Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mending Art Classrooms: An Exploration Of The Benefits Of Collaborative Artmaking For Underinvested Black Youth In Richmond, Virginia, Jazmine M. Beatty

Theses and Dissertations

This arts-informed research study explored the experiences of local community artists and educators working to radically transform and heal the experiences of underinvested Black students in Richmond through collaborative arts engagement. Through a series of seven one-on-one interviews with Black teaching artists in the Richmond community, I was able to uncover how collaboration has and can continue to improve the well-being and livelihoods of Black students in Richmond. Also, by tapping into the local Mending Walls mural project, I was able to make a tangible connection between the Richmond community, art, and collaboration. An analysis of the interviews led to …

Cultural Production In Qatar: Design, Dialog And The New Authentic, Asma Derouiche

Theses and Dissertations

Qatar, as a rapidly modernizing Arab country with a highly heterogeneous emergent community, is working to achieve a balance between accelerated development and cultural identity. Qatar’s cross-cultural environment and diverse attributes offer unprecedented opportunity to produce forward-looking, “100% Qatari Products,” that express a New Authentic.

This thesis explores social dynamics governing cultural production in Qatar, and it challenges unproductive manifestations of social hierarchy—particularly related to norms surrounding the default working relationship between designers and artisans. The research highlights and celebrates the inherent diversity of the Qatari artifact, creating a platform and methods wherein designers and artisans collaborate equally and meaningfully. …

Jazz, Improvisation & The Importance Of Collaboration, Laurie Marcotte

Theses and Dissertations

Project Statement

As one of the least popular, yet highly influential and pervasive, musical genres of modern times, jazz will help inspire impressionable high school aged students in cultivating individual expression and collaboration through an environment of musical and social interaction. The project is designed to be a safe haven for these students where the ambiance intends to promote a sense of self-worth, security, and curiosity through the engagement of jazz music.

Concept Statement

The project celebrates harmony and individual expression through the improvisational and collaborative efforts of jazz music.

Motivation

It is commonly accepted that music education has a …

Path, Evan Galbicka

Theses and Dissertations

Path is a collaborative system that developed over the course of five months of studio activity and continued through the duration of the exhibition. The system’s main collaborators were a land snail native to eastern North America (Neohelix albolabris), myself, and a digital cellular automaton. These prime agents interwove processes and exchanges between one another into a complex network of folded fractal feedback loops. Cyclic processes produced artifacts and infrastructures to support communication between the components and agents of Path. As a whole, Path spoke to the possibilities for interspecies, cyber-physical, and ecological collaboration to create an …

Gomds - Grumpy Old Men Doing Shakespeare; The Comedy Of Errors As Metaphor For Life, Aging, And Building Community, Elizabeth B. Pedersen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the process of building community over time, through collaboration, to rehearse and produce a portable production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, looking at the elements of time, trust and age with an ensemble of ten men, all actors over the age of 55. The building of trust over time was vital to the production process and the actors had the time to embody their roles and the language of the play. We look at the questions “why this play,” “why all men?” and “why theatre?” and investigate the physical nature of the play and its …

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Creating The Foundation For Collaboration Amongst The Arts Disciplines, Powered By Tectonic Theatre Project’S Moment Work, Tara B. Weintraub

Theses and Dissertations

During this course, upper-level VCUArts students are invited to join forces to become a part of a cross-disciplinary, ensemble-based exploration. Powered by Tectonic Theatre Project’s Moment Work, students will create new works and gain insight into the philosophies, purposes, and processes of Moment Work and other devised theatre techniques. The class will culminate in short, devised pieces, created and performed by the students. The focus of the class is on the creation of a harmonious ensemble amongst a varied group of young artists. I believe that in order to create a generation of innovative and forward-thinking artists, the segregation of …

Mob2030 – A Place Between Solitude And Collaboration, Xuan Liu

Theses and Dissertations

The design of an experimental interdisciplinary design lab–MOB 2030–within a waterfront building in Richmond, Virginia, provides an opportunity for designers to find infinite inspirations. The tools of interior design are used to manipulate a wide range of functional and formal elements to define designers’ relationship to space, work and nature. The final project provides three studios, three galleries, rooftop and waterfront landscapes, and collaboration steps connect other spaces together.

Co-Creation: A Study Of Intimacy And Control, Erin Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from ongoing revitalization initiatives in Richmond, Virginia, this adaptive reuse project creates a structured dialogue between public and private expression to create a more immersive gallery experience for viewer and practitioner. The gallery experience is twofold; traditional object-based display and nontraditional process-based display. Preservation of the historic fabric of the existing Handcraft building at 1501 Roseneath is integrated with the transformative potential of introducing voyeuristic opportunities in creating a community arts center. Notions of voyeurism will center around ideas of visual connection and physical separation. This project questions if tactics of voyeurism, which inherently create physical barriers, can facilitate …

Assessing Design Thinking Through The Activation Of A Social Challenge In Higher Education: An Academic Inquiry, Amin Matni

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an inquiry that documents, identifies and assesses the effectiveness, circumstances, and potential resources related to addressing the gap between social needs and higher education as stated in the National Development Strategy 2011-2016. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the response of the students on the collaborative, human-centered, result-oriented aspects of design thinking while addressing the eating experience topic, an articulated theme from the wicked problem of obesity. The eating experience theme provided students from design, business and engineering majors a contextualized topic to test design thinking in a series of workshops conducted in three different …

Between Scenic Designer And Director: The Collaborative Process Of Four Productions, Elizabeth R. Muller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the unique designs for four productions: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Is He Dead?, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Legacy of Light. Presented here are the research images, conversations, situations and their resulting designs represented in my renderings and photographs of the fully realized production. Throughout, I will state my objectives in bettering the quality of interaction with each director and my reflections on the ongoing process of creating a trusting and balanced collaborative process, one that expertly serves the production.

Modes Of Participation: Co-Creative Approaches To The Design Process, Carissa Henriques

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the notion of participation within the graphic design and problem-solving process. Through projects using generative tools and collaboration, I explore ways to instigate controlled participation from designers and non-designers. I observe and document how the methods and means of participation affect the creative process during these projects.

Mods: Collaboration And Play In Design, Margaret O'Saben

Theses and Dissertations

Located in Richmond, Virginia, MO Design is a small design/build company founded by Molly O’Saben. Ms. O’Saben received her bachelor’s degree in Craft & Material Studies and her master’s in Interior Environments from Virginia Commonwealth University. MO Design was founded in 2010 with a team of fellow alumni from VCU.

We make objects that inspire inventiveness. Our reconfigurable components offer our clients the unique ability to adapt their environments to life’s ever-changing needs.

We make MODs: Make your Own Designs.

Our products are for people who appreciate efficient spaces, are open to exploring possibilities, and like to play. Just as …