Exposing the “Voice” of Self-Comprehension to the “Noise” of Materiality

In this brief article, the author reflects on the academic requirements of doctoral studies in art and indicates that it is split between what he calls the “voice” of self-comprehension and the “noise” of materiality. To overcome this inherent dichotomy, the suggestion is being made to use critically artistic arguments which are complex assemblages of semantics and non-semantics rather than logical, linear, and summarisable formal arguments. The role of noise in artistic arguments—and by extension in artistic research—is exposed as destabilising but necessary. Towards the end of the article, the reader/viewer is invited to revisit photographically, a diagrammatic story titled “Spaces and Surfaces” which introduces and exposes research through diagrams and image atlases rather than through conventional written text alone. The author believes that the artistic contribution may reflect on the raised issues.