Towards a deep ecology of art, technology and being - an ontological investigation with particular reference to the rock-cut edifices of Ellora, India, and Tadao Ando’s water temple

This practice-based thesis is an interrogation of ‘being’, one not centred on the human being. It concerns a being that manifests through dynamic inter-relation between human and other entities and phenomena in the universe. It considers several interrelated questions, interrogating notions of 'relational being','non-anthropocentric being', 'the being of a space', ‘the space of being’. Ultimately,
one is considering the implications of relational being for ‘deep ecology’.

With regard ‘relational being’, key inter-related Buddhist ideas drive the thinking and practice: ‘relational origination’ (pratityasamutpada), and ‘emptiness’(shunyata). Furthermore at the heart of this particular history of technology is a discussion of the significance of zero. The Sanskrit term shunya, means both ‘zero’ and ‘empty’, and relates to shunyata.

There are several principal objectives. Firstly an analysis of perceived relational dynamics in Ellora’s rock-cut architecture, technology, and ontology. Secondly, scrutiny of apparent correspondence between Ellora’s Edifice Twenty-Nine and a contemporary Tantric shrine: the Water Temple, constructed in 1991. Thirdly, an examination of ideas in contemporary science and technology that engender reconsiderations of notions of ‘relational being’.

The primary practical outcomes are two films: relationship-place naka-ma and zero = every day? Both approach the question through phenomenological process, paralleling Ando’s conception of ‘architecture’ as an integrated and inter-acting entity of built edifice, wider landscape, and the spectatorship of persons who frequent it.

This research engenders ‘new knowledge’ in terms of: offering pluralistic, trans-national and trans-disciplinary insight on current thinking relating to art, architecture, technology, spectatorship, and ontological practice; evolving knowledge with regard interactions between body, humanly constructed entities, wider environments/ecologies; engendering new perspectives on considerations of cyberspace, Ellora, Ando, and the Water Temple; contributing to a counter thesis vis-à-vis the colonial project of objectification and ossification of the other.