Art Practice Commons^™

El Vínculo Entre El Arte, La Política Y El Espacio Público: Una Investigación De Colectivo El Muro Cusco Y Su Resistencia Contra Poder Estatal Y La Censura Del Espacio, Stella Gould

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Colectivo El Muro Cusco es un colectivo libertario y autogestionado dedicado al apoyo a las luchas sociales y al intercambio de información alternativa. Activo durante los últimos 20 años, El Muro,1 como se le conoce coloquialmente, ha sido un proveedor de la verdad en Cusco, utilizando el arte y la protesta para expresar descontento con las injusticias perpetuadas por el gobierno peruano. Utilizando el muro del Paraninfo Universitario de la UNSAAC ubicado en la Plaza de Armas de Cusco como su centro focal, el Colectivo utiliza el espacio como galería de arte y lugar de exposición, pero también como …

Rooted In Topsoil, Jiaying Wang

Masters Theses

Disillusioned by my transnational identity, I have come to realize that my sense of belonging is no longer attached to any physical location, but instead to a state of mind, to an intimacy with the world. My notion of home is an obscure and unsettled—at times utopian—idea, which can be infinitely decoded, re-positioned and re-established psychologically. This thesis is an investigation of that liminal state, questioning the paradoxical place at the intersection of longing and belonging, interior and exterior, rootedness and uprootedness. Through a collection of short essays that accompany projects, I seek to unpack the precarious emotional complexities that …

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

The paper is about a site-specific installation that questions a viewer’s norms and perspectives, through the use of multilingual newspapers as a sculptural material.

La Cultura Que No Cambia, Karina Arreola-Gutierrez

MFA in Visual Art

In the text of La Cultura Que No Cambia, I mention how my work has been influenced by becoming more aware of generations of altar making that occur in my family. By collecting stories and photographs of altars, I can observe and create work based on how the legacies can change through generations or stay the same. The memory of my ancestors and family traditions is strengthened. Growing up seeing discrimination towards others has influenced me to highlight my Mexican heritage of traditions, culture, and language through several different methods. Using these elements, I can create work informing audiences about …

Políticas Visuales Y Acción Colectiva: Un Investigación Sobre Las Articulaciones Estético-Políticas En Manifestaciones De Arte Público En Ushuaia Y El Bolsón / Visual Politics And Collective Action: An Investigation Of Aesthetic-Political Articulations In Manifestations Of Public Art In Ushuaia And El Bolsón, Laura Woodhouse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Art in the public sphere is an integral tool of communication that transcends the vertical hierarchies of social organization by infiltrating the popular consciousness with disruptive mediums and reclamations of visual space. Because of the specific accessibility of a variety of forms of public art, for both creators and observers, manifestations of public art have become a popular method through which counter-hegemonic social narratives can be constructed and mediated; in Argentina, a profound history of disruptive art has has been intricately intertwined with an equally rich history of popular activism. With a focus in El Bolsón and Ushuaia, two localities …

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Auto®Ficción Latinx De Nueva York (1999–2020), Jacqueline Herranz Brooks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research on the intersection of Literary Criticism, Latino Studies, Persona Studies, and Performance Studies has led me to question the accepted definitions of autoficción (Doubrovsky, Gasparini, Alberca, Casas, Schlikers) and expand that definition into a more multifaceted and operational term. Hence, I created auto®ficción, a new term describing the hybrid creations of a group of underrepresented contemporary Latinx authors living/producing/circulating their work in New York City, during the first two decades of the 21^st Century. For these authors, their life experiences and quotidian uses of this city’s spaces are the subjects of their work. Auto®ficción draws attention …

The Dancing Between Two Worlds Project: Background, Methodology And Learning To Approach Community In Place, Anindita Banerjee, Shaun Mcleod, Gretel Taylor, Patrick L. West

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This article recounts the history to date of the Dancing Between Two Worlds (DBTW) project, which was initiated by a team of artist-scholars at Deakin University in 2018. DBTW’s brief was to engage the Indian community living in the western fringes of Melbourne in a project on civic belonging, cross-cultural artistic identity, and the performance of outer-suburban Indian diaspora. Working with the creative and community energies that are activated at the intersection of the creative arts and demographically inflected place, the Deakin researchers collaborated with local artists with an Indian background on a major performance in late 2019: …

The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The main intellectual problem I address in this study is how everyday communication activates the relationship between creativity, conflict, and change. More specifically, I look at how the communication of creativity becomes a process of transformation, innovation, and change and how people are propelled to create through everyday communication practices in the face of conflict and opposition. To approach this problem, I use the case of communication in modern-day Belarus to show how creativity becomes a vehicle for and a source of new social and cultural routines among the independent grassroots communities and initiatives in Minsk. On one level, I …

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.

Washing The River In Relation To Interpellation, Theatricality And Spectatorship, Patricia Miller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patricia Miller's Master of Fine Arts Thesis Paper

Cultural Heritage Preservation In The Context Of Climate Change Adaptation Or Relocation: Barbuda As A Case Study, Martha B. Lerski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This case study introduces an arts camp methodology of engaging communities in identifying their key cultural heritage features, thus serving as a meta study. It presents original research based on field studies on the climate-vulnerable Caribbean island of Barbuda during 2017 and 2018. Its Valued Cultural Elements survey, enabling precise identification of key tangible and intangible art forms and biocultural practices, may serve as a basis for further studies. Such approaches may facilitate future research or planning as climate-vulnerable communities harness Local or Indigenous Knowledge for purposes of biocultural heritage preservation, or towards adaptation or relocation. I report on findings …

Socio-Political Criticism In Contemporary Indonesian Art, Isabel Betsill

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this paper is to understand the connections between contemporary art and politics in Indonesia both in terms of how politics has shaped art practices, and in terms of how art influences politics. Questions I was interested in exploring include how contemporary art practices have changed considering the political changes over the past 30 years; if and how contemporary art is being used to facilitate political dialogues in the country; if and how contemporary art is being used to criticize and invoke change regarding social issues; and what the role of art spaces, collectives and foundations is in …

Z4, A Slow Puncture: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Language, Embodiment, And Meaning-Making, Charlotte Rose Samuels

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In my ISP, I explored language as it relates to the ways in which people living in Cato Manor make sense of HIV/AIDS in their community. With 7.1-7.2 million people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in South Africa, individuals across the country are either infected or affected by illness. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the province with the highest rate of HIV, is also the province that was surveyed with the disproportionately highest internal stigma rates for PLWHIV. High prevalence of HIV, particularly in KZN, calls for a constant contextualization of life in the presence of illness.

Throughout the world, metaphor and symbolism is …

Journey To Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, And Best Practices For Newcomers And Schools, Trina D. Harlow

NPP eBooks

Pre-K through 12th grade schools within the United States have become much more diverse in recent years. Schools are now commonly not only diverse because of diverse students born in the United States, but also have many immigrant students. A growing number of these immigrant students are resettled children who have refugee status. In schools, these recent immigrants are called newcomers. This book is a culmination of research and anecdotal experiences regarding the refugee issue as it pertains to these students in American schools and schools elsewhere in the world. Scholars, policy makers, educators, those who work in the refugee …

Strange Woods, Song Park

Graduate School of Art Theses

I am interested in searching for images of women that have not been adequately represented in visual art. As a visual artist, I am directed by my sense of sight to investigate and know something. I like to challenge myself to visualize things that do not already have a visual representation. It has been frustrating for me to create images of women, and I have experienced a deep ambivalence in response to the different images of women I have encountered. The socially and culturally constructed images of women that I have internalized and those that have developed from my own …

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Śāntiniketan And Modern Southeast Asian Art: From Rabindranath Tagore To Bagyi Aung Soe And Beyond, Yin Ker

Artl@s Bulletin

Through the example of Bagyi Aung Soe, Myanmar’s leader of modern art in the twentieth century, this essay examines the potential of Śāntiniketan’s pentatonic pedagogical program embodying Rabindranath Tagore’s universalist and humanist vision of an autonomous modernity in revitalizing the prevailing unilateral and nation-centric narrative of modern Southeast Asian art. It brings into focus the program’s keystones on the modern, art and the artist, which have been pivotal in discoursing on the Burmese alumnus of the ashram-turned-university, and explores how the same might be applicable to fellow artists in Myanmar and the region.

The Art Of Exile: A Narrative For Social Justice In A Modern World, Dakota D. Homsey

Student Publications

In this paper I will illustrate what exile art is, how it is influenced on a global platform, and the change it engenders. My research reveals a central theme of globalization in the exchange, mix, and clash of cultures and political views that accompany it as well as the spread of art and ideas. In my research I illustrate how political circumstance, and sense of responsibility to share a political narrative, propelled exile art from a personal to a political narrative. My research illustrates how, as displaced people stripped of a homeland, exiled artists have surfaced as a voice of …

The Figure In Art: Selections From The Gettysburg College Collection, Yan Sun, Diane Brennan, Rebecca S. Duffy, Kristy L. Garcia, Megan R. Haugh, Dakota D. Homsey, Molly R. Lindberg, Kathya M. Lopez, Kelly A. Maguire, Carolyn E. Mcbrady, Kylie C. Mcbride, Erica M. Schaumberg

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The Figure in Art: Selections from the Gettysburg College Collection is the second annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods class. This exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor and provides an incredible opportunity for engaged learning, research, and curatorial experience. The eleven student curators are Diane Brennan, Rebecca Duffy, Kristy Garcia, Megan Haugh, Dakota Homsey, Molly Lindberg, Kathya Lopez, Kelly Maguire, Kylie McBride, Carolyn McBrady and Erica Schaumberg. Their research presents a multifaceted view of the representation of figures in various art forms from different periods and cultures.

Place-Making, Mobility, And Identity: The Politics And Poetics Of Urban Mass Rapid Systems In Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

He Creators A Look At The Changing Work Of Potters And The Future Of Their Craft In Thimi, Nepal, Natalie Silver

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Newari sur-name Prajapati has been associated with those who are of the potter caste in the Kathmandu valley. In the past 30 years ceramics in the historic pottery town of Thimi has changed drastically from being an essential and necessary craft and the only occupation for Prajapatis, to a struggling population of visually aging potters. This paper examines the workshop Everest Pottery in Thimi nepal as a case study for the state of ceramics in Thimi today. The author traces the origins of the workshop's founder Shiva Prajapati and examines the shift that Shiva made from traditional Newari pottery …

La Brigada Ramona Parra; Muralismo Y Cambio Social En Chile / La Brigada Ramona Parra ; Muralismo And Social Change In Chile, Sarah Baumann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mi motivación para esta proyecto era mi interés en el poder de murales en Chile, y los cambias sociales que arte callejero pueden iniciar. Arte callejero he tenido un efecto muy grande en la historia y políticos de Chile. Yo quería descubrir más sobre esta historia, y también cómo los organizaciones que hacen murales, cómo la Brigada de Ramona Parra, funciona hoy. Para mi proyecto, yo usé entrevista, guías de arte callejero, observaciones en escuelas de Bellas Artes, y un exposición de murales. En mis resultas, yo encontré que la Brigada de Ramona Parra ha cambiado la escena política en …

Strategic Deployments Of ‘Sisterhood’ And Questions Of Solidarity At A Women’S Development Project In Janakpur, Nepal, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

Linguistic uses of ‘sisterhood’ provide a window into disparate understandings of relationality among virtual and actual interlocutors in women’s development across vectors of caste, class, ethnicity and nationality. In this essay, I examine the trope of ‘sisterhood’ as it was employed at a women’s development project in Janakpur, Nepal, in the 1990s. I demonstrate that the use of this common signifier of kinship with culturally disparate ‘signifieds’ created a confusion of meaning, and differential readings of the politics of relationality. In my view, ‘sister,’ as used at this project, was a multivalent, strategically deployed, and divergently interpreted term. In particular, …

Neuroscience And Hindu Aesthetics: A Critical Analysis Of V.S. Ramachandran’S “Science Of Art”, Logan R. Beitmen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neuroaesthetics is the study of the brain’s response to artistic stimuli. The neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran contends that art is primarily “caricature” or “exaggeration.” Exaggerated forms hyperactivate neurons in viewers’ brains, which in turn produce specific, “universal” responses. Ramachandran identifies a precursor for his theory in the concept of rasa (literally “juice”) from classical Hindu aesthetics, which he associates with “exaggeration.” The canonical Sanskrit texts of Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra and Abhinavagupta’s Abhinavabharati, however, do not support Ramachandran’s conclusions. They present audiences as dynamic co-creators, not passive recipients. I believe we could more accurately model the neurology of Hindu aesthetic experiences …

Hip-Hop, Medellín And Social Change, Veronica Henao Posada

Master's Theses

This study explores the ways in which the Hip-hop movement is producing social change in Medellín, Colombia. Looking specifically at a Hip-hop school called Cuatro Elementos Skuela, which exists autonomously and with very little state support in the Medellín neighborhood of Aranjuez, I argue that young people are contributing to the reconstruction of the city’s social, cultural and economic fabric. I start by explaining the historical context of Medellín, describing the different sets of conflicts that unleashed high levels of violence and caused the fragmentation of the social, cultural and economic fabric. Moreover, I review the role of the …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Changsha: Photographs By Rian Dundon, Rian Dundon

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rian Dundon, whose photographs have previously appeared at China Beat, will soon be releasing a new book of photography on China, Changsha. Dundon’s book will feature a forward written by friend of the blog Gail Hershatter and includes his photos of and essays on the Hunan province city of Changsha. For more information, and to pre-order a copy of the book, see the book’s website (pre-sales of the book are part of a crowd-funding campaign raising funds for its first run with the publisher, Emphas.is). Below is a special teaser of Changsha material that Dundon has prepared for China Beat …

Assessing (Multi)Culturalism Through Public Art Practices, Anru Lee, Perng-Juh Peter Shyong

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Collections & Connections -- Fall-Winter 2010, Jennifer Wilson

Collections & Connections

This is the Fall-Winter issue of WKU Libraries' biannual newsletter distributed among Library and Museum Friends and the entire WKU community. This issue features the project for The Horse in Kentucky Exhibit," "Harry Potter Night event in the Kentucky Building, the coming Christmas activities in the Kentucky Museum, the upcoming Southern Kentucky Book Fest, and the "Fall into Books" program that has just concluded. In this issue, there are also reports on the Libraries' food drive, its Java City concerts, the popular "Far Away Places" and "Kentucky Live!" talk series and the ongoing construction of the Confucius Institute Experience Center …