Visual Studies Commons^™

Intermedial Strategies Of Memory In Contemporary Novels, Sara Tanderup

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Intermedial Strategies and Memory in Contemporary Novels" Sara Tanderup discusses a tendency in contemporary literature towards combining intermedial experiments with a thematic preoccupation with memory and trauma. Analyzing selected works by Steven Hall, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Judd Morrissey and drawing on the theoretical perspectives of N. Katherine Hayles (media studies) and Andreas Huyssen (cultural memory studies), Tanderup argues that recent intermedial novels reflect a certain nostalgia celebrating and remembering the book as a visual and material object in the age of digital media while also highlighting the influence of new media on our cultural understanding and …

Towards Digital Art In Information Society, Montse Arbelo, Joseba Franco

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Towards Digital Art in Information Society" Montse Arbelo and Joseba Franco propose the development of the platform of a Network of Experimental Centers be formed by small groups of people who are qualified and who seek optimal operational effectiveness and who dedicate their resources to the production of digital content and we offer artechmedia <http://www.artechmedia.org> as a base point of departure. Such an international network in a collaborative structure based on national networks would make possible to coordinate existing resources to develop social networks, generate and promote content, engage in forums of discussion and creativity workshops, and …

Invincible: Legacy And Propaganda In Superhero Comics, Natalie R. Sheppard

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Captain America and Iron Man are both iconic American heroes, representing different American values. Captain America was created during the Golden Age of comics and represents a longing for the past, while Iron Man was created at the height of the Cold War and looks forward to a new America. This paper will first establish the historical and cultural relationship between comic books and propaganda, beginning with the first appearance of Superman. It will pay special attention to the similarities and differences of Captain America and Iron Man, focusing on their representation of American values over time, and discuss how …

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-12-09, 1.6, Jordana Dym, Lisa Fierstein, Jennifer Hoffer

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Tiget Heart : A Short Story, Wai Yin, Catriona O'Neil

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

As an illustrator, Cat O'Neil's work resolves around telling stories through metaphorical imagery. Tiger Heart is an exhibition of one of these stories, which centres on the topic of street harassment.

[More Information about the exhibition with supplementary video]

All the works shown in this book is under the copyright of Cat O'Neil. Do not copy or reproduce the work without prior consent (except for review purpose).

What Adds Up To Being: The Work Of Tanna Burchinal, Tanna L. Burchinal

All Theses

My practice takes form around embodied experience. I affect signifiers of the human body within the ordered grid, the scientific text, and the logic of the machine, to highlight the interdependencies of physical bodies and those social constructs that produce and influence identity. We are a part of these constructs that both extend and limit; we are enacting and interacting with them. I do not aim to eradicate these structures of power (without them, our identities are in chaos). Instead, I point out the pitfalls of these constructs that are perceived as unchanging, by making interaction and experience integral to …

"The Falling Man" As Viewed In The Lens Of The "Public Sphere", Laura Reinacher

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Transmedial Documentation For Non-Visual Image Access, Melody J. Mccotter

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In my doctoral studies on information accessibility for the individual who is blind or visually impaired, I’ve been exploring the ways we can make image documents more accessible. This requires using an alternative sensory modality, and translating the document into a different format. The questions that arise when we consider this process are many, but among them are:

• Is it the same document once we’ve converted it to an audio narrative about the work, or a 3D topographic map of an artwork, or a musical interpretation?
• If it is not the same document, how truthful can the “trans-medial” translation be …

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-11-17, 1.5, Jordana Dym, Billie Kanfer, Jennifer Hoffer

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Antigone Claimed, "I Am A Stranger": Democracy, Membership And Unauthorized Immigration, Andres Fabian Henao Castro

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation offers a new framework through which to theorize contemporary democratic practices by attending to the political agency of unauthorized immigrants. I argue that unauthorized immigrants themselves, by claiming their own ambiguous legal condition as a legitimate basis for public speech, are able to open up the boundaries of political membership and to render the foundations of democracy contingent, that is to say, they are able to reopen the question about who counts as a member of the demos. I develop this argument by way of a close reading of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone[1], which allows me to …

Signs Of Wildness: Codes Of The “Primitive” In Masculine Commodity Culture, Matthew P. Ferrari

Doctoral Dissertations

This project broadly examines articulations of the “primitive” emerging from various sites of popular cultural production, considering their operation within the wider “semioscape”– defined by Thurlow and Aiello (2007) as “the globalizing circulation of symbols, sign-systems, and meaning-making practices.” Taking my lead from Kurusawa (2002, 2004), Torgovnik (1991, 1998), Chow (1995), and Di Leonardo (1998), who have demonstrated the importance of the “primitive” as an interpretive discourse, I add to this body of thought by extending its scope into the realm of popular media and cultural production, examining cases within film, television, advertising, sports, and associated lifestyle commodities. I pose …

Mdocs Poster-2014-11-06, Screening Of Fatal Assistance With Director Raoul Peck, Jordana Dym, Sarah Dean

MDOCS Publications

Poster designed by Shane Boissière, '15, and Sarah Dean, '15, for the fall 2014, November 6, visit of Raoul Peck, Haitian film director and head of France's film academy (La FEMIS).

¿Y El Público No Cuenta? Cine, Emigración Y Estrategias De Representación (1930-1960). De La Contextualización Histórica De La Producción A La Matriz Cultural De La Significación., Luis Guadano

Dissidences

La historiografía cinematográfica española se ha basado tradicionalmente en premisas ideológicas y estéticas que reducen el estudio de las estrategias de repesentacion del cine exclusivamente a su evolución desde el punto de vista de la producción obviando la existencia del público. Así, los cambios en la representación se han abordado o políticamente como consecuencia del proceso de transición de la dictadura a la democracia o historiográficamente mediante su adscripción a las tendencias ideológicas existentes en el cine español del periodo.

Sin embargo, partiendo de la movilidad social se puede constatar que la evolución de los elementos integrantes de las estrategias …

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-11-03, 1.4, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Choices In The Editing Room: How The Intentional Editing Of Dialogue Scenes Through Shot Choice Can Enhance Story And Character Development Within Motion Pictures, Jonathan Pfenninger

Masters Theses

This study examines the content of six feature length films, which showed in theaters in 2010 and 2011, from a communication perspective. Five of the scrutinized films are Academy Award winning and nominated films for Best Editing. The sixth film was the top grossing Christian feature film to be widely released within the two years. Utilizing Foss's rhetorical schema for the evaluation of visual imagery, this study examines and evaluates the composition of dialogue scenes within each film, identifying the functions of shot composition and movement choices within each film, individually. Through identification of a function, assessment and support found …

Ken Jacobs, Alchemist, Ara C. Osterweil

Criticism

Optic Antics: The Cinema of Ken Jacobs edited by Michele Pierson, David E. James, and Paul Arthur. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. 312; 48 photographs. $99.00 cloth, $39.95 paper, 26.99 E-book.

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-10-21, 1.3, Jordana Dym, Lisa Fierstein

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Mdocs Flyer-2014-10-17, Getting The Story: A Workshop In Digital Audio Recording With Eileen Mcadam, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

Flyer advertising an October 17/November two-part workshop for up to 12 faculty, staff and students. Eileen McAdam offered an introduction to the work of audio storytelling: the collecting, processing, and preserving of cherished stories using the latest digital equipment. In this workshop you will work with portable digital audio recorders and learn basic recording and interviewing techniques. On October 17, participants will learn and practice basic techniques. On November 7, participants will present an interview undertaken independently, and we will talk through lessons learned and next steps. Whether you want to record family stories, use interviews in your research project …

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-10-07, 1.2, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Mdocs Flyer-2014-09-01, Invitation To Participate In Oral History Interview (Fall 2014), Jordana Dym, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

Flyer inviting Skidmore College retirees and Saratoga Springs community members to participate in the Skidmore Saratoga Memory Project (SSMP) by giving an oral history interview as part of Celebration Weekend, 2014, on October 18. Eileen McAdam, of Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley, conducted the interview

Postcards Between Friends : Collaborative Drawing And Creativity Pedagogy = 友愛明信片 : 協同繪畫與創意教學法, Carol Archer

Research Expression through Art : Visual Studies Faculty

Postcards between Friends, an exhibition of extraordinary postcards. They're real postcards, complete with stamps, postmarks, and wear and tear, but they're special in three ways. First, they are all hand-drawn. Second, every postcard is a collaboration between at least two people. And third, every postcard has been through the mail at least twice.

The process works like this. One artist starts a drawing and, without adding any verbal instructions or commentary, mails it to another. The second artist finds the postcard in her mailbox, completes the drawing, and mails it back to the sender. The results are surprising because …

Pathos, Fall 2014, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Brooke Horn

Volume 9 No.1

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-09-23, 1.1, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Commercial Photography: Power And Sexuality In Models, Christina Bell

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

Commercial photography has a tendency to force upon us a standard template of what the ideal person is or looks like. Unfortunately, the artificial standard is horribly unachievable and detrimental to physical and mental health, which produces sentiments of insufficiency and abjection with the self, especially among young impressionable girls. In a sick - and very modern - twist of evolutionary progress we find ourselves idealizing the depictions of models appearing to be on the verge of starvation. This article examines the power and sexuality in models produced through commercial photography and its effects on society at-large.

Mdocs Tri-Fold-2014-09-01, Program, Mary Parliman

MDOCS Publications

The first pamphlet for MDOCS introduced the slogan "evidence-based storytelling" as well as key program components: Storytellers' institute, Skidmore-Saratoga Memory Project, academic year programming and coursework.

Mdocs Flyer-2014-09-01, Project Vis And Mdocs Fall 2014 Events, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Mdocs Series Flyer-2014-09-01, Li113 Workshops, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

List of Fall 2014 LI 113 Workshops including:

"Caricatures in the Round" with artist J.P. Crangle. Workshop includes a performance in caricature drawing and a conversation on character development, followed by a workshop in caricature drawing.

"GoPro Visual Storytelling" where students create a short doc using only a GoPro camera and Adobe Premiere software. Learn to focus on the essential elements of visual storytelling, such as movement, color, pace and rhythm.

"Getting the Story with Eileen McAdam-" This two-part workshop provides an introduction to the work of digital audio storytelling: the collecting, processing, and preserving of cherished stories using the …

Heard Or Dreamed About, Priya Nadkarni

Masters Theses

ABSTRACT

HEARD OR DREAMED ABOUT

MAY 2014

PRIYA NADKARNI, B.F.A. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

M.F.A. UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Directed by: Professor Shona Macdonald

The [Ftaires!] To Remembrance: Language, Memory, And Visual Rhetoric In Chaucer's House Of Fame And Danielewski's House Of Leaves, Shannon Danae Kilgore

Honors Program Theses

Geoffrey Chaucer's dream poem The House of Fame explores virtual technologies of memory and reading, which are similar to the themes explored in Danielewski's House of Leaves. "[ftaires!]", apart from referencing the anecdotal (and humorous) misspelling of "stairs" in House of Leaves, is one such linguistically and visually informed phenomenon that speaks directly to how we think about, and give remembrance to, our own digital and textual culture. This paper posits that graphic design, illustrations, and other textual cues (such as the [ftaires!] mispelling in House of Leaves] have a subtle yet powerful psychological influence on our reading and …

Turning To See Otherwise, Jennifer L. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis dossier, in combination with an exhibition at the McIntosh Gallery, considers whether an archival collection can generate an alternative narrative other than that which may already exist in the original film and photographic documents. Rather than represent a singular truth, I seek to articulate the transformative realities of collective memory by re-orienting the material for broader viewer identification. I have mined photographic and filmic materials from a personal family archive to focus fragments that specifically record the gesture of the turning face—the turning towards the observer. This “turn” then includes both the turn towards the initial film-maker embedded …