Apocalypse Now, Maybe Later, or Even Sooner: The Bliss of Prediction

Abstract

This thesis begins with an explanation of my curiosity with anxiety, an interest that I have not only revisited from my previous practice, but is elemental to my lived reality. During the Masters candidacy at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, I have come to regard anxiety, and its counterpart panic, as a universal phenomenon as much as an individual affliction. The penchant for speculative anxiety – the tendency to anticipate doom – I argue, has been a reality of Western civilization since the first raindrops fell on Noahʼs holy construction. However, my thesis posits that this anxiety has an enhanced status in post-modern culture. The volatile reality of human civilization, as well as my own feelings of insecurity about the future, emanate from the trope of dystopian futures, popular depictions of apocalypse and post-apocalypses, as well as mediated news sources. I borrow and reprocess each of these in order to prepare for surviving any form of inexorable demise. Throughout the thesis, a number of works are analyzed, focusing on those that are quintessential to my current practice. Beginning with a description of dystopian references that have inspired my anxiety, I go on to describe ways in which speculative anxiety influences the construction and material reality of my work. The thesis distinguishes the utilitarian objects I make from dominant methods of manufacture, suggesting that their alterity of form, function, and fabrication enacts a dissensus -- introducing my own narrative and anxious state to the function of the pieces. The result of my artistic process thus far has consisted of material plans, models and sculptural objects. I conclude by describing forthcoming projects that are more performative by nature, and explain how they function as an additional level of immersion into my neurotic condition