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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish Jan 2023

The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish

CMC Senior Theses

In 1989, artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A short few months after the two artists became grant recipients, the funding for each of them was pulled as a result of escalating controversy and anger over the art created by both artists being funded by a federal organization. Those angered by the art and their respective grants tied the messaging of the art to the beliefs and values of the state—Serrano’s photograph being tied to a commentary on the overcommercialization of religion and Mapplethorpe’s exhibition being unabashedly queer and, at …


Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton, Blake Morton Jan 2021

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton, Blake Morton

CMC Senior Theses

I constantly experience external pressure to make identity-related art work in response to the ongoing racial-reckoning occurring in the United States.

Initially, I was concerned with the pitfalls of creating identity-art. One of which being pigeon-held as a Black artist— whose sole function is to share my vulnerable experiences —and be commodified and diluted for superficial consumption. A Black artist whose work would only be valuable when institutions needed to satisfy a diversity quota, a Black History Month initiative or to conduct damage control after being “canceled.”

All of which may very well still happen. I’ve utilized this project to …


Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela Jan 2021

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

CMC Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …


Art's Truth: An Aid To Ethical Sensibility, Nova Quaoser Jan 2019

Art's Truth: An Aid To Ethical Sensibility, Nova Quaoser

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper I explore the philosophical implications of decision theory and deliberation on ethics, paying special attention to how vicious individuals yearn for a separate philosophical account. Drawing largely on Fricker, McDowell, Paul, and Nussbaum I discuss how transformative experiences open a window for understanding moral development in terms of habituation in the Aristotelian sense, and further how the vicious individual’s failure to deliberate may be remedied via a transformation through art.


Art Of The Weimar Republic And The Premonitions Of Fascism, Leshan Xiao Jan 2018

Art Of The Weimar Republic And The Premonitions Of Fascism, Leshan Xiao

CMC Senior Theses

Founded in 1918 following the carnage of World War One until the Nazi takeover of 1933, the Weimar Republic is widely renowned as a bastion of freedom and democracy that existed only briefly between the reigns of two authoritarian regimes. The Weimar period witnessed an unprecedented prosperity of art and culture, with tremendous advancements in the fields of literature, the visual arts, and film. However, the remnants of the old Empire persisted within the new Republic, and new fascist factions rose to prominence within German society. Artists that lived through the era, both liberal and conservative, observed and provided their …


Waterways - Soon Dry, Aiyanna Cameron-Lewis Jan 2018

Waterways - Soon Dry, Aiyanna Cameron-Lewis

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the historical and contemporary situation of waterways in Los Angeles. It examines the birth and growth of metropolitan LA and contrasts this narrative with the current and pressing issues of drought and gentrification. This contrast raises the question of the sustainability of human growth in resource-scarce regions. From this analysis it forwards a nuanced perspective of the hypothesis that the dynamics of environmental degradation in the LA region threaten human growth. It suggests that this degradation comes as a result of egocentric human development projects by the elite. This paper examines all of this through the lens …


A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky Jan 2014

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …


The Silhouettes Of Autism, Chloe J. Dobbert Jan 2013

The Silhouettes Of Autism, Chloe J. Dobbert

CMC Senior Theses

My passion as a student at the Claremont Colleges is to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder grow and learn as normal children and to help prepare them for life outside the Autism Center at Claremont McKenna College. In my thesis project, I am exploring the concept of silhouettes through photography and my perceptions of the stories told to me by the children I teach. Esthetically, I am inspired by Kara Walker’s installation of large cutout silhouettes but I am using different mediums to accomplish my project: Artistically, I am inspired by the detailed descriptions of the obsessive stories and …


Wilde And Wonderful: The Ultimate Aesthete's Redefinition Of Individualism, As An Idealist, And Then As An Outcast, Anna Brill Jan 2012

Wilde And Wonderful: The Ultimate Aesthete's Redefinition Of Individualism, As An Idealist, And Then As An Outcast, Anna Brill

CMC Senior Theses

Oscar Wilde redefined the relationship between Life and Art, and attempted to live in the style of the characters in his works: pursuing Beauty. His view of Life as imitating Art played a crucial role in his definition of Individualism. In his works, he explored how one develops one's personality and Individuality, and society's role in suppressing the Individual. He firmly believed that Life and ugliness were inextricably intertwined, and that society's moral structure was to blame. Popular in his time as an artist, he made it a point in his writing and in his work to stand apart from …