Celebrating the crisis of representation: foregrounding conjunctive and disjunctive relations in painting and sound installation

Painting and multi-channel sound composition are combined in this practice-led PhD to generate installations that foreground an ongoing oscillation between conjunctive and disjunctive relations. While interactions between painting and sound practices have contributed to advances in their respective fields, the creation, analysis and curation of such work has often emphasised causal relationships. This study offers an expanded focus by bringing together painting and sound in ways that acknowledge equally the junctures and disjunctures between the mediums.<br><br>The practical and theoretical considerations of this study have been framed by concepts drawn from the work of Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis and William James. Initially this study is informed by the Jena Romantics’ positive response to the crisis of representation brought about in Immanuel Kant’s work. Novalis’ proposition – to study foreign systems to better understand one’s own – is used to interpret conjunctive relations between painting and sound through the lens of transcription. Such conjunctive relationships are then rendered complex in installation, following Schlegel’s questioning of the possibility of representation and proposing instead endless deferral of resolution, ongoing contradiction and free play. Finally, James’ argument that experience consists of what he terms as both conjunctive and disjunctive relations, brings to prominence a complex understanding of the conceptual and the experienced in installations.<br><br>This exegesis provides an overview of five key projects through which this practice-led research has developed. The philosophical and conceptual frameworks are used to interrogate these projects to allow consideration of sound and painting installation, informed by specific art historical and philosophical sources dealing with representation and experience. The practical contexts for the artworks are revealed through discussion of their relation to contemporary installation, painting and sound art practices. In developing a complex interplay and understanding of spatio-temporal and audio-visual fragments, this study seeks to celebrate the free play of experiencing suggested by the crisis of representation.