Massey Documents by Type

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    While my guitar gently weeps : an exegesis presented in partial fullfillment of the requirements for the degree in Masters of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Norton, Sam
    This exegesis explores the ways in which my practice, while aesthetically and thematically varied, seeks to elevate the banal and transcend the everyday. I use collage, photography, and multimedia installation, working intuitively with an emphasis on making as way of developing, informing, and working through ideas. My practice is loosely autobiographical, drawing from both childhood experiences and everyday environment, with a desire to remain suspended somewhere between the actual and the imagined. This reimagining and recontextualising through the process of making allows me to retain a sense of control while simultaneously providing an escape or relief from harsher realities. I examine various artists and filmmakers/films in order to further contextualise my practice, specifically those whose works evoke a psychological tension. Although my work is autobiographically-informed, I am not interested in pursuing this in a literal sense,but rather in aestheticising a departure point into the imaginary.
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    Post-picturesque : from the sublime to land as collector : a exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) O'Brien, Jessica Morag
    In Land as Collector, I examine the notions of the picturesque and the sublime and its origins in the Romantic era. I investigate how this concept has evolved and transformed over four centuries to the present day, and how ‘the view’ is now acknowledged in contemporary New Zealand. This exegesis, Post-picturesque: From the Sublime to Land as Collector, explores the idea that ‘landscape’, and ‘the view’ are a constructed concept. My thesis will follow the development of the idea of the view from the seventeenth century to the present day. Aspects examined include how changing ideas and focus on the land in society have been viewed and interpreted by artists. I will look at the work of artists from different areas of contemporary and historical practice in order to show my understanding of the varying notions of the concept of ‘landscape’. In my artistic practice I have used a specifi c landscape (site) to experiment with and show how a range of photographic processes can express my changing ideas around this ‘landscape’. The results will show my understanding of the concept of Post-picturesque: from the Sublime to Land as Collector. My journey led to a change in focus from looking at the Sublime landscape to Land as a Collector. This transformation of methodology followed the discovery of artefacts in the land I was studying and a comment about how they became critical.
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    I'm going where the cold wind blows : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Hadwen, W W A
    "What is time without conscious perception? Quotidian spaces within seemingly lifeless environments we wouldn’t typically think to consider, are brought to light, not for their potentially sinister value, but for an appreciation of the fleeting traces of life. What small events take place that define time passing? How do we affect what we don’t consider? I am drawn to the calm of night-time, when what is left behind, the traces, become the inhabitants of these urban settings. It is what we leave behind that lingers. An idea which I have been further developing during my MFA is the notion of time-based photography, which has become the main drive of the physical processing of my art practice. This concept in particular has acted as an appliable medium which can be crafted to work with sound or silence, projection, both photographic and time-based installation and is experiential for the audience. Over the past three years I have been conducting photographic studies of these sites within urban and industrial settings, searching for mundane, generally non-specific, anonymous sites that present interestingly lit structural, textural and overall compositional properties. The work I make comes from a basis of documentative nightscape photography, while formally considering light, site, trace and time. With introduced aspects of fiction and subtle augmentations of the imagery, I simultaneously capture and create my experiences to be presented in an isolated, dramatised, distinctive viewing space. A large part of my work, I have found, is more instinctive and spontaneous - looking for happy coincidences. My research is centred around artworks and installations, film, music, writing and experiences which I have been inspired by, the things which I feel my work and interests resonate with and that I can often see similarities to. In July of this year I was part of a group that embarked on a European Fine Arts Study Tour while three international art events were coinciding – this only happens once a decade. 2017 was a special year too, as one of the events, Documenta 14 was split between Athens and Kassel, Germany. The tour began in Athens, then on to the Venice Biennale, followed by a short visit to Berlin. The bulk of Documenta 14 was in Kassel and we finished at Skulptur Projekte in Münster. The tour lasted twenty-one days and involved viewing a large and diverse range of artworks most days. As a result of this, I was able to see a lot of work that I connected with, recording and researching as we went. This gave me a huge range of compelling works to choose from to suit my exegesis, and has heavily impacted on my practice as an artist, both conceptually and in the physical making and installation processes. Now, more than half of my artist research and the final imagery that I intend to work with was found and made on that amazing tour. I feel that my artistic ability and self awareness has gone through a sort of metamorphosis."
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    The epitome of an oxymoronic endeavour : collaborative performative photography between still and movement artists : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Walmsley, Celia Kathryn
    ‘Attempting to capture this transience, this constant appearing and disappearing, through the medium of the still photograph might seem the epitome of oxymoronic endeavour’. Michael Parmenter. (Parmenter, M. in McDermott 2015. p6). An Oxymoronic Endeavour is the resulting artwork of a collaboration between photographer, Celia Walmsley, and New Zealand dancer/choreographer (dance maker), Jessie McCall. It combines two oxymoronic (apparently contradictory) art forms where one artist is also the subject of the resulting images. McCall and Walmsley co-author the development of the artwork and Walmsley is the author of the exegesis. Through this production collaboration Walmsley and McCall explored the oxymoronic relationship and use of photography and movement. The resulting artwork is not a recording of a performance that will be repeated. The choreography and performance occurred only for the purpose of creating the images and exist only in the resulting ‘performative’ (Baker. S. & Moran. F. 2016) photographic work and its associated writing. The work breaks with the traditional style of dance photography, and with the conventional role of ‘still’ photography in relation to dance, as the ‘revelatory authority’ (the power of the camera to show what has been) of other artists’ work. (Reason. M. 2004). Use of and the critique of, collaboration and co-authorship are essential elements in the artwork’s process, form and outcomes. This reflects Daniel Palmer’s (2017) proposal on the move away, since the 1960s, from the ‘art-world trope’ of sole adventurer photographer towards collaborative work. Issues of agency, power, and the link between authorship and authority, also influenced the work. Through the essential component of collaboration An Oxymoronic Endeavour developed into ‘performative’ photography between photographer and choreographer/dance artist. The work contributes to the sparsely populated field of collaborative ‘performative’ photography which also represents a paradigm shift in the way that photography and dance are created, presented and consumed.
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    Site into sound : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Robertson, Jude
    Sound, space and perception are expansive areas of enquiry, which I connect together through a creative investigation into location, sensory experience and interrelationship within a wider ecosystem. Using an abstract mapping process, audio recordings have been gathered from three spatial/acoustic locations: liquid space, ground level and atmosphere. Many sites have been selected for their ecological or historical significance. Photography has also been utilised to form a multisensory and multi-disciplinary approach to research. Different cultural meanings of landscape have been considered, exploring how this has the potential to precipitate new relationships and a deeper understanding of ourselves, others and the environment. Since any direct experience that takes place within the environment occurs using my own bodily-sensory perceptions, this enquiry is viewed from a personal perspective that comes with a degree of subjectivity.
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    Translating a silent language : photographing social interaction : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Slade, Thomas
    Working with photography to alter our perception of time, this project examines social interaction in a city environment. I have adopted the unobtrusive role of the flaneur and observed how social norms orchestrate social behaviour in public spaces. I chose to use constructed photography and I selected and recreated observed moments. I made images that I hope come alive within the expanded time of a still photograph. Through these reconstructions of observed behaviour I set out to question the capacity of photography to amplify reality and demonstrate how a fictional image might reach closer to a lived experience. I focussed on overlooked moments to produce an expansion of time that allows the viewer to question the ordinary values that shape social behaviours in the everyday, providing an opportunity to recognise the complexity of a lived experience as part of everyday actions.
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    A string of data_ : disrupting, altering and generating the photographic image : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Nishioka, Mizuho
    Through a body of photographic work, this thesis examines how an engagement with photographic technology presents the opportunity to destabilise the established conceptions of the performance of the medium. Historically photographic technology is presented as a series of seamless mechanised transactions that is potentially free of human interaction and situated as a mute participant in the technical production of the photographic image. Acknowledging the role technology manifests in the production of photography, I examine through my work and critical reflection, how my creative practice can harness these technical processes to alter the aesthetic and theoretical positioning of a photographic practice. Three key bodies of work: Uninhabited Space, The Reflective Field and Machine Time_Nature Time explore a successive development of a studio practice through a series of Contextual developments to uncover and interrogate the procedures at play. The Contextual developments employed a range of fundamental materials, techniques and processes native to photographic practice. The first key work, Uninhabited Space explores the role film processes play in the authoring of a photographic image. The work specifically investigates the limitations of film technology as a means to demonstrate how a ‘void of information’ might be reinterpreted as visual information within a photographic image. The subsequent key work, The Reflective Field conceptually challenges the connection between the photographic image and its presentation to resituate the photographic image as a transformable surface. The final key work, Machine Time_Nature Time is presented through extended Contextual developments that examine the role of contemporary technology in the creation of the photographic image. Digital, electronic and computational processes are deployed to augment the capture of the photographic image. Reflection on the outcome of this final body of work led to the positioning that technological disruption was used as a creative strategy. This conceptual revision initiates a theoretical evaluation of photographic practice that allows the opportunity to resituate the subliminal role of technology in the production of the photographic image. The research concludes with a final body of work, Machine Time_Nature Time in which I argue the disruption of technology contributes to an alternative understanding of photographic practice and questions how might deviation of these subliminal processes alter or augment a body of creative photographic based work. By presenting a series of photographic works in exhibition format, the research incites a recursive questioning of what constitutes the photographic image, what is selectively included, and what is silently occluded. Key Words: Photography, Technology, Disruption, Generative, Archive, Digital