Thesis (MFA)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sara Mast.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 27).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A.)--Bryn Mawr College, Dept. of Art, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57). Also available full text via Internet at the East Tennessee State University, Dept. of Art and Design web site as a .pdf file requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1987. / Title from title page screen, viewed August 9, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Max R. Rennels (chair), Heather Hanlon, John R. McCarthy, Louis Steinburg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-128) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2010. / Title from PDF cover (viewed 28 July, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 461-507)

Vision provides the primary means by which many animals distinguish foreground objects from their background and coordinate locomotion through complex environments. The present thesis focuses on mechanisms within the visual system that afford figure-ground segregation and self-motion perception. These processes are modeled as emergent outcomes of dynamical interactions among neural populations in several brain areas. This dissertation specifies and simulates how border-ownership signals emerge in cortex, and how the medial superior temporal area (MSTd) represents path of travel and heading, in the presence of independently moving objects (IMOs). Neurons in visual cortex that signal border-ownership, the perception that a border belongs to a figure and not its background, have been identified but the underlying mechanisms have been unclear. A model is presented that demonstrates that inter-areal interactions across model visual areas V1-V2-V4 afford border-ownership signals similar to those reported in electrophysiology for visual displays containing figures defined by luminance contrast. Competition between model neurons with different receptive field sizes is crucial for reconciling the occlusion of one object by another. The model is extended to determine border-ownership when object borders are kinetically-defined, and to detect the location and size of shapes, despite the curvature of their boundary contours. Navigation in the real world requires humans to travel along curved paths. Many perceptual models have been proposed that focus on heading, which specifies the direction of travel along straight paths, but not on path curvature. In primates, MSTd has been implicated in heading perception. A model of V1, medial temporal area (MT), and MSTd is developed herein that demonstrates how MSTd neurons can simultaneously encode path curvature and heading. Human judgments of heading are accurate in rigid environments, but are biased in the presence of IMOs. The model presented here explains the bias through recurrent connectivity in MSTd and avoids the use of differential motion detectors which, although used in existing models to discount the motion of an IMO relative to its background, is not biologically plausible. Reported modulation of the MSTd population due to attention is explained through competitive dynamics between subpopulations responding to bottom-up and top- down signals.

One may easily have the impression that the promise of “everlasting covenant” with Phinehas has been reached under the Sinai covenant. On closer examination of the question, however, general agreement in fact counts for little. Rather, most of the questions on this point appear to be still open. The purpose of this thesis is to re-examine the efficacy of the Phinehasian covenant in light of the Davidic covenant and through some related ancient literature readings. The continuity and significance of the Phinehasian covenant is further discussion in the context of the Gospels and Hebrews as to elucidate the mystery of the Messiah’s priestly identity. In applying all these data, this thesis reveals that Christ Jesus is viewed as the ultimate fulfillment of the Phinehasian covenant.

Cette thèse propose une réflexion sur la représentation de la figure humaine au-delà de la « ressemblance cadavérique » présumée par Maurice Blanchot. Nous interrogeons les appels à figurer la figure humaine dans diverses formulations et configurations iconoplastiques, par les moyens associés de la peinture et de la photographie, à partir d’un corpus de postures plastiques contemporaines. Comment la figure humaine se donne-t-elle à figurer pour déborder la seule figuration ? Il est aussi question de reconvocation puisque les œuvres étudiées procèdent de reprises, transferts, reconductions, revenances.Les êtres blanchis peints par Jean Marc Cerino, les portraits flous et dérobés de Gerhard Richter, un ensemble d’autoportraits photographiques assourdis de Jacques Damez, les Faces grimaçantes et les Masques Mortuaires rehaussés d’Arnulf Rainer, les défunts dévoilés et photographiés en gros plan par Andres Serrano et les faces surfacées peintes par Anthony Vérot ouvrent des analyses poïétiques et esthétiques qui nous amènent à distinguer deux voies de l’effacement : l’affaiblissement et tout autant la surenchère. Visibilités défectives ou exacerbées ? Deux pôles se succèdent et articulent la tension dialectique de la donation et du retrait : « figures affaiblies » / « figures excessives ». Figurer c’est opérer par distanciation, retrait, passage, dissimulation, déplacement. Ce travail de recherche relève des rapports de force qui travaillent les figures résistantes à leurs oblitérations mais aussi à toutes tentatives de dévoilement. Ces détours étudiés signalent les infigurables qui se désistent : le visage, l’être, l’autre, soi-même, la mort. / This thesis reflects on the representation of the human figure, beyond the “cadaveric resemblance” assumed by Maurice Blanchot. It looks at the calls for representing the human figure across a variety of iconoplastic configurations and formulations, by means of a combination of painting and photography, from a body of plastic contemporary approaches. How does the human figure can be represented so as to go beyond the mere figuration?The thesis also explores the question of return, since the works under study are based on revivals, transfers, renewals, virtual resurrections.The bleached out human beings by Jean-Marc Cerino, the blurred and hidden portraits by Gerhard Richter, the series of muted photographic self-portraits by Jacques Damez, the grimacing Faces and Death Masks by Arnulf Rainer, the corpses unveiled and photographed close-up by Andres Serrano, and the flatly painted faces by Anthony Vérot give rise to aesthetic and poietic analyses which lead us to distinguish two ways of erasure: the weakening and, just as much, the exaggeration. Defective or exacerbated visibilities? Two extremes alternate and structure the dialectical tension between giving and staying in the background: “faded figures” / “excessive figures”.Representing involves detachment, removal, transition, concealment, transfer. This research paper highlights balances of power where the figures stand up to their disappearance but, at the same time, to any attempt to unveil them. By analysing these roundabouts, this thesis shows the unfigurable which is stepping aside: the face, the being, the self, death.