Internet och de moderna digitala plattformarna har inneburit stora förändringar för musikbranschen. Det fysiska albumet säljer allt mindre samtidigt som den digitala distributionen bryter ny mark och visar upp sin potential för omvärlden. Teknologins framgång har givit de oetablerade individerna i musikbranschen en hjälpande hand att producera sin musik hemifrån där endast kontaktuttag, dator och internet krävs. Uppsatsen ämnar att etablera en djupare förståelse för varför oetablerade musikproducenter och artister väljer att släppa sin musik gratis på streamingplattformar som exempelvis Soundcloud, Spotify och Tidal. Vidare är målet med uppsatsen att förstå vad de oetablerade musikproducenterna och artisterna har för tankesätt kring vilka plattformar de tycker är lämpligast och vilka tankesätt informanterna har om att marknadsföra sig själva, samt vilken kvalitet de känner att deras musik ska ha innan publicering. Hermeneutiska tolkningsramar bidrar till att representera informanternas bild av branschen. Kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer har genomförts på tre oetablerade artister och musikproducenter som arbetar med olika musikgenrer. Studien har visat att det handlar om att skapa en länk med sina lyssnare. Även om informanternas musik publiceras kostnadsfritt, får de istället kritisk feedback, nya kontakter och erfarenhet. De vill också få bekräftelse, men även visa tacksamhet till den fanbase de redan har. Det har visat sig att vara svårt för informanterna att etablera sin musik på plattformar som är baserad på prenumerationsbetalningar. Även om de skulle publicera sin musik på en större tjänst som Spotify kan det orsaka problem genom att antalet lyssnare blir för få, vilket kan leda till att andra artister med liknande låttitlar eller artistnamn istället stiger uppåt i listan.

Teknikens utveckling och kommersialiseringen av internet har förändrat musikindustrins spelplan. Numera är artister inte lika beroende av skivbolag som finanserar dyra studiotimmar med mera utan kan själva åstadkomma en hög inspelningskvalitet med billigare utrustning. De har också möjligheten att själva marknadsföra sig via internet och bygga upp sina varumärken. Syftet med undersökningarna som ligger till grund för detta arbete var att kartlägga de nya arbetsuppgifter artisterna fått till följd av digitaliseringen. Resultatet användes sedan för att belysa vilka områden som kan effektiviseras och förbättras. Undersökningen fokuserade på artister som var i ett tidigt skede av sina karriärer men hade som mål att livnära sig på sin livemusik. Arbetet mynnade ut i slutsatsen att de mindre etablerade artisterna har svårt att konkurrera med artister som backas upp av större musikbolag. Mycket på grund av att de inte klarar av eller hinner med allt administrativt arbete som krävs för att försörja sig på sin livemusik. Många artister verkar prioritera bort den administrativa delen till fördel för konstnärskapet. När de administrativa delarna av företagen inte sköts hamnar artisten i en ond spiral. När man väljer att inte betala skatt på sin lön, prioriterar bort marknadsföring och att skriva avtal så skadar det artistskapets varumärke på sikt.

This study tells the life stories of four Saudi female artists. Using life story narrative approach, I focused on the following research questions: How are Saudi female artists fulfilling their aspirations as artists in the conservative Saudi society? What are the common and divergent themes in the life stories of the Saudi women artists, namely Safeya Binzagr, Maha Almalluh, Tagreed Albagshi, and Fida Alhussan? The artists were interviewed using open-ended questions and asked to discuss their artwork. The postmodern feminism and social construction theories were used to understand their life experiences and how they came to be “successful artists” in the conservative Saudi society. The findings showed that family and formal education played an important role in these women’s life journeys as artists. The Saudi society was also a major influence, sometimes supporting them, at other times obstructing them. These artists share many personality features such as being persistent, believing in themselves, taking risks, facing challenges, being independent, being responsible as artists and as part of society, and being honest in their artwork. This study contributes to the art education curriculum in Saudi schools and universities. Globally, it contributes to women’s studies and to social and cultural studies in shedding light on the Saudi society, especially as it is experienced by women.

Please read the abtract in the section 09summary of this document / Dissertation (MA (Arts History))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

Influenced by post-Lacanian psychoanalytic feminist theory and Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity, this project examines three fictional brooding male writers from three separate periods of twentieth-century Ireland and Britain and their performances of authenticity, authority, and exceptionalism as artist figures. By tracing a sociohistorical arc and conducting close literary analyses, this project argues that the myth of white male artistic genius is derived from the power and privilege of a cult of individuality that can be used to excuse and justify harmful behaviour and that comes at the exclusion and expense of those outside this highly specific version of hegemonic masculinity. James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, and Sarah Kane’s Blasted undermine the myth of male artistic genius by exposing the artificial and theatrical nature of the notion of “authenticity” and the posture of being countercultural when one is part of a dominating elite.

Contemporary artist residencies are institutions or programs that enable artists to develop their practice beyond the confines of their typical work setting. Increasingly, they are also a means to access significant material, interpersonal, and professional resources, and a medium through which to engage with local communities. In response to these developments, the present interview-based study aims to understand how artists develop within a community context by investigating the work and experiences of eight artists who have participated in community-based residencies across—and sometimes beyond—the United States. By collecting each artist’s narrative and supplementing it with documents, images, and auto-reflections of their artwork, the study investigates the complex network of characteristics that help facilitate the creative process. Furthermore, by canvassing research from fields like social psychology, business management, and arts education, it explores the relations of educational reciprocity that emerge between artists and residency communities. This study suggests that the complex physical and interpersonal dynamics of each residency environment contributed in distinctive ways to the artists’ development. It also notes that each unique residency program provided support for the use of new materials, the exploration of new practices, and the investigation of new content. The residency characteristics that were most conducive to creative growth included (1) difference from one’s typical working environment; (2) access to new (and sometimes unconventional) materials, tools, and facilities; (3) social opportunities such as shared meals and public forums to cultivate relationships with residency cohorts; and (4) ample time (usually 1–2 months) and space (access to both private and public studios) to settle into the residency environment, explore one’s artistic practice (and the practice of other resident artists), and foster relationships among cohorts, staff members, and community visitors. Ultimately, this study argues that artist residencies can contribute to the field of non-formal art education by serving as a relational framework for artists and their residency communities.

The challenges of teaching include classroom management issues, lack of time, stress, and the constraints of core standards. In response to these challenges, I determined to change my attitude about being a teacher, become more reflective about my teaching practice and curriculum, and try to connect my artistic self to my teaching self. This thesis is an autoethnographic research of my own teaching practice designed to counter the challenges I was facing as a teacher. I wanted to become less reactive and more reflective about the challenges and rewards of being an artist teacher. This thesis is a reflection on my journey to find my own path toward professional growth and satisfaction through a careful study of my experiences teaching in a junior high school art room. In the end, this self-study has helped me become more flexible, understanding, and forgiving of myself as an artist and a teacher. I learned to allow myself to be flexible enough to let the research lead me in unforeseen directions and not fall into the trap of best practices. My attempt to apply some of my own artistic practices, such as in the use of materials, artists, and time constraints, to student projects was successful. I began by attempting to turn my teaching into my art practice; what I ended up doing was becoming a more reflective teacher.

For my MA thesis I propose to examine a series of novels that combine motifs of the body with structural and linguistic experimentation that parallels the state of the bodies within the text. Using Tsitsi Dangarembga's 1988 "bodybildungsroman" Nervous Conditions, Sherley Anne Williams' 1986 neo -slave narrative Dessa Rose, Samuel Beckett's 1938 existential novel Murphy, Vikram Seth's 1986 poetic novel Golden Gate, and Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 poetic novel Pale Fire, I will argue that these texts portray the body as a readable space of culture, a legible site of conflict or creation. I contend that these novels depict the body as either open or contained: osmotically interacting with and creatively responding to its environment, or recursively closed, interacting cancerously only with itself. In addition, using the words of the respective author when available, I will examine the form around the human form-the osmotic openness or recursiveness of the text itself: its structure, genre, and handling of language, as well as the author's deliberate unsettling of reader expectation and conscious cultivation of physical response from the audience.

This paper explores possible applications of the experiential knowledge of motherhood in the field of art education through self-portraiture, a methodology which blends a/r/tography with elements of portraiture. A review of relevant literature situates the study within the scope of mothering pedagogy and arts-based research. Employing artistic practice and anecdotal journaling as the primary methods of inquiry, the researcher examines her experiences as a mother in a preservice art education program and the intersections of her roles as mother/artist/teacher. The researcher identifies resonant metaphors, including labor, separation, the umbilical cord, circles, the ovum, and pretending; offers parallels between mothering and art education in play, scaffolding, relationality, matrescence, changing plans, and paradigms; presents challenges such as time constraints, breastfeeding/pumping breast milk, and sleep deprivation; and provides an artist statement. The study attempts to address issues of misrepresentation and underrepresentation of mothers in art education by promoting understanding through empathetic participation.

The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate the various influence that have helped to make the characters in the works of Miss Cather what they are.