Arts and Humanities Commons^™

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 …

No One Thing, Kate Brown

Masters Theses

Graphic design has mobility. It is oriented toward action, travel, and distribution.

My projects put me in touch with people and ideas, language, and visual form. They’re broad, conversational, and curatorial in spirit. They allow me to cut a path through the discipline of graphic design, and to branch opportunistically out to others, when I can—to art, architecture, fashion, writing. I expand my field of operations. Make it as big as you are. Make it 1:1. Take the part and run with it. Fold it up, send it away.

Poiesis Of Care: The Aesthetic-Performative Value Of Delicacy, María Jesús Godoy Domínguez

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this paper, the ethics of care is addressed from an aesthetic perspective by analysing the poiesis of care, or care from the performative aspect of its physical execution. To this end, delicacy is understood as a sensitive property of care, an aesthetic language where the subject, assuming an active role, becomes an ‘artist’ in the everyday realm. The main thesis is that the subject is a caregiver who expresses delicacy in their everyday gestures and attitudes with the people and objects around them. To develop this idea, first, delicacy is conceptually characterized within the framework of modern aesthetics, while …

Contemporary Appropriation Of Confucian Aesthetics In China: Mao Zedong And Xi Jinping’S Political Discourses On Art And Morality, Eva Kit Wah Man

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Mao Zedong’s thoughts on art and society delivered at the Yan’an Talks in the 1940s had a significant impact on the Chinese Communist Party’s art policies for decades. In 2014, Xi Jinping delivered the “Speech at the Forum on Literature and Art” in Beijing, which echoed Mao’s Yan’an Talks but was arrogated and idealized to emphasize the development of a strong China. His speech focused on boosting artists to celebrate Party-sanctioned morality, cultural heritage, and nationalist sentiment, and he stated that the main purpose of art was to infuse reality with optimism for the future. The ways both leaders appropriated …

The Withering Touch, Jiwon Lim, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Through Memory Lane, Victoria Sgarbi, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

V.1 Spring 2025, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Spring 2025 issue has the theme "Take It as a Sign" and features pieces on baby fever, spreadsheets and recording information, aura and technology, a trip to Horseshoe Bend, the new Art and Computation department at RISD, home and belonging, Illustration student projects related to sensitive experiences, red brick architecture in Providence, and technology and the English language, along with interviews of students in their studios, poetry, and other creative writing.

To The Part Of You That Still Hopes, Xing Chen, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Our Mother And Us, Allison Kim, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Seas Away, Airien Ludin, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE PURCHASE PRIZE | $375 Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

The Violet City, Longwen Miao, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

THE AMERICAN PRINTING HISTORY ASSOCIATION - New England Chapter PURCHASE PRIZE | $375 Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

?Do Geese See God?, Lila Vianna, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Hose, Arlie Lowe, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Fluff Puff, Emerald Jiang, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Limerence, Simone Ichwantoro, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Something Around Storytelling | Risd Mfa Illustration Anthology 2025, Illustration Department, Illustration Mfa, Yimiao Wang, Tori Hong, Qing " Christine" Wen, Rong Xu, Esther Du, Anum Naseer, Maren Curtis, Yuanhui "Yan" Li, Sadie Levine, Georgia Darley Oldham, Mawra Tahreem, Margaryta Winkler

Illustration MFA Anthologies

What follows is a collection of twelve essays by the students of RISD’s Illustration Practice MFA programme, variously reflecting upon their thesis projects, or their creative practice more generally. It allows us an opportunity to chart the many themes and perspectives that inform their work—to notice moments of both overlap and divergence. This anthology not only offers us a window into their individual practices, but also provides a glimpse of the spirit and camaraderie that underscores their experience as a cohort. The very making of this anthology is a reflection of that collective spirit, and you will find many traces …

Genealogical Jiapu, Mitchell Poon, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

My Apple Journal And Reflection Entries Are Being Used To Train An Ai That Knows My Emotions Before I Do And That's Ok, Andrew Zhang, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest Opening Reception Poster, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Poster for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest Call For Entries Poster, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Poster for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Art, Trauma, And The Aesthetics Of Paul Celan, Tania L. Abramson, Paul R. Abramson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On Incomprehensibility, Nicholas Romanos

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Uncovering The Flaws In A Philosophy Of Cover Songs, Brandon Polite

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this paper, I explore some flaws in P.D. Magnus’s book, A Philosophy of Cover Songs. First, I contest Magnus’s claim that in order to count as a cover, a version of a song must target a recording rather than a performance of that song. Second, I reveal a problem with his taxonomy of covers and defend “mimic covers” from his view that they aren’t worthy of aesthetic interest. Finally, I question the adequacy of his ontology of songs by considering a class of songs that his view cannot accommodate.

Reflections On Cover Songs: Replies To Polite, P. D. Magnus

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Brandon Polite poses a number of interesting criticisms of my account of cover versions. Some I am happy to acknowledge and take on board, but with others I feel he goes too far. I take this chance to clarify and extend my account.

Evolving Design Critique For A Changing Industry, Sejin Hwang, Amy Ai, Leo Bang, Yuchen Chen, Kathryn Chen, Tiffany Chang, Stephen Jiang, Chloe Jo, Eileen Lee, Nicole Lu, Ray Liu, Kevin Wei, Elaine Zhang, Ellano Zhou

Student Work

This class serves as an exploratory practice in response to existing studies evaluating critique environments in the design industry. Previous studies identified three key limitations in the critique process: (1) a lack of experience for novice designers working with non-designers when reviewing their work, (2) an ineffective final review structure, and (3) a need for a more constructive and engaging feedback-sharing environment.1 To address these challenges, the course was designed to “critique” critique activities and develop strategic solutions to transform the way design work is reviewed, analyzed, and critiqued. The course was part of a pilot fall semester program called …

Climate Change Is A Threat Multiplier Of Gender Inequality, Mia Kei Cheng, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

Impressions, Mckenzie Chase, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

The Walk Of The Creature, Manuela Guzman, Special Collections, Fleet Library

12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2026

Entry for the 12th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, 1st Floor Main Reading Room. Juror: Gabrielle Reed.

A Note On The Weather, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Fanfiction As Decoupled Participatory Sensemaking, Mingxi Xu, Christian Kronsted

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Within the last fifteen years, a new form of community-driven literary practice has developed on the internet, namely fanfiction. Fanfiction is unlicensed community-authored writing about established intellectual property, made for fans by fans. In this paper, we provide an overview of contemporary fanfiction circulated on the most popular fanfiction platforms (Wattpad and Archive of Our Own). We also bring in recent cognitive science studies on creativity and art, where there is an emerging consensus that creativity is not a product of an individual mind that imposes its intentions onto a static object. Instead, creative processes tend to be co-emergent between …