Spit Brimming With Futures, Penny Molesso

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

SPIT BRIMMING WITH FUTURES is an immersive video and audio installation that uses ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) to investigate the intersection of transgender and neurodivergent identity, expressing an urgent need to imagine stories about transgender, autistic people that affirm our agency and autonomy amidst a political climate that weaponizes neurodivergence to delegitimize trans experiences. The American political right’s vilification of transgender people is used to uphold structures of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy that become destabilized when rigid binary gender categories are challenged. The political right has a vested interest in keeping trans people out of public view, thus weaponizing …

The Evolution Of Computer Generated Images And Special Effects Design In The Jurassic Park Trilogy, Samantha Renee Pearson

Whittier Scholars Program

Based on Michael Crichton’s unpublished novel, The Andromeda Strain, the awe-inspiring Jurassic Park trilogy (1993-2001) emerged from Steven Spielburg’s determination to make extinct characters come to life again. Early on in their careers, Crichton and Spielburg met at Universal Studios while working on Duel (1971) with ambitions to direct a film that would completely immerse their audience into a dinosaur-encompassing world. About five years later, Spielberg attempted to form a digital rendering for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), but later concluded that “‘The technology wasn’t there yet'” (Mottram 20).

Fast-forward to 1990, Spielburg was fixated on …

Mrs. Florence Mante's Amazing Grace School, Daniel Keith Davis

LSU Master's Theses

Mrs. Florence Mante’s Amazing Grace School is the story of both Mama Florence and the children that she has dedicated her life to. Mrs. Florence Mante is the Ghanaian cofounder of the Amazing Grace Preparatory School. The West African school is committed to developing African leaders and ending the cycles of poverty in the village of Kodiekrom. My thesis focuses on using interview-driven artwork and collaborative storytelling to depict the unique challenges and triumphs of Mama Florence’s life in Ghana. Digital illustrations, a narration from Mama Florence, and music take the viewer on her deeply compelling journey, raising awareness for …

..., Claire Alfonso

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Words are fickle, easily misunderstood, and often put us at a loss... but we all have so much we feel we need to express. This begs the question: Is there any safe way of communication? Can anything ever really be communicated how you mean it? Will you ever see the reflection of what you feel, think, and dream outside of yourself? In response to this existential dilemma, I imagine an alternative language of images, sounds, color, feelings, and non-identification. My thesis is a meditation on the issues with standard language and the idea of alternative language. In my argument I …

Culture In Disney Films: A Comparative Analysis Of Color, Composition And Rhythm, Megan Paul

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

As a student of design, I take inspiration from everything around me. The media I consume, the places I visit, and the people I meet.By choice or not, I and my generation are subject to the various forms of pop culture, film is one of them. Film is one of few art forms which combines several methods and elements of design to produce a cohesive result, as opposed to a singular medium. This forms the connection to design thinking and is the foundation for the study.

Another critical component to pop culture is the ability to reach the masses. Due …

The Making Of Everyday Hollywood: 1930s Film Influence On Everyday Women’S Fashion In Nebraska, Anna Naomi Kuhlman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research examines the influence of film fashions on middle-class, Nebraskan women’s dress during the Great Depression (1932-1940). The Great Depression challenged the middle class: while standards of living remained high, the economic means to achieve those standards diminished. Despite the crisis, women strove to keep up with current fashion trends. While previous literature has examined how Hollywood directly affected trends and styles of the 1930s in major American metropolitan contexts, the manifestation of trends in the dress of middle to lower socio-economic classes in Middle America remains under-examined. Against the backdrop of Depression-era hardships specific to Nebraska’s agricultural economy, …

An Echo Of Light, Anaka Marie Wetch

Senior Projects Spring 2020

My senior project film an Echo of Light is an experimental 16mm film exploring light as both a metaphysical and physical process. I became interested in light during my studies in holography, which is a medium revolving around the interference of light. I studied holography independently and with the guidance of professionals in the field. My holographic work is oriented around the natural world and its micro-constituents. I examined and photographed substances, such as salt, pyrite, and quartz with the scanning electron microscope at Bard. These materials have striking crystalline geometry which I intend to explore through the light dependent …

Apocalypse Lakardowo: Ecocritical Analysis In The Film Lakardowo Mencari Keadilan, Aulia Maulida, Abdul Basid

International Review of Humanities Studies

Human-nature interaction today enters a worrying stage. Film as a literary work begins to record this interaction. The film Lakardowo Mencari Keadilan to be one of them. This research uses the content analysis method with an ecocritical approach. This film is a research primary data source supported by various related references. The analysis emphasizes the study of environmental literature which focuses on apocalyptic reading with pastoral views that surround it through Creswell spiral analysis methods: data management, reading, and note-taking, classification and interpretation, then data visualization. In this research, Lakardowo's environment in the film Lakardowo Mencari Keadilan reflects the impact …

Kai Duc Luong Interview, Stuart Hutson

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio Born in 1975 in Phnom-Penh, KAI-DUC LUONG fled the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime from Cambodia to Vietnam to France, where his family settled in Paris, in 1978. KAI-DUC operates between Chicago and Paris. His artistic projects include video (art / doc / film), photography, and mixed media installations. His unconventional path as a self-taught outsider artist, trained in digital communication & systems engineering, gives him a unique perspective, at times questioning subject matters through the understanding of transmission and systems (e.g. the primary emotions, the five senses, the stages of grief, the art industry). His works have been …

Duik Bassel In Usage In After Effects And An Animated Short Film, Kennedy L. Galpin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis was made with the goal of creating a 2D short film in the end, with mainly using a program that is not normally used for character animation: Adobe After Effects. With the usage of an originally French plugin called DuIK Bassel (v16.0.9), I was able to create a model in Adobe Photoshop and then put it into After Effects. When the files were imported, the plugin would then assist in the rigging process, wherein I would be able to create the character’s rig and make the 2D model within the program. This document discusses the entire creation of …

Advancing Film Through Art & Design: A Study Of The Influence That Film And Fine Art Have On The Independent Film Market, Jamall Rashaud Mcmillan

Masters Theses

The Influence of Graphic Design and Fine Art in Film is a exploration into the impact that an investment of the arts has on film and more specifically the independent film market. Most independent filmmakers have to develop their productions with little to no budget. In doing so they must work to create a marketable film to the best of their ability. There in-lies the issue; they are doing it to the best of “their” ability. The issue that is in focus with the notion of ability is that a major component that is left out of the equation to …

Equals: Redefining The Way Graphic Design And Narrative Film Combine To Create Visual Metaphor, Kevin Harris

Masters Theses

This paper provides a methodology for combining Graphic Design and Narrative Film together in a way that creates a type of visual metaphor that is central to the story and characters of the film. Because visual mediums of communication are so intrinsically tied to verbal means of communication, this methodology is grounded in the linguistic study of poetry and metaphor. Thus, the concept of metaphor will be analyzed thoroughly in language, poetry, fine arts, and modern arts. The ways in which metaphor is created visually through the art forms of graphic design and narrative film will be of upmost interest …

Private Rainbows, Mikey F. Estes

Theses and Dissertations

I make art that refers to how the self is mediated through structures, objects, and images — a kind of self-portraiture that circles around its subject, reflecting a state of simultaneous formation and disintegration. Over the past few years, I have used my iPhone as a tool to make images of everyday life. As the user of this device, I am defined by both my presence and absence. I am interested in the process of locating the self within the scattered yet ordered space of the screen.

Mdocs Poster-2018-04-02, Palestinian Voices: Lyd In Exile, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

April 2, 6pm

Free and open to the public

Location: Somers Room

The Palestinian Voices series is organized and co-sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, International Affairs, Media and Film Studies, Art History, History, Hayat, and the Skidmore College Dean’s Office

Join us for a talk by Rami Younis and Sarah Friedland, and a screening of their work-in-progress documentary Lyd In Exile. Younis and Friedland have spent over three years researching and filming Lyd In Exile, and are in post-production. They will screen clips from their film and …

Mdocs Poster-2018-03-22, No Mas Bebes, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

No Más Bebés tells the story of a little-known but landmark event in reproductive justice, when a small group of Mexican immigrant women sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Marginalized and fearful, many of these mothers spoke no English, and charged that they had been coerced into tubal ligation — having their tubes tied — by doctors during the late stages of labor. Often the procedure was performed after asking the mothers under duress.

The mothers’ cause …

Mdocs Poster-2018-03-21, Free To Rock, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET) PALMTN Davis Auditorium

FREE TO ROCK is a documentary film directed by 4-time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Rock & Roll spread like an uncontrollable virus across Eastern Europe despite Communist attempts to outlaw it. Thousands of underground bands and millions of young fans who yearned for Western freedoms and embraced this music as the Sound of Freedom, helped fuel the nonviolent implosion of the Soviet regime. Free to Rock features Presidents, diplomats, spies and rock stars from the West and the Soviet Union …

Mdocs Poster-2018-02-06, Issam Nassar, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

February 6, 6pm

Location: Payne Room

Free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the exhibition This Place

Part of the Palestinian Voices series, organized and co-sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, International Affairs, Media and Film Studies, Art History, History, Hayat, and the Skidmore College Dean’s Office

Join us for a lecture by Issam Nassar on the history of Palestinian photography. Nassar is a historian of the Modern Middle East and of Photography at Illinois State University. His work focuses on the modern Middle East and the history …

Mdocs Publication-2017-10-13, Documentary On Human Trafficking Screened At Bow Tie Cinema, Wendy Liberatore

MDOCS Publications

"Documentary on human trafficking to be screened at Bow Tie Criterion"

The Times Union

October 23, 2017

Author: Wendy Liberatore

Mdocs Publication-2017-10-22, Saratoga Springs Conference, Staff Report

MDOCS Publications

"Saratoga Springs conference, film screening to target sex trafficking"

The Saratogian

October 22, 2017

Author: Staff Report

Mdocs Poster-2017-10-10, Untouchable, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

"Untouchable" Film Screening with Meerkat Media

Tue, October 10 @ 6:30pm, Emerson Aud

Followed by a panel discussion led by Meerkat Media

ABOUT THE FILM:

When the most powerful lobbyist in Florida discovers that the nanny has sexually abused his daughter, he harnesses his extraordinary political power to pass the toughest sex offender laws in the nation. UNTOUCHABLE chronicles his crusade, and its impact on the lives of several of the 800,000 people forced to live under the kinds of laws he has championed.

Mdocs Poster-2017-09-30, States Of Incarceration September 30th Events, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

COMMUNITY CONVERSATION, States of Incarceration Saturday, September 30

9 a.m.–noon MASS STORY LAB: What is a prison for? Murray-Aikins Dining Hall, second floor

Work alongside community members to collaborate on creative strategies to strengthen communities while improving our criminal justice system.

Hear from storytellers who have been personally impacted by mass incarceration, and are interested in rehabilitation. Following the stories, audience members will be invited to participate in an interactive design process where community leaders and members collaborate on creative strategies to strengthen communities while improving our criminal justice system.

Through facilitated dialogue, we will form connections to create healing, …

Mdocs Publication-2017-09-02, States Of Incarceration, Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli

MDOCS Publications

"States of Incarceration: Mount McGregor stories are part of national exhibit"

The Post Star

September 2, 2017

Author: Kathleen Phaeln-Tomaselli

Mdocs Publication-2017-08-31, Exhibit Spotlights Mass Incaceration, Indiana Nash

MDOCS Publications

"Exhibit spotlights mass incarceration"

The Daily Gazette

August 31, 2017

Author: Indiana Nash

Mdocs Publication-2017-07-20, Radio Dreams, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Radio Dreams: Skidmore Radio Offers Youth Program"

The Saratoga Today Newspaper

July 20, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Publication-2017-06-08, Photographer To Showcase Project At Skidmore, Joseph Phalen

MDOCS Publications

"Photographer to showcase project at Skidmore"

The Saratogian

June 8, 2017

Author: Joseph Phelan

Mdocs Publication-2017-05-12, Skidmore Student Reveals Archiving Project, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Skidmore Student Reveals Two Year Archiving Project of Senior Center"

Saratoga Today

May 12, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Publication-2017-03-08, Skidmore Grad To Talk About 'Buffet' Film, Bill Buell

MDOCS Publications

"Skidmore Grad to talk about 'Buffet' film"

The Daily Gazette

March 8, 2017

Author: Bill Buell

Mdocs Publication-2017-03-01, Emmy-Award Winning Producer To Screen Documentary, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Emmy-award winning producer to screen documentary at Skidmore College"

The Saratogian

March 2, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Poster-2017-02-13, After Trujillo, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

Screening: "Despues De Trujillo"

Monday, February 13, 2017, at 6PM-8PM, Davis Auditorium

Después De Trujillo (After Trujillo) (2016) draws on media archives and filmmaking expertise to explore the connection between landscape and memory in the Dominican Republic.

The documentary film, which was first shown in the DR last fall, probes the relationships between dictatorship, modern architecture, and cultural memory.

Narrated by Dominicans, this journey through modern monuments, memory gardens, and contemporary ruins, reveals landscapes where the ghost of the Trujillo regime lingers.

Directors Lisa Blackmore and Jorge Domínguez Dubuc will be present for a discussion after the screening.

This event …

Mdocs Poster-2016-12-13, Student Showcase, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

MDOCS Student Work Showcases

Tue, December 13 @ 6-8pm, Davis: Act I

Wed, December 14 @ 6-8pm, Davis: Act II

Check out what the students in DS courses have been up to this semester. For two nights, an array of video, audio, and multimedia work will be presented in Emerson auditorium.

Event organized by students in DS 251B: Festival Programming Followed by a reception with light snacks and refreshments.