Visual Studies Commons^™

Man.A.Machine.Txt, James H. Pardue

ELO (un)supervised 2026

man.A.machine.txt is an audiovisual composition generated in real time through a real-time multimedia system that remediates the words of Julien Offray de La Mettrie’s Man a Machine, a foundational text of eighteenth-century materialist philosophy. The system produces cut-up poetry and a particle cloud, transforming the original text into a shifting field of language and data. In Man a Machine, La Mettrie argues that body and soul are inseparable, proposing sleep as the moment in which their unity becomes undeniable. By remediating this text, I seek to reactivate its materialist concerns within our present technological condition—one increasingly defined by …

Adapting Identities: Multimodal Expressions Of African Women’S Agency In Francophone Film​, Alicia M. Hilaire

Department of French Studies Graduate Student Association Conference

No abstract provided.

Visual Aids And Numeracy In Healthcare: Leveraging The Drawing Effect, Zephyr J. Markley

Capstone Showcase

Healthcare decisions often require patients to interpret numerical risk information under stress, yet many struggle with low numeracy, which can distort comprehension and undermine informed consent. Well-designed visual aids can improve diagnostic inference, calibrate confidence, and support better choices, especially for patients with limited numeracy, but their impact depends on whether users can actually interpret the format accurately. Drawing may further enhance these tools by adding a tactile, generative layer that engages visual, semantic, and motoric processing while helping patients organize information into concrete models.

Passive visual aids appear useful but limited because they often position patients as observers rather …

De Vente A Alemania, Pepe A ¿Te Has Venido A Alemania, Pepe?: Aspectos Económicos Y Culturales De La Emigración En Dos Generaciones Distintas, Daniel López Fernández

Homage to Alexander von Humboldt: Travels to and from Spain Throughout the Centuries / Homenaje a Alexander von Humboldt: Viajes hacia y desde España de todos los siglos

En Vente a Alemania, Pepe, el epónimo protagonista decide seguir el camino de muchos de sus compatriotas y abandonar temporalmente España con la intención de ganar más dinero en el extranjero, una esperanza que se ve pronto frustrada. Décadas más tarde, la crisis económica que comenzó en 2008 parece haber dado lugar a una repetición de este capítulo tragicómico de la historia española. No obstante, existen diferencias notables entre ambas generaciones. La migración actual atañe a una generación muy distinta de la que se marchó en los años sesenta y setenta. Se trata, en muchos casos, de inmigrantes con una …

Sporarts: The Artistic Representation Of Athleticism, Joe Kraus

Capstone Showcase

This paper aims to describe the artistic value of sports photography. This paper includes academic theories and themes like the halo effect, theories of seeing (scopophilia, Laura Mulvey, male gaze, sporting gaze, gaze theory), and medium theory. Creative themes include architecture, gender in sports (Title IX), and film, digital, and experimental photography. Sports discussed include men's and women's ice hockey, baseball, american football, men's basketball, and men's soccer.

Loneliness, Superheroes & The Uses And Gratifications Theory, Jason Kramer

Capstone Showcase

This paper tries to analyze the appeal of superheroes through the uses and gratifications theory, and takes a look at how the audience reacts to superhero media that portrays loneliness within it's heroes.

The Journey Of Life Itself, Ashton Webb

Symposium of Student Scholars

Life Itself, written and directed by Dan Fogelman, is a heartbreaking tale featuring three different couples and the journey that life takes them on. Throughout the film there are common themes of heartbreak, marital problems, and death. The three stories are joined together by one devastating event, and Fogelman shows how beauty can be made from ashes. In this presentation, I will explore the themes of love, heartbreak, and depression and how these themes shaped the film, allowing Fogelman to intertwine three stories into one in order to tell an interconnected story. Though the film was not well received by …

Comic Books, Satire, And The American Police State: Lessons From The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, Jamie Michaels

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the spirit of the #DefundThePolice and #BlackLivesMatter movements, protestors in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) declared sovereignty over 5½ city blocks. Emboldened by the potential for mass mobilization enabled by the COVID-19 pandemic protestors attempted to establish a racially egalitarian society that would exist without the police, the traditional enforcement mechanism of the white supremacist American state.

This paper explores how Alex Graham’s Dog Biscuits (2021) and Simon Hanselmann’s, Crisis Zone (2021) portray the ways CHAZ protestors utilized absurdity in the face of extreme violence to enact indiffernation—a unique affect comprised of indifference and determination. This affect …

Selections From Divinatio Diver, Sculptural Antipathia In Atonement Transcendo, And Mechanika Momento: Creatio Forecaster, Antonie Frankie Aquino

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

It is fated inspiration which penetrates the heart, satisfies the collective soul, and offers its spirit to the vastness of ceremonial vision. Vision becomes sound and sound forms a poetic voice displaced— this displacement radiates a mythologized poetic voice serving as a lyrical object, theogonic lyre, and the genealogical muse. Selected poems from Divinatio Diver, Sculptural Antipathia: In Atonement Transcendo and Mechanika Momento: Creatio Forerunner, the collected poems orchestrate a tryptic voice that dismantles the outward magnitude of the self by subverting the antithetical self through spiritual and organic sensualness.This mythopoeic tripartism simultaneously interconnects with religion, theology, and metaphysics which …

Disney Princess Films And Their Effects On Gender And Body Image Through The Social Learning Theory, Jessica Yakubovsky

Capstone Showcase

Many of us grew up watching Disney Films and throughout the last decade and prior, the Walt Disney Company has created a variety of characters whom we grew up alongside. As we watched these films we found ourselves within the characters and learned things through them. This thesis paper aims to analyze Disney Princess Films and their profound effects on Gender and Body image through the theoretical perspective of the Social Learning theory. I will analyze Classic Disney princesses such as Snow White and Cinderella, and modern princesses such as Mulan(1998) and Merida (2011). My critical analysis indicates that Disney …

El Abrazo De La Serpiente O Un Mise-En-Scène Sin Fronteras, Sandra Ortiz-València

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

El abrazo de la serpiente es una de las obras cumbre del cine latino americano que más reconocimiento internacional ha obtenido, pero ¿por qué el filme de Ciro Guerra fascinó a un público tan amplio y diverso, obteniendo premios en lugares tan alejados y dispares como Montreal o Yereván, por nombrar alguno? Esta presentación realiza un análisis en profundidad de la puesta en escena en El abrazo para explicar el lenguaje audiovisual con el que el filme de Ciro Guerra construye una narrativa cinematográfica alejada de las formas dominantes, pero habilitada para emocionar a audiencias de todo el mundo. Tomando …

Memorias | Electronic Literature + Live Coding Performance, Jessica A. Rodriguez Miss, Rolando Rodriguez, Alejandro Brianza, Luis M. Guzman

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Memorias is a web-based artistic project by Jessica Rodríguez developed through the Estuary platform —an online platform to host live coding languages. It is based in six autobiographical writings connected to the way she “hears”, “writes”, “watches”, “reads”, “sees” and “listens” to the word. Through these texts, six code works were designed and programmed, hybridizing natural and computing languages by parsing three existing live coding languages: Tidal Cycles, Punctual, and CineCer0.

Together, Memorias’ languages collide different materialities as well as visual and sonic approaches, going from voices in English, Spanish, Cello and Paetzold samples, audio and visual synthesis, and pre-recorded …

Poetry For Seers Or The Peruvian Visual Poetic Tradition In Front Of New Media, Michael Hurtado, Pamela Medina, Enrique García, Michael Prado

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Since the first decades of the twentieth century, Peruvian poetic tradition has been characterized by experimental uses of language. Among these possibilities, some records tensioned this medium from the link with the plastic arts, as in the case of the poetry of José María Eguren, while others opted for the playing with the spatiality and visuality of the blank sheet, such as in the case of the work of Carlos Oquendo de Amat. However, it is not until the appearance of the poetry of César Vallejo, specifically with a poems like Trilce in 1922, that these breakages force us to …

Productive Misreading In Intermedia Art: Four Approaches By A Musician, Jeff Morris, Elisabeth Blair

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This discussion examines the evolution and lessons of four artistic performance works that engage with text and imagery with the mindset of a composer, rather than as an author or visual artist. The works involve computer music, improvisation, video art, generative art techniques, and challenging aesthetics. An analytical discussion reveals that different forms and mechanisms of reading are manifest in the artworks, and reflections upon these elucidate the intermedial nature of reading and the productive, expressive potential of interfering with these processes.

2020 Icrcc Proceedings Table Of Contents, Conference Organizers

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

These proceedings are a representative sample of the presentations given by professional practitioners and academic scholars at the 2020 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference (ICRCC) held March 9-11, 2020. The ICRCC is an annual event that takes place the second week in March in beautiful sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference hosts are faculty and staff from the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. The goal of the ICRCC is to bring together prominent professional practitioners and academic scholars that work directly with crisis and risk communication on a daily basis. We define crisis and risk broadly to include, for …

The Cultivation Theory And Reality Television: An Old Theory With A Modern Twist, Jeffrey Weiss

Capstone Showcase

George Gerbner, a Hungarian-born professor of communication, founded the cultivation theory, one of the most popular and regarded theories in the communications world. Developed in the mid 20th century, the theory focus on the long-term effects of television on people. Longer exposure to signs, images and people on television cultivates their perception of reality in the real world. The television became a household staple during this time. Families often spent time together watching programming together, however, it played out different effects for each person. Television's constant visual and auditory stimulation on a person made it easier to cultivate certain messages, …

Edward Said’S Orientalism: Trapped In Time, Samantha Glass

Capstone Showcase

Edward Said developed his theory of Orientalism in 1978. His theory looked at how Western cultures have treated the East, which includes Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. There is differentiation on what parts of the Occident view the Orient, as the United States has become more tied with the Middle East. In contrast, Europe’s vast history of trade and colonization has connected them with Africa and Asia. The image that has been created has belittled cultures, taken away their meaning, and risks the people in the culture from abandoning it altogether. When power becomes a significant part …

Biafra And The Politics Of Humanitarian Consumption, Chi-Chi Ayalogu

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-70) is overwhelmingly represented by photographs of malnourished, sickly looking and often protein-deficient children, iconic and complex images that encapsulate the narrative of an impoverished black Africa in the western imagination. While these photographs reveal the grievous, inhuman atrocities that took place in Biafra, they have come to be negatively associated with the entirety of black Africa, as they tend to validate inaccurate ideas of homogeneity on the continent. Yet despite their homogenizing effect, Biafran leaders re-appropriated images of suffering for propaganda use, specifically to elicit a humanitarian response and thereby procure aid and resources from denizens …

The Reflection Of Sub Continental Primitive Archetype Mother In The Films Of Ritwik Ghatak, Zuairijah Mou

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Ritwik Ghatak is one of the significant Indian filmmakers in the Indian subcontinent. The touch of the culture of Bengal is clearly evident in the films of Ritwik Ghatak. Before analyzing the role of the primitive mother archetype in the scenes or in the development of the characters in his films, it is necessary to understand the origin of the primitive mother archetype.

The primitive mother archetype or maternal form is the statements, figure, myth, pattern, form, use etc. which has been existing in any culture for a long time. For example, the form of 'Mother' in Bengal is worshiped …

Empathizing With “The Other”: Visualization And Perspective Taking, Lisa Spitz, Liv Cummins

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

As today’s youth blossom into adulthood, they will simultaneously be challenged to develop their sense of self/identity and to cultivate their ability to embrace differences, all while being bombarded by visual media and messaging. Research literature on perspective taking provides a framework by which students can develop an understanding of their own perspective, imagine the world from an “other” perspective, and make connections that link to productive actions (Selman, 1971). Perspective taking as a concept has been linked to greater empathy, compassion, and prosocial behavior (Hardwood and Farrar, 2006). Yet the mechanism for enabling productive perspective taking is unclear. In …

Visual Influence And Youth Empowerment, Rebecca A. Cote

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

During adolescence, youth start to look outside of their spheres of family to explore the greater world and they are often left with visual media as the go-to source of information. Media images are contrived to provoke meaning through the use of signs and how they are presented and they manipulate images to impart messages. Youth need to be literate in visual language in order to discern the implied influence.

From Locus Amoenus To Locus Horribilis: Provincial And Urban Spaces Of Cultural (Re)Assertion And Hegemony In Yates And Sigel’S When The Mountains Tremble And Bustamante’S Ixcanul, Katrina Abad

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

The trope of locus amoenus, or the idyllic representation of heaven on earth, and its counterpart locus horribilis, or the mundane incarnation of hell, was first critically defined by Ernst Robert Curtius in 1953 and identified in religiously influenced literature as early as Latin and medieval European works. Since then, the locus theory has appeared in numerous secular texts and films, such as Marcelo Ferrari’s Sub Terra (2004), as a means of distinguishing the once-pristine ‘purity’ of provincial spaces from the physically and metaphorically cramped mines and buildings produced by an urbanized modernity. This essay seeks to translate …

The Anti-Hero Perspective Of Sebastián Silva’S The Maid, Amber Bradley

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Many contemporary Latin American films portray a character or a protagonist that strives to bring in an audience to emphasize the “underdog” and their role in society. In Sebastián Silva’s Chilean film, The Maid (2009), Raquel is a maid and nanny, who achieves the exact opposite throughout the movie. This servant’s societal perspectives concerning distinct classes and gender roles are shown through her photographs and passive aggressive actions towards some of the family members and the other women, who are hired to help her lighten the housework of the home. Raquel’s attitude, mistreatment and tricks demonstrate her apparent desire to …

Cinematographic Resources As Meaningful Affordances In A Foreign Language Class, Denise Osborne

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Cinematographic resources as meaningful affordances in a foreign language class.” In this presentation, Osborne will discuss a proposal for use of films as works of art in foreign languages classes. She will show how cinematographic features (e.g., sound, color, lighting, camera angles, mise-en-scène) and their implication for film narrative − rarely emphasized in foreign language classrooms − can be a powerful tool to engage students in a dialogical and ecological construction of knowledge. Consideration of cinematographic features in scenes from the Brazilian Portuguese films Abril Despedaçado (Cohn & Salles, 2001) and Raízes e Asas (Cabral & Pimenta, 2011), and …

Scapegoating In The Films By Alejando Fernández Almendras, Ilka Kressner

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Chilean filmmaker Fernández Almendras has examined the processes of victimization of the “poor man” in several of his feature films, most prominently Matar a un hombre [To Kill a Man] (2014, Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Price at Sundance Festival) and Aquí no ha pasado nada [Much Ado About Nothing] (2016). Both works exemplify processes of victimization through verbal performative acts: words in the form of humiliations, menaces and blackmail become the fatal weapons of scapegoating.

Blade Runner And The Divine Menace, Alexander W. Pickens

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Following the decline of Christianity in mainstream Western culture, a void rose in the moral and societal code. Those writers that emerged presented alternate visions that worked their way into the literature of the 20th century. Karl Marx's interpretation of the structure of labor in capitalism presented a new societal hierarchy whose finer points have been worked out in the complex film Blade Runner. This dystopian nightmare, in which a Marxist interpretation of current society bogged down by the ennui of capitalist accumulation is confronted, describes a new religious order based upon this economic theory. Central to this reimagining …

An Analysis Of Psychological Manipulation In Military Culture, Kevin V. Chu

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

While strict discipline is substantiated as necessary by the armed forces, this creates an environment where individual decision-making is oppressed in favor of mob mentality. Much like how individuals adhere to the culture of common society, the military presents its own social structures for its soldiers. The film A Few Good Men (1992) explores these military institutions where its hierarchal structure emphasizes motifs of obedience, ideology, conformity, and labels, which are central to how it deals with unpredictable problems. Although necessary, these shape the underlying vulnerable psychology of soldiers who learn to view themselves as instruments for superiors, to coincide …

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …

Buster Keaton's Comedic Innovations, Tyler P. Templeton

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

A brief examination of Buster Keaton's contributions to cinematic comedy starting circa 1920, and specifically his progressive fusion of comedy with dramatic narrative. Keaton's innovations in the genre have allowed for his work to influence many contemporary filmmakers today, one of the most prominent examples being Wes Anderson.

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis’S Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This study examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It suggests that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. It finds that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of film, this study demonstrates a connection between documentary film and Riis’s social documentary photography and public slide exhibitions. The study concludes that in order …