PAPERS
Loosening the boundaries / Our Unevolved Brains / The Displacement of Artist Researchers / Facing the Posthuman / X-cite, Feint / The Senses have no Future / Blog
Loosening the boundaries / Our Unevolved Brains / The Displacement of Artist Researchers / Facing the Posthuman / X-cite, Feint / The Senses have no Future / Blog
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Facing the Posthuman 2015
My works of 2015 are expressions of inner landscapes evoked and developed with the tool of distributed cognition, central to the posthuman. Distributed cognition may be, 1 - distributed across members of a social group, 2 - may be from coordination between internal and external (material or environment) structure, 3 - may be distributed through time in such a way that the products of earlier events can transform the nature of the later events; that is the coming together of information from different sources. (How We Became Posthuman Hayles 1999). All three are used in my processes, separately or combined. The process allows information flow from senses, memory and imagination. The results are ‘self portraits’ an expression of self and self-image, so heavily suppressed in my early environment. The works are not classical portraiture, images of the exterior of the corporeal body, rather a means of portraying the essential internal existence. In this work I am using reflection in action through my work and process to discuss the relationship of my position re the posthuman to Bachelard’s notions of Material Imagination, Culture Complex and Sublimation. (On Poetic Imagination and Reverie Bachelard 1971) Material Imagination; the organic nature of materialized images becomes the necessary foundation for a “truly deep” psychoanalysis, which is to say, for objective knowledge of oneself and the world Original complex; original defence mechanism, psychic transformation, change. Cultural complex; sometimes tacit knowledge, unreflective attitudes, sublimation of the socially unacceptable, comes out in another form. Sublimation; defence mechanism transforming the unacceptable to socially acceptable actions, maturity. Expressions of self were not encouraged in children from my social environment. We were taught to think of others first. Projecting your presence either vocally or in appearances was discouraged. One was encouraged to develop as a part of the whole (group, family). A self-image for me was difficult, a weak, thin image in which only the approved of elements of obedience and servitude were clearly visible. Born Female, Welsh and Catholic, the eldest and only daughter of four children, there are areas of my being that have been the subject of both original and cultural complexes. I use that term (cultural complex) to designate unreflective attitudes which control the very operation of reflective thought. (Bachelard 1971 ) Born with a gift of insatiably curiosity, a valued tool throughout my life, used among other things to unpick, trace and examine some of the complexes of my life. Out of the sublimation of self began a search for ‘me’ in a different way through my work, through education, biology, psychology, sociology, art and research. Throughout the process of my PhD investigating notions of the posthuman, I unexpectedly traced a move from existing as a liberal humanist subject to becoming an emerging posthuman (feminist) subject. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/165501/ Some pieces can historically be interpreted as ‘self portraits’, not always, and not always obvious.These recent works consider the body experienced in mind, looking for the mind to facilitate the expression (in conjunction with body) through art practice. The material embodiment of my process is poised in opposition to the Posthuman view of ‘privileging information pattern over material instantiation… where embodiment is seen as an accident of history rather than an inevitability of life’ (Hayles 1999). Rather than cold data being privileged in my process, imagining and its becoming visible is evoked and aided by the specific material used to express it. Bachelard claims that matter precedes form, and is the basic substance out of which our imaginations are made. He says that on a primal level we connect with the four elements of fire, earth, air and water, which when active within a poetic image find a deep understanding of being human. As I write this I can hear and enjoy a heavy rain shower, and become aware of my affinity with water and my unhappiness when housed too far away from a coastline. Its depth and movement stimulate experiences of being alive (for me), a full human. In seeking connectivity and expression between the external reality of my Being within medical events where to the medics I exist as a medical object, even while allowing just a taste-in-the-mix of my presence as subject in the form of my bag left prominently on my bed. (Fig 1) offers a promise of positive hope of a return to good health “I will be back for this bag”. Figs 2 and 3 express the authentic internal experiences of the external events. |
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Fig 1. Fig 2. Fig 3.
Fig 4. Initial markup for surgery, Nov 2012, second area not yet detected.
I am testing my notions of the posthuman with the work of Bachelard (1971 On Poetic Imagination and Reverie), the use and value of poetic imagination as a communication method within my practice. Using the internal experiences of shock from the external events. An additional emergency biopsy being ordered (Fig 5) that resulted in a diagnosis of Cancer, and subsequent interventions (Fig 6 and 7) interwoven with a sense of the good fortune that this previously unseen second area was spotted by a sharp eyed radiographer, along with the fear, discomfort, awareness of my mortality, coupled with the uncertainty of life, all combine, intertwine, and react to the external impositions by the medics.
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Fig 5. Subsequent markup for surgery following an inspired 'after-thought' by the radiologist
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Fig 6 . Jan 2013. My corporeal body in its place (as the medical object) positioned and 'held in place' for radiation beams to penetrate the breast area.
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Fig 7. Feb 2013. Post radiation burns showing blistering and peeling on underside of breast.
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Human and machine working together to prolong corporeal life, a life lived and experienced as a human being with human characteristics, emotions and values. This is in sharp contrast to Hans Moravec who posts the idea of immortality and of humans being transferred into machines (1987 Dualism from Reductionism). There is no clear statement by him with regards the ongoing experience of being human, only of having access to data from a grand computer.
Despite the fear, trauma and discomfort both physical and emotional of being human, I question whether being posthuman, receiving only cold data of events, form ’out there’ is a preferred option. My work consists of images containing my direct experiences expressed in such a way as they touch me, may they also touch others, a sharing of human experience.
Fig 8. Yvonne Jones. A work form series 2 Internal Landscapes, No 3 Radiant Damage 2013. 12 x 12 cms Acrylic on canvas.
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Through this reverberation, by going immediately beyond all psychology or psychoanalysis, we feel a poetic power rising naively within us. After the original reverberation, we are able to experience resonances, sentimental repercussions, reminders of our past. But the image has touched the depths before it stirs the surface. (Bachelard: On Poetic Imagination and Reverie).
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As an Artist Researcher it is difficult to be seen publicly, within the context that offers disclosure of research through art practice with text that link to the theoretical underbelly. Although we exist in a society that recognises art, recognises research, there is a blind spot when it comes to art practice research, this dispossesses art researchers and their work, leaving a layer of society displaced and invisible.
Yvonne Jones
November 2015
Loosening the boundaries / Our Unevolved Brains / The Displacement of Artist Researchers / Facing the Posthuman /
X-cite, Feint / The Senses have no Future