Claudio's Thesis Outline
Thesis outline as of 23rd oct 2023
[For the thesis, I advocate an analysis and annotation of your own work and the work of others who attempt something similar to you. In the third part of the outline you propose this, but I think it should be front and center of your approach to the thesis. Respect your own process and use the thesis as an opportunity to investigate the depth of that process. In the thesis, simply describe what you do and then discuss, with others and yourself, why you made the choices you did. Anyways I’ve made a few suggested changes to your draft proposal]
INTRO (500-1000 words)
KEY ISSUE: What is the point - for me- to write this thesis? What do I want to achieve with it? How do I want it to relate with my project? What approach do I want to have with research/theory?
The fundamental premise for this draft thesis outline is that I want my thesis work to be a complementary part of my graduation project. Ideally, the two should be tied together thematically and feed one another in the most fertile way possible.
Also, as the fundamental goal I set for myself in this final year is to establish and articulate
a field of research
a language
a practice
I would like my thesis work to contribute towards it.
This thesis proposal aims at doing so by deepening the topics that my practice is currently concerned with, as well as the ones that will come up over the course of the year in the making of my final graduation project. Therefore, I intend this thesis as a space for diving deeper into the fields that my practice will open and cross during the year.
The starting point will be the current yet unstable state of my practice and the very first ideas/projections for the upcoming year and graduation project. However, as this current state of things will be of course subject to change, shifts, development, I would like this thesis work to be flexible enough to adjust to and make space for these changes on the way. To do so, it should be devised and structured as a sort of responsive device, capable of reacting to and molding over the unfolding of my work in the upcoming months.
This thesis will expand my research and practice in relation both to theoretical topics and practical techniques/processes, as an attempt at building a solid foundation intertwining theory/thinking and praxis/making in one, coherent body. References will be drawn from visual studies, media theory, contemporary art and film history, mostly in the form of excerpts from texts as well as still images.
The approach that I intend to have with these theoretical references is double. On one side, an “unruly” hand picking of bits and pieces from different sources that feed/trigger my practice, without feeling the overwhelming weight of having to fully master and control the whole of it. On the other side, my end goal is to gather references to better understand and situate my own practice in a larger context of artistic and theoretical thinking. To do so, a parallel work of annotations and personal reflections will be carried out alongside this activity of reading/researching/collecting, with the final aim to elaborate a personal position.
I envision this written thesis work to be a non-linear, relational, fragmented - yet edited - body of texts and images - as this is the form that best reflects the way I write, think and work and as - someone once told me - we, as artists, exist in those opaque gaps between things, that we ought to always keep open.
PART 1 - FIELD OF RESEARCH - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF MY PRACTICE - A MAP OF RELEVANT REFERENCES FOR MY REFLECTIONS (2000 words)
KEY ISSUE: Making sense of theoretical topics. Gather theoretical triggers/sources of inspiration + situating my practice in a larger context. Mapping out the theoretical field in which my research develops.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the theoretical framework of my practice? What are the core topics I’m interested in? How do they relate, how do they come together? Where do I stand as an artist? Whose shoulders I’m standing on?
As of now, through research - reading and watching, mostly - I am trying to connect the dots between a number/range of different fields of theory/lines of thought that might seem distant at first but could be speculatively woven together, in the attempt to articulate multiple tensions at the same time. This is the aim of PART 1.
These reflections are both at the same time inherent to my medium of choice - (moving) image-making - as well as to a (personal) reflection on and stance. They therefore simultaneously work on and call into question a double layer, one of reflection on the “outside” world and one of self-reflection on and about the medium used.
It is, fundamentally, the expression of an ongoing struggle to find meaning, on both levels, on one through the other and vice versa.
I have the tendency to think/work within pairs of opposing notions/antonyms, as extreme poles outlining spaces/fields within which to navigate tensions and articulate complex thoughts/positions. I will hereafter list in such a way some of the topics that I am currently concerned with and that PART 1 will focus on:
nihilism - sublime
immateriality - materiality in/of (digital) images
structures/devices of seeing
blind spots (in vision, in images, in perception of reality)
reflection on the world / self-reflection of the medium
gaze / image / screen
materiality - abstraction
vision/blindness
visibility - invisibility / transparency - opacity / representation - presentation / to show / to hide
The development of PART 1 could follow a thematic order - around specific topics, or a chronological one, which would then be truer to the actual development of my research. Either way, it will take the form of a rather bare list/compilation of excerpts, referencing where they come from, mentioning what they are about, why I am interested in them, how they connect together.
The written part could potentially be integrated with some conceptual drawings/diagrams that visualize implications between notions/ideas/thoughts, as this reflects my way of thinking.
PART 2 - LANGUAGE, FORM - CASE STUDIES - REFLECTION ON THE MEDIUM (2000 words)
KEY ISSUE: Develop a language as an artist. Gather relevant sources of inspiration/references to speculate about my use/choice of specific formal strategies/elements.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS: What are the formal strategies that I’m interested in using in my practice? What is their relation with the theoretical fields in which I’m working? What is their use in the tradition of art/moving images?
In PART 2 I will try to dissect and define some of the formal elements/techniques that I consider as fundamental in my practice and that I intend to use in the making of my graduation project.
I will do so by collecting fragmented thoughts and notes on these elements/techniques and, potentially, by referring to a small selection of case studies - moving image works, mostly - that I consider as valuable references for the topic.
I intend to focus on a selection of three::
- black and white - in relation to the binary nature of digital images, to the reflections on the field of possibilities of images (light and darkness, seeing and not seeing, vision and blindness)
- flicker effect/dispositif - its tradition in structural/experimental (analogue) filmmaking, its use in a digital setting
- ? (tbd, still considering) - the type of images used? blind spots? - my own image in it? / “failed” images / BLIND/BLINDING IMAGES - BURNING IMAGES - images that can physically affect - how? by working with extreme vision effect
I will also try to connect them with the framework outlined in PART 1, as an attempt to articulate the mutual implications between theory and practice and understand them as part of a cohesive, organic process of integrated thinking and making.
PART 3 - PRACTICE - PROCESS (2000 words)
KEY ISSUE: Keeping track of the process of making the final graduation work over the year, relating it to wider research outlined in PART 1 and PART 2
QUESTION: How does my practice unfold? What is my way of working? How does it relate to a wider context?
The third part of the thesis will be an open, ongoing report of the making of the final graduation project. It will be a rather descriptive/diaristic insight in my practice as an artist as it will unfold over the year, both as an attempt at keeping track of my practical process of making, reflecting on recurring elements, features and attitudes that I acknowledge as relevant in my practice, as well as situating/ explaining by making explicit connections in regards to the theoretical framework built in part 1 and 2.
I plan to keep notes on how my process unfolds over the course of the months, to then edit them as the end of the year approaches.
Part 3 will feature both text and images, in a fragmented mode of recursive annotation, cross-referencing and feedback loops between the different parts.
I envision this part to be a self-analysis of my own working process, an attempt at accounting for the choices made in the development of my project.
OUTRO (500-1000 words)
In which I sum up the whole work and try to connect the dots between the three parts, highlighting what it has allowed me to achieve as well as guessing what and where it will bring me, what are the directions that it opens up.
THREE REFERENCES AS STARTING POINTS:
Jean François Lyotard - On Sublime and Nihilism - from
Louis Marin - On opacity and transparency in pictorial representation - self reference
A concrete experience of nothing Paul Sharits's flicker films WILLIAM S. SMITH - or: Structural filmmaking, peter gildan