Lesley Duxbury | RMIT University (original) (raw)
Papers by Lesley Duxbury
As solutions and strategies to counter climate change make little progress and scientists struggl... more As solutions and strategies to counter climate change make little progress and scientists struggle to get their findings accepted in the public domain, alternative ways to foreground the urgency of climate change action and prompt changes in behaviour require attention. As long ago as 340 BCE, in his Meteorologica, Aristotle made connections between the body and the atmosphere that surrounded it. He compared our breathing in and breathing out to atmospheric exhalations, which he believed to be the way that clouds formed. Throughout history artists and poets have created representations of the atmospheric world, often with the intention of communicating its emotional effects. This paper will explore the potential for art to influence behaviour and attitudes towards climate change by linking the atmosphere and emotions through artistic representations
This paper draws upon my personal experience of completing a PhD as an artist-researcher to explo... more This paper draws upon my personal experience of completing a PhD as an artist-researcher to explore the dichotomy between the creation of artworks as research and an accompanying exegetical text. While there is an expectation that the artwork produced is innovative there are no such expectations of the accompanying text. Although the nature of contemporary, experimental and experiential art cannot be transformed easily into words, I propose that the relationship between artwork and exegetical text can be reconciled to produce an insightful outcome in both the creative work and the text.
Weather, Climate, and Society, Jan 1, 2010
The uncertainties concerning climate change debated daily in the media polarize political leaders... more The uncertainties concerning climate change debated daily in the media polarize political leaders and the general public alike. While daily weather is something that can be experienced by everyone and changes in the weather can be accounted for within the timeframe of a human lifetime, climate change is more difficult to comprehend or connect with in an appreciable way because of its remoteness in time and unpredictability. General populations can be alienated by the overwhelming proliferation of scientific data and statistics and, in the face of potentially cataclysmic events, feel paralyzed and incapable of action. Scientific evidence alone may not be working to encourage or initiate changes in behaviors with the potential to curtail the perceived changes to life as we know it. This paper sets out to explicate alternative ways of comprehending and addressing some of the complex problems of climate change through art by focusing on the ways people perceive and sense the changing world around them. It contends that artists have the potential to engage society in emotional and experiential ways to promote behavioral and cognitive change. Drawing on the work of certain artists and art commentators, this paper argues that, far from being a purely imaginative or aesthetic activity, art is integral to meaningful communication between humans and the changing world.
PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, Jan 1, 2008
Thinking Through Practice: Art as Research in …, Jan 1, 2008
A RT PRACTICE IS A COMPLEx ACTIVITy that draws upon a wide range of circumstances and references ... more A RT PRACTICE IS A COMPLEx ACTIVITy that draws upon a wide range of circumstances and references that in many ways do not adhere to the objectivity of other disciplines. The reasons for making the work are many and various, however generally it materialises through "doing", through a physical engagement with materials and often reveals the unexpected. According to Luciano Fabro, "Art is doing: it is not only knowing, not only thinking, not only using. It is doing: constructing consciousness by constructing things". 1 knowledge generated in this way is made evident through process, leading to artwork that is an amalgam of fact and fiction, reality and imagination; a nexus of ideas and materials that together elicit new meanings or ways of understanding the world.
Image, Text and Sound 2002: Beyond the …, Jan 1, 2002
Abstract: I am interested in the power of words and the suggestive and evocative potentials in la... more Abstract: I am interested in the power of words and the suggestive and evocative potentials in language-based art. Over the past 10 years of my art practice I have increasingly used text: single words or phrases, on its own or in combination with images, predominantly photographic ...
As solutions and strategies to counter climate change make little progress and scientists struggl... more As solutions and strategies to counter climate change make little progress and scientists struggle to get their findings accepted in the public domain, alternative ways to foreground the urgency of climate change action and prompt changes in behaviour require attention. As long ago as 340 BCE, in his Meteorologica, Aristotle made connections between the body and the atmosphere that surrounded it. He compared our breathing in and breathing out to atmospheric exhalations, which he believed to be the way that clouds formed. Throughout history artists and poets have created representations of the atmospheric world, often with the intention of communicating its emotional effects. This paper will explore the potential for art to influence behaviour and attitudes towards climate change by linking the atmosphere and emotions through artistic representations
This paper draws upon my personal experience of completing a PhD as an artist-researcher to explo... more This paper draws upon my personal experience of completing a PhD as an artist-researcher to explore the dichotomy between the creation of artworks as research and an accompanying exegetical text. While there is an expectation that the artwork produced is innovative there are no such expectations of the accompanying text. Although the nature of contemporary, experimental and experiential art cannot be transformed easily into words, I propose that the relationship between artwork and exegetical text can be reconciled to produce an insightful outcome in both the creative work and the text.
Weather, Climate, and Society, Jan 1, 2010
The uncertainties concerning climate change debated daily in the media polarize political leaders... more The uncertainties concerning climate change debated daily in the media polarize political leaders and the general public alike. While daily weather is something that can be experienced by everyone and changes in the weather can be accounted for within the timeframe of a human lifetime, climate change is more difficult to comprehend or connect with in an appreciable way because of its remoteness in time and unpredictability. General populations can be alienated by the overwhelming proliferation of scientific data and statistics and, in the face of potentially cataclysmic events, feel paralyzed and incapable of action. Scientific evidence alone may not be working to encourage or initiate changes in behaviors with the potential to curtail the perceived changes to life as we know it. This paper sets out to explicate alternative ways of comprehending and addressing some of the complex problems of climate change through art by focusing on the ways people perceive and sense the changing world around them. It contends that artists have the potential to engage society in emotional and experiential ways to promote behavioral and cognitive change. Drawing on the work of certain artists and art commentators, this paper argues that, far from being a purely imaginative or aesthetic activity, art is integral to meaningful communication between humans and the changing world.
PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, Jan 1, 2008
Thinking Through Practice: Art as Research in …, Jan 1, 2008
A RT PRACTICE IS A COMPLEx ACTIVITy that draws upon a wide range of circumstances and references ... more A RT PRACTICE IS A COMPLEx ACTIVITy that draws upon a wide range of circumstances and references that in many ways do not adhere to the objectivity of other disciplines. The reasons for making the work are many and various, however generally it materialises through "doing", through a physical engagement with materials and often reveals the unexpected. According to Luciano Fabro, "Art is doing: it is not only knowing, not only thinking, not only using. It is doing: constructing consciousness by constructing things". 1 knowledge generated in this way is made evident through process, leading to artwork that is an amalgam of fact and fiction, reality and imagination; a nexus of ideas and materials that together elicit new meanings or ways of understanding the world.
Image, Text and Sound 2002: Beyond the …, Jan 1, 2002
Abstract: I am interested in the power of words and the suggestive and evocative potentials in la... more Abstract: I am interested in the power of words and the suggestive and evocative potentials in language-based art. Over the past 10 years of my art practice I have increasingly used text: single words or phrases, on its own or in combination with images, predominantly photographic ...