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 …
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.
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 …
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, …
Landing: Body, Site, Material, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Landing: Body, Site, Material, Renata Berta
Masters Theses
I believe that in order to build on the land, I must establish a profound relationship with it. As an outsider to New England territories, I actively seek this connection through immersive activities such as swimming, surfing, climbing, and extensive walks, immersing myself in the land to better understand it and synchronize with its rhythms. In my artistic and architectural practice, I explore dissolving traditional boundaries, emphasizing the vital return to the land to create a more responsive and embodied architecture that symbiotically engages with the landscape
Within this ongoing project, “Landing: Body, Site, Material,” I conceptualize my body not …
I Am Becoming., 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
I Am Becoming., Dai Asano
Masters Theses
This is a collection of essays documenting my grappling with the idea that time is always in motion. When you say now, it is not now anymore, but we are still in now, a new now. How can I stay in the now without being swept away by the current of time? Describing a film by Ozu Yasujiro, Deleuze writes, “The vase in Late Spring is interposed between the daughter’s half smile and the beginning of her tears. There is becoming, change, passage. But the form of what changes does not itself change does not pass on. This is time, …
Going To The Sea, 2024 Rhode Island School of Design
Going To The Sea, Lingyi Kong
Masters Theses
“Good-bye Icarus” is a work that aims to blend art, history, and environmental exploration through illustration, an interactive graphic novel, visual documentation, and programming language narratives.
A year of coastal life in Rhode Island has provided me with endless inspiration in terms of design language. I’ve ventured into blending dynamic visuals from TouchDesigner with illustration, a pioneering approach as far as I’m aware.
My narrative is based on seaside scenery and mythology metaphorical elements, making image programming to capture the essence of waves a focal point and central experiment of my work. Furthermore, after crafting a dynamic design visual language, …
Cooking In Times Of Oppression, 2024 University of Wroclaw
Cooking In Times Of Oppression, Dorota Koczanowicz
Dublin Gastronomy Symposium
In 2017, Marije Vogelzang's interactive performance at the Museum of Rotterdam, 'Black Confectti', was designed to enable the experience of a difficult wartime past. Using authentic recipes from the war press, she prepared dishes based on the creativity of the crisis. In the face of starvation and the struggle for life, the selflessness of creative action in the kitchen and the effort of documentation in the form of recipes from the past and culinary fantasies from the past proved to be a helpful tool for surviving the most oppressive situation. The effectiveness of this strategy is clearly demonstrated not only …
Resonant Perceptions: Exploring Autistic Aesthetics Through Embodied Cognition, 2024 Lindenwood University
Resonant Perceptions: Exploring Autistic Aesthetics Through Embodied Cognition, James Hutson, Piper Hutson
Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture
This study investigates the nuanced realm of aesthetic preferences among individuals with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) compared to neurotypical individuals, addressing a significant gap in understanding the diverse perceptual experiences within the neurodiverse community. The impetus for this study stems from the growing recognition of neurodiversity and the need to appreciate how individuals with ASC uniquely experience and interpret their environment, particularly in the context of aesthetics. Employing a dual-method approach, the research integrates data from comprehensive surveys and in-depth interviews to construct a comparative analysis of aesthetic preferences and experiences. Participants encompassed a broad demographic spectrum, ensuring a diverse …
Exploring The Effects Of Trance States Through Ritual, Kriya Yoga, And Expressive Arts For Adults With Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, 2024 Lesley University
Exploring The Effects Of Trance States Through Ritual, Kriya Yoga, And Expressive Arts For Adults With Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Alexandra (Lexi) Faith Traub
Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses
struggling with substance abuse often have complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and seek altered states beyond the mundane via substances. What if expressive art therapies and ancient spiritual practices creating trance states could meet this need to alter states, while healing CPTSD symptoms by developing self-awareness, affect regulation, and reprogramming the subconscious mind through imaginal realm parts work? This capstone thesis explores this using yogic philosophy, shamanic drumming, Himalayan singing bowls, aboriginal grief rituals, and expressive art therapies rooted in transcendental theater, bilateral stimulation, and natural materials like clay therapy. A methodology combining ancient wisdom, arts, and modern psychological theory …
More Than A Punchline: A Comparative Analysis Of Diversity In Dropout.Tv & Collegehumor, 2024 University of Mary Washington
More Than A Punchline: A Comparative Analysis Of Diversity In Dropout.Tv & Collegehumor, Alexander Gluchowski
Student Research Submissions
This paper examines the evolution of digital comedy through a comparative analysis of CollegeHumor and its offshoot, Dropout.tv, focusing on how each platform has approached the portrayal of diversity and inclusion. Utilizing a qualitative content analysis, the study contrasts selected episodes from both platforms to explore shifts in the representation of queer and POC comedians, and the thematic treatment of identity issues. The findings reveal that Dropout.tv significantly advances the inclusivity of comedic content, moving beyond CollegeHumor’s earlier reliance on stereotypical and controversial humor. This shift not only reflects changes in contemporary comedy but also highlights Dropout.tv's commitment to fostering …
Queerform/Ing, 2024 Southern Methodist University
Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer
Art Theses and Dissertations
My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …
Fragmented Bodies, 2024 Southern Methodist University
Fragmented Bodies, Lauren Careese Alexander
Art Theses and Dissertations
Through Memory Webs and fragmented ceramic vessels, I express what it feels like to grow up living in a biracial body. I utilize mixed media to emulate a mixed-race experience. My Memory Webs are fashioned by painting on scraps of canvas and attaching them with crocheted wire and ribbon to speak to how my memory has impacted my identity. My fragmented ceramic vessels are cut up and stitched back together to represent disjointedness and un-belonging. All of my work is contextualized through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and what the Monster may represent for people of color. I also …
Mindspace: A Multi-Media Art Exhibition On C-Ptsd Awareness, 2024 Portland State University
Mindspace: A Multi-Media Art Exhibition On C-Ptsd Awareness, Emma Wallace
Student Research Symposium
"Mindspace" is an autobiographical art exhibition aimed at raising awareness about Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) through a multi-sensory experience. The exhibition combines sculpture, lights, sound, and video projection to immerse viewers in the intricate emotional landscape of C-PTSD. Through a series of sculptural installations and carefully curated lighting and audio, visitors are invited to explore the internal world of an artist affected by C-PTSD and learn how it differs from PTSD and other types of mental health issues.
“Mindspace" incorporates specially composed soundscapes that offer an intimate look into the artist’s thoughts and memories, which range from spoken word …
Cliffhanger, 2024 Washington University in St. Louis
Cliffhanger, Micah Mickles
MFA in Visual Art
I am Micah Mickles, a mixed-media visual artist in St. Louis, Missouri. My artwork is deeply rooted in my personal experiences and serves as a memorial and monument to counteract the enduring effects of grief and loss. What sets my work apart is the transformative impact of my everyday encounters, inspired by my 14 years of experience working at Trader Joe's. These encounters have led me to reflect on my profound connections with diverse communities. By delving into the hidden narratives of mundane materials encountered in the workplace, I prompt a reexamination of convenience and supply chain origins. Inspired by …