Tan, K; (2014) The physical and poetic processes of running. A practice-related fine art discourse about a playful way to transform your world today. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

My practice-related Fine Art thesis performs a discourse of ‘trans-running’ – running physically and poetically, as subject and medium – as a playful way to transform our world today. There are two components. In my written thesis (Part I), I propose that trans-running enables us to claim ownership of the city and resist political control in the ‘real world’, as well as dodge online surveillance in the ‘digital world’. Running physically can cause the ‘runner’s high’, which I argue may create a euphoric, poetic mode of thinking applicable for the exploration of discourses. Since ‘discourse’ means ‘running from place to place’ in Latin, and as runners were historically ambassadors, I additionally propose the ‘trans-runner’ as the new ‘running-ambassador’ capable of activating new discourses and creating new knowledge. A running-ambassador myself, I run back-and-forth between discourses. Apart from art and sport, I draw on the Chinese Daoist wanderers’ playful, poetic, techno-sceptic and transgressive ways to generate a playful, performative practice of writing and art-making. Consisting of artworks online and offline, my studio practice (documented in Part II) is collectively entitled Kaidie’s 1000-Day Trans-Run 12.12.2009-09.09.2012. I play ‘Kaidie’, a ‘trans-runner’ who explores trans-running as a mode of art. My entire thesis is an artwork that performs the discourses of the trans-runner. Mobilising ‘run’-related idioms, wordplay, alliteration, etymology, metaphor and analogy, my written thesis and artworks are performative. I invite you, the reader/audience, to perform trans-running yourselves, to better grasp it. Trans-running aims to be trans-cultural, trans-disciplinary, transgressive and transformative. It introduces ‘running’ to the art world as a counter to the well-established tradition of walking, and as a mode of relating distinct discourses. Utilising non-Western and non-canonical discourses, my thesis contributes to debates about cultural difference. Integrating theory and practice, it seeks to contribute to the discourses of Fine Art research.

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