Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Twisted Truths In Memories, Jiyoon Kang

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Memory— fragments of minds that are stored to remember the past and information— plays a huge role in human development. Humans interact with each other based on past experiences. These memories are part of our personalities. Flashbulb memory, a highly detailed snapshot of a moment, can even be life changing, because that memory becomes an essential part of “you.” In Twisted Truths in Memories, my body of work aspires to explore the question: what happens to memory when strong emotions are involved? How does that relate to a photograph, especially when photographs are intended to demonstrate the truth? The body …

It's The Funerals I Missed Which Haunt Me The Most, Arno Goetz

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

What makes a photograph great? This is the central question which guides my research, and I answer this question in two parts. The first element is the structure of the photograph, which Robert Adams addresses in his collection of essays, Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values. With the guiding principle that structure can provide harmony in an image, I develop a collection of guidelines for composing images and name them the “Rules of Clarity.” The purpose of these rules is to help photographers create harmonious compositions, free from distractions. When a photograph has few distractions, it …

Unraveling Memory Through Childhood Relics, Franchesca Rousseas

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

The formation of memory is a universal experience that occurs at an individual level. Memory is intangible and abstract, but it can be tied to physical objects such as photographs. These objects may remain the same throughout the course of our lives, but our memories are subject to change. Information is inevitably lost or altered over time, as our minds are more pliable than they are rigid. These alterations result in the desire to reconstruct and reinterpret past events given the information that is still accessible. Focusing on objects of domesticity that trigger childhood memories, I reveal how the act …

To Participate In The Image: Reification & Reproduction, Justine Xi

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Spanning sculpture, video, and installation, I develop my work through techniques of collage and (re)appropriation to investigate and criticize Western hegemonic perceptions and representations of the (Asian) Other. I investigate perceptions of Asianness in the Western imagination from Orientalism to Techno-Orientalism, demonization and fetishization, focusing on the circulation of imagery in art, media, and popular culture. Further, I draw attention to the internalization of these standards and what it means to participate in the construction and distribution of the image, its implications and perceptions.

Hysteria, Fear, And/Or Delight, Alessandra Ferrari-Wong

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

My Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis statement, Hysteria, Fear, and/or Delight, establishes the forms and concepts of my art practice as it stands as of May, 2020: performance-based and interdisciplinary. My practice implies narrative while acknowledging the audience. Physical language, in both dance and gesture, can be a means of communication or subversion. Pieces exist as ephemeral, often private, performances and then separately in archival forms ranging from video, to photography, to installation. The body of the statement details my thesis project, a remaking of Giselle, a 19th century Romantic-era ballet, into a performance series and video trilogy. …

Presence Through Process: Cultivating Embodied Understanding, Zoë Morris

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In Presence Through Process: Cultivating Embodied Understanding, I set out to re-conceptualize how art can function, situating it within a framework of the idea of importance. I suggest an understanding of importance as a figment of conscious experience, locating various personal notions of importance within a working model. Within the model, I accredit the “cosmic self” to be responsible for the impulses behind my art practice. I identify the art process as a means towards presence, going further to explore what kind of embodied understanding can be garnered through it. Invoking my work in performance and etching, I demonstrate how …

Patterning A Home, Zoë Finkelstein

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

The question driving my constant impulse to create is this: how do the places in which we spend our time transform the four walls around us into this larger entity we call “home?” I begin to answer this question with an investigation into the use of repetition, time spent, and memory in my own body of work. In order for a space to become a home, one must build up a collection of experiences in that space over time. To show this, I explore the relationship in my work between repetitive mark making, pattern, intense labor, memory, comfort, and my …

Modeling Disability: Softly Making The Invisible Visible, Libby Evan

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

“I am not asking for pity. I am telling you about my disability.” -Eli Clare

In the following Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis statement, you will not find someone overcoming their disability. You will not find a tale of inspiration. You will not find a cure for ableism. You simply will find an individual's experience of disability— my experience of disability.

My invisible disability puts the medical model and social model of disability in constant tension as I navigate everyday life living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and severe arthritis. Both models seek to find blame for disability, whether in searching …

Virtual Yearning, Isa Sabraw

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Do you feel who you are? The answer to the question is pursued but not captured.

The pursuit consists of a rowdy but skilled team of investigatory video works. The videos possess research, evidence, beauty, wit, and a healthy dose of humor.

The research is made up of books, films, and archives. The evidence is pilfered from the internet. The beauty is much the same. The wit is something you are born with. The humor is hiding something: sincerity.

Blurring The Boundary: Reinvigorating Joy In The Mundane Through Juxtaposition, Taylor M. Fulton

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

There is an inherent tension between interior and exterior as experienced by the human body. We live an overwhelming majority of our lives indoors, yet we are consistently compelled towards the natural world. This compulsion is necessitated by biophilia, driving a desire to be around lifelike processes.

The boundary between interior and exterior mandates that we live our lives on one side or the other at a time, never simultaneously existing both indoors and outdoors. A disparity between the spaces is therefore maintained by the boundary. This perpetual separation sets up for the perfect use of juxtaposition, which is utilized …