In search of a body: the somatisation of digital cultural heritage

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Embargoed until 2013-12-31
Copyright: Flynn, Bernadette Mary
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Abstract
The focus of the thesis is embodied practice within digital cultural heritage. Digital environments that take into account the somatic framework of inquiry have been largely omitted from the literature. In order to address this lacuna, the thesis examines in both theory and practice how digital environments might enhance somatic knowledge of a heritage structure. Insights developed in interpretative archaeology introduce the embodied situation of artefactual interpretation as integral to contextual analysis of material evidence. This framing leads onto investigation of a particular case, the late Neolithic Mnajdra Temples in South Malta. Phenomenologically informed analyses highlight the significance of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the site and environmental context and shed light on the social control of knowledge and ritual organisation. The affect of bodily encounter is further interrogated through spatial praxis to provide a legible kinaesthetic expression of movement gestures. These interpretations are critically synthesised and reconfigured in the design and production of Spaces of Mnajdra. The encouragement of movement practice and gestural response is the principal user experience strategy. This strategy is tested in a large-scale immersion visualisation environment using motion-tracking and haptic technologies. Formative analysis indicates the themes of immersion, presence and sonic augmentation as relevant to group collaboration and the formation of somatic knowledge. User evaluation qualifies how a sensate orientation to the digital environment emerges through the users’ attentive practice and leads to the development of personalised choreographies of intention. Video material adds to this evaluation by documenting the transformation of pre-existing interpretative repertoires to include knowledge of the temples’ morphology schema and the traces of past cultural encounters. Performative reenactment further articulates ritual potential. The written doctoral thesis is accompanied by a DVD containing a summary of the varied embodied practices along with documentation of the digital reconstruction and sound design.
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Author(s)
Flynn, Bernadette Mary
Supervisor(s)
Shaw, Professor Jeffrey
Murphie, Associate Professor Andrew Kingham
Harley, Professor Ross Rudesch
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Publication Year
2012
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
PhD Doctorate
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download whole.pdf 2.98 MB Adobe Portable Document Format
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