Digital Commons Network^™

Body As Instrument: Crafting A Spatial Representational Language For The Dancer's Body, Avery Boland

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project explored the intersection of dance and architecture using choreography, photography, and architectural principles through the development and application of a graphic notation system. Focused on the works of modern dance pioneer Martha Graham and photographer Barbara Morgan, the study tested the representation of the body in space through the use of Graham's choreography as captured by Morgan.

The results of the study demonstrated the effectiveness of the representational language in capturing the spatial dynamics of the human body in Martha Graham's choreography through the notation of “frame” and “plane”. Through a comparative analysis of the selected dances, the …

Calm Mid-Century Playlist, Charlene Muyargas-Duque

Illustration Student Work

This illustration is a cover for a mid-century music playlist. Inspired by old jazz vinyl covers and Rene Gruau‘s fashion illustrations, it has a plain cream background with a thick pink border, mid-century styled typography, and an elegant woman in a turquoise dress. The woman is modeled off of Julie London, a prominent jazz singer from the 1940s to 1960s.

The Reveal: A Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of An Overpaint Portrait, Camille Ferrer

Art Conservation Master's Projects

A severely damaged 19th-century oil painting depicting a portrait of a woman was treated at Patricia H. and E. Garman Art Conservation Department. A typed letter provided by the owner mentioned that it has been previously restored yet returned with unsatisfactory results. After further examination, the painting appeared to have been previously treated multiple times by different people. There was overpaint distinctly present on the face and later discovered to be present overall. The full state of condition of the painting was initially unknown due to the sum of the surface being overpainted. However, there were evidence of paint loss …

Not So Cavalier: Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of A Potential 17th Century Anglo-Dutch Military Portrait Painting, Josephine Ren

Art Conservation Master's Projects

A potential 17^th century Anglo-Dutch military portrait painting from the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York arrived at the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State University for conservation research and treatment in 2022. The painting’s title, date, and artist were unknown and the subject was initially referred to as a “17^th Century Dutch Cavalier.” Little information existed on the provenance and history of the artwork. The painting was in a state of structural instability and aesthetic disfigurement and showed evidence of a past restoration campaign. This master’s project attempted to broadly …

Nineteen Figures And Counting: Contextualization And Conservation Treatment Of A Jacob Spoel Painting, Susan P. Enterline

Art Conservation Master's Projects

This study focuses on the research, technical analysis, and treatment of an 1852 Jacob Spoel painting (Untitled, acc.62.28, 80cm H x 105cm W x 1.75cm D) owned by the Memorial Art Gallery and described as a ‘family gathering.’ When received by the department, the painting was not in a fit state for display; it was not structurally sound and had a disfiguring varnish reducing the readability of the composition. Technical research, multimodal imaging, radiography, and instrumental analysis, including x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, cross-sectional analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, were carried out to understand the materials and …

Christ Child Bearing The Instruments Of The Passion Technical Study And Treatment Of A Painting On Copper From The Viceroyalty Of Peru, Daniela González-Pruitt

Art Conservation Master's Projects

Christ Child Bearing the Instruments of the Passion (acc.# 228017) is a 17^th century Peruvian Viceregal painting on copper belonging to the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. The painting depicts the Christ Child on a flower laid path as he carries the instruments of the passion also known as the Arma Christi Paintings executed on copper convey new and challenging preservation issues based on their materials and techniques.. The work had been heavily restored and exhibited several condition issues, including significant overpaint and broad losses. The painting was photographed using multimodal imaging techniques as well as reflectance …

Raisin Fingers, Sophia Hatzikos

Graduate School of Art Theses

I am a sculptor that uses site reactive interactions, video documentation, and studio-based processes to explore landscape. I investigate my multifaceted relationship of self to my sensorial memory of landscape. Through themes of memory, loss and longing intertwined with my personal connection to water. I identify the intersections of sculpture and landscape seeking ways in which environments shapes decisions in the making process.

Through case studies of two distinct landscapes, Malaki and Tyson, I look at how these environments serve as sources of inspiration and material for experimentation. By identifying the ways in which I researched at each site respectively …

Uncanny Bodies, Samantha Neu

MFA in Visual Art

In “Uncanny Bodies,” unseemly bits are revealed, sensibilities are questioned, and solid ground morphs into shaky mounds. I delve into how the uncanny challenges traditional views and societal norms about the body. My artwork emphasizes the fluid and often unsettling experiences of physical existence, blurring the boundaries between personal and collective perceptions. Through distortions and manipulation of scale, the familiar is rendered alien in my sculptures, prints, and paintings. Through this ambiguity, I hope to offer space for the viewer to navigate their body’s emotional and physical relationship to the unknown.

Cards With Class: Formalizing A Simplified Collectible Card Game, Dan Ha

University Honors Theses

Collectible card games (CCGs) have been a wildly popular game genre since the release of Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering. These games revolve around their thousands of cards and the hundreds of thousands of interactions they can create with their many effects. For designers, it is an incredibly demanding task to ensure that every single card works properly and that each card’s text unambiguously conveys its intended behavior in all cases. The task only grows more difficult over time as the number of cards in the game grows and card effects become more complex or experimental. If the …

`The Very Beautiful Principles Of Natural Philosophy': Michael Faraday, Paper Marbling And The Physics Of Natural Forms, Robert Pepperell

LASER Journal

In 1854, Michael Faraday wrote to thank the author who had sent him a book on the art of paper marbling. In the letter, Faraday referred to `the very beautiful principles of natural philosophy' involved in the process of dropping ink on thickened water. What are the `beautiful principles' that Faraday referred to, and how are they involved in the art of paper marbling? Here I consider some of the physical processes that occur in paper marbling and how the patterns that emerge represent `dissipative structures' that are governed by fundamental principles of nature, in particular the tendency for physical …

You, Me, And The Unknown: A Creative Exploration Into The Emotions We Feel About What We Don’T Understand, Selena G. Hall

University Honors Theses

I’ve always found the concept of fear and anxiety to be incredibly fascinating. As someone who grew up with extreme anxiety, I always wanted to rationalize it and figure out exactly why I felt that way. Anxiety is the inherent fear of the unknown and I wanted to know more about why we fear what we don’t understand, or in other cases, why we love it. I conducted a research project on our perceptions of the unknown that resulted in an experimental page layout print publication where I shared the participant’s views on the unknown through a visual storytelling medium.

A Conversation With Joe Horner (Internet Journal, Issue 001, 7-15, 2024), Joe Horner, Seb Taylor

Cal Poly Humboldt Digital Laboratory

A conversation with Joe Horner, the Artist and Founder of @art_as_chairs on Instagram. The cultural competency of Joe Horner ever-present, with a strong influence from the dialogue between art versus artifact. Horner finds his artwork hiding within the mundane aspects of the contemporary cultural landscape.

Machines Of The Absurd: Leveraging Generative Ai For Creativity, Humor, And Playfulness, Tyler Sanders

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Machines of The Absurd is a collection of four projects exploring how generative AI can be leveraged for creativity, humor and playfulness.

1. neverOS — A node-based visual playground for interacting with large language models.

2. Other Calc — An iOS app with a calculator interface, where players can “calculate” text instead of numbers.

3. What Must Burn — An experiment where players type in text that can be dragged into a campfire to produce contextually appropriate sound effects.

4. Jazz vs Waffles — A turn-based comedy game, where players battle anything they type in.

Together, these projects make the …

Do You Know Where Your Games Come From? Artificial Intelligence And Game Development, Andrew Begemann

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

ABSTRACT

This paper was written to explore the possible effects of artificial intelligence being implemented in the design pipeline of video game development. In it, we will explore a history of artificial intelligence, from its early imaginings in books and philosophy, to its current iterations, such as ChatGPT and other popular engines like Midjourney and Stable diffusion. We will also discuss steps in game development so as to understand where the potential implementations of artificial intelligence can, will, or does occur. Following those explanations, we will explore the three methodologies of Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and Cultural Studies as ways of examining …

Crafting 21st-Century Trend-Compliant Fashion Collections For Muslim Women: Ghana In Perspective, Rashida Abdulai, Ninette Afi Appiah, Isaac Abraham

Journal of Art, Design and Music

Purpose: The study examined the integration of global fashion trends with Islamic modesty principles in clothing design for Ghanaian Muslim women. It explored the blending of contemporary styles with the requirements of Islamic dress codes, considering the increasing diversity and modernization of Muslim women’s fashion preferences.

Method: The study utilized art-based studio research and the double Helix Praxis-Exegesis Model, which involves customer profiling, concept creation using mood boards, and design techniques. Ten respondents were purposively selected and interviewed. Feedback from interviews ensured the designs resonated with the target audience.

Findings and Conclusion: The study discovered that contemporary Islamic fashion combines …

Naming And Interpretative Meanings Of Selected African Prints And Ankara Fabric Designs, Adeola Abiodun Adeoti

Journal of Art, Design and Music

Ankara fabric has colourful designs, but both the colours and the designs on the fabric have hidden meanings with proverbs and events attached to them. As much as the fact that the paper is art historical, the naming system of Ankara fabric is yet to attract scholarly interest. Therefore, the ephemerality of the fabric and the changing nature of fashion call for immediate and chronological record of the histories of the designs before it fades out of memory. The study adopts qualitative approach of analyzing data with the use of both primary and secondary sources of data collection which were …

Function Follows Material, Pablo Ejarque González

Masters Theses

Dear Designer,

How often do we find ourselves lost in the design process, unsure of the next steps? It’s tempting to view every aspect of design as a problem needing a solution. However, function is not a problem. For a long time, I approached design from a problem-solving perspective, treating material as a secondary consideration after the idea had already formed. This approach needed to change.

This book is a journey—a map of material exploration. It is an embrace of experimentation and innate curiosity. Many of the experiments conducted did not culminate in finished furniture pieces, yet this does not …

Untitled, Lucia Steele

Masters Theses

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Lost Stories, Yuxuan Huang

Masters Theses

The owner of the laundromat by the corner of my temporarily sublet room in New York once told me his life story randomly on the last day I went to dry my bedding. We had never spoken before because we both weren't sure if the other spoke Mandarin.

It’s a long and intricate one, so long and intricate that he could write his own book and become the protagonist of a realist novel. If one word could describe this world and the life we all live, it should be “Wuchang.” According to various authoritative Chinese-to-English dictionaries, it could mean unpredictable, …

Unfurling Blue Carpet Memories, Sara Ahli

Masters Theses

Glass is an amorphous solid, existing in a liminal space, embodying indeterminacy. Its states of transformation from viscous flow to structural solidity carry the imprints of bodily influence. With the direct intention of using glass as a conduit to explore materiality, memory, and self-awareness, I construct a language of embodiment that arises through a series of performative encounters between my physicality and glass in the hot shop.

The mediating process I employ to create and arrive at the glass artwork I make is as necessary as its final form. Motivated by the desire to claim agency over my personal narrative, …

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …

Half Dawn, Catherine Ashley

Masters Theses

By presenting these words on paper, I have given entry into a microcosm of recent research, questions, and creative explorations. There is potential for disconnection when trying to turn your head inside out and present it in a way that feels beautiful for other people. I’m trusting the moments of authenticity I’ve found in my wandering. Segue. Relationship. Gesture. Illusion. My musings all stem from notions of temporality. Time dances on the farthest ends of both immensity and desolation. I’ve spent stretches of time asking the people, texts, and experiments around me to define time in a way that I …

Umbrella And Jellyfish, Yanran Bi

Masters Theses

Rainy season arrives as soon as the summer begins in Shanghai. For some reason, I rarely remember to bring an umbrella with me. I have a lot of umbrellas, most of them are transparent ones bought at subway stations. When it suddenly starts pouring rain, umbrella vendors in Shanghai gather at each crowded exit of the subway sta- tions to sell umbrellas to people like me. The cheapest umbrellas they have are always the transparent ones. The whole city is turned upside down by the rain with its reflections on every street. Then a transparent umbrella opens up, then another, …

Lucid Dream: Embracing Uncertainty, Zhiyun Zhang

Masters Theses

Glass is a tool, a projection surface, a medium for optical phenomena. It creates a tangible link between physical space and perception, transcending the physical realm to reshape our sensory perceptions and resonate within our psyche, deepening our understanding. Inspired by cosmic and natural phenomena, my installations narrate the contemplation of the moon and the appreciation of rainbows. They reference historic optical technologies, incorporating glass, mirrors, light, darkness, and space to produce an encounter that extends beyond personal experience, resonating with our collective unconscious, uniting us in profound ways. The blurred boundaries between observer and observed, reality and illusion, sensory …

Modern Times, Will Beattie

Masters Theses

At the intersection of glass, photography and sound lies issues of perspective, framing, and information. These factors as well as the conceptual space between object and image offer an opportunity to explore the way we register narrative through contradicting signifiers. Glass historically has been used as an instrument to reveal spaces, moments, and phenomena previously imperceptible to the human eye. This rendering of previously unseen spaces through language, technology or vision, may work to reorient the viewers’ perspective and allow for a new understanding of the world. The power of disruption as a potential catalyst is central to my studio …

The Future Is Over, Dotan Appelbaum

Masters Theses

History is constructed out of the narratives by which we organize the substance of all that has ever happened. Our understanding of the contemporary moment is determined by how we shape our history. The future is a promise that emerges from how we contextualize our place in time.

This thesis starts by acknowledging that the futurity promised by enlightenment liberalism is inconceivable in the face of contemporary horrors and climate catastrophe. Given this reality, what are we doing as designers? With a Benjaminian understanding of and a Foucauldian approach to history, this thesis constructs a history of design that follows …

So Far So Good, Cooper Goldman

Masters Theses

What is the most beautiful object in the world?

The thick, heavy, white, porcelain diner mug.

Describe what you make…

Home goods and furniture. Crafted with attention to detail, with materials that you can feel good about.

Why do you make what you make?

Through the elevation of ordinary objects, we can elevate our daily routine.

Full Issue

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

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A Few Words From Our Staff

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

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Acknowledgements & Table Of Contents

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.