This dissertation analyzes the institutionalization of avant-garde artistic practice within an American university, the University of Iowa between the years 1967 and 2000. In order to understand the development of the Intermedia program at Iowa, the institutional context of the "Iowa Idea" as it was developed on campus from the 1930s that emphasized the simultaneous instruction of art history and theory with instruction in the graphic and plastic arts. Following the success of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the University of Iowa received a major grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1970 to form the Center for New Performing Arts. Following the development from Happenings to Intermedia, and gradually into specific "disciplines" of performance art and video art, this dissertation demonstrates how the institution was inseparable from these avant-garde practices which required significant resources to develop. The importance of technology is traced through the digital revolution in the arts, and the role of "intermedia" is shown to be part of a process of changing consciousness as opposed to commonly accepted definitions of "multimedia" or Gesamtkunstwerk.

Photography was my introduction into art. I gravitated toward portrait photography fairly quickly. I found the interaction between subject and photographer to be an intense moment in time. I began to push that intensity - through various non-traditional approaches, such as placing ads in the personals. It did not take long before I turned the camera on myself, creating self-portraits in the domestic setting. I began to play for the camera. I created various personas that placed myself in some gray area between masculinity and femininity. Shortly there after, I began working with collage. I found the formulas and rigidity sometimes found in photography had me gasping for air. Collage works had freed up my process. The mediums of photography and collage played harmoniously together as they are both paired in ideas of domesticity, gender roles, ' family dynamics and dominant and submissive figures. The collage work is compressed and stacked in a way that adds weight to the issues found inside. The stacking and overlapping of the collages, keeps all the elements fighting for space. I can tap into the subconscious and explore ideas through the re-contextualization of other images, text, and scraps of paper. The key elements of my domestic photo collages are: the home, sexual tension/hierarchy /innuendo, and gender play. Through a serious studio practice, I am able to share my sense of humor and playfulness in my work. With an Exactoknife, a few pages from a magazine, and a glue stick, I can change and rearrange the world around me.

I am an excremental artist. I do not mean an artist who works with feces or is interested in manure but one whose artwork is expelled through the results of process. As a photographer, I am not as interested in indexing a location, a person or a moment as I am dissolving the structure of photography through the manipulation of photographic materials. I typically photograph landscapes that catch my attention for a myriad of reasons. The commonality between these images is anonymity of place. Hints of location are always present but never accentuated, instead their purpose is akin to a forging slug: raw blank material from which my artwork will be created. My photographic slugs are then entered into various processing systems that I have devised over the years. Common processing techniques that I incorporate include hand and machine stitching, chemically altering photographic paper and the integration of open-source electronics. These and other processes are mixed, matched and blended to form the corpus of my work. The body of my work is not complete without my head, heart and hands. My intellectual interests are constantly feeding the physical processes described above. I have an extended engagement with photography’s rich history along with a critical commitment to philosophy. My intuition is permitted to work in concert with my intellect despite stark contrasts between the two. My intellect looks for structures and speaks in logical thought while my intuition arrives in waves of unarticulated emotions and ‘gut feelings’. The heart’s language is often more difficult to translate than intellectual headband but both are equally valuable in my process. Finally, my hands play a vital role in creating my art. They transcribe the conversation between the head and the heart and physically complete the processes defined prior. My artwork is not conceived and the built into a structure, instead it is a result of the passing through a system. I consume copious amounts of stimuli (intellectually, visually, emotionally) and digest it through my creative process and the result is my artwork.

My art emerges from decades of the experience of building myself, sensitively aware of accumulated experience and the weight of accrued memory. Responding to this life I so deeply appreciate the longer I live, as sculptor, painter and poet, I merge these individual aesthetic observations into a layered work of many reads. Offering poetic observation as a visual sensation beyond the ears’ hearing carried on a field of color connects at some interior emotional level which is absent or very different in the uniformity of type. Time is present in my current work. “Corrugations”, not only in the poetic images emerging from three days in the embrace of nature but in the new task of the recycled cardboard of commerce as an agent of art. I share my observation of life as art objects of consideration, poetry embedded in the strong arms of bas relief sculpture, the abstract text of language make as visible as the emotional response to color. “Corrugations” becomes an environment where one can wander among the recycled attains a new nobility d offers sparse poems of human observation. Perhaps deceptively simple a certain richness exudes from the massed collection, two dozen glimpses into a state of mind at once impoverished and nourished by the vital power of wilderness. The machine of civilization has become almost a runaway train with a footprint greater than any natural cataclysmic act and we must create and foster a new state of balance within the biosphere. To value the promise of humanity is to seek to establish responsible civilization where the positive possibilities exist to cherish all forms of life. More important though is the nourishment of what human life could become as quality of all life becomes the most important and universal goal. To believe that growth is always a possible choice even in the midst of ancient negative behaviors which negate growth embracing positive change is perhaps less a luxury than a conscious personal choice and if my choice can inform consideration of choice in the viewer than my art has served well.

Throughout history, skin manipulation was primarily practiced for cultural, tribal, or religious purposes. In the contemporary landscape, skin manipulation has been objectified and commercialized. This is exemplified through bio-upholstery, foreign materials under our skin and changing the skin structure. This thesis investigates skin manipulation, with the intent to focus experimentation on the skin’s lines of cleavage, a topographical map drawn on our skin and used to define the direction where skin has the most and least flexibility. The aim is to connect and explore materials that can be used as a second skin, while at the same time examining and utilizing the lines of cleavage found within the structure of skin. The focus of this thesis is to examine the potential of different materials, as a second skin that enhances our skin and its properties of protection. Through experimentation I aim to explore an alternate second skin’s function, through a series of experiments that address flexibility, protection, and memory.

My work approaches the multitude of personal experience within the landscape, considering its cultural representation, aiming to give the environment agency within these tumultuous times. The following text is a personal narrative, realizing the many lenses through which a landscape can be experienced, including analyses of artists, writers, and musicians who have represented landscape through their own individuality.

Twitter has over 313 million users, with 500 million tweets produced each day. Society’s growing dependence on the internet for self-expression shows no sign of abating. However, recent research warns that social media perpetuates loneliness, caused by reduced face-to-face interaction. My thesis analyzes and demonstrates the important role facial expressions play in a conversation’s progress, impacting how people process and relate to what is being said. My work critically assesses communication problems associated with Twitter. By isolating and documenting expressive facial reactions to a curated selection of tweets, the exhibition creates a commentary on our contemporary digital existence, specifically articulating how use of social media limits basic social interaction.

Transgender individuals challenge the binary definition of gender accepted in Pakistani society and as a result, Pakistan’s transgender community is highly marginalized. Pakistani society regards transgender individuals as “abnormal,” because their physical appearance and behavior fail to conform with conventional expectations. Based on contextual research and interviews conducted with transgender individuals in Pakistan, my thesis explores the obstacles transgender individuals face in the course of everyday survival. My research responds to the physical realities of being transgender in Pakistani society and analyzes cultural norms associated with gender, which trigger harassment. By designing transformable apparel for these individuals, informed by primary and secondary research, my goal is to help them cope with the everyday struggles of being transgender in Pakistan.

The field of design is one that holds the power to empower, bridge gaps, inform, evolve and revolutionize human thoughts. To gain a higher understanding of the correlation of anthropometrics and ergonomics in an embodied space relative to the discipline of dance connecting one’s mind and body. The need for a space that instills a sense of freedom for artists to experience and execute their art and to reside alongside their mentors and traveling artists. The need for a space that can bring the diverse cultures that live in and around Richmond together through an expressive form of art. Providing an educational opportunity for the residents of the space as well as public on the importance of culture preservation and freedom of expression (Iwano, 2003). Research and precedent studies imply that: Design and dance are complementary forms of visual communication that have similar principles of rhythm, balance and contrast. Performative design can create higher levels of interaction between artists, students and public. The expressions and movements used in dance can be used to inform and evolve the architectural experience in the space. This research will support the design of an artists- in- residence space for the dance community in Richmond that will contain: A residential space where the artists can reside amongst faculty, students and travelling artists. Practice rooms where they are at liberty to express, practice, educate and engage amongst other dancers. A performance space where they can execute and showcase their expertise and engage with the public. A public community hall for where there is an opportunity for the diverse cultures and other artist communities to connect through dance. A library and a gallery space that gets integarted into the library that becomes part of the educational opportunity wherein they get a glimpse of the evolution of the various disciplines that dance is a combination of.

Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and oppression of the Palestinian people has manifested itself in countless ways. The built environment, fueled by spatial theory, has been transformed into an instrument of war that serves a military agenda. In this context, the physical environment is not simply the arena of conflict, but a weapon wielded by occupying forces. This research investigates spatial control through seemingly mundane architecture and military practices, which are deployed deliberately to strangulate Palestinian livelihood and prosperity. Derived from Deleuze and Guittari’s delineation of smooth and striated space, with an emphasis on walls and barriers, this thesis subverts the spatial weaponization by envisioning design as both a retaliatory and reparative force. In doing so, it critiques and protests against the status quo.