Gianni Wise
2016 Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Social Sciences, USYD (accepted for the award May 2017)
2004-06 Master of Fine Arts, University of NSW, UNSW Art & Design (prev: CoFA)
1995-96 Graduate Diploma in Communication, University of Technology
1993 Certificate Experimental Drawing, Stroom Den Haag, Netherlands (in association with Rijksakademie)
Supervisors: Dr Michael Goldberg and Dr Adam Geczy
2004-06 Master of Fine Arts, University of NSW, UNSW Art & Design (prev: CoFA)
1995-96 Graduate Diploma in Communication, University of Technology
1993 Certificate Experimental Drawing, Stroom Den Haag, Netherlands (in association with Rijksakademie)
Supervisors: Dr Michael Goldberg and Dr Adam Geczy
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what it is to be present in the gallery space, both for the encountering subject and art objects themselves. What does it mean to present? What does it mean to behold?
Thesis Chapters
This chapter argues that the 9/11 terrorist attacks have challenged the US’s belief that it was invulnerable to threats from those external to its geopolitical borders. The resultant escalating ambience of irrational fear has created the conditions for Giorgio Agamben’s state of exception to emerge both within and externally to US sovereign borders.
In the context of this proposition this chapter examines the relationship between border and the nation-state, giving specific attention to Michel Foucault’s model of the discipline society. In his seminal text Discipline and Punish (1975) Foucault asserts that the prison has become the central form of discipline in modern society through the regulation of the behaviour of individuals in the social body. This has been done through the regulation of space and the borders that contain it. This chapter also explores a number of art practices that respond to Agamben’s notion of the state of exception. Briefly, Agamben’s state of exception empowers one state with the authority over others beyond the normal limits of traditional law. A state of exception may also occur within the borders of an existing sovereign state.
In this investigation of the relationship of border to the nation-state, special attention is given to the transformations in society commencing from the mid-twentieth century that sees the borders of nation-states increasingly redefined and extended. It does so by applying Stephen Graham’s reading of Agamben’s states of exception. Graham proposes that these transformations mean that zones or ‘prisons’ are created that ignore the universal human rights of those seen as symbolically Other.
These investigations support and illuminate the overall argument of this thesis. Elizabeth Anker observes that the events of 9/11 provided the opportunity for these states of exception to emerge external to US sovereignty. Anker proposes that the very idea of sovereignty was altered permanently following 9/11.
Nikos Papastergiadis proposed the term ambient fear to explain broader changes in our political culture, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11. In the weeks following the event world leaders began to adopt the now familiar apocalyptic term War on Terror. Even though this thesis is grounded in the events surrounding 9/11, it now also extends to include the symbolic terror induced by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). For the Bush administration, at the time of 9/11, the War on Terror symbolised “civilization’s war against barbarism”, and thus acted as the symbolic marker of “a new and as yet unknown and unnamed world.” This new world order was defined by Bush’s clear ultimatum: “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” This ambience of fear stems from the knowledge that we live amongst the unknown enemy, where we are surrounded by multiple risks but remain uncertain as to the actual origin and true causes of this threat. Today these specific threats have become increasingly diffused and dispersed, and irrational fear has merged with a generalised condition of anxiety. As a result the ‘intimate enemy’ creates and sustains a state of perpetual anxiety—one where symbolic terror no longer takes the form of a clear target.
Beginning with a discussion on a study of constructing paranoia through the idée fixe, or fixed idea—a central component of this thesis—this argument is then further developed using the theories of Baudrillard and Rancière in an analysis of the artworks of Stephen Birch and Sophie Ristelhueber. The chapter closes with a discussion on the possibility of Baudrillard and Rancière finding a consensus for art practice.
Drafts
what it is to be present in the gallery space, both for the encountering subject and art objects themselves. What does it mean to present? What does it mean to behold?
This chapter argues that the 9/11 terrorist attacks have challenged the US’s belief that it was invulnerable to threats from those external to its geopolitical borders. The resultant escalating ambience of irrational fear has created the conditions for Giorgio Agamben’s state of exception to emerge both within and externally to US sovereign borders.
In the context of this proposition this chapter examines the relationship between border and the nation-state, giving specific attention to Michel Foucault’s model of the discipline society. In his seminal text Discipline and Punish (1975) Foucault asserts that the prison has become the central form of discipline in modern society through the regulation of the behaviour of individuals in the social body. This has been done through the regulation of space and the borders that contain it. This chapter also explores a number of art practices that respond to Agamben’s notion of the state of exception. Briefly, Agamben’s state of exception empowers one state with the authority over others beyond the normal limits of traditional law. A state of exception may also occur within the borders of an existing sovereign state.
In this investigation of the relationship of border to the nation-state, special attention is given to the transformations in society commencing from the mid-twentieth century that sees the borders of nation-states increasingly redefined and extended. It does so by applying Stephen Graham’s reading of Agamben’s states of exception. Graham proposes that these transformations mean that zones or ‘prisons’ are created that ignore the universal human rights of those seen as symbolically Other.
These investigations support and illuminate the overall argument of this thesis. Elizabeth Anker observes that the events of 9/11 provided the opportunity for these states of exception to emerge external to US sovereignty. Anker proposes that the very idea of sovereignty was altered permanently following 9/11.
Nikos Papastergiadis proposed the term ambient fear to explain broader changes in our political culture, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11. In the weeks following the event world leaders began to adopt the now familiar apocalyptic term War on Terror. Even though this thesis is grounded in the events surrounding 9/11, it now also extends to include the symbolic terror induced by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). For the Bush administration, at the time of 9/11, the War on Terror symbolised “civilization’s war against barbarism”, and thus acted as the symbolic marker of “a new and as yet unknown and unnamed world.” This new world order was defined by Bush’s clear ultimatum: “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” This ambience of fear stems from the knowledge that we live amongst the unknown enemy, where we are surrounded by multiple risks but remain uncertain as to the actual origin and true causes of this threat. Today these specific threats have become increasingly diffused and dispersed, and irrational fear has merged with a generalised condition of anxiety. As a result the ‘intimate enemy’ creates and sustains a state of perpetual anxiety—one where symbolic terror no longer takes the form of a clear target.
Beginning with a discussion on a study of constructing paranoia through the idée fixe, or fixed idea—a central component of this thesis—this argument is then further developed using the theories of Baudrillard and Rancière in an analysis of the artworks of Stephen Birch and Sophie Ristelhueber. The chapter closes with a discussion on the possibility of Baudrillard and Rancière finding a consensus for art practice.