Of
the
thesis
entitled: Mediations
of
Shattered
Water
| Environmental Intimacy
&
the
Dissolution
of
the
Self
Abstract:
In
a
time
of accelerated
environmental
degradation,
a
human-centric
approach
to
engagement has
engendered
a
pervasive
cultural
passivity
towards
the
environment.
This fatalistic
detachment
amplified
by
technological
advances
and, in
Canada,
the vastness
of
our
landscape
demands
that
we
reanimate
our
perception
of
the natural
world.
Environmental
intimacy
aims
to
dissolve
the
“I-it”
relationship through
an
affective
merging
of
subject
and
object,
recognizing that
just
as
we move
through
the
landscape,
the
landscape
moves
through
us,
resulting
in heightened
ecological
attunement.
This
research
uses
the sensing
human
body
as
the
primary
site
of
spatial
perception.
With
a
camera strapped
to
my
body
I
encounter
waterfalls.
From
these
encounters,
the sensations
of
shattered
water
are
cultivated
and
reformed
into cast
plaster
and concrete
artifacts,
deterritorializing
the
waterfalls
from
their
physical location
into
affective
material
formations.
These
crafted
artifacts
are
the distillation
of
my
encounters
with
the
shattering
of
water,
extending
the movement
of
the
body
through
the
landscape
into
the
craft
and
navigation
of architectural
space.
The
process
of
translation created
to
test
the
potential
of affective deterritorialization involves
the
technical
mediums
of
photography, digital
editing,
computer
modelling,
Computer
Numerical
Control
(CNC)
routing and
vacuum forming
to
develop
the
sensuous
cast
surfaces.
These
processes
bring the
digital
image
back
into
the
material
world,
resulting
in
a
new
form
of
cast landscape
detached
from
a
geographical
location
while
resonant
with
the
forces moving
through
it.
These
castings
are
deterritorialized
landscapes
of sensations
which
engage
the
integral
and
reciprocal
relationships
between
the body
and
its
environment.
The examining committee is as follows:
Supervisor:
Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:
Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo
Jane Hutton, University of Waterloo
External Reader:
Yvonne Lammerich
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Wednesday
April
26,
2017
10:00
AM
ARC
Loft
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.