Digital Commons Network^™

The Quilt Index: Communicating Stories In The Stitches, Mary Worrall, Marsha Macdowell, Justine Richardson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Investigations into the historical, cultural and sociological roles of quilts have become a focus for scholars across a range of disciplines. Scores of grassroots state and regional quilt documentation projects have focused on documenting quilts’ personal and community contexts, as well as capturing the history of their production, ownership, use, and describing their physical appearance. Enabling both scholars and a broad general audience to access this information is central to furthering the role that these ubiquitous textiles can play in such scholarship.  The Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org) is a comprehensive, digital library that provides access to extensive documentation on quilts and …

“I’Ve Got A Feeling We’Re Not In Kansas, Anymore:” Cross-Cultural Design In Peruvian Connection’S Textiles, Margarete Ordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Peruvian Connection, a high-end clothing company, has built its reputation on selling clothes made from finely crafted textiles using luxury fibers.  Self-consciously marketing itself as a celebration of cross-cultural exchange, the company appropriates designs from Andean textiles and fuses them with elements from Western fashion and other global textile practices.  Through transnational and transcultural design, production, and distribution, the company simultaneously stresses distance and connection, difference and sameness, in a constant tug of war over the designs, skills, labor, materials, and products.  In exploring Peruvian Connection’s cultivation of its cross-cultural textiles, I analyze how the company promotes the design, production, …

Identification Of Red Dyes In Textiles From The Andean Region, Ana Roquero

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Identification of dyes and pigments is presently very precise by means of different systems of chromatographic analysis. Nevertheless, as the same dye components can be found in different plants and animals, it is important when studying dyes in textiles to consider the geographical and cultural context of both the textile and the possible dyestuffs used historically in the area. The presentation shall focus on a single colour: red. Various shades of red are profusely used in textiles from South America. Many of these are obtained mainly from cochineal. However, when analysing the colouring substances of an Andean textile, it is …

Field Of Flowers: Mughal Carpets And Treasures, Michael Schuster

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Michael Schuster, PhD will be discussing the exhibition Field of Flowers: Mughal Carpets and Treasures. The exhibiton focuses on a rare pair oflarge carpets on from the collection at Shangri La..  Each carpet has anarched interior with pointed ends.  When paired, the carpets form a bold field of flowers with an interior void wherein a person, most likely a royal personage, could have sat in splendor. In mid-17th century Mughal India, the taste for naturalistic floral sprays reached an apogee of artistic expression.  The aesthetic style seen in the carpets and other art forms of the period dominated the arts …

“Revisiting The Ocucaje Opened Tunic From The Textile Museum; Washington, D.C.: Textile Models And The Process Of Imitation”, Sophie Desrosiers

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The opened tunic from the Textile Museum in Washington D. C. (fig. 1) is a beautiful object the colors and design of which are well known since a part of it was used 22 years ago on the cover of The Junius B. Bird Conference On Andean Textiles. The tunic has no archaeological context, but its characteristics place it among Early Horizon Epoch 9 woven fabrics from Ocucaje.

Mary Elizabeth King has described the piece in her doctoral thesis. It is made of four widths: two main panels in balanced plain-weave with discontinuous warp-and-weft, and two borders in triple …

Specious I Spacious, Amanda Smith

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The way that I think and the way I develop paintings might qualify as an "obsession to know more by organizing what we know in new ways." I have a particular attraction to paradoxes and dualities; in order to know something, I need to examine what it is not. This notion establishes the foundation for a relationship between painting and film in my studio practice. I look to cinema as source material -- visual information to break apart, analyze, and synthesize into new worlds of my own invention. In my paintings, I seek to represent the confusion of spatial experience …

Mimetics Of History, Thomas Asmuth

SWITCH

This article explores how historical reenactments can be more than just reiterations of the past. Using examples like the Port Huron Project and live-action roleplay groups, the author shows how these performances can create new meaning by blending past and present. Instead of just watching history, participants become part of it, creating moments of reflection and sometimes protest. The article argues that reenactment can challenge official versions of history, offer space for underrepresented voices, and encourage deeper thinking about how we remember and interpret the past today.

Re-Purpose Broken, Ethan Miller

SWITCH

This article explores how artists in the FUSE series (The CADRE/Montalvo research initiative) creatively re-purpose everyday systems, tools, and cultural norms to challenge how we understand and interact with the world. Using the idea of networks from Actor-Network Theory, the author explains how artists break or shift systems to raise important questions about power, participation, and control.

Natalie Jeremijenko Ignites A Fire Under The Seats Of Cadre Students., Danielle Siembieda

SWITCH

This article reflects on artist and activist Natalie Jeremijenko’s 2007 visit to SJSU’s CADRE Lab, where she challenged students to rethink the language and purpose of activism and art. Through various events, including a geocaching walk, she introduced ideas of structured participation, environmental health, and repurposed systems.

Geo Caching With Natalie Jeremijenko, Danielle Siembieda

SWITCH

Poster titled "Geo Caching with Natalie Jeremijenko." It describes an October 2007 outing by CADRE graduate students with artist and activist Natalie Jeremijenko.

Design Research Quarterly Volume 3 Issue 1, Peter Storkerson

Design Research Quarterly (2006 - 2009)

Design Research Quarterly (2006-9) was a hybrid journal-newsletter of the Design Research Society. It contained news of the society, its members and regions and its sister societies, as well as peer-reviewed articles about issues of importance to design research, theory and knowledge.

Blanket Statements, Issue 94, Winter 2008–2009

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 94, Winter 2008–2009

Normal Editions Workshop Newsletter, 2008, Wonsook Kim School Of Art And Design

Normal Editions Workshop Newsletter

Annual newsletter for the Normal Editions Workshop, School of Art, Illinois State University.

Painting The Sublime Landscape And Learning To See Nature Along The Way, Deborah Browne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis is one artist's response to the question of the relevance of landscape painting today, focusing on the communication of the idea of environmental stewardship. The process of studying nature and transferring that vision to canvas promotes greater understanding of the beauty and complexity of elements that comprise ecosystems. The artist possesses a creative impulse finding satisfaction in making artwork that expresses a love of nature as part of a larger worldview. If done well, the persuasive power of such art may be enormous. Comprised of oil paintings and written work, this thesis establishes a way of approaching both …

Many Telling Moments:The Essence Of Fragmented Image Culture, Bonnie Ebner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My purpose in entering the UCF MFA program was to further explore and develop my passion for photography. During my time in the program, I developed my methodology--from having the traditional photography paradigm ingrained in my mind (and wanting to fit into it) to accepting and valuing my own unique process. I construct installations using diverse imagery and non-traditional presentation. In my installations, one may witness a reflection of the contemporary pace of image perception--fragmented, complex, abundant, and disordered. Together, images and their arrangements are used to create a unified piece that satisfies a new system within apparent disorder. The …

Early Intervention, Research And Therapy Center For Children With Autism, Nicole Marie Caccavo

Theses and Dissertations

This book documents a design study and creative project undertaken toward the fulfillment of a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Interior Environments at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. This book documents a year long accumulation of study and research done toward the development of an early intervention, therapy and research center for children with autism. This creative project demonstrates how an environment can be a catalyst for social interaction, way finding, therapy, and intervention. The goal was to design a space that would be multi-functional and also benefit the surrounding community. This design study will explain how colors …

Des Perdues: The Precariousness Of Loss, Alissa Grace Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of losses that take place in a day are not large, or sad, they are built almost entirely on behaviors and systems that have nothing to do with loss. Most of these, I discovered, are the result of deliberate carelessness. The word loss is as difficult to define as truth, but its variation is what makes it so interesting and evocative. It is not, and never has been, a definition of loss that I seek: it is not enough to simply say I lost this person or that place, we must consider what is left and what can …

The Possibilities Of Sort Of, Jesse Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Simultaneity and conflict are incessant qualities one is confronted with when looking at things. Shifting from familiar to foreign, from present to implied. There seems to be a tendency, if not necessity to embrace this multiplicity. Using the film theory construct of extra-diegetic and relative qualifier 'sort of' to investigate Pulp Fiction, Bose Wave CD player, Sunset Boulevard, American Apparel, and The Uncanny.

Bounded Surface, Emilie Sayward Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between surface, perception, and structure has occupied my graduate studies. Locating, transforming, and transcending the surface requires play with perceptive abilities not only of vision, but of touch, hearing, and the other senses as well. How do the interactions of sense with the qualities of a surface determine our perception of the world? What role does the extension of the senses play in one's ability to perceive surface and structure? Using sense information gleaned from surfaces, the tectonics of our world are made visible. Might this relationship be played backwards as well? Composed structures produce surfaces upon which …

The Aww, Jessica Danielle Langley

Theses and Dissertations

Jessica Langley's work examines animals and nature through various media and form, including watercolor and oil painting, digitally manipulated photography, both large and small scale drawing, and various combinations of each. The work has explored narrative and emotional aspects to more mystical and ecological interpretations. The current body of work settles into banal and familiar interactions with animals, or more specifically the house cat and its accoutrements. Each element of the body of work engages specific concepts that developed out of the American landscape tradition and assimilates the banal subjects into a formal framework. The subjects are monumentalized and romanticized …

In The Theater Of Subjectivity, Violetta Litvak

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tracks the formal and conceptual development of my work during the two years of graduate study at the VCU Photography and Film Department. It describes the influence of photography on my evolution as an artist and contextualizes my desire to expand the practice beyond the traditional limitations of the medium. It recounts my experimentations with assemblage, video and installation and their contribution to my understanding of spatial and temporal dimensions in the formal construction of my work.In part, the thesis is also a statement of my convictions about art making. It discusses theimportance of perception and subjective experience, …

A Science & Mathematics Magnet School At Maymont, Sarah Shamus Nakfoor

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in the idea that schools should be designed to offer individualized learning."A Science & Mathematics Magnet School at Maymont" explores a type of school that is becoming more familiar and accessible. By allowing students who have an interest in excelling in school and preparing for their future careers to come together and meet one another and experience aneducation that might not otherwise be available can be beneficial in many ways. In most cases, because of the funding required for such specialized schools, class sizes are reduced to meet budgets and the schools are opened to the community …

Rhythm, Grid And Collage: Building A Design Business Incubator, Robert David Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The idea of rhythm as applied to interior space is the basis for this thesis. The site is an old warehouse with a structure that contains a repetitive rhythm in the form of a columnar grid and a corresponding fenestration pattern, yet the building also has an atypical wedge shape. The program is a design business incubator, a place where design business startups, recent graduates of Virginia design programs, can begin their design careers and find their rhythm in a cooperative and supportive environment, a collage of design businesses, if you will. Rhythm is essential in our lives, from the …

Uncoverings: The Research Papers Of The American Quilt Study Group, Volume 29 (2008), Laurel Horton, Susan Price Miller, Aimee E. Newell, Sue C. Cummings, Marin F. Hanson, Arlesa J. Shephard, Loretta B. Chase

Uncoverings Journal

Preface by Laurel Horton

The Circuit Rider's Quilt: Reality and Romance by Susan Price Miller

More than Warmth: Gift Quilts by Aging Women in Antebellum America by Aimee E. Newell

Irene Post: Quilt Artist and Neighbor of Bertha Stenge by Sue C. Cummings

Modern, Yet Anti-Modern: Two Sides of Late-Nineteenthand Early-Twentieth-Century Quiltmaking by Marin F. Hanson

Quilts for McKinley: Women's Involvement in Politics by Arlesa J. Shephard

Quilts in Transition: A Study of Strafford County, New Hampshire, Probate Inventories by Loretta B. Chase

Contributors

Index

Graphic Novels As Contemporary Art? The Perplexing Question Of Content In The High School Art Classroom, Mark Graham

Faculty Publications

The postmodern condition of contemporary art is characterized by appropriation, layering of styles, recontextualization, interaction between text and image, and a willingness to embrace multiple meanings (Fehr, 1997; Gude, 2004). As the high school teacher contemplates the world of contemporary art and the expanse of visual culture, an insistent question comes to mind: What work of art or artifact of visual culture will provide the richest educational experiences for adolescent students? One viable answer is the graphic novel. Graphic novels have a postmodern flavor in that they are often ironic, playful, self-referential, and contain multiple narratives (Congdon & Blandy, 2003; …

On Zeitgeist, James Sham

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration into the possibilities and repercussions of articulating zeitgeist, that is, the spirit of our current age. The parameters and ramifications of such a project are, in this writing, analyzed in reference to the notion of historicity, and the narrative gaze that it perpetuates. The mechanism of canonization, and a discourse's capacity to be viral are examined.

A Key To All Mythologies, Theresa Frances Marchetta

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two years(August 2006-June 2008) I have been engaged in landscape painting that takes an experimental approach to material. My use of acrylic, the plastic paint, combines landscape with distortion and artificiality. Plastic has lost the futuristic and hopeful appeal it had in the past but it might still be an apt material to employ for a truly American artwork.

Argent Sound Recordings: Multimodal Storytelling, Matthew L. Klimas

Theses and Dissertations

ARGENT SOUND RECORDINGS explores the integration of visual, written and sonic elements to tell a story. "The Silver Bell," a fairy tale, is delivered through the internet – providing users an opportunity to experience and interpret a constructed narrative under the guise of an independent record label website.

Lucky Strike Branch Library, Vanessa Yvonne Vinsant

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project is an examination of how design can reinvigorate interest in reading through the creation of a branch library. The primary focus of this study is to generate a space that successfully binds intellectual interests, social and economic groups to re-establish community.

In An Expression Of The Inexpressible: Even This Title Is Stolen, But I Chose It, Carmen Alis Mcleod

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a tour through an imaginary building that contains the work I have completed in the last two years at Virginia Commonwealth University. The body of the text provides a discussion of specific paintings as well as more general themes related to painting and art. The discussion includes thoughts on futility, desire, schism, the leap, collage, photography, materiality, painting, image, and landscape. The second part of the text is an abstract statement about the paintings included in the thesis show, Splinter Paintings.