Close encounters with an overwhelmed present: Performing an expanded sense of place

Casado, Rosa (2017) Close encounters with an overwhelmed present: Performing an expanded sense of place. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This submission for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy details the practice-based investigation undertaken and articulated across the series of located interventional public art works realised through the development and completion of the long-term public art project Just a little bit of history repeating – as a research-led artistic contribution to current explorations and debates within the field of located live art and context-specific public art practices. This research begins by critically assessing and reconsidering the approaches and questions arising from the two publicly commissioned interventional artworks that initiated the Just a little bit of history project; namely Alexandra Gardens Bandstand (2010) and Eukalduna Shipyards (2011). It then expands and builds upon these approaches through an exploration of three distinct yet symbiotic lines of inquiry. The first of these considers how the concurrent performance of multiple and alternative uses of a specific place in the present might generate new event-specific critical social situations in situ. The second explores to what extent currently absent uses of a place might be seen to define it, and how such actively absent agents might be engaged and revealed in the present. The third then further expands on the understandings and approaches developed through this practice-based research, to consider and test performative strategies through which the nature and scale of our performed use of a place might be expanded to inhabit and consider wider landscapes and environments. These research questions are ultimately articulated and manifested through the subsequent four publicly commissioned art works that then expand and complete the Just a little bit of history repeating series – namely Greetings from Salina / Crossroads of the Nation (2013), Historic Parking Lots of Providence / Introduced Birdsong (2013), Providence Cove Walk (2013) and Grey Line [Twilight] (2016).

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Copies of the accompanying media and documentation submitted with thesis are held in Glasgow University Library
• Keywords: Performance, live art, public art, interventional, site-specific, context-specific, place, spatial practice, social space, public space.
• Subjects: N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Donald, Prof. Minty and Lavery, Prof. Carl
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Dr Rosa Casado
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-30846
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2018 10:15
• Last Modified: 27 Jan 2020 11:11
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/30846