Essay - Proposal - Doctor of Fine Art 3. the Research Program:...

Proposal - Doctor of Fine Art

3. THE RESEARCH PROGRAM: Doctor of Fine Art (DR057)

3.1 Title: A visual response to conflict and appropriation in call center culture through sculpture and digital media

WH*****T? Brief Description:

The primary aim of this study is to produce a series ***** digit*****l prints and sculptures that explore territorial and psychological responses to the homogeneity, control and repetition often characteristic of office environments. Specifically, ***** art work will seek to uncover and represent visually the tensions that arise in ***** environments. With the project situated in the corporate *****, there are concerns with ***** and appropriation.

The following research questions will be explored:

*****. How can the psychological/sociological conflicts that arise in the corporate culture ***** represented ***** an *************** process?

*****. How does one attempt to represent through the appropriate of objects and images from ***** office environment the spatial ***** temporal concepts of *****?

The artwork will take ***** form of a series of digital/sculptural works ***** investigate images, materials, objects and processes from work environments which particularly embody repetitive action and seem representative ***** drudgery ***** aesthetic blandness.

The ***** will blend sculptural and digital media to explore the emotional resonances of the ways in which call center spaces are 're-imaged' by employees, showing various degrees of assimilation, conflict or subversion. Issues ***** power, control and territory by ***** managers and their hired workers may be expressed through an art-creating process exploring the psychological ***** emotional ***** to ***** ***** environment. This ***** include fixating on personal identity through the use of ***** and ********** commonly associated with office objects.

***** into the psychological and analytical *****ories that treat human response to the corporate culture will yield psychological/sociological data which will be part of the exegesis. [Add here your background knowledge in ***** areas of art and psychological research.]

WHY? Rationale for program:

Technological advancements - within the call-center environment in *****icular - have often restricted the mobility ***** autonomy of workers to ***** po*****t ***** claustrophobia, creating social alienation ***** an already dehumanized workplace.

A company owns the space legally and *****refore dictates its *****s, so that it may profit ***** these uses. The ***** 'own' the space in a more *****, direct w*****y as their daily habitat, over which they need to feel *****me degree of power in order to be psychologically and emotionally comfortable. At its extreme the ***** "commodifies" ***** ***** mathematically: expenditure on so many square feet of floor space, ***** many items ***** ***** equipment and stationary, and so much paid per 'man*****hour' to the workers.

For *****ir part, most employees resist this commoditization of themselves and their work environment. It implies objectification ***** can create a *****ing of *****lessness and entrapment. *****re seem to be two primary *****s to this powerlessness, either an assimilation of the corporate ***** with a resulting feeling of estr*****ngement, detachment ***** emotional automation; or rebellion, in ***** company re*****urces and materials are appropriated and subverted to the unrecognized *****s