Art and Design Commons^™

La Floresta; An Appreciation And Reimagination Of My Barrio, Ana Rodríguez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a love letter to my barrio, La Floresta in Quito, Ecuador. I have divided it into three different sections: a creative writing piece where I walk readers through my barrio and my life in it, a historical section where I analyze its history and the reasons for its uniqueness and current identity, and finally a project proposal for a community center called "Casa La Floresta".

菠蘿包(Pineapple Bun): Exploring Memory And Language Through Animation, Elaine Yang

Scripps Senior Theses

菠蘿包(Pineapple Bun) explores the themes of reconstruction, evocation, and memory through my childhood in Taiwan. Inspired by other Asian American animators, I aim to tell a simple story of connection through my grandfather and I's daily swimming ritual. The film is a 3-minute animated short film following our language barrier and how we engage with each other's differing backgrounds.

Rabbit Hole, Olivia Wiebe

Scripps Senior Theses

Rabbit Hole explores an alternate reality which erupts within moments of insomnia, and posits it as a place of self-discovery. Though this Rabbit Hole is a personal one, the work implies that these worlds can be found within any person when they are alone. Digital spaces have become tools of absolute availability and distraction, capitalized on by companies who profit when our eyeballs are stuck to our screens. However, cyberspace was once dreamed of as a place of self-discovery and experimentation. Rabbit Hole is an attempt to reclaim digital space, and turn towards ourselves within technology. These individual “Rabbit Holes” …

Embracing Imperfections, Raja Gopal Bhattar

The STEAM Journal

A window into my meditation practice.

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

CMC Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

Scripps Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

Dense Geometry Of Music And Visual Arts: Vanishing Points, Continuous Tonnetz, And Theremin Performance, Maria Mannone, Irene Iaccarino, Rosanna Iembo

The STEAM Journal

The dualism between continuous and discrete is relevant in music theory as well as in performance practice of musical instruments. Geometry has been used since longtime to represent relationships between notes and chords in tonal system. Moreover, in the field of mathematics itself, it has been shown that the continuity of real numbers can arise from geometrical observations and reasoning. Here, we consider a geometrical approach to generalize representations used in music theory introducing continuous pitch. Such a theoretical framework can be applied to instrument playing where continuous pitch can be naturally performed. Geometry and visual representations of concepts of …

Zooairyland- Xinjie Yin Mfa Thesis Show, Xinjie Yin

CGU MFA Theses

During the process of discovering myself in my art world, I have determined to use cuteness as a way to express my worldview, values, and experiences. Cuteness is my own philosophy and language in the interpersonal communication. I intend to make cuteness meaningful to me as well as to the rest of the world. I believe cuteness contains a power to bring people back to their original simplicity regardless of their age, it is the idea of innocence. Cuteness is like a shield for me to protect myself from the tough, scary and crazy reality; and it is a positive …

Cataloging Wonder: The Art And Science Of The Collection, Christine Metzger

The STEAM Journal

The Exploring Science in the Studio National Science Foundation grant funded three initiatives at California College of the Arts, a private four-year art and design college in the San Francisco Bay Area. The grant sponsored annual Science-in-the-Studio which embedded scientists into the art and design studio curriculum, the creation of Mobile Units for Scientific Exploration (MUSE) and a new collection of science materials, equipment, and natural specimens, and a national symposium on integrating science into the art and design studio curriculum. Approximately 30 SitS classes have been offered since 2010, and the Exploring Science in the Studio symposium was convened …

The Shadow Puppets Of Elsinore: Edward Gordon Craig And The Cranach Press Hamlet, James P. Taylor

Mime Journal

Taylor considers the role that book arts may play in Craig’s theories of the new theatre, or the Art of the Future. He expands our understanding of Craig’s design work to include print culture, examining his engravings for the monumental editions of Hamlet published by Count Harry Kessler’s Cranach Press in 1929–30. Taylor explores the relationship of Craig’s designs for the 1912 Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet to his engravings for the German and English-language Cranach Press editions of the play. He suggests that it was only with this print publication that Craig finally achieved the absolute artistic control …

Jaguar Sun, Anya Nadal

The STEAM Journal

Cymatics, is derived from a Greek word, meaning "wave", is a subset of modal vibrational phenomena. The term was coined by Hans Jenny, a Swiss follower of the philosophical school known as anthroposophy. This is a visual representation of the frequency field. I created this piece from acrylic on canvas based on the subtle energies I can see and feel.

The Art And Science Of Light Painting, Reid Godshaw

The STEAM Journal

A short overview of the making of light painting portraits explained by the artist.

Inner Beauty, Kayla Darbyshire

The STEAM Journal

The artist references images captured by electron microscope photography of Dopamine, DNA, and the process of Mitosis (specifically occurring in the human body). Through the use of photoshop the artist was able to manipulate the images of Dopamine, DNA, and Mitosis to create low polygonal artwork. The artist created 15,000-30,000 individual triangles, piecing them together using photoshop to create the images that they were referencing. The body is an amazing spectacle rarely looked at from within by artists. Many find beauty on the surface of the body, but when explored further, the body has much more to offer. The artist …

Colormoo: An Algorithmic Approach To Generating Color Palettes, Joshua Rael

CMC Senior Theses

Selecting one color can be done with relative ease, but this task becomes more difficult with each subsequent color. Colormoo is an online tool aimed at solving this problem. We implement three algorithms for generating color palettes based off of a starting color. Data is collected for each palette that is generated. Our analysis reveals two of the algorithms are preferred, but under different circumstances. Furthermore, we find that users prefer palettes containing colors that are compatible, but not too similar. With refined heuristics, we believe these techniques can be extended and applied beyond the field of graphic design alone.

The Unstable Ground Of Low Hierarchies, Joshua Dinsmore

The STEAM Journal

Broad Vision is a collaborative project between the Sciences and Arts. It involves students and lecturers from six different departments, across three schools at the University of Westminster, London, UK. In the first year of the project we worked with the microscope as the locus for our interconnections.

The Emerald Ash Borer, Emily Bryant

The STEAM Journal

An Emerald Ash Borer made from recycled natural materials to create sustainable art.

Connecting The Contradictory With Science Art And The Aid Of A Caption, Carel P. Brest Van Kempen, Darryl Wheye

The STEAM Journal

When the disciplines of science and art intertwine to reveal a truth then words and images are suited to telling different parts, and reveal the whole story most effectively when working in tandem. Decoding the underlying science within a work of art through a caption does not diminish its value as art, but when we fail to decode the science we miss entry into a narrative.

Balconies, Joe Guimera

The STEAM Journal

Recent developments in theoretical physics suggest the possibility of parallel universes. What if we could see two or more universes at the same time? In effect, superimpose a scene from one universe; say a street corner, over the image of the same scene from a second universe? The photograph “Balconies” imagines the possibilities.

Merging Science And Art: The Bigger Picture, Natasha Hall

The STEAM Journal

It has been stated that artists comprehend and chronicle the completeness of the visible world (Wallach & Bret, 1987), defining Art as the creative expression of knowledge about the visual world. But to what extent does that awareness extend into a scientific appreciation of the world? The acronym STEAM is an abbreviation of Science, Technology, Electronics, Arts and Mathematics. Weaving interactions between Science and Art, have been shown by Clarke and Button (Clarke & Button, 2011), to intensify interconnections between nature, with Landscape, and ultimately with sustainability.

Auras, Adele Ball

Scripps Senior Theses

Auras is a series of illustrations of Carlos Fuentes’s novella, Aura, a horror love story about memory, obsession, desire, corporeality and immortality. Defying narrative conventions, the story is told through second person. You are the protagonist, Felipe Montero, and are employed by a 109-year old widow to edit her husband's memoirs. Inside the pitchblack house, you fall in love with her beautiful and bizarre green-eyed niece, Aura. The gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

The story seems to take place within the confines of the …

Women And Video Games: Pigeonholing The Past, Allison Perry

Scripps Senior Theses

Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.

Aboriginal Art- Warlpiri, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Indigenous Australians produce rich and diverse art expressive of their relationships with the land and the cosmos. By way of example, this entry focuses on Warlpiri graphic art of the Western Desert region of Australia.

Rock Art – Australian Aboriginal, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Aboriginal people of Australia have a rich heritage of carving and painting on rocks, extending back well more than 20,000 years. Rock art, Australia's oldest surviving art form, expresses the Aborigines' social, economic and religious concerns through the centuries

Review Of: Australian Rock Art: A New Synthesis, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Rock-art studies have now come of age, and are among the most fertile explorations of expressive culture. Through an interdisciplinary approach to its study, we have expanded our knowledge into the realms of aesthetics, belief systems, and social structures. Australian rock an is particularly significant, since it is a visual expression that has been practiced by contemporary as well as prehistoric Aboriginals. Robert Layton's most recent book -his "new synthesis" of Australian rock art- is an ambitious and successful analysis of Aboriginal rock art from across the continent.

X-Ray Rock Art Of Australia And Southeast Asia, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Throughout the world, cultures have expressed social, economic, and religious concerns through art. As the oldest surviving artistic form, rock art illustrates mankind's continuing effort to understand his place in the material and immaterial worlds. The study of rock art can lend an important insight into prehistory, as it provides the earliest illustration of beliefs, technologies, and activities.

"Sacred" And "Secular" In Australian Rock Art, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Recently I have been questioned by several scholars about the terms "sacred" and "secular" in my research on Aboriginal rock art in Australia. It seems clear that many people are uncomfortable with distinguishing between sacred and secular within a tribal context. I would like to express my viewpoint briefly, and hopefully to clear up some of the misconceptions that are held about Aboriginal concepts of spirituality.

Rock Art In Malaysia, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Very little is known to the scientific world on the rock art of Malaysia. It might therefore be worthwhile on a site in the state of Perak, just outside of the town of Ipoh. The rock is limestone, and there is a quarry about 1/8 of a mile down the hill from the paintings. Flaking of the cliff wall and the limestone excretions have badly damaged the paintings; rain also falls directly on the paintings. As far as we know, the site has never been adequately documented.