Title:
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Mapping mobility through the moving image : new geographies, migratory movements and urban spaces in contemporary video practices
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The aim of this thesis is to provide a critical framework for addressing the use
of the moving image in contemporary art that studies geography through the
experiences of the mobile body and the use of a mobile camera. The research focuses
on artistic practices that use video narratives to experiment with and explore
contemporary dimensions of economic migration and cultural movement as a topic in
which contemporary artists are engaged, either in representing their own movements
or in observing those of others. Through the analysis of this complex field, the text
argues that particular moving image works produce new cartographies of both urban
space and also social relations within these territories of change and encounter.
My research focuses on contemporary artists' use of video in several related
ways. Video recording may be used as a primary research t061 for first-hand
encounters reflecting the empirical aspect of traditional documentary practices as
knowledge gathering procedures. T have examined what T term the 'analytical
inscription' of video as articulat~d through the artist's subjective experience
specifically in terms of the production of visual narratives based on primary 'source
material'. These narratives can take the form of what has been recently named video
essays, or they can be examples of narrative construction placed in a cinematic
narrative and video installation environment.
My practice seeks to bridge the objectivity of documentary and the
subjectivity of the essay by articulating my experiences as filmmaker through
narrative construction drawing on the experiences of 'others'. The thesis text attempts
to contextualize my practice by relating contemporary theories of urban space and
new geographies to the specificities of contemporary artists' uses of the moving
image and the mobility enabled by video technology.
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