Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Parallel Dichotomies: Serialism, Folk Song, The University, And Authenticity, David Blake

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis seeks to analyze the similarities between the electronic music and serialist movement in art music, and the folk revival, both of which peaked during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Each of these movements contained within them an avant-garde that positioned itself on the university setting to gain cultural terrain to combat what they perceived to be commercialized “kitsch.” The avant-gardes within each culture felt the ideologies they promoted were justified because they were authentic. Electronic music composers and serialists viewed themselves as aligned with the modernist tradition of art music, which promoted the progression of music through …

Pirate Story, Jake T. Powell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

What is children’s cinema? This thesis explores this question by identifying three codes of children’s film and illuminating them through a short film entitled “Pirate Story.” The film is about a boy and his grandfather, and the pirates that inhabit a bedtime story. The pirates compete with the grandfather to have narrative authority over their own existence. This film examines the role of the narrator, use of animation, and absence of the parental figures as elements that are signifiers of children’s cinema. It was shot on HD video, with animation created in After Effects. Production also involved creation of a …

A Designer’S Process, Emily Derr

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The objective of my thesis was to design a collection of six garments and produce one made from fabric I developed using Silk Cloqué which involves felting wool in between two layers of silk gauze. The process was initially developed by David and Dorita Reyen of Reyen Design Studio based on the work of textile designer Polly Stirling. I became interested in Silk Cloqué when the Reyens were selling their work in Slocum Hall. In fall 2004, I began working with them. My first experience working with Silk Cloqué was at one of the Reyen’s scarf workshops. My other experiences …

Pictorial And Spiritual Spaces A Personal Journey Through Painting And Meditation, Brendon Palmer-Angell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The way that an artist works is directly affected by the way that they perceive and interact with their surroundings. My work over the past year has dealt with the way that I perceive different universal aspects of human experience such as death, separation and personal motivation. The work itself consists of large representational figurative paintings executed in acrylic, oil and various drawing mediums on canvas, linen, or illustration board. Each piece is preceded by a number of preparatory drawings in which space, characters, and narrative evolve.

The way that I approach subject matter and the execution of paintings has …

La Petite Piaf: The Development And Performance Of An Original One –Woman Show, Rachel M. Moulton

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My thesis project was the process of adapting the script and music, rehearsing, performing, and producing an original one-woman show. The production is called “La Petite Piaf” and is based on events in the life of Edith Piaf. I adapted, produced, starred in an original one-woman show. It ran seventy-five minutes without an intermission and consisted of dialogue in English and fifteen songs in French. I portrayed Edith Piaf. I oversaw every element of the production. I was in charge of my marketing, finding a performance space, securing dates, hiring a pianist, stage manager, and run crew, finding a lighting …

The Belle Of Amherst: A Reflection Of Life In Art, Evelyn Gaynor

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The goal and purpose of this thesis was the cohesive performance and production of The Belle of Amherst by William Luce. The play is a fictionalized account of the life of the poetess Emily Dickinson, taking place in a day late in her life where she reminisces on all her experiences from childhood to the present. Emily is the only character physically on stage, and all the rest are created through her descriptions and representations of them for the audience. The play is also an insight into her poetry, using the actual poetic text throughout the script. The audience never …

Www . 200hearts . Net, Lindsay Huff

Honors Capstone Projects - All

www.200hearts.net was envisioned as a way of bringing people together through their interactions with a series of handmade objects. My goal as a metalsmith is to create objects compelling enough to elicit response and inspire an ever-evolving Internet-based conversation on the general topics of friendship, love, universality, and shared experience. Thus, I am interested in art as a dialogical process of shared knowing rather than a process solely relying on the insight of the artist.

Two hundred copper hearts were created by hand to facilitate this discussion and to create a community based on the shared experience of interacting with …

I Am What I Wear: The Use Of Dress In Constructing And Evaluating Sexual Identity, Jean Stevens

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis explores different disciplinary studies and discussions of dress, and more specifically, the use of dress in constructing a gendered identity and sexual identity. To conduct this research, I performed a literature review and referenced various social psychological, sociological, and/or feminist theoretical frameworks. I argue that dress cannot serve as any sort of innate or accurate indicator of sexual identity; rather, the meanings associated with dress are socially produced and vary across time and place. Evidence for this argument emerges only after a literature review, as one can recognize a common theme linking the literature, or perhaps a commonly …

Landscaping Helen Frankenthaler, Morgan Ridler

Honors Capstone Projects - All

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. There’s no danger then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. It is what started the artist off, excited his ideas, and stirred up his emotions. Ideas and emotions will in the end be prisoners in his work. Whatever they do, they can’t escape from the picture. They form an integral part of it, even when their presence is no longer discernible. — Picasso1 Helen Frankenthaler is an Abstract Expressionist painter who seems to prove …

A History Of Twentieth-Century Handmade Metalsmithing In Europe And America, Ruth Koelewyn

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The author traces the development of modern and artistic themes in metalwork of the Western world throughout the twentieth century. The argument is that metalsmithing from 1900 to 2000 reacted to the rapid mechanization and the technological developments of the period. The results are uniquely modern, and differ immensely from the work done before the Industrial Revolution. The twentieth century was thus a period in which the styles changed dramatically but also had common themes. Through careful examination, the author points out these commonalities, and concludes that technology has pushed the field of contemporary handmade metalsmithing out of the crafts …

Exploring Spaces: A Series Of Video Experiments, Nicholas R. Kinling

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My overall intention of this project was use the Honors Thesis Project to apply what I have learned while studying art video to create a collection of successful videos that allow me to work above and beyond the art video curriculum. I was eager to work independently on a long-term project, and the Honors Thesis Project provided me with both an exciting and challenging opportunity to display my academic initiative and creative drive.

Upon completion of the thesis project, I selected six video art pieces that I felt were most successful and relevant to the project theme. The theme of …

Exhibiting Modernism In America A Look At The People, Places, And Exhibits That Brought Modernism To America, Jacqueline M. Parker

Honors Capstone Projects - All

At the end of the nineteenth century American art and art exhibits were stuck in a conservative academic aesthetic that dominated the American art scene. Modernism, which had been flourishing in Paris since the 1870s, was still completely alien to the United States. The few progressive artists that were working in the U.S. found it impossible to exhibit or sell their work, since there was no market for American art done outside the National Academy of Design or the Society of American Artists. In order for these artists to succeed the American aesthetic needed to change in favor of a …

Doozy Productions, Andrew Steier

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Doozy Productions is a project in producing songs performed and recorded in Sound Studio 3 at the S.I.NewhouseSchoolof Public Communications. The recordings range from a variety of musical genres, including rock, soul, and jazz. The purpose of the project was to produce the highest-quality music by using professional recording and mixing tools. Preparations for production included research on how sound functions and projects in an electronic medium, as well as listening to professional recordings across all genres. All music was recorded, mixed, and produced by Andrew Steier.*

* “Electric Waltz” was produced by Emily Osgood and Andrew Steier.

The Heart Is A Muscle, Emily Kowalczyk

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Heart is a Muscle is a video shot with a Sony HVR-Z1U and manipulated to create a visual hybrid between an old Super 8mm home movie and the crisp HD picture of the newest technology. I achieved most of this manipulation by layering filters and de-interlacing the video to slightly blur the image and make it appear softer.

Conceptually, the video centers around the idea that a muscle must break down/apart before it can get stronger and grow. It then takes this fact and applies it to the heart (which is also a type of muscle), and explores the …

Saving Face Racial Socialization And Its Effect On Cross Socioeconomic African American Interactions, Tiffany Nicholson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not Included

A Real World Love Story, Erik Jeffrey

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not Included

Tears Of A Clown, Adam Knobler

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my honors thesis project, I chose to write a screenplay entitled, “Tears of a Clown”. This story, which is roughly based on my life, is about two clowns who wind up falling in love and working together in the circus. This story loosely shadows my life in the sense that I myself wanted to pursue a career in standup comedy rather than clowning. The main difference between my life and the life of the main character was that despite the fact that I did not fail at being a standup comedian, I chose to pursue an alternative route of …

An Original Line Of Bridesmaids’ Dresses, Mae Polson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

A line of original bridesmaids’ dresses began as a market research project for Lara Hélène Bridal Atelier inNew York City. I was to research information on current clientele and find out what they were looking for in a bridesmaid’s dress. In doing my research I sourced books on brides and weddings, internet wedding sites, conducted surveys, and took personal interviews with the founders of Lara Hélène. The market research turned into a concept to design an original line of bridesmaids’ dresses that filled a void for a unique and elegant collection that fit into Lara Hélène’s company image.

Following the …

Horse Saddles For Adaptive Riders, Mark Rogers

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“Hippos” is the Greek word for horse. “Hippotherapy” literally means treatment with the help of the horse. In this field specially trained, licensed physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists use the special nature of a horse to help clients meet their therapy needs. This project investigates the process of making therapeutic progress on horseback. It describes the field of hippotherapy and presents a new saddle design to make the process of therapy more effective. My design process started out with broad user research. Video camera in hand, I went to observe a form of hippotherapy called Adaptive Riding …

Directing Rhinoceros, Erin Schultz

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my honors thesis, I am directing the play Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. Ionesco wrote this play after World War II to artistically explore how something as terrible as the Holocaust, Fascism, and the Nazi party could be allowed control and power in society. How could people allow themselves and others to turn into wild beasts? Rhinoceros is an absurdist play, with characters literally turning into violent rhinos, symbolically allowing violence to overtake them.

The play explores the behavior of people facing and exploring groupthink, apathy, and standing up for one’s own beliefs in the face of opposition. I think …

The Effects Of Live And Recorded Musical Presentation On Stimulated Behaviors In Individuals With Alzheimer’S Disease, Nicole Mancini

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that affects a person’s memory and cognitive functioning ability. Millions of Americans are currently suffering from this disease and the number will continue to grow as life expectancy increases for the general population. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and treatment options are limited. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate new ways to improve the quality of life and care provided for these individuals. Research in music therapy has generated promising results suggesting that music can be an effective intervention when caring for Alzheimer’s patients. The purpose of this study was …