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Articles 1 - 30 of 71
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Interpreting The War Anew: An Appraisal Of Richmond’S Civil War Centennial Commemoration, Brandon Butterworth
Interpreting The War Anew: An Appraisal Of Richmond’S Civil War Centennial Commemoration, Brandon Butterworth
Theses and Dissertations
In existence from 1959 to 1965, the Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee was formed for the purpose of planning and executing Richmond’s Civil War centennial commemoration. In this thesis, the author will examine the history of the Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee (RCWCC) and its efforts to develop a new historical narrative of Richmond and the Civil War. This paper will assess Richmond’s previous attempts to commemorate the Civil War and will argue that the RCWCC contributed to the advancement of Richmond’s Civil War narrative by de-emphasizing past Confederate celebration attempts led by heritage groups and advancing a “reconciliation” narrative. …
Art Criticism, Scholarly Interpretation, And Curatorial Intent: A Reassessment Of The 1998 Jackson Pollock Retrospective At The Museum Of Modern Art, Andrea Alvarez
Theses and Dissertations
In 1998, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective exhibition of artworks by Jackson Pollock. Curators Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel worked in an art historical context that had been significantly shaped by the early critical writings by Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. The curators’ stated intention for the exhibition installation was to provide “a fresh chance for new generations of artists to come to terms with a legendary figure” and to enable “the broader public to reassess a quintessentially American artist in light of three decades of new scholarship,” without “ hewing to any particular critical dogma.” Despite …
Performing Taboo: The Creation Of An Aesthetic Through The Exploration Of Censorship In Theatre And The Challenges Of Directing Killer Joe, David Todd Zimmerman
Performing Taboo: The Creation Of An Aesthetic Through The Exploration Of Censorship In Theatre And The Challenges Of Directing Killer Joe, David Todd Zimmerman
Theses and Dissertations
This document explores the performance of taboo on the stage. The exploration is focused around the establishment of my personal aesthetic, which was developed through my studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Starting with my first trip to Broadway, my journey goes through the class work that I did at VCU and the two plays that I did on the Shafer Street Alliance Laboratory Theatre stage: my performance and use of latex costumes in Funnyhouse of a Negro, and my direction and the troubles with producing Killer Joe. The exploration concludes with a look at the theatre in parts of Virginia …
Uwspółcześnienie: The Contemporization Of Polish Education, Politics, And Society In The Enlightenment Period, Holly Dzwilefsky
Uwspółcześnienie: The Contemporization Of Polish Education, Politics, And Society In The Enlightenment Period, Holly Dzwilefsky
Theses and Dissertations
UWSPÓŁCZEŚNIENIE: THE CONTEMPORIZATION OF POLISH EDUCATION, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD examines the contemporization of educational, governmental, and societal structures that occurred in eighteenth-century Poland. Italian educational models and English governmental models influenced the development of Poland’s structures since the fourteenth century. The introduction and pervasiveness of Sarmatism in szlachta culture during the fifteenth century created the foundation for the szlachta democracy. Continued interference from neighboring rulers coupled with the erosion of educational standards inside Poland contributed to the szlachta’s susceptibility to corruption, which resulted in non-functioning government. Following the Partition of 1772, the Poles employed the assistance …
‘Some Can’T Be That Simple’: Flannery O’Connor’S Debt To French Symbolism, Evan Howell
‘Some Can’T Be That Simple’: Flannery O’Connor’S Debt To French Symbolism, Evan Howell
Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis, I trace the influence of French Symbolist poetry on the works of Flannery O’Connor. Many of O’Connor’s influences are well-known and documented, including Catholicism, the South, modern fiction, and her battle with lupus. However, I argue that Symbolism, via its influence on Modernist literature, is another major influence. In particular, I focus on several aspects of O’Connor’s writing: the recurrence of the same symbol across multiple works, the central location of symbols in several stories, the use of private symbols of the author’s invention, and use of symbol, rather than language, to convey transcendence. Aided by the …
Spanish, Nahua, And Maya Narratives On The 1585 Relación Geográfica Map Of Santiago Atitlán, Kaitlan Smith
Spanish, Nahua, And Maya Narratives On The 1585 Relación Geográfica Map Of Santiago Atitlán, Kaitlan Smith
Theses and Dissertations
The 1585 Relación Geográfica Map of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala gives scholars a rare glimpse of sixteenth- century southern Guatemala. The map displays the use of Spanish, Nahua, and Maya perspectives. The coexistence of indigenous Nahua versus Spanish or European iconographies and narratives is a theme constantly explored in the studies of the Relaciones Geográficas maps. However, the opposition of two different indigenous narratives and iconographies, as well as Spanish, is not. This project examines the convergences and conflicts among these narratives and iconographies as evidenced on the map and in the accompanying text. The individual discussion of each narrative is …
Between Floors: The Ups And Downs Of Mediated Narrative, Melinda White
Between Floors: The Ups And Downs Of Mediated Narrative, Melinda White
Theses and Dissertations
“Between Floors: The Ups and Downs of Mediated Narrative” and the accompanying creative remediation project, “Between Floors: Love and Other Blood Related Diseases,” meld theory and practice of print with electronic literature and installation art. I argue that as the medium changes, the narrative is transformed. The narrative can be reconstructed and pieced together as the reader or viewer becomes increasingly involved, even embodied within the work. This embodiment is what Nathaniel Stern calls “Moving and thinking and feeling” (1) and can result in a more direct emotional experience. The form, structure, and medium (sjužet) rely on authorial intention, yet …
Eastern Shore Stories: Technology, Place, And Local Culture, Patricia Bloxom
Eastern Shore Stories: Technology, Place, And Local Culture, Patricia Bloxom
Theses and Dissertations
The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a narrow peninsula separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Residents of the rural counties of Accomack and Northampton County share a strong sense of cultural identity based on geography, rooted in a distinct communal sense of place reinforced by an agricultural lifestyle. Storytelling around dinner tables and on front porches at dusk, speeches at high school graduations, family recipes talked through in a grandmother’s kitchen – it is through oral language that Eastern Shore people have primarily shared the knowledge that sustains their sense of communal identity. Oral knowledge of farming techniques …
The Unclothed Body In Francisco Goya's The Disasters Of War, Elizabeth Sanderford
The Unclothed Body In Francisco Goya's The Disasters Of War, Elizabeth Sanderford
Theses and Dissertations
Francisco Goya (1746-1828) created a series of prints entitled The Disasters of War (1810-1820) (Los Desastres de la Guerra) depicting the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, the famine that subsequently occurred in Madrid, and symbolic representations similar to his print series Los Caprichos (1797-1799). This thesis will consider Goya’s use of the unclothed human body in his series of prints The Disasters of War. This thesis will place these representations within the contexts of other works produced by Goya that portray the unclothed figures, as well as within the Spanish artistic tradition of Goya’s time. Through this investigation, I will situate …
A Tiffany Window In The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts And The Patronage Of The Saunders Family Of Richmond, Joshua Kline
A Tiffany Window In The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts And The Patronage Of The Saunders Family Of Richmond, Joshua Kline
Theses and Dissertations
The aim of this research is to present an important but forgotten Tiffany interior, that of All Saints Episcopal Church, and focuses on the source for the Saunders memorial window, Christ Resurrection. After portraying the Saunders Family and the context of the window and church interior as an important part of Richmond’s history, this thesis sets up a number of inquiries regarding Christ Resurrection. What are the literary sources; what are the formal sources, from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century; and what is the meaning of the composition? This thesis utilizes an art historical method of archival, connoisseurial, …
I Am Error, Nathan Altice
I Am Error, Nathan Altice
Theses and Dissertations
I Am Error is a platform study of the Nintendo Family Computer (or Famicom), a videogame console first released in Japan in July 1983 and later exported to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES). The book investigates the underlying computational architecture of the console and its effects on the creative works (e.g. videogames) produced for the platform. I Am Error advances the concept of platform as a shifting configuration of hardware and software that extends even beyond its ‘native’ material construction. The book provides a deep technical understanding of how the platform was programmed …
The “Man Walks Outside Time Now”: Verbal Representations Of Photographic Images In The Poems Of Larry Levis, Lauren Miner
The “Man Walks Outside Time Now”: Verbal Representations Of Photographic Images In The Poems Of Larry Levis, Lauren Miner
Theses and Dissertations
The poet Larry Levis often employed ekphrasis as an elegiac device—particularly with his verbal descriptions of photographic images—to explore human suffering and reconcile feelings of loss. Through the ekphrastic mode, Levis could juxtapose otherwise disparate images, manipulating their temporal and spatial relationships, to achieve what he conceived an authentic portrait of the human experience. The poet, through his verbal descriptions of photographic images, does not try to evade the pain or joy of being human; instead, he confronts his grief directly and, in so doing, transcends that suffering to better understand himself and his own human position. This thesis analyzes …
White, Black, And Blue: The Battle Over Black Police, Professionalization, And Police Brutality In Birmingham, Alabama, 1963-1979, Bryan Kessler
White, Black, And Blue: The Battle Over Black Police, Professionalization, And Police Brutality In Birmingham, Alabama, 1963-1979, Bryan Kessler
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores the municipal politics and race relations in Birmingham, Alabama, from October 1963 to November 1979. While Birmingham is a centerpiece of the traditional Civil Rights Movement for its staging of the Bull Connor and Martin Luther King, Jr., confrontation in 1963, there has been little examination of the continuing struggles between the black and white communities in the years after the media spotlight. Of particular concern are the battles between the black community, white power structure, and the city’s police department over black policemen, professionalization and modernization, and police brutality. The changing role and tactics of black …
The Anatomy Of Expression: Explorations On The Intersection Of Acting And The Alexander Technique, Kelley Schoger
The Anatomy Of Expression: Explorations On The Intersection Of Acting And The Alexander Technique, Kelley Schoger
Theses and Dissertations
The aim of this paper is to illuminate how the principles of the Alexander Technique and the role of bodily systems can serve as a foundational support for actor training. Inclusion of the Alexander Technique in the acting curriculum proves to be an effective tool for bridging the gap between kinesthetic learning and its application to beginning acting training. Starting with the nervous system, the operating principles of the Alexander Technique are discussed through research and personal insights. Next, in light of how self-discovery plays a key role in the first year of actor training, the idea of release in …
Whiff Of Black Ice, Alina Tenser
Whiff Of Black Ice, Alina Tenser
Theses and Dissertations
This document is a concentration of thoughts, peripheral and direct, that occurred around the making of my thesis exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, Whiff Of Black Ice. While these thoughts meekly occupy space on the following pages, I assure the reader that they are quite physical, even extending three-dimensionality to them. My awareness of their form and their containment within the inner space of the mind, which also extends to the body, becomes central to understanding their meaning and, finally, knowing them.
Reflections Of Self, Melissa Athey
Reflections Of Self, Melissa Athey
Theses and Dissertations
I vacillate between all extremes, beauty vs. ugly, internal vs. external, micro vs. macro. It is these disparate notions that inspire what I make. We cannot ever see ourselves objectively, but does that mean we shouldn’t try? This thesis is my attempt to dissect what I created in my 2 years at Virginia Commonwealth University, my exploration of the illness within and the psychological nature of how we go about hiding our insecurities.
Artist Alien Ghost Juggler: Performance Of “Troilus And Cressida” As Graduate Thesis, Vladislav Smolkin
Artist Alien Ghost Juggler: Performance Of “Troilus And Cressida” As Graduate Thesis, Vladislav Smolkin
Theses and Dissertations
Through an analysis of my adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida”, I will deconstruct the artist’s studio within an institution as a paradoxical heterotopic space.
Warm Compression – Damp Gestures, Melanie Mclain
Warm Compression – Damp Gestures, Melanie Mclain
Theses and Dissertations
Thoughts on vulnerability, emotions, social interaction, self-awareness, skin, touching, bodily functions, and the combination of all these ideas into a confined space filled with heat and humidity just enough to leave you feeling damp and perhaps a bit sore.
You Can Eat Off The Counter I Wiped It Down This Morning, Jessica Kain
You Can Eat Off The Counter I Wiped It Down This Morning, Jessica Kain
Theses and Dissertations
Alternative to meeting a calculus of quality roundness and curves are everywhere. Peaches, pinks, browns, ochres, greens. Klein Blue. --------- An experiment like a party; the hows and whys of picking bedfellows yields a list of possibilities— iterations of better, advantages in flesh volume. Inventory whittled down to give us stories, aspirations, allegiances. --------- Just to see it and touch it. Build in different ways, depending. Grow, cover, carve, cast—let for flexibility. Limbs in one direction sawed off, turned round, glued back on. If it looks like two more ways of how I want it there’s more work to be …
Freedom Of Interpretation, Georgi Ivanov
Freedom Of Interpretation, Georgi Ivanov
Theses and Dissertations
The photographic series Ideal Cities that I started in 2011 is inspired by the conflict between my idea of the “west” and my evolving experience in the United States. What struck me was the popularity of what I see as model experience – a spatial experience controlled by the Spectacle. In the terms of the Situationist International and its most prominent figure Guy Debord, the Spectacle is the collapse of reality into the streams of images, products and activities sanctioned by centralized monopolist business or state bureaucracy. Thus, personal experience is replaced with preconceived notions, which control the way people …
In Tub And Wig Out, Ryan Crowley
In Tub And Wig Out, Ryan Crowley
Theses and Dissertations
Using short stories, descriptions of objects and thoughts on process, I aim to establish a few ideas about the way I see and think through making in the studio.
Auto Tune, Dana Ollestad
Auto Tune, Dana Ollestad
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis is an overview of the source material, methodologies, artistic influences, and conceptual decisions that inform my artwork and characterize my art practice. Utilizing participation (audience, community, viewer), I engineer experiences and encounters for the general public. Whether through directed physical interaction or implicit reaction, I create open-ended situations or environments that I may influence, but not fully control. The democratic cede of authorial control, as well as the heightened risk and unpredictably in my work, instigates a more positive, non-hierarchical social model in which every viewer is an “author,” who produces content and communication signals, and has a …
White Sands, Laura Vitale
White Sands, Laura Vitale
Theses and Dissertations
I’ve constructed a narrative thread that connects experiences, events, and artworks made during my time in graduate school. This narrative, which has the perspective of time, betrays the firsthand experience of wayfaring through the projects and places I describe. The narrative loosens as it approaches the present moment. Rather than to arrive at any conclusions, my goal for creating this narrative is to understand a tension between expectations: of systematic rationality and subjective knowledge, of play and display. I understand that my work productively fails to r-r-resolve contradictions about the way things are.
(Un)Veiled: An Examination Of Conscience, April Dauscha
(Un)Veiled: An Examination Of Conscience, April Dauscha
Theses and Dissertations
I use the body to investigate the ideas of morality, mourning and mortification. I look towards costume history, traditional Catholic rituals and themes in 19th century literature to feed my obsession with transformation, reconciliation and communication through dress. My making focuses on feminine objects and materials. Lace, veils, undergarments and hair adornment speak not only of womanhood, but also of the duality of human nature. Lace speaks of purity and sexuality, it reveals and conceals, it is humble, yet gluttonous in its ornamental overindulgence; lace is the ultimate dichotomy. I use it as a potent symbol to represent the duality …
Display, Baldwin Amanda
Display, Baldwin Amanda
Theses and Dissertations
I will discuss six art works that have a range of characteristics, but can all be unified through the notion of surface, both physically and conceptually. I will investigate how ideas of taste, assumption, collage, façade, figure/ground, display and value can all be seen through this lens. Much significance and symbolism is imbued in such a thin layer and I am actively aware of this as I work. The way I construct and render my subjects and the space in which they reside determines how they are viewed, perceived, considered, and judged by others.
Reflections On Sexuality, Sensuality, And Painting, Loie Hollowell
Reflections On Sexuality, Sensuality, And Painting, Loie Hollowell
Theses and Dissertations
The written component of my thesis will take the form of an extended artist statement in which I discuss all six paintings included in my thesis exhibition. A major theme of my work is sexuality, specifically female sexuality. This thesis will begin by looking at the three miniature paintings that spearheaded the investigation of this theme. I will examine the generalized and personal feminist symbolism that these paintings contain. The two works that followed the miniatures are depictions of sexual interactions between my husband and myself. I will explain the significance of my depictions and relate them to the work …
The Dragons In Your Dreams, Jacquelyn Walther
The Dragons In Your Dreams, Jacquelyn Walther
Theses and Dissertations
What if every craving that you ever felt stayed with you forever? Suppose facades couldn’t exist, and what should only be the deepest, densest core of a desire was formed into a mass, a body. Its will matching yours in its physical presence. I make creatures that are embodiments of emotions. In this study I mainly focus on desires and inhibitions surrounding romance. I explore anatomical structures and how material make-up can directly reflect emotional character. In this exploration, the materiality of clay allows for a thorough manipulation of the composition of the creatures. In this I am also able …
Reckless Hope, Jesse Potts
Reckless Hope, Jesse Potts
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis is an approximation of several years spent in the studio. It represents an equitable exercise of memory and speculation.
The Three Principles (For -2012), Nikolai Noel
The Three Principles (For -2012), Nikolai Noel
Theses and Dissertations
Utilizing alchemy as an allegory for the political, social, cultural history and present of the Caribbean, I discuss critical themes, approaches, methodologies their development, application and evidence in my thinking and art practice.
Stepping Into The World Of The Vocal Coach: Assessing Vocal Coaching Needs, Renina Hoblitz
Stepping Into The World Of The Vocal Coach: Assessing Vocal Coaching Needs, Renina Hoblitz
Theses and Dissertations
There are many excellent books detailing methods to help actors develop their voices, but not much has been published about vocal coaching itself, apart from the definitive guide to Vocal Coaching Nan-Withers Wilson’s book Vocal Direction for the Theatre, and the highly informative publication How to Use a Vocal Coach: A Practical Guide for Directors prepared by Nancy Houfek, for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association (VASTA). This thesis documents my personal journey into the world of vocal coaching in five productions. Specifically, I explore the differences between vocal coaching in the university setting versus the professional theatre setting. I …