Arts and Humanities Commons^™

New Commandments, Jacob Sussman

Masters Theses

I reach into the earth, pull out mud-encrusted objects, and recombine them to define new meanings. With every object transposed, the past breaks down; new potentials form. “New Commandments” recombines historical symbolism through an intuitive building, destroying, and merging to reimagine or re-establish meaning.

The work critiques rites of passage, masculinity, and stereotypes by deconstructing how histories, ideologies, and preconceptions form.

As a queer person raised in-between Judaism and Christianity, social preconceptions and religious expectations festered my formation. Our choice is taken away at this moment of conception. To take back autonomy, I reimagine historical, and religious symbolism and transmute …

Making Time: Gentle Invitations For Radical Slowness, Lian Fumerton-Liu

Masters Theses

Year after year, we place more value on efficiency and productivity; underestimating smaller gestures of craft, care and wonder. This emphasis directly affects the tools and structures that determine how, and what, we make.

Making time is a practice that counters the urgency of now by unearthing approaches to break down, reimagine, and remake existing systems. Through personal reflection and experimental collaboration, it acts as a series of ever-evolving invitations—openings and pauses for others to begin to radically invert expectations; to wander; to grow artifacts; to write letters to the birds; to multiply oceans; to extend connections; to plant proposals; …

Form Follows Feeling Follows Form, Harshal Duddalwar

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I explore ways of expression at the intersection of form, feeling, and storytelling; through my lived experiences. I emphasize the act of documentation, encouraging introspection and reflection as a means of creating a body of personal work. I also talk about developing my visual vocabulary and language to express these narratives, along with strategies and plans for making personal work outwardly visible.

Black Is Every Color, Alisa Banks, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

1 volume (8 unnumbered pages) : color illustrations ; in box 11.5 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm. Unique book. Artist's statement: Black, the sum of all colors, mysterious, all-encompassing, a shroud, a swarm. Familiar but unknowable, coveted and uncontained. This book work considers the encompassing nature of blackness. Box containing painted cube surrounded by four flaps featuring single signature books. Each stitched cover opens to reveal a poem about the color black. Media: Book cloth, book board, paper, acrylic paint, graphite, glass, embroidery thread, silk, watercolor, graphite. "Created while watching spring bloom and events unfold during COVID-19."--artist's website. Curated title …

Floating, Nina Shishkina

Masters Theses

My writing is influenced by the concept of Montage. It has bits of readings, thoughts, memories. Everything is carefully picked and curated to inform the viewer of the ideas behind the work.

This book is aiming to explain the context of the time and space I was born and raised. The nineties in Russia were an extremely dynamic space. The flow of information, ideas, cultural events were enormous. Everything coexisted. the real democracy and freedom, as now it would be described. It was a dark time, full of hope and expectations.

Unfortunately for the reader, this text is not that …

Journey Through The Wasteland, Songlin Li

Masters Theses

I started planning this book at the end of last year, because I had to write it for my thesis, and also because I saw this as an opportunity to create, like making artwork. But the difference is that this does not look like my usual art, being only a book comprised of words and images.

From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, I experienced a terrible spiritual disillusionment and was caught in a cycle of depression and anxiety. Even though I was prepared to write this book last fall, I only really started in …

O' Possum, My Possum, Mary Jane Damsen, Fleet Library, Special Collections

4th Student Artists' Book Contest 2018

No abstract provided.

Great Lakes Aspen Excelsior (I & Ii), Tiffany Bushka, Fleet Library, Special Collections

4th Student Artists' Book Contest 2018

No abstract provided.

Nancy And Neruda: Poetry Thinking Love, Joshua M. Hall

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

My intention in this paper is to respond to Jean-Luc Nancy’s claim that poetry, along with philosophy, is essentially incapable of what Nancy describes as “thinking love.” To do so, I will first try to come to an understanding of Nancy’s thinking regarding love and then of poetry as presented in his essay “Shattered Love.” Having thus prepared the way, I will then respond, via Pablo Neruda’s poem “Oda al Limón,” to Nancy’s understanding of poetry vis-à-vis “Shattered Love.” This response, in acting out Nancy’s thinking regarding love, will suggest a greater plurality within poetry than Nancy acknowledged

Toward A Poeticognosis: Re-Reading Plato's The Republic Via Wallace Stevens' "An Ordinary Evening In New Haven", Dan Disney

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article is a language-based re-reading of Plato's exile of the poets via Wallace Stevens' poem-manifesto, "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven." I examine how philosophy and poetry use language differently in order to deconstruct an origin of the speech-acts -- wonder -- that I then identify as a phenomenological difference between philosophers and poets. I contend that the thinking-into-language of philosophers is based in theoria, comprehension, and a resulting closure of wonder. I contrast this with the processes of poets, who I show to be moving thought into language via gnosis, apprehension, and a phenomenology opening onto …

A Portrait Of Nangsao Dungjai, (Nangsao) Dungjai Pungauthaikan, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Culture

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class.

The Heresy Of Paraphrase Revisited, Stefán Snaevarr

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I try to rejuvenate Cleanth Brooks' old thesis about the 'heresy of paraphrase.' This I do by analysing a couple of well-known poems and by performing thought experiments of the "possible world" kind. They show that paradigmatic examples of poems are not paraphrasable. A prosaic text can be improved with the aid of a paraphrase, but a typical poem cannot. The deeper explanation for the non-rephrasability of poetry is that our understanding of it is basically tacit. In this way I hope to give Brooks' original thesis a more solid foundation.

Race Race, Brian M. Johnson, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Culture

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class Printed Books.

Burn Down The Zendo, Michael Hannon, Carolee Campbell, David Brock, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

stab binding in the style of a Japanese "chomen" or account book, with nail for hanging book, housed in a lucite slipcase; prospectus exterior; front cover; interior pages. number 96 in an edition of 110, signed by the author. Designed and printed by Carolee Campbell. Kanji on cover by David Brock. "San Zendo" means Zen meditation hall or periodic question and answer session between student and teacher (from prospectus)

The Conversation, Macy Chadwick, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

accordion; slipcase cover; cover; page spreads; accordion partially unfolded. number 37 of 50 copies, signed by the artist

Aunt Sallie's Lament, Margaret Kaufman, Clair Van Vilet, Ellen Dorn Levitt, Audrey Holden, Mary Richardson

Artists' Books

Diamond shape bound book, 24 pages, mounted color illustrations. Limited edition of 120 copies signed by Claire Van Vliet, Mary Richardson, Audrey Holden and E.D. Levitt. "This edition was made using the Permalin text block of the 1993 edition by Chronicle Books.. The design was made with Ellen Dorn Levitt and Audrey Holden who did most of the assembly and made the boxes with Mary Richardson."--Colophon. Book bound in a diamond-shape with the left point blunted for the spine. Each page is a different combination of colors and geometric shapes resembling quilt blocks. Additional Japanese and handmade papers added to …

Lines For Lgb-30, Computer, Poet, Silas Munro, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Letters

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class, Printed Books.

Night Vision, Anne West, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

French fold pages, perfect bound in hard cover, enclosed in slipcase with magnetic flap closure. Box cover; cover; title page; interior pages and spreads. Anne West's poetry is lushly illustrated with images of night blooming flowers drawn by Deborah Wieder. The rich, fertile, earthy feminine side of life is embodied in the night garden.

All The Aldas, Daniel Kane, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

pamphlet stitch, some fold-out pages; cover; cover page; interior spreads and pages. Poems revealing the author's obsession with actor Alan Alda.

Five Luminous Towers: A Book To Be Read In The Dark, Carol Barton, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

pop-up tower; clamshell box, pop-ups, laser cuts, wire-edge binding; cover; page spread La Torre degli Artisani. edition of 50; "Carol Barton Artist Book Process Archive" for this book available in Special Collections

The Lookout: An Excerpt From Five Luminous Towers, Carol Barton, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

clamshell box cover; pg 1-2; poem "The Lookout"; pg 3-4; pop-up tower; clamshell box with lighted pop-up tower. edition of 400

The Field, Mary Mccarthy, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

case bound in suede covered boards, enclosed in a suede covered box; box exterior; first opening; cover; interior spreads and pages. The day unfolds as the mist rises in a country field, little by little revealing the teeming wildlife found there.

Snake, Maria G. Pisano, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

tunnel book variation with parallel concertina sides, enclosed in a printed wrapper; cover; accordion, folded out; colophon. A long, narrow tunnel book unfolds like a slithering snake.

Looking At The Sea, Sonia Chia, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Nature

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class, Printed Books.

Mixed Media May 20, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The May 20, 1996 issue includes articles, poems, drawings, student events, photos, film stills and comics. Also a calendar of events including Commencement and campus activities for RISD students are in this issue.

Mixed Media May 6, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The May 6, 1996 issue includes a calendar of events for May 6-May 12, 1996, letters to the editor, comics, poems, photos, drawings. The RISD endowment is described and also RISD faculty evaluations.

Mixed Media April 22, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The April 22, 1996 issue includes an article about diversity at RISD. Also included are poems, drawings, photographs, comics and letters to the editor.

Your Name Here April 8, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Your Name Here was a student publication begun in the spring of 1996. The April 8, 1996 issue includes an article about the location of RISD Commencement. Also included are recipes, poems, photographs and comics and a contest to name the student newspaper.

Your Name Here March 25, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Your Name Here was a student publication begun in the spring of 1996. The March 25, 1996 issue has an article about the RISD faculty contract talks and space issues at RISD. It also includes poems, drawings, photographs and comics.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Dennis Mabry, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Nature

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class, Printed Books.