Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Voice From The Dust, Gian Pierotti

Theses and Dissertations

We shall not starve. We shall not lack shelter. We shall have a hearth. Awake self reliance! Our art is for feeding, warmth, protection. Ceramics– our temporal salvation. Clay– our material life-force. Transformed by fire we arise with the skills of the ancients! No longer will we live in obscurity. To the deskilled, your fate is at hand! You have chosen alienation, distraction, banality, and sloth. Embrace your digital false Gods and die or be reborn to the natural physical world. Now, together we complete our reason for being. We create a new world of kinship. A hope for the …

An Artless Dream, Lauren Abrams

Theses and Dissertations

The brain begins collecting and categorizing information from the moment we are born. It can identify patterns and direct our choices long before we are consciously aware of it. Even when we become aware of the deliberate choice we often don’t know why we are making it. It is striking how much of what we do is dictated subconsciously by our brains. While I am not a scientist and I don’t aim to research the brain, I think it is interesting to think about how this effects what I do in the studio. I am a product of the world …

Citizen Journalism: Historical Roots And Contemporary Challenges, Wally Hughes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze what effect, if any, citizen journalism is having on journalism and ethics in today’s society. It starts by examining the role citizen journalism played in the early American colonies to show that the concept of citizen journalism is not new but has played a vital role throughout American history. Next, the focus shifts to the events and reasons that led to the re-emergence of citizen journalism during the past few decades, such as media consolidation and new technology. The thesis then highlights a few of the major issues that surround citizen journalism …

Obituary; 2011-05-10; Gray, Yvette Darcel, Hopewell Baptist Church

Hopewell Baptist Church

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Text Encoding Initiative Projects In Technical Services, Richard Wisneski

Michael Schwartz Library Publications

Presentation on workflows and best practices in performing text encoding work in an academic library technical services department

Piano Showcase, Amira Fulton, Yuka Lu, Tiffany Liu, Molly Iker, Theresa Silveyra, Tamer Edlebi, Johannes Leonard Lohner, Evan Roth, Becki Jenkins, Patrick Gutman, James Higgs, Alphonso Sanchez

Printed Performance Programs (PDF Format)

No abstract provided.

Barry, William Taylor, 1785-1835 (Sc 229), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 229.  Photocopies of two letters by Barry while serving as Postmaster General under President Andrew Jackson.  Letter 27 November 1832 to James K. Polk relates to mail service in Tennessee.  Letter 7 February 1833 to Martin Van Buren concerns national politics. The bulk of the collection is research material, including other correspondence, that was typed or hand copied by J.F. Kany for the master’s thesis he wrote on Barry in 1934.

I Wanna Rock!, Amanda Briede

Theses and Dissertations

Do you know that feeling? That feeling when the music you are listening to a concert or a new record and it just seems right? When you think, that’s it! That’s what music should sound like! When the music seems to touch your soul or mirror it, or…. something. And when you feel that, nothing else seems to exist and you are purely experiencing the music. My thesis work explores the way in which we try to capture this ephemeral moment of pure experience in order to keep it with us to revisit at our leisure. This, however, is a …

Audition Technique: A Survival Guide (For College Undergraduate Students), Meghan Kelleher

Theses and Dissertations

Many great actors don’t work and many mediocre actors do. Why? The perfect monologue and great song isn’t enough to get you hired. Sadly, students are not prepared and equipped with the necessary skill set to take control of their careers. In this economic climate, the ability to audition could not be more imperative. In this thesis, readers will be introduced to the basics of audition technique as developed for Theatre majors at Virginia Commonwealth University as a precursor to their senior year. It will guide them through the first stage of their career. Furthermore, there are unspoken rules, etiquette, …

Meeting Sanford Meisner: An Investigation Of The Origins, Development, And Practical Application Of The Meisner Technique, Mandy Butler

Theses and Dissertations

The Sanford Meisner Technique is among the most mysterious and misunderstood approaches to the craft of acting. Very often, it is taught poorly, incompletely, or even dangerously. Through the exploration of Meisner’s private life, as well as a detailed analysis of his system, this work aims to dispel some of the common misconceptions which plague the Technique and its most fervent supporters. After being made privy to his biography, readers will be taken through Meisner’s foundational exercises, beginning at the first phase of Repetition and ending with the introduction of text. In addition to the descriptions of student responsibilities, the …

The Absent Artist: Muteness And Fiction In Recent Painting, Costa Michael Kennedy

Theses and Dissertations

For the written component of my thesis, I am attempting to make sense of a current strain in contemporary painting which, generally speaking, tends towards reduction, humble materiality, lack of overt, didactic critique, and a scholarly interest in outmoded or overlooked art historical movements and figures. These are tendencies with which, as a painter, I feel both affinities and differences. Rather than rigidly define a “movement,” I will identify prevalent modes but also highlight individual strategies. I will begin by outlining some of the basic, underlying problems in painting today. I will then examine, as case studies, three young painters—Josephine …

Live Attitude, Keith Jason Varadi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis serves as an open-ended document of a young artist attempting to sift through his accumulated opinions in order to figure out what it means to accept complicity in the face of auspicious authority, rapid turnover, and paper-thin irony and nihilism, while still striving to stake a claim at something worth making and defending.

Rotary Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 350), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 350. Items related to the Rotary Club of Bowling Green, Kentucky, as well as Rotary International. The minutes, correspondence, newsletters, resolutions, reports, clippings, and photographs highlight the organization's many years of service projects and civic involvement.

Phelps, Frank M. (Sc 2447), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text letter (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2447. Letter of Frank M. Phelps, serving with a Wisconsin regiment at Camp Abercrombie, Shepherdsville, Kentucky, to his aunt Lydia C. Tibbits in Appleton, Wisconsin. He describes the Shepherdsville area and its connection to Daniel Boone, and discusses investing his soldier's pay.

‘Unkle Sommerset's’ Freedom: Liberty In England For Black Sailors, Charles R. Foy

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

With his 1772 decree in Somerset v. Steuart that slavery was ‘so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it [in England] but positive law’, Lord Mansfield altered the legal landscape regarding black rights in England. While earlier judicial decisions had implied that slaves who came to England were free, prior to the Somerset decision there was no judicial consensus on the issue. The Somerset decision did not decree that slavery was illegal in England. Yet many blacks believed it ‘emancipated’ any slave who reached the shores of England. This understanding, combined with the British military welcoming runaways into …

The King, The Cardinal, The Concubine, And The Chronicler: A Lesson In Fluid Prejudice, Sarah Crites

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

George Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey is one of the best known contemporary biographies from the Tudor era. Written during a time that has fascinated historians for centuries, Cavendish’s work has been used and quoted by many authors from many different time periods. These writers produced biographies of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the subject of Cavendish’s biography; Henry VIII, whom Wolsey served as chief minister; and Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s love and eventual queen. The dynamics among these three individuals is shown in Cavendish’s work and in subsequent biographies related to that era. As time passed, authors became more and more suspicious …

Ua12/2/1 Best Of The Hill 2011, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special awards edition of the College Heights Herald.

Volume 11, Issue 29: May 9, 2011, Women's Studies & Gender Studies Program

Women's Studies & Gender Studies: Digest Magazine

No abstract provided.

Gossom, Cora Eliza, 1866-1926 (Sc 2446), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2447.  Pages from scrapbook kept by Cora Eliza Gossom, Bowling Green, Kentucky, containing clippings and programs relating primarily to local parties, dances, and weddings.

Producto Centro Americano : Made In Honduras, Alma Leiva

Theses and Dissertations

PRODUCTO CENTRO AMERICANO: MADE IN HONDURAS By Alma Leiva Master of Fine Arts A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011. Thesis Director: Robert Paris, Professor Kinetic Imaging / Photography and Film I was born in 1973 in Honduras, a country under military regime. In 1982 after 20 years of military rule, Honduras finally had democratic elections. During that decade, and as a consequence of the cold war, the kidnapping, torturing, murder and disappearance of civilians became common practices among the Honduran military. …

Movement For The Actor: A Practical Approach To The Application Of Movement Training, Elizabeth Ressegger-Slone

Theses and Dissertations

An essential tool in actor education, movement training is often viewed as esoteric and difficult to apply directly to an actor’s craft. It varies widely from institution to institution, and covers anything from stage combat to Alexander Technique. One never knows what they will encounter upon entering a movement class, and students frequently have difficulty connecting work done in the movement studio to work done in the acting studio. In order for movement training to become better integrated and more easily identifiable as a necessary part of actor training, it is important to get to the essential qualities that all …

Dig, Spencer Neale Iii

Theses and Dissertations

DIG Spencer Kellogg Neale III MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 BA, The College of Santa Fe, 2009 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 Major Director: Bob Paris Associate Professor, Department of Kinetic Imaging This paper is an outline to various creative pursuits in the Graduate school of arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in leading to my MFA Thesis Exhibition. I have been focused on the works of artists exploring audio/visual textures and overall conceptuality behind a Lo Fidelity sensibility. In my …

A Framework For Digital Emotions, Meghan Rosatelli

Theses and Dissertations

As new media become more ubiquitous, our emotional experiences in digital space are increasing exponentially as well. While there is much talk of “affective” computing and “affective” new media art, a disconnect exists between networked emotions and the popular media that they inhabit. This research presents a theoretical framework for assessing “digital emotions”—a term that describes the feedback process between digital technologies and the body with respect to short, networked inscriptions of emotion and the (re)experience of those inscriptions within the body and through digital space. Digital emotions display five basic characteristics that can be applied to a variety of …

A Subversive Socialist Craftsperson In The Post-Post Modern World (The Conspiratorial Ranting Of Kristoff Kamrath), Kristoffer Kamrath

Theses and Dissertations

My research in this thesis delves into the corruption of American culture and my personal experience with the academic institution of art school. I delineate my symbolic representation of a social agenda through images and objects that reference the absurdity of institutionalized art and the decay of socialist idealism in the realm of crafts and contemporary culture at large.

Outside Things, Jacob Sorenson

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis is a description of the issues encountered during the process of research and construction of the objects leading to, and consisting of, the work shown in Outside Things. The work is my attempt to gain personal insight into the complicated relationship between nature and culture. Through abstract furniture objects, floral patterns, and robots I explore the relationship between actual landscape and the constructed man-made bio-mimicry that convolutes the definition of Nature.

Every Night At 8pm, Jennifer Lauren Smith

Theses and Dissertations

An experiential thesis, this document begins at dawn, travels through storms and calm air and ends at night in Argentina. It details the circumstances and influences leading to my thesis exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, including an artist’s statement told through a creative reading of Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day” and the excitement I found in an out-of-print text on scuba diving.

Designing A Musical Theatre Curriculum For The Modern University, Justin Amellio

Theses and Dissertations

The world around us has changed so much, socio-economically, that musical theatre departments around the country are facing budget shortfalls, staff attrition and even vertical cuts leading to full departmental closings. This paper attempts to divert these measures, as well as address the new role of student as consumer, by way of proposing a new musical theatre curricular model to satisfy the needs of both student and university alike. Topics such as fiscal responsibility in academe, departmental expectations, current employment statistics in the musical theatre field and current student learning outcomes are covered. The current student learning outcomes are then …

Craft Cyborg, Laina Seay

Theses and Dissertations

By merging the ancient associations that clay has with the human form and prosthetic science I question the relevancy and role of the human body in the future. As prosthetics heighten the awareness of the body through absence these additive limbs further this relevancy by presence. With greater advances in genetic engineering and plastic surgery biology will no longer dominate and these ridged clay extensions could become flesh.

Video Game Theatre, A Willoughby

Theses and Dissertations

Video games are becoming the fastest growing and most lucrative form of entertainment across the globe. The goal of this project was to take gaming to the next level; to the theatre. I have devised an original piece of theatre using the CIC’s of video gaming: Creativity, Interaction, and Community and put on a production from members of the VCU community. Aside from the project, I have detailed why video games are growing in popularity at an alarming rate and why they belong in the category of ‘Art.’ With new technology and new stories being told, the gaming industry is …

St. Francis Of Assisi Catholic Church And Center For The Deaf Sunday Bulletin, May 8, 2011

Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Center for the Deaf Sunday Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Landover Hills, MD

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Center for the Deaf Sunday Bulletin Finding Aid