Fine Arts Commons^™

Performing Conquest And Resistance In The Streets Of Eighteenth Century Potosí: Identity And Artifice In The Cityscapes Of Gaspar Miguel De Berrío And Melchor Pérez De Holguín, Agnieszka A. Ficek

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the ways in which Potosí's two most influential colonial artists represented the urban dynamics of race, class and labor in their depictions of the Andean 'City of Silver' during the eighteenth century, when silver production, profits and population were dramatically declining.

Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press And Fluxus, Meghan A. Dellacrosse

Theses and Dissertations

"Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press and Fluxus," positions Knowles’ Big Book (1966) as a case study of historical methodology and interdisciplinary artistic practice in the post-war period. This comprehensive analysis of Big Book, a work of art no longer extant, contextualizes its publisher, Something Else Press through Dick Higgins’ concept of “intermedia,” and important lesser-known junctures relevant to Fluxus and the group’s leader George Maciunas are illuminated. Knowles' early and lesser-known silkscreen paintings are also examined.

Leon Sun, Linda Hanes

International Faculty Researchers

Living and working in two countries provided a cultural contrast that has greatly inspired and influenced the art and design of Yuanliang (Leon) Sun, an associate professor of art at Western Michigan University.

Patrick Wilson, Christine Lena

International Faculty Researchers

New urban developments in the growing city of Chongqing, China have captured the imagination of Artist Patrick D. Wilson, a Western Michigan University assistant professor of sculpture and integrated media, whose art work is often influenced by architectural imagery.

R. Luke Dubois: Portraits & Landscapes, Richard Rinehart

Other Faculty Research and Publications

R. Luke DuBois handles data like origami, transforming a mundane instrumental base material into something unexpected, even beautiful. A More Perfect Uniontransforms the language from 19 million online dating profiles into an atlas of American love, and Hindsight is Always 20/20 turns each presidential State of the Union address into a linguistic eye chart.

DuBois similarly folds time into new shapes. Academycompresses 75 years of Oscar winning films into 1-minute vignettes. Vertical Music stretches 4.5 minutes of musical performance into 45 minutes of cinema, and SSBpresents a version of the Star Spangled Banner that takes 4 years …

Prancing Shadow Connecting Worlds, Tiffany D. Randle

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The practice of being conscious about the environment and how shadows, light, and movement create an intellectual space for different interpretations allows the viewer to make their own associations. Concrete, the ground that people of different shades walk on, to one person can look and seem like an ethereal and unknown environment, but to another may seem like a moving body of liquid. When artists stop and look at the simple things such a concrete, and water, or passersby they can capture a moment in time that transcends the mundane and suddenly the artist is in a position to present …

Dotphotozine Issue 5, September 2015, Students Of The Csusb Art Department, Thomas Mcgovern

Dotphotozine

No abstract provided.

Artificial Infinite, Brandon Daniels

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis examines the complex history of the sublime, specifically the sublime Void of the Romantics and the newer concept of the technological sublime. From there, I examine the genre of science fiction and it relationship to the sublime, the Void and the grotesque. I use specific examples such Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, and a few others to better understand and apply these concepts. Beginning with these examples, I start to posit what role special effects play in how these films embody these philosophical concepts.

Building on this foundation of research, I go on to …

Bar Rat, Macky Bliss

Art Journal

My main influences are usually the people who surround me, and the experiences that I face because of those people. Working as a bartender has directly impacted my art. Faces, expressions, emotions and behaviors intrigue me. Bartending allows me to be a participant in and observer of many unique human interactions and social codes that I use as material for my work. I often photograph the people I interact with, especially while bartending, to use as source material.

For a while I was focusing on extreme emotions such as grief, but I have become more interested in the nuances of …

Speaking My Language: Color And Geometry, Janelle Dunham

Art Journal

The first step in developing a geometric language that combines physical and digital processes: sketching with a mechanical pencil. With every sketch I consider the erasure markings, the horizontal or vertical composition, the intensity of each shape or line, the simplicity or complexity of each design, and the symmetry each design may or may not have. My designs reflect the influence of abstract artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich in addition to Bauhaus artists such as Josef Albers and Paul Klee.

The second step is to bring these sketches into Adobe Illustrator software, because it allows for the …

Endogenous, Rachele Romano

Art Journal

In my work I explore the exterior parts and interior sensations of the body, using both recognizable and imaginative abstract elements. Through this work I address issues affecting the body, specifically physical, sexual and verbal abuse. I’m interested in moments of trauma and their effects on the body. In my paintings I raise the questions: what goes on in the body? What could go on inside the body? What happens in the mind of person during a time of fear, and how does the body react to that? What would this look like on a canvas? My work explores the …

Art Journal 2015 - Vantage

Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Transmutation: One Thing Becoming Another, Price Hall

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My art emerges from decades of the experience of building myself, sensitively aware of accumulated experience and the weight of accrued memory. Responding to this life I so deeply appreciate the longer I live, as sculptor, painter and poet, I merge these individual aesthetic observations into a layered work of many reads. Offering poetic observation as a visual sensation beyond the ears’ hearing carried on a field of color connects at some interior emotional level which is absent or very different in the uniformity of type. Time is present in my current work. “Corrugations”, not only in the poetic images …

Light Sensitive, Andrew Thompson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

I am an excremental artist. I do not mean an artist who works with feces or is interested in manure but one whose artwork is expelled through the results of process. As a photographer, I am not as interested in indexing a location, a person or a moment as I am dissolving the structure of photography through the manipulation of photographic materials. I typically photograph landscapes that catch my attention for a myriad of reasons. The commonality between these images is anonymity of place. Hints of location are always present but never accentuated, instead their purpose is akin to a …

Talking To Boxes, Hugging Robots, Vita Eruhimovitz

Graduate School of Art Theses

Relationships between humans and technology are at the core of my artistic research. Human-machine communication is defined by the technological level of the machines, but even more so by the way they are perceived by humans. Concepts of artificial life and artificial intelligence gradually have become part of the everyday life of growing numbers of people, and while there is an ongoing effort to design an increasingly anthropocentric technology, our minds also adapt to the new technological reality. Through immersive installations and sculptural objects my practice explores this reality. My artwork is designed to communicate with and stimulate the viewers, …

Landmarks For Sleepwalkers, Isaac S. Howell

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Abstract:

In my recent work I have been interested in thinking about notions of instability. In order explore these notions, in this paper I will like to explore the relevance of postmodern literary theory and the color black in my work, as well as think about the importance of the grid as a tool for organization and ontological delineation.

I will be examining writing by Alain Robbe-Grillet, as well as art work by Mark Manders, Giorgio de Chirico, Kay Sage, and Ad Reinhardt.

The Misconception Of Knowing, The Invention Of Time; Curiosities & Introspections Of Vernacular Photography, Patricia D. Drummond

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Misconception of Knowing, the Invention of Time; Curiosities & Introspections of Vernacular Photography is a body of work that combines photography, artist books, and alternative processes in a series of pieces that explore the synergy between the act of creating vernacular or common photography, the photograph in its many forms, and the interaction with the photographic image at all the stages of its existence. It also exists in conjunction with this written monograph, which supports and gives insight into the work. Through the use of poems, sketchbook musings, the history of photography, critical theory and social norms within photography, …

Unmonumental Moment, Amy Holbein

Graduate Theses

This thesis statement investigates the coexistence of joy with grief, light alongside darkness, and the intersection of the divine with the ordinary, as they express themselves in my thesis “Unmonumental Moment.” In it, painting merges with sculptural forms to create a three-dimensional work that addresses the idea of duality. The exhibit is marked by the on going common elements in my work, namely the use of a saturated color palette, the incorporation of papier-maché with everyday detritus, dream imagery, and portals alluding to a parallel spiritual world. This statement analyzes the thesis components and examines them in light of art …

Situating Urban Moving Images: Illuminating Place, Annie Dell'aria

Graduate Student Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pollataggle: An Exhibition And Photo Book, Kaitrin R. Acuna

University Scholar Projects

Pollataggle is a series of photographs by Kaitrin Acuna that explores childlike imagination and the unreal. The imagery may be viewed at KaitrinAcuna.com and the following is a reflection on the process and outcome of creating the series. This paper reflects on the process of photographing each component of the final images, the inspiration, the process in Photoshop, and the exhibition of the work.

Standing Still, Young Tseng Wong

CGU MFA Theses

I am drawn to the in-between — to movement at the corners of the eyes, to the moments between one breath and the next. When we want to catch such moments we stand still, we pause, we wait, "with bated breath." At such moments, I believe, the potential exists for taking on different perspectives and for finding other points of view.

Standing still, in a state of stillness, is an action that encapsulates many of my concerns. My work takes form in objects and architecture that collaborate with bodies moving inside them. The space is structured, not as a system, …

The Process Of Curating Trace Of A Body : Creating Relationships And Building Experiences., Bailey Marie Mazik 1990-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the title suggests, this document details the course of curating an exhibition titled Trace of a Body and addresses larger themes of curating contemporary art. During spring semester 2015 the entire researching, planning, and implementation of the exhibition portion of this Master’s thesis project took place. Trace of a Body was exhibited from March 12, 2015 – April 5, 2015 in Gallery X, Schneider Hall, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville. The exhibition was a monographic show of work by Chris Radtke, a prominent contemporary artist working in Louisville, KY. It was a great opportunity to bring together the …

The Artist, The Workhorse: Labor In The Sculpture Of Anna Hyatt Huntington, Brooke Baerman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) was an American sculptor of animals who founded the nation’s first sculpture garden, Brookgreen Gardens, in 1932. Hyatt Huntington, whose personal papers are housed at Syracuse University, is an important yet understudied artist. Focusing on Hyatt Huntington’s sculptures in Brookgreen Gardens and on the gardens themselves, which also included a zoo, this paper will examine themes of labor in the artist’s oeuvre.

Hyatt Huntington placed an emphasis on hard work as she fought to distinguish herself as a sculptor in a male-dominated field. The products of her labor often venerate the work of animals, from bulls …

Enduring Peripheries, Anna Yeroshenko

MFA in Photography and Integrated Media Theses

In the 80s when Russian state-sanctioned architectural production consisted of standardized buildings that deplored any unnecessary ornament or decoration, an architect functioned only as an interpreter of numerous limiting factors. As an act of protest against the stagnation in architecture, a group of young architects began to create projects that existed only on paper. For them ‘Paper Architecture‘ became a way of bypassing restrictions and dissenting, a way to critique the dehumanizing nature of the architectural style that prevailed at that time. Spatial compositions, which were hard to comprehend visually, elements of inverse perspective, and impractical, idealistic environments depicted a …

Tales From The Fells, Anne Elder

MFA in Photography and Integrated Media Theses

Our relationship with the natural world is complicated and under scrutiny as we make irrevocable changes to the earth. We enter the woods to get lost, and to find ourselves. We walk there to find thrills, peace, inspiration; to hear ourselves think, to be surprised, to make profit. Our childish fears may have changed from bears, monsters and getting lost, replaced by adult fears (bears, unsavory humans, getting lost). The woods may frighten us or be a place of comfort, but it is rarely a neutral experience. When we lose access to these spaces, it affects our ability to find …

Path To Equilibrium, Foozhan Kashkooli

Graduate Theses

This statement outlines the theoretical, historical, and conceptual influences that shape my Master of Fine Arts thesis at Winthrop University. It further describes and analyzes the series of paintings that compose my thesis Equilibrium, each one a reflection of my aesthetic experience as I evolved as an artist. As I will illustrate, the aesthetic experiences reflected in my work are intertwined with the artist or movement that inspired me at the time. The series consists of seven large-scale, abstract paintings, where I explore balancing form, shape, and color. In this thesis statement, I am asserting my progression as an evolving …

Power To The People: A Comprehensive Look At Crowdsourcing Initiatives In Cultural Institutions, Danielle Pace

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Today, crowdsourcing has become an integrative approach to completing projects using the help of the general populous. These projects aid museum staff by processing large quantities of data, which otherwise could not be completed due to time and/or staff restraints. Through crowdsourcing, cultural institutions have the ability to outsource these tasks to volunteers, who can complete them at much faster rates. Although staff members are needed to validate and supervise these projects, crowdsourcing remains a useful tool in increasing public interactions and project efficiency.

This thesis presents a thorough outline of what crowdsourcing is, how it is being utilized, and …

Presence-At-Hand, Eric Lyle Schultz

Graduate School of Art Theses

Abstract

The writing that follows is intended to provide a theoretical framework for the motives behind my practice. The primary concerns addressed are the reception, transmission, and physical shape of knowledge. I will discuss a human condition that exists as a byproduct of both the legacy of representation as well as the innate biology of the brain. I will argue that as a society we are governed by the residue of an extreme logic, and that this condition places severe margins on our potential for creative solutions. I will propose that our ability to create meaning is stifled by the …

Breaching, Margaux Crump

Graduate School of Art Theses

I make objects that behave like bodies—graceful hybrids that are effortlessly cultural and natural, masculine and feminine, plant and animal. Shifting and slipping between unfixed identities, they exist as multiplicities. When these bodies touch, power and pleasure are fluidly exchanged. However, power is not structured here as a binary and pleasure is not finite; both have the potential to flow between bodies, blurring boundaries and rendering individuality delicate.

My work is primarily rooted in the relationship between desire, intimacy, and control, with the body acting as a site of power play. This body may be plant, animal, sculpture, or material. …

Traces Of The Hand., Molly F. Passafiume 1989-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This body of work, titled “Traces of the Hand,” consists of a series of mixed media pieces that are made up of one or more clay forms that act as vessels to contain handmade paper. Each piece is a cross section or artifact that I created through abstraction and repetition. The clay acts as a frame for preserving these artifacts. The paper is arranged in a manner which abstracts natural patterns that mimic each other: the flow of water, the grain of wood, the strata of rocks, and the swirls of fingerprints. Each individual work captures and enhances a natural …