We are accustomed to meanings, signs, language, and the constraints, categories, and concepts which make-up what I acknowledge as boundaries. These are integral for interaction with people, with other forms of life, with landscapes, and with ourselves. Without boundaries there would not be progression or understanding with that which is "the other."Boundaries are categorized into four areas within these creative projects. They are environment, language, states of being, and destination. Within the categories various projects explore what create intangible separations which denote the boundary and create a visible representation of each.Within each category projects are organized by content, objective, and outcome. Some results proved to be more successful than others by effectively conveying meaning through the various imagery and objects of the installations. Often, a viewer's preference f one project over another was due to the use of a specific medium, building method, and overall design rather than the concept or idea which inspired it.The paradoxical notion of these explorations is due to the exemplification of the connections surrounding and, perhaps, instigating each boundary. Attempts to visibly explore boundaries through their connections provide glimpses of built separation markers (environment), words and phrases which may separate or connect (language), alterations of physicality (states of being), and the ambiguous quality which denotes a place (destination) such that each becomes discernable but, more importantly, that each may be surpassed. It is through the visibility of the categories and understanding of their connections in which the boundaries go beyond manifesting themselves through the viewers' collective questioning the possibilities. / Department of Art

This dissertation is focused on phenomenon of madness in French surrealism and genre called "écrits bruts". The main theme is confrontation of surrealism aesthetics madness with written production of psychotic and mostly schizophrenic patients. The primary outcome is presented by analysis and interpretation of two chosen literary works, which are collection of experimental poetry by André Breton and Paul Éluard called L'Immaculée conception (Immaculate Conception, 1930) and diary entries, known as Premier Cahier: de l'ordre des messages, mai 1935, written by one of the most significant French women representatives Jeanne Tripier,. The aim of this analysis is on one hand to identify and characterize forms through which simulated and "real" madness in texts presented are, and on the other hand to describe its poetic function. The methodology part is based on structural and genre analysis of both aforementioned movements and moreover is formed on outcomes of the phenomenologically oriented psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

The dissertation studies the influence of the viewer’s gender normativity on the perception and interpretation of artworks. Based on the sociological research, the author analyses perception channels and evaluation criteria used by Ekaterinburg expert community, while elucidating the experts’ attitudes towards normative boundaries and gender aspects reflected in the works of contemporary professional art. / Диссертация посвящена исследованию влияния гендерной нормативности зрителя на восприятие и оценку им произведений искусства. На материале социсследования анализируются каналы восприятия и критерии оценивания произведений искусства экспертным сообществом г. Екатеринбурга, раскрывается отношение экспертов к нормативным границам и гендерным аспектам в произведениях современного профессионального искусства.