Digital Commons Network^™

Making The Subconscious Conscious - Showcasing Unresolved Childhood Trauma Through Animation, Alexis Hunter

All Theses

The focus of this work is to shed light on unresolved childhood trauma that can contribute to mental hardships - whether people are aware of its presence in their lives or not. In this paper, I will discuss childhood trauma, its impact on adult life when left unresolved, self-parenting as a method to manage it, and how it is portrayed in various media. Drawing inspiration from my research on trauma and visual storytelling, I will present a proof-of-concept for a 2D animated short film, Strongholds, which visualizes the internal mental struggles through the character dynamics of the personifications of the …

Nightmares And Hand Grenades: Dreams As A Storytelling Tool, Olivia Felber

All Theses

Dreams and nightmares feature prominently in art, story, and religious practice and tradition throughout history. In this paper I will discuss their prominence throughout these facets in daily life, and the various ways that we, as humans, have tried to elucidate meaning from them. I will study the nature and definition of dreams and nightmares through a scientific, cultural, and historical approach. I will also discuss folklore and the interpretation of nightmarish imagery in the context of an otherworldly adventure through a nightmare. These topics and themes will be shown, explained, and discussed through the methodology of my project- a …

Interweaving: Play, Craft, And Femininity, Glory Loflin

All Theses

My thesis Interweaving: Play, Craft, and Femininity pulls from the visual language of Craft materials and practices to generate large-scale, often colorful works that reflect on my current understanding of being a woman in America. Raised in the conservative South, this body of work arose out of an attempt to understand the American political climate with respect to women’s bodies and where my artistic voice is present in that conversation. My research for my thesis exhibition began with an investigation into the matriarchal history of craft-based fiber practices in my family. Soon thereafter, I actively wove traditional Craft processes in …

Adapting Cultural Storytelling Styles To Modern Media, Julie Huang

All Theses

In the face of modern media, it is inevitable that certain cultural art forms will fade in popularity. Some may even fade out of existence altogether. However, there are continuous efforts to reframe these cultural gems in contemporary forms to preserve them for the younger generations. Digital media, such as animation and video games, provide the perfect vehicle to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary. This paper investigates how storytelling practices have been carried through time and the creative ways they have evolved in the face of an ever-changing mediascape.

To support this research, I present a narrative in …

Autoethnography As Self-Portrait: An Autoethnographic Analysis Of Trauma-Sensemaking Through Art, Kally Werning

All Theses

This project thesis is centered around coping with early onset childhood trauma through an autoethnography of narrative and art creation. The goal of this project is to understand more deeply how the art making process synthesizes or disrupts trauma sense-making through the introspective lens of the artist as scholar. The project consists of an interactive art exhibit and this written scholarly analysis of the creation and display of this exhibit. This includes an introduction to my life as a trauma survivor and Greek-American woman, informed by communication scholarship and other relevant fields regarding narrative theory, Greek history, religious and trauma …

Different Tides: A Journey Of Loss, Loneliness, And Friendship, William Gilmer

All Theses

This project is an exploration of story, producing an animatic for the original story Different Tides. Different Tides is a story about loss and separation, and how we carry with us a piece of everyone that has ever been close to us. This thesis will explore the themes of loneliness and loss that pervade the short, as well as the methods of visually expressing those themes. The goal of this thesis is to produce an animatable story, complete with storyboards, animatic, and color script, as well as explore the psychology behind loss and friendship.

Artistically Reshaping Trauma: An Exploration Of Radical Healing In The Lived Experiences And Art Of Marginalized Youth, Anitra R. Alexander

All Theses

Consumption and circulation of police brutality and the death of persons in the marginalized community present major concerns for the psychological well-being and development of marginalized youth. Contemporary events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased both negative media attention and instances of oppression towards AAPI communities. Not all adolescents are directly exposed to traumatic race-related events online; however, many are likely experiencing the direct effects of such incidents. Despite exposure and effects of these events, marginalized adolescents still demonstrate indicators of healthy coping. Indicators of healthy coping present the need to shift research from negative psychological outcomes to healing …

Fusing Art And Technology: Designing An Immersive Storytelling Attraction In Virtual Reality, Alexander Jameson Young

All Theses

Journey to Proxima Centauri: Terror of the Mnar is a 3D Virtual Reality experience that fuses many elements in order to create a brand-new interactive attraction. Diving into a game birthed by the implementation of HTC Vive technology and Unreal Engine 4, the user finds themself in a virtual world where they experience an exploration-focused adventure through the icy caverns of an ancient temple. Unlike its predecessors, this virtual experience transitions into a vehicle-based attraction halfway through the game with the user moving into a real-world motion simulator without removing their VR headset.

Man And Technology: The Glitch In Nature's System, Carey W. Morton

All Theses

This work acknowledges the tangible and intangible attributes found in the complex relationship between man and nature. The human capability of manipulating the environment continues to grow at an exponential rate. The technology by which this is achieved has progressed to unprecedented heights. While this evolution has made leaps and bounds in the continuous struggle to achieve mastery over the natural world, advancements in technology challenge the very foundations of human experience. Processing this phenomenon through my own background in the rural American South, there is a nostalgic and anthropologic component to the display and content of the installations as …

Conveying Personal Narrative In Virtual Reality Using Procedural Techniques And Surrealism, Austin W. Brennan

All Theses

In this thesis a personal narrative is conveyed in a virtual reality experience where procedural techniques are used to create surreal environments. Virtual reality is a powerful way to build empathy and understanding of another individual’s experiences and choices. Procedural techniques enable an artist to create complex and highly stylized scenery. Surrealism can be used to depict emotions in a way that words alone are unable to describe. When combined, virtual reality, proceduralism, and surrealism can yield a compelling vehicle to express personal narrative.

Invisible Labor And The Preservation Of Dignity, Laken Bridges

All Theses

My art seeks to question the social value of labor. Throughout history, labor hierarchies influenced by social class and economic stigmas have informed how laborers are viewed in the United States. Physical jobs such as menial and domestic work are a common form of invisible labor that experience debasement and stereotyping. In my art, I use labor-based and ordinary objects as a metaphor for the worker, linking the value or disposability of the object to the societal value of labor. This critique of labor is enhanced by the manipulation of text, by the formal tools of scale and perspective, and …

Without Words, Adrienne Lichliter

All Theses

My work seeks to question culture's occupation with the direct and conclusive, stirring the viewer away from immediate understanding in order to better grasp the pervasive vitality of the obscure. The thesis outlines the presence of the unclear in our lives and our lack of consideration of its importance due to an occupation with productivity. This argument is made with a body of non-objective artwork that presents visual and spatial ambiguities. By occupying paradoxes and indeterminate focal points, the art resists recognition and conclusion both formally and intellectually. The paper also discusses the importance of printmaking and restraint, requiring one …

Trip Report: A Few Lessons In Love, Jason Adams

All Theses

Can a work of art care for someone? Can it address a need for comfort or love? My research focuses on simple gestures and actions that seek to fulfill these questions. This research spans a wide array of sculptural and performative strategies in order to give breadth to these goals and to access a multitude of audiences in different contexts. The work importantly bridges both traditional art venues as well as more public venues in order to participate in multiple conversations pertaining to the role of socially engaged art practices. By utilizing both ends of the locational spectrum for the …

The In-Between, Derrick Logan

All Theses

This body of work explores my perception of the landscape. I traverse spaces that exist in the in-between. My work functions on a personal level in that I am seeking a reconnection with my surroundings through a physically intense interaction with the land. It is an attempt to reengage the land, to form knowledge, awareness, and a sense of belonging.
Through performance I explore transcendent potential within the landscape. These performances of slow walks through the landscape are documented through video. Viewing of the documentation grants points of projection for the viewer. The videos both engage and undermine how people …

Magic Meat, Adam Stewart

All Theses

Have you ever been really secure in what it means to be? If not, it's ok. If so,
don't be delusional. Either way, I have created a series of devices that present the
challenges of self-division and fluctuation, and reveals this complicated human
characteristic not as a product of being broken, fractured, and dysfunctional, but as an
advantageous ability to adopt complex multiple perspectives, sometimes simultaneously.
These devices can be thought of as 'gym equipment' to exercise the more
immaterial, invisible portions of ourselves. Strengthening the connections between
physicality and the mental/emotional aspects of our bodies demonstrates an ability to …

Discovery Through The Art Of Making, Andrew Daly

All Theses

Between growing up on a farm, and working in a saddle shop, I have been conditioned to understand my environment in an empirical and experiential manner. There is a certain kind of education that can only be achieved through working with your hands, and the knowledge obtained in that fashion cannot be sufficiently translated through the written word, or with the use of technology. It is important to me to keep this type of education alive.
I have disciplined myself to learning the traditional printmaking techniques of engraving and lithography for their laborious hands on qualities so that I can …

Ambition's Apex: The Private Art Gallery Of The Aiken-Rhett House, Christine Mathieson

All Theses

This thesis is an analytic in-depth examination of the private art gallery added to the Aiken-Rhett House in Charleston, South Carolina in 1858. The goal of the work is to imagine, understand, and contextualize the gallery, delving deeply into the lives, travels, and ambitions of its owners, William and Harriet Lowndes Aiken. Exploring all aspects of the gallery's inspiration and design, as well as the provenance and significance of works of art housed in it, the paper poses two questions: why a gallery; and why this gallery. Answers to these questions are located in socio-historical analysis that focuses on the …

Fragments And Transcendence, David Hill

All Theses

The fragmented figure is a compelling image. To present the figure in fragments is to place the viewer in a position of recognizing their own mortality and fragility, eliciting an emotional response that goes beyond an aesthetic appreciation of the body as form. The Venus de Milo, arguably one of the most well recognized works of art in all of history illustrates this idea perfectly. There are plenty of complete sculptures of the goddess from the same period, but the armless Venus de Milo stands as the epitome of grace and beauty above the rest, and any attempts to restore …

Rainbows And Sunshine: Experiencing Life And Art, Matthew Rink

All Theses

In this body of work I create temporary public-interstices that provide enjoyment, respite and reflection within the everyday experience. These projects are living-breathing events where I act as the facilitator of pleasure or comfort to encourage the viewer to consider valuable moments in the present. These are alive with real-time tactility; something that can be eaten, witnessed, physically felt or shared.
Within this series, I challenge the ordinary by splicing in comfort, gratification and excitement at random to provide a temporary moment outside of the norm. These moments oppose the rampant drive for commodity; fueled by under-compensated over-working by offering …

Deviant, Courtney Richards

All Theses

ABSTRACT
I create portraits and self-portraits that explore the dualities of the western human condition, namely the deviant and the ideal, the refined and the unrefined, and the perfect and the flawed. Drawing on personal experiences with people considered outsiders or social deviants, I construct figures that embody the conflicting ideas inherent in these dualities. I explore these conflicts in drawings that are constructed with marks and shapes that are both basic and refined, and in photographs that use analytic documentation to describe social turmoil. I reference artists both contemporary and historical, such as Egon Schiele, Robert Longo, Kathe Kollwitz, …

Digital Social Imagery In Silhouette, Ashley Triplett

All Theses

Society places an extreme emphasis on outward appearance and beauty that is often unattainable. The short film, Silhouette, reminds audiences of the dangers that can result from society's infatuation with physical perfection, and the film's production is the focus of this thesis. The goal of the film is to effectively communicate the impact of society on an individual's self-worth and self-image and to illustrate the consequences that result when trying to attain physical perfection. An integral part of this project is an examination of how women have been portrayed in art historically as compared to present day. To visualize …

Inevitable Forces: Deciphering The Environment, Jennifer Stoneking-Stewart

All Theses

My work is a response to my surroundings, the relationship between man and nature, and my perception of human impact on the environment. I compare the sprawl of cities that overtake the surrounding countryside to the spreading of microscopic bacteria and disease. My observation of the destruction of the environment and other uncontrollable events that perpetuate fear, such as passage of time, death, and growth, is visualized through the combination of two opposing forces: structure (controlled) and organic (uncontrolled). My use of printmaking processes parallels these concepts of control or lack of control. Lithography, intaglio, silkscreen and relief are closely …