Digital Commons Network^™

The Future Is Over, Dotan Appelbaum

Masters Theses

History is constructed out of the narratives by which we organize the substance of all that has ever happened. Our understanding of the contemporary moment is determined by how we shape our history. The future is a promise that emerges from how we contextualize our place in time.

This thesis starts by acknowledging that the futurity promised by enlightenment liberalism is inconceivable in the face of contemporary horrors and climate catastrophe. Given this reality, what are we doing as designers? With a Benjaminian understanding of and a Foucauldian approach to history, this thesis constructs a history of design that follows …

Always Been This Way, Joanna Booth

Masters Theses

Always Been This Way is an exploration of the layers of self that become embedded within the home. My work seeks to explore themes of preser- vation and how I, as an artist, can document and solidify my personal and familial stories which are often created within the home. For my thesis, I have incorporated a combination of printmaking, textiles, furniture design, and performance as an examination of the generational information found inside the domestic space.

Graphic Desire, Michelle Belgrod

Masters Theses

Before I knew about design, I knew about desire. A desire for the new, the beautiful, the promising. A desire that lives on a surplus of surfaces. On packaging, social media, on websites. A desire that makes the job of a graphic designer an object of desire itself. A practice that prioritizes aesthetics over meaning. Expectations over reality.

In Graphic Desire, I complicate the ways that desire affects both designers and consumers. Caught up in our own need for creative fulfillment, we often overlook our impact as the arbiters of desire. Under capitalism, we create work that over-promises a …

Life Of Things, Things Of Life, Shiyue Wang

Masters Theses

In a world often captivated by the grand and explicit, my thesis, Life of Things, Things of Life explores the quiet yet profound narratives hidden within everyday objects. Drawing on my background in data design, I adopt a methodology that intertwines subjective narrative with rational analysis and challenges traditional hierarchies of value. Through processes of observation, collection, archiving, and re-contextualization, I elevate what is often overlooked as mundane and fleeting. This thesis not only uncovers the narrative potential of ordinary objects but also repositions them as protagonists in their own right, urging viewers to reconsider their conventional roles not as …

Bridge Between Calligraphy And Architect, Tianhao Zhong

Masters Theses

The tradition of calligraphy is divided by time, categorized by eras rather than by years, months, or days. As an art, calligraphy is the tangible manifestation of human spiritual ideals, an organic blend of an individual's calligraphic skills and spiritual philosophy. The strokes and lines of calligraphic art imbue Chinese characters, "carved into a single aspect," with a form of movement, enriched with musical rhythm. The structure of the characters symbolizes the laws of universal movement, embodying a beauty that captures the essence of all, hence known as "the sound of silence" and "the form of the formless." It is …

Dimensional Dialogues, Farida Abousteit

Masters Theses

Dimensional Dialogues, a multi-installation series, offers us a place to interact with language in a way that is whimsical and transcends our need to understand and comprehend language. We remove the tensions of language barriers by finding beauty and personal connection to typography, now scaled up to a human scale and reacting in real time to our movements. A process begins from ancient practices of designing Arabic Calligraphy, to creating Graphic Outputs of that calligraphy, to technologically heavy and new works in creating 3D models of these works that can be projected and respond to human movement. These installations, in …

“Touching The Untouchable”: Time As Material And The Fragmented Self In The Maximodern Era Shori V. Sims © 2024 Shori V. Sims All Rights Reserved Shorisims., Shori V. Sims

Masters Theses

In the conventional division of disciplines, film/video/moving images and stationary sculpture are categorized as formal and conceptual opposites. In my work and in this thesis, I am arguing that moving images constitute a form of sculpture in the style of assemblage by the manipulation of time around them. Yes, the image is flat and stationary on its own: but the cut of time which it represents exists multi-dimensionally (spatially and temporally) to be combined in a collage-like manner. In my practice, moving images constitute a form of assemblage that manipulates time and space in ways normally attributed to sculpture.

This …

Variations On Noise, Clinton Van Arnam

Masters Theses

Variations on Noise is a three-part collection: an index, a set of interviews, and a perspective on a working practice in graphic design and sound.

If noise is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, how do we define it and use it as a catalyst for dissonance and change? As a designer, I use noise algorithms to generate pseudo randomness and break up repetitive textures. As a musician, I use noise to create scores and performances that challenge our perception of what is comfortable and uncomfortable.

Seven interviews with designers, artists, musicians, and a Tibetan monk offer ways to approach the …

The First Gate, Ji Zou

Masters Theses

Upon months of indecision on how to verbally communicate my thesis, I decided on the following format for my written thesis at this point in my practice. I consider this to reflect fragments of a larger practice which draws upon the influences on a subjective subconscious. My communication style has always been very transparent, straight to the point, and efficient, while the concepts I’m exploring often occupy a space that can’t be fully located through a short series of references and research. That space is constantly moving, expanding, changing, and ebbs and flows between opacities even to myself. I want …

Building The Body, Jasmine Flowers

Masters Theses

Bodies and space co-produce each other and the process of co-production originates racializing and gendering work.

The concept, thesis, and subsequent design are informed by the historical context around the House for Josephine Baker by Adolf Loos. Presented here is the culmination of research which grounds itself in the relationship between Primitivism and Modernism, theory on the body and flesh, architectural graphic standards, spectacle, gaze, surveillance, hypervisibility, invisibility, implications of privacy versus publicity, expressions of Blackness and its place in femmehood (a neologism that expands “womanhood” to be trans-inclusive), all of which directly engage in co-production.

This co-production changes how …

Intangible Shells, Elena Bulet

Masters Theses

The following essay mimics the constant disruption of a fragmented memory. It reflects on intergenerational gendered family dynamics since the civil war and dictatorship-era Spain and how memory articulates narratives of belonging within the matrilineal lineage. A process of excavation departs from personal memories, familial archives, contemporary interviews, theoretical readings, photographic reenactments, and observations of traces in the landscape of Almayate’s town. The author attempts to retrace her roots, as well as her family history, acknowledging the impossibility of making personal histories tangible.

Sircling The Cquare, Latika Balachander

Masters Theses

As we journey into an increasingly virtual and intangible reality, is there an opportunity for our tactile fabrics to journey with, and even reorient us? Can they exist in our future worlds to remind us of the value of current traditional, low-tech practices that we may soon forget?

Referencing the fundamental fabric languages of knitted and woven structures, this collection of garments, that I term “Earthsuits,” embody the stages of metamorphosis as we adjust to a new phase of our perceptive reality. With an emphasis on circling, we loop through virtual squares like screens and pixels, to the circles of …

Winter Solstice, Jingwen Cao

Masters Theses

For a long time, I have been thinking about what contemporary photography is, what its position is, and what the relationship is between artists and audiences. At the same time, I was developing my concepts and photographic directions and trying to make my work and my perspective on photography relevant. Winter Solstice includes a series of essays that locate my thinking and my work. Its title references the longest night of the year.

The position of photography has changed significantly over the past few decades. The way people read photos is also changing. Perhaps because of reverence for art and …

Going To The Sea, Lingyi Kong

Masters Theses

“Good-bye Icarus” is a work that aims to blend art, history, and environmental exploration through illustration, an interactive graphic novel, visual documentation, and programming language narratives.

A year of coastal life in Rhode Island has provided me with endless inspiration in terms of design language. I’ve ventured into blending dynamic visuals from TouchDesigner with illustration, a pioneering approach as far as I’m aware.

My narrative is based on seaside scenery and mythology metaphorical elements, making image programming to capture the essence of waves a focal point and central experiment of my work. Furthermore, after crafting a dynamic design visual language, …

Moving Studio, Emilia Miekisz

Masters Theses

This collection of essays chronicles my journey through the MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), exploring the concept of a “moving studio” and its influence on my creative process. From the fluidity of morning routines to the comfort found in Sunday pancake traditions, the essays delve into the intersections of personal experiences, artistic inspiration, and technological innovation. Through reflections on animation projects like “Wakey Wakey” and “Mr. Fragile,” I examine the transformative power of storytelling and the emotional connections fostered through my work. The essays also explore the evolution of perspectives, from initial resistance to embracing …

Dreampool, Xia Li

Masters Theses

DREAMPOOL is a spatial experience of virtual architecture based on the public bathhouses of northern China during the 00s - 10s. It focuses on the significance of nostalgia and the connection between architectural space and the spiritual world. The dreampool began with my interest in Bathhouse and Dreamcore videos that were popularized on the Chinese internet during the pandemic.

Like every nostalgia trend emerging, such as steampunk, some young Chinese people are starting to miss their childhood life around the year 2000 at a time when they are losing their public space and socialization. Public bathhouses, as a collective memory …

I Am Becoming., Dai Asano

Masters Theses

This is a collection of essays documenting my grappling with the idea that time is always in motion. When you say now, it is not now anymore, but we are still in now, a new now. How can I stay in the now without being swept away by the current of time? Describing a film by Ozu Yasujiro, Deleuze writes, “The vase in Late Spring is interposed between the daughter’s half smile and the beginning of her tears. There is becoming, change, passage. But the form of what changes does not itself change does not pass on. This is time, …

Detroit Jazz Geographies: Marronage And Speculative Urban Futures, Denzel Amoah

Masters Theses

The Detroit Jazz Clubs of the 1920s-1960s existed as an emblem of marronage, or as an escape from a colonial world, becoming a spot of refuge and freedom for Blacks living in Detroit. There they were able to create a subculture that was antagonistic to hegemonic norms.

Currently, Detroit is on the precipice of a new development plan, titled ‘Detroit Future City” which aims to revitalize the city through the bolstering of industrialization and commerce. The history of Detroit has shown the dangers of what industrialization can do and alternative modes of development should be explored.

To honor the legacy …

Conspicuous Repair: Drawing Attention To Brokenness In Public Landscapes, Ashley Pedersen

Masters Theses

Repair, as a design provocation, encourages material conservation, hands-on engagement with materiality, and evaluation of maintenance routines all of which contribute to a model of sustainability that values a circular economy and degrowth. Through visible repairs that focus our ongoing attention on brokenness, repair has the potential to illuminate, and start to address the systemic causes of brokenness. In this way, repair can be a catalyst for increased stewardship of a place.

Conspicuous Repair: Drawing Attention to Brokenness in Public Landscapes investigates clay as a suitable material for the repair of masonry in urban landscapes which has the potential, through …

New Craft: Craft Practices In The Digital Era, Paulina Bereza

Masters Theses

Advancements in technology point to a thriving future through the allure of new tools and the promise of enhanced performance. With the current environmental crisis, military invasions and broader global conflicts, how can we utilize new digital media in a way that dismantles oppressive positions of power? Looking towards the future, I explore the potential of materiality and new methods of making, to reshape our relationship with the environment and each other. I collaborate with newly adopted forms of intelligence, artificial and automated, to express and reconcile the accelerated cultural shift. From ancient fibres to digital circuits, what will the …

Empathetic Reverberations, Tianyue Wang

Masters Theses

Plants play a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth and remediating pollution, making them indispensable components of ecosystems. However, their efforts in combating pollution are often overlooked and underappreciated by humans. This oversight can lead to a failure to recognize the severity of pollution and raises ethical concerns about using plants merely as tools for pollution control. This thesis advocates for acknowledging the essential role of plants in mitigating pollution caused by human activities and emphasizes the need to respect and protect their intrinsic value. The methodology of this research involves developing landscapes that honor and recognize the vital …

Tethered By Nourishment - Exploring Sovereignty Within An Urban Food Apartheid, Benjamin Bailey

Masters Theses

“Tethered by Nourishment” explores how the principles of food sovereignty could be spatially cultivated within an urban environment afflicted by a food apartheid. The urban environment I explore is the Elysian Fields Ave. neutral grounds (colloquial term for road medians) in New Orleans. Working with a series of food-generating landscapes, the proposal imagines multiple cultivation sites to support neighborhoods and communities struggling with fresh food access. These sites allow for varying levels of engagement from start-up farming plots for urban agriculturalists to food forests for more passive food collection. Approaching a multifaceted problem like equitable urban food access requires a …

A New Grounding, Corey Watanabe

Masters Theses

Amidst our climate uncertain reality, the question arises as to how we address the seemingly endless spiral of ecological degradation and loss we witness each and everyday? Through a cultural reframing of our relationship with invasive species, A New Grounding asks how collective ritual may serve as a vehicle to understand, heal through, and eventually embrace the trials and tribulations of ecosystem change.

Invasive species have become a major driver of the evolution of our landscapes. Research has shown their disturbance is often rooted in an underlying human environmental disturbance, however, for many these highly adaptive plants have become a …

Absence Leaves A Mark: Illustrating Filipino Migrant Stories, Nina Martinez

Masters Theses

From July to October 2023, I volunteered at Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a New York City-based grassroots organization run by Filipino im/migrant workers dedicated to combatting labor trafficking. Every meeting opened with the same reminder: stories shared in this room do not leave it. Illustration became a tool for respecting the privacy of the members, many of whom were undocumented. Avoiding faces, I copied down objects, places, maps, and handwriting.

Absence Leaves a Mark explores the idea of illustration as field note when working with migrant populations. Beyond depicting visual witness, illustrated field notes can contain findings from research and …

Remade Radical: Design Artifacts Of A Third World Future, Yasmine Hassan

Masters Theses

Remade Radical draws inspiration from the existing practices of informal making and reuse prevalent in Black and brown immigrant and working-class communities in order to reimagine maker culture and the field of industrial design as a whole. These improvisational practices–known by a number of different names across the globe, including jua kali (Kenya), gambiarra (Brazil), jugaad (India), and even hood engineering (United States)–are oftentimes viewed as inevitable byproducts of waste and artifacts of besiegement from the world’s wealthiest nations. Yet within these practices lies a tangible counterpoint to the material excess and rampant consumption made possible through the continued exploitation …

From One Nature To Another, Sarah Mann

Masters Theses

Lichen‭, ‬fungi‭, ‬and soil each represent a microcosm of nature‭. ‬They are all quintessential examples of complex symbiosis‭, ‬yet they are often treated as lifeless materials‭. ‬But what if we took a moment to connect with each one on a daily basis‭ - ‬would that impact the way we envision the future‭? ‬

For most of us‭, ‬our homes won’t be radically changing any time soon‭; ‬therefore‭, ‬From One Nature to‭ ‬Another‭ ‬invites us to bring these entities inside and‭ ‬reflect on their possibilities as collaborators‭. ‬Each piece was carefully researched and designed to‭ ‬provide the correct atmospheric …

Endless Form, Kaela Kennedy

Masters Theses

Endless Form is a gentle argument for a practice rooted in embodied seeing and communicating. It invites the reader through multiple actions of visual and linguistic perception – observation, seeing, and attention – and examines how these methods operate to widen our fields of understanding to more empathetically engage with the world as an ecological whole. It claims that graphic design, as a practice built on the relationship between visual form and language, has a unique ability to translate the unending feedback loop between the eye, the seen, and the language we use to define it. It argues for ways …

From Here To The Ground, Courtney Mccracken

Masters Theses

Art, for me, is a thinking process. It is also a process of connection to body and place. It directs my fractured attention toward the things I care about. As I labor through process, I am gifted with a moment of attentiveness. In a time where everything feels urgent, and our perspective can be warped by the endless flood of information, making art is a chance to stop, to think, and to feel.

It is a space for holding, and a space for being held.

Recently, I have been working primarily in animation and sound design, experimenting widely across media …

Embodied Abstractions: Identity And Representation In The Digital Era, Srikar Hari

Masters Theses

The digital image is a copy in motion. As it accelerates, it deteriorates.

It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, squeezed through

digital connections, resized, uploaded, downloaded, reformatted

and re-edited.

- Adapted from “In defense of the Poor Image” by Hito Steryel

With today’s digital technology, the image is no longer a stable

representation of the world, but a programmable database that

is updated in real time. It is not only part of a program, but it

contains its own operating code: the image is a program in itself.

Consequently, the image’s rhetoric has taken on …

Dimensional Dialogues, Farida Abousteit

Masters Theses

What does it mean to be, hear, interpret and understand language? And does it truly matter if we don't? This work explores linguistic translation and mistranslation, through the exploration of three-dimensional and interactive spaces that to create an opportunity to interact with language as an visual and felt environment; rather than language on a page or the spoken word.

When we stand next to typography, next to language, scaled up to a human-sized presence, do we find an immediate kinship and warmth towards it? Do we find ourselves more captivated and intrigued?

I believe that when we encounter the unfamiliar …