Art and Design Commons^™

Softweave, Annaka Olsen

Masters Theses

The contents of this volume are a weaving.1 The text lays parallel to a graphic design practice that emerges from research into computation, digital publishing and speculative design. I ask how we can change the structures of world building to become collaborative and ethical practices — resisting hierarchy and reclaiming agency in the spaces we occupy. By making soft modifications imbued with feminist praxis across a variety of automatic processes, softwares, feeds, and streams, this thesis explores ways to open up critical avenues of making in order to speculate on fluid futures that we can co-author.

Standards, Rules, Setting, Robert Mcconnell

Masters Theses

Greetings. Welcome to Standards, Rules, Setting. This short preamble serves as a user guide to the material that follows. It is, essentially, a set of standards that govern the organization and progression of the various items in this publication.

Everything in this book has been conceived and constructed in line with the Graphic Design Thesis Book Protocol. As my body of work deals with the communication of messages and the manipulation of their governing conventions and norms, this publication — as well — has been organized along similar principles.

There are five types of components in this thesis book: sections, …

The Line That Splits, Zahra Jewanjee

Masters Theses

The body of work I have created since beginning my MFA has been informed and impacted by my research into various inter-connected subject matters: subcultural spaces, the behaviours of crowds, micro and macro and territories and systems. These have been the philosophical and conceptual rationale of my studio practice. Meditation on these concepts is an important part in the preliminary stages of my process and the praxis of my studio work has been to interpret and implement these ideas. In many ways, this process suggests its own direction. I had no exact endpoint in mind but wanted to be driven …

Where We Are : Where We Thought We Were Going, Nathan Prebonick

Masters Theses

In this thesis I will discuss ideas of place, space and repurposing as they relate to my paintings. By tying these ideas back to specific hometown sites, I will trace the evolution of ideas back to their genesis to provide context for the aesthetics of the work. I reference the texts of Robert Smithson and Tim Cresswell, who wrote about transitive notions of place, as well as David Joselit, who’s “Painting Beside Itself” essay focused on painters concerned with the question of how painting enters a network. I hope to use these texts, in conjunction with personal descriptions of sites …

Addicts Of Nostalgia, Samuel Robert Campbell Drake

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I will reflect on issues of nostalgia through a series of work based upon the landscape where I grew up. I discuss how my paintings stage themes and negotiate criticality towards memory. The writing analyses my engagement towards the collaging of documentary and fictional sources: and how my paintings seek to dispel legibility and embrace slippage. Alongside discussions of personal experiences, I talk about the relationship of distancing in my practice, concerning tangible and geographic detachment. The thesis expresses my adoration for the history of British painting, and my efforts to internalize its traditions. Moreover, this investigation …

Instants // Intervals, Valerie James

Masters Theses

The structure of this thesis aligns directly with the ritual structure of the rites of passage as set forth by ethnographer Arnold van Gennep. I see myself as both a participant and purveyor of ritual, visualizing the liminal stages of my own life into tangible and intimate pieces of jewelry. According to Gennep, a participant progresses through a rite of passage in three stages: separation, liminality, and re-integration. 01 Each chapter is organized around these three categories, and on how the work and I pass in and out of the studio. Out/Separation describes the process of walking and the poetics …

Trademark, Cathryn Jasterzbski

Masters Theses

We are characterized by the assets which comprise our identity. These possessions provide us with numerous tools to navigate the social constructs that make up our lives. Growing up in a working-class family forced me to develop strategies to navigate various class structures as I engaged with them. This body of work redefines the value of the working class through a confluence of materials and techniques to bridge the two worlds that construct my identity—allowing me to coexist within both, yet bound by neither.

Biomatters : Future Of Biology As Material Source, Tareq Alzawawi

Masters Theses

Through the history of human evolution, we evolved dependent on many different biological species, which led us to understand the significance of biomatters cultivation. Biomatters are materials derived from living or once-living organisms which are or were subject to biological growth. The biomatters we use, need, and waste were and continue to be a major resource. Wheat, wood, and wool are all examples of a biomatter, yet each serves a different need. Given the range of current threatening environmental concerns, all rooted in our species treating nature as never-ending material resource, we need reactions and solutions that are urgent. Biomatters …

Mindful Interactions, Shreyans Bhandari

Masters Theses

Mindful Interactions illustrates how we’ve become addicted to our smart-phones, and how its use in our everyday life affects our physical, social, emotional health and wellbeing. This design study proposes four product designs that make us aware of using apps, and compel us to reconsider their use during bedtime, mealtime, on-the-go and at home. As our pocket sized devices continue to evolve, the outcome of this thesis becomes a case study for rediscovering and applying the “human” in human centered design.

Human Artist, Nicholas Costantino

Masters Theses

This Artist Book details the author's thoughts on being an artist, his studio practice, and being human.

Supposing Truth Is A Woman, Chloe Wilwerding

Masters Theses

This unbound print portfolio documents the author's spiritual search for meaning through text and image.

Unimproved : Land Observation At The Edge Of Progress, Adam Somers Bowen

Masters Theses

As residents of the United States, all of us have benefited from the resources that this land provides. Some of these resources are responsibly managed, like some logging operations and grazing land. Some are much more harmful, like hydroelectric dams that have drowned Indigenous lands, and block natural habitat. Whether through development or extraction, we as humans have the special ability to drastically change the world around us in a very short amount of time. In a time of rapid environmental change, we need to find ways to better connect, observe, and assess the landscape so that as a society, …

Mais Fica : More For Me, Gabrielle Marie Ferreira

Masters Theses

This book is as much a part of my thesis as the fabrics and patterns themselves, stitched together from moments and memories. You may take these stories with you, but those hidden moments between my words will always remain for me and me alone. No matter how many people take these stories with them, still mais fica.

Icarus : How To Survive The Fall, Emile Stark-Menneg

Masters Theses

In this writing I will explore several films, videos, performances, and photographs from the past century that resist capitalism’s tendency to crush hubris, exaltation, and indetermination. But first, I would like to reimagine the Greek myth of Icarus. How has the myth shaped our understanding of escape? Daedalus, Icarus’s father, attempts to escape exile from the island of Crete by building his son a pair of wax wings. He warns his son not to fly too close to the sun because the wax will melt, and not to fly too close to the sea because the wings will become waterlogged. …

Volume 83, Issue 1: Full Issue, Manuscripts Staff

Manuscripts

Full issue of 2019 Manuscripts.

Back Matter, Manuscripts Staff

Manuscripts

Includes designer's note and contributors.

Lost Bobbies, Viki Tomanov

Manuscripts

Poetry by Viki Tomanov.

Take Notes, Matt Del Busto

Manuscripts

Prose by Matt Del Busto. Finalist in the 2019 Manuscripts Prose Contest.

When Did You Know, Camille Bates

Manuscripts

Art by Camille Bates.

The Patron Saint Of Girls Getting Groped, Josie Levin

Manuscripts

Poetry by Josie Levin. Finalist in the 2019 Manuscripts Poetry Contest.