Art and Design Commons^™

Introverse Arrangements: Rediscovering The Typewritings Of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Savannah M. Champion

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to understand Wolf-Rehfeldt’s place in the unofficial art world of the GDR by examining her work in light of her status as a clerical worker with social rather than professional ties to the art world. She stands out within the East German Mail Art context, not just for her inventive use of a typewriter to create abstract figurations, but for the way she used it to interject considerations of gender and power into a network of artists overwhelmingly dominated by men with her open-ended Typewritings.”

Through historical research and close readings of her work, this study uncovers …

Beyond Progress: Exploring Alternative Trajectories For Design Museums, Anja Neidhardt, Heather Wiltse, Anna Croon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

How can design museums be disentangled from systems like patriarchy, so that they become able to support change towards more justice? To explore this question, we use our standpoint as design researchers in combination with a feminist perspective. Historically, most design museums supported a path of progress which supposedly leads straight from the past into the future. Even though today attempts to change design museums can be observed, criteria for good design and methods for collecting and exhibiting mainly stay unchanged. However, when questioning them, it becomes clear that they were shaped by a white, male, imperialist perspective. Through shifting …

Design As A Practice Of Care: Feminist Perspectives On Preventing Harm And Promoting Healing Through Design, Alison Place

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design as a discipline has traditionally positioned itself as an enterprise in service to capitalism, perpetuating the domination of wealth and the exploitation of la-bor and resources, but recent discourse in the field has increasingly raised ques-tions around design's social and environmental impact. These discourses typically address themes of inclusion, sustainability and ethics, but some have gone fur-ther to explore the potential for care to play a role in the design process. More than ever, an interrogation of the connection between design and care is need-ed, as issues such as climate change, social inequality, global pandemics and ag-ing populations require …

Collective Dialogues On Motherhood For Feminist Futures, Bree Mcmahon, Dina Benbrahim, Ryan Gibboney, Ashley Hairston Doughty

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This conversation allowed mothers and non-mothers to connect with per- sonal stories and universal struggles during a supportive virtual moment. Some con- venors are design researchers, practitioners, students, and/or educators. This conver- sation also served as a space for designers to reflect on the role and responsibility of design in interrogating reproductive care systems in their current context. The goal of the convenors is to move toward and promote co-designing a preferable feminist fu- ture for mothers. There are few spaces like maternal health care and the experience of motherhood that would benefit simply through qualitative data collection, storytell- ing, …

Visibility, Jamie Valdez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

I am a woman, activist, artist, mother, and wife. My art practice questions the role of

institutions in disseminating outdated traditions and unfair rituals in relation to women. Bringing

visibility to what is ignored, I create works that are critical to the unfair expectations that society

fosters, expectations which ultimately oppress women vis- -vis the (art) institution. Through

different conceptual strategies, my work questions what society has taught us about gender

roles and explores the pedagogies that our institutionalized education has systematically

perpetuated for women and girls from early educational experiences.

Femqorg Index, Nahee Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The project Femqorg Index began as I realized an endless number of chatbots and robots were released into this world as a spark of technology wrapped in a feminine persona, only to be disposed of after a short period. My imagination then extended to the thought that after they were disposed of, the entities along with their memories and advanced technology, would converge to create a network of their own. In this network, needs of the chatbots and robots were met through the exchange of strengths such as an advanced problem-solving ability, or a sturdy body that allowed unrestricted movement. …

Through The Eye Of The Needle: Embroidery As A Tool For Intimacy, Feminism, And Activism, Kristin D. Howell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the work of contemporary women artists who utilize embroidery as their primary medium. The careful execution of each artwork, whether created by career artists or amateur participants in artist-led projects, simultaneously engages with the legacy of the embroidery arts and explores new strategies of expression.

Mama, Hannah Scott

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

“By writing herself, woman will return to the body which has been more than confiscated from her, which has been turned into the uncanny stranger on display” (Cixous, 1975). Through a depth of research into feminist perspectives on motherhood, I have created an art installation titled, "Mama". From my research, I have found many artists who make work about their experiences in raising children, women’s work and labor, and the trauma of giving birth. Louis Bourgeois, Natalie Loveless, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Mary Kelly, and Jenny Saville are a handful of artists whose work on motherhood has greatly inspired me to …

Betwixt & Between., Xuanyi Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I will discuss the process of learning, borrowing, and exploring the fusion between styles that emerged from the exchange of Eastern and Western civilizations. I will also use the process of transformation and merging of motifs to evoke my thoughts on the identity of immigrants. In addition, the essay will also discuss the similarities between traditional Chinese and Western designs metaphorically. This thesis will also explain why I use IUDs for pattern creation and provide views on the body ownership of women in the East and West. I will also consider the evolution and reflection of the …

Tangled Roots: Exploring Appalachian Feminisms, Magenta Palo

Graduate Thesis Exhibition Catalogue Gallery, 2022

Women have long been overlooked as key figures in the cultural history of Appalachia. The exhibition Tangled Roots: Exploring Appalachian Feminisms seeks to examine the ways in which women artists across the region have kept traditions alive while redefining creative practices that were once seen strictly as “women’s work.” In particular, the exhibition aims to explore how women have reimagined “craft” through skillful attention to materials, manual dexterity, and application of critical and conceptual rigor. The concept of craft is defined in this context to include all hand-made work that requires developed skills, whether they belong to traditional craft-based practices …

Madonna Metamorphoses, Isabella Rose Slezak

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Madonna Metamorphoses is a body of work illustrating the women martyred and monstrous. In fables, myths and folklore the woman is framed as a spinster, a seductress, a virgin, a victim. She is monstrous. She is contrary enough to upset the status quo, but weak enough to be defeated by it.

When women undergo monstrous transformations in these narratives there can be two reasons why. The transformation is either a curse placed upon her, one that must be broken for her to be whole again. The story of Swan Lake, for example. Or it is seen as a form of …