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Full-Text Articles in Art and Design
Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry, Dani Epstein
Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry, Dani Epstein
Masters Theses
Designed Impermanence: Transformative Shapeshifting, A Decoded Alchemical Inquiry is a methodological deconstruction of our relationship to the built environment.
Our present existence is governed by craft and material hierarchies, conformed perceptions, and socioeconomic contextual drivers. Recognizing these tendencies, formats, and desires are critical in order to construct proposed introductions to re-envision alternative methods of building future realities. Redesigning new parameters through shifting physical configurations serve as indexes for visual propositions to redefine our existence through perceptions of time, adaptation, and materiality.
This research is centered around four themes: material craft ecology, adaptive alchemical constructions, reactionary behavioral assemblies, and evolving responsive …
New Craft: Craft Practices In The Digital Era, Paulina Bereza
New Craft: Craft Practices In The Digital Era, Paulina Bereza
Masters Theses
Advancements in technology point to a thriving future through the allure of new tools and the promise of enhanced performance. With the current environmental crisis, military invasions and broader global conflicts, how can we utilize new digital media in a way that dismantles oppressive positions of power? Looking towards the future, I explore the potential of materiality and new methods of making, to reshape our relationship with the environment and each other. I collaborate with newly adopted forms of intelligence, artificial and automated, to express and reconcile the accelerated cultural shift. From ancient fibres to digital circuits, what will the …
From John Street To Union, Andrew Shea
From John Street To Union, Andrew Shea
Masters Theses
I have been making paintings constructed loosely from my experience of walking about one mile each morning from my apartment in Fox Point to my studio in downtown Providence, and of walking back each night. My goal is to rediscover the feeling of these outdoor places—their lights, atmospheres, colors, and topographies—through the process of painting inside the studio. As such, the visual representations of these paintings are not straight-forward and objective, but oblique and affective.
I hope that these works draw one’s attention to the idiosyncrasies of natural life and to the particularities of weather. I want the paintings to …
Slow Puzzle, Tzyy Yi Young
Slow Puzzle, Tzyy Yi Young
Masters Theses
One may argue that we all observe. It is this finely tuned capacity that allows designers to read context and to identify patterns. Since I was a child, I’ve been a carefully tuned explorer of the world, observing the world around me. Yet as a designer, I take this observational impulse to another level by recording my observations and then translating these impressions into form. What is seen, felt, and gathered is then edited, nuanced, and reformed. This act of translation becomes a slow puzzle as I look for cues, acknowledge every facet, and conceive of forms in such a …
Time Enough At Last, Scott Lerner
Time Enough At Last, Scott Lerner
Masters Theses
As an art history buff and sci-fi aficionado, I’m constantly thinking about the stories told of human progress, or lack thereof. Have modern humans surpassed their ancient ancestors or have they only managed to create more technologically advanced ways of carrying on with their same base drives for power, status, and violence? If we turn to popular media, this question becomes particularly intriguing. Our visions of the future are often just a confused jumble of the past; we reanimate old ideas and images when trying to imagine the things to come. An example of this can be found in Star …
What Do We Stand For?, Lauren Koven
What Do We Stand For?, Lauren Koven
Masters Theses
I am exploring constructed realities and dismantling binaries and dualities. Much of this work is investigated through, but not limited to, language, gender, sexuality, race, and performativity.
El Suelo En Duelo, Mariana Ramos Ortiz
El Suelo En Duelo, Mariana Ramos Ortiz
Masters Theses
This is a thesis about colonialism.
When I was seven years old I interrogated my mom about the consequences of Puerto Rico achieving its independence from the United States. I remember asking her “If Puerto Rico gains its independence, would that mean that we would no longer be able to purchase apples at the store?” The warm climate prohibits apples from growing in Puerto Rico. I never liked apples, and would much rather have had oranges, but I guess that concerned me at that time. She looked at me with a funny look. With that funny look that any parent …
Phefumula Nami, Ndivhuho Rasengani
Phefumula Nami, Ndivhuho Rasengani
Masters Theses
Cosmos: Building a cosmology (mid 17th century: from French cosmologie or modern Latin cosmologia, from Greek kosmos ‘order or world’ + -logia ‘discourse’,) which mirrors and exhumes hidden narratives from our current reality. It is in this tracing that I teeter between visual codes in the form of memories impressed upon my mind from generations of old and Aesthetic symphonies from the present.
In The Muck And The Mire, Orli Swergold
In The Muck And The Mire, Orli Swergold
Masters Theses
At the core of my practice lies my fascination with my body; how I exist in relation to others and my surroundings, how much space I take up, how close I am to others, how much distance exists between us. I am interested in intimacy and bodily contact, which I explore through objects that bridge the gap between human embodiment and otherness. My works, made out of paper pulp, simultaneously stimulate a hyperawareness of one’s own body and a dissolution of the self. Their human scale immediately places them in relation to the viewer and creates space for empathy. As …
Fableware From The Garden Of The Grotesque, Matt Becker
Fableware From The Garden Of The Grotesque, Matt Becker
Masters Theses
In biology, a chimaera is created when two zygotes collide at an early stage of development, resulting in a unique creature containing two distinct sets of genes. The name is borrowed from Greek mythology where chimaeras are fire-breathing monsters born with the mixed attributes of lions, snakes, and goats. As creatures of myth, chimaera represent a narrative union of disparate parts; a collision of the fantastic and the mundane.
Clay can be used to explore this dichotomy, utilizing its ability as a mutable canvas to embody a vast range of visual vocabularies while referencing its rich history and placing new …
Dal And Rice, Anushka Divecha
Dal And Rice, Anushka Divecha
Masters Theses
I have always been a nostalgic person. I have boxes of old photographs, letters, birthday cards and objects from significant days in my life. I have confetti from different concerts, friendship bracelets and old diaries. While typically not represented by keepsakes, memories of food are some of my strongest. They encompass all five senses, which is perhaps why they are so powerful. Every time I smell a spice or taste something familiar, I am instantly transported to a certain place and time.
As a textile artist, I use materials, textures, imagery, and senses to evoke place and time. This year …
What Do I See Between 2 To 8 O'Clock, Youtian Duan
What Do I See Between 2 To 8 O'Clock, Youtian Duan
Masters Theses
We record our daily life, our daily emotions. But maybe we lie to ourselves. Or our expression is a kind of hope: what we want to look like or want others to think we are like. Unfortunately, it’s usually not our natural appearance, not the honest thoughts in our hearts. Maybe we don’t understand ourselves.
I like to record my dreams. In the dream world, sometimes I relax, sometimes nervous, and unconsciously wander around. That is the real me. In my unconscious dream state, I identify myself, know myself, again and again. I can live in peace with a world …
Dress Your Chair, Yumeng Gai
Dress Your Chair, Yumeng Gai
Masters Theses
Upholstery is the dress for furniture. As apparel for humans, upholstery has the power to shape the identity of furniture. By changing different upholsteries, furniture will have fresh identities that bring vitality to both the furniture itself and the surrounding environment. And during the process of changing “cloth” for furniture, people will build a deeper relationship with the furniture they already have.
Out Of Bounds, Luciana Iwamoto
Out Of Bounds, Luciana Iwamoto
Masters Theses
Humans have an inescapable desire for rationality, structure, and order. We seek efficiency and certainty in our individual and communal lives. We have been encouraged to believe that most things are under our control until something strikes us and brings to consciousness the limits of our knowledge. It’s usually nature’s wild power that overwhelms our faculty of reason and reminds us of our limits. Philosophers called this sensation of overwhelm in the face of nature the sublime experience. In modern cities, surrounded by skyscrapers, we are reminded of our own technological achievements, while nature feels disconnected and distant. Yet, if …
Hain't, Jarrett Key
Hain't, Jarrett Key
Masters Theses
Jarrett Key’s thesis book examines their journey towards understanding their freedom through three lenses: Survival, Transformation and Celebration. Through pointed excavation of the oral histories and lost stories of their upbringing in rural Alabama, their work presents critiques of the historical conditions that sowed the seeds of their contemporary personhood, while simultaneously creating spaces to celebrate beauty, joy, and survival. The objects Key builds perform their freedom and are crafted from materials that reference pieces of their own personal narrative. Highlighting works from Leaving the City (oil paintings on cement), the Hot Comb (forged black steel sculptures), and Slave Ship/ESP …
Erik Degiorgi, Erik Degiorgi
Erik Degiorgi, Erik Degiorgi
Masters Theses
Where I started two years ago is a very different place from where I am today. At the outset of my time at RISD I knew very little about what it meant to be a designer. I lacked confidence, yet still entered this program with strict ideas about the nature and outcome of my work.
Over the course of four traditional semesters and two winter sessions, I gradually moved away from my original, self-imposed fears and constraints. Not coincidentally, my work expanded into areas I had not conceived of previously. It has been an illuminating journey, and while I am …
You Are Trapped., Will Chouinard
You Are Trapped., Will Chouinard
Masters Theses
YOU’RE TRAPPED. YOU CAN SEE THE EXIT BUT YOU CAN’T GET TO IT. EVERY TIME YOU MOVE, YOU RISK CUTTING YOURSELF ON THE SHARP EDGES OF THE TRANSLUCENT WALLS, SO YOU DON’T. YOU’RE STARTING TO SWEAT. NOT MOVING MAKES YOU INCREDIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE. YOU’RE BREATHING HEAVILY. YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE ABOUT TO PASS OUT, BUT YOU CAN’T BECAUSE IF YOU DO YOU KNOW THAT IT’S ALL OVER. SO YOU FORCE YOURSELF TO STAY AWAKE. THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN ON YOU. YOU HAVE TO MAKE A MOVE. TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH. IN AN UNHUMAN EFFORT, YOU REACH UP TO THE …
Slick And Lumpy : Heavy Cream, Emma Fague
Slick And Lumpy : Heavy Cream, Emma Fague
Masters Theses
A conversation with myself. A look inside my mind, process, and feelings. Slick and Lumpy. Creamy, oozing, leaking, dripping. Poured, molded, and sewn. Not a body, but my body, big and bursting and spilling out. Two things placed next to each other and observed. Lots of dessert, frosting, squishing, covering. A conversation with a painting, with a building technique. Fetish and healing, leather, vinyl, latex. Private and public space. Identity, imposter syndrome, digital fabrication. Combining and subtracting and stuffing. Is it appealing, sexy, charming, or revolting, ugly and gross?
Internal Resonance, Xiangyu Wang
Internal Resonance, Xiangyu Wang
Masters Theses
This thesis explores the interaction between my inside and outside worlds. It includes my discussion towards Zen methodology, homeostasis, nature, antiquity, inner order and the concept of Qi. It can also be seen as a process that scrutinizes my daily life and looks deep into those things which slowly echo in my body and push me to make my own response.
Re: Ornament, Aleks Dawson
Re: Ornament, Aleks Dawson
Masters Theses
Re:Ornament calls for a rethinking of ornament within the history and practice of design, urging a broad reconsideration of ornament’s value and a complete reimagining of ornament’s future potential. Charting the arc of ornament in the Western tradition, this thesis reexamines the impact of modernism’s rejection of ornament—and, with it, its embedded culture, history, knowledge and craft.
Studying ornament’s structure as a language, I make the case for ornament’s inherent beauty and excess and speculate on how ornament could apply to thinking and making beyond design. Through graphic form, material exploration and pattern thinking, I …
The Line, Hannah Oatman
The Line, Hannah Oatman
Masters Theses
The Line is a series of exaggerated contemporary jewelry “products” that engage the audience through collecting, marketing, and nostalgia. It grew from a dissatisfaction with the world of “contemporary jewelry,” or “art jewelry,” or “author jewelry,” or whatever people are calling the field now (assuming they’re calling it anything).
The Line pushes against the rarely questioned conventions of contemporary jewelry by playing along with them (sometimes even playing a little rough).
This work intentionally walks on the lines between jewelry and art, and between art and product: lines that exist whether we want them to or not, but which can …
Sky Is Sinking Below The Trees : Two Years Of Documentation And Observations, Xuelun Li
Sky Is Sinking Below The Trees : Two Years Of Documentation And Observations, Xuelun Li
Masters Theses
I see landscape through my own eyes, hands and body, and also through the lenses of Chinese poetry, calligraphy and ink painting. These art forms are rich in metaphor. The way they imagine and depict landscape is romantic, often including observations on dual concepts as lightness and heaviness, movement and stillness, change and stability, all of which have inspired this collection of work.
These furniture pieces include benches, tables and lamps. They are abstracted landscapes, to spark imagination about natural forces and transformations, both through the process with which they’ve been made and through their final forms. I engage with …
Mis Jarrones, Marco Sebastián Arroyo Hoebens
Mis Jarrones, Marco Sebastián Arroyo Hoebens
Masters Theses
This thesis offers an insight into the complex relationship between identity, memory and the creative process. A Q&A follows, designed to deepen the understanding of the self in different situations, places, cultures and design objects.
Apparently, memory has a leading role in triggering creative processes and this has forced me to do further research on my own past and on the objects that my memory retains. In the end, this “research on the self” has produced an interesting view on this particular creative process of designing.
A Natural Circus, Cecilia Plasencia
A Natural Circus, Cecilia Plasencia
Masters Theses
I’ve come to the conclusion that I have no interest in controlling and manipulating matter to my own heart’s content. I’m rather bored of rigidly perfect geometries and sentiments. Rather than controlling materials I allow them to do as they please. I capture their moment of revelation, and allow them to speak for themselves. I realize this process of making demotes me from creator to conduit, but I’ve noted that the materials have a far more unique and intelligent message than I could ever imagine.
So, I listen to matter. Matter has one very good friend, the center of the …
From Armor To Augmentation : Reclaiming My Everyday Body, Molly Palecek
From Armor To Augmentation : Reclaiming My Everyday Body, Molly Palecek
Masters Theses
My work explores the silhouette of the body and how we can be empowered to augment it. First impressions are formed instantly and inform much of our social interactions, but these impressions are often made with the limited information of a quick glance and the simple outline of a body shape. There is a negative stigma about some body types and this can make social interaction daunting. This is especially true for women in general, for whom physical appearance is closely tied to perceived value by society. It is even more of an issue for women like myself, whose body …
The Past Is Today, Afra Al Dhaheri
The Past Is Today, Afra Al Dhaheri
Masters Theses
Process is a vital element to construction and deconstruction. Yet, materiality serves as a vehicle to expose the aesthetics developed by the process. However, without memories, the construction of these bodies of work would have never been conceived. Rapid change was the initial experience that formed memories in the first place, it was inevitable. Hence, an adaptation method had to be examined. The trees had proven to be worthy of the investigation. The trees required materials and the materials demanded a process. Process developed the work and the work had to have context. Context evolved from memory and required more …
Humor And Allegory, Christopher Goodale
Humor And Allegory, Christopher Goodale
Masters Theses
This series of works proposes the merging of aesthetic interests that undermine the self-seriousness of the artist and the idea of labor in painting. Painting’s slowing of time can hopefully extinguish the peripheral noise of the outside world and provide space for thought. These paintings propose different ways to help the viewer understand visual depth, narrative, and formal decision-making. The optical depth of red, the spatial depth of glazed paint, and the spiritual depth of the figure can provide multiple meanings and possibilities. Another metaphor for the development of this series of paintings would be one comedian telling a joke …
Between Material And Landscape, Martin Mcdermott
Between Material And Landscape, Martin Mcdermott
Masters Theses
Clay is a binary material. It is soft and malleable and yet becomes as hard as rock when subjected to immense heat. Its responsiveness to manipulation makes it well suited to recording touch in landscapes of surface. Its versatility makes it the ideal material for expressing other types of antipodal concepts: dark and light, banal and profound, temporary and durable. The sculptural objects in this body of work represent many of these contrasts through an investigation of various historical concepts within a broad definition of landscape art. The hollow clay “rocks” reference caves and grottos through apertures in the surface …
Memory: Tangible Decay & Growth, Rebecca J. Buglio
Memory: Tangible Decay & Growth, Rebecca J. Buglio
Masters Theses
What if the objects we had as children grew up with us and showed the decay, alterations, and new growth that occurred to us?
Natural sciences focus, in part, on the endless cycle of growth and decay. Through researching this topic, the question of current versus past arose to question how the mind evolves with age. As a ceramic artist, clay offers a memory through touch by taking the shape and form the creator wills it to have while still able to have movement and force of its own through the molecular makeup and processes it goes through in firings. …