College of Visual and Performing Arts
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This collection contains ETD documents from the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
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Item Fighting Spirit(2007-12-13T14:21:48Z) Pichocki, Jillian; Pichocki, JillianFIGHTING SPIRIT is the title of a thesis exhibition by Jillian Pichocki. It is a photographic series of large and mediumscale silver gelatin prints which focuses on the aging process of men engaged in the sport of boxing. In the past five decades, the socially accepted roles of men and women have changed. Whereas men often provided the sole source of income for the family; women served as the homemaker, maintaining the house, raising the children, and providing nourishment. The inspiration for this series stemmed from the relationship with my late grandfather who passed away in 1997. He was 79 when he died and it was his vitality and determination to remain selfsufficient that instilled my sense of compassion towards elderly men. I never met my grandmothers (both died from cancer when I was young) and therefore never witnessed, first hand, the physical affects of the aging process on a woman. Senior years can be difficult for many reasons. However, by pairing the fragility of age with the machismo associated with boxing allowed me to examine, metaphorically, the strength that exists within. More specifically, for the men of this series who once radiated strength and independence. This work renewed their perspective on life, as well as demonstrate, what it means to have a “fighting spirit.” My thesis will explain the journey that led to choosing to work with this subject matter. It will also explain the influences and technical processes involved with the photographic medium used.Item Inspiration to Impulse: Inviting the Spectator to Enter In(2009-07-25T16:14:40Z) Fang, Adriane; Fang, AdrianeThe thesis project, impulse Present, was a site-specific work presented in two separate public performances. The first performance was on September 22, 2008, as part of the George Mason University’s Fall for the Book Festival, and the second performance was on September 27, 2008 during “Clarendon Day,” a neighborhood street festival in Arlington, VA. This project included a 19-member cast, involved audience participation and used improvisational elements within a loosely choreographed structure. The duration of the work was approximately 30 minutes. In this work, the audience was invited to physically join in spontaneous duets with the dancers. Given the esoteric nature of modern art and the reluctance of many potential audience members to experience it, the predominant question was: “How can I create a work where the audience is invited to be participatory yet doesn’t feel pressured to ‘perform’ when they intended to observe?”Item Creature Alterations, Myth & Transformations(2009-07-25T16:50:10Z) Mueller, Johanna; Mueller, JohannaThis thesis seeks to describe and illuminate the personal mythology in my work, from my own narrative to the cultural and historical references, pattern and design, ancient myth and legend that inhabit the work. The eight symbols used in my Graduate Thesis Exhibit, Creature Alterations, Myth and Transformations, and their association with the icon, fetish and totem will be discussed in depth. In the following pages I will also explore the impact of the printmaking process, materials and its lasting effect on my artistic sensibilities.Item War Correspondents: Ellipses From Within The Bubble(2009-07-25T18:29:32Z) Watkins, Sean; Watkins, SeanWar Correspondents: Ellipses from Within the Bubble distills the mapping of physical and emotional paths into a physical and visual conclusion of my journey discovering memories from participants of the secret war in Laos. In my thesis, I talk about abstracting the medium and content of traditionally understood linear documentary narrative into new media content. I engage in the importance of activating the exhibition space with an asynchronous and harmonious symbiosis of form and content, each inextricable from the other, in order to successfully challenge the notion of documentary formats. I discuss my audience’s responses to my work. The process of designing, building, and the difficulties and surprises encountered along the way are described. I conclude my thesis with the importance of how the way I make things gives me different satisfactions, and how those discoveries guide me into the next project.Item Claritas: Where Light Meets Form(2009-07-25T19:15:16Z) Herce, Clarita M.; Herce, Clarita M.This thesis describes how I came to create the body of work for Claritas: An MFA Thesis Exhibition, the culmination of my thesis project at George Mason University. I reflect on the journey that brought me to painting; my painting process; as well as the philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic influences that led me to create the paintings in my exhibition. In the studio, I struggled to find light in my paintings, which mirrored my own inner process of stripping away the dark veil of ego to reveal the claritas, or the radiant brightness of light, that I discovered within myself. As I was working in the studio, I was only dimly aware of my unconscious motivations to paint. Through my overt exploration of the perceptual issues of color, light and form, I expressed my personal process of individuation. I propose that my paintings are metonyms of this inner experience, as evidenced by the formal qualities and documented responses to my work.Item Sleepwalking: The Creative Process(2009-08-26T19:12:55Z) Reedy, Karen; Reedy, KarenThis document describes the choreographic inspiration and process for the creation of Sleepwalking, a dance commissioned by the Kennedy Center’s Local Dance Commissioning Project, performed September 4 and 5, 2008, by Karen Reedy Dance. Sleepwalking evolved into a thirty-minute work structured with the theme of one full night’s sleep, beginning with bedtime and concluding with the sunrise of morning. The traditional theater space configuration was altered in order for the dancers to move through the audience space, providing an intimate atmosphere between the performers and the audience.Item Multiplying The Body: Gender Performance Remembered and Reconstructed(2009-09-17T17:46:24Z) Serafin, Susan; Serafin, SusanOur identities and gestures are transferred from our cultural memory. Photography, movies, and more recently, virtual reality, are cultural and social markers that juxtapose the "ideal image of self" with the self as experienced in everyday interactions. How do we make sense of gesture, expression, dress, and body language? If what we see gives mixed or ambiguous information about a person’s gender, how do we respond? What implications (effects) does ambiguous gender or indeterminate gender performance have on others? To what extent do we judge others based on our perceptions of their sexual identity and orientation? Multiplying The Body approaches the body as a remembered experience. Our identities and gestures are transferred from our cultural memory. What implications or cultural changes are transforming our ideals of "self" and gender identity? Are cyberspace, real-time animation, computer games, Second Life, motion graphics, and our access to cosmetic beautification adding to our ability to reconstruct images of ourselves? What is the cultural impact of seeing ourselves in virtual environments? How are Millennials and Digital Natives changing the way we see, live, and express identity? I believe that virtual experience has a long-lasting impact on the viewer. Can virtual worlds offer a place to try on ambiguous identity that isn't judged by others? I have always been interested in how our surroundings affect our behavior, our identity, and how we interact with others. We are always categorizing: instinctively we look for clues to help us categorize people at a glance as male, female, single, married, straight, gay. I am interested in capturing those experiences that go unacknowledged in our daily lives: the moments when we question what we think we know, and perhaps realize that we can 'see' differently.Item Across the Body(2010-06-08T13:35:40Z) Sarkissian, Nelly Achkhen; Sarkissian, Nelly Achkhen; Endress, EdgarThis thesis is a plateau for cinematic documentaries that illuminates the story of cultural religious tattooing ritual of the Armenians, neighboring in the Middle East and Eastern Europe; A camera-pan that exposes the present geo-political regional conflict between Lebanon and Israel to the young generation, who at the present is restricted due to their Armenian-Lebanese identity to have access to their past. It is a momentary meditation on border and identity conflicts that creates an obstruction for reconnecting to the memory of the path of their both Lebanese and Armenian Christian identity. I challenge in my thesis the representation process of reconstructing the memory, collectively, within the exhibition space in order to depict the realm of universal quest of existence. This metaphorical body language transcends this journey from literal to lateral experience of survival and peace. This thesis is the journey of becoming, recognition and introspection of life. Each breath is a crucifixion and a resurrection.Item Bargained Illusions(2012-01-30) Golden, Jeff; Golden, Jeff; White, Gail ScottWhat is it to be human? It is more than genetic code, more than a belief that we simply exist, more than a classification. But what exactly defines who and what we are? Our actions characterize who we are; our journey through time identifies what we become. Who am I if I am not a merely reflection of my environment? I am the stories I have heard and told, the sacrifices I have made, and the bargains I have cut. The desire for something more, something that will answer my questions about human life, is constantly present. It calls to me from the back of my mind. This voice, this temptation, calls to nearly all humans. I tell stories seeking to discover inner truths, revelations about myself and my relationship to the world around me. Some of these truths have yet to reveal themselves; nevertheless, I relate to others through words and images, sound and touch, but the relationships still seem artificial. What then allows me to identify myself as human, as part of a greater whole? It is the stories I tell when I am faced with one of life’s many dilemmas, it is all I have lost, all that I have gained in my search for knowledge. We truly relate in the most primitive yet substantial ways in our lust to survive. For to be human, we must sacrifice, whether through innocent acts or grand deceits, we must make bargains to survive in a boundless world of knowledge.Item Living Systems as Readymade and the Question of Memory(2012-06-12) Dixon, Elsabé; Dixon, Elsabé; Reeder, WilliamThe luxury of exploration that was afforded me during my time at George Mason University and my pursuit of investigating the use of live organisms in conjunction with symbiotic systems and audience involvement, led me on a journey of both failed attempts as well as successful and meaningful analysis. Much like a scientist I worked with a control group and an experimental group. The silkworms were the constant in every one of the three projects completed in the summers of 2010 and 2011. The audience, the symbol and the artistic, cultural and sustainable systems were the variables. I used live silkworms, because for me, it references identity. As the artist Katharina Fritsch delved into her childhood experience and absorption of folk tales to extract her symbiotic stances and allegorical sequences in her large sculpture projects, I drew from my own childhood experiences growing up in South Africa as a descendent of French silk weavers, the symbiotic sequences associated with sericulture or the raising of silkworms. We are, as the American Contemporary sculptor Bob Gober so aptly states, prisoners of our own cultures and cultural iconography. As an immigrant I am interested in the transfer possibilities and communication possibilities of cultural messages in sequential practices. By using the silkworm as a symbol or code for sequential action I have tried to make alterations, accommodations and hopefully also created a meaningful dialogue pertaining to natural life cycles, resources, and sustainable systems in post modern society. The first installation focused on the theoretical work of Roland Barthes who asserted that the audience plays a central role in creating meaning within a work of art. This work was completed in the summer of 2010, involved the Arlington, Fairfax and Alexandria School systems, and had – all in all - about 400 participants. Also influencing this particular work was Bourriauds Relational Aesthetics and the more ideological approach, which is outlined in the writing of Claire Bishop. The final exhibit of the Living Sculpture that summer of 2010, took place in Washington DC at 1275 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW and was sponsored by the Washington Sculptors Group. The second show involved Rorschach prints and signifiers pertaining to the theoretical work of Jean Baudrillard and his ‘critique of the political economy of the sign” . Baudrillard’s work such as Simulcra and Simulations in which he investigated the relationship between reality, symbols and society inspired the second installation in which silkworms “erased” images with silk. This show combined the work created by the audience in the summer of 2010 as well as six large oil paintings of colorful Rorschach prints set up as tables, which were then gradually spun over by the silkworms. The carefully hand crafted images in the oil paintings were slowly almost completely “erased” by the organic spinners. This show took place at the Montpelier Art Center in MD and the curators theme was “Inside/Outside”. I wanted to juxtapose the two dimensional, handcrafted paintings inside the traditional picture plane with the live organic Bombyx Mori outside the picture plane. I also wanted to create a dialogue about Heidegger’s concept of “subjectivity” and “objectivity”. What was the subject – worms - and what was the object – canvas - and how did the interaction of both convey meaning? The last show involved placing spinning silkworms on mirrors and also allowing the audience to observe the full life cycle of the Bombyx Mori in the gallery setting. A live pod with mirror segments and organic paper and mulberry bark constructions revealed the spinners spinning cocoons, emerging as moths, mating, laying eggs and dying. The show took place at the Chroma Projects Art Laboratory in Charlottesville, Va. and the curator’s theme was “Fecundity”. This work was cultivated through Jean Boudrillard’s 1987 essay: the Ecstasy of Communication in which he rejects the idea of the object as mirror or “scene” of the real and instead advocates for a symbolic exchange in which the status of the object’s consumption goes beyond exchange and use, beyond value and equivalence. The description of the universe in the life cycle of the silk worm aimed to be a projective, imaginary and symbolic correspondence to the object status as “mirror” of the subject. By actually using mirrors as pedestals into which an organic universe is reflected I hoped to deconstruct the image as “scene” or mirror of the real. My aim was to illustrate Richard Rorty’s essay Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature” in which he states that what we see should be a matter of conversation and social practice rather than a mirror of nature. The postmodernist shift should not be characterized as from nature to culture but as a shift in elocutionary mode from history to discourse. By placing live organisms on a platform I feel I am starting a discourse on nature and our current relation to it in history. I am trying to call attention to living organisms, which lie outside the realm of the screen. My thesis show will hold the “artifacts” of these three summer installations; no live organisms will activate the objects. It has been my aim to be able to present the “after effect” of the work with live organisms in a succinct academic presentation. The last chapter of my thesis will explain how I do this, and will be a discourse on methodology used in my work, which I have appropriated from various sources.Item Behind the Sky(2012-06-18) Rackley, Christopher; Rackley, Christopher; Crawford, PaulaThe following document uses photographs of Chris Rackley’s artworks in progress, including pages from his sketchbooks, to give a glimpse into the meandering creative paths taken between ideas and forms. Six pieces from Behind the Sky, Rackley’s MFA thesis exhibition, January 2012, are featured: Walk-in Crater, The Edge of the Tideless Sea, Long Voyage, Latecomers to the Universe, Behind the Sky, and Beginning Cosmology. An essay and several short writings, all in Rackley’s own words, are included, revealing the core ideas and experiences around which Rackley builds his work.Item Something Out of Nothing: A Conversation on Waste(2012-10-05) Giron, Olivier; Giron, Olivier; Feerick, PeggySomething Out of Nothing developed out of a growing curiosity to explore the margins between public and private space. The spaces that surround us can be defined through our relationship to the landscape. This definition goes beyond ephemeral property boundaries, and more in the direction of how we emotionally consider location, adjacencies, land use, ecology, and the architecture of a space. Certain cultural, economic, and legal designations exist to dictate what can happen in these spaces. These conditions dictate an individual’s behavior within the umbrella of society. The ambiguities within these fragmented spaces, however, create circumstances that allow individuals to act outside of what society expects. The work in Something Out of Nothing examines the cultural conditions that preface how we experience space by seeing what can happen when our connection to the landscape is severed and our behavior falls outside of the reach of society.Item The Role of Arirang on Solo Piano Works of Three Twentieth-Century Korean Composers: Unhoe Park, Junsang Bahk, and Bang Ja Hurh(2013) Kim, Yoonji; Kim, Yoonji; Monson, Linda A.ABSTRACTItem The Technical and Expressive Aspects of the Clarinet in the Chamber Music of Ned Rorem(2013) McCurdy, Brian Glenn; McCurdy, Brian Glenn; Owens, Tom C.THE TECHNICAL AND EXPRESSIVE ASPECTS OF THE CLARINET IN THEItem Breathing Space(2013-02-12) DeSaix, Suzanne; DeSaix, Suzanne; Frederick, Helen C.Breathing Space is about a journey of developing artistic inquiry that moved from a macro-level sociopolitical focus to an intimate reflection on the impetus for art making. That focus circled back to an enriched perspective on community and socio-ecological themes. This thesis describes the artistic and literary influences on Suzanne's path to final exhibition and avenues of expression that have opened to a new beginning, including prospects for new genre public art collaborations. Photographs of her work are accompanied by reflections on the importance of the everyday and significance of place, and broader connections to contemporary social and environmental issues.Item Recent Paintings(2013-09-13) McCoy, Ryan; McCoy, Ryan; Crawford, PaulaThis thesis examines the origins and trajectory of the primary line of thought I had developed while creating a body of work over a several year period. I attempted to create a document that would be easily accessible and offer a real understanding of how I structured meaning in this body of work as well as how some of the original ideas had developed over time.Item Implications of Truth: Perspective of A Bartender(2013-09-13) Rhodey, Amber; Rhodey, Amber; Endress, EdgarThis thesis is an examination of the subculture in the alternative world of a dive bar through the perspective of a female bartender. The examination includes a collection of colliding expressions between memory and experience through narrative and actual recorded images. Within an occupation of the service industry, the bartender’s perspective evolves into a repetition of transcendence. Collecting this experience and then expressing it through a punk aesthetic onto experimental film to provide evaluation, becomes an action for the search of a truth. Dive bars are containers of unspoken truths, much as the cinematic still that carries an image from a passing moment in time. Deconstructing experience from an existential perspective allows an environment cluttered in chaos to become clarified. It is through the preservation of experience that allows humanity to captures its essence.Item Home Maker(2013-12-03) Chaudhary, Asma; Chaudhary, Asma; Ashcraft, Thomas D.This thesis serves as a literary catalogue, which documents the artistic process and critical insight into studio practice from the perspective of Asma Chaudhary, a Pakistani- American artist. It follows her journey through her academic studies in journalism, graphic design, sculpture, and into the completion of her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition. Following a one-year hiatus from artmaking, the artist realized her true passion for hands-on creativity instead of the restriction of a cubicle environment. She made the executive decision to take on the persona of a homemaker but with a twist. This character would be able to balance multiple demands at once—nurturing her family, maintaining a distinguished career as a businesswoman, and justifying her appetite for the fine arts. In her work, she takes a potentially derogatory word such as homemaker and then redefines it as something else to celebrate the ideas of home. Throughout her research, the artist conducted several social experiments, questioned gender roles and identities, and sampled a variety of materials and techniques to create engaging artworks.Item Hair | Heir(2013-12-03) Booth, Stephanie T.; Booth, Stephanie T.; Feerick, PeggyWhy do many of us feel the need to connect to the past? Events that we did not experience will always partially be a mystery and our own memories are both fallible and malleable. Despite the fact that they are often inaccurate, our family history and personal memories serve an important role in grounding us in the present through the context of the past. The artwork in Hair | Heir exhibition is the culmination of a three year exploration of the tenuous relationship we have with the past. I explore both the difficulty in connecting with events we did not experience and the continued urge to continue trying to do so. Appropriated family photographs, genealogy, and recorded narratives serve as the content of my photographs, hair embroideries, and videos.Item Stim(2014-03-15) Ruwet, Elizabeth Paxton; Ruwet, Elizabeth Paxton; Feerick, PeggyThis thesis documents specific relationships I observe and have with individuals living with autism. Through an extensive interview and interactive process, the varied interactions furthered my understanding of these individuals and spurred my desire to construct a visual representation of them and their personalities apart from a medical diagnosis. As I delved deeper into this work and research, I began to gain a greater sensibility for these individuals and their placement or roles in our society.