Practice as research: Philosophy and aesthetics of Chinese landscape painting applied to contemporary Western film and digital visualisation

This practice-led research project investigates how East Asian Art traditions can be understood through reference to the condition of Western contemporary visual culture. Proceeding from Chinese thought and aesthetics the traditional concept of landscape painting ‘Shan-Shui-Hua’ is recreated within the new Western genre of the ‘video-painting’. The main features of the traditional Chinese landscape painting merges with Western moving image practice creating new modes of ‘transcultural art’ - a crossover of Western and Asian aesthetics - to explore form, and questions digital visualisation practice that aims to represent realistic space. Confronting the tools of modern computer visualisation with the East Asian concept creates an artistic artefact contrasting, confronting and counterpointing both positions.