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The Soulless Machine, Nathan Lomas
The Soulless Machine, Nathan Lomas
Theses
Since their creation, we have grown increasingly reliant on machines to aid us in our understanding and perceptions of the world - the camera is no exception. As an extension of the human eye, it allows us the opportunity to examine our environments from new perspectives, offering up views that we may not be able to witness on our own. Though in truth, the structure of the machine is ingrained in everything we know: from the natural world to our social patterns, actions are prescribed, parts move with united purpose, yet there is a certain comfort in the surrender of …
Macroinvertebrates Online, Caitlin Treuting
Macroinvertebrates Online, Caitlin Treuting
Theses
Macrobenthic invertebrates are important indicators of water quality in many aquatic systems, but accurately identifying these organisms is a challenge, particularly for citizen scientists, due to insufficient funding for training programs and events and a dwindling pool of training personnel. Accurately identifying these organisms is key to the accuracy of the models used to generate the water quality assessments. To help address these issues, this project has developed an interactive online photographic key for macrobenthic invertebrates, designed to improve classification accuracy with minimal training for use by citizen scientists. The online digital photographic field guide was created and tested against …
Through Place, Sarah Newman
Through Place, Sarah Newman
Theses
Through Place is comprised of diverse, sometimes un-idyllic landscapes. Many of the pictures contain a trace--an alteration to the land, a specter of human presence. Yet these marks are pictured inclusively; the scenes are explored with interest and without judgment. They offer a reformulation of the division between the human and the natural, wherein "the natural" draws the largest circle. The images are made in geographically and culturally diverse places (from the Peruvian Amazon to ski mountains in California). "Place" becomes replaced by interpretation, fiction: representations that intermingle with our own agency, expectations, and memories.
In Vitro Complex, Anna Druzcz
In Vitro Complex, Anna Druzcz
Theses
Contemporary technological developments allow for greater manipulation of the natural world than ever before. While the increasing variety of synthetic materials, techniques, and equipment employed in horticulture and urban development are reshaping the land, sophisticated digital imaging tools, ranging from computer-generated graphics to 3D modeling and rendering software, are changing the way we design and represent landscapes. Through technology, we are continually imitating, reconstructing, and perfecting the natural environment. As a result, the physical and conceptual borders between the organic and synthetic elements, the "born" and the "made," in our physical environments are becoming progressively obscured, as are the lines …
You Look Just Like Her, Sara Tkac
You Look Just Like Her, Sara Tkac
Theses
You Look Just Like Her is a process-based photographic installation exploring the limitations of any one media as a means to build a complete narrative. When I discovered that little accurate information could be gleaned about my deceased mother from her collection of family photographs, I interviewed the other participants in the visual family histories. Once the stories were complete, I transformed the visual truth into a fiction of my own by using digital manipulation to become a by-proxy participant in the early years of my mother's life. In order to create an panoptic experience for the viewer, this thesis …
[ ], Megan Metté
[ ], Megan Metté
Theses
[ ] explores the socially constructed notions surrounding a house and a home and those things that are necessary in order to feel at home in the world. As a way to process the feelings associated with being the child of a broken home, I reconfigure the rooms of various houses in an attempt to escape my reality, and enter into an ideal dream space. Both my photographic and video works explore how utopian architecture and the American dream have in some ways influenced my concept of the ideal and my process of making these dreams. In the end, the …
Bitter Tea, Caicai Liu
Bitter Tea, Caicai Liu
Theses
Bitter Tea is a 23 minute short fiction film made by CaiCai Liu in April 2010. The film shows a Chinese photography student's life in the U.S. This paper discusses the issues of Asian identity, cultural changes and the philosophy of illusion symbolized by the perception of the photographer. It also represents the processes of making the film from pre-production, production, to post-production and explains the workflow and technical issues of how this project was made.
Puffery, Whitney Warne
Puffery, Whitney Warne
Theses
The external body is a place to perform a version of ourselves, rather than be ourselves. To perform is to strike a balance between the self and the rules, between individual action and gesture and the script--between what you know and what other people tell you to know. Puffery explores the culturally constructed performance and expected behaviors of the modern female. I have created video and photography documented durational performances that question a female's relationship with exterior presentation. Viewers watch as she exposes her façade--examining it and breaking it down in an effort to negotiate self, power, and control.
Disengagement, Petra Tuns
Disengagement, Petra Tuns
Theses
Disengagement is a body of photographic work that recounts my memories of suffering from depression. My aesthetic is directly influenced by the pathology of the illness. My thesis aims to let the viewer witness how depression has impacted me, so they can understand the disease on a more personal level rather than a stereotypical image, such as TV commercials for anti-depression medication. I analyze both depression in art and the history of depression through the writings of Christine Ross, and Michel Foucault. Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory also inform my work. They are also the foundation from which I defend …
Inventory 03 21 -06 20, Maria Casanovas
Inventory 03 21 -06 20, Maria Casanovas
Theses
This thesis explores the essential qualities that make one person different from others, particularly the characteristics of the self that determine identity through vernacular, ephemeral objects and everyday experiences. I aim to examine and formulate questions related to the role that systems, rules and authority play in the formation of that personal sense of uniqueness. Themes addressed include the relationship of the real and photographic verisimilitude and the role of the artist in the process. I investigate these issues by establishing a set of rules to create a photographic inventory of all the objects that entered and exited my apartment …
An Unnatural History, Sarah Hearn
An Unnatural History, Sarah Hearn
Theses
An Unnatural History is an installation that inhabits the space between the continuously shifting realms of science, pseudoscience and science fiction. This project documents the (fictional) discovery of a taxonomy of marine life containing and cooperating with the elements from the periodic table. As science and technology progress, we are constantly faced with redefining, reinterpreting and reconfiguring what we thought we knew about the world around us and previous scientific "facts" are revealed to have been constructed "beliefs." Using multiple modes of representation, An Unnatural History draws attention to the real, the imagined and what it means to visualize biological …
The Specter Of Nature, Stephanie Clark
The Specter Of Nature, Stephanie Clark
Theses
The Specter of Nature is a photographic series that examines the tenuous boundaries between culture and Nature. Through this thesis, I address how, within culture, Nature is defined, distorted, fantasized and then realized through various forms of representation. To this end, Nature historically serves as a backdrop in culturally constructed fantasies and storytelling, as well as historically playing a role in the development of a female identity. The Specter of Nature,examines these concerns through staged photographs of settings created from fabrics and cutouts of decorative papers. By cutting along the patterns embedded in materials such as wrapping papers, wallpapers, scrapbooking …
Reposition, Ratna Khanna
Reposition, Ratna Khanna
Theses
Landscape should be an instrument of cultural force. This work contemplates the relationship between the artificial and the natural. It resulted from thinking about matters concerning my interactions with public space; the combination of nature and the culture we inflict upon it. By including "nature" here, I use it to denote an outside environment that includes biological activity that is untamed, yet still capable of being influenced by human agency. This human agency takes the form of culture, that which appropriates nature towards our social needs. Hence, this agency benefits the formation of landscapes. A cultural artifact such as an …
Slow & Steady, Christin Boggs
Slow & Steady, Christin Boggs
Theses
Slow & Steady explores the contemporary movement away from mass-produced food and towards creative alternatives that offer vitality and potency to participants and their surroundings. Within the Greater Rochester Region, individuals have rejected convenience food to responsibly grow, prepare and share sustenance in cooperative groups. The photographs in this thesis depict scenes from community gardens, community supported agriculture (CSA) farms, farmers markets, and other organizations associated with local food production. Here exists a community of resourceful people, coming together in pursuit of good food. Slow & Steady points to one of the ways in which art can effect social change …
From Then Until Now, Nick Marshall
From Then Until Now, Nick Marshall
Theses
The photograph may create a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past, but that past is not an authentic one. It is a past that has been mediated through a lens and by a photographer who is already mediated by cultural and societal norms and beliefs. Yet this past is both familiar and foreign at the same time. From Then Until Now is a series of visual investigations and physical manipulations of the photograph--particularly the snapshot. I utilize the photograph for its dual role as an objective index and as an aid for the subjective nature of memories. In …
A Life Reviewed: George Eastman Through The Viewfinder, Emma Powell
A Life Reviewed: George Eastman Through The Viewfinder, Emma Powell
Theses
How do we look back on a time that has gone by? On a life that is over? How do we appraise and commemorate those responsible for making photography what it is today? A Life Reviewed: George Eastman through the Viewfinder addresses the legacy of George Eastman, the founder of Kodak and one of photography's most significant entrepreneurs. A visionary who sought to expand the scope of photography from the wealthy to the average person, he recognized photography's power in the context of many scientific advances in industry and society. A Life Reviewed serves as visual biography as well as …
Matter Of Taste, Maria Loduca
Matter Of Taste, Maria Loduca
Theses
My thesis Matter of Taste illustrates how art and design distinctly overlap. My aim was to move fluidly between art, design, and craft. This thesis represents my observation of the ways in which art and design are embedded in our daily life and culture. I began to apply photography to a greater variety of fields. Advances in printing technology now mean that images can be printed on just about anything, from garden buckets and mugs to paper towels and wardrobes. In my thesis, I also questioned how photography can be used as an object and a design element. In terms …
A Visual Understanding: An Interactive Learning Application, Joanna Ward
A Visual Understanding: An Interactive Learning Application, Joanna Ward
Theses
As a thesis project, A Visual Understanding can be defined as a contextual experiment portraying the relationship between traditional composition techniques and visual communication online. This project focuses on the issue of significance when viewing photography online and the ways in which Computer Graphics Design can solve this problem. The educational application address the problems with the way in which photography is being portrayed by first, creating awareness about this concern and second, educating the online user in attempt to solve this problem. The interactive application developed educates users on traditional composition theories that have proven to be successful means …
Family Reunion, Carly Miller
Family Reunion, Carly Miller
Theses
This thesis, Family Reunion examines notions of family heritage, collection, and intimacy through the use of photographic portraiture. I observe the ways in which large format photography contributes to a larger photographic endeavor involving time and travel to investigate family relationships and genealogy. The thesis also addresses how American culture acquires, records, stores, preserves, displays, and passes on family photographs. Familial objects either preserve or lose meaning as they are passed down through generations. Family Reunion emphasizes the collection of images we preserve to record and represent our familial history, while addressing both personal and cultural significance between the need …
In Memory Of Trauma, Amber Johnston
In Memory Of Trauma, Amber Johnston
Theses
This thesis delves into the psyche of a survivor of sexual molestation, exploring defense mechanisms, PTSD, and elusive memory in an audio and visual context. Three photographic gazes appear in this work, the dissociative gaze, the experiential gaze and the metaphoric gaze. These gazes are shown in the series In Memory of Trauma which consists of ten large Photographic prints on the gallery wall. Disarticulation is a book of images that discuss the dissociation between mind and body happening after a traumatic experience. There is also a confrontational sound installation, Confessional, that speaks to denial and self-hatred. Work by artists …
True West, Chris Toalson
True West, Chris Toalson
Theses
This thesis, True West, utilizes photography to investigate the myth of the American West. I reflect on the ways that myth has been used to symbolically situate the West at the heart of our American identity, in order to discern our seeming fascination with this imagined West. Looking to photography's historical precedence as a purveyor of myth, my photographs explore notions of representation and re-presentation to question both photographic truth and western authenticity. I focus on the intertwining of history and myth, where more often than not, myth prevails. True West urges a refocus toward a more factual history, where …
Cosentinoworks, Daniel Cosentino
Cosentinoworks, Daniel Cosentino
Theses
My MFA thesis show, Cosentinoworks, depicts my inquiry into self and object through conceptual explorations in the mediums of video, performance and sculptural installation. I use the title of the exhibition as a cue to explore the double meanings and multiple interpretations at play. I explore identity through relationships and narratives employed in the use of recorded performance and exhibition display. I discuss how symbols and symbolism operate in creating a tapestry of meaning and interpretation through associations to historic form, particularly Minimalism and Romanticism. I explore the role of the observer in finding and understanding double meanings through my …
Black Box, Ryan N. Shuler
Black Box, Ryan N. Shuler
Theses
Fear and paranoia are steadily on the rise throughout the world as a result, in part, of media's presentation of violent and traumatic imagery. The dissemination and reception of these types of images are consequential for a viewing public, including an increasing desensitization to violence through over-exposure; the potential for aggressive behavior by people of all ages; and the loss of a viewer's accountability as witness to a disturbing event. Black Box is an aesthetic investigation of the reception of traumatic images by a viewing public. In order to trace this reception, the image of the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), …
Private Viewing, Ryan Barone
Private Viewing, Ryan Barone
Theses
This thesis explores my birthplace and hometown of Gloversville, New York, using loss as a primary theme. Issues related to memory and the photographic medium such as the trace and latent image are investigated through a range of interdisciplinary projects. The thesis also addresses the language of early Conceptualism, often utilizing systematic methodologies and employing common materials as a means of addressing amateur uses of the photographic image. Photographic production and circulation are interrogated on a consumer level, emphasizing vernacular optimism for the medium while illustrating their ultimate shortcomings
The Botanical Thread, Kaitlin Wilson-Bryant
The Botanical Thread, Kaitlin Wilson-Bryant
Theses
My thesis is an exploration of my dual desires of creation/destruction and manipulation/transformation as realized through the remediation of botanical specimens gathered from my domestic environment and transformed into works of art. Each image questions and presents an understanding of the history of botanical representation, within Western art history, as symbols of nature and femininity and the domestic skill of needlework, a traditional skill learned by women as part of the feminine. I created a conceptual dialogue with those who preceded me, intrinsically linking the acts of sewing and botany as re-interpreted feminist acts. In this work, I attempt to …
Interactive Tutorials In The Marketing Of Digital Cameras: How Tutorials Benefit Consumers & Retailers, Andrew Eckert
Interactive Tutorials In The Marketing Of Digital Cameras: How Tutorials Benefit Consumers & Retailers, Andrew Eckert
Theses
There is a growing market for digital single-lens refl ex cameras (SLRs) that is driven by their ease of use, accessibility, and falling price points. Marketing these cameras with an interactive tutorial not only allows photo enthusiasts to improve as photographers, but also gives the retailer a profi table add-on and selling incentive. This work explores how interactive multimedia can be utilized as a source for instruction in camera mechanics. The proposed model is an interface using a virtual camera with which the user interacts. From this starting point the user can choose tutorials from corresponding elements on the camera. …
Chiasm, Christine Heusner
Chiasm, Christine Heusner
Theses
This thesis explores the convergence and divergence between the mind and multimedia environment as perceptions are formed. The digitally constructed representation of the space investigated in the thesis work illustrates an abstract impression of the modern environment, somewhere between the real and the imaginary, the actual and the representational. The installation of the thesis images, off the gallery walls and at varying levels throughout the space, encourages the viewers to question realities and perception. I discuss the creation of the thesis work through a variety of different processes and media, both digital and traditional, and how this mimics environmental reality. …
Sub-Urbana, Alexander J. Breger
Sub-Urbana, Alexander J. Breger
Theses
Through a photographic survey of Urbana, Maryland in 2003, I have attempted to illuminate a fundamental dichotomy of suburban sprawl. While popular and affordable to the consumer, there is a high cost to our collective future associated with this type of housing development. Although there has been much written decrying its evils, sprawl continues to cover the countryside with unoriginal, lifeless housing tracts. In order to understand our impact on the environment and the global community, we must examine the consequences of our modes of living and our collective relationship to the land. The profligate manner in which we inhabit …
A Natural History, Jessica Marquez
A Natural History, Jessica Marquez
Theses
A Natural History is an installation that creates the atmosphere of a miniature museum and has as its focus familial, autobiographical content. This “museum” appropriates its format from the ethnographic museum and cabinets of curiosities, which provide an institutional gaze and appeal to a sensibility of imagination and wonder. Major themes addressed include the public and private collection, art and science, and systems of ordering. Exploring these themes offers a means to visualize concepts of identity and memory. To make tangible that which is ephemeral, such as the past, identity and memory, I use objects, images and words as mimetic …
The Ephemeral Form And Objects Of Inspection, Desireé Rose Schanding
The Ephemeral Form And Objects Of Inspection, Desireé Rose Schanding
Theses
The series The Ephemeral Form is my attempt to communicate the ways in which women are similar in order to empower women so that they may overcome their differences creating a way for more open communication. This series of prints explore the notion of femaleness from a personal perspective and aesthetic. The main subject in each piece is the female torso as a static figure or a figure in motion. There is a specimen-like quality to the images as well as direct references to medieval panel paintings. Within each image the torso of the female is transparent revealing the biology …