Dissertation Work Update

by Nil Santana

I was quite thrilled for taking another major step forward, after all this was something I envisioned ever since my first day in the program.

Some of you may have already realized how the individual nature of the dissertation work makes it an inherently lonely process. Especially after intensely collaborating with my cohort in preparation for the Oral Qualifying Exams. There is a noticeable change in pace, and a change in the course of action.

My project deals with videosthetics, so at the core of my research prevails a simple yet fundamental question: what is video? Or in other terms, what is the essentia of video? How can we reformulate the new paradigms of the medium? How has the aesthetic discourse changed from video art in the 60’s to video practices nowadays? How do we locate the tenets of exchange between the artist and viewer, content and production, under the rubric of the moving image? I explore these important questions throughout a Heideggerian phenomenological method. If you would like to know more, you can read a short introduction of my research here.

Although I am excited for defending it this summer, I cannot imagine what is going to be like after I am done. One feeling is sure, I will be missing all and everyone whom I have interacted with during my time at IDSVA.

“—Trust the process.” As George Smith always tells me.