Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Grammar Of Signwriting, Stuart M. Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations

Signed languages have not enjoyed the benefits of writing for lack of an effective writing system. Writing systems designed for spoken languages are not easily adaptable to signed languages because signed languages are not based on sound. A successful writing system for sign languages must convey a different set of articulators, namely the configurations and movements of the hands, head, and body to convey meaning. This necessarily means that writing systems for signed languages must find a way to express those articulators, reducing a three-dimensional event to a written representation.

One such writing system is SignWriting, a system developed by …

A Systematic Analysis Of Risks To Adolescent Vocal Health, Debra P. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze risks that threaten adolescent vocal health. Qualitative interviews revealed risks associated with vocal over-use, lack of scientific vocal pedagogy, poor tonal ideals, inadequate choral procedures, and vocal difficulties in high school musical theater productions. Anonymous student surveys (N=60) from two rural high schools in West Georgia revealed over-use and lack of knowledge about chest voice singing as risky to adolescent vocal health. Anonymous choral director surveys (N=2) from the same high schools indicated that choral directors may be uncomfortable teaching chest voice production, allowing students to use their chest voice …

Place Removed: A Study Of Authenticity In Remote Locations, Emily Shea Beck

Theses and Dissertations

Richmond, Virginia has, through recent design proposals and projects, sought reconciliation with the countries in West Africa that were once the source for slave trade in which the city was such an active participant. These admirable works address the nations’ shared history, perhaps at the expense of understanding modern cultures. This thesis seeks to create this understanding through the development of an educational facility that would interact with Richmond’s current landscape. In pursuit of respectful relationship, I address the ways in which design can authentically teach about place. The study begins with the creation of a personal understanding of site …

Richmond River Center: Condensing A Line To A Point, Connecting A Narrative To A Moment, Angela Roy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the integration of the built environment into an existing extrinsic experience. It considers how a place can become incorporated into a series of experiences in nature, while still maintaining it’s integrity as a singular space. It questions how the lines between nature and interior can be blurred, and how responses to essential existing conditions can provide a coalesced experience.

The Resemblance Of Condensation, An Unstable Love Affair With The Past And Present, Courtney Dodd

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis, Condensation, is centered on seeing and the limits of our perceptions. I’m interested in the psychological and emotional effects of visual phenomena and am exploring this area through glass’s ability to reflect and obscure. I’m also experimenting with photography because it’s simply documentation of reflection. The solidity of reflection whether on glass, photography, or water is something that I’m questioning. The viewer assumes its physicality, but what we accept as conclusive is at times a construct. The palpability of reflection then disintegrates into the residue of sight. I’ve been contemplating our eyes perceptual limits and what our mind …

Can Interior Design Erase Architecture? The Integration Of A Pet Care Facility Into The Fan, Erin Brunner

Theses and Dissertations

Many urban pet care and boarding facilities tend to rest on the outskirts of the community, in quasi-industrial and commercial areas. Far from the homes of the people who would use their services, the locations of these facilities are inconvenient for most. Students and the employed have trouble making time in their hectic schedules to give their pets the attention and activity they need to be healthy, and often, pets are left alone, sedentary, for a substantial portion of the day. But what if there was a pet care facility that was within walking distance from home that could provide …

The Answer To A Maiden’S Prayer: Homer Cummings And The Origins Of The 1937 Court Packing Plan, Jason Carmichael

Theses and Dissertations

On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt submitted to Congress “The Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1937,” often simply called the Court-packing bill. The president hoped to circumvent the Court, which for years had been overturning New Deal programs, by appointing six new justices. However, the bill disguised its true intentions behind a veil of improving judicial efficiency. This misdirection backfired; the bill failed and Roosevelt’s popularity plummeted just months after a landslide reelection. This thesis examines the origins of the infamous Court-packing bill. It argues that Roosevelt was largely a background figure in the development of the plan, as he …

Fixed + Flexible: A Mixed-Use Celebration Of Richmond's Creative Culture, Kate Magee

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-use space was designed to celebrate Richmond, Virginia’s arts and design communities. By creating a contemporary Richmond experience in a historic trolley shed, it is a space to create, relax, and inspire. This dynamic platform will showcase Richmond’s talented new creatives, from painters and sculptors to fashion designers and graphic artists. A central retail space featuring the wares of local designers is adjoined by an exclusive art gallery with exhibitions and live performances that change on a regular basis. The space also includes a sit-down restaurant and a smaller, more casual café, where patrons can dine with friends or …

Elizabeth Catlett's I Am The Negro Woman: Emerging From The Margins, Margaret Gottwald

Theses and Dissertations

This art historiographical study focuses on African American artist Elizabeth Catlett’s linocut series I Am the Negro Woman, composed of fifteen images and executed in 1947 while Catlett was a visiting artist at the Taller de Graphica Popular in Mexico City. The series was exhibited shortly thereafter at the Barnett Aden Gallery in Washington, D.C., only to be largely marginalized by the art historical discourse of the following twenty-five years; however, during the Civil Rights Movement, a renewed interest in Catlett and her works began to develop. Later Feminist and Post-colonial art historians, seeking to widen the narrow mid-twentieth century …

Boutique Hotel: Telling A Story Of Place Through Design, Lauren Miller

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most exciting aspects of traveling is the ability to, for a short time, experience what life is like in a different part of the world. Whether traveling fifty miles away from home or to another continent, cultures, landscapes, and the many nuances of day-to-day life change. The beauty of travel comes from curiosity, exploration, and discovery. It’s that moment when your heart skips a beat and your mind fills with pure delight because you’ve just discovered something new about the world that you never knew before. Another part of the traveling experience is having a place to …

Salinger And The Phases Of War, Johnson Elizabeth Downing

Theses and Dissertations

A study of the phases of war present in Salinger's stories - "The Hang of It," "Personal Notes of an Infantryman," "Soft Boiled Sergeant," "Last Day of the Last Furlough," "Once a Week Won't Kill You," A Boy in France," "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise," "The Stranger," "A Young Girl in 1941 With No Waist at All," "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "A Girl I Knew," "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," and "For Esme - With Love and Squalor." The role of war in each of these stories follows a cycle that reflects Salinger's own war experience, as well as the …

Rebonding Anomic Communities With Theatre Of The Oppressed, Amanda Hauman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores whether Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) can help anomic communities, affected by deindustrialization and globalization, in the U.S. Midwest, specifically looking at Saginaw, MI. After presenting a paper at the American Symposium for Theatre Research (ASTR) conference in 2009, the author attended a Theatre of the Oppressed facilitator training in Port Townsend, WA under the direction of Marc Weinblatt. She then conducted her own Theatre of the Oppressed workshop in Saginaw, MI to analyze the abilities of Theatre of the Oppressed in an anomic community. Each experience is detailed and followed by the author’s conclusions …

Epicuria: The Dichotomy Of Richmond's Urban And Suburban Landscape In A Market Environment, Kate Canale

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the dichotomy of Richmond’s suburban and urban environments within a market environment. In our quest to make our lives more convenient, we have moved outside of cities, increased commutes and cut ourselves off from one another. Ultimately we have lowered our standards of quality in food, products and services by allowing big retailers and chain restaurants to determine a new standard of living. The goal of this works is to create a food hall and market environment that will act as a catalyst to improve the quality of life of Richmonders as well as to draw residents …

Ensemble Rehearsal Practices: The Evolution And Application Of Rehearsal Technique As Explored In Harold Pinter’S Betrayal, Wilson Kerry Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations

Three years ago, Bonnie Gabel and I started an ensemble theatre company called Night Light Collective (NLC). Our company was inspired by the work of Anne Bogart and the Dah Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. We used many of their techniques and exercises to develop a rehearsal process that would help our ensemble connect to each other as well as contribute to the artistic direction of our productions. In the fall of 2010, I directed Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. I used the rehearsal practices that we developed with NLC and created a few of my own. This thesis documents the evolution of …

The Konami Code: An Experiment In Dialect Pedagogy, Thomas Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

The Konami Code is a tool for teaching stage dialects that I have been developing for the past three years. I wanted a method that didn’t rely on students’ having a keen ear for phonetics; rather one that offered context for each dialect, and presented individual sound-changes as small parts of an easy way to digest the whole. Most importantly, I wanted a process that was portable: a set series of applications that my students could incorporate easily into their actor’s tool-kit and carry with them into the professional world. The Konami Code incorporates kinesthetic and imaginative elements into the …

Spatial Parameters In Therapeutic Spaces: Design Of A Residential Treatment Facility For Eating Disorder Patients, Sarah Beth Basinger

Theses and Dissertations

Can the built environment positively influence the treatment of an eating disorder? Does the built environment play a role in the quality of care, the rehabilitation process and the lasting affects of treatment in eating disorders and if so, what role does it play? What are the important parameters to consider in designing such a space? Currently there are few facilities designed specifically for the treatment of this disorder. Of those facilities, there is a lack of research regarding the effects of the built environment. Therefore, the process of answering these questions must begin by assessing parameters in architectural precedents …

Parasitic Interiors, Michael Kanasink

Theses and Dissertations

This project is an experiment in the adaptive reuse of an Art Deco style manufacturing facility in Richmond, VA. The building has fallen into disrepair and has been inhabited by two different owners over the years, but the structure remains very much as it did when it was erected in 1946. I will propose adapting to the defunct space, a forward thinking school based on hands-on, creative learning. This school will challenge accepted pedagogies and serve as an exapmple of future learning. I have always looked as adaptive reuse interior design as a parasitic form of designing. The new program …

Connecting One And Many - Reinventing The Procession Of The Cinema Experience, Kelly H. Sekely

Theses and Dissertations

In the past, going to the movies was an event. The grand lit marquee made a statement, ushering you inside. The elaborately decorated lobby transported you to a place in your dreams where riches and opulence abound. The curtained screen marked the start of a true storied spectacle as you sat close to your friends and neighbors dressed in their Sunday best. There was no denying that the cinema was the place to see, be seen and to socialize. In contrast, today’s movie-going can be classified as more of a singular experience. You wait in long, solemn cattle lines to …

Resolution, Jason Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an exploration of the concepts and motivations behind the video installation and performance that made up my MFA Thesis Exhibition. My primary interest as a filmmaker is in the “invisible art” of editing. In my practice I employ iconic imagery such as old home movies and classic Hollywood films, as my source material. This “found footage” is deconstructed, drastically altered, and reassembled into a new movie that tells my story while still maintaining the memory of the original images. My process and philosophy concerning the salvage and repurposing of video is analyzed and discussed. I also examine …

Planting: One Director's Approach To Cultivating And Nurturing Within A Female Ensemble, Erin Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

A director, just like a pastry chef, must be delicate. Actors are fragile, fearful human beings. And just like a pie crust requires the perfect balance of water and flour, an actor requires a similar balance in both comfort and companionship. Eryn Snyder worked for three months to create a space where her actors could live freely in the world of the characters. With a cast of four, rehearsals were intimate, demanding, and playful. Theatre requires a director to lay down the sort of soil that encourages growth. It nurtures, it listens, it plays, and it asks questions. A director’s …

Alice Brill's Sao Paulo Photographs: A Cross-Cultural Reading, Danielle Jean Hurd

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I consider the influence of Alice Brill's transnational background on her photographs of 1950s São Paulo. Brill was born in 1920 to a Jewish-German family. In 1934 she immigrated to São Paulo where she involved herself in local artistic circles. From 1946-47 she received a grant to study at the University of New Mexico and with the Art Students League in New York. Brill learned photography during her time in the United States, hoping to create documentary photo-essays in Brazil which she could send to American illustrated magazines. None of Brillss works were published in the United …

On Things And Margins, Will Machin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration into an alternate ground for discourse. It is an exploration of the edges of the possibilities of words, the centers of margins, and the question of the lives of objects in this time of abundant cast-offs. The truths and limits of an emerging globalized multi-polarity of culture, are put in play. The secret lives of things are brought into the same room as words. The potential for radical landscape is considered.

Mapping The Distant, Llorens Ana Esteve

Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis presents several approaches through art making to deal with light and space and other things, and the relations that their interaction may generate

Embody - Encode, Mary Catherine Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

According to Walter Murch, sound designer, “The clearest example of encoded sound is speech. The clearest example of embodied sound is music.” In image, object and performance I have been exploring the embodiment of the encoded through the graphic representation of symbols (illustrate), the manifestation of symbols through material construction (embody), the activation of symbolized meaning though performance (enact), and the dematerialization of form and democratic dispersal of information through shared experience (engage). This methodological approach aims to transform metaphysics into physical being as a mode for researching energetics and abstract communication by bringing theory into practice where it can …

The Anxious Fields Of Play, Luther Kroman

Theses and Dissertations

I see myself as a maker. Most of what I do is make paintings, but to define myself as a painter puts other projects at a critical disadvantage, labeling them as “side projects.” Robert Morris once said that although visually his work may vary a great deal, he felt the ideas flowed throughout the work. I like this idea. The role of the studio and the idea of play as both diligent investigation and a way of playing a game with the viewer is part of what I will discuss. In addition, I use game spaces as a surrogate to …

Based On A True Story, Mary Elkins

Theses and Dissertations

Trying to remember is a form of forgetting. Memory fades, changes meaning, and disappears over time. While trying to find other ways to preserve stories about my family, it occurred to me that I could recreate what I remember in clay. I am creating collections of physical mementos of the memories that fill my head, focusing mainly on my childhood. Remembering is in itself an act of forgetting, and thus this is my memory preservation kit. I am recording memories of my family for posterity in clay before I have a chance to forget.

Speaking Subjects: Beckett’S Not I, Rushdie’S The Satanic Verses, And Coetzee’S Foe, Jake Khoury

Theses and Dissertations

In repositioning Beckett’s Not I in relation to Rushdie and Coetzee, I show that The Satanic Verses and Foe suggest approaches to language similar to Beckett’s play, insofar as each text interrogates the ability of the marginalized speaking subject to maintain control of his or her voice, finding that the speaking subject’s voice is constantly infused with the voices of others. Additionally, I demonstrate Beckett’s relevance to the postcolonial environment and delineate convergences and divergences in how Rushdie and Coetzee formulate the voices, bodies, and identities of marginalized and postcolonial speaking subjects.

Rewrite, Jamie Lawyer

Theses and Dissertations

“Rewrite” is a photographic project that utilizes the domesstic space as a stage for emotional projection of a traumatic memory. The work considers the relationship that exists between an individual and the rooms and objects within a home space in an attempt at understanding an individual’s mental state. “Rewrite” explores the ways in which we exist through our home and how a juxtaposition of objects and materials can create meaning. The photographs are a visual interpretation of the emotions surrounding sexual abuse/assault/rape as they have related to my own personal history and conversations I have had with women close to …

Judging The Rational And The Dead: Ann Radcliffe And Feminist Theology, Garland Beasley

Theses and Dissertations

“Judging the Rational and the Dead: Ann Radcliffe and Feminist Theology” argues Radcliffe’s first three novels, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789), A Sicilian Romance (1790), and The Romance of the Forest (1791), show a progression of feminist theology informed by the late eighteenth-century British religious movement of Rational Dissent. The thesis attempts to complicate and extend Radcliffe scholarship by moving away from fractured critical discourses and into more cohesive readings of Radcliffe that include feminist and theological interpretations of her work. Of particular interest to the project are Radcliffe’s views on the circumscribed nature of women’s existence within …

Rethinking Success: A Person-Based Approach To Service Learning, Ryan Cales

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the nature of service learning projects that are structured to make interventions in rhetorical spheres and seek to achieve social change on a smaller scale rather striving for grander, or even systemic, change. In structuring community projects that include inherently limited interventions and equally limited goals, I argue that such projects should be open to immediate adjustments within themselves –to abandon any particular form or goal—to satisfy the immediate needs of the individuals served. I draw upon my work with a reintegration program for ex-offenders in Richmond, Virginia called Working with Conviction to help demonstrate that service …