Materialism Aesthetics and Space Perception: A Study of Journey to Muang Klaeng Poem
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Abstract
Materialism is one of a school of thought that both Thai and international artists refer to when they need to analyze the spaces in their creative works, such as architecture, visual art, Literature, and design. However, research shows that Thailand’s academic research related to analysis of space through the lens of materialism aesthetics is scarce. This article is an attempt to experiment in reading Thai literature through the lens of materialism to discover new knowledge in space creation. Journey to Muang Klaeng poem, written by Sunthorn Phu, is a sample used in this article. The poem consists of 8 parts divided by chronological order of the journey. Prior to analysis, there’s a literature review including of Karl Marx’s materialism, Jacque Lacan’s objet petit a, Gilles Deleuze’s assemblage, new materialism and posthumanism, East Asian’s philosophy of nature, Indian’s Carvaka (or so-called Lokayata), and Byung-Chul Han’s Shanzhai. Knowledge from literature review was used to generate theme during Framework Analysis method. Results show that materialism spaces in Journey to Muang Klaeng poem share many common characters with materialism in contemporary art world. However, most of the space perceptions by Sunthorn Phu during the journey are based on philosophy of nature. Knowledge from experiment entails conclusion that material aesthetic of spaces found in Thai literature may open possibilities to apply to other art practices.
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