History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Photography Whatever We Want It To Be, Jyl A. Kelley

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

Contemporary photography has evolved from an orphaned art into a mainstay for global imaging culture. Today anyone can make a picture or image, manipulate it, montage it, and publish it on the Internet. Photographic art practice will always answer back to its history but more importantly and inherent in its digital form and distribution, photographic art is responding to the modern ubiquity of the digital image and digital age.

Elke Krystufek And The Obessive Production Of Person, Melanie E. Emerson

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

Elke Krystufek’s artistic practice has centered almost wholly on duplicate and substitute images of herself, specifically emphasizing the female body and its position within the discourses of art history and gendered identity. While an earlier generation of feminist artists used their bodies as subject and object of their work in order to critique stereotypes and forcefully dismantle barriers that excluded women from the public sphere or labeled them objects of desire, Krystufek uses similar tactics to point to the fact there is no longer a private space. Identity is not solely the property of an individual, but rather an open …

Re-Purposing The Elderly Body, Charlotte H. Wellman

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

In cross-disciplinary scholarship, an emerging “trash” discourse considers the implications of excessive production and consumption and their inevitable corollary—the sense that all things are disposable. Nature has been reconfigured as a landfill, an artificial landscape of discarded matter. Objects possess a shrinking lifespan, quickly replaced by a newer upgrade. Driven by a need for constant rejuvenation, consumers fetishize the new and dismiss obsolescent products. I wish to posit aging – more specifically, the elderly female body—against the “landscape” of trash in order to engage its vocabulary of entropy and decay as well as to deploy the repurposing of discarded materials …

Revitalizing Cities: Adaptive Reuse Of Historic Structures, Sara E. Sharpe

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

Adaptive reuse is employed when revitalizing an existing infrastructure while maintaining important aspects of the cultural architectural heritage and promoting sustainability. The option to turn away from older structures and build new is a large problem in cities such as Detroit. Historic preservationists are trained to observe a structure’s potential before walking away. Meanwhile interior designers obtain the skills to rejuvenate such buildings for a new use. Case studies have shown the benefits of these two professions teaming up to apply adaptive reuse on historic structures for modern purposes. By studying the creative space planning methods and historic preservations standards …

Intimate Distance: Negotiating The Urban/Suburban Divide, Whitney L. Sage

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

As a native of Farmington Hills, a suburb thirty minutes outside of Detroit, I have always had a peculiar relationship with the city. As a child I visited Detroit often for family outings to the DIA and Tiger Stadium. Hours later we would be driving on I-96 returning west. All of my early memories of Detroit are happy and warm, however they are seen through the rose-colored glass of wide cultural and geographic separation from the city. In this way, my artwork, which discusses Detroit’s past and present through literal representation, radiates nostalgia and expresses both a sense of intimacy …

The Prosthetic Aesthetic: An Art Of Anxious Extensions, Tiffany Funk

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

The difficulty in ascertaining how the “prosthetic” functions across disciplines derives from the sometimes parallel, and often antithetical definitions given for what it constitutes. Many art historians use the prosthetic to illustrate psychoanalytical methodologies, largely ignoring physical technological devices, cybernetic body augmentation and its social effects – subjects expounded upon by many influential media and cybernetic theorists such as Norbert Wiener, Marshall McLuhan, Donna Haraway and N. Katherine Hayles. Prosthetics are not merely psychic trauma nor virtual signifier, but material artifacts marking autonomy, ability and disability, amputation and extension. A re-evaluation of prosthetics in contemporary aesthetics brings us closer to …

How To Produce Articulate Artists, Peter J. Barr Phd, Christine Reising

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

This twenty-minute Powerpoint presentation will describe the team-taught, year-long Foundations Core Concepts Program at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. It has been in place since 2006 and has successfully integrated a course previously called "Language of Art" (taught by an art historian) with hands-on studio assignments previously taught in a stand-alone design course (taught by a studio professor). We have found that this hybrid approach is extremely effective in developing sensitive and articulate art majors who are prepared to integrate design concepts into all of their artworks and to analyze and describe eloquently both personal and historical works of …

Snapshots, Clichés And Simulacra, Millee Tibbs

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

In his essay “Photography,” Kracauer critiques the abundance of photographic images in illustrated newspapers stating, “The blizzard of photographs betrays an indifference toward what the things mean.”[i] Current digital imaging technologies have turned this blizzard into a complete whiteout. Never before have people had such access to image-making technologies and the ease with which the images are now disseminated. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the snapshot has evolved little and remains a visual cliché - a banal vessel of personal sentimentality.

In this paper I will discuss the use and fetishization of snapshot images in both my …

Babette's Feast And The Goodness Of God, Thomas J. Curry

Journal of Religion & Film

This article attempts to answer the preeminent question Babette’s Feast invites viewers to consider: Why does Babette choose to expend everything she has to make her feast? Of the critical studies made of the film, few have considered analytically crucial the catastrophic backstory of Babette, the violence of which is implied and offscreen. Appreciation of the singularity of Babette’s own personhood and the darker aspects of her experience, and not only how she might act as a figure of Christ, are key to understanding the motivating force behind her meal and its transformative effect: That through the feast Babette lays …

The Transformation Of The Pope: The Agony And The Ecstasy (1965) And The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Jennifer Mara Desilva

Journal of Religion & Film

In 1965 the film The Agony and The Ecstasy (dir. Carol Reed) presented Renaissance artistic culture, Catholic iconography, and the papal court in Rome to a popular, broad, and non-denominational audience. Based on the novel by Irving Stone (1961), the narrative follows Michelangelo and Pope Julius II through the decoration of the Sistine chapel ceiling (1508-12), outlining a relationship between the two protagonists that suggests some spiritual equality. In the same way that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) strove for spiritual renewal and an emphasis on the wonder of humankind’s relationship with God, The Agony and The Ecstasy portrays the …

Philosophische Figuren, Frauen Und Liebe: Zu Nietzsche Und Lou, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

A Sketch Of The Affective Classroom: Abject Art, Patrick Kinsman

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

Abject art is highly affective, meaning that it generates strong sensations and feelings in viewers. In a classroom, high affect art demands that these reactions be integrated into the relationships between instructor, students and artwork. The affective classroom is then a classroom which summons high affects and walks a careful line between non-dialogic "shock" and a group therapy session, in order to understand affective relationships as proper material for learning. Affect is interactive and communicative by definition, but is unpredictable and uneven. Using my 2012 seminar in Abject Art, I outline the development and experience of teaching a semester of …

Show Me The Semiosis: Grounding Post Structural Theory In Physiological Experience, Michael T. Arrigo

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

Most of my art students experience a very down to earth epistemological relationship to the world. There is what there is. Middle America is a land of dualisms: matter and spirit, mind and body, good and evil. In this uncluttered black and white world, post-structural theory seemingly has little to offer but a range of unnecessary and unattractive grays. This presentation describes how I overcome my students’ resistance to intellectualizing perception and art making. I use a physiological perspective that grounds students’ investigation of art and meaning in an investigation of themselves, their bodies, their perceptual responses, emotional reactions and …

The Interdependence Of Gedi Ruins And The Giriama: A Study Of Ancestral Spirits, Jinn, And The Impact Of Islam, Tucker Deady

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Archaeological site, Gedi Ruins, is well known on the Coastal Province of Kenya as a place of great mystery. It is sacred to many for reasons of spirituality and appeals to both Swahili and Mijikenda, a group of nine tribes living on the coast, as a place of prayer. The Giriama make up one of these nine tribes and, as they have a large community surrounding the site of Gedi Ruins, are the focus of this study. The Mijikenda have a deep connection with their ancestral spirits as well as jinn. While their traditions run deep, there have, however, been …

The Gods Come For Play: Visualizing The Divine In Balinese Theatre, Chandler Payne, John Park

Featured Research

Playwrights, practitioners, and art historians have been shocked and inspired by Balinese theatre time and time again because it reveals the extent of devotion the Balinese have for their religion. Although many researchers have investigated the functionality through the performance aspect of the play, there is a lack of published research devoted how the functionality of the ritual and play are influenced by the physical aesthetic properties of the Barong and Rangda mask. The theatrical aspects are to be considered through investigating these masks in relation to the temple space of the Taman Aran. By investigating the aesthetic properties of …

Mapping Shikoku: Picturing Buddhist Pilgrimage In Contemporary Japan, Anna Maria Ortiz, Chloe Walton, Cody Mcmanus

Featured Research

In this research, we will address this question: Do the modern methods of practicing the Shikoku Pilgrimage stay true to the ancient intent of the pilgrimage? People who embark on the journey to each of the 88 Shikoku temple sites do so to escape to another world of peace and tranquility that they cannot obtain in their regular daily lives. Unfortunately, there is a large gap in scholarship on the topic of the Shikoku Buddhist Pilgrimage: little is written about how the shift from ancient to modern practices of the pilgrimage has changed pilgrims’ experiences. Little is known by Westerners …

Haniwa: Constructing A Sacred Place For The Afterlife, Ashlyn Rawls, Clarissa Aliberti, Rylee Baisden

Featured Research

Haniwa are small, hollow terracotta statues that were placed on aristocratic graves during the Kofun period of Japan, which translates as “old tomb.” These unique figures were rather simple at the beginning of their creation, but over time they became increasingly complex taking the forms of people, animals, and other objects. These fascinating funerary objects serve a greater purpose than just ordinary tomb decorations. The haniwa tie into the Confucianist tradition of being made to be used and to protect the spirits of the dead. Influenced by Confucian tradition, in which “filial piety” is recognized as a high level of …

Ganesha: A Study Of Personal Worship To A Personal God, Madeline Taylor, Katherine Garner, Naomi Purnell

Featured Research

Hindu devotees worship Ganesha when they are beginning a new phase or faces obstacles in their lives. In investigating the personal devotion of Hindu gods in India, we have found that there is a difference between the ways a Hindu worships the god Ganesha at a public shrine than in their own home. The main difference in worship style is that in the home, the worshiper acts as his or her own priest. There is room for greater interpretation in worship style and offerings made to the deity. Since our topic is personal devotion, we were drawn to the private …

Jayavarmin Vii: Achieving Kingship, Ross Seeman, Mckay Whitacre, David Oppenheim

Featured Research

Jayavarmin VII (r. 1181-1218) exemplifies the nature of achieving divine kingship through his life achievements modeled after the life of Buddha. He was viewed by many as a divine-like figure, through his acts of philanthropy and good deeds for the city. Through this philosophy, Jayavarmin VII facilitated the construction of hospitals, several roads and rest houses. The height of Jayavarmin’s reign was during the construction of the Bayon Temple. By this time, Jayavarmin VII believed he had completed his journey to kingship. This is shown through the massive faces carved in the temple representing either Jayavarmin or Buddha himself. From …

Torii And Water: A Gateway To Shinto, Hannah Imson, Amy Kahng, Victoria Lekson

Featured Research

Water symbolizes purity in the Shinto religion and thus holds utmost importance as a method of religious purification. Additionally, scholars and worshippers recognize the role of torii as gateways to the kami, or deities of nature. However, there has not been a documented survey of the relationship between torii and their placement in water, a relationship we feel is significant in understanding Shintoism. We intend to bridge this gap in scholarship by displaying the prevalence of torii placed in or right next to water. We will explore torii from various parts of the world as well as different time periods …