Visual Studies Commons^™

Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (Amppd), Final Project Report, Jon W. Dunn, Ying Feng, Juliet L. Hardesty, Brian Wheeler, Maria Whitaker, Thomas Whittaker, Shawn Averkamp, Bertram Lyons, Amy Rudersdorf, Tanya Clement, Liz Fischer

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This report documents the experience and findings of the Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (AMPPD) project, which has worked to enable more efficient generation of metadata to support discovery and use of digitized and born-digital audio and moving image collections. The AMPPD project was carried out by partners Indiana University Libraries, AVP, University of Texas at Austin, and New York Public Library between 2018-2021.

Age Of Exploitation: Teen Sex Comedy Films Of The 1980s, Thyra Chaney

The Downtown Review

The teen sex comedy film genre is representative of dominant cultural factors which influenced the film industry in the 1980s. Films in this genre have been traditionally described as mindless, dumb, and exploitative. This article seeks to understand the distinction between teen sex comedy and traditional teen films, as well as the social and cultural influences which lead to the development and popularity of the teen sex comedy genre. Teen sex comedies are a document of mainstream society and popular culture in the 1980s.

Using Photovoice To Navigate Social-Ecological Change In Coastal Maine: A Case Study On Visibility, Visuality, And Visual Literacy, Kevin P. Duffy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Media representations of the environment support specific cultures of viewing that can create expectations about how to observe social-ecological interactions in everyday life. While public perceptions may appear, in some cases, to reflect these normative representations, more critical and participatory approaches to environmental research and management have begun to complicate these representations as they are negotiated through intrapersonal, interpersonal, and group communication. Working from a visual cultural approach that interrogates issues of visibility, visuality, and visual literacy, this dissertation theorizes how coastal residents represent their own observations and experiences of environmental change through photography and what impact their views have …

Comic Books, Satire, And The American Police State: Lessons From The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, Jamie Michaels

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the spirit of the #DefundThePolice and #BlackLivesMatter movements, protestors in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) declared sovereignty over 5½ city blocks. Emboldened by the potential for mass mobilization enabled by the COVID-19 pandemic protestors attempted to establish a racially egalitarian society that would exist without the police, the traditional enforcement mechanism of the white supremacist American state.

This paper explores how Alex Graham’s Dog Biscuits (2021) and Simon Hanselmann’s, Crisis Zone (2021) portray the ways CHAZ protestors utilized absurdity in the face of extreme violence to enact indiffernation—a unique affect comprised of indifference and determination. This affect …

She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power: An Intersectional Analysis Of A Modern Reboot, Laine Marshall

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Children’s animation offers the viewer a unique window into the nuances of current societal norms. Because children’s animation is made for the young, sensitive, and impressionable, it is carefully controlled and often heavily censored. Any statements made regarding the protagonist’s heroism or the villain’s malignity are meant to be accepted as universal truths for the growing minds of our youth. The recent 2018 Netflix and DreamWorks Animation animated reboot of the classic 1980's series "She-Ra: Princess of Power," now titled "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," shook the animation industry with its groundbreaking representation and astounding visuals. Following its predecessor’s …

Desde El Futuro: El Archivo Lemebel, Fernando A. Blanco

Faculty Journal Articles

The reflection on Pedro Lemebel’s work and public persona has been rigorous and exhaustive. Critics have analyzed his narrative, his work on radio, performances, political and media activism (Blanco 2004, 2017, 2020, Blanco y Poblete 2010, Poblete 2018, Bianchi 2018, Martínez 2021). However, not much have been written about the documentaries Pedro Lemebel. Corazón en Fuga (Quense, 2008) and Lemebel (Reposi, 2019). The goal of this article is to reflect on both films as testimonial exercises to preserve the artist-self. The paper explores this notion of self-archiving: that of documenting the future with a clear awareness of mortality and oeuvre.

Shopping For A Cause: Social Influencers, Performative Allyship, And The Commodification Of Activism, Emily Mckellar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Since the early 2010s, social media has been a powerful tool for protestors and activists throughout the world. In times of crisis and political uprisings, users have pulled out their phones and taken to platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and, more recently, Instagram, to capture “the revolution” in real time. Although originally intended for networking purposes, social media has provided people with a digital space to share their stories, disseminate resources, and broadcast live, allowing them to share their efforts with millions.

While social media has helped assemble protests, amplify marginalized voices, and educate the public, it has also become a …

Screening For Our Fathers: Representations Of Native American Masculinity In American Film, Jeromy Duane Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, I examine representation of Native American masculinity in the American film industry. The American film industry began just over a century ago, and one of its earliest subjects was the Native American. Throughout its history, the American film industry has maintained a steady trajectory of exploitation and erasure of Native American men and their subsequent masculine qualities. While there are notable historical outliers and critical exceptions in the 21st century, Native American men in film have been continually reduced to corpses, devoid of significant social presence, and denied meaningful explorations of their sexuality and interpersonal identity. The …

Badnaam Women Of Bollywood: The Combative Sexual Politics Of Item Songs In India, Ketaki Deshpande

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the controversial Bollywood convention “item number,” a vampy song with suggestive lyrics and hypersexualized imagery of dancing women, as a crucial cultural artefact reflecting the gender and sexual uneasiness in India. Sex avoidance is a common theme in Bollywood films and in the country, where media and people are heavily censored and policed by anti-Romeo squads under the Modi administration. The item girl breaks the sexual tension with a mega hit song and hook step that fuels the economy of dance and desire in India. While the song is completely unrelated to the narrative of the film, …

The Mvohc Project, Brooke Day

All Theses

ABSTRACT

A Mvohc is a Morphic Vessel of Human Consciousness. The Mvohc Project traverses' theories of spatial identity in tandem with creative world-building as a method for examining the intricacies of the human condition and reimagining reality. My creations are designed to promote autonomy over the contemporary world's ever-evolving societal complexities to empower individuals, foster imagination and communication, and create space for positive change. This body of work incorporates fleshy biomorphic sculptures inspired by science fiction, deep-sea marine life, and the human body. The abject creatures are partnered with constructed audio-scapes that encompass the frenzy of an overarching internal monologue, …

Fall 2021, The Gist

The Gist

No abstract provided.

Edge Of A Dream, Lauren Schild

Honors Thesis

“Edge of a Dream” is a photographic series using both film and digital mediums to explore the moments right as a dream is ending and before you wake up. I chose this theme for my series after waking up one morning in the middle of a dream. I was awake and aware, but I could not remove myself from the dream. I decided to use this project as an opportunity to explore that state and attempt to understand how our minds create dreams in the first place. Each image uses a different set of surreal methods to recreate photographic representations …

Pathos, Fall 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

Frederick Wiseman's Essene (1972): The Duality Of Mary And Martha, Nilita Vachani

Journal of Religion & Film

America’s legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman shot Essene 50 years ago at the height of the commune movement in the United States. Unlike his previous institutional films which showcase an insane asylum, a public high school, an inner city police force, a hospital, and a military training school, Essene's canvas is the far less turbulent terrain of a serene and austere Benedictine monastery devoted to the love and service of God and the divine spirit. This paper undertakes a close textual and hermeneutic analysis of Essene alongside an appraisal of Wiseman’s working methodology, his cinematic portrayals of character and dramaturgy, …

The Role Of The Reader Is To Fallow: Responding To The Negative Reception Of Paul Verhoeven’S Film Adaptation Of Starship Troopers, Julian Meyerstrom

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Robert A. Keinlein’s science fiction novel Starship Troopers (1959), and its film adaption of the same title directed by Paul Verhoeven (1997), received mixed critical reactions. Both pieces came across as supporting fascistic ideals to most critics upon release, despite the two creators opposing political and moral beliefs. Using Louise Rosenblatt's reader response theory as a framework for analyzing both the novel and film adaptation, this paper postulates the film adaptation fails to deliver an accurate critique of the novel by placing the burden of moral knowledge on the audience. Keinlein’s novel guides the reader into his moral sensibilities, whereas …

Between The Visual And The Verbal: An Aesthetic Of Open Wounds In Post-Traumatic Experience Of The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), Maryam Ghodrati

Doctoral Dissertations

Trauma theory of the 1990s pioneered by Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, and Geoffrey Hartman has been criticized by postcolonial scholars such as Irene Visser, Michael Balaev, and Stef Craps for being neglectful of the trauma of the colonial world in adopting a deconstructivist approach and psychologization of experiences of trauma. This antagonism between the traditional and postcolonial trauma theory has resulted in even deeper isolation of the human subject at the center of this argument. In my research, I highlight the reality and materiality of traumatic suffering in the shared realm of the human body to suggest a need for …

Desde El Fuego Que En Mí Arde: Performance, Literatura Y Cine Afro-Latinoamericano Producidos Por Mujeres Afrodescendientes En Perú, Cuba Y Brasil (1960–2000), Elena Ekatherina Chavez Goycochea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines different films, literary, and performance art pieces created by contemporary afro-descendant women from Peru, Cuba, and Brazil after the sixties with emphasis on the most relevant works of Conceição Evaristo, Sara Gómez, Victoria Santa Cruz, and Lucía Charún-Illescas. I focus my research on the crucial role these artists played in the cultural identity formation of Latin America when inserting ‘race’ as a category of socio-political analysis and cultural production. How did their films, performances, and texts challenge national narratives and imaginaries after 1960? Although in the sixties, women improved their civil rights in different countries, the ‘mujer …

Research Survey Questionnaire And Results, Iryna Molodecky

Research Survey

Prior to the development of the Visual Toolkit, a questionnaire was sent to all full and part-time faculty in the Pilon School of Business to gather information about the current use of visual tools among the faculty. Among the 10 questions asked were inquiries into faculty and student level of comfort with visuals, whether faculty was aware of the use of visual tools in business today and whether they believe teaching visual thinking (learning and processing with visuals) will better prepare students for the current business environment. The full questionnaire and survey results are included here

Visual Templates, Iryna Molodecky

Visual Toolkit

An important element of the Visual Toolkit is the visual template. Templates are one of the key visual strategies used in business meetings and offer structure, framework and support in leading people through a process. Templates can be customized to support the thinking at various stages of a project and are particularly suitable for systems process work where teams need to collaborate and brainstorm solutions to complex business problems.

Biography, Iryna Molodecky

Overview

With a career of over 25 years in advertising, graphic design, illustration and visual facilitation, and 13 years as a professor of Advertising and Creative Thinking at Sheridan College’s Pilon School of Business, Ontario, Canada, Iryna brings a wealth of skills and knowledge including creative and visual process work to her teaching. Passionate about making a meaningful difference in the way students experience learning, Iryna is dedicated to preparing students to be creative problem solvers and co-creators in a world that is ever-changing and demands innovative thinking skills. Iryna holds a Bachelor Degree in Fine Art from York University, a …