The Spaces of the Film Body, The Architectural Essay Film as Feminist Spatial Practice

Abstract

This thesis analyses filmmaking as a spatial practice and proposes the architectural essay film as a form of feminist space making. As a departure point it examines how architectural representation has been conditioned by conventions of static, ocular-centric and binary images of the so called man made environment. In response to this position it introduces the architectural essay film as an alternative image of architecture, where openness, fluidity, and interdisciplinarity create a correspondence between space-making and film language. The writing is methodological in nature, positioning the thesis within my film practice and interrogating how processes such as cinematography and editing can be discussed in connection to their spatial implications. The thesis is arranged as an essay that critically reflects on these questions, while walking through the garden of the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, Lunuganga, the subject of my film, Bawa’s Garden. Designed so the reader can wander simultaneously through the chapters and garden, it is a space built on polysemy and multiplicity, demonstrating the possibilities that arise from examining filmmaking from a spatial dimension. Practice-based research is underpinned by theory in the fields of architectural phenomenology and spatial psychoanalysis, drawing from the work of Luce Irigaray and Beatriz Colomina, to examine why architectural documentary has been dominated by an objectified and monocultural system of representation. In film theory the emphasis has been grounded in feminist visual phenomenology including Giuliana Bruno and Vivian Sobchack, to explore a film language that invites a multi-sensory, embodied reading of our built environment and the filmmaking process.