Visual Studies Commons^™

A Model Of Human Scale Tested On Rural Landscape Scenes, Richard K. Sutton

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Landscapes such as the Great Plains have been described as lacking human scale. This study developed a quantitative model of human scale and compared it with viewers' perceptions of visual structure. Visual structure was selected from the physical features of Otoe County, NE, forming boundaries, found as ground textures, vegetative screens, and topographic breaks and was depicted in photographs of landscape scenes. The model used and tested nine classes of scale based on grain and extent of the photos rated by viewers against those from the model. Viewers identified boundaries representing grain and extent that were synthesized into a viewer-perceived …

Red-White-Blue And Hong Kong Installation Art, Nga Ying Liu

Lingnan Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyse the interaction between art and contested notions of Hong Kong identity by examining recent installations that employ the red, white and blue-striped plastic fabric, locally known in Hong Kong as red-white-blue (紅白藍). The red-white-blue fabric has, in recent years, become a signifier of the collective identity of Hong Kong people and of the ‘Hong Kong spirit’, with specific reference to the traits of the working class in the 1960s. The repeated articulations of this material in artworks show that there are certain qualities in this material with which local people identify. This …

Appropriateness In Design, Wing Man, Karen Ma

Lingnan Theses

When the term ‘design object’ is used to refer to artifacts, we presuppose that they can serve mundane functions and provide aesthetic pleasure. In many cases, the visual form of a design object is a result of achieving aesthetic function and practical function. What is the relation between these two functions? In the design process, designers also strike a balance between aesthetic pursuit, utilitarian purpose and other factors, such as environmental protection. What is the balance of these aims (aesthetic aim and the non-aesthetic aims)? My research on this topic suggests that it may be useful to conceive it in …

Vigilance, Vigilantism, And The Role Of The Citizen In Combating German Terror, 1967-1977, Todd Michael Goehle

Re-visioning Terrorism

By closely analyzing the Charles Bronson vehicle Death Wish -released to German speaking audiences as Ein Mann sieht rot- and the controversies that surrounded its West German debut in November 1974, the essay addresses broader debates about vigilance, Selbstjustiz (vigilante justice), and citizenship during the “Red Years” (1967-1977). Conceptualizing Selbstjustiz as a discursive site, I reveal how Ein Mann sieht rot’s representations of Selbstjustiz negotiated broader German anxieties about Americanization, masculinity, urban crime, the fascist past, state power, media effects and sensationalism, constructions of the citizen and the criminalized or terrorist “other,” and the responsibilities of the citizen in …

From Where I Am Standing: Indigenous Narrative And Photo Documentary, Nestor R. Veloz Passalacqua

Ethnic Studies

Latin American Indigenous Peoples (LAIP) are a marginalized segment in Latin America. They inhabit a sub-America and are forced to migrate due to socio-political struggle and cultural coercion. LAIP experience a transnational and transborder migration that reflects the quality of cultural hybridity and of regional, ethnic, and cultural crossings. The purpose of this study is to research LAIP ways of reclaiming and reproducing cultural practices that elicit Indigenous awareness, knowledge, and ethnic identification in a transnational setting. The study examines through interviews and photographs transborder experiences and the lives of the participants. As a result, the project reveals that LAIP …

American Political Satire: The 20th Century Onward, Michael Contino

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Political satire is an implied freedom enumerated in the first amendment of the Constitution. As a form of political speech, it falls under the category of the most protected form of expression. Now that I’ve got your attention, I can go ahead with the rest of my project. This is a journalistic study of the people who used their freedom of speech to openly criticize the government. More specifically, it’s about the people who openly criticized the government and then became famous for it. Of course, there’s many ways to criticize, many platforms, many audiences, many influences as well.

What …

Partings—A Short Film, Alicia Atterberry

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Love is a powerful force, but the inability to give love to the fullest extent can be an influential force as well. For my capstone, Partings—a Short Film, I wrote a short film centered on the theme of unreciprocated love. Within the context of the film, unreciprocated love means not being able to return the sincerity or the full extent of the love felt, and my short film shows the consequences of a friendship that lacks mutually-expressed love.

Partings, depicts the end of a friendship between two characters: Frank and Angie. Frank is an independent, young woman; she …

The Fourth Dimension, Elkana O. Ong'esa

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

Exhibition of Recent Stone and Wood Sculptures by Elkana O. Ong'esa

The Fourth Dimension, a concept that I have been working on for many years with the objective of assisting people with visual disabilities to appreciate sculpture more. The use of stone, wood and metal allows me to create forms and surface finishes that address the issue of tactile vision or perception that I try to apply in achieving communication in the fourth dimension.

Towards A Theory Of Comic Book Adaptation, Colin Beineke

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Contemporary adaptation studies/theories have tended to focus singularly on the movement from the novel/short story to film – largely ignoring mediums such as the theater, music, visual art, video games, and the comic book.  Such a limited view of adaptation has led to an underdeveloped and misplaced understanding of the adaptation process, which has in turn culminated in a convoluted perception of the products of artistic adaptation.  The necessity of combating the consequences of these limited outlooks – particularly in the field of comics studies – is as vital as the difficulties are manifold. In opposition to this current stream …

Marathon: From Myth To The Modern Era, Alana Dewitt '11

Honor Scholar Theses

The marathon race has been subject to a history spanning over two thousand years. From the first alleged run of the marathon, performed during the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, marathons have fascinated thousands; however, despite strong interest in the topic today, during the Middle Ages there was a time when the marathon was barely discussed. Since antiquity athletes have been honored in stone, in verse, and possibly even in the decorative frieze of the Parthenon. In our modern age all types of runners – beginners to elites – run marathons on every continent covering the planet. Motivations of …

Pathos, Spring 2011, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Joel Eisenhower

Issue 15

Since 1980, Sookyung Bae

CGU MFA Theses

Please see Download button in top right corner for the full statement.

Promoting A Benefit Concert With Digital Media, Aubrea Felch

Graphic Communication

The introduction of digital media in mass communication and advertising had a powerful impact on the event planning industry, specifically in the promotion of benefit concerts. Not only can digital media promote an event, but it can also help event coordinators establish an image for themselves, be used as a means of benefiting those who have donated to the cause, and enhance the event itself. All digital media can be put into several different classifications: digital audio, digital video, digital photography, Internet technology, and interactive Internet applications. This study asks the question: In what ways can an event planner use …

A Process Archive: The Grand Circularity Of Woman's Building Video, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pathos, Winter 2011, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Joel Eisenhower

Issue 14

The Colour That Remains, Wai Yi, Monti Lai

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

A Residency Project by Lai Wai-Yi, Monti

Close your eyes, and try to see the colour in your mind. Would that be white, yellow, orange, red, blue, purple, green or a mix of different colour? Green has been the colour that remains in my head whenever my eyes are closed, ever since I received a homemade herbal poultice after an accident at the age of 6. I was bitten by a dog at my aunt’s home. It was a sunny winter day. I was wearing my favorite yellow furry coat. I was patting the dog’s forehead and talking to her. …

Time With The Sky = 與天度日, Carol Archer, Kit Kelen

Research Expression through Art : Visual Studies Faculty

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Time with the Sky | 與天度日 is an art and poetry collaboration by Carol Archer and Christopher (Kit) Kelen, a creative team who have been active in the visual arts and poetry communities of Hong Kong and Macao since 1998.

Time with the Sky | 與天度日 comprises a series of charcoal and mixed media drawings on paper and a poem in twelve parts. Art and text are presented together as both exhibition and publication. The collaboration originates from time spent in art practice in Australia. In July 2009, Archer and Kelen each had artist’s residencies at Bundanon, …

“Better Multiculturalism” Through Technology: Dora The Explorer And The Training Of The Preschool Viewer(S), Drew Chappell

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

No abstract provided.

Sexuality, Exoticism, And Iconoclasm In The Media Age: The Strange Case Of The Buddha Bikini, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Pathos, Fall 2010, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Joel Eisenhower

Issue 13