • performance art
  • alternative spaces (arts facilities)
  • Sydney (N.S.W.)

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