Digital Commons Network^™

A Personal Manual Of Escapism, Qing Wen

Masters Theses

In this fast-paced, information-saturated era, avoidance has become a common mechanism of self-preservation. Confronted with global crises and structural instability, the current generation increasingly adopt a pessimistic stance toward the future: some retreat into virtual worlds, others find themselves unable to bear the weight of real-life responsibilities, and many turn to art as a private sanctuary. But is avoidance only a pejorative term?

It wasn’t until recently that I realized, nearly all of my creative work has stemmed from a place, or an action of escape. The imagined worlds I’ve built, the spaces I created to flee from reality—without knowing …

Where Motion Lingers..., Cheng-Lin Lee

Masters Theses

In the pursuit of seamlessness, modern technology has become oversimplified, reduced to simple taps and pushes of buttons. This standardized interaction feels distant and mechanical, offering services without inviting touch, movement, or emotion.

This thesis explores how technology can blend into everyday life in a gentle way. The designed objects will focus on integrating familiar movements that elicit moments of harmony within interactions with technology. Through design transformations, this project seeks to uncover how everyday movements, like lifting a handle and placing flowers, can transform our technological exchanges into something felt rather than simply performed.

The findings reveal that when …

Rooted In Embodied Making: A Notebook On Process, Vija Lietuvninkas

Masters Theses

This thesis takes the form of a wooden box containing an archive of fragments – scanned notebooks, sketches, photographs, emails, journal entries, and other materials – that trace a year of embodied, process-based inquiry. Rather than presenting a linear argument or a polished final product, the work reflects a nonlinear, exploratory methodology grounded in making, wandering, and self-reflection.

Born within the context of the 2025 Sustainability Design Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative at RISD examining the material culture of wood across design fields, this project documents the artist’s evolving engagement with green wood as both material and metaphor. Through practices such …

Pressing Into Absence, Linda Sok

Masters Theses

Pressing into Absence traces the materials, processes, and works I have engaged with between March 2023 and May 2025, positioning historical and contemporary narratives in dialogue with one another. This book interweaves colonial-era source materials (from 1864- 1928) - writings, etchings, and paintings of Cambodia produced by persons from the United States of America and France - with personal anecdotes from my travels to Cambodia in 2024. These accounts are layered alongside speculative reflections in the form of text, sketches, mind maps, and material explorations. These archival remnants and personal experiences are folded together and positioned as equally reliable sources. …

Smora: Breath As Memory, Pratikesh Pundkar

Masters Theses

Smora: Breath as Memory explores smell as a medium for memory, presence, and emotional communication in a world dominated by visual and audio stimuli. The project investigates olfactory interaction through multisensory design, proposing a tangible product system called Smora Cassette that captures, stores, and shares scent memories. Grounded in user research, expert interviews, and material prototyping, Smora speculates a future where smell reconnects us to the truth of lived experience, offering a poetic yet grounded alternative to AI-generated realities.

Graphic Gestures On The Digital Surface; In Defense Of The Observational, Soyoung Ro

Masters Theses

This thesis offers a subjective and process-based exploration of digital tools, challenging the dominant function-driven mindset that often defines digital design today. Rather than prioritizing speed, efficiency, or usability metrics, this work is a shift in focus toward experience, spatial awareness, and the subtle dynamics of interaction.

Rooted in acts of attention—looking inwards, looking outwards—this approach begins by setting aside assumptions about what tools are for, in order to ask how they shape our behaviors and ways of thinking. In doing so, it proposes a design methodology grounded in presence over productivity, process over execution, and agency over automation.

The …

Show Time!, Georgia Oldham

Masters Theses

Time is always ticking and never easy to hold on to. Luckily, twisting over sketchbooks and doodling in page margins, sequential artists are on a mission to capture it for everybody. They’re even going to tell you a story along the way. This thesis explores my relationship to sequential art as it relates to time, storytelling, accessibility, and the performing arts.

Textus Complexus, Vishakha Ruhela

Masters Theses

textus complexus investigates how language shapes thought by merging scientific rigour and poetic action to challenge reductive narratives. My inquiry stems from a fascination with complexity as an existential condition—one that resists homogenisation, preserves collective memory, and demands inclusive, multidimensional engagement. Hybridity, as a spectrum from complicated to complex, becomes a methodological tool to uncover latent connections that lead to cross-communication, and articulate transitional spaces through recursive processes. By systematising multiplicity via layering, modularisation, and indexing, my work foregrounds expression through form, where structural clarity emerges from cumulative gestures rather than simplification.

The projects in this thesis trace the roots …

Enduring Words: Resistance Through Sculptural Libraries, Alex C. Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

Enduring Words: Resistance Through Sculptural Libraries is a thesis exhibition that challenges book censorship by transforming reading into a public and defiant act. Through direct sculptural interventions, the exhibition confronts cultural erasure, questions who controls the literature we consume, and highlights the role of art in safeguarding contested knowledge. This thesis focuses on a current body of exhibited sculptural works that embody the tension between access and erasure. These installations engage with the viewer by using a lighthouse built of books and a speech-bubble-shaped library embedded with censored texts. They do not quietly mourn the suppression of knowledge; they confront …

Automatonophobia, Adrian Bruch

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

These artworks were created as a direct result of my teaching the ANI216 Animation Studio. In the process of devising ways to incorporate photographic imagery into an animation, I developed a multi-plane system where I could create layers in Adobe Photoshop and combine them with original cartoon characters in After Effects and then animate them.

These artworks for an exhibition at the Garden Gallery (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney) are imaginary stills inspired by the actual animation. All three were sold.

A House With No Walls Where Persimmons Grow In The Garden: Photography As A Collaborative Feminist Practice And Using Archives To Reframe The Present, Jada Wheeler

University Honors Theses

A House With No Walls is an investigation of the idea of chosen family, as it exists apart from the influence of any institution. It alludes to the home as a place that exists within space shared with the people we choose as family and within our own free bodies. This project investigates the collaborative potential of photography, and uses it as a tool in creating a feminist representation of family. All the photographs were made with close friends, in an unplanned and spontaneous manner, to document intimate moments of our everyday lives.

Where Persimmons Grow In The Garden is …

Bringing Light To The Knowledge Gap Regarding Menopause Symptoms And Hormone Therapy, Jayme Kendall

Masters Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to raise awareness about the knowledge gap regarding many common menopause symptoms and the positive impact of hormone therapy (HT), a.k.a. hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and menopause hormone treatment (MHT).

Methods: An initial review of current literature is useful for identifying relevant professional resources of knowledge and understanding the problem. Further, analyses of The Menopause Society, the 2002 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, and Dr. Mary Claire Haver's work shed light on the problem and provide insights to help build a successful educational campaign. Additionally, visual analyses of "When to Try Hormone Therapy," …

Misidentification In A Digital Age: The Ethical Implications And Challenges Of Ai Integration In Scientific Illustration, Bethanie Dian Clawson

Masters Theses

Scientific illustration is a crucial resource in scientific communication, providing visual educational assistance for fields such as science, medicine, and agriculture. This thesis explores the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on scientific illustration and examines the strengths and weaknesses of AI-generated scientific illustration as compared to human-made illustration. Through the analysis of peer-reviewed sources, this study brings awareness to the common issues presented in AI-generated scientific images, explaining the risks associated with professional, research, and public settings.

To address these challenges, research is presented to explain tactics to mediate potential errors associated with AI-generated images, the importance of human intervention …

All But Mud & Memories, Chase Lt Romero

LSU Master's Theses

All But Mud & Memories addresses the inevitability of erosion and land loss near my homeland of Algiers Point— locally known as The Point— through the perspective of locals and visitors, in addition to my own experience. Located near New Orleans across the Mississippi River, Algiers Point holds a community that shares a tender bond with the levee that protects their home and day-to-day interactions. Often in discussions of wetland events in Louisiana, the focus is on land and environmental losses rather than the surrounding culture. I provide a more community-centered narrative by expressing what’s to be lost if the …

Therapeutic Qualities And Applications Of Clay In Expressive Arts Therapy: A Literature Review, Julia Caruso

Expressive Therapies Theses

This literature review investigates the therapeutic qualities and clinical applications of clay within the framework of expressive arts therapy (ExAT), with particular focus on sensorimotor, somatic, and developmental interventions. Drawing upon the expressive therapies continuum (ETC), this review synthesizes emerging research highlighting clay's kinesthetic and tactile properties as key mechanisms for facilitating emotional expression, accessing unconscious material, and promoting psychological resilience. Evidence is presented for specialized therapeutic modalities such as clay art therapy (CAT) and Clay Field Work, which engage the body-mind connection to support trauma integration and emotion regulation. Findings demonstrate that clay's inherent adaptability and sensory richness allow …

Not Just Another 2000 Word Written Mfa Thesis, Taylor Cleveland

Art Theses and Dissertations

This thesis challenges the standardized academic expectations placed upon studio-based MFA programs, using the process of writing itself as a site of institutional critique. Emerging from a 27,000-word working draft titled Aesthetics of Real, this final text adopts the permitted format of an “extended artist statement” to expose contradictions within institutional frameworks. It resists the assumption that professionalism and compliance equate to intellectual rigor, arguing that true artistic inquiry demands risk, failure, and confrontation with systemic norms. Through works like 3MUSTANGS, Facades of Dallas (Hall), SuperPOD0043: An American Painting, and Babel’n On, this thesis reveals …

The Creative Classroom: A Phenomenological Study Of Engagement In Students With Adhd, Kathleen A. Johnson

Art 895 Research Papers

Qualitative research guides this engagement study with a Phenomenological approach. The researcher aims to examine how creative expression fosters increased engagement among students with ADHD. Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often approach their education differently than neurotypical students. Neurodivergent students frequently encounter challenges related to focus, impulse control, and organization. However, the cognitive benefits of art education enable these students to utilize their creative thinking and problem-solving skills, resulting in engagement that aligns with their natural abilities. The art classroom provides experiential learning opportunities that benefit engagement. By exploring the unique intersection of creativity and learning, this research highlights the …

El Presidio Hispano-Colonial: Estudio Del Discurso Moderno De Fortificación Del Imperio Español A Traves De Planos Y Mapas, Javier E. Astorga Villarroel Ph.D.

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project delves into the processes of ideation, design, projection, and knowledge-transfer around the Presidio, an iconoclastic fortification system deployed by the Spanish Empire while projecting its colonial power toward the Transatlantic region. Based on Bruno Latour’s classic theory on the agency of networks of meanings (also known as new materialism) applied to historical cartography, my investigation examines the production of techno-military knowledge around the presidios as they were depicted through plans, maps, and manuals while mapping out border areas over North America and the Caribbean, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. With archival research work performed at …

Understanding The Effectiveness Of Teaching For Artistic Behavior (Tab) In Arts Education: A Case Study, Victoria Curry

Art 895 Research Papers

Art education longs to prove its efficiency and effectiveness in providing essential lifelong skills to young students in schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to show the benefits and variations of a different teaching method, Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB), compared to other methods that many educators use. Data will be collected from teachers in art classrooms who use the method of TAB and incorporate the Studio Habits of Mind, through interview surveys and student artifacts. This study will impact arts educators by providing information regarding a different and perhaps beneficial way to deliver holistic and effective …

Terraincraft: Automated Land-Cover–Driven Terrain Generation For Marine Robot Simulations, Xinyue Liang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

From self-driving cars navigating city streets to all-terrain vehicles tackling rugged landscapes, recent leaps in robotic autonomy due to fast pace development in deep learning are reshaping how machines interact with the real world. However, autonomy in the aquatic environment is still limited, due to difficulty in testing and unavailability of realistic simulation environments.

In this project, we aim to create an automated system that simplifies the processes of creating synthetic datasets for marine robots navigation training tasks. We achieved this through a land cover map controlled terrain generation. Our goal is to provide an automatic terrain generation system that …

Grief As Slip: (How Little I Show) An Exploration In Clay, When Words Are Not Enough, Michelle A. Smith

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Grief as Slip (how little I show) implies that even as we acknowledge our mortality and the fleeting nature of life, we still only reveal a fraction of our true selves or our deeper realities. The ceramic artwork in this exhibition carries and conveys a journey through the present and remembered emotions of the artists’ personal narrative. By juxtaposing the tactile nature of clay with the ethereal quality of human experience, Smith contemplates the profound interplay between material transformation and emotional resilience. The exhibition’s intent is to translate the essence of complex emotional states into abstracted forms so they can …

Sacral Glitch, Kareena Naresh Solanki

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Growing up in a multifaith environment in Mumbai, I witnessed many religious sites and people with diverse beliefs. My parents always remained open-minded to other faiths, and my house remained replete with idols of deities of different religions. I studied Nichiren Buddhism, particularly the Lotus Sutra, as my mother began practising it along with her faith in Hinduism. Philosophical studies became a part of my life at the age of nine. Catholic prayers turned into rituals in my convent school days, and Islamic prayers resonated from afar. I often reflect on the influence of multiple religions in shaping my approach …

The Design Of Time: Envisioning The Future Through Science Fiction Production Design In The Alien Franchise, Josephine Spanier, Charles Howard

Honors Thesis

In filmmaking, the production designer works closely with the director and cinematographer to ensure cohesion and uniqueness in the film’s visual design. This collaboration often provides the designer with a strong degree of influence on the film’s final look, thus shaping the thematic and visual impact of a film on the audience. In highly stylized and fantastical genres, such as science fiction, production design plays an especially important role in creating worlds that may be entirely different from the one we currently live in, while still reflecting the real-world context in which the film was made. This phenomena can particularly …

Generative Ai: Cultural Shift Towards The Machine, Barbara Gilman, Damon Willick

Honors Thesis

No abstract provided.

Connections, Peter Froehlich

LSU Master's Theses

A definitive shift in American social interaction has been taking place far longer than most realize. It is easy to point the finger at the prevalence of technology and social media, this has been a trend that has been going on since the mid to late twentieth century. Stemming from changes in design, the breakdown of scheduled social outlets, and shifts in technology have led to what some writers and sociologists are calling “The Anti-Social Century.”

Working through a making practice to promote the building of connections through social interaction, three different types of spaces were targeted for the exploration …

Adaptive Art Teaching Strategies: Empowering Students And Paraprofessionals In The Inclusive Art Classroom, Kameran Dostal

Art 895 Research Papers

In the art room, differentiation for students with exceptional disabilities presents unique challenges. Some art educators teach in self-contained settings (e.g. adaptive art classes), other art educators teach in inclusive art room settings (where students with disabilities are integrated into the art room), and others teach a combination of both. The research on adaptive art programs and adaptive teaching practices has the potential to impact students with disabilities as a piece of advocacy to showcase the impact of the visual arts on their IEP goals and fine motor skills. The intention is that this research re-examines best practices in teaching …

Developing Anti-Racist Teaching Practices To Represent A Diverse Student Population, Naomi Brumm

Art 895 Research Papers

The issue that this case study will address is the need for an anti-racist high school art curriculum. In order to better represent today’s diverse society, educators need to incorporate anti-racist teaching practices both within their curriculum and their classroom environments. I will examine how systemic racism as a society has led to lack of diversity within the field of art education and identify what anti-racist pedagogical practices can be put into place to combat it.

Strategies For Integrating Teaching For Artistic Behavior (Tab) In A High School Ceramics Classroom, Joanna Gurney

Art 895 Research Papers

This research study reveals strategies for the integration of Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) in a high school Ceramics classroom. The primary objective is to identify potential, effective strategies for implementing TAB approaches within a single-media environment. Using a Case Study approach, this study examines and synthesizes existing theories with student outcomes, researcher field notes, teacher observations of a TAB classroom, and teacher reflections to understand how TAB-based pedagogical shifts can be used to effectively promote artistic behavior, while balancing student autonomy with the need for structured skill development in a single-media. Findings from this research will contribute to the …

Authentically Assessing Student Learning In A Data Driven School System, Curtis Marolf

Art 895 Research Papers

As educators, we are often tasked with measuring student progress and understanding using standardized testing methods. As a visual arts instructor, I find these testing methods to be antiquated and inadequate for measuring students’ knowledge in the classroom, as they solely focus on an individual’s ability to recognize, recall or repeat factual data. If the goal of a quarterly assessment is to answer the question, “How do we know that the students know what we want them to know?” then standardized assessments are not the answer for the visual arts. The art classroom is a creative and expressive space, where …

The Art Of Dreaming: A Surrealist Approach To Dream Analysis, Shelby Wright

Honors Thesis

Over the past two years, I created a series of paintings to explore the meaning of my nightmares. This study analyzes the themes and symbols in these dreams through the psychological frameworks of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Freud’s causal approach focuses on repressed desires, while Jung’s method relies on mythological symbols and archetypes in the collective unconscious. Drawing on the ideas of André Breton and the Surrealist movement, I examine how art can bridge dreams and waking life. By painting my dreams, I aim to better understand my unconscious and invite viewers to question their perception of reality. This …