Re-constructing Babel: The history and creative possibilities of a myth, explored through text and installation

Abstract

This thesis and related artwork examines the layers of meaning around the Tower of Babel and how the myth can be visually represented today. This thesis attempts to give new readings to the myth drawing on history, literature, philosophy and architectural writings while using multi-media visual experimentation to highlight the contemporary experience. The Tower of Babel acts as a generator of the creative process and provides a structural framework for the motivation of my creative practice.
Throughout the written thesis the relationship between the myth and a possible contemporary reality is explored and can be seen as crucial to understanding the depth to which the myth has influenced and shaped contemporary art practice in terms of both the theory and the actual making and presenting of artwork in the late 20" and early 21" century. In the artwork this reality manifested itself in the three- part multi site exhibition of installations of my work, Reconstructing Babel. This acted as a test case in which the ideas about how and why the myth exists are explored and confronted within a given environment, the museum.
Overall, the thesis and artwork show in combination how the modern Babel manifests itself as an excess of communication in which we are no longer able to select or decode. It is a city in the throes of continuous transformation which is searching for order, a centre, a name and a universal language.