The Need for an Action of the Mind and the Body: An exploration of the human relationship to the world through action within the world and art within the public space, 2024

ABSTRACT

This dissertation discusses the alienation of art from reality and people from the world. It is investigating ways of reconnecting with the needs of the soul, which may lead to rootedness within the world. Through Hannah Arendt’s vita activa, the paper analyses activities of movement and making. They are discussed in relation to a process of thinking. A need to act and make the world a home comes through a need for an action of the mind and the body. It sees correlations and differences between movement and labour. That movement, unlike labour that consumes everything it produces, creates new connections to the world. It explores a becoming with a landscape. It also examines making in relation to Arendt’s work as a process leading to a world of objects. Moreover, the dissertation explores these relationships within the context of contemporary art and an intimacy of gathering materials. The dissertation argues that art can take the form of an action by being placed in the public realm. Through art as an action, a home within the world is created for people to engage in. Within the unpredictable nature of the public space, art provokes honest responses and takes on new meanings. The paper shifts its attention inward towards human needs and then outward to a public engagement in order to re-establish a connection to reality. By caring for the world, we can start caring for humanity.