There are two I's in 'in the making'

My pre-proposal for admission to ECU for PhD research. This outlines my research interests in roughly 1000 words.

Date:     30 July, 2007
From:    Nathan Allan Stevens
To:    Graduate Research School; SCCA,ECU
Re:    Graduate Research Proposal
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The following research proposal outlines the nature, intent, and scope of the proposed graduate research to be conducted at Edith Cowan University.

Nature & Intent of Research:

-I propose to conduct innovative research in the combined fields of New Media, Installation Art, and Contemporary Art Theory within the School of Communications and Contemporary Arts at Edith Cowan University. The proposed research approaches art and media from a platform on which both fields inter-exist as a dynamic coupling of contemporary philosophies and practices.

Comprised of various artistic, cultural, and technological investigations into the shifting contemporary paradigm of Self and the phenomenology of individual identity as impacted by postmodernism and the digital age, (i.e. technology, virtuality, new media), this research, entitled “Dissecting Tomorrow’s Phenomenological Self: An Interactive Model of the Post-historical Individual, confronts the evolving nature of self-experience and personal identity.  With a critical focus on the post-historical practice of the individual within a “digital Pangaea”, my research will examine and dissect our experience of Self in the context of identity creation/formation/expression, contemporary ideology, mediated communication, and a future global community.

Proposing questions such as, “How has humanity’s progression into a post-historical, digital age altered the phenomena of personal identity construction and self-experience?”, “How has this impact influenced the processes of expression and communication of the individual?”, and “How are the phenomena of contemporary self-experience and artistic ideology paralleled in our interactions as individuals of a virtual global community?”, this research responds to the contemporary scenario of individuality enveloped by a complex, digital society and the evolutionary socio-technological conditions within that community. Additionally, this project seeks the future ramifications of an evolving actual vs. virtual construct embedded in our post-historical understanding of self-existence, and how this paradigm affects contemporary ideologies of individual practice and creative process.

The intent of this research is to investigate and engage in an internal dialogue of personal identity within the individual as we respond to the advent of new, virtual means of existence in our contemporary social spheres. Moreover, the proposed research will assist in further developing an experiential knowledge base on the effects of technology on identity formation and the phenomena of self-experience in a post-historical context.

As postmodernism advances into a post-historical age, overwhelmingly adapted to a mandatory integration of new technology, it becomes increasingly necessary to examine and critique the roles these shifts play in our individual identities; and how this change impacts our social functions, intercommunications, and expression as the individuals in an expanding digital environment. In order to promote future understanding and innovation in a contemporary society, we must introspectively examine how the information of today transcodes into the individual of tomorrow.

Scope & Methodology of Research:

The methodology of this research embraces study in a variety of disciplines, subjects, and themes that play vital roles in the formation and augmentation of identity and the resulting experience of one’s Self as impacted by contemporary society and new technology. These include: contemporary artistic practice/theory, new media, popular cultural, counter-culture, cultural aesthetics, communications, phenomenology, self psychology, sociology, philosophy of technology, among more specific topics such as Internet technologies that foster individual, communal, cultural identity, (i.e. virtual forums and communities, friend & business networks; P2P networks; etc.), mass media, intellectual property and ownership, virtuality, and digitization.

Various social experiments, interactive models, and post-autonomous events will be conducted to gather information on contemporary artistic practice and social phenomena of the individual in a post-historical context. Interviews with artists, critics, and audiences will be performed to gain necessary external observations. Additionally, this research will be augmented by the study of texts by influential authors such as Arthur Danto, G.W.F Hegel, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Dominic Strinati, Lev Manovich, Nicolas Negroponte, Theodor Nelson, Andrew Feenberg, Marshal McLuhan,  and Joseph Margolis. Contemporary and postmodern art icons such as Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci,  John Campbell, Nam June Paik, Maurizio Cattelan, Marcel DuChamp, Simon Starling, and Andy Warhol, among others, will also be of importance in examining the position of the artist in the context of this research.

The facilities and equipment required to conduct this research include: access to a media lab (e.g. preferably Apple platform with large scale printing facilities), a studio space with high-speed wireless Internet, public exhibition space, sculpture facilities (e.g. metal & wood fabrication), access to audio/ video equipment (e.g. digital video cameras, audio recording equipment, LCD video projectors, etc.).

Acting as the content of my work, the resulting conclusions will be illustrated to an audience via a formal exhibition(s) of a series of between 6-10 large scale artworks, (i.e. installations, interactive models, post-autonomous events, performances, etc.) incorporating various video, audio, Internet technologies, and physical computing components, coupled with strong performative aspects. Addressing the chosen sub-themes, e.g., identity creation/formation/expression, interpersonal communication, popular virtual culture, autonomy, and community, these artworks will demonstrate the innate phenomenological nature of contemporary technology and it’s interface with personal identity in the post-historical present.  Furthermore, these works will raise additional inquiry on the existence and experience of the constructs and processes of the individual as affected by tomorrow’s impending virtual future.