Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Locus, Claire Krueger

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores my practice as it has progressed into video and video installation. I detail my use of cinematic tropes and mechanisms as they function within a spatial installation. I discuss the relationship of my work to other artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, and Kevin Cooley who also deal with themes of landscape, spatial displacement, and video viewing. My work has evolved to video installation from a need to experience the traditionally flat viewing plane of photography in a more experiential way. The Locus installation is multi sensory, in that it addresses smell, …

Hissār, Sohail Abdullah

Theses and Dissertations

Hissaar is a noun and a verb, it is the periphery and the extremities, and the walls and the fortress. And it is to encircle, to wrap and to contain. This paper is an inexhaustive account of thoughts, experiences and lessons learned, of varying forms that influence my aesthetic sensibilities, my art-value system, and my art- ethical concerns. They provide for my art the impetus for its perpetual (and perhaps circular) journey. It is about finding connections between the fraying ends of free floating ideas. The following fragments explores how words make ideas, ideas make images, images make memory; memory …

Branch Public Baths, Whitney Cardozo

Theses and Dissertations

Is it possible for a small hotel to strengthen connections between local and transient groups? Can a small hotel serve as a host to visitors to Richmond, Virginia but also serve as a ‘third place’ for people who live and work in the city? The Branch Public Baths Building in Richmond, Virginia will be renovated to strengthen community by serving as a restaurant and providing accommodations and interaction to a wide variety of travelers through an urban hotel setting. The Branch Public Baths cafe and restaurant can be an ‘anchor’ third space. This unique design solution can strategically integrate the …

Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, Sarah Briland

Theses and Dissertations

When Pliny the Elder wrote Naturalis Historia around 70 A.D., the idea of natural history contained and connected biology, geology, and mineralogy with the history of painting and sculpture. Art was an extension of the natural world as its materials were extracted from plants, animals, and, particularly, mined and quarried pigments, stone, and metals. In my developing body of work, Incidents of Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, I combine wasps’ nests, architectural fragments, and other found objects excavated from my surrounding environment with elements of glass that resemble lichen, crystallization, and geologic specimens. These works simulate artifacts of an alternative history; one …

Subduer, Lauren B. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

By reclaiming and translating the use of material in my work, I speak of oneness on a basic physical level. As the body in the images slips in and out of focus in abstraction of material, the objects patiently wait to be interjected into the composition of the space as a whole.

Underlying Conditions, Mariam Eqbal

Theses and Dissertations

The following is a collection of lines, curves, and dots on a plane, representing words fashioned to communicate my ideas about relationships between the thing and the nothing. This thesis is like a map, a contour drawing, an assortment of lines, speaking my thoughts about things in relation to space and time. As something moving, developing into another thing, as a thing sentient, I am viewing, performing, and processing incremental acts. I am looking at water and I can see my reflection break into a thousand pieces. It is like watching time.

Chapter Three, Ruby Troup

Theses and Dissertations

Where does the story begin and what are the different chapters? What forest is she traveling through and where does she store her baggage? Where are the doors that she needs to open and why must this path, follow her like a shadow? What does she shelter and what does she let sit out in the rain? What does she allow to fracture and will a wall be broken? Is she searching for something that can be found and did she leave enough breadcrumbs to find her way back?

Finding History In The Future, Al-Sowaidi Aisha

Theses and Dissertations

Change and development over an extremely fast period of time in Qatar have shifted the atmospheric sense of the country. The distance created by the skyscrapers and their scale to people has a great impact on the behavior and interaction between the people and the city. In my research, I aim to incorporate the old experiences and behaviors with contemporary design in objects used within the house to maintain the feeling of being home through reliving the fading behaviors and traditions as well as bringing closer the modern city into the home through the use of materials. Through experimentation with …

Beyond The Stated Function: Showcasing, Through Everyday Objects, Social Obstacles Imposed On Qatari Female Youth, Kazem Esra

Theses and Dissertations

This critical design project showcases obstacles that the Qatari culture and society impose on their female youth, hindering them from becoming independent individuals. It critiques the society and its social pressures. The project stimulates people to think by challenging their assumptions and perceptions, specifically social perception and judgment, family authority, and gender favoritism. This is achieved through hybridized accessories that are embedded with a meta-meaning that arouses curiosity, invites questions, and stimulates thoughts. Through the design of these appealing, high quality, and functionally viable everyday accessories, the project aims to communicate the social and cultural forces which impede Qatari female …

Narrowing The Gap Between Imaginary And Real Artifacts: A Process For Making And Filming Diegetic Prototypes, Al Hussein Wanas

Theses and Dissertations

Critical Design uses designed artifacts as a critique of consumer culture. However, the complex nature of these artifacts prompted designers to focus on the artifact and present it in an informative, but relatively isolated fashion.The theoretical framework for this thesis is drawn from a similar, yet more recent, design criterion called Design Fiction. The artifacts of Design Fiction are called Diegetic Prototypes: fictional prototypes that function in the social sphere of a film’s structure. This research develops a method for analyzing and creating artifacts, in reference to psychoanalysis theories on the human psyche and perception of objects. It then explores …

Serve The Ones Below: The Dramaturgy Of Sweeney Todd, Michael Hegarty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a personal journey. My work on VCU’s production of SWEENEY TODD began in the Spring of 2012 when I came on board the production as dramaturg. Part of what is contained within is both an explanation of my dramaturgical research method as well as samples of the research I have compiled. However, my role was drastically changed in the Fall of 2012 when I was cast as the primary antagonist in the production. The thesis chronicles the rehearsal process as my role as dramaturg increasingly gave way to my role as actor. It attempts to answer the …

In Perceiving Monsters: A Costume Design For Caryl Churchill's The Skriker, Joshua Quinn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to document my process for a costume design of The Skriker by Caryl Churchill. Included is the design account confronted in telling the story, analyzing the script, developing concepts and looks, and final rendering of the characters. The paper finishes with a reflection on how the design served the script and my conclusions on its success.

Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera. Costume Design., J. Theresa Bush

Theses and Dissertations

My concept is rooted in the fairy tail land of the dark woods like so many other terrifying fairy tails from my youth. Shockheaded Peter, our boogie man, is of the trees. The blood of the rotten children feeds the trees in this concept for the marbles that fall from our children literally representing blood will flow down the rake, across tin gutters, and into a huge tin washbasin out of which grows our gnarly set tree, a gnarly knobby willow. Peter comes from this tree that is fed by the blood of children. I set my costumes in the …

Soldiers For Democracy: Karl Loewenstein, John H. Herz, Militant Democracy And The Defense Of The Democratic State, Ben Plache

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the work of two German Jewish émigré scholars, Karl Loewenstein and John H. Herz, and how they confronted the conflict between fascism and democracy throughout the 1930s and during World War II. Loewenstein, in academic publications and later through a campaign of public advocacy, urged the adoption of his theory of militant democracy for the protection of democratic institutions. Originally conceived as temporary legislation to deprive fascists of the fundamental rights they abused in order to seize power, this theory evolved into the understanding by Loewenstein that fascist and democratic states could not coexist, and that fundamental …

Laughing Together: Comedic Theatre As A Mechanism Of Survival During The Holocaust, Robin Knepp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to analyze the ways many Jewish victims of the Holocaust used comedic theatre to help them overcome their dire circumstances by exploring the high demand for comedic performance in both the ghettoes and concentration camps and analyzing the numerous comedic works that were penned amidst the terror and catastrophic loss surrounding the Jews at this time. The second portion delves into the therapeutic values of comedy and explores the ways laughing may have benefitted those who partook in comedic theatre events. The final chapter investigate whether or not laughter should still be used to help cope with …

Lashes To Ashes, Exploring The Hidden Dimensions Of Human Hair, Rania Chamsine

Theses and Dissertations

Hair is power, beauty and seduction: a reflection of ethnicity and religion, and even a canvas for self-expression. A key feature in defining identity and social status, it holds the essence of our individuality. However, once removed from its original and natural setting—the epidermis—hair is seen as waste, and often evokes disgust. The objective of this thesis is to explore human hair, which particularly in the Arabic-Islamic region, carries great significance and raises many religious, cultural, and gender issues. Through design, and informed by critical design theory, I explore how this corporeal material can be reused and re-presented as a …

Not Another Space Suit: Fusing Technology And Indigenous Solutions To Facilitate Thermal Comfort, Alia Khairat

Theses and Dissertations

Unseen, unheard and unconsidered, Qatar’s migrant worker population is building one of the richest countries in the world. They labor in Qatar’s high heat index1 climate, which is coincidentally comparable to an Oriental sauna, wearing the most rudimentary of clothes. Working up to 60 hours a week, migrant workers fall victim to heat stress and dozens are hospitalized daily, starting as early as March and increasing in numbers during the peak months of June to August. Since clothes are essentially a “second skin,” affecting the rate and efficiency with which heat is exchanged between the body and its surroundings, a …

The Napoleonic Empire And The Making Of A Modern Public: Policing, Politics, And Parades In Nineteenth-Century Hamburg, 1806-1830, Brendan Haidinger

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the attention historians have given to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Central Europe, few works have sought to understand these events' reverberations throughout the nineteenth century in a local or regional context. Taking the northern German city of Hamburg as its focal point, this study investigates the change in the urban political culture affected by eight years of Napoleonic occupation. In the process of replacing Hamburg's sprawling and archaic government with one characterized by Gallic centralization and rigor, the French introduced a new style of politics that relied on consistent, public, and martial presentations of its authority. This …

Teaching And Performing Theatre For Youth Using Physical Storytelling, Brooke Turner Alison

Theses and Dissertations

For children to enjoy theatre they must see a story played out physically. The same is true when children act. Young performers must be taught to act using a simplified version of the Stanislavski System that puts emphasis on playable action. This thesis evaluates current acting texts for youth based on whether or not the author is able to outline a method that is accessible for children, and highlights the importance of playable action in scene work. It also provides a guide to teaching theatre for youth based on a class of the author’s design where students developed curriculum, managed …

Yuxtaposición Entre La Sumisión Y La Liberación Sexual En Las Edades De Lulú Como Reflejo De La Realidad Española Durante La Transición, Elena María Garcia Oliveros

Theses and Dissertations

Esta tesis analiza el contexto histórico en el que la novela de Almudena Grandes, Las edades de Lulú (1989), es escrita y cómo influye en el desarrollo del personaje protagonista. De esta manera se establece una relación entre los aspectos socioculturales más representativos de los años de la transición española y la relación entre los dos personajes principales, Lulú y Pablo.

Second Nature In Kant's Theory Of Artistic Creativity, Adam Blazej

Theses and Dissertations

One of the central claims of John McDowell's Mind and World is that, in reconciling an apparent opposition between the normative and the natural, philosophers should look to a notion of second nature: the idea that nature includes a species of animals (namely, human beings) who, through their socialization, transform themselves into rational beings capable of thinking about and acting in the world in response to reasons. McDowell argues that Kant lacks a notion of second nature and thereby fails to overcome the relevant problem of reconciliation. My aim in this paper is to show that (pace McDowell) Kant does …

The Myth Of Given Reasons: An Essay On Agency And Rational Constraint, John Samuel

Theses and Dissertations

Any satisfying account of practical deliberation—and the grounding of the reasons on which it is based—needs to make sense of how we can be both rationally constrained and at the same time responsible agents. If we lean too far to the side of grounding normativity in features of the world external to ourselves as agents we run the risk of losing sight of how we can be anything other than mechanically responsive, while if we lean too far to the side of voluntarism we risk losing sight of how our free actions can be nonetheless rational. Ruth Chang proposes an …

The Rhetorical Construction Of Female Empowerment: The Avenging-Woman Narrative In Popular Television And Film, Lara C. Stache

Theses and Dissertations

In this critical rhetorical analysis, I examine the contemporary avenging-woman narrative in popular television and film. As a rhetorical text, the avenging-woman narrative can be read as a representation of cultural constructions of female empowerment. In this project, I situate the contemporary avenging-woman narrative within the context of a contemporary third wave feminist culture, in order to articulate how the representations of female empowerment in the texts may be a negotiation of cultural tensions about feminism. The four primary texts chosen for inclusion within this study are made up of two television shows, Revenge (2011-present) and Veronica Mars (2003-2007), and …

Western Swing In Transcription: Who's Sorry Now? By Milton Brown And His Musical Brownies (Decca 5158-B), Madeline Olson Dietrich

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a full-score transcription of a recording of a string band performing a Tin Pan Alley song. Context is established through a review of events leading up to the recording, focusing on contributions by key personnel. Decca 5158-B, Who's Sorry Now? by Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies is today regarded as westerns swing, but the

style is hardly comparable to the slick, highly arranged sound of western swing orchestras from the late 1940s and early 50s. The Brownies were a Texas fiddle band playing mostly pop and jazz standards, not the cowboy and western themed repertory of …

Painting The Dead, Cherri Conley

Theses and Dissertations

In the small town of Juan, Texas, eight residents struggle with tradition versus progress over the course of a story that begins and ends with murder. A few of them are Corine and Lola Espinosa--sisters who are abandon in Juan while their mother pursues love; Daniel Wilton--nearly an orphan, he resists the constricting traditions of Juan; Felipe Chavez, son of Mike Chavez, the sheriff, struggles with loving a woman who wants nothing more than to live somewhere else than Juan; Mike Chavez is a complicated man who carries the love of two women; and Grace, along with a few other …

Painting Lucretia: Fear And Desire : A Feminist Discourse On Representations By Artemisia Gentileschi And Tintoretto, Amy Lynne Endres

Theses and Dissertations

The myth of the Roman heroine, Lucretia, celebrates feminine ideals of virtue and chastity and is considered pivotal to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Yet, her rape and suicide is also the fulcrum of uncomfortable tension about notions of female sexuality, morality, patriotism and heroism.

My thesis is a comparative discussion of two intriguing and radically dissimilar paintings of Lucretia: Tarquin and Lucretia by Tintoretto and Lucretia by Artemisia Gentileschi. These paintings function as visual counterpoints that reflect the diverse literary and historical interpretations of her legend.

Tintoretto and Gentileschi depict two different, yet pivotal and dramatic moments in …

Incremental Storytelling And Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction A Critical Introduction, William Trent Hergenrader

Theses and Dissertations

This critical introduction to Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction argues that university creative writing programs should make full use of the institutional space, time, and resources available to them by introducing students to different types of writing projects and engage students in critical discussions about creative production, activities that they are unlikely to find outside the university's walls. These activities includes experimenting with digital tools, creating multimedia compositions, and producing collaborative work, as well as situating creative writing as an embodied act within specific historical, political, and material conditions. Herein I forward my theory of incremental storytelling, which is informed by …

"Just Perceiv'd & Next Door To Nothing:" An Investigation Of Minima In The Work Of George Berkeley, Nicholas Bryant Nash

Theses and Dissertations

For George Berkeley the minimum visibile and the minimum tangibile are the minimum points that can be perceived by the senses of sight and touch (NTV 54). His account of minima is considered by some to be central to his account of perception and his assault on skepticism, while others view the account as simply a digression from his main theme in the New Theory of Vision. One issue in particular that commentators disagree on is whether or not Berkeley understands minima to be extended or not extended. I argue that minima can only be understood as not extended. In …

La Figura Del Hombre Lobo En La Literatura Moderna Peninsular, Miguel Rojo Polo

Theses and Dissertations

En la trilogía Hombre lobo, Pedro Riera nos presenta una novela juvenil en la que el protagonista, Eduardo, se ve enfrentado a su herencia de hombre lobo. A través de esta colección Pedro Riera pasa a formar parte de un tipo de literatura popular que ha visto un resurgimiento masivo en los últimos 10 años. Con esta tesis vamos a introducirnos en la trilogía, usándola para estudiar la figura tradicional del hombro lobo que se presenta en los tres libros El furtivo (2011), Los Bersekir (2012) y La furia (2012). Realizaremos un análisis de la figura del hombre lobo a …

Representaciones De La Mujer En La Literatura De Violencia: El Universo Narco-Sicaresco De Rosario Tijeras De Jorge Franco, Ruth Nelly Solarte Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

El tema central de esta tesis es analizar la representación de la mujer sicaria presente en la era narcoterrorista colombiana recreada en el universo literario de la novela Rosario Tijeras de Jorge Franco. Se examina aquí cómo el sicario encarnado en una mujer contribuye a una complejización del género de la novela sicaresca, puesto que el sicario en la tradición literaria ha sido siempre representado con personajes masculinos. Por esta razón se analiza el bildungsroman en torno a la protagonista, así como también su retrato literario frente a la construcción capitalista y consumista de lo femenino, el lugar de la …