Spectres of Actaeon : a (trans)cultural adaptation of Actaeon’s oxymoronic life-in-death in sequential art

Abstract

This practice-based research investigates the possibility of adapting Actaeon’s oxymoronic life-in-death in a sequential art interpretation set in a nuclear holocaust future. Via practical application, including a combination of traditional and digital approaches, this research aims to explore ideas of this oxymoronic expression related to the Ovidian myth of Actaeon and ecological calamity. Research and influences for production are drawn from various fields of knowledge primarily literature, philosophy, media practice and theory (including comics, painting and film). Particular reference is made to the poetry and writings of Ted Hughes and various theories on comics as propagated by Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, Thierry Groensteen and others. Critical readings brought together theories of hauntology, translation, (re)presentation, presence and absence, the trace, death, degradation, metaphoricity, and the “Actaeon complex” advanced by thinkers like Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin, Maurice Blanchot, Georges Bataille, Slavoj Žižek, Bernard Stiegler, Paul Ricoeur and Jean-Paul Sartre. My investigative search also addresses approaches from disciplines such as material culture studies, psychoanalysis, art history and cognitive neuroscience. This research is embedded in the contemporary aesthetic preoccupation with the tragic implications of nuclear activity in today’s modern society. The research conducted will be presented as a joint exhibition with fellow Masters’ students of Fine Arts in Digital Arts for viewing, discussion and assessment.