Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Exploring Gender In Classical Music Through Coded Weaving, Laura Helgeson

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the concept and creation of the thesis artwork Mozart-Symphony No. 1. This work is a woven tapestry that uses a method of translation that converts sheet music into textile. This paper first explores historical examples of textiles being used to encode or archive information and then compares the contrasting historical gender dynamics of classical music and textile arts. Finally, it then breaks down the translation key used to create the final work. By exploring these concepts, this thesis artwork aims to demonstrate how the act of encoding classical composition into woven tapestry demonstrates textiles' ability to be …

Never Real Historians, Emily Bluedorn

Masters Theses

Never Real Historians is a graphic inquiry into how surfacing hidden histories can lead to a liberatory and layered design practice. It is both a record of my process and a template for future making and future ancestors. Mining inheritance can be an ambiguously murky territory, full of contradictions, collisions, and tension between the past and present. My hope is that this thesis functions as a model of navigating that terrain, by interacting with storied objects and ephemera, in order to revive forgotten and marginalized histories. By re-examining my own shared and personal inheritances, as an American woman designer living …

“No Friend Like A Sister”: Christina Rossetti’S Fantastic Departure From Pre-Raphaelite Poetics And Art In “Goblin Market”, Anna M. Lee

The Criterion

Christina Rossetti’s poetics and artistic vision in her seminal poem, “Goblin Market,” have yielded a range of critical theories, from positions on sisterhood to the ambiguous position of capitalist markets. While considering the socioeconomic and cultural context behind the poem’s development and resonance among contemporary feminist movements, readers also ought to consider the actual “goblin brotherhood” — the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) — behind Rossetti’s authorial ventures. This paper argues that Rossetti’s fantastical methods draw influence from and participate in the PRB’s poetics and artistic traditions, while subverting the same conventions within a feminist paradigm. Rossetti not only envisions a homosocial …

Veneers And Vignettes: Staging The Mountain West, Matthew Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Veneer (noun): An attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone or something's true nature or feelings.

Vignette (noun): A small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border.

This exhibition, Veneers and Vignettes: Staging the Mountain West embodies my pursuits to contextualize my place in the Mountain West, my home. These works seek to understand how the extents of time, circumstance, and people have shaped the contemporary cultures, environment, and implied trajectory of the decades ahead. What legacies have we imprinted upon this place and with what repercussions? I feel uneasy for my home in …

Good Taste No Waste: A Solution For Managing Food Waste In Newly Independent Young Adults, David Eppinger

Masters Theses

Consumers are the biggest contributors to food waste in the United States and in other developed countries, though most of them don’t realize it. American young adults living independently for the first time lack education on responsible food management in the areas of planning, preparation, and preservation. This lack of skills results in excessive waste of food, money, and energy, and leads to significant damage to the economy and the environment. Ample research exists identifying this issue and the changes that need to be made, yet effective visual solutions have not yet followed. Through a comprehensive topical survey, along with …

Artistry Meets Algorithm: A Creative's Guide To Ai, Amanda Hoover

Masters Theses

As technology advances, its integration with the graphic design field becomes increasingly prevalent. This can be seen especially in artificial intelligence programs and generative AI. With the rapid emergence of this technology, young graphic designers are left threatened by AI in relation to their graphic design careers. This occurs for several reasons such as lack of knowledge of AI and lack of training in usingvit. This paper aims to highlight the importance for these young designers to understand artificial intelligence through the examination of its practical application to the design field. In addition to this, the history of artificial intelligence …

Lost And Captured Warriors Still Missing: Raising Awareness And Support Through Design, Caitlin Martin Frost

Masters Theses

Over the years the search for prisoners of war and missing in action has faded from the spotlight in media and social focus, yet there is still a need to help families find their loved ones that are unaccounted for. This research is aimed to investigate the knowledge of prisoners of war (POW) and those missing in action (MIA) and what current organizations are doing to support the search for the missing. Specifically, it investigates methods that would aid in the spread of bringing awareness to this topic to the public. The following research questions were asked: 1. Who are …

America’S Favorite Fighting Frenchman: Marquis De Lafayette In American Pop Culture, Joshua Neiderhiser

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Popular culture has become as engrained within American society as the proverbial grandma’s apple pie. Due to the explosion of the internet, popular culture has become easier to find and share. For the historian this has created a cornucopia of research opportunities but has also created a massive problem: popular culture often comingles fact, fiction, and myth, making it more difficult for the historian to decipher the truth. The Marquis de Lafayette has been as affected by this as any other. His character and his legacy have been misrepresented in American popular culture. There has been a distinct divide between …

The Illusion Of Perfect Mothering: How Society's Expectations Affect Women, Victoria Ann Del Valle

Masters Theses

This research seeks to investigate the societal stigmas and misconceptions of ideal motherhood, aka “intensive mothering,” the repercussions associated, and the support systems both in place or missing. In addition, it seeks to contribute to fostering a healthier societal perception of motherhood. Methods include a literature review of existing research, case studies and analyses of other artists’ contemporary work in the field, and a visual solution in the form of an art exhibition. This research found that intensive mothering is a pervasive idea, ingrained in current society and detrimental to mothers’ mental health and well-being. Through the research and visual …

Determining Autistic Aesthetics: How To Find Autistic Artists In Canada, Gerald S. Beaulieu

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

As notions of Autism slowly move from a pathological to a cultural framework it is a fair question to ask if this includes a distinctive Autistic aesthetic. This is a comparative question, evaluating a distinctive aesthetic against established norms and to do this effectively you need samples. The more samples you have the better the comparison. It certainly makes sense that individuals with divergent neurologies and sensory experiences would perceive the world and reflect it differently through their content creation across artistic disciplines. The challenge however is finding this content as works by autistic creators are exceedingly rare and hard …

Visions Of A Captured Mind: Using Expressive Film Techniques To Convey The Experience Of Liberty Deprivation As A Neurodiverse Individual, Sam H. Grant, Ken Fero

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

In this article, I make the case for the use of expressive film techniques to convey the emotional, or affective, experience of neurodiverse people who have been subjected to liberty restricting practices and policy. I do this by discussing my own experience with film practice as a man living with autism, presenting a broader philosophical case for how artistic modes of communication can close affective and social divisions between neurodiverse and neurotypical people, explaining why it is the cinematic techniques I advocate for are uniquely suited to neurodiverse people, and then I showcase some of my own work as a …

A Trauma-Informed Socially Just Approach To Working With Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth Utilizing Expressive Arts Therapy, Ciara Carr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Youth involved with the juvenile justice system often have a history of trauma and oppression resulting from their positionality and circumstances. Most juvenile justice-involved youth are boys, youth of color, low-income, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled, and traumatized. This literature review explores the history of the juvenile justice system, issues with the present-day model, and trauma-informed and transformative justice approaches to practice. The implementation of socially just, trauma-informed expressive arts therapy programs is proposed as a more equitable practice to replace commonly used punitive practices across the United States. More research is needed to understand the impact of such programs on this population …

Latent Auto-Recursive Composition Engine: A Generative System For Creative Expression In Human-Ai Collaboration, Yenkai Huang

Computer Science Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the shifting boundaries of art in the era of Generative AI, crit-
ically examining the essence of art and the legitimacy of AI-generated works. Despite
significant advancements in the quality and accessibility of art through generative
AI, such creations frequently encounter skepticism regarding their status as authentic
art. To address this skepticism, the study explores the role of creative agency in var-
ious generative AI workflows and introduces an ”artist-in-the-loop” system tailored
for image generation models like Stable Diffusion. This system aims to deepen the
artist’s engagement and understanding of the creative process. Additionally, a novel
tool, …

Echo: The 2.5d Bridge Between The 2d And 3d Virtual Reality Space, Emilie Nicole Hopkinson

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

In response to the expanding prevalence of virtual reality (VR) technology, there arises a necessity for beginner-friendly tools tailored towards individuals with little to no experience in creating art for VR, especially 2D artists. Echo serves as a user-friendly solution that enables primarily 2D artists with little to no experience in 3D editing and VR development to create 2.5D art by providing a simple 3D web editor and to share their VR artwork with a 6-digit share code. By facilitating these functions, Echo is a potential bridge for 2D artists to create art in the VR realm. This study assesses …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

Fragmented Bodies, Lauren Careese Alexander

Art Theses and Dissertations

Through Memory Webs and fragmented ceramic vessels, I express what it feels like to grow up living in a biracial body. I utilize mixed media to emulate a mixed-race experience. My Memory Webs are fashioned by painting on scraps of canvas and attaching them with crocheted wire and ribbon to speak to how my memory has impacted my identity. My fragmented ceramic vessels are cut up and stitched back together to represent disjointedness and un-belonging. All of my work is contextualized through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and what the Monster may represent for people of color. I also …

The Hero’S Journey, Brianna Tolkacz

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

The Hero’s Journey reflects on the continued fascination with fairytales, myths, and legends through time. This project follows the exploration of these stories, themes, and the lessons they can teach one about themselves and the wider world. Such fictional narratives allow one to process and share their lived experiences: the victories and tragedies, losses and growth. This project follows a winged figure as she fights for her freedom and gains her wings. the journey is messy and raw but still beautiful. The project blends classical oil painting and contemporary sculptural elements to compose an evolving narrative culminating in a dynamic, …

Latent Auto-Recursive Composition Engine, Yenkai Huang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis investigates the shifting boundaries of art in the era of Generative AI, critically examining the essence of art and the legitimacy of AI-generated works. Despite significant advancements in the quality and accessibility of art through generative AI, such creations frequently encounter skepticism regarding their status as authentic art. To address this skepticism, the study explores the role of creative agency in various generative AI workflows and introduces an "artist-in-the-loop" system tailored for image generation models like Stable Diffusion. This system aims to deepen the artist's engagement and understanding of the creative process. Additionally, a novel tool, the Latent …

Hidden In Humor: Redefining Abjection Through Implication, Maddy Kish

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Abjection can whisper. It lies beneath the joke; you will find it there if you spend the time. Look at me. Come closer. Are you willing to discover? If you listen, I will confess, I will air out my dirty laundry, I will show you the inside of my body and its evidence.

My thesis is a consideration of my waste, an analysis of the bodily trail I leave behind. I explore indecency as a persistent feature of my art practice and a tactic I use to stimulate interest. My overarching unladylike sensibility is broken down into three categories – …

Skin To Skin: A Mixed-Media Exploration Of The Inheritance Of Identity, Angeline Morgan

Honors Theses

Skin to Skin is a mixed-media project that investigates the inheritance of identity through fine art and anthropological approaches. With a focus on womanhood, maganda (beauty), and Filipino-American culture, Skin to Skin reflects my deconstruction of cultural beauty practices. Growing up, proximity to lightness and darkness was a heavily emphasized metric. I witnessed family members experiment with light, water, and skin-lightening products on their skin. Now, I use alternative process photography to mirror their aesthetic experimentation.

To visually connect darkroom and beauty rituals, I created a series of unique, experimental prints where I treat paper surfaces as skin. I produced …

Omnipresence And An Outlier, Cheyenne Monk

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this thesis, I explore the possibility of existence outside the confines of labeled identity through the lens of art, drawing inspiration from personal experiences of racial alienation and the desire to transcend societal labels. Through figurations and world-building, I challenge the notion that one's identity must be defined by categories such as race and gender. By removing categorical physicalities and portraying violence as a means to confront bias-motivated aggression, I aim to provoke dialogue on prejudice without further alienation. Through a blend of surrealism, abstraction, and neo-expressionism, I create tense yet playful presentations of bodies to communicate themes of …

Swine & Symphonies, Dilara Miller

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

Dilara Miller’s work critique’s and reflects on the social/cultural effects of being a Turkish-American Muslim woman in today’s society. Through referencing antiquities and how they are presented today, she identifies patterns of hierarchies that exist in human history through an eco-feminist lens. Miller’s work reflects on the role of the artist and the historical testimony we leave behind; like her Girl Birds, she seeks to record her experiences within our Anthropocene as colored by mythic and Islamic teachings. Miller pulls from historic epochs to generate a foundation from which to examine our contemporary treatment of women as related to our …

Suspicion And The Witch’S Tit, Shayna R. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Shayna Miller’s paintings are built up panels with protruding points, appearing as if a mass is pushing up from behind the burlap-stretched painting surface. In Suspicion and the Witch’s Tit, Miller contextualizes her work in relation to a history of shaped painting and frames her discussion around references related to suspicion, embodiment, and rejection.

Welcome To The Apocalypse, Demetrius E. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

DW’s abstract, vibrant, and bipolar paintings stem from a place of personal biography and collectively shared experience. In this paper, he examines the apocalypse, human nature, tragedy, and the demise of adolescence in our era in the face of increasing technological advances.

A Taste For The Distasteful: The Aesthetics Of Gore In The Giallo And Horror Films Of Mario Bava, Thais Casado Bignardi-Engstrom

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Italian experience with horror in cinema in both psychoanalytic feminist and cognitive Marxist critical film theories through a study of visual renderings of excessive violence and sex in gothic and thrillers known as giallo films created by the film director Mario Bava. This is an art historical study that looks at Bava’s work against the Italian cultural landscape in the post war period.

Feeble Transmitters, Indranil Choudhury

Theses and Dissertations

Feeble Transmitters is a series of electroacoustic sculptures made using ceramics, plexiglass, and home audio components like speakers, transducers, and amplifiers. The sculptures occupy a space between manufactured objects and organic forms. Drawing on the material culture of industrial design in audio, the series explores people’s relationships and rituals with consumer technology. When installed together in temporary installations, the sculptures activate their environment with a spatial soundscape.

Generations, Jayla Watkins

Student Projects

Understanding your family can be the starting point of understanding your personal identity. Coming of age, you begin to view your family members as individuals as opposed to their titles of “Mother” or “Grandmother” names that once seemed to elude that she possessed some sort of supernatural power. As Jayla Watkins looks across 3 generations of her family, she sees different versions of the same person affected by life experiences, environments, and choices. Some oddly similar and some worlds apart. Understanding the generations of woman before her helps inform the woman she is becoming.

With influences such as Deana Lawson …

Heroines From An Ancient World, Danni Liang

Art Theses and Dissertations

A female warrior wearing different historical armor will fight against each other for territory. Ultimately, it will be presented in Unreal Engine 5 through a fusion of animation, special effects, and armor themes.

I will conduct historical research on armor in its early stages, including its structure and essential components. Then, I will choose a particular armor set from that era for production. I will study the fighting movements of different warriors and make them into animations accompanied by historical background stories.

Create three special effects, namely thunder, fire, and ice, and integrate these elements into the animation to present …

Sincerely, Regan Leigh Chrisman-Boman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sincerely is a compilation of diaristic narratives depicted through the lens of a distorted reality. This distortion is manifested through the influence of social norms placed on me and my gendered experience of this world. The stories I tell through my work deal with the mind, body and daily life. My images within this body of work are sourced from my written journal, and creating a visual diary. I provide a space of relatability for the viewer to feel seen and not alone through the discussion of personal experiences that are both unique and not unique to myself. The work …