Waikare: The Dying Lake and the Embodied Artist

Abstract

This practice-led doctoral thesis considers the nature of embodied engagement with a polluted, localised environment (Lake Waikare). Accordingly, the research asks: How might lens-based recording serve in expressing an embodied connection to land? Situated in the context of the Anthropocene, the study frames cognition as situated, embodied, and inseparable from the environment. As such, it offers a shift in focus from global, political mobilisation to embodied relationality (Ingold, 2021). Through repeated site visits to the lake, lens-based recording, and synthesis of moving image sequences, the research considers the nature of duration (Bergson, 1957) and the agency of stillness in fostering an intimate connection with a specific geographical site. Methodologically, the thesis adopts a heuristic, reflective mode of inquiry that foregrounds subjective iterative experimentation. The significance of the project lies in its contribution to ways in which embodied experiences of land, mediated through multi modal image practice, can integrate considerations of closeness, viscerality, spirituality, and poetic resonance.