PRADŽIA - tai instaliacija apie kūrybą, mano kūrybos pradžią. Nuo didžiojo sprogimo atsiradus mūsų visatai joje yra terpė egzistuoti mums, o toje kosiminėje erdvėje yra vieta ir kūrėjui, tapytojui (ne tik asmeniui). Mąstymai apie didžiąsias visatos paslaptis, apie mūsų vietą pasaulyje, apie kūrėjo, menininko poziciją, apie kūrinį, inspiraciją, - tai laukas, kuriame radosi šie darbai, kiekvienas iš jų nešantis informaciją apie tam tikrą kūrybos etapą, tam tikras kūrybos pradžios ištakas. Studijų metu siekiau konceptualaus temos pagrindimo: savo teoriniame darbe „Instaliacija konceptualiojo meno kontekste“ domėjausi konceptualizmo ištakomis it instaliacinais elementais. Konceptualūs ir technologiniai ieškojimai suformavo mano magistrantūros studijų temos turinį. Kūrybinio proceso pradedamoji stadija – pradžia – man yra gruntuojama drobė, šiuo atveju popierius, eskizavimas, meditatyvus buvimas studijoje su kūriniais ir darbo priemonėmis, eksperimentavimas: vinys paliekantys Kristaus kontūrus studijos sienoje, sapno įvaizdinimas ir pan. Temos turinį stengiausi perteikti ne tik vizualinėmis priemonėmis, bet ir ekspozicjos galimybėmis: kiekvieną naują erdvę apmąsčiusi darbus taikiau pagal diktuojamas erdvės technines ir emocines sąlygas. Nors ir tokios pačios tematikos, skirtingose erdvėse taikomi darbai perteikė ir papildomą informaciją, kaip, pavyzdžiui, Homo Ludens menų forume rodyta instaliacija „Pradžia. Tikėjimas“ buvo apie tikėjimo pradžią, jo pobūdį kiekvienam... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / It‘s an installation about creation, about my own ouvre. Ever since the Big Bang our universe is place where we egsist, and in this space we also have place for a crator, painter (not only as a person). Thoughts about the big wonders of the universe, about our position in the world, about creator‘s, artist‘s position, thinking about inspiration and creation, - this is the field in with these works were created, each of them bearing specific information about specific part of creation. Conceptual and technological research helped to form my master studies‘ concept. The beginning to me is new canvas, in this case paper, skeching, maditation in my studio space, being with my works and matterials, constant experimenting: nails that leave a trace of Jesus‘s figure on the wall, visualisation of a dream, etc. To express the content of my concept, I‘ve not only used visual measures, but also different expositions: thinking through every exposition space, I decided on individual expositions that expressed slightly different concept each time. Intuition, spontaneity, visual vaguesness, skechiness, etc. are very important in my work process. I try to avoid using very direct pictures, to me it‘s important to match visual and emotional perceptions.

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET)(+), located in West Texas at the McDonald Observatory, operates with a fixed segmented primary (M1) and has a tracker, which moves the prime-focus corrector and instrument package to track the sidereal and non-sidereal motions of objects. We have completed a major multi-year upgrade of the HET that has substantially increased the pupil size to 10 meters and the field of view to 22 arcminutes by deploying the new Wide Field Corrector (WFC), new tracker system, and new Prime Focus Instrument Package (PFIP). The focus of this paper is on the delivery, installation, and on-sky verification of the WFC. We summarize the technical challenges encountered and resolutions to overcome such challenges during the construction of the system. We then detail the transportation from Tucson to the HET, on-site ground verification test results, post-installation static alignment among the WFC, PFIP, and M1, and on-sky verification of alignment and image quality via deploying multiple wavefront sensors across 22 arcminutes field of view. The new wide field HET will feed the revolutionary new integral field spectrograph called VIRUS, in support of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), a new low resolution spectrograph (LRS2), an upgraded high resolution spectrograph (HRS2), and later the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF).

What happens to the memories that are left behind in photographs when the person who’s memories they are passes away? After the passing of both my mother and my grandmother, I began to notice the fleeting significance of photographs. I spent time going through boxes of pictures they had saved and every so often I would come across an old photo of someone or something that no one in my family could find a meaning behind or attach a significance to. This paper reveals how the meaning and importance of photographs shift over time from the perspective of the photographer to that of the preserver. I discuss the history of photography and its evolution from a purely scientific method of recording to fine art. I also discuss the psychology behind taking a photograph, looking at the art historical and philosophical writings of Susan Sontag and John Berger to discover how photography relates to memory, nostalgia, mortality, and the presence of the absent. Putting my own work in a historical context, I examine the works of contemporary artists dealing with similar themes of photography, physical space, and memory, such as Carmen Argote, Manal Al Dowayan, Christian Boltanski, and Doris Salcedo. For my senior project, I contemplate the mystery behind my mom's decision to photograph unsuspected places. I explore the passage of time and the vulnerability of memories as they relate to photography. Through an installation of hanging panels of photographs printed on sheer fabric, my piece works to explore these two main themes: the preservation of memory and the space that grief fills.

The thesis exhibit installed at VCU's Anderson Gallery was carried out using still imagery (a photograph), moving imagery (recorded video, live video), constructed objects and a delineated space. It was an experiment dealing with how one comes to know the world by virtue of one's physical activity within it. It was most importantly a work that required the viewer's participation in order to become "complete".

This thesis focuses on the evolution of my work created during my two years of study at Virginia Commonwealth University. Although I touch upon my influences what I am writing is a reflection after the fact that does not necessarily encompass my original intent or inspirations for these works. I find my inspiration from personal discoveries within my daily life. Light flickering through the rails of a fence as I walk by makes me more aware of my body's movement in space. Watching the steady condensation of water droplets forming on a fountain creates a moment of pause within the world. Through these discoveries preconceptions about the world are forgotten and instead I focus on my experience. The potential for translating these moments into installations for an audience fuels my work. Though everyone experiences the world differently the pursuit of a common ground creates situations for further discoveries. The process of writing this paper has helped me to find a common thread within my work. Thinking back through the experiential discoveries of each piece has furthered my understanding, just as it originally propelled my artistic productio

Within this thesis is a mapping out of the processes, concepts, and influences, behind the sculptural practice of Brian Caverly. From Complex Adaptive Systems to the world of order of Michel Foucault to the reexamination of the Modernist movement by Yve Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss, a rhizomatic path of connections and lines form and cross over, weaving together into a swarming mayhem of over population. Out of this chaos and order grow complex installations and constructions that are inherently bound by the system of their making, yet attempt at every turn to escape conformity.

I often think of life as a tight rope stretching across an expanse. Our inner strength enables us to walk forward across it. When this fails us, we fall. But in those moments when we prevail, we soar and float as though weightless and timeless. As a gymnast I learned that control of one's insecurities results in a powerful and balanced presence of body. Give into them and the body becomes uncertain and clumsy. Rarely is life this transparent. Many forms of tension manifest themselves in physical, spiritual, and emotional unrest. How does the physical contour of the skin reflect the soul of a material body? Through the use of tension and balance, and with the aid of transparency, translucency, and opacity I alter the perception of surface, form, internal and external space. My work is a comment on the flux of my emotions and attitude towards daily life.

I am a nomad. I have not had a place to call home in almost two decades. I wander around the world searching for a place to belong, only to discover the forgotten lives and silenced voices. I have come to realize that to find a "home," I need to first create a world in which to belong to. My recent works are investigations of possibilities for another world, a world of compassion, through a critique of our current society. I create as I rediscover the forgotten histories and lives. My work captures my process of remembering and celebrating while simultaneously imagining our capacity to function as philanthropists.

PRODUCTO CENTRO AMERICANO: MADE IN HONDURAS By Alma Leiva Master of Fine Arts A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011. Thesis Director: Robert Paris, Professor Kinetic Imaging / Photography and Film I was born in 1973 in Honduras, a country under military regime. In 1982 after 20 years of military rule, Honduras finally had democratic elections. During that decade, and as a consequence of the cold war, the kidnapping, torturing, murder and disappearance of civilians became common practices among the Honduran military. Peasant activists, university leaders, union workers and intellectuals were among its favorite targets. In Producto Centroamericano: Made in Honduras I present the viewer with a "product" entrenched in Honduran history; the disappearance of almost two hundred civilians in the 1980's for political reasons. The work also presents the viewer with the imminent threat of the return of this practice after its military coup in 2009. By juxtaposing references of torturing tools such as knives, metal poles, chains and meat hooks, against more frail materials such as paper, wax and fabric, I make allusions to the vulnerability of the individual against such repressive forces. Through the elements presented in the installation, I try to take the viewer on a journey that will hopefully, confront one with one’s own humanity and ultimately with one’s own mortality.

Provisional or unfinished images, forms and actions can sustain their status by continuing to change. This can resist programmed experience of their state, and shift their relationship as images within time. The sub-aesthetics of the unfinished and entropic can alter our understanding of where and how images are formed and located within time. My paintings each exist within their own emergent systems of time, structure and productive disorder. This thesis discusses these ideas in relation to DAY FOLDER and other work made during my MFA studies.