''Ossian's adventures in
Hyperreality"
Oil on board
Hyperreality"
Oil on board
Oldmancrazywithpainting - Doctor Jonathan Milburn
Update10/12/2011
All images and sound (c) 2000-2011
Jonathan Milburn
All images and sound (c) 2000-2011
Jonathan Milburn
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Summary of Ph.D thesis:
PAINTINGS AND THEIR IRREDUCIBILITY TO EXPLANATION.
MYTH AND MULTIFORM AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE.
A PRACTICE LED FINE ART PhD.
My Ph.D. consists of a written thesis developed alongside seventeen
original oil paintings. The initial purpose was to examine through thesis how
creative painting practice and a reconsideration of myth in word and image
would, or could, express my experience of post-war Bosnia in 1999.
In light of the limitations identified with such an approach during the course
of this study, the thesis became an analysis of the ways in which we explain
art, focussing upon aspects of mythic explanation in particular.
For example, by reconsidering James Macpherson‘s national epic
Romantic myth The Poems of Ossian, I was able to study the main issues
involved. Key writers include Joseph Campbell (1949), Carl Jung (1966) and
Levi- Strauss (1963/1968), before finally considering Professor Garry
Hagberg's interpretation of Wittgenstein‘s (1979) remarks on myth. Key
contemporary artists include American Pop Surreal painters.
The focus of this thesis is not explicitly about the war in Bosnia. It is not
necessarily about myth, or of aesthetics philosophy, and it is not exclusively
about the series of 17 original oil paintings developed during the course of
this study. Rather this study concerns the way in which all of these elements
combine to provide the rich and diverse human cultural experience we
know as art. It considers thinking about the way in which art engages with
the world, from an artist‘s perspective.
The original contribution to knowledge arises from the way in which this
study combines theory, practice and experience. The objective was
therefore for original works of art to become the key to more interesting
theorizing, and vice versa. The thesis concludes that painting is irreducible
to explanation, and considers key research areas for future critical discourse.
Jonathan Milburn 2011
PAINTINGS AND THEIR IRREDUCIBILITY TO EXPLANATION.
MYTH AND MULTIFORM AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE.
A PRACTICE LED FINE ART PhD.
My Ph.D. consists of a written thesis developed alongside seventeen
original oil paintings. The initial purpose was to examine through thesis how
creative painting practice and a reconsideration of myth in word and image
would, or could, express my experience of post-war Bosnia in 1999.
In light of the limitations identified with such an approach during the course
of this study, the thesis became an analysis of the ways in which we explain
art, focussing upon aspects of mythic explanation in particular.
For example, by reconsidering James Macpherson‘s national epic
Romantic myth The Poems of Ossian, I was able to study the main issues
involved. Key writers include Joseph Campbell (1949), Carl Jung (1966) and
Levi- Strauss (1963/1968), before finally considering Professor Garry
Hagberg's interpretation of Wittgenstein‘s (1979) remarks on myth. Key
contemporary artists include American Pop Surreal painters.
The focus of this thesis is not explicitly about the war in Bosnia. It is not
necessarily about myth, or of aesthetics philosophy, and it is not exclusively
about the series of 17 original oil paintings developed during the course of
this study. Rather this study concerns the way in which all of these elements
combine to provide the rich and diverse human cultural experience we
know as art. It considers thinking about the way in which art engages with
the world, from an artist‘s perspective.
The original contribution to knowledge arises from the way in which this
study combines theory, practice and experience. The objective was
therefore for original works of art to become the key to more interesting
theorizing, and vice versa. The thesis concludes that painting is irreducible
to explanation, and considers key research areas for future critical discourse.
Jonathan Milburn 2011