Apocalypse Now, Maybe Later, or Even Sooner: The Bliss of Prediction

摘要

This thesis begins with an explanation of my curiosity with anxiety, an interest that I have notonly revisited from my previous practice, but is elemental to my lived reality. During the Masterscandidacy at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, I have come to regard anxiety, and itscounterpart panic, as a universal phenomenon as much as an individual affliction. Thepenchant for speculative anxiety – the tendency to anticipate doom – I argue, has been a realityof Western civilization since the first raindrops fell on Noahʼs holy construction. However, mythesis posits that this anxiety has an enhanced status in post-modern culture. The volatilereality of human civilization, as well as my own feelings of insecurity about the future, emanatefrom the trope of dystopian futures, popular depictions of apocalypse and post-apocalypses, aswell as mediated news sources. I borrow and reprocess each of these in order to prepare forsurviving any form of inexorable demise.Throughout the thesis, a number of works are analyzed, focusing on those that arequintessential to my current practice. Beginning with a description of dystopian references thathave inspired my anxiety, I go on to describe ways in which speculative anxiety influences theconstruction and material reality of my work. The thesis distinguishes the utilitarian objects Imake from dominant methods of manufacture, suggesting that their alterity of form, function,and fabrication enacts a dissensus -- introducing my own narrative and anxious state to thefunction of the pieces. The result of my artistic process thus far has consisted of material plans,models and sculptural objects. I conclude by describing forthcoming projects that are moreperformative by nature, and explain how they function as an additional level of immersion intomy neurotic condition.