Occupying a space in-between: a video art research practice
This PhD by Published Work examines a body of experimental video art practice, in terms of ‘a space in-between’. The themes and concerns in this commentary have been shaped through a reflexive, intersectional lens and largely stem from re-thinking my absence for several years from the world of published academic research. This has given rise to my emphasis on occupying ‘a space in-between’ to acknowledge the interval/gap in my publishing and the interrelated dimensions of the physical, spatial, temporal and cultural aspects of the published work. A space in-between is discussed in this commentary as both a quality and a thing and incorporates themes such as vanishing, incongruous boundaries, temporal gaps, intervals and interruptions. It provides a framework to analyse interactions with the tangible, conceptual, metaphorical and relational features of the work and underscores the circumstances of uncertainty and ambiguity which are threaded through. The work is characterised by drawing on a wide range of disciplinary knowledge including feminist phenomenology, philosophy, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies and contemporary art, and incorporating the notion of a space in-between that arises from embodied experience of illness, loss, anxiety and fear. This leads to a distinctive shift in the research, which has evolved over two distinct time periods, and in turn engages the transient, ephemeral and subjective nature of knowing. My key original contribution to knowledge is an articulation of my understanding of a journey as an observer of the world around me, which reveals a change in perspective emerging from my interval/gap in publishing and is embedded in the distinctive shift from one body of published experimental video work to another. My contribution originates through and is embedded in my practice occurring at the intersection between (1) emphases on the notion of a ‘space in-between’ perceived as an interval (actual and metaphorical), stemming from a ‘gap’ in my publication history and contextualised within a feminist theoretical framework (2) focuses on various themes including vanishing, temporal gaps, ‘the fear of the other within’ and ‘out running’, to consider the ways my own embodied experience of illness, loss, anxiety and fear might be represented (3) engagements with research strategies relevant to video projection, video installation and experimental film including techniques drawn from autoethnography, and haptic aesthetics which decentre, interrupt and engage viewers through embodied perception.
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