Experience and the essence that remains
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Matthew Stephen Hellgeth (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Tom Ashcraft
Abstract: The basis of my research and studio practice is to investigate the processes of creating and remembering and their significance for identity development and the subsequent perception of one’s world. I argue that the development of the self is built upon our memory of the experiences we have had rather than the objects to which we identify ourselves.Through my individual work in ceramics and collaborative sculptural engagement with others that acknowledge the ever-present condition of impermanence, my research focuses on experience and what remains after the original signifier (the object made) no longer exists. Experience and memory then become the attenuators of present moment perception, both of our world and of ourselves. This engagement emphasizes the process of making, the suggestion of remembered forms, and of energies that lead to dissolution.My thesis will argue that through the act of creating, remembering is engaged as new memories are formed, and the experience supersedes the objects created. Ultimately, it is this experience and its memory, its residual essence, that the individual uses to construct the lens through which they see, and ultimately create, their world. Through this process I argue it is that which we carry inside ourselves, our memory of our experiences, and not the things and memorabilia with which we surround ourselves, that create our individual worlds and ourselves.
Experience and the essence that remains
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Created on 4/1/2020
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2020
- Keywords
- Collaboration, Experience, Memory, Personal Agency, Shared Authorship, Social Engagement
- Subjects
- Artistic collaboration
- Creative ability
- Experience
- Memory
- Authorship