Models of Reality

Models of reality are generated by every social system and, in essence, are crucial elements of social relation and interaction. The models which people share may be more or less dominant, depending on many dynamic factors within the society. They may also be more or less coherent, and are typically fragmented (Aerts, et al, 2007). Within what are called creative practices there exist impulses which seek to challenge existing models or seek to construct alternate models. It is the latter pathway that I have undertaken to travel along with my creative practice. It is a practice that has enabled me to initiate significant encounters with the world and with numerous Others and to engage in sustained dialogues. These dialogues, as the site of the creative practice, have become, in turn, the field of exploration of this thesis.

These dialogues and especially the life-energy that they comprised of are carried through a “liberatory use” (Bey, 1991) of technological mediation .

Within the intertwined trajectory of dialogic engagement with Others, as explored in both the creative practice and the thesis, I have engaged in evolving a shared worldview from the macro level of a flexible cosmology through to the granular-level of everyday momentary practices. The creative dimension of the PhD accompanying the text is not an illustration of the principles of the worldview, rather it is a tracing of praxis, a site of evolving evidence of the pathway that this particular world-view obliges. It is a recursive demonstration of how that worldview evolves and enables that very practice. In short, the question posed by the thesis is “What is the relationship between individual creative practices and technologically-mediated human encounter in media arts?”