An investigation into the Japanese notion of 'Ma' : practising sculpture within space-time dialogues
The ancient Japanese space-time idea of ma has many aspects, not only in philosophical and artistic pursuits, but also in everyday life. Ma is difficult to pin down because it is an entirely relational concept and the word is only intelligible within our most subjective responses to temporal and spatial discontinuities: its key characteristic being a unity of experience across two fields of aesthetic encounter usually kept apart in the West. These subtle shifts of meaning and attribution within a single spatio-temporal domain have made ma difficult to adapt for Western purposes. Whereas the cultural critic Mark C. Taylor (1997) recognizes ma as the art of âspacing-timingâ, the art historian James Elkins (2003) confines ma to our appreciation of negative spaces in the visual arts. Both fail to note the broader field of references used by the Japanese and my doctoral project was initiated as a response to the rich spatio-temporal ambiguity of the term and the subtle forms of dialogic awareness it can introduce into the everyday routines of a creative practitioner who is, like myself, from Japan. Because ma operates at so many levels, throughout this thesis I relate my discussion to historical and contemporary
Goda, Sachiyo
W100 Fine Art
An investigation into the Japanese notion of 'Ma' : practising sculpture within space-time dialogues. The ancient Japanese space-time idea of ma has many aspects, not only in philosophical and artistic pursuits, but also in everyday life. Ma is difficult to pin down because it is an entirely relational concept and the word is only intelligible within our most subjective responses to temporal and spatial discontinuities: its key characteristic being a unity of experience across two fields of aesthetic encounter usually kept apart in the West. These subtle shifts of meaning and attribution within a single spatio-temporal domain have made ma difficult to adapt for Western purposes. Whereas the cultural critic Mark C. Taylor (1997) recognizes ma as the art of âspacing-timingâ, the art historian James Elkins (2003) confines ma to our appreciation of negative spaces in the visual arts. Both fail to note the broader field of references used by the Japanese and my doctoral project was initiated as a response to the rich spatio-temporal ambiguity of the term and the subtle forms of dialogic awareness it can introduce into the everyday routines of a creative practitioner who is, like myself, from Japan. Because ma operates at so many levels, throughout this thesis I relate my discussion to historical and contemporary
investigation japanese notion sculpture within space_time dialogue ancient japanese space_time idea many_aspect philosophical artistic pursuit also everyday_life difficult pin entirely relational concept word intelligible within subjective response temporal_spatial discontinuity key characteristic unity experience across two_field aesthetic encounter usually keep apart west subtle shift mean attribution within_single spatio_temporal domain make_difficult adapt western purpose whereas cultural critic mark taylor recognize art spacing timing art_historian james confine appreciation negative space visual_art fail note broad field reference use japanese doctoral project initiate response rich spatio_temporal ambiguity term subtle form dialogic awareness introduce everyday routine creative practitioner like japan operate many level throughout relate discussion historical_contemporary