abstract: As a result of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, works can be distributed and viewed at a global scale with the simple click of the mouse. One can even visit entire museums and virtually walk through their collections without having to leave one’s own seat. Furthermore, new software, programs, and digital tools facilitate and make possible the ability to experiment and create one’s art in ways that were previously unimaginable or even unheard of. This is also true with the dissemination of one’s art and the visibility of contemporary artists who create works pertaining to the digital realm. However, the availability, usage, and training associated with such technologies do not come without its own implications and drawbacks. Unfortunately, there exists a great disparity not only with access and availability of the Internet at a global level, but also a digital divide, which indicates that the technologies and sciences are “gendered”—for instance, the male majority in STEM professions and fields of study. When considering the Humanities, specifically the genre of contemporary art and literature, women’s marginalization is witnessed there too, as distinguished canonical works belong to predominantly Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon men. In the digital age then, Iberian and Latin American women writers and artists face the challenge of visibility and recognition in two territories—technology and contemporary artistic creation—dominated by men. This study gathers contemporary female artists of digital works originating from North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Spain who utilize a wide variety of tools to conduct and create their artwork. The artists and authors analyzed in this project include: Teresa Serrano (México, D.F. 1936-), Adriana Calatayud (México, D.F. 1967-), Ana Mendieta (Havana, 1948-1985), Maritza Molina (Havana), Yasmín S. Portales Machado (Havana, 1980-), María María Acha-Kutscher (Lima, 1968-), Praba Pilar (Colombia), María Cañas (Seville, 1972-), and Pilar Albarracín (Arcena, Huelva 1968-), with the objective of investigating the manner in which digital tools are being used by these women artists and writers for the purpose visibility, identity (de)construction, as spaces of resistance, and to explore how those messages are transmitted and transformed through digital mediums. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2019

Att en publik upplever en berättelse i reklamfilmen olika är en självklarhet och i dagens transmediala medievärld där så pass mycket reklamfilm publiceras på många olika plattformar blir det en labyrint för ingen mindre än medieproducenten. Vilket format man ska välja, och hur det förstärker eller förminskar berättelsen är en ständigt pågående diskussion. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vad som hände med handlingen när formatet ändrades till 1:1 och hur publiken uppfattade berättelsen då, när bilden beskurits från det bredare bildformatet till ett kvadratiskt bildformat. Studien undersöker bildformatets förhållande till plattformen Instagram, hur en publik upplever bildformatet och handlingen samt om de upplever någon skillnad på formatet 16:9 jämfört med 1:1. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer med åtta deltagande informanter. Undersökningens resultat visade att den breda versionen i 16:9 uppfattades som mer professionell och cinematisk samt väckte intresse i flödet, medan det kvadratiska formatet 1:1 versionen snarare uppfattades som amatör-lik. Sammanfattningsvis resulterade analysen i att bildformatet 16:9 var bättre lämpad för storytelling-reklamfilm på Instagram

Som filmskapare i en reklamvärld där utvecklingen ständigt går mot att göra kortare reklamfilmer, kände vi behov av att analysera vad som vinns och förloras i processen. Uppsatsen berör hur en längre välgörenhetsreklamfilm påverkas av att kortas ned i två olika tidsramar. Syftet var att hitta mönster som kan bidra till en ökad förståelse i ämnet för filmskapare. Uppsatsen analyserar de olika versionernas berättarstruktur, tematik, retorik, empati- och sympatiförutsättningar för att sedan diskutera kring hur effektiva de är i förhållande till filmens syfte. Slutsatsen visade att versionerna har olika egenskaper och därmed olika fördelar och nackdelar. För filmskapare innebär det att med noggrannhet och god analysförmåga kunna välja ut bilder i adaptionsprocessen som ger det mest önskvärda resultatet, för att vara säker på att det uttänkta syftet nås fram till åskådaren.

This script is an adaptation of the popular science novel Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart. It brings new life to mathematical ideas and topics. By bringing math to the stage, concepts are presented in a more friendly and accessible manner. This play is intended to generate new interest in and expose new topics to an audience of nonmathematicians.

Hur kan vi främja interaktion, lustfyllt skapande, lek och kreativitet genom gemensamt bildskapande? Vilka metoder kan gynna personer som upplever det sociala samspelet som svårt? I min undersökning tittar jag på hur en grupp elever med NPF-diagnos kan utvecklas genom att arbeta tillsammans med bildskapande. Jag menar att någonting positivt händer i det kollektiva. Plötsligt ”äger” ingen verket och det lustfulla skapandet kan beredas plats. Ögon möts, fnitter uppstår och många vågar experimentera med teknik och material på ett annorlunda sätt. Det är något med interaktionen och kreativiteten som får sig en skjuts på vägen. Under våren 2019 håller jag i fyra stycken workshops på skolan där jag arbetar som bildlärare. Eleverna får själva välja att delta vid dessa tillfällen i gemensamt bildskapande. Metoder som har visat sig fruktbara är vikten av att aktivera kroppen, flera sinnen och att våga utmana undervisningsnormen för hur arbete i grupp ofta ser ut.Genom att laborera med den talade kommunikationen ges nya möjligheter för den sociala interaktionen. På Konstfacks vårutställning återskapades en variant av en utav workshoparna. Besökarna får ta del av ett interaktivt verk, där de erbjuds vara med och skapa ett collage på väggen som får växa fram under utställningens gång.

The significant cultural impact of HIV/AIDS has led to the production of an impressive amount of scholarship in the US and Northern Europe since the outbreak of the epidemic in 1980. In contrast, the study of the cultural representations of HIV/AIDS has been largely overlooked in the realm of Spanish literary criticism. The purpose of my dissertation is to address that void through the analysis of a representative corpus of texts and artistic works from different periods and genres that acknowledge the impact of the epidemic in Spain. More particularly, this dissertation analyzes Spanish literary and artistic representations of HIV/AIDS through a critical comparison with other written materials produced in the 16th and 17th centuries as a reaction to the syphilis epidemic that hit Europe at the time, also known as the Great Pox. The corpus of texts used in this dissertation includes Francisco Delicado’s La Lozana andaluza (1528); two short novels by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616); individual poems and collections of poetry by authors such as Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), Anastasio Pantaleón de Ribera (1600-1629), Aníbal Núñez (1944-1987), or Galician-language poet Lois Pereiro (1958-1996); as well as artistic works and performances by AIDS activist Pepe Espaliú (1955-1993). I explore this corpus through an interdisciplinary approach bringing into play, among others, historical and medical discourses, biopolitics, sociology of literature, semiology, as well as theories about violence and empathy. In my comparative examination of these authors’ representations of disease, I argue that contemporary writers approached HIV/AIDS using a framework inspired on the aesthetic and epistemic strategies developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the context of the emergence of the Baroque. This framework allowed modern authors to confront the uncertainties caused by Post-Modernity and HIV/AIDS, and inspired them to depict the pandemic by means of metaphor and indirectness. The ultimate goal of my research is to uncover variables that will help to enlighten the well-documented historical trend to stigmatize sexual transmitted and infectious diseases. My work also sheds light on the reasons behind the slow emergence of epidemic diseases as objects of cultural debate in Spain, as well as on the social, political and ethical consequences of this slowness. Finally, I argue that there are some specifically artistic and literary responses to the Great Pox and HIV/AIDS that can help to understand the nature of these diseases and to distinguish discriminatory usages of these phenomena.

behold, be still illuminates my predilection, that of a portrait photographer, which is driven by a fascination with viewing and collecting the ‘other’, the male, now extending into this suite of still moving portraits. Through this act and in my art practice, I uncover the vulnerabilities, both for myself and for my subjects, as they are offered for scrutiny on screen to become ‘public’, unlike their previous position in my photographic archive, which is private. I reveal for the first time my pathology in the drive to collect surrogates and stand-ins, to console the loss and give solace for the absence of one- revealing a latent scopophilia. Photography histories, specifically portraiture, and the moving image are discussed, focusing on the binaries of the medium/s, their reflective and reflexive qualities, and their inherent ability to reveal and conceal. My visual inquiry is an expansion to experiencing the portrait by presenting the sitters as close to ‘themselves’ via the medium of high definition video portraits. I expel the implications of women looking at men, and review the work of both significant and historical feminine influences and contemporary women artists positioned and working in this territory and who employ both film and photography. I highlight Victorian women and the melancholic age, where photography is deeply embedded, tracing the origins and lineage to my current work. I seek to define and locate the notion of a beautiful masculine, investigating what it is to view, receive, and collect between the axis of photography and video via the intimate exchange and operatives of my gendered and privileged gaze. The success is determined by the tension between these two machines and resulting portraits, as the act in sitting for a portrait with the technology of today, renders a more ‘accurate’ portrayal. From this the moving portrait completes the desire and an opportunity to obtain and possess the beloved after their absence. Crucial issues become apparent as I examine the imprint of the real in the photograph, the camera as a surrogate for myself, and the passive yet consensual subject.

The Empty Portrait forefronts a new experience of the portrait for all participants involved: the photographer, the subject, and the viewer. Breaking away from the camera, the materiality of the photograph, and the portrait as a locus of identity are central aspects of this new experience. As it challenges the relationship between photography and temporality, The Empty Portrait attempts to blur the boundary between the photographic and cinematic image, asking the viewer to look and contemplate further.

This study arises out of the researcher’s experience in the fields of costume and fashion. It develops, through design practice and reflection, a design process for fashion wear made from post-consumer recycled materials. Theoretical analysis provides global, historical, philosophical and design contexts within which to develop an ethos for this variant form of fashion wear designated ReFashion. Differences in design process between conventional fashion and ReFashion are detailed to highlight the significance of provenance of materials in the light of a perceived need to slow down clothing production and consumption. This perception is informed by scientific predictions that failure to engage with urgently needed changes to the prevalent economic paradigm will result in planet earth reaching a tipping point with potentially disastrous results for its inhabitants. Fundamental to the ReFashion ethos is preparedness for a speculative post-apocalyptic future that might render the fashion system unable to operate as it currently does, necessitating a more self-sufficient approach to clothing needs, with an accompanying shift in perceptions of what is deemed fashionable. The theme Survivalist Fantasy provides a lens to bring conceptual and material aspects of the work into focus. Informed by sustainability, Survivalist Fantasy recontextualises a failure of sustainable initiatives on a global scale and their adaptation on a local scale specifically in the arena of clothing.

This project contemplates where New Zealanders will turn to in the future for resonating, identity-based design, and explores two potential scenarios. The first scenario questions whether existing ‘classic’ motifs – currently enjoying pride of place on national identity T-shirts and accessories, and commonly used over the last century within the tourist souvenir industry – will still be relevant, and still resonate, if used in different ways. The second scenario questions whether a new round of more obscure, overlooked, ‘lower case’ and everyday domestic artefacts and experiences will resonate with New Zealanders. This project sets out to ‘craft nostalgic resonance’, through conceptual recycling from my own biography, in order to connect with viewers through personal recognition located within their own biography. It draws from experiences and artefacts specific and personal yet at the same time, inevitably, part of a larger collective story, in the creation of a new range of identity-based souvenirs for New Zealanders. The resulting body of work, and its successful public dissemination, proves that it is possible to craft nostalgic resonance through conceptual recycling, and that this approach could be extended to both a wider range of original artefacts and experiences, and a wider range of souvenir products in the future.