The Initiation of the Beautiful Uncanny

In recent years, there has been a movement in arts and one of the interests was in the uncanny where it was relating to surrealism. Previous artwork has addressed the Freudian uncanny concept as an unfamiliar, frightened emotion that is negatively disturbing. However, the concept of Nicholas Royal that uncanny can be strangely beautiful has opened up a new sight that been followed in this thesis. The artwork and art exhibition on fine art are mostly descriptive on creating acceptable uncanny artwork with a sense of beauty. To address the uncanny differently than what used to be and shed the light into the site of beauty to respond, a practice-based research has been carried out to highlight that uncanny can be perceived as beautiful in art. The fundamental aim of this research is to characterise a clear understanding of uncanny beauty. The three research exhibitions of this work were targeting the understanding of what I call“ beautiful uncanny”, as there is a reflective process in the relationship between the imagination of beauty with the uncanny feelings in a body of visual work. In the light of previous literature, related artwork and my understanding, a creation of human figures, hybrid with insects, through sculpture, based on photography have supported the theory of uncanny as being beautiful with further validation based on testing the responses of the viewers who attend the research exhibitions. The qualitative research has been used in this study to conduct the data of the questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The findings of the study have revealed that the importance of classifying uncanny as being beautiful without any rejection is to establish an artwork that increases attraction and curiosity toward knowledge through understanding the actual feelings of the presented artwork. Therefore, that has proposed an original contribution to the knowledge of the perspective of "The Beautiful Uncanny”

Reflections on the painting of Alejandro Puente, the notion of <i>Pathosformel</i>, and the return to life of mortally wounded civilizations

The Argentine author José Burucúa is a key figure in the introduction and dissemination of Aby Warburg's theories to scholarship in Latin America. In this article he tests Warburg's concept of Pathosformel to discuss the development of visual culture in Andean pre-Hispanic art and contemporary painting in Argentina. It is argued that the abstract world created by prominent painters, such as Libero Badii, César Paternosto, and Alejandro Puente, deepened their roots in pre-Hispanic culture. Burucúa's theoretical approach to the arts in Argentina has been highly influential on visual culture studies in Latin America

Supporting arts and enterprise skills in communities through creative engagement with the local area

The project proposes a framework and methodology of artistic and creative social intervention that empowers and supports engagement with communities of young people affected by change in their local environment. This is a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Knowledge Transfer Fellowship aimed at building new and innovative models of creative community engagement and collaboration. The project supports active citizenship among young people by facilitating social capacity building through enterprise structures and transferring the creative lead in socially responsive arts projects to those in need of empowerment. The initial action research project is utilising an arts and enterprise participation model to create self-branded commodities that will give a role to young people within a wider, community driven, gun crime reduction and social cohesion programme. The model seeks to sustain the commitment of those participating by focussing on metrics and benchmarks that young people in the project can own and influence. The blend of creative agendas and enterprise goals provides a breadth of purpose and opportunity, linking outputs to specific environmental and social impacts. The project evidences the role and function of arts media in multi-strand learning and participation projects. As educational policy and practice (14+ age range) in the UK moves more towards action based learning for transferable life skills, the project provides a methodology emphatic of team and collaborative process, individual responsibility and creativity. The process develops ownership and shared responsibility in relation to community initiatives; fostering fresh creativity and a diversity of approach in the exploration of social, physical and racial issues arising from economic disadvantage. The knowledge transfer process is targeting a toolkit relating to multi-agency project working, creative research and action learning, empowerment and applied social arts practices

Organic growth and form in abstract painting

This doctorate explores 'Organic Growth and Form in Abstract Painting', as the focus of my studio-based research, and which has resulted in two significant series of paintings, Organica and Streaming. The accompanying exegesis addresses experiences that are realized within the studio practice, and complements the two series of paintings. In the exegesis I describe the innovative and distinctive painting processes I have developed, and explain my motivation for working this way. I cite the writing of the philosopher of science, Henri Bortoft, in particular his description of 'active' seeing, which I suggest can be understood as a kind of modeling of my processes of making the Organica and Streaming paintings. Key to my research has been an investigation into the work of the early Russian avant-garde artist, musician, theorist and teacher, Mikhail Matyushin, who promoted an 'organic' vision of painting during the early years of modernist experimentation, insisting that perception cannot be separated from the body's inherent connection with nature. I discuss how the artists in the Organic studio, led by Matyushin, tested their sensitivity to perceptual and sensory experience with controlled experiments. Philosophically, they considered their findings to be congenial with the latest scientific discoveries of their time. Although my paintings are constructed very differently from those of Matyushin, my approach to perception and interpretation in painting is in sympathy with his thinking. The constructive and perceptual approach I have taken to both series of paintings has been directly influenced by immersion in natural environments. My exegesis provides a detailed account of this working process: how I work with geometric templates for the coordination of colours, and my systematic approach to their application, leading to uncontrived 'organic' extensions in the detail. I discuss my interest in the implicit knowledge garnered through perception of colours and the connective fabric underlying surface appearances in nature. I argue that these observations are generative resources for painting, and emphasise the fact that our sensory and thinking bodies are also part of nature. - provided by Candidate

Cultures Of Practice Within Design: An Exploration Of The Differences And Similarities Between Photography And Painting As Representational Practices

Contemporary designers and photographers face many challenges as the profession rapidly develops. This is especially the case in in the Western Australian context. A review into the recent history of the Western Australian design profession is evidence that designers and photographers are consistently shifting between commercial and self-expressive practice. However, the urge to keep up with technological advancement has masked conscious development of this shift, which is a key to self-realisation and improvement for a designer and photographer. This lack of conscious questioning limits holistic development in design practice. This research reflects on myself as a designer developing a response to the significant convergence of media that developed during my career. The research led to an understanding of the development of design as a practice and its connections to art, especially painting. This exploration of the differences and similarities between photography and painting, as representational practices that impact upon the values of a practitioner, seeks, in part, to understand photography using paint. This research is a broad investigation that sets out to reveal aspects of these relationships, and to raise questions that will form the basis of more in depth studies

Choreographed Space

In this exhibition I have conversed with painters that have been identified as, Abstract Expressionist, colour field, and/or minimalist painters – Martin, Rothko, Newman, Falkenstein, Bing and Brown are but a few of the them. The work is united by geometry, repetition, the variations of subtle and bold colours, the variable surface treatments, and a polite affinity with subversiveness and flippancy. The subject of these paintings is elemental and these immaterial forms are non-objective in an attempt to infuse the canvas with an atmosphere of open space. In addition, the paintings are uncomplicated. They are quiet and restrained compositions that whisper irreverence and they allude to an anti-decorative aesthetic

Spirituality and Abstract Art

Through a close analysis of abstract art and metaphysics (ontological and psychical), the paper examines how metaphysics might be related to abstract art, as well as the early emergence of abstract art in diverse cultures around the world, and its development from the 19th to the 20th century in the modern art world. The paper conducts an examination of some modern abstract art pioneers, as perceived by general public, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Agnes Pilton, who experimented with the art form in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their intentions based on metaphysics: spirituality and mythology are included in these aspirations. In addition, the paper reviews a number of exhibitions which have arisen around the theme of metaphysical abstraction in recent decades