The haptic experience, gesture made material: a process- based investigation into a space between now and then

Abstract

This dissertation is an exploration of my art practice and how I form connections to place through the process of making. It investigates physical and psychological interaction with landscapes I inhabit - present and past. This paper is a manifestation of ideas, inspirations, self-reflection, making processes and the medium I utilise. In this investigation I contrast the skin of the city in which I now reside with the surface quality of my chosen signature medium, recycled cotton pulp. Connections are identified through the haptic experience, or the body’s sensory modes within a place, which can bridge the gap between familiar and unfamiliar places. I discuss the embodied experience of physical activities such as making, walking and working. In addition I acknowledge how nostalgia and recollection of past times, places and spaces has informed my art practice. I place specific emphasis on my rural childhood, living and working on a dairy farm in Northern NSW. My thesis unpacks and analyses the concept of physical interaction with a space by recalling a sense of other spaces, internal and external, past and present. In reference to my installation work, I discuss the practice of spraying pulp medium onto various surfaces and structures to alter space and create meaning. The concept of ‘presence effect’ is discussed in relation to the physical interaction of spraying fibre pulp within an installation space. I consider the ephemeral quality of materials used in my practice and how depth of meaning is added due to others’ histories being embedded in the reused clothing and domestic cloth I collect and re-invent. This project is a contextualization of the haptic and embodied experience that occurs across three terrains: physical memory of past farm life; the act of making in my studio practice and traversing the urban landscape in my everyday travels. It is about finding connections over time that reinforce how, why and what is encompassed in my studio practice.