Art and Design Commons^™

Conscious Consumerism: A Design Process For Stylish Sustainable Apparel, Luz Becerra

Honors Theses

The main objective of this paper is to explore current consumer behavior and perspective on sustainable apparel as well as future trends in the market place such as willingness to buy. I investigated the market for organic apparel brands, and identified potential areas of growth. My findings concluded that young consumers lack interest in sustainable apparel because they are not sufficiently educated in the topic and are not willing to sacrifice their style identity, consequently purchasing trendy fast-fashion items. The fashion industry is famously claimed to be the second most polluting industry in the world, so I designed a line …

Milestones, Naomi Letourneau

Honors Theses

My sculpture is inspired by cairns, mounds of rocks that represent a memorial or landmark and serve as markers along a trail. These sculptures were created combining digital fabrication and traditional sculpting methods. Inspired by milestones in my own life, the goal of this series is to encourage self-reflection in order to remind us that we all must find balance while on our own paths.

A Woman's Gaze, Emily Fiore

Honors Theses

My work merges my passion of thinking politically and artistically. This series, A Woman’s Gaze, is an extension of my Political Science thesis, where I focused on artists who combat the male gaze by representing women’s lives realistically, from a woman’s perspective. These paintings focus on intimate scenarios from women’s lives where the male gaze is absent. The large scale imagery brings visibility to these otherwise private moments.

Who Is The Fairest Of Them All? Disney’S Depiction Of Non-Normative Embodiment In Its Villainesses, Caroline Bradley

Honors Theses

The world of Disney has long been criticized for the lack of empowered princesses, racial representation, and unrealistic body images in its princess films. While steps have been made to provide a fairer representation through the bodies of the princesses, there has not been much progress in the way villains’ bodies are depicted. Most Disney villains exhibit a form of disability or non-normative embodiment including missing limbs, old age, or fatness. This thesis will analyze the bodies of three well-known Disney villainesses from three different eras—The Evil Queen, Ursula, and Mother Gothel—and will demonstrate how their bodies reflect the historical …

Strange-Making: A Study Of Curation, Mirel Crumb

Honors Theses

The curatorial project “Strange-Making,” a three-person exhibition held at Apothecary Gallery in March 2018, is the culmination of creative research on the application of the term “ostranenie” to contemporary painting in the region surrounding Chattanooga, Tennessee. The technique of “ostranenie” or “enstrangement” is defined in Viktor Shklovsky’s Art, As Device, 1917, as the technique of describing something familiar in a way that makes it appear unknown. “Ostranenie” was originally discussed in terms of imagery in literature. This exhibition and the curatorial statement reveals the direct connection between the role description plays in representational painting as a physical construction of an …

The Rhetoric Of Landscape: Through Oil And Water, Alexandrea Davis

Honors Theses

“The Rhetoric of Landscape: Through Oil and Water” analyzes five water resources—Lake Erie, Lake Powell, the Aral Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Barrier Reef—and uses the visual rhetoric introduced by an accompanying series of oil pastel illustrations to compare how the beauty of the landscapes equates to their true states. This project discusses the harmful effects of human activities on water bodies, first through direct pollution and ultimately through anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, a final summary covering the history of environmental initiatives in the United States and the idea of “wicked problems” offers an overview of reasons …

Drag: The Herstory And Phenomenon, Avery Green

Honors Theses

My thesis project was spilt into three parts. The first part was gathering inspiration and experiencing drag shows. The second part was designing three different dresses for drag queens and showcasing them in the spring MODA fashion show. The final part was participating in Outspoken’s Drag Show as a drag queen. My goal for my thesis was to explore the world of drag and how I can use it to inspire my own creative endeavors.

The first part of my thesis was a ton of fun. In order to experience drag and gather inspiration for my own drag, I visited …

Creating A Textile Museum Exhibit: Conservation And Accessibility, Kelly M. Lorenz

Honors Theses

This twofold study engages a collection of early-to-mid-20th century Levantine textiles held by the Institute of Archaeology and Siegfried H. Horn Museum. The first part of the study involves identifying the risks of physical deterioration posed to the collection and then providing a proposal for the storage and display of these artifacts. Keeping the museum's means in mind, the storage plan emphasizes preventive conservation, focusing on minimizing risks wherever possible to keep damage from happening in the first place. The second part provides written interpretive material for the display that informs visitors of the textiles' geographic, physical, and cultural origins.

Reconceptualizing Space: Multisensory Rooms And The Immersive Art Experience, Melanie Zebrowski

Honors Theses

The modern human being lives in human built society, very much separated from the natural world. Often, the thoughts, ideas, and feelings that filter through from our built environments do more to disconnect us from ourselves and the present moment rather than help us feel centered in it. As an artist, I’ve set out to build a multisensory, immersive art installation with the intent to use this space as a way to connect more deeply to ourselves and our surroundings. This thesis is an exploration into the psychology of lived-in spaces as well as an experiment to see if installation …

Toumai Words: Songs From Your Primordial Ancestor, Vernell D. Dunams

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

This Book Is Valuable: An Anthology Of Essays On Design And The Perception Of Value In Luxury Fashion Objects, Carlos Velasco

Honors Theses

This Book is Valuable seeks to analyze how different concepts related to design and culture have influenced the apparent and perceived value of luxury fashion objects. This question is explored in different contexts to provide clarity and observation to the contemporary construction of value through systems of design.

This thesis is an anthology of three essays. The first essay is about immaterial capitalism, a system of knowledge, skill and imagination based capital. The second essay is about the strategy of artification, using fine art as a way to link systems of value together. It is also about how luxury conglomerates …

What The Walls Say: Finding Meaning And Value In Tel Aviv’S Street Art, Rachel R. Bird

Honors Theses

This thesis explores street art in Tel Aviv, Israel through anthropological concepts of value. By defining street art as an interstitial practice—one that exists between permeable, socially defined boundaries and is characterized differently by different power structures—I attempt to define some of the different regimes of value that apply to street art. Using the emerging market of “street art tours” as a fieldwork site, I look at how street art is presented and re-presented to both tourists and locals. By situating my research in a historical and geographic context, I hope to understand the ways different value schema, from economic …

Intercultural And Interreligious Bonds In The Language Of Colors, Lucy Soucek

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the interfaith elements of the artwork of three south Asian visual artists, The Singh Twins, Siona Benjamin, and Arpana Caur. All coming from various religious backgrounds, living in multicultural societies, and navigating the borders and boundaries between different religious thought, these artists create meaningful artwork which explores what it means to live in a pluralistic society. All three artists invite viewers to think differently, formulate opinions, rethink assumptions, and spark associations. They use art as a way to ignite interfaith understanding, reaching broader audiences and asking us to question how we understand our neighbors and ourselves.