The bi-encounteral heart: intra-connecting creative encounters in a world of uncertainty

This reflective practice-based research enmeshes three distinct, but interdependent new bodies of my work reconceived within a new intra-connected model, the Bi-encounteral Heart. A series of self-portraits reflecting personal loss; an exemplar of artist-led and co-designed public participatory creative encounters; and a trans-pedagogic immersive initiative are examined to reframe the forms and tensions within my long-standing creative practice.

Three questions sit at the heart of this critical reflective inquiry:

How does my personal and public creative practice help nourish a rich connection to myself and my communities?

Why should artists design creative encounters as public participatory creative productions?

How can components of a creative practice be reconceived within a new intra-connected model to feed a personal and social creative ecology?

This reconceptualization of creative practice affirms Beuysean theories that making art is not restricted to artists. This dissertation proposes that there is an urgent need to harness the transformative capacity of intra-connected creative practice to nourish individuals, strengthen relationships, and prepare communities to face uncertain futures in a disenchanted world. The Bi-encounteral Heart proposes a framework for essential aptitudes for artists and public to intra-connect with self and community, with land and time, and within a personal and social creative ecology.