Architecture Commons^™

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

For Cheryl: The Long And The Short Of It, Rachel Lebo

Graduate School of Art Theses

Short stories are an indirect way of creating a truth by showing instead of telling. They are a way to observe and communicate a single idea. A short story for me is a vehicle for hiding my truth behind a character, exploring myself in the safety of an identity that is not my own. When I read Chunky in Heat, author A.M. Homes and I hide together behind her character, Cheryl, and find solidarity.

The following writings, paintings, and sculptures are collaborations between myself and the women of short story fiction. Those women being the authors, the subjects, and …

The Vital Ambiguity Of Surface: Culturally Determined Notions Of Metaphor And Performance In Contemporary Building Material, Christopher T. Campbell

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis investigates the systems and information decipherable within a material surface; more specifically, those ideas of value, performance, and function we may infer from the surface of contemporary building materials. When these materials are reduced to their flattened image, the cosmetic facade of a surface has the capacity to inform as well as deceive. Additionally, we may see in materials outward properties, such as color or tactility, the capacity for metaphor and the application of a symbolic personhood. This thesis seeks to comprehend the ways in which these expectations become fodder for complication and paradox, and promote a perceptual …