On intervals

Date
2004
Authors
Kamata, Keiko
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
There was nothing to make work about. In all honesty, I was lost, confused, frustrated, and stuck. I had long realized the impossibility of knowing anything completely. However, I needed a working hypothesis, a temporary definition of what I believed to be "art," to function as an initial guiding beacon. Knowing fully that there is a limit to knowledge, and, in a certain sense, my theoretical and practical understanding of art is valid only to myself; I was desperate to devise my functional meaning of art to imbue value into my practical making. My first task was to identify what I believe to be important in the understanding and making of art. I was aware of the impossibility of portraying anything "as is;" for everything is necessarily colored by my constitutive activity, or intentionality. In this sense, there can never be a perfect translation or reception of whatever that I am seeking to express. What, then, becomes of creating and viewing art if everything is relative? What is the value-meaning of art in such a context? What is the significance of an art object as a tangible thing that is made and experienced? And what do I claim as worthwhile, at least to myself, to bring to expression? After a long process of elimination, I have realized that this something that I am constantly struggling to express is an "experience" that is both cognitive and emotional. Insofar as this activity of expression is through a certain artistic medium (in my case, it is printmaking), the experience will be an aesthetic one. This thesis paper, therefore, is an exposition of what I define as an "aesthetic experience" that is conveyed through an artistic medium. And as long as what I am trying to express is an experience, it will have a definite characteristic that is uniquely personal. I am not interested in expressing anything in particular, but a specific aesthetic experience of a transitory "momentariness" that is constantly fleeting from my grasp. My project of expounding this specific sense of aesthetic experience will be accompanied by both cognitive and emotional contents. There is something about experience, especially its emotive content that defies logical definition. To this end, I have written in the style of diary entries throughout the first part of this thesis, in order to describe (in contrast to define) my experience to serve as a foundation for any cognitive clarification. For later cognitive part, I have referred to a number of well known philosophers, aestheticians and artists as tools or means to accomplish my end, which is to describe my perspectives. Insofar as they are means to my end, I am neither attempting nor claiming accuracy to their complex philosophies. It is important to keep in mind that this is not an intellectual history or a philosophy paper where definition of their thoughts is their end. This is an art thesis paper that is attempting to express a certain aesthetic sensibility that grounds my own thesis show. The accuracy of my characterization of Heidegger's philosophy, for example, should not be an immediate issue; since the value of its inclusion is based on whether or not it has helped me in describing what I am trying to express. In chapter one, I will examine the basic structure of experience and how it grounds and generates my particular awareness for ambiguity. This section alternates between a diary format and its analysis. The diary portion helps to provide the immediate feel for some of the instances extracted from my own experience. This methodology is taken to create and emphasize a sense of constructed continuity as it is read. Chapter two considers the experience of aesthetic quality and the role of the art object. An aesthetic experience, in my context, is an instance of aesthetically perceiving ambiguity. Therefore, I will expound on the parallels between a state of ambiguity and aesthetic experience. And as a significant element to experience, the perceptive act of seeing will be discussed in relation to James Turrell and Anish Kapoor's works. In chapter three, my practical involvement with the process of printmaking in relation to my thesis works is explained. It must be noted that the above will be discussed in relation to visual arts as a tangible material object, which requires and engages a viewer in an aesthetic experience.
Description
Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 35).
iii, 35 leaves, bound col. ill. 29 cm
Keywords
Prints, American
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Theses for the degree of Master of Fine Arts (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Art; no. 446
Table of Contents
Rights
All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Collections
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.