Digital Commons Network^™

Zaytouna: Rooted Histories In Uprooted Memories, Naima M. Almajdobah

Theses and Dissertations

Palestinians, whether living under occupation or—like myself—in the diaspora, experience a complex journey of displacement and dispossession stemming from the Nakba of 1948. This reality shapes our collective identity, rooted in our connection to our homeland.

Zaytouna explores an under-researched topic: the relationship between the olive tree and uprooted Palestinians. It reveals a rich tapestry of narratives that encompass the quintessential and everlasting relationship between a land and its people. The resulting interactive archival installation consists of two parts: audio recordings from Palestinians in the diaspora, which capture their memories and voices; and visuals, which represent the storytellers’ places of …

The Object Memory Palace, Amra Causevic

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in orchestrating instances of potentiality or concrete possibilities that proposes the futurity of play through means of touch, activation, assembly, and interaction within art spaces. The installation mentioned is composed of found objects and repurposed materials that address themes of place, memory, object-ness, and the archive, through gestural means of poetics and map making. It is an invitation to create new logics and find moments of empathy, connectivity, and hopes for a collective.

An Open Bag, Matilde Benmayor

Theses and Dissertations

What do we take with us? How much space should we leave in the bag for what we might find? This paper is a journey from under the rug and onto the pavement. Sowing spiderweb maps I try to make a new city my own.

Relational Aesthetics: Creativity In The Inter-Human Sphere, Carl Patow

Theses and Dissertations

RELATIONAL AESTHETICS: CREATIVITY IN THE INTER-HUMAN SPHERE

By Carl Patow, MD, MPH, MBA

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, 2019.

Major Director: Pamela Taylor Turner, Associate Professor, Kinetic Imaging, VCU Arts

Relational Art was first described as an art movement in Nicolas Bourriaud’s catalogue for the exhibition Traffic in 1995, and in an eponymous book in 1998. He observed that contemporary artists were shifting the focus of their work away from creating objects of spectacle to interaction with viewers through dialogue. Examination of a sample …

Mapped: Intersections Of Cartography And Painting, Brian Robert Neils Strigel

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Mapped: Intersections of Cartography and Painting explores the role of representation in art and how we, as people, communicate through visual language. More fundamentally, my paintings ask at what point does an abstract painting become a map, and what structures and conventions do we use in cartography that appear in abstract painting? Is a map a painting or is it a functional object? The map is a fundamentally flat, abstract object to which we assign practical meaning. Details are only considered if they are necessary for travel or displaying …

Investigating A Cartographic Niche: Drawing Maps For Historians, Kate Blackmer

Masters Theses

Drawing maps for historians involves a number of distinct challenges. The historical cartographer must grapple not only with geological changes over time, but geographical ones, from human-cultural to physical, and from political to spatial. Original manuscripts must be read with close attention toward extracting geographical data, map sources must be vetted, and design challenges must be resolved. Furthermore, many of the antiquarian sources that are used to create current-day maps of historical times have unique scales, projections, and senses of place—all of which present complications that need to be overcome when creating historically based maps for publication. This thesis describes …

Visualizing Population Density Based On Wifi Router Location And Network Usage, Tyler Deitz

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This research paper introduces a prototype of a feature for Robert E. Kennedy’s maps web application. The feature visualizes population density based off wifi router location and network usage within the building. The significance of the feature is noted by documenting the library’s transition into a hub for student life and campus culture, which increases the space’s occupancy and visitor retention for a longer time. The feature is based off a Voronoi diagram map distribution which strongly affects its technical and visual implementation. The end product is user tested by Cal Poly students and received a 93.5% satisfaction rate.

Chere, Wilson Andres Borja

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chere is research project and a thesis exhibition installation composed of a series of drawing/paintings and short animations that explores the phenomenon of migration and the African diaspora. This exploration was originated by contrasting aspects of forced and voluntary migration in addition to Kvasnyand and Hales' idea, that "Belonging everywhere or not belonging anywhere" describes the situation among people of the African diaspora.

Through research I intersperse layers of personal history with that of my ancestors and their descendants in the Americas. As a biracial person, a self-identified Afro-descendant from Colombia, South America, I am interested in the process of …

Literary Landscapes: Mapping Emergent American Identity In Transatlantic Narratives Of Women's Travel Of The Long Eighteenth Century, Leah Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines intersections of the development of maps from the Native American-European encounter to the establishment of the New Republic and transatlantic British and American narratives of women’s travel of the long eighteenth century. Early European and American maps that depict the Americas analyzed as parallel “texts” to canonical and lesser-known women’s narratives ranging from 1688 to 1801 reveal further insights into both maps and these narratives otherwise not apparent. I argue that as mapping of the New World developed, this mapping influenced representations of women’s geographic and social mobility and emergent “American” identity in transatlantic narratives. These narratives, …

Aesthetically Designed Maps: Development And Perception, Catherine Wang

Graphic Communication

This research explored the creative element of subway map creation in light of its effectiveness. Printed subway maps, used often for metropolitan cities and areas, are limited in physical dimension and scale, carrying minimal information. The New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Paris, London and Moscow subway maps highlight similar design and abstraction that fulfill the basic necessary elements for subway patrons. Over the years since the first metro map for each city was created, maps have become more simplified by removing physical land features and reference points to make way for expanding and new subway lines, stations, and …

Incognesia, Holly George

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

A monograph for the MFA Thesis Exhibition for Holly George, exhibited in Sawhill Gallery in Duke Hall April 5, 2010 - April 10, 2010. The title of the exhibition, Incognesia, is indicative of the artist's process of mapmaking. It is a fusion of other words, an invention based on fact but nevertheless on the verge of fantasy. Like each word in Lewis Caroll's poem, "Jabberwocky," the title calls multiple meanings to mind. It utilizes the Latin incognitae, meaning "unknown," but also references its later cartographic usage of "undiscovered" lands. While the suffix, -nesia, links to a series of islands such …

Codes Of Interaction, Timothy Michael Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The ideas within this thesis are meant to clarify my explorations, research and painting practice during my studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. I expand on my general statements about being fascinated by advancing technologies and concerned about the after effects of these advancements. The writing explores my curiosity about the internal, skeletal structure of things and how they operate. I explain how the paintings are idiosyncratic hybrids that evoke animation, imaginary scientific propositions, blueprints, maps, and advancing technologies. The work combines these interests with my observations of day-to-day experiences. Isolated events provide found compositions which I then manipulate: a seemingly …