An Alliance of Fragments: Actor-Network-Theory and the Translation of Things.

摘要

The ideas found in the writings of French philosophers Bruno Latour and Michel Serres have changed and expanded how I see the networks I previously called "social maps" that formed the basis for much of my past artwork. In the thesis, I examine how this work, which can be seen as being part of the larger practice of appropriation in art, is connected to Latour's concept of actor-network-theory. Each chapter includes detailed discussions and descriptions of my recent and on-going art projects.;In the first section of the second chapter, All the Names: Actors and Agency, I present an argument for the differences in how the tactic of appropriation was used in the works made by American and Canadian artists in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, with a focus on the work of Louise Lawler. I consider how our understanding of appropriation could be altered if approached through the concepts of actor-network-theory. In the second section of this chapter, I discuss these issues as aspects of my works, Credits (1990) and Credits (extended) (2012).;In the third chapter, All the Spaces: Actor-Network-Theory At Work, I question if and how the concepts of actor-network-theory are at work in the photographs of Louise Lawler. In the second part of the chapter, I look at how ANT operates within my continuing project, All the Spaces. The basis of all the works in this project are paintings that I made of the punctuation marks in the meditation from Book 10.17, that are taken from all the books of the English translations of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius that I have collected.;KEY WORDS: Actor- Network-Theory, Bruno Latour, Marcus Aurelius, Janice Gurney, Louise Lawler, Appropriation in art, Canadian art, contemporary art, Michel Serres, translation, parasite, Philip Guston, Walter Benjamin, allegory.;The first chapter, Things: Allegory and Translation , begins with a discussion of Thing Theory. The focus shifts to the paintings of Philip Guston and their relationship to Walter Benjamin's concept of allegory. I introduce the principles of actor-network-theory as developed by Bruno Latour. This chapter concludes with a description of how ANT operates within the various media and people that make up the artworks in my project, Outside Our Doors.