Date of Award
2017
Keywords
Tao, Taoism, Taoist, Taoist body cultivation, Taoist philosophers, The Taoist body of the earth, Dao, Daoism, Daoist, Daoist body cultivation, Daoist philosophy, Daoist ecology, Shanghai parks, Shanghainese, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Tao Te Ching, Daodejing, Rod Giblett, Alan Watts, Brian Eno, On Land, The Body of Nature and Culture, Documentary, Modes of documentary, Ambient soundscapes, Ambient landscapes, Ambient music, John Cage, Film, Video, Photography, Figure in the landscape, Visual ethnography, Bill Nichols
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Bachelor of Creative Industries Honours
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Tanja Visosevic
Abstract
This creative Honours project explores Taoist body cultivation practices and the traces of the absent figure and creature in the landscape within Shanghainese parks. This exploration, presented in the form of a documentary and an audiovisual meditation, share a yin and yang relationship. Although they both contain elements of each other, the documentary celebrates body cultivation practices and their relationship to Taoism, while the audiovisual meditation examines the darker side of human relationships with the natural world in Shanghainese parks. Informed by Rod Giblett’s and Brian Eno’s theories concerning the human body’s relationship with the environment and the natural world, and Taoism’s most significant philosophers Lao Tzu (ca. 600-400 BC) and Chuang Tzu (ca. 550-250 BC), it seeks to find a place in which the Tao and it’s manifestations coexist.
Recommended Citation
Rossow, B. M. (2017). Shanghainese parklife: Cultivating the Taoist body and exploring the traces of the absent figure and creature in the landscape. Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1502