Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Beyond The Bell: Rebuilding Care, Civic Learning And Creativity Within Youth Spaces, Michelle R. Haapala

Culminating Experience Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate high school age students’ opportunities within formal classroom settings to engage in care, civic learning, and creativity within a suburban, publicly-funded charter school. This study used thematic analysis and coding methods to organize and find patterns in the qualitative data from surveys distributed to education professionals at Canton Preparatory High School in Canton, Michigan. The goal is to establish a foundation of the perception of care, civic learning, and creativity within school environments and classroom settings. Overall, education professionals rated these categories positively, but with a closer investigation, a disconnect is found. …

A Pursuance Of Self, Kassidy Albert

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The self portrait is a consistent aspect of art history, with many artists returning to it again and again across their lives. This project intends to explore the function of the self portrait. Through research and execution of artwork, the artist has found that the self portrait has multiple functions, including: a practice of anatomy; a display of status, skill, and likeness; an outlet for emotion; and a place for psychological confrontation. Across the life of this project, the artist completed twenty-two self portraits in a variety of styles and materials.

Standing On The Edge Of A Dream, Parto Ahmadpour Mobarake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Standing On the Edge of a Dream delves into the intricate tapestry of lived experiences shaped by relocation, emphasizing the nuanced space that exists between reality and imagination. As an individual who has undergone the transformative journey of immigration, I recognize that the concept of relocation is like standing on the edge of a dream. This notion becomes a living structure, intricately woven with threads from our past, present, and future. My artistic exploration extends beyond my artworks, yet it remains deeply rooted in my personal narratives. The artworks in the exhibition continue to draw inspiration from personal memories and …

The Modern Artist's Psyche: Making Meaning In Art Through History, Jenna Banks

Theses

The Modern Artist’s Psyche: Making Meaning in Art Through History provides a way for students to study and analyze works by Modern artists that explore themes like loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and despair. By studying these artists and their works, students learn about topics like art appreciation and psychoanalysis; specifically, how each artist used their mental state to create their visual products. Students learn about art appreciation through the process of discussing and answering questions about specific art works. Students also study the concept of psychoanalysis, relating to theories and techniques that have been used by Modern artists. This connects to …

The Space Between, Alexander Dixon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Space Between investigates the intricate relationship between perception and reality. By integrating graphic design principles with the optical qualities of glass, the exhibition creates visual distortions that challenge and redefine our understanding of the world. The pervasive use of black throughout the exhibition signifies the vectorized image, a vital element of graphic design and the technological abyss prevalent within our society. The fundamental geometric shapes, coupled with minimalist sculptural forms, employ a graphic approach to highlight visual communication's influence on perception.

Graphic design has a history of shaping public perception. The basis of graphic design is the act of …

Art Of Aging – A Portraiture Study, Alaina Mann

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The process of aging can be viewed through different lenses within our society. In the past, scientists and medical professionals performed various studies to better understand and analyze different facets of aging, medicine, and health in general. Historically the arts have reflected multiple aspects of medicine and treatments while more recently, the arts have been used in a research capacity to provide different ways to represent illness, suffering, and care. This study used art-based research methods and portraiture to gather qualitative observations on the older populations within our community. Data collected included drawings, a field journal, and interviews. This study …

Enchanted South Tarot: A Contemporary Interpretation Of Tarot, Hannah Mathis

Theses

This project uses qualitative research to create an original 78-card tarot deck. Its focus is to create a tarot deck informed by the rich history and symbolism of tarot while utilizing original art and unique experiences to create a one-of-a-kind deck. The deck’s artwork showcases flora, fauna, and manufactured objects of the Southeastern United States, referencing traditional tarot archetypes to select each card’s imagery. The deck’s guidebook introduces readers to some of the history of tarot and several historical and contemporary decks that inspired the Enchanted South deck. The project emphasizes tarot’s evolution and how each artist’s contribution adds layers …

A Queered Exhibition: Lgbtqia+ Artists Expressing Identity And Visibility Through Art-Based Research, Christy D. Paris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Too often museums, galleries, and art curriculum ignore or erase the lives and art of LGBTQIA+ individuals. This exhibition aimed to make the diverse lives and art from the queer community visible. Integrating queer perspectives and visibility is empowering and creates a sense of belonging. Queering the art world can present alternative perspectives, promote diversity, and provide exposure to a more inclusive experience for all. The aim of this inquiry is to inform institutional practices within museums on queer inclusivity and further scholarship on this topic by engaging with the queer art community and public during an exhibition held in …

Nothing To See Hear, Adam Kuykendall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nothing to See/Hear is a research experiment into minimalist visual narrative via the short film Not the Boss of Me, in which the criteria for production mandated only the bare essential elements required to construct and convey a plot and its characters be used while filming within a nondescript space - in this case, a mostly empty soundstage. How does one tell a story and define its characters without direct expository dialogue? What is needed to establish and define locations and/or environments when limited to only one or two items? Can an audience engage their imagination to fill in the …

Examining Our Relationship With Death: A Participatory Art Project, Lia A. Davido

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Death is a fact of life, yet researchers such as Caitlin Doughty, Todd Harra, Ernest Becker, and others, have found that people deem death a taboo topic of conversation. Doughty herself started a social movement, death positivity, to encourage this taboo to be broken, and to normalize talking about death. However these researchers published their findings in the early to mid 2010’s, before a major pandemic made death a more common occurrence for people. Inspired by previous researchers' experiences, this project asks the question: How do people feel about death now, and can socially engaged art create a space where …

Exiles: Trauma, Art & Design, Edwin Lew-Højbak Paquette

University Honors Theses

A BFA thesis about the researching, writing, illustrating, and printing of a graphic novel. The story, an auto-biographical exploration of trauma using magical realism, is based on the Jungian psychology concept of shadow work and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

I, Others, World - A Glass Circuit, Ariel Aravot

Masters Theses

In the summer of 2022, I had an epiphany about what an art-work is in its most expansive form: a circuit, activated by art creation, between self and others, and between them to wider worlds, and back to the self. ‘A GLASS CIRCUIT’ is the tale of my ongoing exploration of myself as a glass artist, the conscious discovery of my path, which is both consistent and incessantly changing. My works are the stepping stones that sustain my creative process as a glass blower and at the same time introduce experimentality, new questions, and new research topics.

The circuit is …

Both Human And Holy: A Veneration Of Personhood Through Mythic Means, Abigail Porter

MFA in Visual Arts Theses

Mythology acts as a reflection of humanity, a connection of personhood and storytelling that spans through history. This essay covers how the ideas of myth, personhood, archetype, and portraiture remain central to my work. The nature of mythology is innately human in all aspects, centering on ideas being both fictitious and truthful - which allows the ideas of the dualistic aspects between the personhood and mythos with the figures worked with. My work is about people; I elevate the figure into mythic while using those myths to discuss the aspects of identity. My work leans heavily upon my own fixation …

El Mundo Del Amor: Un Sitio Para Apoyar A Lxs Hispanohablantes Locales Y Crear La Percatación Y La Diversidad En El Condado De San Luis Obispo, Daniele Lauran Mcclements

World Languages and Cultures

This project is a collective piece of tangible material that is a product of my years of learning, listening, and witnessing the overlap between the depth of different Spanish-speaking and Latinx cultures, and the various identities within the LGBTQ+ community. Taking a critical lens on what I have learned as an anglo student at Cal Poly through the words of a language that is not mine, this project speaks to the many layers to which my love, fascination and dedication with the Spanish language and cultures have impacted my life. Essentially, this project is a love letter and encapsulation of …

Evanescent: Animating Space, Kyle Servando

City and Regional Planning

A redesign of the open space of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA into an plein air gallery for the public to be their own artists.

Melting, Dripping, Becoming: The Operations Of Memory From The Perspective Of Wax, Naomi Yu

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In my thesis, I explore how different compositional and material techniques are used to re-create a memory. Looking at artists such as Kiki Smith, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Anselm Keifer, I investigate the ways in which they utilize 2D and 3D materials to re-create feelings of memory.

I argue that the art object can conserve and portray memory through metaphorical acts of preservation. I will be specifically studying the acts of encasing and layering as a means to simulate the feelings of memory. I argue that these metaphorical actions create an artificial sense of time that imbues these objects with created …

A Meditation On Loneliness And The Mind's Limits: Combining Buddhism And Art To Better Understand Our Relationship To The Unknown, William Masters

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this essay, I explain how my art practice instigates inquiry into uncomfortable subjects such as loneliness and how our limits of perception and cognition prevent us from understanding and connecting fully with our environments. I begin by illustrating how I make such subjects more approachable by exploiting the inherent capacity of art to be both pleasurable and painful: a work's pleasing aesthetic can make one more receptive to its disquieting content. I then describe how eastern philosophy and western art have influenced my practice. I highlight how Buddhist insights into the relationship between calmness, security and clarity have informed …

Accompanied Solo: A Singer/Songwriter's Look Into The Music Industry From Design To Debut Album, Vivienne Mccracken

Honors Theses

Vivi McCracken is my self-titled debut Extended Play Record (or EP) that consists of five original songs. This project encompasses all of my creative passions, with the aim of gaining knowledge of the music industry and what it takes to debut an album from concept to completion. I wrote the music, sang the songs for the recordings, and, for my BFA thesis exhibition, I designed all the graphics, merchandise, and collateral.

The cover art is intentionally minimal. I wanted the imagery to be the main focus, so I chose a condensed sans serif typeface that felt playful enough to complement …

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

The Hospitality Of Doubt, Ian Grieve

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the last two years of research toward a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art. I mainly address my painting practice, but while in the program, I have worked in collage, ceramics, intaglio printmaking, and sculpture. My paintings are thick, multilayered, and often contain ambiguous narratives. The pictures develop through engagement, openness, and response within the work. I seek and embrace connection with viewers of the work. The spectator ‘completes’ the art and enhances or alters the artworks meaning by observing it and applying their individual perspectives. I seek to incorporate a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. …

Speak Now To Forever Hold Your Piece: On Aesthetic Ownership And Interpretation, Spencer Heitman

Honors Theses

The primary objectives of this research are to describe ways in the interpretation of art-objects is shaped by their ownership and to endorse fan culture participation as a mechanism through which people might be led to aesthetic value. This analysis shall be grounded in an understanding of trust and shall point the reader toward care, noting that these phenomena positively correlate and help interpreters to receive meaning of more abundance and depth. It will be initially claimed that art interpretation is itself contribution to aesthetic dialogue with artists. This claim is grounded in an understanding of art’s communicative capacities and …

Heretic Territories: Spells For Fracture, Mia Greenwald

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This monograph accompanies the MFA thesis exhibition, Heretic Territories: spells for fracture. The show uses video, weaving, clay, and bacterial/fungal bodies in three main bodies of work: Inter; Lost, remain, fracture; and For, Of Them. The pieces, and the relationship between them, explore themes of magic, the body, and land in contradiction and opposition to colonial and capitalist structures. I approach the artificial hierarchies that subjugate people, non-human creatures, and land while trying not to replicate the mistakes of posthumanist scholarship that bypasses the fact that not all people are afforded full access to the category …

The Great Unlearning, Catherine Mccrory Pears

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Great Unlearning is a conceptual exploration: sifting through experiences and objects to overcome psychological pain, expectations of society, individual upbringing, and outside influences in an ongoing quest for authenticity. To both embrace personal history and honor loved ones while letting go of lingering negativity is challenging. Using objects culled from my life, examining the past, and incorporating items gathered along my path through nature, the work seeks personal healing while promoting the power of all people to break from indoctrination, group think, and mob mentality to make better choices to live a satisfying and peaceful existence…hopefully in a democratic …

The Invisible Box, Rafael Yaluff

Theses and Dissertations

A work of art is something so simple that it puts you in front of it. And through its simplicity it makes you aware of yourself in front of it, it gives you yourself. This paper explores the creative process from a structural perspective

Beyond Participation: Hélio Oiticica And Neville D’Almeida, Jocelyn Elliott Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The collaborative works by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica and filmmaker Neville D’Almeida responded to Brazil’s dictatorship and their self-imposed exile in New York between 1969-1974. Oiticica’s concept of crelazer and the artists elective “marginal” position converge to create a new cinematic language; challenging gender norms, and proposing new systems for living.

Transcendence: Exploring The Connections Between Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming Identities And Experiences Of Nature Through Art, Mc Jackson

Undergraduate Theses

“Transcendence: Exploring the connections between transgender/gender non-conforming identities and experiences of nature through art” is the written portion of a creative thesis revolving around an immersive art installation and short film. Transcendence, the installation, was created to promote connection by exploring the overlap between transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) experiences and experiences of nature. Part of this installation is a short film of interviews conducted with transgender and GNC individuals about nature, their gender experiences, and the transcendent nature of the two. The written thesis analyzes existing literature on nature as a restorative, therapeutic, spiritual setting, offers insight into …

A Pastor's Fine Art Collection: From Down-To-Earth To World-Renowned, Lily Hampton

Undergraduate Theses

Art collecting and the methods of acquiring art are constantly changing with the times. While some world-class collections are filled with a wide range of art types-- paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs--the public has little knowledge of how these pieces are chosen and accumulated. Competition in the art scene is undoubtedly a factor, but an argument can be made about whether some collectors choose works for highly personal reasons. The subject of this thesis is a local fine art collection, the Mary and Al Shands Collection of the Great Meadows estate based in Crestwood, Kentucky. This stunning in-home art gallery is …

Fragmented Relationships, Drew M. Dzurko

Student Projects

Relationships are often viewed through a binary lens. This greatly oversimplifies their intricacy, yet they can be one of the most challenging human experiences to navigate. Drawing on the symbolisms of memories Drew created digital images that embody these memories related to lost relationships. Using a binary image converter Drew created a visually simple image made up of only two colors down to each pixel. He then brought these images into a text editor on a computer which would display the raw code of an image. This revealed long strings of machine learning code that are indecipherable to the human …

Inner Portraits, Bethany Salisbury

Graduate Theses

This paper investigates the many interconnected layers of women’s mental health through portraiture and how animal and plant symbolism can represent the way women's hormones and bodily health affect their mental health. I reveal how the artwork created presents these connections and inner mental health narratives to the viewer, creating a space of empathy, destigmatization, and self-reflection. This body of portraiture art connects five women through a series of both two-and three-dimensional portraits based on interviews using my own adaptation of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoots’ (1983) portrait methodology.

Women and non-binary individuals have always dealt with difficult interactions of bodily and mental …

Extended Substance, Danielle Brensinger

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Artist Statement:

“One of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the [viewer] in uncertainty.”

-Sigmeund Freud, “The ‘Uncanny’”

I’m interested in making people uncomfortable. Through the exploration of the uncanny, I exploit the unexpected and the psychological to embrace personal reactions. Like conversations we have with ourselves in the mirror, there’s an uncomfortable nature in looking beyond surface value. Utilizing beauty as a strategy and the laws of attraction, my work intends to entice a visual response only to be met with ambivalence. I try to establish a state of uncertain worlds, partial …