Digital Commons Network^™

Enola, Justin Gibson

Theses

Enola, is a photographic collection of visual fragments without a beginning or end. These moments reflect on my inner psychological landscape, translated from pieces of stories, dreams, recollections. My project, inspired heavily by the town that I once called home, Enola, Pennsylvania, acts as a cultural origin point for my photographs. This work highlights aspects of the uncanny, the quiet, and the unfamiliar tendencies of life. These formulations usually manifest as dreamlike scenes. My work weaves these disconnected pieces into a cohesive reflection.

Open Museum：Make Art Accessible, Make Appreciators Becoming Creators, Collectors And Promoters, Zhenhua Yu

Theses

As a human activity that expresses emotional power, beauty, technical ability, or conceptual ideas, art has a long history and a large fan base. However, while people's interest in art has never waned, it has rarely increased. The lack of interactivity of art in comparison to other information on the Internet is a significant disadvantage, and the recent reduction in museum visitors due to COVID-19 has also hampered the growth of the art industry. My thesis addresses these issues and attempts to create new opportunities for the growth of the art world by combining art appreciation, art collecting, and art …

Zoom In Closer, Ying Chiun Lee

Theses

Zoom In Closer explores ideas of sensuality through glass and narratives. I am interested in the material qualities of glass, including translucency, fluidity, and warmth; and how these qualities can be translated into languages of intimacy. This thesis is based on personal experience and scholarly research on the enigma of female sexual desires. Zoom In Closer is a body of work that utilizes glass objects, glass processes, films, illustrations, and photography that question what does it means to live authentically despite the influences of rape culture.

Edible Negros, Unique Fair-Smith

Theses

Edible Negros is an exploration of western consumerism and its impact on African-Americans. The thesis grapples with the oppression African-Americans have systematically experienced within capitalist and consumerist society and our collective struggles toward liberation.

This analysis goes further to study the western world's consumption of the black body, how African-Americans have been abused as a commodity; and as an overall examination of the western world's dependence on both the metaphorical and literal consumption of our bodies through labor exploitation, physical mutilation, and cannibalism.

Furthermore, the investigation encompasses how the perception and value of African-American lives has transitioned. This includes a …

Seeking The Sublime, Gretchen Ettlie

Theses

This thesis examines a search for the sublime. Definitions of the sublime have transformed over the centuries. In the modern era, that has come to encompass an idea of the Technological Sublime. This thesis will examine a more nature-centric idea of the sublime, with a thoughtful examination of the current digital culture and it’s impact. As we continue to become more distant from our natural world, and more immersed in the digital landscape, we miss opportunities to connect with our true nature and gain-first hand knowledge of the sublime understandings that nature can impart to us. This thesis explores our …

Whispering Messengers: Everyone Has A Bunny, Tracy Shih-Tung Cheng

Theses

How can I connect people through my art? My research focuses on the “bonds” of relations. The intent is for my art to become a bond to connect people. Compared to just walking around and staring at the artwork, I believe that experience with touch and play can impact audiences more directly.

The idea of my work is based on the experience of passing notes to exchange messages When I was a student I wrote notes to friends, then folded the note to create an origami form before passing them to the recipient. The origami from transformed the note into …

Note To Self, Chloe Renee Hayes

Theses

“note to self” is a 2D animated film completed as the thesis project for my MFA degree. This film uses experimental imagery and often abstract visual metaphor to tell a narrative story that discusses suicide, self-harm, depression, trauma, mental health, and the complicated issues surrounding these subjects.

“note to self” tells the story of a teenage girl fighting through her struggles and uncertainties in the metaphysical space of her own mind. Sienna, the protagonist, has resolved to kill herself and is working through her conflicted feelings to rationally explain why. Posed as a conversation with a part of her own …

Did I Tell You About My Date Last Night?, Palwasha Azimi

Theses

did i tell you about my date last night? is an animated short that illustrates a transformation in two characters who are experiencing their date together in different ways.

This film gives a small taste of a larger story that all women go through, whether or not they know it’s happening.

It is a tale of toxic masculinity, gaslighting, consent and entitlement. These things have been ever-present in history but never contested and brought to light on a scale like this. Recently, these issues have risen to the forefront of social change. Now, because of the internet, the support of …

Portraits Of A Camoufleur, Michael C. Guinto Ii

Theses

Portraits of a Camoufleur is a body of photographic work which features military veterans who have transitioned back and forth between the military and civilian world. The photographic sculptures serve as portraits created by stacking collected archive photographs together inside shadowbox frames. The photographs have also had camouflage patterns physically cut out of them which reveal more of the underlying images and experiences the veterans have provided. The work serves as a window into military experiences, attempting to close the gap that exists between military and civilian culture.

An Application Of Deep-Learning To Understand Human Perception Of Art, Sanjana Kapisthalam

Theses

Eye movement patterns are known to differ when looking at stimuli given a different task, but less is known about how these patterns change as a function of expertise. When a particular visual pattern is viewed, a particular sequence of eye movements are executed and this sequence is defined as scanpath. In this work we made an attempt to answer the question, “Do art novices and experts look at paintings differently?” If they do, we should be able to discriminate between the two groups using machine learning applied to their scanpaths. This can be done using algorithms for Multi-Fixation Pattern …

Somewhere Else, Xiaoxi Liu

Theses

Somewhere Else is a site-dependent, video, sound installation. Captivated by memory, landscape and time and how they affect both the physical and psychological, I construct my artwork to reflect the liminal in-between. This artwork consists of fragments of recollections of the different places, landscape, moments and locations from my past. The intermittent, jarring, and distant quality of the sounds and video fill the installation space as well as the viewers’ mental space.

Traditional Clothing Of Kuwaiti Women, Montaha Alqattan

Theses

In this thesis, I present my artwork of “traditional clothing of Kuwaiti women” completed for my Master of Fine Art at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This work has been a culmination of my feelings about the symbolic meaning of traditional clothing as well as my knowledge and experience gained throughout the master’s program. My learning curve has been reshaped in terms of method and school of art: I was plunged into oil painting as an art method to produce realistic art in all of my artwork before joining the master’s program, but I became more inspired to monoprinting to …

Salt, Yi Yang

Theses

Memory and experience play an important role in the creation of my thesis work. I often reflect on moments that leave an impression me. I think these really touch my feelings and shape my creative mind. The feelings are always plain, they do not say anything, and do not unassuming, buried very deep. I see my jewelry pieces as small sculptures that carry stories, documenting important times and feelings that I experienced in my life.

For my thesis, I play and experiment with salt crystal and metal. For me, the growth of crystal is the same as the growth of …

Life Begins, Yuju Yen

Theses

My work reveals the world I see, the world I feel, and the world I imagine. The story I want to tell in my thesis is about every stunning moment when a life begins. While the sculptures and jewelry in my thesis body of work differ in scale, they are all singing the same theme: when a life starts to grow and when a flower blooms.

The forms of my thesis work are inspired from various natural lives, such as virus, fungi, jellyfish, bacteria, blooming flowers, and sea creatures. They are vividly waving, rotating, spinning their tentacles, antennas, and microfibers …

Transcendence, Jamie Katz

Theses

This written thesis is an overview of Transcendence, a body of research culminating in an MFA thesis exhibition in the spring of 2017. This paper explores that research in relation to the history of video art and philosophy, followed by an analysis of each of the works considering material choice, and formal choices such as aspects of sound and positioning. A critical analysis of the body of works follows, investigating the successes and failures of each piece, individually and as a coherent body of work, in relation to the thesis proposal. The conclusion includes an examination of the process from …

Rabbit Hole, Chen Wang

Theses

Rabbit Hole is a multimedia installation, which combines drawing, performance, animation, and sculpture to celebrate gender as a performative expression of multiple possibilities while presenting sexual identification as neutral and fluid.

In Rabbit Hole, I present an opportunity for the viewer to experience a disorientating fictional space, in which the physical body floats across boundaries. Constructed biomorphic forms entangle and pulsate creating an arena where gender is ever evolving, celebrating a freedom of sexuality. The symbolic representation of the rabbit within the work connects across North American and Chinese Culture.

Incorporating Gallery Lighting In A Color-­‐Managed Imaging Workflow For Cultural Heritage, Joel Witwer

Theses

Conservation prints of cultural heritage are often produced in order to preserve the appearance qualities of the cultural heritage. The standard workflow for creating these prints is to image the cultural heritage, or paintings in the case of this thesis, under a D50 light source and create a print optimized for viewing under illuminant D50. The goal of this thesis was to investigate whether incorporating an incandescent gallery light source into the workflow had the potential to better preserve the viewer experience when the artwork is seen in an incandescent gallery.

Six prints were created through various combinations of a …

Open Up, Jacquelyn Marie O'Brien

Theses

Humor in fine art has been considered low-brow. Frequently, “serious” artists have the notion that using humor or humorous materials reduces the validity of the work. Likewise, feminism seems to have similar implications, in that the word is not taken seriously because of stereotyping; straying away from the original meaning. I assert that humor and feminism can offer valid social and cultural critiques in a relatable way. Discussing concepts such as gender repression, contemporary feminism, and the accessibility of art, with the intention of removing the overarching exclusion often associated with these concepts, has required my work to be accessible …

Open Up, Mahima Tuladhar

Theses

pen up is a graduate 2D animation thesis with a run time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds. It explores the strained relationship between a boy and his father. In amidst of a fight between the two the boy run’s out of the house following a light wisp. It leads him to a cliff where a woman in a black cloak stands. She gives the boy a very magical experience and a reminder of the love he once had with his family. He goes back home where he reminds his father about the love they once had and that they …

Prometheus, Kyle Blalock

Theses

This paper describes my thesis body of work as it originates from my personal experiences being brought up in the Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints in rural northern Arizona. Descriptions of rituals, religion, and rights of passage as a young Mormon gay man depict a lineage that leads up to forging personal salvation through art making and literature. The narrative of my paper discusses my education and illustrates my growth as an artist who has been intimately informed by sculptural processes and the materials used in creating sculpture.

Economic Figures, Fiona Eloisa Wilson

Theses

The title economic figures refer to both finances and the people (as figures) that are affected by monetary instability. People in two consumer locations are documented photographically through two projects that tell the story of the evolving sites of strip mall and main street shopping. In Displacing Main Street, photographs of people entering strip mall stores are installed on abandoned main street store sites. ‘the store’ are photographs that show the intimate story of my parents struggle to keep their main street small business open. The final exhibition combines these two works in a single gallery to give the viewer …

“Within”, Christine M. Caswell

Theses

"Within" is my investigation into the relationship between interior and exterior spaces. I explore the mystery of the inner hidden spaces, both physical and metaphorical. I draw inspiration from organic forms, particularly the body and transitions from outer surfaces to internal spaces. My sculpture is not intended to be a literal representation of the body or other natural forms but instead remains abstract and ambiguous. Outer surfaces curl and fold to become inside spaces; openings reveal hidden structure within.

The sculptures constructed for the thesis exhibition are hand built utilizing primarily coil construction. Each piece was constructed with a particular …

Run., Kevin Bauer

Theses

"Run" is an animated graduate thesis film that is 5 minutes in length. You will be taken on a journey with the film's main character, Ethan, as he goes out for a normal jog. While on his jog, different memories start confronting Ethan and he is forced to deal with an event that completely changed his life: the loss of his best friend.

"Run" is a combination of traditional hand-drawn animation as well as 3D animation, and was created using programs like TVPaint and Maya.

This paper will take you through the creation of the film - from storyboarding and …

Parts Of A Whole, Hsiang-Lu Meng

Theses

This exhibition is comprised of two complementary bodies of works. Each body of work explores the concept of a societal structure where culture and rules erode individuality. The community is ultimately conditioned to behave according to the conventions dictated by the environment.

"Parts of a Whole" is a performative installation which explores my fascination with the relationship between the individual and the collective. It is constructed with fabric, with custom-made buttons and passport photos attached and lighting device. Each button contains a face, and therefore represents the individual. Passport images are used to illustrate the extent of unification.

In the …

Digital Chaos: Exploring Relationships Between Technological Advancement And Visual Experience, Kevin Giaquinto

Theses

More so than any other time in history, humans are being exposed to an enormity of digital images every day. The internet, combined with accompanying technological advancements in cellular communication has created an exceptionally chaotic visual experience within the daily lives of millions of people. Through the use of digital photomontage, my artwork attempts to quantify and evaluate the impact that thousands of digital images may have on the emotional and psychological state of human beings. Concurrently, I am in interested exploring the mental repercussions of visual overload, specifically, how chaotic digital experiences may impact the quality of the human …

Raine Azure, Lucas Gonzalez

Theses

Raine Azure is an animated graduate thesis film, with a runtime of 6:27. This animation follows the story of March and Autumn, a brother and sister (respectively) tasked to protect a crystal altar that serves as the world's rain dynamo. They set off to save the world from a beast which has stolen the power of the altar and upset the world's balance. Along the way, March discovers that a balance exists between self-reliance and dependence on others.

The primary goals during the production of this film were to explore and develop my

skills in animation, character design, and music …

Kinesthetic Empathy, Danielle Haendiges

Theses

Kinesthetic empathy is a term that talks about our ability as humans to feel each other's pain. We have an incredible understanding and connectivity with people we hold close in our lives. The body of work for my MFA Thesis Exhibition explores some aspects of these phenomena by illustrating emotional relationships in glass sculpture. There are many different ways that people empathize with one another, therefore, different aspects and rituals of commiserating are explored to better understand why we can feel another person's pain without physically experiencing it.

I have a very specific connection with this type of empathy; my …

Garbology: The Beauty Of The Items Left Behind, Jeremy H. Griffith

Theses

The constantly overlooked debris left behind from industry is the basis of this thesis. I will discuss how these massive piles of wreckage that remain after the demise of buildings in our urban landscape play a part in my current sculpture and how they reflect back on my earlier investigations of the human viscera and of our own remains. My interests lie not only in the similarities of the functionality of these two systems, but in their aesthetics as well.

Cross Section, Joanna Poag

Theses

I plan to make sculpture using modules to build monolithic structures. The sculptures will explore equilibrium as it relates to an interaction and balance between elements. Weight, both visual and physical, will be a key focus of each piece. The sculptures incorporate gravity and mass in a way that exaggerates or defies the weight of the pieces. The formal strategy of breaking symmetry is employed to develop sculptures that incorporate gravity and mass and express visual movement in opposition to predictable mathematical sequencing. Line is used as a sculptural means to explore form. It has been used in a way …

Life Is Good, Namdoo Kim

Theses

I want to investigate contemporary Korean society and its effect on people, particularly children as they represent the future of the Korean culture and society. Today, humans have entered into a contemporary society that values a marked individuality, but the parent's generation, which controls the society, is still conservative. Parents want to get satisfaction from their children by infusing their values. The children meanwhile are in chaos, confused between a rapidly changing society and the conservative values of their parents.

Toys represent the purity and innocence of childhood and it is through this purity and innocence of toys that people …