Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

Invisible Systems, Mina Kim

Masters Theses

We are immersed in an efficiency-and-profit-obsessed world where products are advancing for the sake of updates without meaningful outcomes. The products’ seemingly simple and seamless interfaces bear the marks of deception and promote the world’s obsessions as a norm. My work defines the visual language and methods that hide complex truth within invisible systems. I aim to strike through invisibility for greater transparency and visibility.

I employ techniques that dis-organize the guidelines and components of invisible systems, reframing expectations and opening up new ways of understanding our surroundings. I intend whimsical reconfigurations to act as a mirror, providing a moment …

Algorithmic Mirage: The Enigma Of Black Box Algorithm, Brenda Li

Masters Theses

In Algorithmic Mirage, I delve into the intricate connections between black-box algorithms, perception, and control. This artist book presents a series of thought-provoking projects that expose the ways in which algorithmic distortions shape our understanding of value, relationships, and social norms. By materializing the intangible and using jewelry as a metaphor, I reveal the power dynamics that drive our interactions with technology and each other. The book unfolds through three interconnected projects, each focusing on different aspects of the relationship between black-box algorithms and human perception. The first project, Boxed Rings - Algorithmic Distortion, uses diamond rings as an entry …

Luminous Eating, Ayesha Mohyuddin

Masters Theses

My work strives to reorient my gaze away from outward definitions of identity toward the complexities and nuances of experiencing the intersections of identity that comprise me and the space of home where I felt most extended. I do not want to essentialize the identifiers of Muslim, Bengali, and Tennessean, nor do I want to neglect the role memory and nostalgia play in shaping home as a place of expansion and ease. Food, cooking, and eating ground both nostalgia and identity in something physical. Through the sense of taste, I reorient myself to the inseparability of experience that cannot be …

The Meaning Of A Choice, Julie-Louise Zeitoun

Masters Theses

If you are disabled or disadvantaged, you will be dismissed and stifled. Few people will actively care for your struggles. As a person with autism, I was deeply fearful of the persecution I had faced throughout my life; it was a fear that followed me with terrifying determination. I desperately wanted to blend into society. So I designed myself to be devoid of any weakness, and productivity was the way I chose to conceal any difficulties I faced. It was a way to measure my success — a way to measure my normalcy.

Standard medical textiles are generic, cumbersome devices. …

Rooted In Topsoil, Jiaying Wang

Masters Theses

Disillusioned by my transnational identity, I have come to realize that my sense of belonging is no longer attached to any physical location, but instead to a state of mind, to an intimacy with the world. My notion of home is an obscure and unsettled—at times utopian—idea, which can be infinitely decoded, re-positioned and re-established psychologically. This thesis is an investigation of that liminal state, questioning the paradoxical place at the intersection of longing and belonging, interior and exterior, rootedness and uprootedness. Through a collection of short essays that accompany projects, I seek to unpack the precarious emotional complexities that …

Moretheless, Abdelghani Alnahawi

Masters Theses

material investigations becoming questions with interjections

From John Street To Union, Andrew Shea

Masters Theses

I have been making paintings constructed loosely from my experience of walking about one mile each morning from my apartment in Fox Point to my studio in downtown Providence, and of walking back each night. My goal is to rediscover the feeling of these outdoor places—their lights, atmospheres, colors, and topographies—through the process of painting inside the studio. As such, the visual representations of these paintings are not straight-forward and objective, but oblique and affective.

I hope that these works draw one’s attention to the idiosyncrasies of natural life and to the particularities of weather. I want the paintings to …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Norteada- En Busca De Un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals And The Negotiation Of Space., Kimberly Ayala Najera

Masters Theses

ACT 1

The symbiotic relationship between the turtle and butterfly through lachryphagy, where the butterfly gathers nutrients through drinking the tears of the turtle, brings us to an abandoned turtle shell, our site of exploration. Our turtle friend has long since passed, leaving behind an empty shell that’s become developed and inhabited.

En nuestro analisis de border, to borderland, we arrive at border creep. Border creep, o la fluencia de la frontera, perpetua la tierra fronteriza mas alla y se convierte en una experiencia encarnada.

“Soy una tortuga donde quiera que vaya llevo a casa en mi espalda.”

-Gloria Anzaldua, …

Access In Ambiguity, Moritz Lónyay

Masters Theses

The wealth of color present in nature has long been a major source of inspiration for works of art and design. Yet as more species become extinct due to habitat loss, climate change and unchecked hunting, will we face a less colorful, more monotonous future? How will this impact art and design and how could either be utilized as tools to counteract the loss of color? This thesis speculates upon such a future by the sixth wave of mass extinction and instigates a movement that celebrates color. Growing up in the Anthropocene, the first geological epoch in which human existence …

Mini Makers: Designing Curriculum For Community-Based Arts Education, Hayden Goldberg

Masters Theses

This work serves as documentation of my experience planning and teaching classes for a Rhode Island based after school visual arts pro- gram. Through arts-based action research, I explore methods of documentation and material exploration in order to create an adaptive, emergent curriculum that is responsive to a community-oriented arts education setting.

Step 10, Jinhong Cai

Masters Theses

Step 10 is an experiment on provoking empathy through

abstracted elements within my studio practice. I am

proposing to craft an emotional piece without leaning

on my identity. This written thesis consists of two parts:

narrative prose and an explanation of my studio practice.

While the installation is entirely devoid of cultural or

personal references, this text-based thesis is full of them

because it is intended to inform whoever is interested in

learning more about the motive behind this creation.

The questions I bought into the thought and creation

process are: Can a piece of art still successfully bring

out …

Spaces Of Wait And Their Weight, Eman Alhashemi

Masters Theses

i have been exploring, researching and observing what influences affect a space within the traditions, rituals, food, thoughts and behavior. what happens when that space of comfort disappears and changes? through a series of work that waits, melts, merges, and exaggerates in am attempt to find its place. as i borrow objects and movements from daily life observing my surroundings and extracting mundane things that take on different forms whether exaggerated or unidentifiable. this recent culmination of work over the two years at risd look at objects and spaces of waiting, discomfort, longing and sharing. our behavior is affected by …

Migratory Material: Epigenetics & Weaving At The Us-Mexico Border, Valerie Navarrete

Masters Theses

Discourse often sutures the body shut, disallowing representations of identity to outgrow sociopolitical interests. This issue may originate from borders, but also from the unnamable pathology that generational colonial trauma transmits to the mind, body, and environment. Without a direct form of translatability, this thesis proposes a new materialism that deviates from any object-oriented ontology. Untethered and intra-active, epigenetics and weaving represent objects that transform typical ways of knowing and seeing. Their sensitivity to the environment, in addition to their mobility across generations of time, broaden the spatiotemporal loci of the body and its embodiment. Proposing new materials that expand …

Flores, Rigoberto Flores

Masters Theses

My name is Rigoberto Flores and I was born in Guerrero, Mexico. The work I make involves politics, immigration, cartel violence and religious themes. I’m interested in presenting these challenging and difficult concepts, to have them remain in the public consciousness. The work I produce involve charcoal drawings, textiles, print, and painting. The work I create is intended to address inconstancies in established ideas, usually involving government violence. Throughout history art has been used to promote institutional propaganda. I am searching to do the same, but to oppose those structures.

Recipes For Building Relationships, Adriana Lintz

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the history of women's access to education and the issues of gender disparity in education. I focus on single-gendered schools as I write from personal experience to describe the benefits for individuals in single-gender educational systems. I cite conflicting research on how men and women learn regarding biological, cognitive, and developmental differences. I illuminate some of the benefits of single-gendered education through research, experience, and personal communications. I write about the controversies and disparities regarding education and single-gender schools. I document research on the issues women face in education and the politics of women’s bodies and minds …

Using Video Storytelling To Transform The Consumer Narrative Of Fashion Into One Of Caretaking: A First Step Towards A Sustainable Fashion Industry, Piumi De Alwis

Masters Theses

This study speaks about today’s apparel industry run by the consumption based “consumer narrative” and will introduce a sustainable alternative of “caretaker narrative,” a consumer oriented way of being to combat toxic practices in the apparel industry. Meanwhile on the other hand in today’s day and age video storytelling is getting extremely popular in the media we daily consume. This study examines how to effectively use video storytelling to popularize the sustainable practice of the “caretaker narrative” in society.

Queen Reine And Her Mortal Soup, Deanne Fernandes, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

The Aesthetics Of Decay, Ophelia Arc, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

A Symphony Of Contemplation, Shiyan Zhu, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

Belly Of The Beast, Olivia Bartsch, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

HONORABLE MENTION | $100 Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

In The Air 2023, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

In the Air was a community-based photography and poetry zine that was designed to reflect student experiences and build community across majors on campus. The first and only issue is divided into four chapters that contain creative writing and student artwork: To Be in Love, School(ed), Observations, and Life.

V.1 Spring 2023, 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 2023 issue contains articles on storytelling, mapmaking, the instagram account @tihngs, a reception at the RISD Museum for artist Adam Silverman, the Battambang Market, technological transcendence, fairy tales and Kara Walker, artistic processes of grad students, David Hammons' piece Rock Head, developments in higher education, a platform used by a THAD class, and other student creative writing.

9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Contest 2023, Special Collections, Fleet Library

9th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2023

9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, March 02, 2023, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Andre Lee Bassuet.

Saturn’S Rings, Rebecca Wilkinson, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

Direction, Haimeng Ge, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

I Looked & Looked, Magali Duzant, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

64 unnumbered pages : color illustrations. "This hardcover edition is published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the love letters exchanged between Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz on September 25, 1923."-- bibliographic "Notes" page verso of colophon page. ""... artist book borrows its title from a love letter that Alfred Stieglitz wrote to Georgia O'Keeffe on the night of September 25, 1923. In his letter, Stieglitz describes a full, white moon over Lake George, New York. On the same night, O'Keeffe penned a description of a pink moon, as witnessed from the shore of York Beach, Maine. Inspired by the …

When Eye Land, Star Feliz, Manuel Arturo Abreu, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

156 unnumbered pages : illustrations (some mounted color), facsimiles, maps, plates. "Published as part of Printed Matter's Emerging Artists Publication Series. First edition of 800 copies ""Printed Matter is pleased to publish When Eye Land, a new artists' book by Star Feliz. The project builds on Feliz's research-based installation work, wading into memory, intimacy, and the ancestral past to explore how the legacy of colonialism has shaped the national identity of the Dominican Republic. What gets left behind when identity and belonging is removed from a relationship to land and spirit, shaped instead within the white European patriarchal imagination? How …

Viajes : Peru 1973-74, Ed Grazda, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

22 unnumbered pages : chiefly illustrations. "Edition: 300 copies. ""17 B&W photographs, Printed in New York, March 2023""--colophon. Includes three lines of text from, ""Los rios profundos"" by José María Arguedas. Pamphlet stitch. Gift of the Grazda. RISD Alumnus, Photo, BFA 1969."