似藝術-art-like: problems and contradictions in developing an artistic research

The main purpose of this research is to examine artistic thinking processes from my practical experience as an artist. This thinking process is discussed through my term: 似藝術-art-like in the context of 'practice-based research'. '似藝術-art-like' is an amalgamated form of Mandarin characters with English words; it is both a picture and a word that serves as a temporary conceptual framework that aims to keep possibility open and meaning mobile.' Significantly,似藝術-art-like is addressed through language and artworks together with an attempt to reinterpret the relation between thinking, outcomes of thinking, and the complexity of meaning in relation to art. 似藝術-art-like operates as a temporary conceptual framework for discussing the thinking process and demonstrating the problems and contradictions in art research. This is a practice-based study so that visual and written elements and the structure of the thesis are each approached as a form of 'practice'. In addressing 似藝術-art-like in the written elements of the thesis, a series of stratagems or gambits are employed that attempt to explain or find formulation for the developing thinking process in art research. Each gambit is a form of artifice that serves to demonstrate the pursuit of addressing thinking through language as an impossible task, and functions as a manoeuvre for opening a conversation in understanding the thinking process in art. To facilitate my understanding, I explore my questioning of thinking in relation to Jacques Derrida's supplement and différance, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's rhizome, Mieke Bal's, framing, Susanne Langer's distinction between art and language, and Immanuel Kant's disinterestedness and aesthetic idea. It becomes apparent that no one theory satisfactorily explains what happens; it is too complex. Presentation of the inadequateness and contradictions in my developing process provides an examination of there being no specific answer. As a result, I conclude that utilising written words and artworks in my thinking processes and demonstrating them as physical outcomes is a process of constant confrontation with contradictions. It is a provocation that makes an artist-based researcher/research-based artist, re-think, re-disturb, re-articulate, and re-consider the conceptual frameworks in relation to developing artistic research. Ultimately, this research responds to the problems surrounding the relationship between thinking and the outcomes of thinking and meaning in relation to art. It demonstrates the difficulties and complications for seeking mobile thinking and for exploring the possibilities of artistic research. As a whole, the research points out the complexity of the process in terms of employing thinking through artworks and written words together. This invites a suspension of preconceived concepts and questions what knowledge mightbe in the context of an art enquiry.