Art and Materials Conservation Commons^™

From Peril To Perseverance: Dr. Arthur C. Parker And The Seneca Arts Project, Brennan Ciccolone

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Like many Native people, the Haudenosaunee were subjected to culturcide and assimilation using residential schools like the Thomas Indian School in the late 19th and early 20th century. During this time, in 1925, the Seneca archaeologist Dr. Arthur C. Parker was hired as the director of the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Parker used his museum position to uplift and preserve Haudenosaunee arts and culture. This paper focuses on his Seneca Arts Project (1935-1941), which gathered art and artifacts from both ancient and contemporary Haudenosaunee members. This project explores how Parker’s work was used to help revitalize and honor Native …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Until The Ground Breaks, Annie Hu

Masters Theses

Until the Ground Breaks explores the complex relationship between personal memory, embodied experience, and internalized "archival logic." By examining long-term cross-cultural diasporic experiences and the shifting dynamics of family narratives—including the sensory experiences and fading memory of a grandmother, a father's correspondence that acts as a textual record of emotional logic, and the continuous revision of family history—this thesis dissects the psychological tremors that occur when the illusion of a singular, stable memory archive collapses. This research rejects the view of memory as a static container of truth, revealing it instead as a dynamic, unstable, and constantly rewritten living system. …

Where Each Step Lands: Reconnecting And Reparenting Through Visual Narrative, Skye Wang

Masters Theses

This research begins with lived experiences of dissociation and a persistent sense of disconnection between body and consciousness. It explores the potential of visual narrative as an embodied practice. Through daily walking and sketching, bodily sensations are translated into visual language through a synesthetic process, forming the foundation for a picture book as the central outcome of this project.

The picture book adopts the perspective of a jumping spider positioned beneath a five-year-old girl’s shoe, creating a shifting, downward-facing viewpoint. The spider functions as a viewing position, while the girl represents the inner child. The narrative is constructed around the …

Care As Method: Sound, Duration, Relation In Contemporary Art Practice, Violet L. White

MFA in Visual Art

Abstract Care as Method: Sound, Duration, and Multispecies Relation in Contemporary Art Practice

This thesis proposes care as a method of artmaking, not a subject, theme, or aesthetic position, but the actual structural logic through which a body of work is built, sustained, and understood. Working at the intersection of ecological art practice and relational aesthetics, it asks what happens when the encounter at the center of the work is not between two people but between species, infrastructures, and histories of use and what obligations that encounter generates.

The argument is developed through six interconnected works: installations, sound compositions, sculptures, …

Preservation Of Architectural-Religious Heritage In Modern Ukraine, Olga Gold, Maksym Vasalatiy, Olga Dobrodum

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines answers to a number of pressing questions regarding the preservation of architectural heritage in the modern world: what philosophical views underlie the preservation of world heritage; and what is unique about the protection of religious architectural heritage. The architectural philosophy of religious buildings represents a complex of original concepts, both material and spiritual. The hypothesis consists of constructing an algorithm and mechanism for protecting cultural heritage from the perspective of the philosophy of architecture in post-war Ukraine. The preservation of historical and cultural heritage sites is one of the most complex areas of activity in the fields …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Ontology Of The Discarded, Hae Young Kwon

Masters Theses

'Ontology of the Discarded' proposes a methodology for conferring existential legitimacy on everyday objects that are easily cast aside by turning them into jewelry. By projecting my own experience of once having been abandoned onto these trivial, voiceless things, the work offers consolation and a path to overcoming neglect. The thesis philosophically analyzes the human〝object relationship and the value judgments humans impose on objects, and, through research on related artworks, demonstrates how jewelry-fying quotidian items transforms both their value and their relationship with viewers. Each piece examines the object's inherent properties and, through strategic jewelryification, elevates it with a distinct …

El Presidio Hispano-Colonial: Estudio Del Discurso Moderno De Fortificación Del Imperio Español A Traves De Planos Y Mapas, Javier E. Astorga Villarroel Ph.D.

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project delves into the processes of ideation, design, projection, and knowledge-transfer around the Presidio, an iconoclastic fortification system deployed by the Spanish Empire while projecting its colonial power toward the Transatlantic region. Based on Bruno Latour’s classic theory on the agency of networks of meanings (also known as new materialism) applied to historical cartography, my investigation examines the production of techno-military knowledge around the presidios as they were depicted through plans, maps, and manuals while mapping out border areas over North America and the Caribbean, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. With archival research work performed at …

Collage As A Facilitator Of Connection And Belonging: An Application Of Art Therapy With Sgm Clients, Noa L. Shems

Expressive Therapies Theses

This research explored themes of connection and belonging in SGM clients in individual art therapy sessions through the medium of collage. An arts-based research method was developed utilizing the medium of collage in session with clients, followed with reflective response collages and journaling to analyze the data observed. Across 5 art therapy sessions, clients engaging in collage facilitated deeper therapeutic rapport and safety, enhanced a sense of connection with the self, and helped to process barriers and desires around clients’ close relationships.

Cultural Of Authenticity And Commodification: Analyzing The Aesthetic Waves And Collective Culture In The 2010s And 2020s, Stefanny Leung Yu

Student Theses

The “authentic self” is curated, aestheticized, and most notably, commodified. Digital algorithms, likes, views, and engagement are more than just digital metrics, they are the management of performance. For millions of other users — including the author herself — social media is the locus of personal expression. Most notably, sites like Tumblr, where users in the 2010s posted hazy images or overly filtered graphics along with melancholic song lyrics that match the vibe of the moment, expression was earnest and idealized. Today, social media in the 2020s, new creators like Hannah Neelaman, better known as Ballerina Farm, dress in pastoral …

Repair Rolodex: Exchanges, Changes, And Patchwork Parables, Ethan Howard

Masters Theses

This book is an index of nine exchanges with strangers whom I met online through email Listservs or by word of mouth. In these transactions, I offered to repair broken things for a trade-in-kind payment. Through the brief relationship between owner and designer, each interaction suggests that an object is almost never entirely obsolete despite its perceived obsolescence.

At the core of these trades is a grassroots protest of the landfill and a critique of our global capitalist commerce system. The apparent desire for and nature of these trades demonstrates that stories make our objects meaningful. Each interplay studies peoples’ …

Strange Stranger: A Visceral Skin Glaze Exploration Into The Neurodivergent Sensory Experience, Sam J. Lucas

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Sam Lucas

Sam creates ambiguous figurative objects predominantly in clay. Her creative practice draws on her experience of being a neurodivergent woman today, by exploring aspects of her own unique neurotype.

The visceral glaze exploration pieces were the precursor to the final forms for her body of work called ‘Strange stranger’ where she is exploring the weight and awkwardness of being in the body, the pain this alienation can cause, and ironically the beauty and humour that results from this diversity.

The surfaces of the pieces were attempting to describe the interoceptive, exteroceptive and alexithymic confusion that can occur at …

Unveiling Existentialism And Self-Expression: Utilizing The Arts, Raquel Eduardo Nunez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This analysis is an exploration of identity through the examination of art as a means of self-expression and societal critique. It delves into existentialism to explain the impacts of art on both positive societal experiences and negative interactions unique to the immigrant and Mexican American community. The artist, Raquel Eduardo Nuñez, examines their own art to dissect their position in life as a Mexican-born individual living in a foreign country. This method was chosen to allow a space of self-reflection and awareness to explore the components that shape identity and reveal art as a medium for interpretation of links between …

From Panels To Shelves: The Evolving Intersection Of Comics And Italian Libraries. History, Issues, Perspectives, Andrea Tosti

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Despite comics' popularity and cultural significance in Italy, its integration into Italian libraries has been slow, problematic, and uneven. This is reflected in the scarcity of academic research on the topic, which demands further in-depth exploration.

In the context of Italian libraries, characterized by chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, comics might be perceived as a low priority. However, as essential cultural institutions, libraries must strive to reflect both the contemporary era and the evolving reading habits of their audience. Comics, in this regard, could prove to be – and in part already are – a critical resource, a 'booster' for …

Strands Of Repair: Textile Treasures As Sustainable Pathways To Reconnect With The Lost Past, Sareekah Agarwaal, Ruby Kashyap Sood

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textiles, fundamental to all human experiences, are meaning-laden objects that possess a remarkable ability to evoke emotions and memories, serving as powerful mnemonic devices.

Almost everyone experiences unplanned encounters with textiles in their lifetime and in different contexts. Hence, most every piece is loaded with personal, cultural, or historical data, fostering a deep emotional connection between the owner and the object. Consequently, these textiles are cared for, preserved, and often repurposed. But not much literature exists on how textiles and their stories can be used to augment the understanding of the identity of an individual, a group, a region, or …

Negro Cloth: African American Textile Design History, Karen Baker

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Negro cloth is American history. Filled with the contributions to free and enslaved African Americans, this history has gone untold. Even within the narratives and historical archives on African Americans' history with cotton, this conversation goes beyond suffering, pain, and separation. The research reveals how African Americans contributed to indigo and cotton agriculture, weaving, and manufacturing from 1745 to 1865. The historical and narrative research has revealed the buried history of African American textile history, the American Civil War in Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project. The narratives reveal that enslaved African Americans were weavers who carded, spun, dyed, and …

Dung Dkar Cloak: Exploring Soft Interfaces For Sonic Interactions, Judit Eszter Kárpáti, Esteban De La Torre

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The importance of crossmodal interaction within the contemporary cultural, technological and scientific panorama has evidently gained significant attention due to its remarkable advantages in creating a meaningful, interwoven, and integrated experience. The use and recontextualization of textiles in such exploratory quest into the human senses has proven to be critical. Computational science, algorithmic logic and digital devices have always been rooted and closely interwoven with textile crafts and practices. Recent technological advancements have further combined technology and textile, generating interactive textile surfaces, constructing endless possibilities for multisensorial experiences. In this presentation we will examine how we can weave a sensitive …

Incursive Heritage: Socio-Digital Mediations Of Mediterranean, Maria Ida De Ioanni

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Drawing upon the ongoing research endeavors within my doctoral program, this paper articulates a dual objective. Firstly, it undertakes the recognition and systematic delineation of collaborative repositories hosted on social media platforms, which serve to revitalize and perpetuate textile traditions through the curation of oral histories and diverse forms of visiotextual materials. The focal point of this inquiry encompasses social media accounts that reconfigure and contest prevailing heritage narratives by foregrounding hitherto marginalized personal and communal accounts surrounding textiles and fabrics. Functioning as dynamic digital repositories, these accounts subvert conventional heritage discourses by not only archiving and structuring knowledge but …

Woven Life Systems, Melanie Olde

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

What is it like to be at the intersection between the natural and technological? I see plants as living cloth – can we build cloth using human-evolved technology (weaving) and natural life systems? In this practice-as-research, I take growth models from plants such as algae, then process these codes on a loom to exploring the emergence and narrative that develop.

Looms are tools and technology evolved with humans to organise systems of strands, connecting in myriad ways to form something new. Plants are systems of organised cells, dividing and branching creating functional entities. The commonalities are individual elements and rules …

Perception And Prospects Of Art Of Clothing Maintenance As A Sustainable Fashion, Boiso Maria Owodiong-Idemeko, Adetona Sekinat Ajoke, Udom Owodiong

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The study focused on the perception of the art of clothing maintenance and its prospects as a sustainable fashion for consumers in Lagos state. 250 respondents were involved. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Two hypotheses were formulated and a thirty-one (31) item questionnaire was the main instrument used to collect data for the study. The statistical tools used were, percentages, mean and Friedman’s test. The result revealed that, 200 (80%) perceived ripped clothes bring dismay to the wearer, 198 (79%), perceived ripped clothes needed to be reconstructed, 200 (80%) perceived consumers lack practical ability to repair clothes. 241 (96%) …

Speculative Futures With Southern California Fibershed, Lesley Roberts

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Regenerative agriculture disruptor Fibershed embraces and gives voice to the fullness of textile paradigms, economies, societies, ecologies, and skill traditions, seeks to address and rectify the sins and the promises of textile making and textile futures, and promotes healthy, holistic wellbeing. Fibershed is a movement of farmers, fashion activists, and makers growing a new textile economy. Founded in 2012 in a bioregion in Northern California, the community has grown to more than 75 chapters worldwide. Fibershed touts a soil-to-soil paradigm that asks us to consider the entire lifecycle of our textiles. It proposes a climate beneficial, regenerative system whose scope …

Wild Silk: Repairing And Healing Our Planet And Social Fabric, Karen Selk

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Wild silk, tasar, muga and eri, is much more than miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. Caring for wild silkworms in open jungles is nothing like raising white, cultivated silkworms - it is primal - a whole new perspective of the world of silk. The passage from rearing caterpillars to unravelling cocoons making yarn and weaving cloth that possesses the essence of mother nature, is tightly woven to an ancient living culture in remote forests of central and eastern India. It is a celebration of indigenous, Adivasi people ushering their heritage into the contemporary world while preserving …

Weaving Rituals For Resistance: Queering The Tallit, Sam Simons

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

“Weaving Rituals for Resistance” explores the history and significance of the tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl, as an immersive and transformative experience. Since 2022, I have been researching the historical development, making practices, and use of tallit, and its intersections with gender, sexuality, and power. Traditionally, tallit are worn by men; that is changing. There is no one way to feel about wearing tallit, but many share that they feel safe, protected and held. I worked with my rabbi to develop educational programming – a five-session course in Fall 2023. We covered history, textual sources for design and use, biblical …

Environmental Metrics In Action: Exploring U.S. Superfund Sites Affiliated With The Fashion Industry, Nidia K. Trejo

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Little is known of Superfund sites, long-term clean up sites, affiliated with the apparel and footwear supply chain in the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) manages the clean up of contaminated sites that pose a significant risk to human health and the environment under the Superfund program. A site can become contaminated if hazardous waste from industrial operations are mismanaged or dumped into the environment, in an uncontrolled manner. In this study, a proposed Superfund site (Mohawk Tannery in Nashua, New Hampshire), an active Superfund site (Ciba-Geigy Corp. in Toms River, New Jersery), and a …

Repatriation And Conservation, Sandra Sardjono, Kristal Hale, Christopher Buckley, Saiful Bakhri, Absari Hanifah

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textile represents one of the most important cultural heritages in Indonesia and is an integral part of social and religious lives of traditional communities. Due to colonial impact, shifts in indigenous belief systems and values, modernization, and tourism, many textiles have left their original environments. Many gained new contexts as museum objects housed in regional museums or private collections in Indonesia and abroad.

In Indonesian museums, these objects are cared for by museum staff with various backgrounds and levels of expertise, who are shifted to new positions every two-three years by the Indonesian Ministry. This methodology is intended as a …

Burning Fear, Amy Dorie

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Climate change is leading to more intense and devastating wildfires that lead to tragic loss of life and property (Cal Fire, 2018; Sinco et al., 2023) and disturbing environmental impacts (OECD, 2023). The purpose of this textile design was to create an activist design that communicates the fear and anxiety felt by those impacted by wildfires. First-hand accounts of those experiencing wildfires were researched as inspiration for the textile design. Based on the accounts, a selection of wildfire-related images were cropped in irregular shapes, placed around the canvas, and blended evoking a sense of chaos and devastation. An image of …

Caring Cloth Praxis: Ethics Of Loss, Practices Of Remembering, Suzanna James

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This research, in continual development as a part of early PhD study, is currently entitled ‘Ethics of Loss, Practices of Remembering’ and locates itself within the field of cultural sustainability. It is foregrounded by my MA thesis entitled ‘Caring Cloth’ and works in response to the words of Louise Bourgeois: ‘the needle is used to repair damage, its claim to forgiveness.’ My own socially and environmentally regenerative textiles practice considers the way in which personal practices of remembering can be developed in response to cultural sustainability.

This textiles practice develops explorative visual textile art and social textile practice research which …

23 Extinct Redwork Quilt Project: Repairing Relationships With Our More-Than-Human Kin, Stitch By Stich, Heather Kerley

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 2021, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed 23 species for delisting from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction. I would like to present my redwork quilt, Mourning Lost Kin (23 Extinct), which honors each of these species. I plan to share my process from researching and sketching each species to the embroidering of each block and the over-all construction of the quilt. But most importantly, I would love to share the stories of these species, the layers of meaning in this quilt, and the many questions it raised for me over the course of two years. …

Public Patriotism, Silent Dissent: Women And The Making Of Senninbari In Wartime Japan, Mariko Nagai

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the early years of the so-called “Fifteen Year War” (1931–1945), Japanese women and girls created senninbari when men received draft notices to serve. Often worn around soldiers’ waists underneath their uniforms, these sash-shaped talisman were embroidered with 1,000 red knots, each knot made by a woman. In a time when the Japanese government censored dissenting voices against its militaristic and nationalistic foreign and domestic policies, this government-encouraged gesture of stitching senninbari became one of the few ways in which women could voice their personal protests within patriarchal gender expressions (良妻賢母 “good wife, wise mother”). Senninbari’s design evolved with regional- …