Graduation Year

2015

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art

Reader 1

Susan Rankaitis

Reader 2

Julia Haft-Candell

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2014 Lily Alan

Abstract

This paper considers theories of perception, interaction, and being as a historical and philosophical foundation for themes of space and the self within art; namely, my senior installation, Interior, Concept & Clay. Beginning with a biological discussion of the eye’s perception, the paper moves on to Kant’s theories of Differentiation of Direction in Space. From there, I discuss Gaston Bachelard’s text The Poetics of Space as an investigation of personal awareness within domestic interiors. Finally, I study the vast and varied philosophical notions of selfhood and no-selfhood with the help of John Canfield’s The Looking-Glass Self: An Examination of Self-Awareness. As these influential texts are connected to one another as important accounts of the human experience, I weave in the story of Interior, Concept & Clay as an example of selfhood and space interacting in multiple, complex dimensions.

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