Tesis sobre el tema "Ontology in art"

J’analyse la nature des relations entre art et métaphysique dans la tradition de la musique classique, de la performance, et de la restauration de l’art. La première partie de la thèse est dédiée à l’étude de l’ontologie de la musique. Le Chapitre 1 examine les théories concernant ce que c’est une œuvre musicale d’un point de vue ontologique, à savoir l’Idéalisme, le Nominalisme et le Platonisme en défendant l’idée qu’aucune de ces théories n’est entièrement satisfaisante. Cela conduit dans le Chapitre 2 à une discussion sur la méthodologie adéquate à l’enquête ontologique et à une analyse metamétaphysique de l’ontologie de l’art. Je considère quatre objections contre l’ontologie de l’art: l’eliminativisme, l’esthétisme, l’historicisme et le sémantisme. La deuxième partie est dédiée à une étude de l’art performatif et de la restauration. Dans le Chapitre 3, j’étudie le concept d’œuvre en général, en soutenant que ce n’est pas nécessaire de classer tout l’art sous ce notion : il faut faire une distinction entre œuvres et d’autres phénomènes artistiques pour donner sens aux pratiques artistiques non traditionnelles. Dans le Chapitre 4, je considère la notion de performance d’une perspective historique et philosophique: les performances peuvent être comprises à travers la comparaison avec jeux et expériences scientifiques. Enfin, j’examine pourquoi l’art performatif défie notre compréhension standard de l’appréciation artistique en introduisant les notions d’immersion et d’interaction. Dans le Chapitre 5, j’étudie le concept d’authenticité par rapport à la restauration. Je me réfère à l’œuvre de Cesare Brandi pour aborder les questions ontologiques que la restauration nous présente
I investigate the nature of the relationships between art and metaphysics in the tradition of classical music, performance art, and art restoration. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to musical ontology. I begin in Chapter 1 by analyzing theories of what a classical musical work is ontologically. I focus on Idealism, Nominalism and Platonism. I defend the view that none of these proposals is satisfactory nor able to resist objections. This leads in Chapter 2 to a discussion of the appropriate methodology for doing musical ontology. I thus propose a metametaphysical account of the ontology of art. I examine four objections against art ontology: Eliminativism, Aestheticism, Historicism and Semanticism. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the study of the cases of performance art and restoration. In Chapter 3 I investigate the concept of a work of art in general, arguing that there is no need to subsume all art under the work-concept. I claim that drawing a distinction between artworks and other art-phenomena is important to make sense of nontraditional contemporary art. In Chapter 4, I consider the notion of performance art both historically and philosophically. I contend that performances can be understood in the comparison with experiments and games. I examine the way in which performance art challenges our common understanding of art appreciation by introducing the contrasting notions of immersion and interaction. In Chapter 5, I consider the topic of art authenticity with regard to restoration. I refer to the work of Cesare Brandi to address some of the ontological problems that a philosophical analysis of restoration presents us with

Thesis (M.V.A.)--Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2005.
Title from title screen (viewed 26 May 2008). "Glass"--At the foot of t.p. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the Sydney College of the Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

This thesis describes the way in which sound is taken up and subsequently suppressed within the visual arts. The idealisation and development of sound as a plastic material is able to be traced within the modernist trajectory, which, reflecting a set of cultural practices and having developed its own specific terminologies, comes to regard any material, or anything conceived of as material, as appropriate and adequate to the expression of its distinctive and guiding concepts and metaphors. These concepts and metaphors are discussed as already having at their bases strongly visualist biases, the genealogies of which are traced within traditional or formal philosophies. Here, the marginalising tendency of ocularcentrism is exposed, but the very nature and contingency of marginalisation is found to work for the sound artist (where the perpetuation of the mythologised 'outsider' figure is desired) but against sound which is positioned in a purely differential and negative relation. In this epistemological and ontological reduction, sound becomes simply a visual metaphor or metonymic contraction which forecloses the possibility of producing other ways of articulating its experience or of producing any markedly alternative 'readings'. Rather than simply attempting to reverse the hierarchisation of the visual over the aural, or of prefacing sound within a range of artistic practices (each which would keep the negative tradition going) sound's ambiguous relation to the binarism of presence/absence, system and margin, is, however oddly, elaborated. The strategy which attempts to suspend sound primarily within and under the mark of the concept is interrogated and its limits exposed. The sound artist, the 'margin surfer' is revealed as a perhaps deeply conservative figure who may in the end desire the suppression of sound, and who, actually rejecting any destabilising and threatening notion of 'radical alterity' anxiously clings to the 'marginalised' modernist pretence. It is the main contention of this thesis that the marginalisation of sound obscures the more pressing question of its ambiguous relation to notions of sameness and difference, and that its conceptualisation suppresses the question of the ethical. That the ethical question should (and always does) take 'precedence' over purely epistemological and ontological considerations, and that more genuinely open attitudes should be assumed with respect to sound studies are forwarded in this thesis
Master of Arts (Hons)

How might ‘the digital’ be conceived of in an ‘expanded field’ of art practice, where ontology is flattened such that it is not defined by a particular media? This text, together with an installation of art work at the Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool John Moores University (13-24 March), constitutes the thesis submission as a whole, such that in the practice of ‘reading’ the thesis, each element remains differentiated from the other and makes no attempt to ‘represent’ the other. In negating representation, such practices present a ‘radical’ rethinking of the digital as a differentiated in-itself, one that is not defined solely by entrenched computational narratives derived from set theory. Rather, following Nelson Goodman’s nominalistic rejection of class constructs, ‘the digital’ is thus understood in onto-epistemic terms as being syntactically and semantically differentiated (Languages of Art 161). In the context of New Zealand Post-object Art practices of the late 1960s, as read through Jack Burnham’s systems thinking, such a digitally differentiated ontology is conceived of in terms of the how of practice, rather than what of objects (“Systems Aesthetics”). After Heidegger, such a practice is seen as an event of becoming realised by the method of formal indication, such that what is concealed is brought forth as a thing-in-itself (The Event; Phenomenological Interpretations 26). As articulated through the researcher’s own sculptural practice – itself indebted to Post-object Art – indication is developed as an intersubjective method applicable to both artists and audience. However, the constraints imposed on the thing-in-itself by the Husserlian phenomenological tradition are also taken as imposing correlational limitations on the ‘digital’, such that it is inherently an in-itself for-us and thus not differentiated in-itself. To resolve such Kantian dialectics, the thesis draws on metaphysical arguments put forward by contemporary speculative ontologies – in particular the work of Quentin Meillassoux and Tristan Garcia (After Finitude; Form and Object). Where these contemporary continental philosophies provide a means of releasing events from the contingency of human ‘reason’, the thesis argues for a practice of ‘un-reason’ in which indication is recognized as being contingent on speculation. Practice, it is argued, was never reason’s alone to determine. Instead, through the ‘radical’ method of speculative indication, practice is asserted as the event through which the differentiated digital is revealed as a thing-in-itself of itself and not for us.

There is little doubt that emerging technologies are changing the way we act, interact, create, and consume. Yet despite increased access to these technologies, consumers of technology too seldom interrogate the politics, subjectivities, and limitations of these technologies and their interfaces. Instead, many consumers approach emerging technologies as objective tools to be consumed, and engage in creative processes uncritically. This disquisition, following the work of Hawisher, Selfe, and Selfe, seeks ways to approach the problem of a “rhetoric of technology” that uncritically praises new technologies by drawing on avant-garde art traditions and object-oriented ontology. I argue that, by following the philosophies and practices of glitch, dirty new media, zaum, dada, circuit-bending, and others, we might approach writing technologies with the intention of critically misusing, manipulating, and revealing to ourselves and audiences the materiality of the media and technologies in use. In combination with these avant-garde practices and philosophies, I draw from object-oriented ontology to argue that we, as new media composers, never simply write on or through our technologies, but that we write in collaboration with them, for they are active and agential coauthors even (and especially) despite their status as nonhuman. I argue for an model that not only levels the ontological playing field between humans and nonhumans, but also one that embraces irregularities and “glitches” as essential features of systems and the actors within those systems. Finally, I provide examples of how to perform these models and philosophies, which I call object-oriented art.

This doctoral thesis is the culmination of work conducted in the context of an interdisciplinary research project that has been practice-based yet theory-driven and contributes to the fields of fine art and architecture with a particular focus on critical theory. It seeks to map a shared theoretical vocabulary regarding the creation of space and to frame the language of an emergent art practice that is fundamentally architecturalised and constitutes lived experiences as temporal events within actual architectural settings: loci. In this context, the thesis sets out an ontological and topological perspective regarding the occurrence and operation of immersive experiences and sees the latter as more-than-visual localised events in a state of becoming rather than mere phenomena. The investigation expands the concept of immersion beyond a digitally constructed reality and sees the virtual as a complementary element of the actual for the formation of receptive atmospheres. The thesis attempts to establish a modality of an immersive spatial experience that is sensory, multiple as well as intimate in empirical terms, with reference to the philosophy of the event and particularly the complex spatial theories of Gilles Deleuze.

Mémoire (M.A.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1994.
Résumé disponible sur Internet. Diapositives à la fin du v. en pochette. CaQCU CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

The Timaeus presents a fascinating account of the cosmos. It includes a creation myth that introduces the figure known as the Demiurge who, despite the fact that he is the cause of the sensible world, is reverently attributed with reason, and whose creation – the cosmos – is actually beautiful and good. In this dialogue Plato offers his readers a panorama of the universe. But just what are his intentions for this? Is his approach a precursor to the methods of natural science,1 or does the Timaeus fall under the category of theology? This thesis will discuss the outcome Plato wished to achieve by finally writing on cosmology and how the methods used to accomplish these ends reveal a more existential attitude towards aesthetics.

This investigation attempts to consider the identity of the contemporary Bergsonian philosophy of immanence by reflection on key conceptualisations from the work of Henri Bergson. From the view that thinking Bergsonian is an attitude of philosophy that anticipates the metaphysics of a philosophy of process, the demands of the emergence of thinking in art plays a role the directions of philosophical development. It is by this concern that key Bergsonian concepts serve as grounding of philosophical reflections of the related themes of time, images, and movement, and the change of thinking, towards an encounter of the practice of philosophy through the process of painting. Under the rubric of contemporary process metaphysics in art, we will attempt to establish a conceptual framework from principle Bergsonian conceptualizations, to acknowledge the process of painting as a different methodology of philosophy. This study of philosophy through painting then becomes a corresponding philosophy of the difference of thinking and the challenges to go beyond its identity. Proceeding by Bergsonian conceptualisations, to frame the context for a philosophy of painting, the question of the identity of painting is situated according to the didactic philosophies of Wassily Kandinsky. The comparisons and philosophical engagement between Bergsonian thinking and Kandinskian painting will be mediated by the counter interpretations of the philosophy of Michel Henry. The motivation to return to Bergsonian, exercised by a synthesis of Bergson’s concepts and Kandinsky’s theoretical practice, is situated according to an understanding of the identity of painting according to the terms of an ontology of images. In terms of a Bergsonian account of image, supported by a Kandinskian perspective, the focus will be towards the possibilities of philosophy and the metaphysics of becoming through the process of painting.

Philosophy
Ph.D.
In this dissertation, I provide a philosophical analysis of public art. I focus on its "publicness," and draw implications at the level of public art's ontology, appreciation, and value. I uphold the view that an artwork is public when received within a public sphere rather than within artworld institutions. I further argue that, as a consequence of the peculiar nature of its reception, public art possesses an essential value that is distinctively non-aesthetic: to promote political participation and to encourage tolerance. By examining how public art and its value(s) relate to the public domain in the context of pluralistic democracies, this dissertation also contributes to a fuller understanding of an important aspect of our social world. Chapter 1 introduces the scope and nature of the dissertation and emphasizes few important caveats. Chapter 2 develops a general characterization of public art's "publicness." It argues that what makes an artwork public is the context within which it is received: public artworks are received within a public sphere, that is, the public-art sphere, rather than within artworld institutions. Chapter 3 expands the account of the public-art sphere as developed in Chapter 2, and argues that public artworks address a multiplicity of publics and are received within a multiplicity of public-art spheres. Chapter 4 offers a sustained account of the pluralistic logic by means of which participants evaluate opinions expressed in discussions within public-art sphere. Chapter 5 explores the role that emotional reactions play in public-art spheres. It argues that warranted emotional reactions can function as premises of arguments proposed in public-art spheres. Chapter 6 discusses the ontology of public artworks. It suggests that some of the real properties that a public artwork has are a function of some features of the public-art sphere within which that artwork is received. Chapter 7 explains the value of public art. It holds that public art's value is a function of its capacity to promote political participation and to encourage tolerance.
Temple University--Theses

This paper addresses the aesthetic encounter from the perspective of the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the visible and the invisible. It begins with the premise that from time to time we encounter situations which precipitate a sense of slippage in our experience of the world. The paper proceeds to argue that the arts can provide a point of access to this experience, and that aesthetic theory has, for example, responded to it through the development of the notion of 'the sublime'. The writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and, in particular, aspects of his text The Visible and the invisible, are presented with a view to augmenting this aspect of aesthetic theory. Proceeding from a 'Merleau-Pontian' perspective, the paper explores how the arts can serve to disrupt our conventional sense of space and time - creating ripples in the substance Merleau-Ponty names as 'flesh' - so as to expose the chiasm or blind spot in our experience of the world. The methodology adopted is an experiential one, which draws on the writer's interaction with the selected works of various artists as well as her own practice in glass.

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his paper aims to examine the relationship established between the issue of Art and Education from the thought of Martin Heidegger. It is seeking to understand the art of ontological place and how it becomes the most proper way of human habitation on Earth, which is thought by Heidegger mainly from the influence of the poetry of Hölderlin. Heidegger criticizes the Aesthetics and his way of understanding art and aesthetic formation, coming from the metaphysical thought. Criticism attentive to the need for the aesthetic context of deconstruction as it proceeded in Being and Time with the proposed deconstruction of the history of ontology. Deconstruction not as demolition, but in order to return to the origins, the foundations of which were the concepts of aesthetics, and not to repeat the past but to enable new avenues of interpretation. Upon his recovery from Heidegger's ontology, it has to be, since its inception, the art can be seen as a foundation that contributes to the emergence of a particular way of being in the world for man, what happens when there is the establishment of belonging to their own land, the homeland. The Arts, more specifically poetry, is for Heidegger the original language through which a people can express originally, authentically. Thus, poetry gains a crucial dimension in that it is not only copy, imitation or representation of a given reality and not only seeks to express the feelings of a subject, but is a saying that originating gives rise to a new reality. Such question has that art is not just an entertainment or a treat from object to subject, but it is a foundation, which enables the union of a group on a membership (Bewährung) in common, giving rise to the sense historical community. So to think of Art and Formation in Heidegger, we must consider the idea of a historical community, to the philosopher, is not identified with the general notion of society as a set of individuals with no common bond. The Art, to build a world and enable a people to communion in his truth, enables the output under the impersonal, all that surrounds it, to its own mode of existence which unites a people in a common destiny.
Este trabalho objetiva examinar a relação que se estabelece entre a questão da Arte e a Formação a partir do pensamento de Martin Heidegger. Trata-se de buscar compreender o lugar ontológico da Arte e como ela se torna o modo mais próprio da habitação humana na Terra, o que é pensado por Heidegger principalmente a partir da influência da obra poética de Hölderlin. Heidegger faz uma crítica à Estética e ao seu modo de entender a Arte e a Formação estética, oriunda do pensamento metafísico ocidental. A crítica atenta para a necessidade de uma desconstrução do âmbito da Estética tal como se procedeu em Ser e Tempo com a proposta de desconstrução da história da ontologia. Desconstrução não como demolição, mas no sentido de voltar às origens, aos fundamentos de onde foram hauridos os conceitos da Estética, e não para repetir o passado, mas para possibilitar novas vias de interpretação. Mediante sua retomada a partir da ontologia tem-se que, desde sua origem, a Arte pode ser vista como um fundamento que contribui para o surgimento de um modo próprio de ser-no-mundo para o homem, o que acontece quando há o estabelecimento de um pertencimento a um solo próprio, a pátria. A Arte, mais especificamente a poesia, é para Heidegger a linguagem originária através da qual um povo pode se expressar originariamente, autenticamente. Sendo assim, a poesia ganha uma dimensão primordial na medida em que não é só cópia, imitação ou representação de uma realidade dada e não busca expressar somente os sentimentos de um sujeito, mas é um dizer originário que faz surgir uma realidade nova. De tal questão tem-se que a Arte não é apenas um entretenimento ou um objeto de deleite para o sujeito, mas ela é um fundamento, o que possibilita a união de um grupo em um pertencimento (Bewahrung) em comum, fazendo surgir o sentido de comunidade histórica. Portanto, para pensar a Arte e a formação em Heidegger, é preciso considerar essa ideia de comunidade histórica, que, para o filósofo, não se identifica com a noção geral de sociedade, como um conjunto de indivíduos sem elo em comum. A Arte, ao erigir um mundo e possibilitar a um povo a comunhão em sua verdade, possibilita uma saída do âmbito do impessoal, que a todos circunda, para um modo próprio de existência, que une um povo em um destino comum.

This thesis examines the relationship between the philosophy of art on the one hand, and Christian theology and ontology on the other. In Part I, Paul Tillich's interpretation of art is presented against the background of the development of his metaphysics and ontology. It is argued that the connection between the two is close and the influence reciprocal. A critical evaluation of Tillich reveals that he fails to provide Christ-centred, non-symbolic, objective criteria of truth in art. In Part II, the Dutch Neo-Calvinist tradition is surveyed with reference to Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, Klass Schilder, Herman Dooyeweerd, Hans Rookmaaker and Calvin Seerveld. By way of critisism, a dichotomy between creation and redemption is detected, due to an inadequate methodological grasp of the Headship of Christ. There is also a legalistic doctrine of God, a law-dominated doctrine of creation, and an undue emphasis on man's duty and obedience, particularly in culture. Although it is noted that the Neo-Calvinists offer objective Christian criteria of artistic value, their emphasis on beauty as the qualifying characteristic of art is rejected. In Part III, a Christological integration of creation and redemption is developed. From this, a theology of human creativity in general, and artistic creativity in particular, is expounded. Art is defined as a human artefact which functions metaphorically, and some of the theological and philosophical consequences of this are explored.

Through creative practice and written research, this thesis explores the peculiar qualities of surface materials, revealing a broader ethos of practice which I identify as care. I propose that care arises as a mode of being between artist and work, work and beholder, and between the parts of the work. The thesis situates the art practice within an ethical framework, premised on, but extending, Heidegger's ontological equation of care with being. The original contribution is in the claim that the particular qualities of worldly matter generate the terms for care as a particular mode of engagement that is reciprocal and intransitive.

How we imagine and the potency of alternative imaginings to socio-political concerns are vital questions for social science, and worldbuilding is a particular and understudied method of doing so. It is the creative making of fictional, imaginative worlds, offering a potential alternative method to imagine otherwise. This paper ethnographically explicates this craft through detailing how creators, known as worldbuilders, make their worlds, demonstrating how it is generative and impactful for them emotionally, intellectually, and politically. It is based of three months of online ethnographic/netnographic fieldwork across the multiple online ‘sites’ worldbuilders are active, particularly a forum and chatroom, as well as digital interviews with sixteen individual worldbuilders. I argue that worldbuilding is a process of toying with ontologies, which I call ontogenous play. I explain this through detailing what is dubbed making the imaginary – the worldbuilding process – going through the particulars of the process and the experiences of interlocutors, demonstrating how one achieves situated transcendence through it, and the generativity of that. In light of these observations, I also argue that worldbuilding is an art, attending to the ramifications of that designation. I draw upon anthropological understandings of making, processes, liminality, and ontologies to advance the argument, as well as the emergent scholarship on worldbuilding from ‘sub-creation studies’, and the erudite hypotheses of my interlocutors.

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a questão da pintura na filosofia de Merleau-Ponty. Inicialmente inscrita nos quadros de uma filosofia da existência, e depois, com maior destaque, nos quadros de uma ontologia. A questão da arte, particularmente a pintura, surge como meio privilegiado de investigação das nossas relações mais surdas e secretas com o Ser, ou com isso que Merleau-Ponty chamava de camada pré-reflexiva de sentido de mundo, anterior às teses de nossa linguagem. Isso porque a atividade da pintura revela os meios da visibilidade, que nosso olhar cotidiano deixa para trás e esquece a favor do mundo constituído culturalmente. Ou seja, habitamos um mundo que esquece suas premissas, e a tarefa do pintor, especialmente a de Cézanne, é recuperar o contato do olhar com este mundo inabitual. Nesta relação originária do corpo com o mundo, destaca-se, na obra de Merleau-Ponty, uma nova concepção de profundidade, que não é apenas do espaço, mas do corpo, e também das coisas. Merleau-Ponty apontou para esta noção em seus ensaios sobre arte, na tentativa de recolocar em questão a atividade artística como atividade que revela a implicação entre o mundo percebido e a corporeidade. Percebeu na profundidade a implicação da reversibilidade do corpo: a visibilidade a que se abre o vidente é também a de seu corpo visível, que é ao mesmo tempo vidente e visível, senciente e sensível. O autor afirma que, uma vez que este entrecruzamento está dado, aí estão, igualmente, colocados todos os problemas da pintura. Sendo assim, a pintura revela o enigma do próprio corpo. Minha visão se faz nas coisas e me apreende ao mesmo tempo no meu olhar desdobrado diante de mim, entrelaçamento que possibilita uma visibilidade secreta, ou um duplo carnal. O filósofo desenvolve o termo ?carne? para denominar este ?entre? o vidente e o visível, abertura de um ao outro, e passagem de um no outro, que define nosso acesso ao Ser. Percorremos algumas questões: entre o mundo percebido e o ato expressivo, o que é a atividade do artista, senão uma coerência com a visibilidade que o provoca e, portanto, que mal se desprende do espetáculo do mundo? Como o pintor ou o poeta expressariam outra coisa senão seu encontro com o mundo? E o que buscam neste encontro, senão uma relação mais verdadeira, sem ser uma verdade que se assemelhe ao mundo, mas coerente em seu encontro, isto é, capaz de expressar o invisível que anima a relação do olhar com a visibilidade, ou do sentir com a realidade? Neste movimento de pensamento, que inicialmente enfatiza uma nova idéia de Razão ou de Verdade através da atividade do olhar, chega-se, por fim, à noção de desejo ou de corpo libidinal. Perceber é desejar, movimento inscrito na abertura do Ser sensível, que inaugura as trocas entre o corpo e as coisas, em que o olhar ou a visibilidade é um elemento privilegiado.
The aim of this study is the research of the problem of painting in the philosophy of Merleau Ponty. Originally enrolled in the frames of an existencialistic philosophy, aferwards it was put with more prominence, in the frame of an ontology.The problem of art, especially of painting, arises as a privileged way of research of our more deaf and secret relations with Being, or wich that what Merleau Ponnty nominated the pre-reflexive layer of the sense of the world, previous to the thesis of our language. This is so because the activity of painting reveals the means of visibility that our daily look leaves behind and forgets privileging the cultural constructed world. In other words, we live in a world that forgets its premisses, and the task of the painter, especially of Cézanne, is to recover the contact of the look on this unhabitual world. In this original relation of the body with the world we may emphasize, in the work of Merleau Ponty, a new concept of depth, that is not only of space, but of the body, and also of the things. Merleau Ponty pointed to this notion in his essays about arts, trying to question again the artist?s activity as an activity that reveals the implication between the perceived world and the bodyness. He perceived in the depth the implication of the revertibility of the body: the visibility which opens itself to the beholder is also that of his visual body, which is at the same time beholder and visible object, sensing and sensible. The author states that once this intercrossing is given, all the problems of painting are here placed in the same way. In being so, the painting reveals the enigma of the body itself. My look realizes itself in the things and grasps me at the same moment in my look unfolded in front of myself, this interlinking makes possible a secret visibility or a carnal double. The philosophe develops the term \"flesh\" to denominate this \"between\" the beholder and the visible, opening one to the other, giving passage from one to the other, which defines our access to Being. We will deal with some questions: What is the activity of the artist between the perceived world and the expressive act, other then a coherence with the visibility that it causes and, therefore, what harm does come from the spectacle of the world? How the painter and the poet would express other things than their meeting with the world? And in this meeting what they are looking for other than a more true relation, without being a truth which is similar to the world, but coherent in their meeting, this is, capable to express the invisible that cheers up the relation of the gaze with the visibility or of the feeling with the realityIn this movement of thoughts, which emphasizes initially a new idea of Reason and of Truth by means of the activity of looking, one arrives, finally to the notion of desire or of the libidinal body. To perceive is to desire, a movement graved in the opening of sensitive Being, that inaugurates the exchanges between the body and the things, in whicht he looking or the visibility is a privileged element.

En 1878 Karl Emil Franzos appose sur le manuscrit pas encore nommé Woyzeck une solution de souffre et d’ammoniaque. Le traitement doit permettre de dévoiler les parties illisibles du texte et de faire apparaître derrière les ratures des parties nécessaires à la compréhension de la dramaturgie. En 1837, les feuillets récupérés à la mort de l’auteur furent jugés vulgaires et ne parurent pas dans la première édition des œuvres complètes en 1850. Pour l’édition de 1878, Karl Emil Franzos entend mettre au jour cette pièce laissée inachevée. Pendant un moment le précipité semble opérer. L’encre remonte à la surface du papier. Les lettres prennent en épaisseur, des mots apparaissent. Les passages écrits trop vite avec une plume sèche et les restes d’un encrier se dévoilent. Pendant un moment du moins. Très rapidement l’encre remontée en excès à la surface du papier sèche. Des croûtes de pigments se forment à l’endroit des mots. En l’absence de fixateur, ces petits tas de poussières se dispersèrent au moment de l’expiration du lecteur. La première apparition du manuscrit consista en sa disparition partielle. Des pattes de mouches et des biffures il ne reste par endroit plus que le pli laissé par la pointe sur le papier. Le personnage de Johann Woyzeck, tel que relaté dans la pièce, advient dans les conditions du manuscrit. Georg Büchner opère une réduction du personnage à sa condition d’apparaître. Au fur et à mesure des lignes les abréviations et les ponctuations font émerger sa figure. Le texte le vêtit par addition de lambeaux et de débris. Comme l’homme invisible qui ne devient perceptible qu’une fois habillé, Johann Woyzeck se pare d’un costume et advient dans les mailles d’un langage rapiécé. Ainsi affublé d’un telle tunique le personnage prend les allures d’un arlequin. Il y a alors une tunique qui fait personnage et qui n’est faite que de morceaux empruntés. Il est débiteur de sa propre peau et sa malice lui permet de toujours déjouer les conditions de son baptême. Et il y a un être de papier qui s’aliène dans les dissociations qui lui sont imposées jusqu’à en perdre la possibilité de dire « Je ». Par surimpression il s’agit de faire apparaître ici le Woyzeck comme une arlequinade. Le montage valant tout autant pour l’histoire que pour la forme du manuscrit. Les quatre feuillets assemblés par la recherche philologique prennent valeur de canevas, à l’image de ceux utilisés par les compagnies de commedia dell’arte et qui servaient de situation de départ au travail d’improvisation. Pris dans ce maillage le drame devient une farce noire où un arlequin, sommé de s’enregistrer à l’état civil et de rendre compte de la provenance de ses morceaux, se fragmente. C’est tout son être que la question « Qui es tu ? » vient à démettre. La perte du « Je » engage alors la langue vers sa dissolution dans les blancs de la page. Cette figure et ce manuscrit deviennent dans cette recherche un paradigme. Les œuvres sculpturales, numériques et photographiques travaillent dans leurs modes de conception et dans leurs formes ce maillage. Elles s’annoncent sur une analogie entre langage et encodage. La mise en espace tend alors à mettre en scène des modes de figurations du monde qui se représentent plus eux-même qu’ils ne représentent les objets qu’ils se proposent de signifier. C’est cette tension que vient scénographier l’exposition Un Puzzle Blanc qui constitue la première partie de cette recherche. L’espace devient le lieu d’une mise en scène où l’exposition devient scène. La deuxième partie de cette thèse est une traduction de l’accrochage sous la forme d’un film. Il documente les œuvres et transcrit dans une durée et dans un montage les motifs et les principes de travail de cette recherche. À partir de ces éléments, le mémoire de thèse est une mise en texte de la lecture du drame faites par cette recherche. Il argumente en quoi le personnage de Johann Woyzeck est une survivance de la figure de l’arlequin
In 1878 Karl Emil Franzos affixed on the manuscript not yet named Woyzeck a solution of sulfur and ammonia. The treatment must reveal the illegible parts of the text and to make appear behind the erasures some parts necessary to the comprehension of the dramaturgy. In 1837, the sheets recovered at the death of the author were considered vulgar and did not appear in the first edition of the complete works in 1850. For the edition of 1878, Karl Emil Franzos intends to unearth this piece left unfinished. For a moment the precipitate seems to operate. The ink rises to the surface of the paper. Letters take in thick, words appear. The passages written too quickly with a feather and the remains of an inkwell are revealed. For a moment at least. Very quickly the ink raised in excess on the surface of the dry paper. Crusts of pigments are formed at the place of words. In the absence of fixative, these small piles of dust dispersed at the moment of the expiration of the reader. The first appearance of the manuscript consisted in its partial disappearance. Flies of flies and scratches there remains in place only the fold left by the tip on the paper.The character of Johann Woyzeck, as recounted in the play, occurs under the conditions of the manuscript. Georg Büchner makes a reduction of the character to his condition to appear. As the lines and abbreviations and punctuations emerge his face. The text clad him by adding flaps and debris. Like the invisible man who only becomes perceptible once dressed, Johann Woyzeck adorns himself with a costume and comes into the meshes of a patchwork language. Thus decked out in such a tunic, the character takes on the appearance of a harlequin.There is then a tunic that is a character and that is made only borrowed pieces. He is a debtor of his own skin and his mischief allows him to always thwart the conditions of his baptism. And there is a being of paper who alienates himself in the dissociations which are imposed on him until losing the possibility of saying "I". By overprinting it is to make appear here the Woyzeck like a harlequinade. The editing is as much for the story as for the form of the manuscript. The four leaflets assembled by philological research take the form of canvases, like those used by the commedia dell'arte companies and which served as a starting point for the improvisation work. Taken in this mesh the drama becomes a black joke where a harlequin, summoned to register in the civil status and to report the provenance of its pieces, is fragmented. It is all his being that the question "Who are you?" Comes to resign. The loss of the "I" then engages the language towards its dissolution in the whites of the page.This figure and this manuscript become in this research a paradigm. The sculptural, digital and photographic works work in their modes of design and in their forms this mesh. They announce themselves on an analogy between language and encoding. The setting in space then tends to stage modes of figurations of the world which represent themselves more than they represent the objects that they propose to signify. It is this tension that comes to stage the exhibition A White Puzzle which constitutes the first part of this research. The space becomes the place of a staging where the exhibition becomes a scene. The second part of this thesis is a translation of the clash in the form of a film. He documents the works and transcribes in a duration and a montage the motives and principles of work of this research. From these elements, the dissertation is a setting in text of the reading of the drama made by this research. He argues how Johann Woyzeck's character is a survival of the harlequin's figure

This practice-led research project explores the complex and contradictory affective responses encountered as a creative practitioner in relation to materiality. Using an Object-Oriented and New Materialist approach, I propose that affect resides between and around objects and that this relational space can be seen as a threshold. This proposition is informed by the ideas of Melissa Gregg, Gregory Seigworth, Graham Harman, and Jane Bennett, and contextualised by the creative practices of Eva Hesse, Rachel Whiteread, and Sarah Sze. It is my contention that collaborating with the agencies of objects in the studio gives rise to the affective force of materiality.

The aim of this thesis is to increase our ontological understanding of musical works in two ways. We’ll increase our understanding of their categorial nature and we’ll increase our understanding of what the identity of each musical work consists in. In chapter 1, I introduce the basic question of the thesis: what are musical works? This question is broken down into four separate questions which guide the structure and argument of the thesis. One question asks if musical works exist, the other asks about the ontological category to which musical works belong. In the first half of the thesis, I argue that musical works exist and that the best explanation of their features is given by assigning them to the category of universals. I argue for this conclusion by elaborating and defending a view according to which musical works are properties. I then show that this conception is superior to the strongest rivals. One rival takes musical works to be historical individuals (Rohrbaugh 2003). The other takes them to be actions of composition (Davies 2004). In chapter 6, I turn to two questions about identity. One question asks about the identity criteria for musical works, the other question asks for an explanation of musical work identity. In the remainder of chapter 6, I argue by reference to contextualist intuitions that a superficially appealing view, sonicism is problematic. The critique of sonicism is used to draw out certain contextualist assumptions that our ontology of music ought to explain. In chapter 7, I examine a family of Levinsonian contextualist proposals. I argue that the original formulations (Levinson 1980) give incorrect results, and that attempts to modify them (Davies, S: 2001) slip into obscurity, or undermine the aims of the project (Levinson 1992). I end chapter 7 by presenting the performance theory in a more flattering light. I argue that as a theory of musical work identity, the performance theory is the best on the market because it overcomes the problems associated with the Levinsonian views and deepens our understanding of contextualist intuitions. In chapter 8, I present an account of the ontology of music which integrates the property theory of category with the performance theory of identity by construing musical works as impure relational properties. I then defend the integrated account against various objections. In this defence, I elaborate a view of compositional actions as belonging to the ontological category of processes.

This Australian Indigenous creactive work and its Treatise promote ways of thinking about practice and research that extend well beyond the current discourse. It invites re-thinking on how research can be practice-led in new ways, and what that might mean for future students. When discussing the challenges of today, this work signifies how "Western Style" thinking and theory is wanting in so many ways. It engages a new dynamic and innovative way of theorising, encouraging future students to apply their full capacity of energy and wisdom. (Extract from examiners' reports.)

The studies of digital games is a young scientific field notable for its interdisciplinary nature that seeks to unite several epistemological positions in order to properly encompass the wide array of questions raised by the subject matter. During the last two decades strides have been made towards the introduction of a unified game theory, with several of the more recently suggested methods coalescing towards a similar end. This paper posits a phenomenological game theory which circumvents the usual aesthetic arguments for a focus on game as space, and analyses what it means to be in that space. The result of the initial reading of mainly three well-known and critically acclaimed digital games strongly indicates that using Heideggerian phenomenological thought reveals things about games as art that a) reinforces the validity of commonly held beliefs in current game theory, and b) suggests new ways forward for game design to improve games through enhancing the player’s comportment into their spaces by means of phenomenological game theory.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study comprises a philosophical investigation into the development of a non-representational resistance against the State, with specific focus on the role of the imagination in both repression and the struggle for freedom. Using Deleuze & Guattari’s non-representasional ontology, the researcher argues that Deleuze and Guattari’s ontological system can be described as an ontological anarchy, which supplies us with tactics of resistance that strongly deviates from traditional Representational or Revolutionary models of resistance. Building on a discussion of Situationism and Hakim Bey’s T.A.Z, the argument is made that these non-representasional resistive tactics could ‘open’ the category of art up to a whole network of creative and life practices – a transformation that has the ability to free art as well as the everyday. In stead of refecting back on a supposed ‘background’ Reality, this resistance relies on the ontologically anarchic practice of reality production. The idea of the non-ordinary or peak experience, assosiated with sorcery, plays a crucial role in this production process, and the argument is made for the use the of these experiences to create a lasting peak experience, ultimately constituting a shared level of peak intensity between people that the researcher calls ‘the revolution of the imagination’. Key words: ontology, anarchy, anarchism, the State, resistance, revolution, imagination, complexity, ontology of art, poststructuralism, Representation, non-representationality, peak experience, sorcery, the everyday, Situationism, psychogeography, geophilosopy, phenomenology.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is ʼn filosofiese ondersoek na die ontwikkeling van ʼn nie-representasionele weerstand teen die Staat, met besondere klem op die rol van die verbeelding in die onderdrukking van, sowél as die stryd om vryheid. Deur middel van Deleuze & Guattari se nie-representasionele ontologie word daar tussen Representasie, wat met die Staat as komplekse en gesamentlik geproduseerde sosiale konfigurasie verband hou, en nie-representasionaliteit, wat met anargisme saamhang, onderskei. Die navorser voer aan dat Deleuze & Guattari se ontologiese sisteem as ʼn ontologiese anargie beskryf kan word wat ons van weerstandstaktieke voorsien wat sterk van tradisionele Representasionele of Rewolusionêre weerstandsmodelle afwyk. Na aanleiding van ʼn bespreking van Situasionisme en Hakim Bey se T.A.Z word daar betoog dat hierdie nie-representasionele weerstandstaktieke, die kategorie van kuns kan ‘oopmaak’ tot ʼn hele netwerk van ander kreatiewe en lewenspraktyke – ʼn transformasie wat terselfdertyd kuns én die alledaagse kan bevry. In plaas daarvan om terug te kaats op ʼn veronderstelde ‘agtergrond’- Werklikheid, gaan dié stryd om die ontologies anargiese praktyk van werklikheidsproduksie. Die idee van nie-gewone ervaring, of die spitservaring, wat met towery geassosieer word, speel ʼn sentrale rol in hierdie produksie, en daar word aangevoer dat dit gebruik kan word om van álle ervarings ʼn verlengde spitservaring te maak – ʼn gedeelde vlak van intensiteit onder mense wat die navorser ‘die rewolusie van die verbeelding’ noem. Trefwoorde: ontologie, anargie, anargisme, die Staat, weerstand, rewolusie, verbeelding, kompleksiteit, ontologie van kuns, poststrukturalisme, Representasie, nie-representasionaliteit, spitservaring, towery, die alledaagse, Situasionisme, psigogeografie, geofilosofie, fenomenologie.

Qu’est-ce que l’art ? Qu’est-ce que l’art (d’)après l’art contemporain ? Cette thèse de doctorat part du constat d’un changement paradigmatique dans l’évolution artistique, et tend à analyser la cause et la nature même de la crise dite de l’art contemporain en France dans les années 1990 du siècle dernier. L’ensemble des débats conduit par la suite nos recherches à des questions essentielles liées à la définition de l’art, aux modes d’existence des œuvres et à la fonction artistique. C’est une approche ontologique avec un esprit analytique sur l’identité de l’art et de l’art (d’)après l’art contemporain
What is art? What is art after and according to contemporary art? This PHD dissertation starts with the observation of a paradigmatic turn in artistic evolution, and tends to analyze the cause and the very nature of the so-called "crisis of contemporary art" in France in the 90s of the last century. All of the debates subsequently lead our research into the essential questions related to the definition of art, the existence modes of works, and the artistic function. It is an ontological approach with an analytic spirit on the identity of art and art after and according to contemporary art

The visual feedback loop has long-been ignored as a form and an aesthetic within new media. Media theories have largely assumed a medium is defined by the material technology, relegating visual feedback to a circumstance of media rather than a unique and well-defined concept. This thesis sets forth a criteria for characterizing the visual feedback loop as a desired form, that is, a distinct set of formal and phenomenological qualities that are independent of a medium. Grounding the criteria are the cinema theories of Gilles Deleuze and Sean Cubitt; these theories propose that the cinematic image relates visual forms to generate information in decoding rather represents information directly. The thesis elaborates the theoretical concepts in examples of visual feedback loops from video (Nam June Paikâ s TV Buddha, Bruce Naumanâ s Live Taped Video Corridor), new media art (Daniel Rozinâ s physical mirrors), and digital technologies (GPS navigation systems). To reconcile the visual feedback loop within media theories, the thesis calls for a radical change in how theorists define a medium. Moving away from notions of inscription and materiality, media now rely on a collapsed distinction between sender and receiver. Hence, visual feedback loops exist as remediations of a conceptual framework rather than a technological one, and so require a logic within media theory that allow for the rise of other desired forms like the visual feedback loop.

This practice-led research investigates how non-human agencies contribute to the art-making process. Using an object-oriented and material-semiotic approach, I propose that the reciprocity between objects and processes that occurs in art practice can be understood as a topological cloud: a self-generating hyperobject. This proposition is informed by the ideas of Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, and Hubert Damisch, and contextualised by contemporary artists Bruce Nauman (US), Didier Vermeiren (Belgium) and Gabriel Orozco (Mexico). It is my contention that this methodological model provides a useful way of understanding art practice as a network of object-based structures, while preserving its alien, emergent qualities.

Questo studio ha come oggetto evidente l'opera di un pittore contemporaneo, Gerhard Richter, ma e' meno un saggio di storia delle arti visive che il capitolo di una piu' ampia fenomenologia della visione. L'opera di Richter e' stata scelta come oggetto esemplare di un'indagine sullo statuto di realta' e sul contenuto di verita' delle immagini. La tesi di questa ricerca e' che l'intera opera del pittore tedesco sia una continua interrogazione sull'essere delle cose e sull'Essere piu' generale. I temi ricorrenti nella sua arte - la dispersione dei contorni, la confusione dei riflessi, l'agnosia visiva, la stratificazione delle immagini, la sospensione delle identita' degli oggetti e del soggetto, l'intervento del caso - sono tutte declinazioni dello stesso stupore per la consistenza del reale. Alla luce di questa ipotesi gli strumenti critici sono stati trovati in due ambiti in apparenza lontani. La pittura di Richter e' stata incrociata per la prima volta con il pensiero sull'Essere di filosofi come Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, scoprendo sorprendenti corrispondenze, e allo stesso tempo e' stata interpretata internamente ad una fenomenologia del visibile, con riferimento all'intera storia delle forme proiettive. L'intera opera di Richter e' stata presa in esame: in primo luogo il catalogo dei dipinti, poi quello dei disegni, degli acquerelli, delle foto dipinte, poi ancora quello delle edizioni a stampa e infine la raccolta delle migliaia di foto dell'Atlas, documentazione e "opera totale" al tempo stesso.
This study has as its object the work of a contemporary painter, Gerhard Richter, but it is less an essay on the history of visual arts than the chapter of a broader phenomenology of vision. Richter's work was chosen as exemplary of a survey on the status of reality and the truth content of the images. The thesis of this research is that the entire work of the German painter is a continuous questioning about the being of things and the Being itself. Recurrent themes in his art - the dispersion of the contours, the confusion of reflections, visual agnosia, the layering of images, the suspension of the identity of objects and subjects, the intervention of the case - are all variations of the same wonder at the consistency of reality. Critical tools were found in two seemingly distant fields. Richter's painting was crossed for the first time with the thought on Being of philosophers such as Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, discovering amazing matches, and at the same time was considered inside a phenomenology of the visible, with reference to the entire history of projective forms. The entire work of Richter has been taken into consideration: first, the catalog of the paintings, then those of drawings, watercolors, overpainted photographs, and even that of graphic and photographic editions, and finally the collection of thousands of photos and sketches of the Atlas.

Le Carré est une étoffe de soie imprimée par la maison Hermès depuis 1937. Son apparence simple recèle des processus techniques complexes. Dans un premier temps, il s’agit de cartographier le processus de création et de production de l’objet à partir des 1300 agents, humains et non-humains, préalablement recensés et géocodés. Cette stratégie ethnographique, nommée « ontographie » et « onto-cartographie », fait apparaître un réseau sociotechnique hétérogène et étendu à la surface de la biosphère tout entière, à partir duquel il est possible d’identifier cinq modes techniques dits « bricologiques ». En effet, la logique du bricolage s’applique à la configuration historique de l’appareil créatif et productif du Carré Hermès, aux processus techniques frugaux (low tech) et hybrides (wild tech) qui animent sa fabrication, à la conception des machines qui automatisent certaines tâches et aux usages détournés déployés par les consommateurs et l’entreprise. Dans un deuxième temps, il s’agit d’étudier le mode de relation au monde de l’Artisan Hermès et le mode esthétique du Carré Hermès en fonction du degré bricologique des pratiques et du niveau d’automatisation des métiers. Plus l’artisan bricole, plus son attention est optimale, plus ses sens et son intuition sont affûtés, plus sa cognition est incarnée et étendue, et plus son mode de relation au monde est résonant. Outre cela, plus l’objet est bricolé, plus il est d’une beauté imparfaite. Autrement dit, cette façon singulière de faire et d’être laisse des traces à la surface de l’objet, chacune d’elles pouvant être considérée comme le souvenir d’une rencontre sensible entre l’artisan et son métier, entendu comme fragment du monde. Dans la troisième partie, il s’agit d’extraire de l’ethnographie les éléments capables d’inspirer une pratique de l’innovation orientée vers le design d’un mode de fabrication durable et d’un mode de relation au monde résonant. Le designer de l’être fait usage de la cartographie et de l’ethnographie pour s’orienter parmi la complexité des processus techniques contemporains et révéler au consommateur les « paysages » de l’innovation, ses aspects les plus sombres et les plus lumineux, ses mondes et ses habitants humains et non-humains. Il fait de la bricologie l’algorithme qui gouverne toute prise de décision afin que les acteurs et les actrices du projet puissent faire et être plus avec moins
The Carré is a silk scarf printed by Hermès since 1937. Its simple appearance conceals complex technical processes. First, it is a question of mapping the creation and production process from the 1300 agents, human and non-human, previously identified and geocoded. This ethnographic strategy, called "ontography" and "onto-cartography", reveals an heterogeneous and extensive socio-technical network on a biospheric scale, from which it is possible to identify five so-called "bricological" technical modes. Indeed, the logic of bricolage applies to the historical configuration of the creative and productive apparatus of the Carré Hermès, to the frugal (low tech) and hybrid (wild tech) technical processes that drive its manufacture, to the design of the machines that automate certain tasks and to its diverted uses deployed by consumers and the company. Secondly, it is a question of studying the way the Hermès Craftsman relates to the world and the aesthetic mode of the Carré Hermès according to the bricological degree of the practices and the automation level of the crafts. The more the craftsman “bricole”, the more their attention is optimal, the more their senses and their intuition are sharpened, the more their cognition is embodied and extended, and the more the way they relate to the world is resonant. Besides that, the more the object is “bricolé”, the more imperfectly beautiful it is. In other words, this singular way of doing and being leaves traces on the surface of the object, each of them being able to be considered as the remembrance of a sensitive encounter between the craftsman and their craft, understood as a world sample. In the third part, it is about extracting from ethnography the elements capable of inspiring an innovation practice oriented towards the design of a sustainable manufacturing method and a resonant way of relating to the world. The being-oriented designer uses cartographic and ethnographic tools to orient themself among the complexity of contemporary technical processes and reveal to the consumer the innovation “landscapes”, its darker and brightest aspects, its human and non-human worlds and inhabitants. Bricology becomes the algorithm that governs all decision-making so that the actors of the project can do and be more with less

Ces recherches doctorales démontrent comment l’aporie et ses voix/voies plurielles minent l’œuvre Lawrencienne: romans, essais, poèmes ou encore tableaux. Malgré le désir du lecteur de donner une voix/voie singulière – ou interprétation – à l’œuvre de D. H. Lawrence, seule une herméneutique et une vérité plurielle viennent à notre rencontre, nous laissant ainsi soumis à une impasse insurmontable. Tout au long de ce chemin doctoral, nul n’est à l’abri des culs de sacs et des trébuchements. Ainsi, une aporie génétique tisse le tissu textuel des premières ébauches de D. H. Lawrence, et la souveraineté logocentrique et herméneutique de l’homme est renversée. La rature s’impose et l’œuvre de D. H. Lawrence nous rappelle que le logos, et l’Être, résistent, pour mieux inscrire l’aporie dans son corpus. Les limites du langage, de la religion, du savoir, et de la représentation artistique de la réalité résonne désormais avec une question qui demeure sans réponse et en suspens
This work of research aims at showing how aporia and its plural voices pervade D.H Lawrence’s work, be it through his novels, his essays, his poetry, or his paintings. Despite the reader’s desire to give one singular voice and meaning to D.H Lawrence’s work, plural meanings and multiples truths come our way, leaving us facing an uncrossable impasse. The road is paved with deadlocks and places to stumble upon. Indeed, genetic aporia weaves the very fabric of D.H. Lawrence’s first drafts and sketches, and the logocentric and hermeneutic sovereignty of man is put into question. In fact, we have to cross it out as Lawrence’s work reminds us that the logos, and Being, show some resistance, the result of which is to better inscribe aporia into his corpus. The limits of language, of religion, of knowledge, and of the artistic representation of reality resonate now with an everlasting and unanswered question

Las colecciones de música son cada vez mayores y más variadas, haciendo necesarias nuevas fórmulas para su organización automática. El análisis automático del ritmo tiene como fin la extracción de información rítmica de grabaciones musicales y es una de las principales áreas de investigación en la disciplina de recuperación de la información musical (MIR por sus siglas en inglés). La dimensión rítmica de la música es específica a una cultura y por tanto su análisis requiere métodos que incluyan el contexto cultural. Las complejidades rítmicas de la música clásica de la India, una de las mayores tradiciones musicales del mundo, no han sido tratadas hasta la fecha en MIR, motivo por el cual la elegimos como nuestro principal objeto de estudio. Nuestra intención es abordar cuestiones de análisis rítmico aún no tratadas en MIR con el fin de contribuir a la disciplina con nuevos métodos sensibles al contexto cultural y generalizables a otras tradiciones musicales. El objetivo de la tesis es el desarrollo de técnicas de procesamiento de señales y aprendizaje automático dirigidas por datos para el análisis, descripción y descubrimiento automáticos de estructuras y patrones rítmicos en colecciones de audio de música clásica de la India. Tras identificar retos y posibilidades, así como varias tareas de investigación relevantes para este objetivo, detallamos la elaboración del corpus de estudio y conjuntos de datos, fundamentales para métodos dirigidos por datos. A continuación, nos centramos en las tareas de análisis métrico y descubrimiento de patrones de percusión. El análisis métrico consiste en la alineación de eventos métricos a diferentes niveles con una grabación de audio. En la tesis formulamos las tareas de deducción de metro, seguimiento de metro y seguimiento informado de metro de acuerdo a la tradición estudiada, se evalúan diferentes modelos bayesianos capaces de incorporar explícitamente información de estructuras métricas de niveles superiores y se proponen nuevas extensiones. Los métodos propuestos superan las limitaciones de las propuestas existentes y los resultados indican la efectividad del análisis informado de metro. La percusión en la música clásica de la India utiliza onomatopeyas para la transmisión del repertorio y la técnica. Utilizamos estas sílabas para definir, representar y descubrir patrones en grabaciones de solos de percusión. A tal fin generamos una transcripción automática basada en un modelo oculto de Márkov, seguida de una búsqueda aproximada de subcadenas usando una biblioteca de patrones de percusión derivada de datos. Experimentos preliminares en patrones de percusión de ópera de Pekín, y en grabaciones de solos de tabla y mridangam, demuestran la utilidad de estas sílabas, identificando nuevos retos para el desarrollo de sistemas prácticos de descubrimiento. Las tecnologías resultantes de esta investigación son parte de un conjunto de herramientas desarrollado en el proyecto CompMusic para el mejor entendimiento y organización de la música clásica de la India, con el objetivo de proveer una experiencia mejorada de escucha y descubrimiento de música. Estos datos y herramientas pueden ser también relevantes para estudios musicológicos dirigidos por datos y otras tareas de MIR que puedan beneficiarse de análisis automáticos de ritmo.
Large and growing collections of a wide variety of music are now available on demand to music listeners, necessitating novel ways of automatically structuring these collections using different dimensions of music. Rhythm is one of the basic music dimensions and its automatic analysis, which aims to extract musically meaningful rhythm related information from music, is a core task in Music Information Research (MIR). Musical rhythm, similar to most musical dimensions, is culture-specific and hence its analysis requires culture-aware approaches. Indian art music is one of the major music traditions of the world and has complexities in rhythm that have not been addressed by the current state of the art in MIR, motivating us to choose it as the primary music tradition for study. Our intent is to address unexplored rhythm analysis problems in Indian art music to push the boundaries of the current MIR approaches by making them culture-aware and generalizable to other music traditions. The thesis aims to build data-driven signal processing and machine learning approaches for automatic analysis, description and discovery of rhythmic structures and patterns in audio music collections of Indian art music. After identifying challenges and opportunities, we present several relevant research tasks that open up the field of automatic rhythm analysis of Indian art music. Data-driven approaches require well curated data corpora for research and efforts towards creating such corpora and datasets are documented in detail. We then focus on the topics of meter analysis and percussion pattern discovery in Indian art music. Meter analysis aims to align several hierarchical metrical events with an audio recording. Meter analysis tasks such as meter inference, meter tracking and informed meter tracking are formulated for Indian art music. Different Bayesian models that can explicitly incorporate higher level metrical structure information are evaluated for the tasks and novel extensions are proposed. The proposed methods overcome the limitations of existing approaches and their performance indicate the effectiveness of informed meter analysis. Percussion in Indian art music uses onomatopoeic oral mnemonic syllables for the transmission of repertoire and technique, providing a language for percussion. We use these percussion syllables to define, represent and discover percussion patterns in audio recordings of percussion solos. We approach the problem of percussion pattern discovery using hidden Markov model based automatic transcription followed by an approximate string search using a data derived percussion pattern library. Preliminary experiments on Beijing opera percussion patterns, and on both tabla and mridangam solo recordings in Indian art music demonstrate the utility of percussion syllables, identifying further challenges to building practical discovery systems. The technologies resulting from the research in the thesis are a part of the complete set of tools being developed within the CompMusic project for a better understanding and organization of Indian art music, aimed at providing an enriched experience with listening and discovery of music. The data and tools should also be relevant for data-driven musicological studies and other MIR tasks that can benefit from automatic rhythm analysis.
Les col·leccions de música són cada vegada més grans i variades, fet que fa necessari buscar noves fórmules per a organitzar automàticament aquestes col·leccions. El ritme és una de les dimensions bàsiques de la música, i el seu anàlisi automàtic és una de les principals àrees d'investigació en la disciplina de l'recuperació de la informació musical (MIR, acrònim de la traducció a l'anglès). El ritme, com la majoria de les dimensions musicals, és específic per a cada cultura i per tant, el seu anàlisi requereix de mètodes que incloguin el context cultural. La complexitat rítmica de la música clàssica de l'Índia, una de les tradicions musicals més grans al món, no ha estat encara treballada en el camp d'investigació de MIR - motiu pel qual l'escollim com a principal material d'estudi. La nostra intenció és abordar les problemàtiques que presenta l'anàlisi rítmic de la música clàssica de l'Índia, encara no tractades en MIR, amb la finalitat de contribuir en la disciplina amb nous models sensibles al context cultural i generalitzables a altres tradicions musicals. L'objectiu de la tesi consisteix en desenvolupar tècniques de processament de senyal i d'aprenentatge automàtic per a l'anàlisi, descripció i descobriment automàtic d'estructures i patrons rítmics en col·leccions de música clàssica de l'Índia. Després d'identificar els reptes i les oportunitats, així com les diverses tasques d'investigació rellevants per a aquest objectiu, detallem el procés d'elaboració del corpus de dades, fonamentals per als mètodes basats en dades. A continuació, ens centrem en les tasques d'anàlisis mètric i descobriment de patrons de percussió. L'anàlisi mètric consisteix en alinear els diversos esdeveniments mètrics -a diferents nivells- que es produeixen en una gravació d'àudio. En aquesta tesi formulem les tasques de deducció, seguiment i seguiment informat de la mètrica. D'acord amb la tradició musical estudiada, s'avaluen diferents models bayesians que poden incorporar explícitament estructures mètriques d'alt nivell i es proposen noves extensions per al mètode. Els mètodes proposats superen les limitacions dels mètodes ja existents i el seu rendiment indica l'efectivitat dels mètodes informats d'anàlisis mètric. La percussió en la música clàssica de l'Índia utilitza onomatopeies per a la transmissió del repertori i de la tècnica, fet que construeix un llenguatge per a la percussió. Utilitzem aquestes síl·labes percussives per a definir, representar i descobrir patrons en enregistraments de solos de percussió. Enfoquem el problema del descobriment de patrons percussius amb un model de transcripció automàtica basat en models ocults de Markov, seguida d'una recerca aproximada de strings utilitzant una llibreria de patrons de percussions derivada de dades. Experiments preliminars amb patrons de percussió d'òpera de Pequín, i amb gravacions de solos de tabla i mridangam, demostren la utilitat de les síl·labes percussives. Identificant, així, nous horitzons per al desenvolupament de sistemes pràctics de descobriment. Les tecnologies resultants d'aquesta recerca són part de les eines desenvolupades dins el projecte de CompMusic, que té com a objectiu millorar l'experiència d'escoltar i descobrir música per a la millor comprensió i organització de la música clàssica de l'Índia, entre d'altres. Aquestes dades i eines poden ser rellevants per a estudis musicològics basats en dades i, també, altres tasques MIR poden beneficiar-se de l'anàlisi automàtic del ritme.

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Cette recherche a l’intention de reconnaître la singularité et l’importance, en plus des hésitations et des controverses, que l’activité artistique se situe dans la philosophie de Bergson. En parcourant ses oeuvres, nous avons verifié que ses allusions à l’activité artistique nous montrent que par rapport à ses différences, l’art et la philosophie s’approchent (chacune à sa manière) en dépassant les conventions necessaires et quotidiennes de la vie, en reformulant la manière comme nous apprenons l’ordre des choses et à nous mêmes. Les allusions artistiques formulées par Bergson, nous font penser que, se il n’existe pas, par lui, la nécessité categorique d’une théorisation sur l’arte, c’est possible de regarder une décription de l’activité artistique que se construit simultanément avec la decription de la durée et 5 5 du méthode philosofique. Ça se passe grace à l’art, que selon l’auteur, elle nous insère aussi dans une expérience de connaissance.
Este estudo procura reconhecer a singularidade e a importância, para além das hesitações e das controvérsias existentes, que a atividade artística ocupa na filosofia do Bergson. Ao percorrermos as obras do filósofo, constatamos que suas alusões à atividade artística nos mostram, que a despeito de suas diferenças, arte e filosofia se aproximam na medida de que ambas, cada uma a sua maneira, se propõem de algum modo a ultrapassar as convenções necessárias e cotidianas da vida, reconfigurando o modo pelo qual apreendemos a ordem das coisas e a nós mesmos. As alusões artísticas apresentadas por Bergson nos induzem a conjeturar que, se não há, para esse filósofo, necessidade categórica de uma teorização sobre a arte, é possível vislumbrar uma descrição da atividade artística que se erige em concomitância com a descrição da duração e do método filosófico. Isso porque a arte, como sustenta o autor, nos insere também numa experiência de conhecimento.

What am I? There are a number of possible answers: I am a person, a mind, a human animal, a soul, part of a human being (e.g., a brain), I do not exist, and even more. Philosophers have been asking this for thousands of years and were not satisfied. In the contemporary analytic tradition, philosophers are attracted to a naturalistic, scientific ontology hence a materialistic personal ontology that matches the huge success in scientific discoveries. They think that we are material objects. However, their views do not match our intuition about some cases regarding our survival. Also, the possibility of an afterlife is eliminated. In my thesis, I explain the shortcomings of current philosophical theories, and develop a better account. I propose the Conscious Subject View, according to which (1) I am a subject of experience, a mental entity whose essential property is to be conscious, and (2) Subjects have haecceities, a property that makes an object a different object from other objects even if they are qualitatively identical with it. I provide two arguments for the claim that we are essentially subjects. The first is the Essentiality Argument. I first define an egoistic concern as one such that necessarily, my concern about X can be egoistic if and only if I exist and persist as X. Furthermore, I argue that necessarily, I can be egoistically concerned with an entity E if and only if E is numerically identical with my subject of experience. I then conclude that we are essentially subjects of experience. My second argument, which I call the Argument of Persistence, is that we have the intuition that we persist only when there is the gradual replacement of the brain. I argue that the best candidate to explain this intuition is that we persist as subjects of experience. I further offer a conceivability argument for the claim that haecceity of the subject determines its persistence. I defend a mentally-oriented proposal regarding our nature by examining the essential properties of our existence. It solves most of the problems with the materialistic personal ontology and shows the theoretical advantages of a long-neglected approach.

Le philosophe artiste est une figure fantasmée ou désavouée. Par sa seule possibilité, il représente l’impossible frontière entre le discours philosophique et la création artistique. Bien qu’il invoque cette figure polémique, Nietzsche n’a pas été en mesure de fonder le philosophe artiste, mieux, il l’abandonne au profit d’un Dionysos ressuscité, plus à même de surmonter la confrontation avec Apollon. Or, voilà une figure orpheline qui ne semble plus que renvoyer à une nostalgie romantique et idéale où la philosophie, enfin, partagerait ses objets privilégiés ainsi que ses propres méthodes d’analyses avec la pratique artistique. Pourtant la question mérite d’être posée : par quelles modalités le philosophe artiste serait en droit de porter ensemble la philosophie et l’art ? La présente thèse tente de réintroduire ce problème pour le moins « éternel » en enquêtant pas-à-pas sur les lignes de tension typiques que cette figure met en jeu : la forme et le contenu ; la métaphysique et le phénomène ; le langage et la métaphore. De même, si Nietzsche est l’objet central de la recherche, nous évoquerons toutefois d’autres philosophes non moins typiques, comme Merleau-Ponty ou Deleuze, ainsi que Spinoza ou Aristote. Toutefois, il ne s’agit pas de ressaisir encore une fois ces problématiques proprement philosophiques, leur réintroduction doit s’éprouver dans la pratique artistique. La thèse envisage donc, à chaque fois, une issue par la création artistique, au lieu de tenter vainement d’élire une figure sans maître et sans limite, la thèse exposera des créations chorégraphiques originales. Ces créations ont été produites en parallèle avec la recherche, elles ont donné lieu à des œuvres singulières qui ont été préoccupées par les mêmes problématiques que la thèse. Elles confèrent à l’étude le degré de plasticité dont l’exposé proprement philosophique pouvait manquer. De plus, elles abolissent la frontière, car elles subissent les mêmes contraintes que celle de l’exposé, puisque Panopticon interroge le panoptisme étudié dans Surveiller et punir de Foucault, Amor fati, le concept de l’éternel retour selon Nietzsche ; être au monde, reprenant le problème de la sensibilité de Merleau-Ponty ; et enfin, L’éthique s’astreignant à réinvestir d’un point de vue sensible l’architecture de l’œuvre axiomatique de Spinoza. N’était-ce pas cela le sens du philosophe artiste ? Expérimenter, éprouver pour en étudier les effets ?
The philosopher artist is a either fantasized or disowned figure. Its very possibility represents the impossible border between philosophical discourse and artistic creation. Although Nietzsche invokes this polemical figure, he has not been able to establish the philosopher artist. Indeed he abandons it in favor of a reincarnated Dionysos, better armed to overcome the confrontation with Apollo. Here is, then, an orphan figure which seems to only refer to a romantic and idealistic nostalgia where philosophy, at last, would share its privileged objects as well as its analytical methods with artistic practice. The question should nonetheless be asked: through what means ought the philosopher artist carry together art and philosophy?This thesis attempts to reintroduce this “eternal” problem by investigating every step of the way the typical tensions that this figure convokes: form and content; metaphysics and phenomena; language and metaphor. Similarly, although Nietzsche is the central figure of this investigation, we will also call upon other and equally typical philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze, as well as Spinoza and Aristotle. However, the aim of the thesis is not to grasp once again these properly philosophical problems as their utterance should be tested through artistic practice. Rather than uselessly attempt to elect a figure without master nor limit, the thesis thus contemplates, each time, a solution through artistic creation, manifested in original choreographic creations. These creations were produced in parallel with the research and elaborate singular works of art based on the same questions as the thesis. They confer to the dissertation a certain plasticity that the purely philosophical argument may have lacked. Further, they abolish the border inasmuch as they confront the same constraints as the argument: Panopticon interrogates panoptism as studied by Foucault in Discipline and Punish; Amor Fati elaborates on the concept of “eternal return” developed by Nietzsche; Etre au Monde recasts the question of sensibility as explored by Merleau-Ponty; finally, L’Ethique strives to reinvest from a sensible point of view the architecture of the axiomatic work of Spinoza. Is it not the meaning of the philosopher artist? Experiment and feel to study the effects?

La deuxième moitié du XXè siècle a vu l'explosion de l'ordre des appareils et de leur milieu, la technologie. L'art n'est pas resté à l'abri de cette invasion, et les œuvres ont, elles aussi, commencé de s'appareiller. Ces œuvres appareillées sont dynamiques, indéterminées, interactives, algorithmiques, instables. Nous chercherons ici à suivre cette irruption technologique dans les différents régimes artistiques : au moment de la création de l'œuvre, dans son existence objectale et au moment de sa réception esthétique. Se dessinera alors, peut-être, une forme spécifique à ce que pourrait être un « art technologique ». L'analyse finie, les lignes de fracture posées – la question décisive pourra alors être posée, à défaut d'être tranchée : l'art survit-il à sa collusion avec la technologie ?
During the second half of the 20th century, the world of devices and their technological ground have tremendously spread. Art, also, has been impacted by this invasion, and some artworks have become equipped-artworks. Those specific artworks are : unstable, dynamic, algorithmic, unseen, interactive. We will try here to follow this technological invasion in the three different places of the artistic regime : how the artist creates his piece of work, how this object appears and exists, and how the spectator receives it. Thus, might appear a new form for a genuine « technological art »… Finally, we will be able to ask the core question and to tackle the main issue : are art and technology compatible ?

In this thesis, we defend the view of works-as-interaction by developing three independent arguments: the anti-textualist, the actionalist and the ecological arguments. The anti-textualist argument has two parts. First, the uniform category of text does not cover the diversity of types of literary works, as it is shown by oral works, multiple-texts works, visual literary works and numerical literary works. Second, we reject the idea that the text is sufficient to give the identity conditions of the literary work. The latter argument forces us to include the history of production and, in particular, of the generative actions required for the apprehension and appreciation of the ontology of the literary work. This is the historicist argument. However, before defending an actionalist point of view, various alternatives are considered. Thus, we consider various textualist proposals that claim to be able to accommodate historical aspects of the production of a work. From the weaknesses of these views, we move to other, more historically inclined, positions, in particular Levinson's post-textualist position. However, the latter is based on a theory of types which we find to be incompatible with his historicist inclinations. Moreover, Levison's views do not meet the requirements of an epistemology of performance. Thus, the actional thesis seems to be the only alternative left. Using Davies theory of performance as a springboard, we develop and defend the idea of the work-as-interaction according to which a work consists in a relation between the generative action and the integrative action. We also include an ecological premise. We develop a further criticism of analytic aesthetics and the theory of performance, arguing that the actions composing the environment, the context of reception in which the generative action is integrated, have to be included. Our thesis of work-as-interaction explains, on the side of the generative act, a variety of li

Ontologies are widely used as data representations for knowledge bases and marking up data on the emerging Semantic Web. Hence, techniques for managing ontol- ogy come to the centre of any practical and general solution of knowledge-based systems. Challenges arise when we look a step further in order to achieve flexibility and scalability of the ontology management. Previous works in ontology management, primarily for ontology mapping, ontology integration and ontology evolution, have exploited only one form or another of ontology management in restrictive settings. However, a distributed and heterogeneous environment makes it necessary for re- searchers in this field to consider ontology interoperability in order to achieve the vision of the Semantic Web. Several challenges arise when we set our goal to achieve ontology interoperability on the Web. The first one is to decide which soft- ware engineering paradigm to employ. The issue of such a paradigm is the core of ontology management when dynamic property is involved. It should make it easy to model complex systems and significantly improve current practice in software engineering. Moreover, it allows the extension of the range of applications that can feasibly be tackled. The second challenge is to exploit frameworks based on the pro- posed paradigm. Such a framework should make possible flexibility, interactivity, reusability and reliability for systems which are built on it. The third challenge is to investigate suitable mechanisms to cope with ontology mapping, integration and evolution based on the framework. It is known that predefined rules or hypotheses may not apply given that the environment hosting an ontology is changing over time. Fortunately, agents are being advocated as a next generation model for en- gineering complex and distributed systems. Also some researchers in this field have given a qualitative analysis to provide a justification for precisely why the agent-based approach is well suited to engineer complex software systems. From a multi-agent perspective, agent technology fits well in developing applications in uncontrolled and distributed environments which require substantial support for change. Agents in multi-agent systems (MAS) are autonomous and can engage in interactions which are essential for any ongoing agents� actions. A MAS approach is thus regarded as an intuitive and suitable way of modelling dynamic systems. Following the above discussion, an agent-based framework for managing ontology in a dynamic environment is developed. The framework has several key characteris- tics such as flexibility and extensibility that differentiate this research from others. Three important issues of the ontology management are also investigated. It is be- lieved that inter-ontology processes like ontology mapping with logical semantics are foundations of ontology-based applications. Hence, firstly, ontology mapping is discussed. Several types of semantic relations are proposed. Following these, the mapping mechanisms are developed. Secondly, based on the previous mapping results, ontology integration is developed to provide abstract views for participating organisations in the presence of a variety of ontologies. Thirdly, as an ontology is subject to evolution in its life cycle, there must be some kind of mechanisms to reflect their changes in corresponding interrelated ontologies. Ontology refinement is investigated to take ontology evolution into consideration. Process algebra is employed to catch and model information exchanges between ontologies. Agent negotiation strategy is applied to guide corresponding ontologies to react properly. A prototype is built to demonstrate the above design and functionalities. It is applied to ontologies dealing with the subject of beer (type). This prototype con- sists of four major types of agents, ranging from user agent, interface agent, ontology agent, and functionary agent. Evaluations such as query, consistency checking are conducted on the prototype. This shows that the framework is not only flexible but also completely workable. All agents derived from the framework exhibit their behaviours appropriately as expected.

Ontologies play key roles in many applications today. Therefore, whether using a newly-specified ontology or an existing ontology for use in its target application, it is important to determine the suitability of an ontology to the application at hand. This need is addressed by carrying out ontology evaluation, which determines qualities of an ontology using methodologies, criteria or measures. However, for addressing the ontology requirements from a given application, it is necessary to determine what the appropriate set of criteria and measures are. In this thesis, we propose a Requirements-Oriented Methodology for Evaluating Ontologies (ROMEO). ROMEO outlines a methodology for determining appropriate methods for ontology evaluation that incorporates a suite of existing ontology evaluation criteria and measures. ROMEO helps ontology engineers to determine relevant ontology evaluation measures for a given set of ontology requirements by linking these requirements to existing ontology evaluation measures through a set of questions. There are three main parts to ROMEO. First, ontology requirements are elicited from a given application and form the basis for an appropriate evaluation of ontologies. Second, appropriate questions are mapped to each ontology requirement. Third, relevant ontology evaluation measures are mapped to each of those questions. From the ontology requirements of an application, ROMEO is used to determine appropriate methods for ontology evaluation by mapping applicable questions to the requirements and mapping those questions to appropriate measures. In this thesis, we perform the ROMEO methodology to obtain appropriate ontology evaluation methods for ontology-driven applications through case studies of Lonely Planet and Wikipedia. Since the mappings determined by ROMEO are dependent on the analysis of the ontology engineer, the validation of these mappings is needed. As such, in addition to proposing the ROMEO methodology, a method for the empirical validation of ROMEO mappings is proposed in this thesis. We report on two empirical validation experiments that are carried out in controlled environments to examine the performance of the ontologies over a set of tasks. These tasks vary and are used to compare the performance of a set of ontologies in the respective experimental environment. The ontologies used vary on a specific ontology quality or measure being examined. Empirical validation experiments are conducted for two mappings between questions and their associated measures, which are drawn from case studies of Lonely Planet and Wikipedia. These validation experiments focus on mappings between questions and their measures. Furthermore, as these mappings are application-independent, they may be reusable in subsequent applications of the ROMEO methodology. Using a ROMEO mapping from the Lonely Planet case study, we validate a mapping of a coverage question to the F-measure. The validation experiment carried out for this mapping was inconclusive, thus requiring further analysis. Using a ROMEO mapping from the Wikipedia case study, we carry out a separate validation experiment examining a mapping between an intersectedness question and the tangledness measure. The results from this experiment showed the mapping to be valid. For future work, we propose additional validation experiments for mappings that have been identified between questions and measures.

Att vara i ritual med konsten kan verka lika trancenderande som genom meditation, kärlek, psykedelia eller tro - tro på något högre. I trancenderingen strävar vi mot högre energi. Vi befinner oss i ett liminalt utrymme mellan våra kroppar och kraften av vår strävan.

L'origine de ma recherche étant de saisir le pourquoi de la cause d'un artiste à représenter l'oeuvre comme un effet inexplicable; aborder le " lieu " en tant que sujet c'est, pour moi, pouvoir cerner l'endroit où l'indicible de l'acte decréation se forme, et où l'essence même de cet indicible habite. Je présente ce travail comme une quête pour approcher l'indicible qui représente l'essence d'une oeuvre; et ainsi pouvoir peut-être saisir le mystère de ce qui est l'essence de ce même indicible. C'est de cette manière qu'à travers l'homme, comme l'objet de la quête de cetteessence dans l'acte créateur, le pont qui relie l'esthétique, la physique et l'inévitable métaphysique se fera tout seulau fur et à mesure que nous avancerons dans le sujet. La notion du " non-où ", terme que j'ai emprunté à Sheikh al-Ishragh Sohravardi, détient la clé de la signification du " lieu " au cours de cette recherche; pour qu'ainsi il s'affirme comme la véritable demeure de tous lieux. Cette notion pourra également, au cours des rapprochements parallèles avec tout espace physique ou topologique dans ce travail, conclure qu'en fin de compte l'espace physique n'est autre que l'espace intérieur de ce "non-lieu " qui détient l'essence même de tout espace.

This thesis seeks to examine and critique the transcendental feminist methodology and Trinitarian theology of Elizabeth A. Johnson. We will focus on four central, recurring themes that emerge out of her corpus, paying particular attention to how she assimilates these in She Who Is. They are: Johnson's feminist methodology and epistemology, her transcendental anthropology and epistemology, her panentheistic, relational ontology and her feminist 'Trinitarian' God-talk. The thesis will consist of four chapters, which will focus on these four main themes, and a conclusion. Chapter one will look specifically at the Johnson's modern, Catholic reformist feminist methodology and epistemology, which prioritise both the category of experience and the ontological principle of relation. The chapter will conclude with a brief summary of a few feminists who have defined their theological positions in direct opposition to Barth's view of Trinitarian revelation and language, and compare them to Johnson. Chapter Two will deal specifically with Johnson's embrace of Karl Rahner's transcendental metaphysics and her attempt to integrate this anthropology and ontological epistemology with feminist anthropology and epistemology. We will also highlight the various 'dilemmas of difference' Johnson faces in her use of conflicting appeals to experience. Chapter Three will analyse and critique her panentheistic, relational ontology with specific attention paid to her re-schematization of traditional Trinitarian theology and Christology. Barth's theology is used in part to critique Johnson's assertions at this point. In Chapter Four, we analyse Johnson's 'analogical' and 'symbolic' approach to God-talk to determine whether it is safeguarded from univocity, as she intends. We also raise-the question of whether she is kept from the potential equivocity that threatens her agnostic approach. In conclusion, we will summarise our response to the naturally emerging questions of the thesis, assess Johnson's approach overall and raise whatever questions we believe still remain.

This thesis examines the philosophical notion of selfhood in visual representation. I introduce the self as a modern and postmodern concept and argue that there is a loss of selfhood in contemporary culture. Via Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gerhard Richter and the method of deconstruction of language, I theorise selfhood through the figurative and literal analysis of duration, the frame, and the mirror. In this approach, selfhood is understood as aesthetic-ontological relation and construction based on specific techniques of the self. In the first part of the study, I argue for a presentational rather than representational perspective concerning selfhood by translating the photograph Self in the Mirror (1964), the painting Las Meninas (1656), and the video Cornered (1988), into my conception of a cinematic theory of selfhood. Based on the presentation of selfhood in those works, the viewer establishes a cinematic relation to the visual self that extends and transgresses the boundaries of inside and outside, presence and absence, and here and there. In the second part, I interpret epistemic scenes of cinematic works as durational scenes in which selfhood is exposed with respect to the forces of time and space. My close readings of epistemic scenes of the films The Congress (2013), and Boyhood (2014) propose that cinema is a philosophical mirror collecting loss of selfhood over time for the viewer. Further, the cinematic concert A Trip to Japan, Revisited (2013), and the hyper-film Cool World (1992) disperse a spatial sense of selfhood for the viewer. In the third part, I examine moments of selfhood and the forces of death, survival, and love in the practice of contemporary cinematic portraiture in Joshua Oppenheimer’s, Michael Glawogger’s, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ work. While the force of death is interpreted in the portrait of perpetrators in The Act of Killing (2013), and The Look of Silence (2014), the force of survival in the longing for life is analysed in Megacities (1998), Workingman’s death (2005), and Whores’ Glory (2011). Lastly, Dogtooth (2009), Alps (2011), and The Lobster (2015) present the contemporary human condition as a lost intuition of relationality epitomised in love.