Digital Commons Network^™

Planar Refrains, Stephen Anthony Nunes

Theses and Dissertations

My practice explores phenomenal poetic truths that exist in fissures between the sensual and physical qualities of material constructs. Magnifying this confounding interspace, my work activates specific instruments within mutable, relational systems of installation, movement, and documentation. The tools I fabricate function within variable orientations and are implemented as both physical barriers and thresholds into alternate, virtual domains. Intersecting fragments of sound and moving image build a nexus of superimposed spatialities, while material constructions are enveloped in ephemeral intensities. Within this compounded environment, both mind and body are charged as active sites through which durational, contemplative experiences can pass.

Reverberation, …

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …

Rhetoric: The Art Of Using Language Effectively, Eric Burwell

Graduate School of Art Theses

My thesis is constructed of fifty text modules, each containing 100 words exactly. These modules express my technical interests, my personal history, and artists that influenced my writing and paintings. The module form enables me to concentrate my thoughts about how I approach personal studio methods and constrain personal limitations that direct my writing into poetry. The methods employed in the writing also correlate with my paintings. Many of the modules address methods I use in constructing my paintings; arrays of gestural marks of language and sometimes specifics words. I choose to arrange these letterforms in gestural fields of color. …

A Borrowed Language, Yvonne Osei

Graduate School of Art Theses

Art has the potency of mediation: bridging human differences, questioning voids in historical trajectories, negotiating spaces of relevance, and most importantly, being signifiers that embody the absent. I speak in a borrowed language, a multilingual visual tongue, inspired by a culmination of Western and African Art modes of practices to create charged platforms for multicultural communication.

My art presents visual portals that allow for intercultural and interracial mingling as issues of colorism, present-day colonialism, gender inequality and the politics of dress are foregrounded for collective deliberation. The essence of the work is often activated and brought to its full potential …

Volume 08, Meghan Enzinna, Casey Dawn Gailey, Raven Collins, Chiara Enriquez, Amelia Mcconnell, Alexander Morton, Emma Beckett, Leah G. Parr, Briana Adhikusuma, Taylor Embrey, Rowan Davis, Danielle Sisson, Bianca Cherry, Melissa Cacho, Chloe Woodward, Catherine Rollins, Carson Reeher, Landon Cooper, Haley Vasquez, Marlisha Stewart, Eric Whitehead, Sabrina Walker, James Bates

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Interim Dean Dr. Jennifer Apperson

Indigenous Peoples and the Modern Era by Meghan Enzinna

"Who Says": How Selena Gomez and the Scene Attempt to Subvert the Popular Standards of Beauty by Casey Dawn Gailey

Art by Raven Collins

Meltdown on Social Media: Amy's Baking Company Meets Kitchen Nightmares by Nathena Haddrill

Art by Chiara Enriquez

Design by Amelia Mcconnell

Worth More Than a Thousand Words: A Visual Rhetorical Discussion of Virtual Reality by Examining "Clouds Over Sidra" by Alexander Morton

Design by Emma Beckett

The Sonata: An Analysis of Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, K. …

Orpheus, Spring 2016, University Of Dayton

Orpheus: UD's Literary and Artistic Magazine

No abstract provided.

03. Design, Northeastern State University

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Aesthetics, Economics And The Enchantment Of Cloth, Janis Jefferies, Barbara Layne

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In a changing world everyone crafts, designs and engages in making: each individual person and each collective subject, from communities to cities and regions, can define and enhance a life project. We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of social innovations, sometimes using technology and sometimes not. As these changes unfold, an expansive open set of process and practices in which new solutions are suggested and new meanings are created. Most revolutions are about energetic movement and upheavals; even if ideas take a while to become ideologies, we don’t think of them as slow events. But the phrase also makes us …

Cold Lapse, Tressa Jones

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

cold lapse addresses the abstract notions of time and loss while conveying the value of observing the present. The postmodern view of time, the grid’s vernacular, and the aesthetics of postminimalism are my foundation for communicating time’s passage and its consequential sensations of absence. The duration of a slow drip, the cycle of breath and the sequential motion of a hand folding paper each mark passing moments. By observing these signs the phenomenon of time may be appreciated. Care and ephemerality in the work require the viewer’s sensitivity when encountering and witnessing it, much like the demands of observing the …

Nostalgia And Iphone Camera Apps: An Ethnographic Visual Approach To Iphoneography, Maria L. De Panbehchi

Theses and Dissertations

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone and camera on social media. iPhoneography, the photography taken or edited with the iPhone, has set the trend of nostalgic photography on social media during the 2010s; thus, the iPhone, a high-tech camera, produces low-tech-looking images. This dissertation attempts to find out why iPhone photographers (iPhoneographers) take, edit, and share images that mimic photographs taken with analog photographic equipment. I argue that nostalgia allows iPhoneographers to use the iPhone as a creative tool and to belong to a community. Based on the arguments of Vilém Flusser—who suggested that photographers are more interested in …

Leon Sun, Linda Hanes

International Faculty Researchers

Living and working in two countries provided a cultural contrast that has greatly inspired and influenced the art and design of Yuanliang (Leon) Sun, an associate professor of art at Western Michigan University.

Avatar, Cyborg, Icevorg: Simulacra’S Scion, Guido E. Alvarez

Theses and Dissertations

I propose a theoretical framework that describes how avatars incorporate media as an inherent part of their nature and find a hosting body in cyborgs to navigate and spawn in media. I propose the birth of a new scion that combines avatar, medium and cyborg into a conceptual being that I call “ICEVORG.”

The ICEVORG expands beyond representation into the actual physical world by means of media transgression—more specifically, by the use of the Strange Loop also known as Metalepsis ICEVORG find an effective soil to thrive and interrogate our ideas of reality by means of iteration, expansion, fragmentation and …

Locative Media As Remix, Conor Mcgarrigle

Books/Book Chapters

While data-driven art is not new, recent developments in technical, artistic, and social spheres have coalesced to produce new opportunities for artists and activists who remix data with space and place to form locationally specific political critiques of great power and flexibility.

Nature's Geometry, Lin Feng

LSU Master's Theses

The beauty of the natural world, from the literal to the abstract: color, texture, shape, sounds, plant structure and anatomy, has continuously been the source of inspiration for artists and graphic designers. Our natural environment provides a readily available resource as a basis of visual study and exploration to develop a unique visual language and construct compelling work. Therefore, the aim of my thesis investigation is to create a new visual language and communication based on the inherent beauty within nature and geometric forms found in nature. I began my investigation by developing a family of symbols based on natural …

The Adversity Pop Culture Has Posed, Darel Joseph

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I am a collage artist working with multiple mediums such as paint, photography, video, audio, and performance. As a New Orleans’ native, I have a unique history that is unflattering, for my history echoes that of America’s historical misdeeds. I make sociopolitical art because I am of a historically oppressed people. I make art that celebrates my diverse culture that is a collage of Native American, African, and New Orleans’ French Creole.

The Abstraction Of Toys, Dan Ruben Thornhill

Theses and Dissertations

painting style. The toys depicted in the paintings were used at on time by my two grandchildren, Kaylee Smith and Brennan Thornhill, and serve as inspiration for this body of work. These compositions are based on direct observations of the toys used in this series, and relate to abstraction as defined in this thesis as simplification, distortion, exaggeration, invention, and erasure. The works that date later in the series fall under this definition. My work draws heavily upon Pablo Picasso and is influenced by his use of abstraction. The series tries to capture the essence of the toys and evoke …

Anti-Heroics, Modesty, And Bad Taste, Philip Hinge

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis work revolves around investigating painting’s relationship with “bad taste” and heroism. By comparing my paintings to illustrative depictions of “heroism”, artists who turn bad art good, ideas concerning modesty, humor, and invention I will contextualize my stance towards “heroism” and bad taste. By establishing my relationship to the aforementioned examples I will trace the growth of my work over the past few years and discuss how its role within contemporary painting has changed as well as how it interacts with various cultural references.

Into The Frightening Light: Emotional Healing Through The Creative Process, Bethany Dunfee Pierce

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the role the creative process and art making can have in emotional healing and briefly describes connections among the affective skills of Creative Problem Solving and art making. Essentially a self-study taking place over five months, this project focuses on how the author, by developing mindful practice and behavior, used visual journaling, blogging, drawing and painting as methods of discovering her own creative process and how that process aided in emotional transformation leading toward greater self-actualization and artistic identity. This work provides key learnings that can help others in overcoming creative blocks, exploring creative process or in …

Art And Literacy, Tara Hemelgarn, Sherrie Henderson, Patricia Thompson

P-12 Lesson Plans

This lesson prepares students for a visit, virtually or in person, to the Zuckerman Museum of Art. Using art images from the ZMA permanent collection as displayed in the See Through Walls exhibition, students practice skills in language arts and visual arts.

Studies Of The Middle Class, Scott S. Stanard

Theses and Dissertations

I create oil paintings and drypoints that bring attention to scenes of American middle class life. I present crowds of people engaged in community activities and festivals. This enables me to depict a cross section of the residents of a given region. I also create a counterpoint to these peopled gatherings by painting and drawing the exteriors of middle class homes. In my work, I attempt to imbue a sense of intrigue and pathos.

I work from candid photos that I take of people and their living spaces. In these photos, I modify and delete elements to optimize narrative and …

Illustrated Tales Of Little Sister Fox: Stories About A Clever Fox From Russian Fairytales, Rachel W. Smoot

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the interaction of pictures and words in children’s storybooks. The illustrations placed alongside the text of the book are just as important to understanding the story as are the words. “Illustrated Tales of Little Sister Fox” combines elements of several traditional Russian folktales into a single story. Illustrations are hand sketched and digitally painted.

Identifying Ways Of Effective Communication Focused On Public Campaign Design, Ki Ho Park

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify the most effective way of communication in cause-related campaign design. The fundraising campaign selected for this study focused on children’s leukemia, “Draw a Message of Hope.” The five types of public campaign design were developed utilizing different elements and techniques of visual communication: (1) image plus text, (2) infographics, (3) motion graphics, (4) typography, and (5) description only. Each type of public campaign design was assessed in terms of (1) the extent to which audiences understand about the campaign and (2) the extent to which the materials encouraged the audience to participate …

A Storied Surface, Courtney Wilburn Marse

LSU Master's Theses

A Storied Surface is an exploration of narrative based graphic design engineered for textile surfaces. Beginning with an experiment involving the characters of the novel Matilda, I developed a design system. My process involves creating narratives and illustrating the characters. Then the illustration is abstracted. The abstraction is used to create prints. Finally, all of the elements including the original illustration, abstraction, and print are used to create engineered designs for three-dimensional surfaces. Advances in digital textile printing and the increasing implementation of graphic textiles in the fashion industry led me to experiment with applying my own design to textiles …

Art And Symbolism: The Technique Of Applying Hidden Meaning And Communicating Specific Ideas Through Art, Andrea C. Macbean

Senior Honors Theses

Symbolism is an artistic style frequently used in the arts. Through the course of art history, it was its own artistic movement as well. The incorporation of specific symbols, shapes, colors, or identifiable images communicates to the viewer an intended message or statement. Frequently, symbolism appears to be hidden or initially unperceived by the intended audience. In some works, symbolism is so abstract that it needs explanation or clarification to be understood completely by the viewer. This thesis will analyze a few techniques of symbolism that can be incorporated in a work of art to communicate truth, entice thought, point …

Icons Of Death In Mexican Folk Art, Rodrigo Suarez, Linda A. Sullivan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Death has always remained a mystery to humanity. Nearly every culture and religion has its theories regarding the afterlife; some believing in the afterlife and others in the continuity of life through reincarnation. However, there are probably very few events of human life that at the same time are so unknown and yet so ritualized as death is. Almost every nation has a holiday to honor the faithful departed, celebrate the continuity of life or simply reflect on the mysticism of death. And the Mexican tradition is one of the most ancient rituals still alive and celebrated as it has …

Juvenile Book Cover Illustration, Lisa Marie Brown, Robert Barrett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The book market has long been the fine art gallery of illustrators. Portraits, landscapes, and characters set in beautiful historical and modern scenes are only a few of the genres that illustrators have explored through the medium of the book cover. Book illustration has a long visual history that has inspired readers for many generations. The flourishing tradition of children’s book illustration began with such artists as Howard Pyle and N.C.Wyeth whose timeless covers for classics, painted in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, are still printed today. This rich heritage gives illustrators a firm foundation from which to build …

Parsing The Non-Finito: Systems, Thresholds And Imaginative Space In Representation, Daniel Kelly Iv

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Between the actualized built spaces that the artist moves around and through on a daily basis and the more abstract systems we invent to represent these structures sits the illusion of space and structure found in his drawings and paintings. Constant turnover within the built environment offers not only content, but rich analogy for his artistic practice. The artist’s endeavors in the studio in many ways echo the genesis, evolution and possibility he observes in the transitioning city around him. In the actual making of the work, he gleans from traditional methods of drawing and painting, from the architectural lexicon, …

Between The Map And The Territory: Taking The World Apart In The Age Of Un-Discovery, Carla Lacey Fisher Schwartz

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The map is demonstrative of a basic human impulse, the desire to understand our surroundings and our position within the world. Through the activity of mapmaking, we aspire to comprehend comprehensively, but the very nature of the map allows for only partial understanding. Despite this objective for total knowledge, the blank space of a map is a necessity; in order for a map to be useful it must leave some aspects out. This blank space, along with other blanks in visual representation, is an active silence, and holds meaning in its absence.

While the map attempts to represent a territory, …

03. Design, University Of Central Oklahoma

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

No abstract provided.

In Situ Vision: The Student Experience Of Collaborative Learning In A Virtual Drawing Class, Annette Cohen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the construct of collaboration and the co-construction of knowledge in a distance learning drawing class. Distance learning drawing classes are rare, due to resistance by fine arts departments holding onto traditions that date back to Renaissance times. As a result, there is a paucity of literature on the subject. This multiple method study seeks an understanding of how students collaborate in critiques, form virtual communities and socially construct knowledge about learning how to draw. The study commences with the following three research questions: what social processes facilitate learning to draw from the …