Interiority and Agency: Exploring Self in Context with Others in the Act of Creation

Article Sidebar

PDF

Main Article Content

Issue Vol. 6 No. 2 (2023)
Published Jul 25, 2023
Section Articles
Article downloads 352
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v6i2.272
Submitted : Nov 22, 2022 | Accepted : Jun 1, 2023
Barbara Young
Purdue University, USA
young256@purdue.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4621-3506

Abstract

This investigation seeks to extend the discourse on interiority. I am an interior designer and, therefore, pose questions as they relate to design process, specifically that the concern regarding interiority is not necessarily something to design for, but as designers, it affects how and what we design. The presented cases are artistic explorations that provided an opportunity to interrogate interiority as it relates to my cognitive and creative process.  Through an auto-ethnographic account, I present two acts of making. In the creation process, I interrogate meaning-making and perception that constitutes my subjective interiority, which can only be understood in context. Using Maurice Merleau-Ponty to inform perception and Alfred Gell’s art nexus theory, derived from Peircean semiotics, I demonstrate how decisions, or judgements, are informed by my subjective interiority that has been formed by contextual experiences. Additionally, I argue that to understand interiority, we must move from perceived dichotomies such as interior and exterior, public and private, or individual and collective to viewing interiority and exteriority as continuous wholes.

Keywords: interiority, phenomenology, semiotics, agency, creativity, cognition

Article Details

How to Cite
Young, B. (2023). Interiority and Agency: Exploring Self in Context with Others in the Act of Creation. Interiority, 6(2), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v6i2.272
Author Biography

Barbara Young, Purdue University, USA

Barbara Young, NCIDQ, RID, LEED AP is an Assistant Professor of Interior Design at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Barbara holds an MFA in Interior Design along with extensive practice experience in commercial and educational environments. Professor Young’s work explores the intersection of theory and practice which informs her approach to research and teaching. Her design and visualisation work has received international awards and recognition.

References

Anderson, M., Deely, J., Krampen, M., Ransdell, J., Sebeok, T. A., & Von Uexkull, T. (1984). A semiotic perspective on the sciences: Steps toward a new paradigm. Semiotica, 52(1–2), 7–48. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1984.52.1-2.7

Atkin, A. (2013). Peirce’s theory of signs. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2013). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/peirce-semiotics/

Bock, P. K. (1999). Rethinking psychological anthropology: Continuity and change in the study of human action (2nd ed.). Waveland Press.

Fishman, C. (2007, July 1). Message in a bottle. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/59971/message-bottle

Gell, A. (1998). Art and agency: An anthropological theory. Clarendon Press.

Harvard GSD. (2016, April 26). Richard Sennett, "Interiors and interiority" [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVPjQhfJfKo

Marder, M. (2016). Dust. Bloomsbury Academic.

McCarthy, C. (2005). Toward a definition of interiority. Space and Culture, 8(2), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331205275020

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of perception (D. A. Landes, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1945)

Moorti, S., & Ross, K. (2002). The power of the veil: Reviews editors’ introduction. Feminist Media Studies, 2(2), 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680770220150908

Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world (2nd ed.). MIT Press.

Pimlott, M. (2018). Interiority and the conditions of interior. Interiority, 1(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v1i1.5

Rampley, M. (2005). Art history and cultural difference: Alfred Gell’s anthropology of art. Art History, 28(4), 524–551. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.2005.00475.x

Starr, M. (2021, June 12). This weirdly smart, creeping slime is redefining our understanding of intelligence. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/this-creeping-slime-is-changing-how-we-think-about-intelligence

Stoner, J. (2012). Toward a minor architecture. MIT Press.

Sullivan, G. (2005). Art practice as research: Inquiry in the visual arts. Sage Publications.

Tape Paris. (n.d.). Numen. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://www.numen.eu/installations/tape/paris/

Teston, L. (2020). On the nature of public interiority. Interiority, 3(1), 61–82. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v3i1.72

Yakin, H. S. M., & Totu, A. (2014). The semiotic perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A brief comparative study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, 4–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.247

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Author(s) retain the copyright of articles published in this journal, with first publication rights granted to Interiority.