Art and Design Commons^™

The Untitled Mapping Project: Case Study Trauma, Wyndi A. Desouza

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis is my personal exploration of what trauma is and how, if possible, it can be visually represented. The use of data collection, data visualization, and archive methodology is utilized in my project and this document examines how these components come together to understand trauma. This thesis also works through the ideology that everyone has the ability to experience trauma, of some form, in his or her life. Yet, there are different social perceptions for defining and labeling trauma. It is this social fallacy of trauma that I investigate and then seek to eliminate through the visual representation of …

Mr. Jonathan P. Berger: Gentle Conflations, Jonathan Patrick Berger, Mr. Jonathan P. Berger

Graduate School of Art Theses

Sentimentality is a critical aspect of human existence because it is human-natural, agendered, and provides ground for gentle conflation of the domestic sphere and the roles within it. As an artist, I am able to utilize sentimentality to open possibilities and welcome, instead of molest, viewers into contemplation with the assumed norms of domesticity.

With its origins founded in the Age of Enlightenment, sentimentality was a praiseworthy endeavor, one based on intelligence and contemplation. I define sentimentality as the emotional intellect’s way of encoding or decoding the soft emotions surrounding and within objects, people, times or ideas. Soft emotions are …

Damaged Goods: Reconstructing The Perceived Perfect, Sarah E. Harford

Graduate School of Art Theses

The writing that follows is intended to provide a speculative framework based upon theories, literature, and narratives that seek to articulate several major themes that occur within my studio practice. My work incorporates the imagery of domestic objects that can substitute for the body to permeate realities through the deconstruction and reconstruction of structures while simultaneously integrating gendered materials under the principles of the uncanny and sense of danger. This production process provides how we as viewers question strength and stability in what we understand by staging the familiarity of the home that is then imbued with altered states of …

The Artist And The "Information" Machine: Conceptualism, Technology, And Design In 1970, Jeremiah William Mccarthy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the dialectical relationship between conceptualism and design in the year 1970, by focusing on Kynaston McShine’s landmark exhibition Information, held at the Museum of Modern Art. Specifically, it centers on the understudied “information machine,” a film apparatus designed by Ettore Sottsass, Jr., for use within the exhibition.

Zeitgeist: An Artist's Present Perspective, Danielle Leventhal

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This statement is an analysis of my process in creating a zeitgeist collection of painted portraits. The pieces in this collection began with a live, in-person session with each of my subjects, all of whom are my friends: females ages 18-22 at Wash.U. An interest in the brain and mirror neurons, as well as Susan Stewart’s idea that the face is a “text” that must be read in order to exist, is what enabled these portraits to become a psychological examination of the spirit of our time. The material process of collapsing layers of time, emotions, and thoughts on the …

Of Ghosts And Garage Sales: The Painted Realizations Of Reflective Nostalgia, Rachel Ahava Rosenfeld

Graduate School of Art Theses

Painted from the lost snapshot photograph collections of strangers, the Testimonial paintings represent both the mythical potential of earlier times and the maddening reality that no matter what details are revealed, they can only ever be ghosts of the glories and tragedies that preceded our own. In the search for their stories, for their truths, for their absent memories, everything and everyone that we could have known lies dormant. The ghosts, the legion of “selves” arise from the questions asked of the paintings, and through the invented answers that activate the fractured past. In order to do this, I analyze …

Rhetoric: The Art Of Using Language Effectively, Eric Burwell

Graduate School of Art Theses

My thesis is constructed of fifty text modules, each containing 100 words exactly. These modules express my technical interests, my personal history, and artists that influenced my writing and paintings. The module form enables me to concentrate my thoughts about how I approach personal studio methods and constrain personal limitations that direct my writing into poetry. The methods employed in the writing also correlate with my paintings. Many of the modules address methods I use in constructing my paintings; arrays of gestural marks of language and sometimes specifics words. I choose to arrange these letterforms in gestural fields of color. …

The Science Of The Concrete: A 21st Century Bricoleur, Julie Weinberger

Graduate School of Art Theses

The 1962 work of structural anthropology The Savage Mind by Clause Levi- Strauss argues the position of the bricoleur, a resourceful artisan who relies

primarily on mystical thought and constructs using whatever materials are available. In this thesis I argue how my modes of making are parallel to those of the bricoleur, exploring the notion that science and mystical thought are equivalent approaches to understanding the world around us. By exploring aspects of nature, time and space, I invocate the ancient past through my references to indigenous cultures and insert my own experiences through the lens of my IPhone documented …

Toward An Evicted Avant, Adam Charles Turl

Graduate School of Art Theses

Contemporary art has been evicted from both Heaven and Earth—divorced from the promise of spiritual ascension (or existential truth) as well as the emancipatory impulses of modernity (Marxism, anarchism, etc.). The artist is constantly on the make, trying to become in actuality what they feel themselves to be in essence, trapped between a rigid social position and the fluidity and openness of the contemporary art object or gesture. Within that trap are unspoken truisms about what work can and cannot be: too didactic, too earnest, or too confrontational. Contemporary art suffers an unbearable lightness of being and an unbearable weight …

Curating Adjacent Shores: A Contemporary Art Exhibition At Usf's Thacher Gallery, Nell C. Herbert

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone is a project management plan for the curation of a real-world contemporary art exhibition at the University of San Francisco’s Mary and Carter Thacher Gallery. Adjacent Shores: Hughen Starkweather was on view from March 7 through April 24 of 2016, and featured an eighteenth century Japanese map and the work of the collaborative team of San Francisco based artists Amanda Hughen and Jennifer Starkweather. The exhibition was part of a larger program of events that occurred concurrently on the USF campus and at the Asian Art Museum, all centered on the theme of cartography. During and immediately following …

Dawn Or Doom: The Risks And Rewards Of Emerging Technologies, Diana Hancock, Steve Tally, Gerry Mccartney, Michele Arthur

Purdue P-12 Networking Summit & Poster Session

Dawn or Doom is a free and open to the public conference at Purdue where we focus on benefits and risks surrounding some of the technologies that are both the most disruptive to current practices and being adopted the fastest. A collection of Purdue faculty experts and some outside speakers showcase their many perspectives related to this technology explosion, explore conditions that will foster innovation and investment into the next generation, and address the big-picture issues where both optimism and pessimism are warranted.

Kimono, Elizabeth D. Hoffman

CGU MFA Theses

Globalization opens up opportunities for the international community to push for freedom of expression. It is precisely because the history of kimonos is a multi-cultural one, invented by the Chinese, then adapted and adopted by the Japanese, then altered by Western colonialists and changed as it permutated from the aristocracy to the middle class and to laborers, that I felt that it was relevant to today and the cross-cultural influences of globalization. This summer, I purchased two authentic Japanese kimonos, (one an everyday cotton one to use as a model for my drawings, and the second, an elaborate silk one …

Fixing Broken Shit: How We Are Always Cleaning Up Some Mess, Kendall L. Brown

Graduate School of Art Theses

My artistic practice deals with identifying and breaking down expectations that are placed on women in America; both in their personal and public lives. I have combined the ideologies of two previous feminist art movements: The Pattern and Design, and Deconstructivist movements. This creates a visual language that is unique to my time, while acknowledging the successes and contributions of the past. This thesis will analyze how my work draws elements from the past and expands upon those ideas to progress the feminist plight.

The City From Above, Guadalupe Astorga Contreras

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The city of Tijuana, Mexico has become a second home to many LMU students through programs like De Colores, which introduce students to issues of immigration, poverty, and education. The city varies from L.A.-style skyscrapers and paved roads to shacks along dirt paths. This image shows some of the diversity and growth of the city as it continues to develop, and provides a different perspective on the crowded communities that make up Tijuana.

Tourist To My Own Culture, Guadalupe Astorga Contreras

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

After nine years of living in the U.S. and staying away from her cultural homeland of Mexico, photographer Astorga returned to some of the places she remembered visiting as a child in her native country. Throughout the trip, the unthinkable change from intimacy to unfamiliarity was clear. These pictures show that progression and invite the viewer to become a tourist alongside Astorga as she visits a place she once considered home.

Only 45 Minutes Away, Guadalupe Astorga Contreras

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Being a part of an immigrant family, photographer Astorga has not had the chance to travel much even within her home state of California. Trips through class, clubs and events sponsored by Loyola Marymount University have provided her with the opportunity to visit places like Catalina Island right off the coast of L.A. and see things she and her family had only talked and dreamed of.

Hereisthefamilymotherfatherdickandjane: An Analysis Of Parenting And The Dick And Jane Readers In Morrison’S The Bluest Eye, Rachel Roseman

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

First-generation college student Rachel Roseman has found the American educational and cultural systems to privilege the white, upper to middle classes. As Toni Morrison demonstrates in The Bluest Eye, those who do not fit this mold often lack educational support and have to learn how to navigate cultural systems on their own. Unlike the character of Pecola, who features in the following essay, Roseman had a strong community and family who supported her decision to attend college and, as a result, achieved success.

Black Lives Matter: Why Black Feminism?, Analexicis T. Bridewell

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

In this essay, the author explores the inclusive nature and focal range of the Black Lives Matter movement in an effort to demonstrate how the goals of the movement are grounded in Black feminism. Ultimately, Bridewell concludes that creating inclusive spaces for the exploration of intersectional identities can help bring justice and equality not only to the Black community, but to all lives that have be oppressed or marginalized.

Understanding School, Tiffany P. Ta

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

As a first-generation college student in the Silicon Valley, author Tiffany Ta grew up in a high-achieving academic culture that she only really began to unpack and understand in college. Upon being exposed to more diverse cultures and backgrounds, Ta began to realize that her upbringing was vastly different than many others, and that some of her classmates' behaviors were unnatural. This poem reflects how she now feels about the experience looking back.

Did You?, Tiffany P. Ta

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem is a reflection on first-generation college student Tiffany Ta's family heritage. The piece focuses on the author's grandmother, who Ta never really got to know.

Ice, Genesis Montalvo

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Commonly known as ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement works to monitor the level of illegal migration to the United States. They also are in charge of at least 40% of deportation of innocent, non-criminal immigration violators. At times, the children of these immigrants are born in the United States. As US citizens, ICE cannot deport them without violating their rights, resulting in the separation of families. This poem speaks of a young child whose mother was deported by ICE and the yearning of wanting to know where the mother is. The mix of English and Spanish reinforces the …

Sheep In A Grotto, Laken D. Brooks

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Many first-generation college students undergo feelings of inadequacy in what is known as "impostor syndrome." This piece of fiction is born from such feelings of identity confusion and formation. The story functions as a written snapshot of an otherwise normal teenager whose life is threatened by a sexual assault; she faces and overcomes trauma at the cusp of her coming of age. Brooks' tale incorporates a raw focus upon the protagonist's ability to persevere and thrive in the face of violence. Ultimately, this text transcends a single character's journey into womanhood to reflect a message of hope and growth.

The Beauty Within Us, Areli C. Hernandez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This piece of prose, inspired by Chapter 23 of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, tells the story of a simple, yet vivacious get-together of migrant Latino workers, exploring the beauty within us--members of the migrant farm worker community.

Volume 7, Issue 3: Full Issue, Manuscripts Staff

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Excerpts, Manuscripts Staff

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

The Weekly Theme, Helen Overton

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

On Eating Grapes Downward, Betty Smith

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

The World Unmasks, Ted W. Sedvert

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Why I Came To College, John F. Carson

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Joseph Lautner--Director Entertainer, Harlan Johnson

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.