Re-Assembly

Re-Assembly is my Interdisciplinary Studies Master of Fine Art thesis exhibition that will be presented at the 5th Parallel Gallery from May 1 to 31, 2018. Strongly rooted in technical investigation, this exhibition is comprised of the creative results of interdisciplinary art research, including sculptures, technical drawings, and digital photographs, as well as objects produced using a purpose-built CNC (Computer Numeric Code) router; designed and created with new skills that I developed in my graduate program. My inspiration and willingness to change methodologies from traditional hands-on processes to digitally facilitated ways of working, forms the intellectual underpinning of the objects presented in the gallery. By embracing digital media, I have changed my entire approach to artmaking and project planning, and minimized the environmental impact of my practice through leaner production. This exhibition recounts a change in my technical and conceptual methodology and an engagement with new technology that stands as a pedagogical catalyst for new technical skill and a re-ordered approach to creative expression. Key theoretical undercurrents of this work are: Norbert Wiener, On Human Use of Human Beings; Jon Roberts, Intangibles of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade; and Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation. The output of this research is one where artwork intersects physical reality with simulation (in process and production) marking the reassembly of self and artistic skill. Themes in this body of artwork include the transformation of the artist when experience of reskilling oneself to automated production processes of re-skilling in digital art and technology and deeper ethical questions around contemporary changes in process and types of labour. Other topics explored include: technological anxiety, a shift in cognitive process related to my interdisciplinary experience, the ethics of mechanization regarding artistic labour, the way value is assessed in art, and existential issues of integrating computer modeling into an art practice. There is a complex relationship between modes of material and cultural production, how people are employed, and what they consume. Through smarter automation, this relationship is being streamlined to occlude or reduce costly human participation. I argue that sense of purpose and labour are interconnected: that the duties performed in working life have substance that is not simply calculable by wage. If labour acts to define function and identity, choosing how to engage with technology is critical.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Interdisciplinary Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Goddard, Jesse Stewart

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Caines, Rebecca
• Smith, Megan

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Marsh, Charity
• Gerhard, David

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4238

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/8539