aalto1 untyped-item.component.html
Unknowing through time: The queer and weird imaginal space from middle ages to speculative futures
Loading...
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Location:
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Authors
Date
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
76
Series
Abstract
Encounters with the unknown are the focus of this thesis, bringing together contemporary artists who explore links between mysticism, speculative fiction, the Middle Ages and multiple temporalities. The ways in which we make sense of the world waver at the limits of knowledge, which I will look at through the ideas of the weird and the queer. Artists in this text draw from the past while speculating about the future, where an imaginal space opens up through the paradox of the mystical. Themes from the late Middle Ages and speculative fiction overlap, where wounds become wormholes or unexplainable entities emerge from an outside realm. Encounters with the weird often lead to our own sense of stability breaking down, where binary categories no longer hold. This links to theories about queer time, imagining how we can approach the past in a way that forges connections and rethinks the categorisation of history, viewing the past itself as an unknown and a site of possibility. The idea of the portal runs throughout the text, where artworks themselves can be mediums which facilitate experiences beyond the self. I will look at artists who engage with the limits of knowledge, other entities and the queer body, including Derek Jarman, Mark Leckey, Tai Shani, Jenna Sutela and Suzanne Treister. I will ask what possibilities emerge with a queer approach to time, and why there is a resurgence in premodernity, where we are drawn towards the weird.