ehsan gill

In an effort to pool together a convincing Ph.D. i was set the task of making abstracts for each section. Not knowing what is require the below text is a kind of plan of action. one which i hope will give writing real purpose. Although the conclusion might need a little work

Abstract total thesis

The central research question of my Ph.D. thesis asks how we constitute the ‘other’ through the body in arts practice. Specifically as is ascribed to my embodied experience, how I might create space for the ‘Othered’ body in Live Art practices. Clearly this is not a new area of enquiry, with overlapping objectives in the western body art practices of the 1960’s/70’s. The unique attempt at knowledge in my study is how phenomenological approaches to race in performance practice allow for intersubjective readings that are not possible under previous attempts. Where previous socio-contextual attempts have failed to reflect my evolving racialised experience. The race in question and the location of my phenomenology etched across my duel ethnic and geographic heritage as a Pakistani born, but decidedly British, Asian male.

Introduction:

The introduction would be the most personal part of the writing. In this section I would lay out the motivations for my research and practice. Articulating the personal experiences/practice that has brought me to this set of research questions. Covering the initial problems I had with encompassing race in practice, my misgivings with how my lived experience was racialised in theory and how I believe my project works to resolve these problems. It would also utilise some informal blog writing in this section to make these ideas clear.


chapter 1: phenomenology

My core argument in this chapter is the ‘unknowability’ of the ‘other’ outside ones own subject position and the implications of such epistemological theory across my racially marked body. I hope in this writing to articulate relational readings of race that evolve through reciprocal lived experience. This in contrast to the closed and knowable compositions of my experience under idealist contextual theory.  I make this argument by bringing together Husserl’s (1982) intersubjectivity Alcoff’s (2001) race theory and Merlau-pontiy’s (1968) corporeal phenomenology. The aim being to assert how such a phenomenological repositioning of race in performance internalises the detached gaze and foregrounds perspective positions.


chapter 2: field review

The purpose of this chapter is to utilise the opening chapters arguments in reference to extant practice. Articulating how certain practitioners have sought to deal with the ways in which their bodies are read. Where their specifically racial, sexual, gendered, and or disabled bodies are theorised out of their control. My aim being to collate how such practices open up the gap between knowable compositions of experience verses an embodied evolving identity.


Abstract chapter 3: my practice my research

This chapter articulates how I am attempting to pool the learning of this thesis into art. This is by no means an exact fit but instead a located and contextual understanding of how the prevailing theory comes to bear down on my practice. This will be broken into sections detailing specific examples of work and their theoretical basis. This attempting to connect but not prove my over all thesis.

Abstract practice 1: the visible invisible

This is a photographed piece for which I have photos taken of myself in public places in the traditional Salwar kameez. The material used for this costume however is a hi visibility day-glow yellow. The core idea engaged with in this performance is the heightened visibility of my body in contemporary British culture. Being an Asian male of Pakistani ethnicity means that I am read and acknowledged in public context in ways over which I have no control. This project works to articulate both my invisibility in theory and heightened visibility in practice.

Abstract practice 2: the man in the park

The action in this performance involves my participant sitting in front of me but being unable to hear what I am saying about them. The objective of this performance is to simply ask, what does it mean to be talked about? Coming from a very personal experience this project places my participant in a position of being appraised, viewed and surveyed without knowing what is being said about them. Articulating the penetrative and destructive effects of the Gaze (Lacan, 1991) and its implications for my racially marked body in a British context.

Abstract practice 3: sorry mum

This project is a reworking of Yoko Ono’s canonical 1965 performance Cut Piece. The  difference in my project is the ‘traditional’ Salwar kameez costume that I ware for performance. This project works to understand my audiences ability to change my body in practice and their impact on my questions of identity. By inclusion of scissors there is in the performance an open invitation to cut off my clothes. The tension of cutting away what reads as culturally significant clothing the point that I hope to explore.

Abstract practice 4: it’s forbidden, is forbidden -or- drowning in culture

This performance works to articulate what it means to be weighted down by cultural expectation. Be this in the very personal familial context or in the wider world. I utilise what seems like a sacred setting to delve into very personal accounts of responsibility and the burden of expectation from either side of my ethnic and geographic embodied experience. The resulting action is therefore located precisely in the personal, in an effort to elevate wider readings of my body in British culture.

Conclusion
Conclude stuff