Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Affects Of Ai In The Arts, Carolina D. Maldonado Faria

Theses and Dissertations

Art is an essential part of society, shaping culture, communication, and the digital world through forms such as music, writing, film, and animation. However, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created conflict in the creative industry. Many AI systems are trained using artists’ works without consent, raising concerns about copyright infringement, intellectual property theft, and the loss of artistic value. While AI was originally intended as a tool for innovation, it now threatens artists’ careers and profits by imitating human creativity. This issue highlights the need for ethical regulations, stronger copyright protections, and fair compensation systems so AI and …

To Use Or Not To Use Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Art Design? A Multigroup Utaut2 Model Based On Motivation And Engagement Profiles, Yihan Jiang, Ning Luo, Ruixiang Gao

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This research investigated the acceptance of the artificial intelligence (AI) art tool, Midjourney, among 970 Chinese artists and designers using the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model and incorporating person-centered work motivation and engagement profiles. Path analysis of the entire sample showed strong explanatory power, accounting for over 60% of the variance in usage intention and behavior. Latent profile analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and engagement revealed two subgroups: the majority “Interested and Engaged”, and the minority “Disinterested and Disengaged”. As evidenced by multigroup comparison, the former exhibited significantly greater acceptance, recognizing Midjourney’s value …

Lights And Shadows - 2026, University Of North Alabama

Lights and Shadows

Art and Literature Magazine

Tainted Love: Examining Romantic Obsession And Relational Tragedy In Modern Art, Caelyn R. Anderson

Visual Studies | Senior Theses

Many viewers are drawn to the period of modern art, as so many unique artistic movements arose under its umbrella. From Cubism to Expressionism, the freedom with which artists experimented with personal styles during this time period resulted in the creation of many remarkable works. This artistic freedom often extended into the social lives of artists, as many of them adopted unconventional bohemian lifestyles. The four couples discussed in this essay: Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, Francis Bacon and George Dyer, Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler, and Jeanne Hubertene and Amedeo Modigliani, all had relationships that were fraught and strange, …

Shrek! (1990) By William Steig, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Shrek is a revoltingly ugly and repulsive ogre who, after a series of adventures, falls in love with an equally ugly princess. Many children have delighted in William Steig’s story of incredible ugliness and vulgar behavior--striking a blow for their own liberation against oppressive adult expectations. Why not actually discuss with them the way they (and many of us!) become fascinated with ugliness? Steig’s story also raises an important philosophical question about whether there can be anything genuinely attractive, even beautiful, that is also extremely ugly.

Signs & Symptoms, Bridget Mara-Williams

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

My body of work centers on verbal and nonverbal communication, and how meaning can be conveyed, distorted, or withheld. Since living in Kansas, I’ve struggled to understand the layers of Midwestern niceness, as I am more accustomed to the directness of the East Coast. Both ways of communication are valid, but often go past each other when put together. In Kansas, East Coast bluntness can appear callous. I've felt more like a Nor’easter, than merely a Northeasterner– disruptive and maybe a little difficult.

The difference has me tuned in to the colloquialisms around me, to phrases that slip by relatively …

Exploring Design Tools, Naomi Torgler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my Honors Research Project, I developed skills to 3D model and render using Rhino 8, Tinkercad and Adobe Illustrator. In the process of developing these skills, I created six digital renderings and one model. The works produced using these software programs are to be used in a developing portfolio to seek future opportunities in the field of architecture.

Throughout this project, I explored connections between different programs when designing and building each piece. This project also reflects my focus in the Sculpture program at the Myers School of Art by considering elements of design in a three-dimensional form. In …

Arden 2026, Elizabeth Woods, Ivory Alexander, Evie Fletcher

The Arden

An amalgamation of creative student works. Items contained include, but are not limited to, art, photography, short stories, prose, poetry, and other avenues of creative composition.

"Art, Esthetics, Ideal": An Ethics For Literary Translators In The Age Of Translating Machines, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The advent of effective machine translation has raised several issues for translators, including the question of how a human translator ought to translate in this age of translating machines. In this context of new ethical questions, the present essay argues that an answer may be found in Pedro Figari’s (1912) philosophical essay on esthetics. Following Figari, the current essay argues that literary translation is art, that as such it can produce an esthetic emotion on readers and that the purpose of such art and esthetics is an ideal in the form of the continuous betterment of the human condition.

The Ethereal Being That Is Me, And Maybe You, Hwiy Chang

Theses and Dissertations

The Ethereal Being That Is Me, and Maybe You is a 23-minute video collection of short stories accompanied by an installation at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. This thesis explores the work’s creation as a visual and narrative meditation on self-transformation, drawing from personal experiences in therapy and philosophical texts including Carl Jung’s concept of the unconscious. The paper examines how each story represents a distinct stage of transformation—from recognizing patterns to confronting setbacks to reshaping internal dialogue—and how watercolor’s fluid, unpredictable nature serves as a visual metaphor for the process of change. The installation component …

The Cultural Adaptation Of Abstract Expressionism In The Middle East, Solmaz Shoukohi

MA Theses

Abstract Expressionism emerged in post-WWII New York as both an artistic revolution and a tool of cultural diplomacy. This thesis examines how that ostensibly “American” art movement was adapted and transformed in the Middle East from the 1950s through the  1980s. Chapter 1 outlines the rise of Abstract Expressionism amid Cold War politics, highlighting how the style was promoted globally as a symbol of freedom. It discusses the role of U.S. institutions in exporting avant-garde art – famously described by Eva Cockcroft as a “weapon of the Cold War” – through touring exhibitions and covert sponsorship. Chapter 2 then traces …

"Spectrum", Mackinzey H. Critzer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

These body of works explores themes centered around ASD/Autism Spectrum Disorder, including symptoms involved, my personal views/experiences of it, social issues, and other related topics. My work consists of various mediums, digital pieces/prints and physical installations that involve bright color tones, human/humanoid figures, and various symbols.

Below The Rows, Beyond The Roots: An Art Exhibition Depicting Agriculture Across The Globe, Maggie Enoch

Honors Theses and Capstones

In Below the Rows, Beyond the Roots, artist Maggie Enoch creates multimedia works inspired by her exposure to diverse agricultural systems and perspectives while studying geography and sustainable agriculture/food systems around the world. By integrating complex histories with the contemporary realities of farming, Maggie paints vivid pictures of the power of food in this five-piece exhibition.

Photographic Perceptions: Reconstructing The Life And Career Of Dody Weston Thompson, Virginia Carroll

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis reconstructs the life and career of photographer Dody Weston Thompson (1923-2012), presenting a narrative that has been absent from photographic history. Dody trained beneath significant figures like Edward Weston and Josef Albers, exhibited among some of the most canonical figures in photographic history, and served as a founding member of Aperture magazine—one of the foremost photographic journals to this day. Despite this, there has been no academic scholarship on Dody’s life or career, leaving her largely absent from the art-historical record.

Through the analysis of The Dody Weston Papers at the Ella Strong Denison Library and photographs held …

On Dark Skinned Jesus Of Nazareth: Why Color Matters, Nicholas Berkel

MA Theses

This thesis examines the historical, religious, and cultural consequences of portraying Jesus as white within Christian art. Although Western art has overwhelmingly depicted Christ with white skin, archaeological, and contextual evidence supports a dark-skinned Jesus rooted in the ethnogeography of first century Palestine. The persistence of a White Jesus has shaped religious imagination and perception for centuries, reinforcing racial hierarchy and legitimizing systems of white supremacy. Through an interdisciplinary analysis combining biblical studies, Christian iconography, ethnography of ancient Semitic, Greco-Roman, and Egyptian peoples, medieval symbolism, modern mass-produced imagery, and Black thought, this study demonstrates how Jesus’ original complexion was gradually …

Un Lugar A Donde No Puedo Volver: Perteneciendo En La Distancia, Alberto J. Alonso

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

“A Place I Cannot Return To: Distance and Belonging” investigates how home is not limited to a fixed place, but instead a reconstruction sustained through memory and longing, which focuses on personal experiences of being away from Puerto Rico. I contribute to this broader dialogue by offering a deeply personal perspective shaped by the complexities of cultural belonging. Through photography, collage, and painting, my art practice reconstructs fragmented visual narratives of lived experience to explore homesickness, nostalgia, and displacement, examining how personal and shared histories become anchors to what continually slips away. Although I can physically return to Puerto Rico, …

Come And See: Exploring Complex Dynamics And Abjection Through A Southern Gothic Family Portrait, Lenee N. Peterson

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

“COME AND SEE: Exploring Abject Theory Through a Southern Gothic Family Portrait” examines the artist’s complex familial upbringing through the visual and narrative traditions of Southern Gothic art. Drawing upon abject theory and the cultural references of folk horror and Southern Gothicism, this thesis positions the family portrait where intimacy, trauma, and cultural inheritance collide. The project argues that direct confrontation with abjection can foster recognition, shared experience, and the possibility of collective healing. Grounded in practice-based research, this work functions as a critical and creative response to familial strain shaped by scarcity, social oppression, and emotional precarity. Through a …

Beyond The Binary: Gender & Space In The Art Of Helen Mcnicoll (1879-1915), Jakira Ahmed

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

In recent art history discourse, scholars have proposed reworking the binarism perpetuated by separate sphere ideology that led to a lack of nuance. This paper situates itself within this renewed framework, using McNicoll’s market scenes which breaks down the rigid dichotomous nature of gendered spaces and confronts how labor and class relations complicate the gender-spatial dynamic. I propose that these images begin to collapse the binaries of the public/private and urban/rural debates, creating more fluid binaries.

Emotions As Work Material: On Dancers' Refined Use Of Affectivity, Camille S. Buttingsrud

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

As part of their professional practice, dancers allow their affectivity to enhance their kinesthetic work. Their intentional and disciplined use of personal, emotional resources ensures both creativity, interpretation, absorption, and connections in ways that extend beyond the traditional phenomenological understanding of affectivity as pre-reflectively based. The affective regulations dancers employ can be seen as an “artistic epoché,” and their layered performance awareness corresponds with Edmund Husserl’s descriptions of “image-consciousness.” Through qualitative interviews with three professional dancers, phenomenological theory, and additional supportive literature, this article shows how affectivity can be experienced through high-order levels of Leib, constituting states of “bodily …

The Effect Of Cultural Myths On Oceanic Art, Derek Mcfarland

Honors Projects

Oceanic artworks are interesting in their purpose of connecting with and influencing the spiritual world. As such, Oceanic artworks are largely affected by the spiritual beliefs of the cultures producing them. Outsiders may have trouble understanding and tastefully depicting artworks from these cultures, as information about them is largely limited or misrepresented. This Honors Project aims to develop a clearer understanding of northern Melanesian artwork by investigating how the spiritual and societal beliefs of certain cultures affect the artwork they produce, with the intention of appropriately depicting them in an independent artwork. Through my research, I find that northern Melanesian …

French 123 Assignment: Group Project, Jovensel Ngamaleu

Open Educational Resources

This assignment is a way to engage with the real world through the practice of French in various areas of everyday life, in order to improve oral and written language skills.

Interview With Key, Jacey Terrill

What Happened Here

This is a transcript of an oral history interview with Key, a Cal Poly Humboldt Alum who graduated in the same semester as the protests. She did not attend her graduation because of uneasy feelings about the situation, but did attend her Latinx graduation. She was also a protester, deciding to join after seeing the events of the first day. There was a strong sense of community amongst the protesters. However, she also describes that later on in the protest, there were differing ideas on how to proceed. She notes a feeling that the BIPOC protesters were not being appropriately …

The Art Of Fantasy Illustration, Kurt Woodward

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Culminating Experience

This Culminating experience project showcases the full process for creating fantasy illustrations in the context of creating a tabletop board game. This project embodies all the different artistic elements that can go into creating a fantasy board game such as card illustration, logo design, card design, and board game covers. The author demonstrates skill and understanding of these elements as they pertain to their own purpose in the grand scope of this project.

I Want You To Want Me, Marianne Koleng

be Still

This piece calls to the theme of "attention" through a mixed media piece incorporating collage, ink, and colored pencil. It embraces the nuances of both anatomy and popular music, rock-and-roll, to be specific. The title is taken from the popular song by Cheap Trick, of the same name in an effort to elude to the desire for human attention in a human form.

Even Flow, Marianne Koleng

be Still

This piece attempts to connect the "ebb and flow" of music and art with the sometimes strict interpretation of anatomy. It calls to attention what often seem as opposites - the cold nature of medicine and science with the seemingly warm and free nature of music and art. While many see them as opposites, this piece attempts to convey they are really two sides of the same coin.

Pick & Choose, Sana Lulu

be Still

To me, attention goes hand in hand with patience and is a core part of my creative process. When it comes to my art, I generally ride inconsistent waves of inspiration, meaning I often churn out pieces all in one session, finessing a piece until I am satisfied. In that span of time, all that matters to me is getting my piece as close to how I picture it in my mind as possible, giving it my full undivided attention. I tend to fixate on projects and have a hard time revisiting them once I decide to end the session. …

Processing Self, Ethan B. Mckellar

All Theses

Processing Self is a body of sculptural and utilitarian ceramic work that explores the intersection of the materiality of clay with the expression of grief and vulnerability. In this work I utilize the process of building unstable ceramic vessels and the communal action of wood firing to translate the experiences of grief and care into physical forms. As I build, I manipulate the clay to its limits, allowing it to falter under its own weight, and display the breakage and damage. By committing to support each vessel through its creation, I make a promise to persevere, echoing the commitment I …

Red Thread, Unknotted: A Visual Self-Inquiry Into Becoming Artist /Educator, Jennifer Jervis

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

This arts-based self-inquiry presents a counternarrative of one woman artist/educator navigating identity formation, agency, and resistance within the gendered structures of the contemporary art world. Informed by posthuman feminist theory and guided by a/r/tography, the study uses artmaking as both inquiry and data to challenge the persistent divide between artist and art educator—particularly as experienced by women. Through reflexive writing and textile-based creation, the author offers a material and embodied critique of the systemic expectations that diminish women’s artistic authority and invisibilize their creative labor. The resulting work becomes a site of resistance, reclaiming artist identity through the layered intersections …

Su Drama Bernarda Alba Production Photos, Henry Killbourn, Alex Jainchill, Reyna Sanchez

Drama - All Scholarship

This project strengthens the Syracuse University Department of Drama’s ability to document its theatrical productions through high-quality digital photography. With support from the SOURCE grant, the department acquired updated photography equipment that enables students to capture clearer, more accurate images of performances. These photographs document acting, staging, costumes, sets, and lighting in a professional and archival manner.

Invitation To Polynomiography Via Chatgpt: For Teachers, Students And Artists, Bahman Kalantari

LASER Journal

Teachers, students, and artists in the United States and abroad who have encountered polynomiography, in lectures, demos, or software, consistently appreciate its educational value and artistic potential. While dedicated polynomiography programs require upkeep as systems evolve, AI chatbots now offer a practical, accessible alternative. This article invites readers to explore polynomiography with ChatGPT, broadening access beyond specialized tools. While the approach will not match the full range or polish of advanced software, it provides a powerful and flexible entry point with many possibilities.

At its core, polynomiography transforms polynomial equations, each encoding a finite set of points in the complex …