Abstract

This thesis is a case study of human responses in the space of the museum. I examine issues concerning behaviour education and training within this space and suggest possibilities for a sort of cultural, theoretical emancipation of the visitor, participant, or "viewer". But by taking the case of Diana Thorneycroft and particularly her last installation Monstrance , I hope to demonstrate that there is still a need to evaluate and rethink the permitted and accepted norms of human response to art both in and out of the museum. By examining Thorneycroft's career and trajectory towards performative spaces and dynamic, sensual artworks, it will be possible to note the biases and hegemony of the cultural space in which artists present their work. And finally, by linking these spaces to an alternative aesthetic, a sublime that horrifies, disgusts and frightens, and is situated outside of the sublime defined by Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke, I hope to promote a new space in which the human body and its training can be challenged. The museum and art gallery can serve as a liberating and emancipatory space in which to explore human response.