Body As Instrument: Crafting A Spatial Representational Language For The Dancer's Body, 2024 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Body As Instrument: Crafting A Spatial Representational Language For The Dancer's Body, Avery Boland
Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses
This project explored the intersection of dance and architecture using choreography, photography, and architectural principles through the development and application of a graphic notation system. Focused on the works of modern dance pioneer Martha Graham and photographer Barbara Morgan, the study tested the representation of the body in space through the use of Graham's choreography as captured by Morgan.
The results of the study demonstrated the effectiveness of the representational language in capturing the spatial dynamics of the human body in Martha Graham's choreography through the notation of “frame” and “plane”. Through a comparative analysis of the selected dances, the …
Calm Mid-Century Playlist, 2024 Kennesaw State University
Calm Mid-Century Playlist, Charlene Muyargas-Duque
Illustration Student Work
This illustration is a cover for a mid-century music playlist. Inspired by old jazz vinyl covers and Rene Gruau‘s fashion illustrations, it has a plain cream background with a thick pink border, mid-century styled typography, and an elegant woman in a turquoise dress. The woman is modeled off of Julie London, a prominent jazz singer from the 1940s to 1960s.
The Reveal: A Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of An Overpaint Portrait, 2024 SUNY University at Buffalo
The Reveal: A Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of An Overpaint Portrait, Camille Ferrer
Art Conservation Master's Projects
A severely damaged 19th-century oil painting depicting a portrait of a woman was treated at Patricia H. and E. Garman Art Conservation Department. A typed letter provided by the owner mentioned that it has been previously restored yet returned with unsatisfactory results. After further examination, the painting appeared to have been previously treated multiple times by different people. There was overpaint distinctly present on the face and later discovered to be present overall. The full state of condition of the painting was initially unknown due to the sum of the surface being overpainted. However, there were evidence of paint loss …
Not So Cavalier: Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of A Potential 17th Century Anglo-Dutch Military Portrait Painting, 2024 State University of New York College at Buffalo - Buffalo State College
Not So Cavalier: Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of A Potential 17th Century Anglo-Dutch Military Portrait Painting, Josephine Ren
Art Conservation Master's Projects
A potential 17th century Anglo-Dutch military portrait painting from the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York arrived at the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State University for conservation research and treatment in 2022. The painting’s title, date, and artist were unknown and the subject was initially referred to as a “17th Century Dutch Cavalier.” Little information existed on the provenance and history of the artwork. The painting was in a state of structural instability and aesthetic disfigurement and showed evidence of a past restoration campaign. This master’s project attempted to broadly …
Nineteen Figures And Counting: Contextualization And Conservation Treatment Of A Jacob Spoel Painting, 2024 State University of New York College at Buffalo - Buffalo State College
Nineteen Figures And Counting: Contextualization And Conservation Treatment Of A Jacob Spoel Painting, Susan P. Enterline
Art Conservation Master's Projects
This study focuses on the research, technical analysis, and treatment of an 1852 Jacob Spoel painting (Untitled, acc.62.28, 80cm H x 105cm W x 1.75cm D) owned by the Memorial Art Gallery and described as a ‘family gathering.’ When received by the department, the painting was not in a fit state for display; it was not structurally sound and had a disfiguring varnish reducing the readability of the composition. Technical research, multimodal imaging, radiography, and instrumental analysis, including x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, cross-sectional analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, were carried out to understand the materials and …
Christ Child Bearing The Instruments Of The Passion Technical Study And Treatment Of A Painting On Copper From The Viceroyalty Of Peru, 2024 State University of New York College at Buffalo - Buffalo State College
Christ Child Bearing The Instruments Of The Passion Technical Study And Treatment Of A Painting On Copper From The Viceroyalty Of Peru, Daniela González-Pruitt
Art Conservation Master's Projects
Christ Child Bearing the Instruments of the Passion (acc.# 228017) is a 17th century Peruvian Viceregal painting on copper belonging to the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. The painting depicts the Christ Child on a flower laid path as he carries the instruments of the passion also known as the Arma Christi Paintings executed on copper convey new and challenging preservation issues based on their materials and techniques.. The work had been heavily restored and exhibited several condition issues, including significant overpaint and broad losses. The painting was photographed using multimodal imaging techniques as well as reflectance …
Raisin Fingers, 2024 Washington University in St. Louis
Raisin Fingers, Sophia Hatzikos
Graduate School of Art Theses
I am a sculptor that uses site reactive interactions, video documentation, and studio-based processes to explore landscape. I investigate my multifaceted relationship of self to my sensorial memory of landscape. Through themes of memory, loss and longing intertwined with my personal connection to water. I identify the intersections of sculpture and landscape seeking ways in which environments shapes decisions in the making process.
Through case studies of two distinct landscapes, Malaki and Tyson, I look at how these environments serve as sources of inspiration and material for experimentation. By identifying the ways in which I researched at each site respectively …
Uncanny Bodies, 2024 Washington University in St. Louis
Uncanny Bodies, Samantha Neu
MFA in Visual Art
In “Uncanny Bodies,” unseemly bits are revealed, sensibilities are questioned, and solid ground morphs into shaky mounds. I delve into how the uncanny challenges traditional views and societal norms about the body. My artwork emphasizes the fluid and often unsettling experiences of physical existence, blurring the boundaries between personal and collective perceptions. Through distortions and manipulation of scale, the familiar is rendered alien in my sculptures, prints, and paintings. Through this ambiguity, I hope to offer space for the viewer to navigate their body’s emotional and physical relationship to the unknown.
Snowstorm, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Snowstorm, Caleb Shafer
Masters Theses
This thesis explores the connection between memory and place-building, focusing on how personal narratives and physical models compress details to reveal their core essence. Memories serve as a bridge between time and space, allowing for a non-linear experience of time and offering a unique perspective on the existence and transformation of places. Although this compression involves some loss, it generates new narratives and insights into life while examining the power structures and cultural systems inherent in representation.
Umbrales (Thresholds), 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Umbrales (Thresholds), Maureen Scally
Masters Theses
Umbrales is Spanish for Thresholds.
Thresholds are by nature ambivalent spaces, inviting two distinct realities into play. As an artist, I materialize my experiences as a migrant into an architectural form. A series of textile walls shape a space that is simultaneously interior and exterior so that the audience circulates in the negative space in between. It is in the construction of this threshold condition — a simultaneous placement, neither here nor there — that a complex narrative of place unfolds.
Unconditioning Air, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Unconditioning Air, Weijia Deng
Masters Theses
Unconditioning Air rethinks the boundaries contrived through environmental control. For more than a century, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) defined the boundaries of interior air. The regime and tools of mechanical conditioning promise stability and manageability of indoor air quality at the expense of external phenomena, and by extension, any complexity or fluctuation in the environment. As a result, air conditioning premises that ideal interior comfort is “bubble-like”, requiring increasingly standardized and highly regimented regulatory tools. The plethora of patent drawings, duct specifications, and ASHRAE comfort codes produce an oppressively tightening grip over indoor air and comfort, rendering both …
Moving Studio, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Moving Studio, Emilia Miekisz
Masters Theses
This collection of essays chronicles my journey through the MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), exploring the concept of a “moving studio” and its influence on my creative process. From the fluidity of morning routines to the comfort found in Sunday pancake traditions, the essays delve into the intersections of personal experiences, artistic inspiration, and technological innovation. Through reflections on animation projects like “Wakey Wakey” and “Mr. Fragile,” I examine the transformative power of storytelling and the emotional connections fostered through my work. The essays also explore the evolution of perspectives, from initial resistance to embracing …
Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim
Masters Theses
This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …
Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes
Masters Theses
Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.
In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …
Half Dawn, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Half Dawn, Catherine Ashley
Masters Theses
By presenting these words on paper, I have given entry into a microcosm of recent research, questions, and creative explorations. There is potential for disconnection when trying to turn your head inside out and present it in a way that feels beautiful for other people. I’m trusting the moments of authenticity I’ve found in my wandering. Segue. Relationship. Gesture. Illusion. My musings all stem from notions of temporality. Time dances on the farthest ends of both immensity and desolation. I’ve spent stretches of time asking the people, texts, and experiments around me to define time in a way that I …
Umbrella And Jellyfish, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Umbrella And Jellyfish, Yanran Bi
Masters Theses
Rainy season arrives as soon as the summer begins in Shanghai. For some reason, I rarely remember to bring an umbrella with me. I have a lot of umbrellas, most of them are transparent ones bought at subway stations. When it suddenly starts pouring rain, umbrella vendors in Shanghai gather at each crowded exit of the subway sta- tions to sell umbrellas to people like me. The cheapest umbrellas they have are always the transparent ones. The whole city is turned upside down by the rain with its reflections on every street. Then a transparent umbrella opens up, then another, …
Graphic Warmline, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Graphic Warmline, Soo Min Lee
Masters Theses
Graphic Warmline is a metaphorical helpline for designers.It is a safe space to embrace doubt, navigate the complexities of our surroundings, and to move and adapt in new ways through the design process. Born from my own struggles, and ongoing processes of active-listening, observing, and introspection, this warmline is an invitation to contemplate and reframe standards of perfection and ingrained habits in order to discover genuine joy, a true voice, and to embrace flexibility, openness, and dynamism while designing.
Graphic Warmline offers interactive experimental methods, materials, and formats through actions of interplay in freeform.These experimentations revolve around threads of interplaying …
Lucid Dream: Embracing Uncertainty, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Lucid Dream: Embracing Uncertainty, Zhiyun Zhang
Masters Theses
Glass is a tool, a projection surface, a medium for optical phenomena. It creates a tangible link between physical space and perception, transcending the physical realm to reshape our sensory perceptions and resonate within our psyche, deepening our understanding. Inspired by cosmic and natural phenomena, my installations narrate the contemplation of the moon and the appreciation of rainbows. They reference historic optical technologies, incorporating glass, mirrors, light, darkness, and space to produce an encounter that extends beyond personal experience, resonating with our collective unconscious, uniting us in profound ways. The blurred boundaries between observer and observed, reality and illusion, sensory …
Entre Manos Y Barro: Innovando Con Tradición, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Entre Manos Y Barro: Innovando Con Tradición, Jose Mata
Masters Theses
"Entre Manos y Barro: Innovando con Tradicion'' (Between Hands and Clay: Traditional Innovation) dives into sustainable and ethical innovations of traditional Zapotec ceramics. It discusses how introducing thoughtfully designed tools, like a specialized caja humeda (wet box), can enhance artisans' workspaces while preserving the cultural essence of their craft. This initiative emphasizes innovations that honor traditional methods and focus on community involvement.
The thesis is grounded in the principles of ethical innovation, which emphasize respect for traditional techniques, community participation in the innovation process, and the sustainability of both the craft and the environment. These principles shape the development of …
Modern Times, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Modern Times, Will Beattie
Masters Theses
At the intersection of glass, photography and sound lies issues of perspective, framing, and information. These factors as well as the conceptual space between object and image offer an opportunity to explore the way we register narrative through contradicting signifiers. Glass historically has been used as an instrument to reveal spaces, moments, and phenomena previously imperceptible to the human eye. This rendering of previously unseen spaces through language, technology or vision, may work to reorient the viewers’ perspective and allow for a new understanding of the world. The power of disruption as a potential catalyst is central to my studio …