Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review: Garth Greenwell's Mystical Novel "Small Rain" Teaches The Art Of Living From A Hospital Bed, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Book review of Garth Greenwell's book, "Small Rain"

Worn, Lindsay Hontz

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Lindsay Hontz is a Junior English Writing Major and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor at DePauw University. She enjoys photography and typically shoots film. She loves to cook and bake in her free time.

Lost Track Of Time, Kisa Tamai

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Kisa Tamai is a junior from Honolulu, Hawai'i, majoring in Communication and Global Health. She occasionally shoots 35mm film in memory of her grandfather. She enjoys hiking and rock climbing.

Kindling, Kandafula Sikana

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Kay Sikana is an interdisciplinary artist and Senior Studio Art Major at DePauw. They enjoy storytelling and integrating oral histories in their work.

Pixels Of Passion: The Revolutionary Impact Of Indie Games, Sharanya Udupa

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

In the dynamic world of video game development, a powerful revolution has been quietly transforming how interactive experiences are created. Independent game developers, or "indie" game creators, have emerged as innovative storytellers and design pioneers, challenging traditional gaming paradigms and offering players unique, personal experiences that transcend mainstream entertainment.

Unlike mainstream games developed by large corporations with multi-million dollar budgets, indie games are typically created by small teams or even individual developers driven by artistic vision rather than pure commercial interests. These creators prioritize innovative gameplay mechanics, compelling narratives, and unique aesthetic experiences over conventional market formulas. Platforms like Steam …

Westward Words: An Exploration Of Western Beats And Their Legacy, Brenna Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis examines the art, poetry, and experiences of western Beats or Beatniks. Also known as the Beat Generation, this literary movement is traditionally associated with East Coast writers. However, a prominent Beat culture was also present on the West Coast throughout the 1950s and 1970s. The thesis explores how the West influenced the literature and art produced by Beats during this time.

In The Case Of Prince Ling Ching: Visualizing The Boxer Rebellion Through Puck Magazine, Mimi Yu

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Through the framework of orientalism, this paper examines the historicism behind satirical illustrations created by artists and editors in Puck Magazine which depict the Boxer Rebellion, spanning from 1899 to 1902. In doing so, I aim to explore the nuances in which mass-produced visual satire seeks to justify Western hegemony. Widely published and distributed in the United States, Puck was a satirical magazine from the late 19th and early 20th century, and one of the first satirical magazines to contain colored lithographic covers. Puck further contributed to discourse over the “Yellow Peril” by employing caricature art and passages of punchlines …

Fundamentalism And Religious Art At Bob Jones University: Is There A Problem?, Cheryl Sanders Mims

Masters Theses

Bob Jones Sr. founded Bob Jones College in 1927 in Florida with educational, spiritual, and cultural goals for its students in the belief that Christians should be well-rounded - making them better equipped to both witness for Christ and succeed in their chosen professions. Programs were offered in drama and music. The campus moved to Greenville, South Carolina in 1947 where the institution became Bob Jones University and Bob Jones Jr., son of the founder, became its second president. In 1951 he founded an art museum – a natural extension of the Fine Arts programs – and assembled a large …

Visuality Of Race In Popular Culture: Teaching Racial Histories And Iconography In Media, Joni Boyd Acuff, Amelia M. Kraehe

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The repetition of racist imagery from historical to contemporary popular culture is indicative of a lack of visual culture education among artists, designers, and other creative cultural producers working today. This paper addresses the dearth of resources for teaching visual codes and conventions of racial iconography that are recycled in popular media and contribute to the fabrication of racial differences, maintenance of racial hierarchies, and normalization of white supremacist ideology. Inspired by Critical Race Theory in art and visual culture education, the essay proposes teaching tactics and sites/sights that can support students in developing visual understandings of race in popular …

Ani219 Project 2 Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

ANI219 Project 2 34T3 student submission.

The Cumulate Project: Creating Art That Builds Pathways Between Poetry And Accessibility In Public Spaces., Jenny Haddon

Posters, Proceedings, and Presentations: CTR Library

The University of Nebraska at Kearney( UNK) is completing an extensive renovation to the Calvin T. Ryan Library. Nebraska’s 1% for Art Law requires that 1% of all state-funded projects be set aside for a public art commission. The Nebraska Arts Council spearheaded UNK’s search and out of over 100 submissions the successful applicant was Leslie Iwai, an accomplished artist with a history of creating thought-provoking pieces in public spaces, galleries and museums. Together with Nebraska’s State Poet Matt Mason, serving as cumulate’s Poetry Curator, she designed and created an interdisciplinary art project aimed at sparking curiosity and interaction …

A Handful, Prathna Nirav Patel

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Artist Statement

I created this drawing for my Drawing I class, where I was introduced to the cross-hatching method. Through this technique, I aimed to physicalize emotion through the beauty and expressiveness of the human hand. The title, A Handful, represents not only the literal handful of hands shown, but also the handful of emotions and experiences behind each one.

Latticed Stinkhorn, Emilee G. Seigworth

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Artist Statement

Latticed Stinkhorn is a watercolor piece originally created for the special gallery of the 2023 Scientific Illustration course at the University of North Florida. It was inspired by my enduring fascination with the world of fungi, particularly specimens of the family Phallaceae. This watercolor piece offers a simple perspective of Clathrus ruber, a species commonly referred to as Latticed Stinkhorn. Like many members of the family, the reproductive fruiting body first surfaces encased in a cream-colored soft shell with a texture comparable to a leathery reptile egg. As the body ages, the initial shell disintegrates to reveal a …

Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine, Issue 4: 'Paranoia' (Fall 2024), Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine Contributors

Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine (2023-present)

Issue 4 of the Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine, published in the Fall 2024 semester. The theme of the issue is 'Paranoia'. A semesterly publication curated by Clark University students, CSVLM creates space for students to share their creative writing including poetry, prose, and artwork. Organizing and distributing Clark Student Literary Voices builds community by uniting the many creative students on the Clark campus.

Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine, Issue 4: 'Paranoia' (Fall 2024), Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine Contributors

Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine (2023-present)

Issue 4 of the Clark Student Voices Literary Magazine, published in the Fall 2024 semester. The theme of the issue is 'Paranoia'. A semesterly publication curated by Clark University students, CSVLM creates space for students to share their creative writing including poetry, prose, and artwork. Organizing and distributing Clark Student Literary Voices builds community by uniting the many creative students on the Clark campus.

The Effect Of Social Media On Artists' View Of Their Own Art And Desire To Create, Sydnie Gomez

Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

This exploratory study examined the effect posting art on social media has on artists’ views of their own art and desire to create. The role of social media in the production, sharing, and purchasing of art has increased significantly in the past years. Thus, the importance of advertising one’s art through social media has also increased. Using a 35-question survey completed by 43 people, this study investigated how the emergence of online communities, and the pressure to gain a following and please their online audiences, has influenced artists’ views of their own work. The results of this study provides some …

Surrealist Photography: Past, Present, And Future, Carmen Kennedy

Honors Projects

Surrealist Photography: Past, Present, and Future is a research project diving into surrealist photographers, contemporary photographers, and AI. Starting the paper, I give historical context on the movement including the founder Andre Breton, surrealist painters that either had a significant contribution or interesting way to create, themes explored, and techniques used. The surrealist photographers I researched are Man Ray, Angus McBean, and Claude Cahun. Then, I analyze the works of Erik Johansson, Pat Brassington, and Aida Muluneh and how their work is inspired by or has the vibe of surrealist photographs from the movement. Lastly, I start to explore the …

Palette Of Perspective: Designing An Inclusive Art History Curriculum, Amy Bettencourt

Theses

This project aims to develop an inclusive art history curriculum as a high school level course, addressing the traditional Western-centric focus that has been marginalized non-Western contributions. By pairing Western and non-Western artworks within a chronological framework, students can compare artistic expressions across cultures, emphasizing parallel histories rather than a single Eurocentric narrative. The curriculum employs diverse interpretive methodologies to foster critical thinking and challenge conventional narrative. Designed for a 20-week semester, it focuses on a smaller number of key artworks per unit to encourage meaningful engagement and projects. While still rooted in Western art, the course connects global artistic …

Exploring Depictions Of Mental Health In Popular Hindi-Urdu Cinema, Sara Ahmed

Journal of Critical Global Issues

Hindi-Urdu popular cinema, commonly referred to as Bollywood, largely reflects the evolution of various social attitudes in the Indian subcontinent. In order to better understand these films’ depiction of social attitudes surrounding mental illness and the implications for its treatment, this study creates and analyzes an anthology of Hindi-Urdu movies from the 1940’s to the present that portray some aspect of mental illness. These movies that depict mental illness were grouped into the various aspects of stigma that they portrayed: structural stigma, courtesy stigma, health practitioner stigma, self-stigma, and public stigma. I extracted and analyzed the attitudes towards mental illness, …

English 101 Assignment: 9-Panel Comic Strip, Katherine Rubin

Open Educational Resources

A creative Composition 101 assignment that prompts students to draw a 9-panel comic strip reflecting on the chapter "How I Learned to Read and Write" from Frederick Douglass's autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.

The Q Is Chaos: Freedom 4 Artists Is Ostranenie, Cristian J. Alba-Dominguez

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I suggest that ostranenie is the artistic equivalent of chaos and it can be used by artists to grab and maintain the perception of an audience through the disruption of norms or pre-established conditions. Ostranenie, the device of art introduced by Russian Formalist Victor Shklovsky in his essay, “Art as Device,” is a device that gives absolute freedom to the creative person who isn’t afraid to use it to create original and engaging work. In the novel, 1Q84, Haruki Murakami utilizes ostranenie to tell a simple love story in a manner that prolongs the reunion of his …

Lost In The (Re)Process: Challenging Constructions Of Downtown Louisville Through The Urban Renewal Commission Photograph Collection., Cassidy Meurer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis chronicles the historical significance of the Urban Renewal Commission photograph collection, traces the history of racial capitalism in Louisville through research at Metro Louisville Archives & Records Center, and argues for alternative ways of organizing, digitizing, and presenting these archival materials in the University of Louisville’s Archives & Special Collections. I describe my methodology for breaking the photographic materials from their original order, going against typical archival processing methodologies, with the aim that the collection will more accurately represent the city’s strategic displacement of Black Louisvillians and civic prioritization of capital efficiency over community. This work emphasizes the …

Intersectional Feminist And Queer Activists’ Agendas In The Contemporary Arts: The Use Of Socio-Politically Fueled Motifs As Subjects In The Field Today, Florence V. Bonner

Theses

This paper explores the Intersectional Feminist and Queer activist's work in the Contemporary arts through a reconsideration of the existing scholarly literature and the use of social media platforms from the third wave of Intersection and Transnational Feminist and Queer work. Looking specifically at motifs that connotate to the bodies of people assigned female at birth, there are recognizable impacts at both micro and macro community levels. This research is done in an Intersectional Feminist and Queer theoretical methodology to better understand the implications of valuing multifaceted identities in the 21st century. This paper identifies artists and activists who work …

Promoting Community Health And Wellness Through Arts And Nature-Based Interventions: A Literature Review, Tessa Tinkler, Laura Deitrick, Richard W. Hurt Iii, Connelly Meschen

Arts and Culture

This literature review covers two areas of nonprofit work that are traditionally underfunded yet potentially impactful for improving social determinants of health: engagement with the arts and connecting with nature.

Fleeing Towards Healing: How Cam Can Heal Refugee Communities, Sarah B. Shaalan

Master's Theses

Alternative methods of healing can be found across the globe and are used by all kinds of people including refugees. This thesis will explore the potential benefits of Complementary and Alternative Medicine otherwise known as “CAM” as a supplementary strategy for helping refugees to deal with stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other harmful effects sustained on their journey and lives as displaced peoples. I will do so by first situating my project in the literature on Eurocentrism in healing practices and the emergence of CAM as an alternative. Then, using extensive primary and secondary sources, supplemented by an …

Wayward Utopias: Time In Wilde And Goethe, Kafi Moghrabi Mr

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I study the dialectical relation between the Utopian imagination and a reality perceived in every way as antagonistic to hope. In the first chapter, I present Ernst Bloch’s Utopian vision, as presented in The Principle of Hope, which offers an exposition of the author’s Romantic Marxism. The second chapter engages Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, demonstrating how a life devoted to self-gratification only results in the constant deferral of Utopian longing, and how, undone, Dorian’s demise opens up Utopian possibilities as anticipated by Bloch. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s version of the …

`The Very Beautiful Principles Of Natural Philosophy': Michael Faraday, Paper Marbling And The Physics Of Natural Forms, Robert Pepperell

LASER Journal

In 1854, Michael Faraday wrote to thank the author who had sent him a book on the art of paper marbling. In the letter, Faraday referred to `the very beautiful principles of natural philosophy' involved in the process of dropping ink on thickened water. What are the `beautiful principles' that Faraday referred to, and how are they involved in the art of paper marbling? Here I consider some of the physical processes that occur in paper marbling and how the patterns that emerge represent `dissipative structures' that are governed by fundamental principles of nature, in particular the tendency for physical …

Reaping In The Dark, Rae Perez

Honors Projects

This project, reaping in the dark, aims to answer the question ‘How do we live in a world where we were never meant to survive?’ Surrounded by heinous war and deathmaking, violent vulnerabilities, and demands that our own bodies must be contributions in the machinations of killing and exploitation, I found myself simultaneously isolated by the devastation, and empowered by solidarity and care networks and coalitions being formed in real time. In particular, I take part in and document my grief and grieving, love and loving in response to the new cycles of escalating violence in Gaza, the …

You, Me, And The Unknown: A Creative Exploration Into The Emotions We Feel About What We Don't Understand, Lena Hall

University Honors Theses

I've always found the concept of fear and anxiety to be incredibly fascinating. As someone who grew up with extreme anxiety, I always wanted to rationalize it and figure out exactly why I felt that way. Anxiety is the inherent fear of the unknown and I wanted to know more about why we fear what we don't understand, or in other cases, why we love it. I conducted a research project on our perceptions of the unknown that resulted in an experimental page layout print publication where I shared the participant's views on the unknown through a visual storytelling medium.

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …