Digital Commons Network^™

Fences: Physical And Socio-Cultural Boundaries, Vanessa Baehr

Senior Projects Fall 2018

Fences, walls, and lines exist around the world, across many cultures, and are generally universally understood symbols of defense, inclusion, and exclusion. Barriers are created intentionally and their purposes vary. Fences can act as a tension or relief between public and private spaces. Physical barriers can been seen as metaphors for social dynamics and relations; boundaries can be reflections of both our internal and external landscapes. Incorporates fences / walls from a number of perspectives; historical, anthropological, archaeological, and cultural. Inspired by a reflexive moment in moving to a new town, buying a house, having a garden, and wanting a …

The Waters I Saw Drank Me In, Will Steen Strand

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Drawing Out The Intangible: A Study Of The Depiction And Reinterpretation Of Memory In Two Comics, Malkie Scarf

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

This project is concerned with how we remember, represent, and reinterpret personal history, and it addresses what happens when the intangible stuff of memory and personal experience (lacking any stable visual appearance) are materialized into a visual format – that is, into the medium of comics, comprised of both images and words. Two stand-alone comic books deeply invested in this task of reinterpreting personal memories are at the fore of this analysis: David B.'s Epileptic and David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp.

Architectural Constructions Of Memory & The Ruin In Post-1989 Berlin, Gilda Hanna Gross

Senior Projects Spring 2016

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

Narrativizing Pain: Reconstructing Selfhood Through Memory And Language, Erin Joy Carden

Senior Projects Spring 2016

The three female authors I study for this paper- Alicia Kozameh, Alicia Partnoy, and Nora Strejilevich- are all survivors of the Argentinean military Junta’s state-inflicted terror and who have written, with great beauty, about the horrors they experienced as political prisoners during the Dirty War. Through the written word these survivors gain the power to reclaim their human dignity and a sense of distinctive selfhood which were severely damaged through trauma and torture. Through analyzing four works: Steps Under Water(1996) by Alicia Kozameh, The Little School(1986) and Revenge of the Apple(1999) by Alicia Partnoy, and A Single …

"Recipes Like Floating Islands:" Recipe, Autobiography, And Memory In The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, Chloe Alice Chappe

Senior Projects Spring 2016

My project is an exploration of various dimensions of The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. The cook book is a cook book, but it is also a collection and an autobiography. The recipes in the book originated in Alice’s physical recipe collection box which began when she was a child and continued throughout her life. The autobiographical narrative develops out of the memories that were created around each recipe. Because of the compilation of memories that are attached to each of the recipes in the collection, Alice writes her life story through her recipes. Each recipe represents a person, …

El Valle De Los Caídos: Spain’S Inability To Digest Its Historical Memory, Michael Heard Johnson

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Effects Of Affective Arousal On Color Perception And Memory, Nicole Elizabeth Lang

Senior Projects Spring 2016

The link between affective arousal, color perception, and color memory was explored by inducing fear, sadness, or embarrassment in 158 participants who them completed a color perception and memory task. It was predicted that participants experiencing fear or embarrassment would more often correctly identify and remember red and green than a neutral condition whereas experiencing sadness would lead to less correct identification and memory for blue and yellow than neutral. There was only a marginally significant effect of fear on color memory for red. In the low arousal condition, there was an effect of fear on color memory for green …

A Landscape Of Days, Kassandra Alex Thatcher

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Still, Samuel Lambert Williams

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Still concentrates on façade as a means of considering what we can see and what we decide to show. I am curious about the relationship between our memories and our photographs, and how only the latter is truly accessible to others. In order to communicate what I see before me as best as possible, I ask those who I photograph to be still so that their likeness may be translated faithfully. In our stillness we can become increasingly aware of our surroundings and of ourselves. Though “still” describes the absence of motion, it also describes a continuation from the past …

An Ancient City For The Future: Reconstructing Physical And Intellectual Narratives In Beirut In The 1990s, Theo Noonan Lowrey

Senior Projects Fall 2015

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

I'M Scared Of The Colors [Or At Least We Tried]: A Collaborative Theater Project, Marissa C. Shadburn

Senior Projects Spring 2015

Inspired by the history of the Berlin Wall, I’m Scared of the Colors [or At Least we Tried], is a collaborative theater project about the creative process, memory, history and love. My passions of working with people are always reflected in my art. I like to make pieces about communication and division, pieces about the relationships between people and how that is affected by modern societal constructions. In both my artistic work and my social work I hope to subvert normative expectations, while also challenging the boundaries of theater as an institution and as a genre. Through exploring and …

Memory Card, Simone S. Leitner

Senior Projects Spring 2015

“I have always had a phenomenal memory,” a sentiment that I just recently remembered. Growing up I could recite every number in a thirteen string, remember a poem after one read, quote every menial conversation I had ever had. I considered myself cursed and blessed with an elephant’s memory: it made me extremely sensitive to others, often confused and upset when I heard people repeat the same things to me and make the same gestures. Had our interaction not meant anything? Do they not remember me?

Now I don’t remember. I lose things. I feel irresponsible with objects and conversations …

Time, Distance, And Epic Memory In The Tempest, Andrew Nathan Kaplan

Senior Projects Spring 2013

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

How To Make Love In A Graveyard: An Integrative Approach To Celebrating Trauma, Memory, And History Through Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Molly M. Pearlstein

Senior Projects Spring 2011

This paper is an exploration of trauma through the lens of Alain Resnais’ 1959 film, Hiroshima, Mon Amour. Elle. We hypothesize that Elle develops Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after witnessing the traumatic death of her first love. Diagnosing Elle using the DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD, we demonstrate how she continues to fit the criteria for PTSD fourteen years later. Within this investigation, we target dissociation as an important factor in Elle’s posttraumatic response. The issue of dissociation is discussed in relation to memory, and to a larger extent, historical trauma. Through an integrative approach, film analyses elaborate the elusive …