Exploring the creative and technical process of rendering realistic images for integration into live action footage.

My senior thesis deals with contemporary depictions of sexualized violence against women in fashion photography. Images of bloodied, bruised, and dead-looking models have proliferated in fashion magazine editorials and advertisements since the 1970s and I want to explore why sexualized violence is seen as sexy and compelling advertising, in light of the fact that domestic violence is the greatest cause of injury to women in America. I produced my own fashion photographs in locations of actual female homicides in Los Angeles County, particularly those nearest to Claremont, with the use of The Los Angeles Times online homicide database, which pinpoints every homicide reported in L.A. County since 2007. We live in a world plagued by violence and by creating my own violent, fashion photographs in actual homicide locations, I hoped to jar the viewer out of neutrality and expose violent advertisements and editorials for what they are: objectifying, exploitative, and perverse expressions of hostility against women. The images abuse and demean commercial speech privileges and glamorize and trivialize horrific, actual experiences of violence suffered by countless women.

Collaboration and communication between conventionally diverse fields can allow for deeper understanding and clearer analysis of the concepts within each. Two fields traditionally seen as dichotomous are those of art and science. Historically they approach problems in opposite ways. However, I would argue that they in fact investigate very similar questions, hoping to discover the ways that the world works. It makes sense, then, that historically these fields have sometimes been able to interact. Artists have engaged with science by creating work through scientific processes including crossbreeding flowers, genetically modifying organisms, and sequencing nucleotides. Others have referenced scientific ideas, like those of order or sustainability, through more traditional methods. My thesis project, Adenine Uracil Guanine, is a sculptural installation portraying the phylogenetic tree of all life in a three-dimensional form. Borrowing from the aesthetic of mobiles, the sculpture takes a recognizably itinerant form, referencing the fluidity and malleability of evolution. The structure’s white base, alluding to the sterility and cleanliness of a phylogenetic tree’s aim to diagrammatize change, is overlayed by a system of colored bands. These bands reference the nucleotide sequences upon which phylogenetic trees are based. By using an artistic lens to view the scientific process of evolution and its elucidation and representation, I hope to continue to encourage a dialogue between the two fields.

Since a young age, I have been interested in bicycling as a form of fun and fanciful recreation, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2011 that a serious shift occurred in my understanding of the bike as more than a mere machine. A spontaneous 700-mile journey redefined my relationship with travel, transcended my notions of transportation, and enabled me to better mediate myself within my environment. In writing about these experiences, I hope to offer some insight into how American culture currently frames transportation and how I hope the construction of a bike positive culture can instill social, environmental, and political change. Concurrently, I created a pin-up style bicycle calendar featuring enthusiasts from the Claremont Colleges to foster a sense of community around bicycling and inspire riders and non-riders alike to further explore their ‘bicyxuality’. Intermingling this nonfiction piece with a thoughtful reflection on the BIKEurious calendar project, this paper serves to explain my creative undertakings and, ultimately, call into question the hierarchy of transportation in America today.

Diplomarbeit--University of Brighton, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2010. / Title from title screen (viewed 7/7/2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125).

Because of my distrust for self-expression through verbal language, my pursuit thus far in art has been to discover a satisfactory means of self-expression. In study of the work I’ve created across all mediums, through poetry, music and visual art, this desire for a satisfactory outlet of self-expression has resulted in a drive to create meaning through combining mediums. Throughout this semester, my interest in mixed mediums has resulted largely in experimentation with the combination of music and visual art, as well as exploring the standalone merit of each. This also entails a study of their overlaps, cooperative influence, and the effectiveness in establishing comprehensible and replicable patterns with which artists can make themselves understood. The installation Hyper Vigilant leverages the three-wall space provided, the graffiti-like, cartoonish imagery, and the soundscape (which combines chatter and music) to create an environment in which the feelings I experience in an episode of panic, or in a bout of anxiety are fully represented. This paper will discuss the use of a combination of sound, visual art and space in an installation, through an exploration of the art theory, and a discussion of precedents. It will ultimately culminate in an examination of the installation at hand.

The purpose of “The Digital Puppetmaster” is to provide a means of awareness and a suggestion of mindset for members of the digital age. The digital medium has come to define society and establish its existence as an increasingly omnipresent one. Fundamentally, the digital medium is a sandbox for creating worlds that transcend the limitations of real life. Given the unlimited potential of the digital medium, it becomes apparent that it is easy to show what people want to see and hide what they do not. I aim to bring to light and uncover the realities of the digital medium and how the larger powers that control it take advantage of society. Society at large perpetuates a dangerous mentality of blindly trusting technology and believing that it has their best intentions in mind. I make the case that the ones who control the digital world are the ones who created ground zero for this way of thinking.

No description available.

Brief mentions by three writers on synthetic painting media first intrigued my interest in a' new technique of making transparent acrylic paintings on glass or plexiglas supports, some of which were said to I I simulate stained-glass windows. In writing this paper on acrylic polymer transparencies my problem was three-told: first. to determine whether any major recognized works of art have been produced by this, method; second, to experiment with the technique and materials in order to explore their possibilities for my own work; and third, to determine whether both materials and methods would be suitable for use in a classroom. Pursuant to these objectives I reviewed art journals of the past decade to determine whether any major works in acrylic polymer transparencies have received national recognition. At the same time I consulted every available book on acrylic painting methods, to obtain all possible information as to how to proceed. Following this, I experimented, over a period of approximately eight months, with a great many materials and methods. During the course of this experimentation, I produced a number of transparencies, using. various colorants, media, supports and dikes, also exploring many methods of applying these materials to obtain a variety of effects. As a result of my research and experimentation, I have reached the following conclusions: First: So far as can be determined, no major works in acrylic polymer transparencies using these specific methods have yet received national recognition. However, a great many works in closely related art forms are being produced, and are receiving recognition. Second: After several months of experimentation, I agree with Jensen, Woody and Chavatel that this medium has great possibilities, and that when these possibilities are realized in the future, by artists of skill and imagination, major works of great beauty may well be created. Third: It is believed that acrylic polymer transparencies would I be a most suitable project for use in many classrooms. The materials are non-toxic and perfectly safe and easy to use; both the emulsion and the colors are water-soluble, making for ease of cleanup; both materials and technique are new, and therefore challenging to young people; .and finally, the beauty of the jewel-like colors when viewed by transmitted light furnish a great incentive to the student to create in this medium.