ATA: A Practice-led Artistic Inquiry into the Intersection of Digital and Physical Environments

Date
2016
Authors
Tapuni, Metuanooroa
Supervisor
Randerson, Janine
Marks, Stefan
Item type
Thesis
Degree name
Doctor of Philosophy
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Auckland University of Technology
Abstract

This practice-led research project offers a notion of the Mangaian cybernetic continuum as a way to discuss the intersection of digital and physical environments in my media arts practice. I take a position drawn from the Mangaian understanding that the ?material body? has an ?immaterial other? (Gill, 1876), to propose a Mangaian continuum through art-making where ?other?, is considered ?same?.

Through this lens I draw connections between the circularity of Mangaian spatial, temporal and ancestral connections and cybernetic technical systems in media arts by way of analogy. I do so to bridge the apparent distance between the continuums that are present in a Mangaian cosmogeny and the post-world War II, transdisciplinary discourse of cybernetics that emerged from the USA and the UK. Each of these frames fold into the central thesis of an investigation into Mangaian cybernetic continuum. Central motifs in cybernetics are considered; from the process of recursion in feedback loops, to flow within the cybernetic continuum, and the relations between the observer-participant and environment within a media art installation.

Through a series of creative projects, the extent to which the Mangaian concept of continuum can find a productive equivalence with the socio-technical language of cybernetics is evaluated. Media art practice, utilizing digital and physical environments, is proposed as an interface to express a Mangaian cybernetic continuum. Ultimately the artworks create an environment where the observer, researcher and artwork become conduits within a continuum, where ?other is same?

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Keywords
Media art , Indigenous epistemology , Mangaian cosmology , Cybernetics , Continuum , Practice-led research , interactive installation , Virtual reality art , Contemporary Pacific Art , Mangaian cybernetic continuum , Tacit knowledge
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