Abstract
M.Tech. (Fine Art)
In Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre (2004 [1992]) presents an incomplete account of an interdisciplinary, poetic science of rhythms, where the body and senses are given prime place as instruments of measure. This text has strong correlations with the Minutes Project, a collaborative study of everyday urban Johannesburg through the mediums of time-lapse film and sound recording. This correlation raises the question of how critical dialogue between Rhythmanalysis and the Minutes Project may contribute to the development of new methods for the study of the everyday. The research unfolds as a series of iterative processes, moving between theoretical engagement and critical praxis, including critiques of selected scientific works of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) and the media critique of Friedrich Kittler (1999), as well as the production of films, installations, and performances. Through these engagements I evolve a constellation of ideas and methods for the study of the everyday, centred on the relation between the measuring function of indexical graphic traces and the rhythmic measure of bodily, sensory experience. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed, resulting in an integration of empirical and poetic modes of investigation. Lefebvre’s proposed figure of the rhythmanalyst emerges as a productive sounding-board for the development of a study of rhythmic aspects of the everyday, and the process of rhythmanalysis is extended in this project to encompass collaboration and participative interpretation. In the course of the research, I develop a novel method of graphing quantities of movement over time in the spaces studied, presenting multiple possibilities for interpretation as a trace of an underlying rhythmic layer of urban life. The research project as a whole demonstrates the practicability of the integration of empirical and poetic modes of investigating the everyday.