100 Rooms- Painting as a Means of Phenomenological Investigation of Being-there

Chang, Yun-Chu and Gere, Charlie (2023) 100 Rooms- Painting as a Means of Phenomenological Investigation of Being-there. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

Text (2023changphd)
2023changphd.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.
Download (78MB)

Abstract

I use oil painting portraits as a method to explore how we understand ourselves and others in our daily life through the theories of Heidegger and Taoism. Fifty-five students from twenty countries at Lancaster University were involved in this study which took an anthropological ethnographic fieldwork approach. I went into their rooms and met face- to-face to record their life stories and create portraits. Through my research, I found that this in-person art-making process can generate powerful emotional connections beyond words, eliminate stereotypes and racial discrimination. This artistic process is an “in-between” that can connect technology and humanity. The awareness of this “in-between” combined with the method of art-making provides not only a theoretical visualisation, but a powerful tool for ongoing investigation of racial, class and cultural diversity.