Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons^™

Trailblazin, Zahir Pineda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My "trailblazin" collage is just a collage of me and my brother as we grew up. It was just us two for the majority of our childhood and we were always pushed to make the most of our education here in the US. Growing up I always relied on him, and he made sure to be there to guide me and help me learn from his mistakes. Fast forward to now and we're both at LMU together, and the same way he trailblazed the path for me, I hope to do for my two younger siblings. It symbolizes what has …

Introduction

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

No abstract provided.

Family Dynamics In Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Isabell Lachinpour

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This paper was originally a submission for my general psychology final. The prompt for it was to analyze any topic covered in class and connect to any form of fictional media. I chose to study the social psychology behind the relationships of immigrant parents and their children, connecting it to the movie Everything, Everywhere, All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan. I especially picked this movie because of how connected I felt to the characters in the movie as I have gone through some of the same experiences they have and know many immigrant children that have felt …

Spiny Orb Weaver, Jasmine M. Roncevic

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This scientific illustration depicts the spiny orb weaver spider (Gasteracantha cancriformis), a distinctive arachnid known for its characteristic hardened, spiny abdomen. Spiny orb weaver spiders enjoy warm, tropical, and subtropical environments and are primarily found in the Southeastern U.S., the Caribbean, and South America. They live in wooded areas, citrus groves, and shrubby gardens. I’ve encountered spiny orb weaver spiders in my food forest where they like to set up their orb-shaped webs and feast on flies, mosquitoes, and moths.

This scientific illustration depicts the spiny orb weaver spider (Gasteracantha cancriformis), a distinctive arachnid known for its characteristic …

Darkling Beetle, Jasmine M. Roncevic

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Darkling beetles (Tenebrio molitor) are holometabolic insects. Darkling beetle is the common name of the large family of beetles Tenebrionidae which has more than 20,000 species. The T. molitor species gets its name from the yellowish appearance of the larvae. During its lifespan, a darkling beetle experiences a complete metamorphosis in four distinct stages: Egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The eggs hatch within 4 to 19 days after the female oviposits. It takes about 3 – 4 months for an egg to develop into an adult, or the beetle stage.

During the adult stage, the beetles are initially whitish and …

Horseshoe Crabs, Jessie M. Roncevic

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are fascinating animals known as “living fossils.” Older than dinosaurs, horseshoe crabs are arthropods, closely related to spiders and scorpions. Many shorebirds, including red knot, depend on the eggs of horseshoe crabs during migration. Horseshoe crabs are captured and bled alive for their blue blood. Rich in limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL), their blood is used for the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test, which is used worldwide to detect bacterial toxins in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Horseshoe crabs have an intricate anatomy, so I spent a lot of time researching it before I started drawing them. When …

Space For New History: Stony Island Arts Bank, Seb Taylor

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

The Stony Island Arts Bank (SIAB) in Southside Chicago was designed and founded as a piece of art itself, with the organizational structure being a museum of Black cultural production. This article examines how the institution constructs an epistemology of Blackness through its archival practices, community programming, and spatial claims on the South Side. Founded by artist Theaster Gates through the Rebuild Foundation, the SIAB positions institutional design as an art medium, operating in productive tension with orthodox museum methods. The permanent collections—including the Johnson Publishing Company archives and Frankie Knuckles vinyl collection—function as epistemological records of Black self-documentation unmediated …

An Interview With An Instagram Archivist: @404mph Interviews @Onlystarleft, 404mph (On Instagram)

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

An Interview with an Instagram Archivist: @404MPH Interviews @ONLYSTARLEFT is a dialogue conducted entirely through iMessage, presented as both a publication and a designed artifact. Within this text exchange, the conversation navigates themes of digital preservation, authorship, and self-curation—examining how social media aesthetics transform personal experience into collective memory. @ONLYSTARLEFT reflects on the act of archiving not as static documentation but as a living, participatory practice shaped by the speed and impermanence of online culture. Formally, the project recognizes the iPhone as a cultural mediator—its interface shaping not only how we communicate, but how we perceive and construct value within …

Become A Crea(I)Tive Director: Working With A.I. (Digital Illustration, Art29526-2kn, Graded Assignment, Fall 2025), Broderick Shoemaker

Open Educational Resources

Students choose a brand to give a visual identity overhaul. They assume the role of creative director and are tasked with using a.i. chatbots – their "workers – to create the required assets.

Contextualizing Egyptian-Themed Art In Pompeiian Shops, Kelsey Myers

The Ozark Historical Review

This project focuses on the art historical, architectural, and archaeological evidence outside the domus to investigate the multivalent messaging communicated by Egyptian imagery in Pompeii’s civic and commercial spaces. By examining the artifacts and images commissioned by traders and craftsmen in their production and shop spaces, this research offers a bottom-up approach to Roman culture and society to balance the textual based top-down perspective that has dominated the discipline. Focusing on foreign-themed objects and images in these spaces, this study also explores the reception and adoption of foreign/eastern influences by the lower social strata of Romans in a multiethnic empire.

Restorationland: The Lost And Found Objects Of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community ruins, demonstrating …

Generative Ai (Genai) For Co-Creating User Personas, Douglas Strahler

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Integrating Generative AI into communication courses can really enhance the development of user personas, making the process smoother and encouraging critical insights into audience analysis. This G.I.F.T.S. presentation shows how tools like ChatGPT can support students in developing user personas while encouraging creativity and efficiency for the students. Students will be creating two personas, one human-created and one that is AI-generated, followed by conducting a comparative analysis of similarities, differences, and any potential biases. The activity underlines basic competencies in the development of user personas and ethical considerations that prepare students for the responsible use of AI with a full …

In Tensile // In Between, Corinna Di Niro

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

"In Tensile // In Between" operates as both artistic artefact and theoretical critique, demonstrating how creative practice can embody and extend academic discourse. This creative-critical work examines shifting perceptions of course delivery within creative tertiary education, arguing that project-based learning enables the seamless embedding of socio-cultural discourse and theories within practical making processes.

The poem interrogates how educational environments can cultivate critical thinking through what I term "tensile pedagogy"—an approach that maintains productive charge between opposing forces rather than seeking synthesis or resolution. This concept builds upon King's (2017) work on pedagogy as tension, which argues that "tension and incompleteness …

On Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art And Energy Of American Comics, Mike Classon Frangos

Criticism

Petrochecmical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics by Daniel Worden. The Ohio State University Press: Columbus, 2024. Pp. 171. $34.95 cloth.

Cartography, Botany, And Violence In The Codex Rodriguez-MondragóN, Maria Davison

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Sandy Rodriguez deploys the visual language of the Florentine Codex and other sixteenth-century Mesoamerican sources to examine the persisting effects of colonialism on people and land in Mexico-U.S. borderlands in Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón (2017-present), her ongoing series of maps, botanical illustrations, and landscape paintings.

The Uses Of Dramaturgical Research In Cinematic Storytelling, Asset Design, And Adaptation In Animation, Delaney L. Walker

All Theses

“The Black Hair” is a creative project that explores the convergence of cinematic adaptation, dramaturgical research, and animation design in retelling a traditional Japanese short folktale from the Heian Era. Rooted in the practice of theatrical dramaturgy, this thesis advocates for a research-driven creative pipeline by developing a culturally respectful and historically grounded approach to developing cinematic storyboards. By thoroughly examining the chronicles of history and the sociocultural context, the project seeks to foster deeper cultural appreciation while reintroducing a lesser-known narrative to modern audiences through a visual medium. The project draws stylistic and narrative inspiration from iconic Japanese filmmakers …

The Mystery Of Narrative Structure: How Scooby-Doo Challenges Episodic Conventions, Evrie Joy Pruitt

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how the Scooby-Doo franchise employs narrative complexity within an episodic formula, balancing accessibility with layered storytelling. Analyzing two pivotal iterations, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969) and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010), the research challenges the perception that episodic animation is inherently simplistic.

While the original series established a consistent mystery-of-the-week format, characterized by predictable structures and comedic relief, it also demonstrated narrative ingenuity through character dynamics and tonal balance. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! navigated the industrial constraints of Saturday morning cartoons, designed for syndication and commercial viability, by embedding recurring character dynamics, atmospheric tension, and iterative mystery tropes …

How Do You Know? Parsing The Infocalypse Using Art-Based Data Visualization, Michelle Sylvia Weintraub

Theses

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, vast interconnected digital networks have increasingly provided access to diverse data sources for Internet users. Towards the turn of the 21st century, social media sites opened opportunities to produce and consume (i.e., prosume) data, empowering users to publish their own content online (Manovich, 2009). The ability to publish user-generated content results in more voices being heard, creating more seats at the proverbial table. However, more recently, persuasive media has increasingly been weaponized to disseminate misinformation and disinformation online (Howard, 2020). Consequently, the agency exercised by Internet and social media users is diminished. …

Artistic Exploration Of Synesthesia, Lexi James

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis investigates synesthesia as both a neurological condition and a broader sensory perception shaped by culture, cognition, and creative practice. Although not a synesthete in the medical definition of the condition, I explore how sensory overlaps particularly between sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell can be simulated and explored through art. Through historical research, theoretical analysis, and personal experimentation, I examine synesthesia as a potential extension of universal perceptual pathways rather than an isolated anomaly. Drawing from semiotic theories by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce, the project considers how meaning is made through sensory signification and how …

The Idea Of Ethiopia: Heritage Tourism In The Land Of Origins, Hosaena T. Tilahun

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Hosaena Tilahun's "The Idea of Ethiopia" explores how heritage tourism in Addis Ababa cultivates Ethiopian patriotism and exceptionalism. Through an in-depth, close reading of the National Museum of Ethiopia, Unity Park, and the Oromo Cultural Center, supplemented by observations at the Red Terror Memorial Museum and Dergue Prison, Tilahun examines how heritage sites shape the political memory of national resistance, revolution, and Black internationalist thought. Tilahun discovers omissions of Menelik II's role in the Red Sea Slave network, encountering museum and archival silences about the internal conquest of peoples peripheral to the northern Abyssinian empire. As these heritage site renovations …