Fine Arts Commons^™

The Curiosity Of Con, Petrified Breath, And An Accident Known As Blue., Steven Randall

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis installation emerged from an interest in visualizing breath. The resulting work came to exist at the intersection between art, biology, and performance.

The unicorn tapestries were used as a generative point of departure to explore the preservation and transformation of images through time, by time, and with time. Reproductions of the six tapestries were each etched into paper and then submerged into solutions of Phenol Red dye, Ferric Ferrocyanide (also known as Prussian Blue), and various forms of sodium chloride. Exhaled breath was used to encrust these images of the tapestries into physical objects which gradually crystallized and …

[Provocations From The Field] Epistemology Of Ignorance And Human Privilege, Ralph Acampora

Animal Studies Journal

The article below introduces epistemology of ignorance to animal studies, unearthing various ideologies that legitimate practices of animal exploitation. Factory farming, the slaughterhouse, circuses and zoos, as well as scientific animal research are all investigated for the operation of ideological narratives and images. It is seen that the tropes of Old MacDonald’s farm, Noah’s ark, and the temple of science play pseudo-justifying roles in regards to these institutions. The article concludes that such ideologies of human privilege must be exposed and analyzed for progress to be made in overcoming animal oppression.

Empathy And Moral Laziness, Kathie Jenni

Animal Studies Journal

In The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison offers an unusual perspective: ‘Empathy isn’t just something that happens to us – a meteor shower of synapses firing across the brain – it’s also a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves. It’s made of exertion, that dowdier cousin of impulse’ (23). This essay is dedicated to elaborating that crucial observation. A vast amount of recent research concerns empathy – in evolutionary biology, neurobiology, moral psychology, and ethics. I want to extend these investigations by exploring the degree to which individuals can control our empathy: for whom and what we feel …

Someone Not Something: Dismantling The Prejudicial Barrier In Knowing Animals (And The Grief Which Follows), Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Studies Journal

Humans’ ideologically informed species segregation in their choice of corporeal comestibles leaves certain animals particularly vulnerable to depersonalisation and devaluation of their individual and social features and competencies. This reflects in the lack of attentional focus on these species in scientific inquiries as well as in the attitude of the general public towards these species, both of which determine political (in)action. With an emphasis on land animals bred and raised to satisfy the feeding and clothing demands of a large part of the human population, this essay explores the motivations and capacities of human rescuers and caregivers to know and …

100% Pure Pigs: New Zealand And The Cultivation Of Pure Auckland Island Pigs For Xenotransplantation, Rachel Carr

Animal Studies Journal

In 2008, the New Zealand based company Living Cell Technologies (LCT) was granted approval for human clinical trials of animal-to-human transplantation (xenotransplantation) in New Zealand. This was one of the first human clinical trials to go ahead globally following regulatory tightening in the 1990s due to concerns over disease transmission. In response to these disease concerns LCT is using special pigs, isolated on Auckland Island for 200 years and deemed to be the cleanest in the world. This article explores the way that LCT leverages off New Zealand national narratives of purity to market the Auckland Island pigs as safe …

Killing And Feeling Bad: Animal Experimentation And Moral Stress, Mike R. King

Animal Studies Journal

This paper is prompted by the introspective account of animal experimentation provided by Marks in his paper ‘Killing Schrödinger’s Feral Cat’ in this journal. I offer an ethical interpretation of Marks' paper, and add personal reflections based on my own experiences of being involved in animal experimentation. Identifying the emotional and cognitive experiences of Marks and myself with Rollin’s concept of ‘moral stress’ I explore this effect that conducting animal experimentation can have on the people involved. I argue, based partly on personal anecdotal experience, that this stress varies depending on the organisational structure of animal experimentation, and one’s position …

[Review] Donovan O. Schaefer. Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, And Power. Durham And London: Duke University Press, 2015, Mike Grimshaw

Animal Studies Journal

Do chimpanzees dance? Or even more particularly, did the chimpanzees of the Kakombe valley, observed by the primatologist Jane Goodall, dance when they approached an eighty-foot waterfall? Furthermore, is this, as Goodall averred, an ‘elemental display’ that could be understood as an originary variant of religious ritual? My six-year old youngest daughter has a deep and varied knowledge of animals, especially wild animals. She is also a dancer, not only of ballet but also jazz and kapa haka (Maori cultural performance). Although pumas are her favourite, her interests constantly expand. So when she asked what I was reading and I …

[Review] Animal Horror Cinema: Genre, History And Criticism, Katarina Gregersdotter, Johan Höglund And Nicklas HålléN (Eds). Basingstoke And New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015., Kirsty Dunn

Animal Studies Journal

Animal Horror Cinema: Genre, History and Criticism is the first anthology of academic writing on the animal horror genre. It provides both an historical overview of animal horror cinema as well as a selection of in-depth essays on particularly potent and provocative examples of the genre. The collection as a whole offers a large and varied range of critical analyses and interpretations on the significance of the animal in modern horror film and is a valuable text for critical animal studies and cinema scholars as well as fans of horror film.

European Honeybee: Interconnectivity At The Edge Of Stillness, Trish Adams

Animal Studies Journal

During an artist residency at the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), art/science practitioner Trish Adams observed a range of experiments. Scientists at the QBI describe on the website that they seek to ‘better understand how the eye and brain solve complex visuomotor tasks’ (Queensland Brain Institute) through investigations into and analysis of the behaviours of the European honeybee. During this residency, Adams’ research project evolved in response to her personal experiences in the largest indoor bee facility in Australia. Here, without protective clothing, Adams was surrounded by the honeybees as they flew around freely in the …

Animal Studies Journal 2016 5 (2): Cover Page, Table Of Contents, Notes On Contributors And Editorial, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

Cover page, table of contents, contributor biographies and editorial for Animal Studies Journal Vol. 5 No.2, 2016.

[Review] Patricia Sumerling. Elephants And Egotists: In Search Of Samorn Of The Adelaide Zoo. Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2016, Christine Townend

Animal Studies Journal

This book, as the sub-title suggests, largely concerns the history of an elephant, Samorn, who, as a gift to Australia from the king of Siam, resided at the Adelaide Zoo from 1956 until her death in 1994. The book may appeal to readers who are interested in the way that a zoo works, or in the history of zoos. In places the book offers a great deal of detail, for example long descriptions of the disagreements between ‘egotists’ on the board of the Adelaide Zoo, or about the negotiations to procure Samorn. However, it provides an interesting glimpse into the …

Performing The Uncanny: An Exploration Of Self Through Alternative Process Photography, Caroline Thomas

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper considers how the tradition of self-portraiture and alternative process photography can be used in conjunction with one another to perform the uncanny. I discuss the "uncanny" through three theoretical lenses: Sigmund Freud, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss. I then go on to discuss how the "uncanny" has been used in alternative processes of contemporary work by examining Robert Heinecken and Joyce Neimanas. Finally by looking at Francesca Woodman's self-portraiture, I address how self-portraiture can be a type of performance and how this influenced my own series during my 2015 Fall semester. As a whole this paper addresses how …

Build-Up, Kate Lund

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Build-up is based in an appreciation for quietude within the landscape that is interrupted by a sense of urgency and distress. The renderings, gestural drawings, and sculptural work are the result of allowing my studio process to mimic my analytical decision making and sensory observation as a wildland firefighter. The research investigates my work in relation to Romantic painters such as JMW Turner and Sublime philosophy, particularly Edmund Burke’s 1757 Sublime theory. Burke emphasized the emotional and psychological response to the Sublime experience of terror and awe. My research also discovers connections with contemporary artists, Robert Smithson, John Peña, and …

Using Fine Arts To Implement Inclusive Education: Inspiring The School Through A Schoolwide Art Project, Desiree Valentino

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper chronicles the development and completion of a schoolwide living mural project created through the cooperation of every student in an elementary school in Northwest Montana as a way to facilitate inclusive education. The project was fashioned to allow students who are educated in a self-contained classroom the chance to interact with their peers through a schoolwide art project. This involved creating two murals to experience the benefits of the arts; to educate the student body on how to interact with students with disabilities; to demonstrate to general educators how to facilitate the inclusion of all students; and to …

Tide To Cycles, David P. Tarullo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editors, M. Andrew Bodinger

The Laureate

Letter from Editor M. Andrew Bodinger.

The Laureate, 15th Edition (2016)

The Laureate

Table of Contents

• I Ache in Portuguese, Cristal Cardoso Sao Mateus
• Halloween, Drew Heuermann
• December 12th, Jared Sebastian
• Gravity, June Rose
• Letters I Never Sent, Heaven Barlow
• Harris Ave After Church, Mary Maroste
• i’m never believing in god, Kay Tarleton
• Rapture, Ben Koval
• Love in the Other Places, Danielle Kropveld
• When The Person You Love Treats You Badly, Emily W. Recchia
• Rinse Cycle, Miranda Lopez
• When My Sister Was A Girl, Heaven Barlow
• Cocktail Hour in East Berlin, Mary Maroste
• I am Wild, Courtney Bedrosian
• Self Portrait with Booze and the Kamasutra, Heaven Barlow
• RAM, Jack Marsden
• Cracks in the …

Concerning The Interaction Of Forms, Luke Splinter

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

"Concerning the Interaction of Forms" is exactly what is in my mind when creating and thinking about work. I am concerned with all of the interactions that can be made when thinking about and looking at forms. How do the forms interact with one another? How do they interact with the space they are placed in? How do they interact with the viewer? These are the questions that concern me the most when creating work

When making work I do so with the help of basic geometric shapes, mathematic ratios, and the feeling I get from the form as it …

So Much Apparent Nothing, Emily Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

This document contains reflections on motivations behind selected works leading up to and including my thesis exhibition so much apparent nothing. Through journal excerpts and analysis of my own psychology, I attempt to put into words my thoughts concurrent to my making, indirect as they may be. The following text shares my personal conflicts and ideologies surrounding art-making, the permanence of objects, and the acceptance of an identity in flux.

"Fuck Off, Get Free, Love And Love's The Only Thing", David S. Moré

Theses and Dissertations

A child, angry at concrete and strip malls, enjoying coffee from too many styrofoam cups.