Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road

This project is an experiment on the possibilities of artistic research to examine and represent large-scale systems and networks. Taking a critical subjective position, I interpret the phenomenon of “Belt and Road” as a fragmented narrative premised on infrastructure and constructed in realtime by...

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Main Author: Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston
Other Authors: Ute Meta Bauer
Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151483
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1514832023-03-11T20:03:17Z Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston Ute Meta Bauer School of Art, Design and Media NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore Stefano Harney UBauer@ntu.edu.sg, stefanoharney@gmail.com Social sciences::Political science Visual arts and music::Visual arts This project is an experiment on the possibilities of artistic research to examine and represent large-scale systems and networks. Taking a critical subjective position, I interpret the phenomenon of “Belt and Road” as a fragmented narrative premised on infrastructure and constructed in realtime by a network of global entities. I begin with an observation of infrastructure as ideal sites of protest and consider its implications as a term and form. I question whether the noun “infrastructure” is used to depoliticise and necessitate the things and processes it denotes. I then propose that infrastructure is a physical embodiment of the state and can be read as a map of its extent across space. The central written chapter is an exposition of Belt and Road and how it is manifested in the process of interpretation and analysis, existing more as an instrument of communication and political discourse than a Chinese initiative to construct infrastructure. I use the concept of a “metastructure” to show how the many definitions, scopes and implications of Belt and Road function like archetypes of a story rather than factual descriptions. I finally focus my attention on Sri Lanka and the construction of Hambantota port by Chinese-state owned companies and the implications of this for local space and the end of the country’s civil war in 2009. The last chapter is a documentation of the methods I use to simultaneously research, represent and produce a counter-reading of Belt and Road. These methods are: collection of materials on Belt and Road, composition of text and images, and the transmission of collections and compositions via publications, talks and exhibitions. Taking art as a research methodology, my thesis is not argumentative or theoretical, but an exploration of Belt and Road as a captivating new subject and infrastructure as a personally meaningful topic. With this project, I hope to exemplify the expanded potential of art to investigate and critique complex global phenomena. Doctor of Philosophy 2021-06-23T04:30:11Z 2021-06-23T04:30:11Z 2021 Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy Vincent de Paul, J. J. (2021). Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151483 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151483 10.32657/10356/151483 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Political science
Visual arts and music::Visual arts
spellingShingle Social sciences::Political science
Visual arts and music::Visual arts
Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston
Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
description This project is an experiment on the possibilities of artistic research to examine and represent large-scale systems and networks. Taking a critical subjective position, I interpret the phenomenon of “Belt and Road” as a fragmented narrative premised on infrastructure and constructed in realtime by a network of global entities. I begin with an observation of infrastructure as ideal sites of protest and consider its implications as a term and form. I question whether the noun “infrastructure” is used to depoliticise and necessitate the things and processes it denotes. I then propose that infrastructure is a physical embodiment of the state and can be read as a map of its extent across space. The central written chapter is an exposition of Belt and Road and how it is manifested in the process of interpretation and analysis, existing more as an instrument of communication and political discourse than a Chinese initiative to construct infrastructure. I use the concept of a “metastructure” to show how the many definitions, scopes and implications of Belt and Road function like archetypes of a story rather than factual descriptions. I finally focus my attention on Sri Lanka and the construction of Hambantota port by Chinese-state owned companies and the implications of this for local space and the end of the country’s civil war in 2009. The last chapter is a documentation of the methods I use to simultaneously research, represent and produce a counter-reading of Belt and Road. These methods are: collection of materials on Belt and Road, composition of text and images, and the transmission of collections and compositions via publications, talks and exhibitions. Taking art as a research methodology, my thesis is not argumentative or theoretical, but an exploration of Belt and Road as a captivating new subject and infrastructure as a personally meaningful topic. With this project, I hope to exemplify the expanded potential of art to investigate and critique complex global phenomena.
author2 Ute Meta Bauer
author_facet Ute Meta Bauer
Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston
format Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
author Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston
author_sort Vincent de Paul, Jegan Joyston
title Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
title_short Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
title_full Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
title_fullStr Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
title_full_unstemmed Infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
title_sort infrastructure, narrative, impact : a counter-reading of belt and road
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151483
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