Visual Studies Commons^™

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

The Shape Of Things: A Theatrical Examination Of The Progression Of Emotional Manipulation, Kylee Lorio

Honors Projects

In Neil LaBute's work, The Shape of Things, graduate art student Evelyn Thompson meets security guard and future muse, Adam Sorenson, in an art museum during his late-night shift. Their meeting poses the question of just how far humans are willing to go for love. In less than two hours, LaBute’s insight regarding manipulation between intimate partners calls the integrity of our own interpersonal relationships into question. This project encapsulates the materials of Bridgewater College student Kylee Lorio while directing this production during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Puppy In The Polka Dot Pajamas: A Multimedia Approach To Children's Literature, Grace Phillips

Honors Projects

In a world that seemingly becomes crueler by the day, some topics are not handled with the tact they require and deserve. Issues of bullying and self-expression can often evoke undesirable emotions when discussed. Although it may be difficult to achieve, every child deserves to grow up in a world free of bullying that promotes authentic self-expression. To do my part – however minor it may be – in fostering a more accepting community, I used this project as an opportunity to create a story that shared anti-bullying messaging in a suitable and enjoyable manner for children.

This Must Be The Place: A Short Film, Reagan Shull

Honors Projects

This Must Be The Place is a short film categorized as a Coming of Age Mystery with strong narrative ties to Magical Realism set in the heart of small town America. The key thematic ideas are identity, female relationships, isolation, friendship, and loss. This story emphasizes each person’s struggle for identity, and the isolation that can be brought upon themselves when they do not know who they are. Further, the difficulties regarding the search for one’s dreams without a strong sense of identity are also discussed in this narrative. Ultimately, this story is about dealing with isolation as we grow …

Répresentations De La Banlieue Dans Le Cinéma Français Contemporain, Yaw Owusu Sekyere

Honors Projects

Inhabitants of the poor French banlieues are rejected and isolated from the larger French society, who refuse to acknowledge their marginalization. As a result, the cycle continues where no political change is made. The French film genre, cinéma de banlieue, seeks to explain the perspectives of the underrepresented and marginalized groups within France. This honors project analyzes the representations of the banlieue through the films of La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz), Wesh wesh qu’est-ce qui se passe ? (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche), Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma), Divines (Houda Benyamina), and Banlieusards (Kery James & Leïla Sy). These films focus on the …

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project, Kayla Luteran

Honors Projects

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project is a cross-media marketing strategy. The main purpose of this project was to develop visually appealing, informative graphic elements and branding to effectively promote a musical performance. This is interdisciplinary in nature and includes written and oral communication.

While many music students post about their senior recital on social media or place flyers, they do not develop a thorough methodology for generating buzz about their event. Although musical preparation is of utmost importance for a performance, I believe that time should be spent on all aspects of planning the recital. With …

The Scars Of War: The Demonic Mother As A Conduit For Expressing Victimization, Collective Guilt, And Forgiveness In Postwar Japanese Film, 1949-1964, Sophia Walker

Honors Projects

Contemporary American viewers are familiar with the vengeful and terrifying ghost women of recent J-Horror films such as Ringu (Nakata Hideo, 1998) and Ju-On (Shimizu Takashi, 2002). Yet in Japanese theater and literature, the threatening ghost woman has a long history, beginning with the neglected Lady Rokujo in Lady Murasaki’s 11th century novel The Tale of Genji, who possesses and kills her rivals. Throughout history, the Japanese ghost mother is hideous and pitiful, worthy of fear as well as sympathy, traits that authors and filmmakers across the centuries have exploited. This project puts together four films that have never before …

Relocating Pictures: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Transnational Islamic Images, Mary S.W. Campbell

Honors Projects

This paper and accompanying photo series analyze and discuss Western images of Islamic migration. Incorporating a variety of disciplines, they evaluate the emotional responses of Americans towards images of Muslim migrants and transnational issues. Through surveying and literary analysis, they demonstrate the need for new images of the Muslim migrant that allow for greater emotional engagement that leads to action. My photographs, taken in Spain and Morocco, are a first step at discovering what is needed in these new images.

Seeking Solace: Regret, Grief, Anxiety, Rebecca Schroeder

Honors Projects

Seeking Solace: Regret, Grief, Anxiety is a triptych video and artifact piece inspired by the abstract analysis of my dreams. It recognizes worries held within my subconscious and brings them to life through graphic design, photography, and video. The process of creating provides a new perspective of looking at both art and occupational therapy as methods of solving emotional distress.

I have recorded over 80 of my dreams in the past year. In these dreams, regret, grief, and anxiety are common themes. These themes are represented in three triptychs that cycle through past, present, and future problems. The cycling of …

Mutual Aesthetics, Joseph D. Sherry

Honors Projects

At first glance, it may seem surprising that I’ve paired Murnau and Ford. Murnau is considered a modernist whose style is rooted in Germany’s stylistic heritage and is best remembered for films noted for their artful aestheticism and technical innovation. Ford, on the other hand, is recognized as a classicist, best remembered today for his mastery of Hollywood narrative filmmaking, in particular the genre of the western, a position crystallized in his famous self-description: “My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns.” Yet despite their diametrically opposed positions on the relationship of film to art, both directors were noted for their …

Malaria: The Story Of Struggle, Suffering, And Eradication, Stevey Willey

Honors Projects

Every year over two million men, women, and children around the world are affected by malaria, a disease that can easily be prevented with awareness, education, and support. In April 2014 I held a malaria event in which guests had the opportunity to witness the effects malaria has on people, not just physically, but emotionally and economically as well. The death rate has moved from one person every 30 seconds to one every 60 seconds since 2010. The improvement in the rate of deaths has resulted from the increase in awareness of this disease. It is my goal with this …

"Play Along" With The Authors: Half-Life 2, Bioshock, And Video Game Narrative, Samy Masadi

Honors Projects

Applies narrative analysis to two story-based video games, Half-Life 2 and BioShock, arguing that such games combine traditional narrative elements in innovative ways. Includes discussion of narratology, ludology, and game narrative theory.