Date of Award

8-2013

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Intermedia

Advisor

Iain Kerr

Second Committee Member

Owen F. Smith

Third Committee Member

Amy Stacey Curtis

Abstract

The work and ideas presented in this document are primarily grounded in the perspective of process philosophy, and predominantly embrace processes, flows and forces and do not center on objects. My practice interconnects what I call “thread systems” and nomadic spaces. This is carried out through entanglements, crocheting processes and open systems that contain and expanded relational webs as a means of developing fields of experimentation. My research is an interdisciplinary approach in which areas such as continental philosophy, string theory, morphogenesis in biology, interactive technological systems and relational theory are joined. These areas of research focus on two main components, thread systems and nomadic spaces, and are brought together in a project called Threadscapes, an entangled installation composed of different widths of white threads (see page 51).

In my work, and through my conceptual engagements, textile-thread and textile- language both offer a significant interplay: thread as concept, thread as substance, and thread as a relational dynamic between subject and object. My research as presented in this document seeks to examine how the concept of thread systems may be related to assemblages of nomadic space. I will discuss how threads are constructed, joined and entangled by relational experiences, which in turn produce smooth and striated spaces. In these processes relational spaces will also be activated through the interconnection of threads and their capacity to move, manipulate, attract, and repulse senses, circuits and functions. Such assemblages will emerge with a series of conceptual and practical explorations that aim to open up new active reactions, tensions and connections.

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