Posts Tagged ‘London’

Project Completion Report

Posted on: by Richard

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My Master’s Final Report: Introduction:

This cumulative report will attempt to establish to what degree I have fulfilled the proposal put forward at the beginning of the year. Along the way, the paper should demonstrate an advanced reflective sensibility more suited to a professional than a student. Having said that, the paper omits much of the documentation of the experimental content that remains an integral part of the practice.

After a review of the specific production information for each of the relevant projects, the paper will provide an overall critical evaluation of the year, try to contextualise my current position and describe in detail how the direction of the proposal has changed.

As the report dives immediately into a description of the projects, the report structure assumes at least a general knowledge of the background of the practice. The year has seen an attempt at an integration of some of the tenets of the world’s wisdom traditions into suitable content for short films. I have investigated the function rather than the content of religion. The narrative and historical base of religion that make up content seems less able to integrate with a syncretic philosophy.

Download PDF: Project Completion Report

On Wonder, The Everyday, Time And Knowledge

Posted on: by Richard

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This paper investigates a number of elements derived from my practice. Specifically, it considers in depth historical analyses of one area of my interest: the passion of wonder. The paper uses Luce Irigaray and Philip Fisher’s readings of René Descartes section on wonder from his The Passions of the Soul. Obviously, through the tree of wonder, the topical focus branches out and touches a few other related areas. I have chosen to concentrate on where wonder traces notions of (1) the everyday, (2) time, and (3) knowledge.

I quickly abandoned my original goal to include an analysis of ‘spirit’ simply because it so often provokes a problematic response that I was unwilling to tackle again. I hesitate to claim that its mildly diversionary replacements pose any less scope or difficulty, simply that the notion of spirit seems notoriously contentious within the academic context.

While trying to remain within the confines of a critical analysis of my interests, the paper will refer to Kristen Lippincott’s broad overview of time from a National Maritime Museum publication, as well as Henri Bergson’s unique perspective on duration. A number of other theorists and poets sneak in but by no means can this paper be considered an exhaustive authority. Lastly, the paper does not propose any structural framework designed for a personal understanding of the aforementioned ideas. Instead, it simply highlights some key topical ideas.

Within the thaumatology that is the science of wonder, there are a few starting points to its investigation. The typical definition has two parts: (1) n. the pleasure of amazement; and (2) vb. to question. I suspect that the paper deals more with the former than the latter. But what is the situational context for this pleasure of amazement?

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Tacit, Spiritual and Artistic Knowledge

Posted on: by Richard

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The premise of this paper is that non-dual spiritual knowledge can be equated on a limited level with tacit non-verbal knowledge-in-action. The paper takes a general conceptual and philosophical approach to the issue, using writers such as Schön, Polanyi, Wilber, D. T. Suzuki, and D. Tacy.

The author offers a list of conventional types of spiritual knowledge and compares one of the types (spirit-in-action) with Schön’s definition of tacit knowledge-in-action. The paper presents the idea that both spirit and tacit knowledge lie somewhere at the foundation of everyday personal experience. To that end, several examples are given to illustrate how tacit knowledge manifests in specific wisdom traditions and by extension how those forms can be carried into everyday life.

The paper concludes with an attempt at relating these ideas to the author’s artistic practice and by proposing some potential theoretical problems with the premise. The scope of the sampled wisdom traditions is limited to the selection of Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Neoplatonism.

Download (PDF): Tacit, Spiritual and Artistic Knowledge