Art and Design Commons^™

Bone Meal, Johnathan Onyschuk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My research explores the material properties of gaming interfaces and the paranoiac virtual spaces of male fantasies. The first chapter of this thesis is an extended artist statement and a summary of influences in my work. Topics include the relationship between fantasy violence and real violence, digital avatars, and the limits of empathy in digital space. This chapter also contains documentation of works produced throughout the course of my MFA candidacy as well as the contexts and concepts behind those works. The second chapter is a case study exploring the work of artist Neo Rauch, whose paintings quietly critique and …

Altered States: Creative Arts, Virtual Reality, And The Human Condition, Sophia Gebara

Honors Theses

Virtual reality (VR) is a medium that is cutting-edge and novel, creating fully immersive experiences for diverse audiences. Able to fabricate endless opportunities of hyper-realistic scenes, virtual reality provides a specific kind of space for self-reflection and empathy that no other medium can match. VR can take the viewer to the night of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, or next to families trying to survive the genocide in the Nuba mountains of Sudan, or even alongside a NASA scientists atop a sheet of ice in Greenland measuring the rising sea levels. This thesis explores the discourse and critical commentary surrounding …

Breaking The Fourth Wall: Avenues For Empathy Through Participation And Interaction, Grace Zajdel

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Abstract:

Theater is used as a lens through which I view the act of role play in participatory and interaction based artworks. I examine the elements of Action – in participatory or performance works—and Set—in immersive installation works – for their effectiveness in creating avenues for empathetic relations in my own work and that of contemporary artists. I distinguish between the overblown spectacle of Peter Brook’s Deadly Theater and connect the mission of the Holy Theater to that of my own art practice. Performance, immersive installation, participation and interaction thereby serve to allow the artwork’s participants to engage in role-taking …

Roses & Thorns, Stephanie Alaniz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis has been created alongside the thesis exhibition shown in the Laura Mesaros Gallery at West Virginia University (displayed March 18th to March 22nd). The work presented consisted of drawings, bookmaking, and various forms of printmaking and collage. This body of work is meant to create an analysis of insecurities and body positivity we associate with our physical selves. This work is a collective experience that has been a collaboration with over 80 participants. The number of participants help to create a larger overall collective voice. By creating this collective voice, we can experience these feelings together and …