This creative project is an experiment in the integration of multidisciplinary art media with the goal of enhancing communication between the artist and the audience. The project consists of three primary components: drawings, video technology, and a participatory piece. The purpose of the experiment is to diversify the communication of several concepts by combining these three components, while simultaneously sustaining consistent themes, to create a cohesive installation. This thesis documents the details of the aesthetic and conceptual influences, the specifics of the installation and individual components, and the final outcome of the project. It also addresses the challenges and solutions of seamlessly integrating multiple media and discusses the future potential of the artwork. / Department of Art

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 432-457).

Scheherazade’s Sea is an interdisciplinary creative work, which brings together music, visual art, literary text, digital media, and performance art. Interdisciplinary creativity has existed for centuries in history. In fact, the ancients of different civilisations viewed the disciplines of science and art as inseparable. The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw a resurgence of interdisciplinary interest in the form of artistic collaborations among proponents of the different arts forms, mainly music, visual art, theatre and dance. Today, this coalescence now includes digital and electronic media. However, such works focus mainly on the more dominant distal senses of sight and sound and fail to consider the multimodality of natural sensory perception in the experience of art, and many of these works are performed in settings where artists are separated from audience by physical and psychological barriers. In Scheherazade’s Sea, I shall address the limitations of prevalent approaches, by including the proximal senses, removing the traditional physical barriers and encouraging audience participation. On another level, Scheherazade’s Sea serves as a vehicle for exploration and reflection of the inherent sensory and cognitive peculiarities associated with Asperger’s Syndrome, and their possible influences upon creativity and artistic expression. Sensory and cognitive idiosyncrasy is a common feature in Asperger’s Syndrome. Individuals suffer from extremes of either heightened sensitivity or low arousal to external sensory stimuli, and their innate cognitive patterns differ from that of the typical majority. As a result, the sensory and cognitive world of a person with Autistic Spectrum Disorder can be fragmented, disjointed and confusing. While there exists substantial literature about famous artists with Asperger’s Syndrome and various aspects of their creativity, there is, to date, limited documentation from the perspective of the artist with Asperger’s Syndrome, using an original interdisciplinary work to illustrate the possible ways in which sensory and cognitive differences may affect and influence creative choices and outcomes. By charting and examining the features and various processes in the creation of Scheherazade’s Sea, I hope to discover and contribute more insights into this area of interdisciplinary study. The purpose of this examination is not to add to the already vast body of programmes aimed at social rehabilitation and adaptation to the neurotypical world, but rather to open more avenues for the identification and development of innate abilities in autistic individuals. My intention is not to ‘fix what is broken’, but to discover and empower beauty in the unusual and the different. / published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 36). / iv, 36 leaves, bound col. ill. 29 cm

Diss. (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Aug., 2003.

Synergism is an art presentation designed to use multimedia concepts to heighten audience involvement in the work. Although primarily sound oriented, its skeletal structure is literary. The music expands upon the text to communicate the inexplicable or irrational element of its meaning to those faculties which determine emotional response. This process is aided by a modicum of environmental control achieved through stage lighting effects.

Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a significant role in human emotional well-being, personal growth and life satisfaction. Self-awareness is said to be a key to the development of this form of intelligence. It has also been claimed by art therapists and educators that the expressive arts can assist people in self-expression and emotional awareness. In accordance with this belief, the motion picture (a movie) as a form of expressive product has been used to help people become aware of their own hidden feelings and thoughts (i.e. viewing or making an autobiographical movie can promote emotional awareness). However, there has been little research that specifically addresses how the process of making (one particular form of expressive art) may help a person to engage with their emotions. Therefore the central aim of the research was to show firstly how the development of autobiographical animations may engender therapeutic opportunities for greater reflection thereby facilitating personal development of, and emotional awareness in the artist and secondly, to demonstrate that the viewing of such animations may prompt viewers to gain the understanding of the feelings of the animator and be stimulated to reflect on their own experience, followed by the subsidiary goal of demonstrating that making animation could provide additional opportunities to the growth of greater emotional awareness in therapeutic and school education settings. To achieve these aims, a practice-led research approach was adopted. The thesis presents the reflective journey undertaken in creating the final installation ‘A residual cleft in my beautiful life: childhood’ based on childhood memories, showing how reflection-on-practice and in-practice formed key components in shaping the research and accompanying artistic endeavours. The development of the installation confirmed that the processes undertaken in producing an animation provided opportunities for self-knowledge and personal growth (in the artist), and that the audience were stimulated to consider their own childhoods as well as the childhood presented to them. The evidences of the animation installation production and the audience’s responses to the artefact further support the positive feedback on the values of animation to assist in increasing self-awareness from interviews with art therapists, and an online survey with school teachers. Observation of s three month animation teaching placement is also reported to invite further study to explore animation practice and school education. In conclusion, this research contributes to knowledge firstly, by providing a practice based account of the researcher’s exploration of, and development of emotional insight through her therapeutic art; secondly by evidencing the potential of a new form of expressive art - animation – to be used as an expressive arts technique to engage the emotional intelligence of individuals and audiences.

My thesis body of work offers a bridge into the physical, emotional, and spiritual scarring caused by global intolerance towards the LGBTQIA+ community and oppression embedded by patriarchal power. This body of work is a collection of resurfaced history and experiences transformed physically by intentionally subverting hyper-masculine materials into knots. My objective is to deconstruct individual knotted cords that make up the fabric of my identity and reconstruct them into an installation. Renascence offers a visceral experience for the audience that aesthetically explores the body’s transformation as it heals. This thesis asserts a place within a reflective, fluid, transitional identity expressing the intersection of the temporality and body that I occupy as a Queer, Latinx artist of color. Working across media, Renascence incorporates performance, photography, paper, paint, projection, mirrors and built environments. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Advisor : Todd Winkler. Includes supplementary digital materials: DVD 1. Audio -- DVD 2. Video. Special graduate studies are in computer music and new media. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-146).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Title on DVD: MELT. Vita. Advisor : Todd Winkler. Rock copy 2 : includes supplementary digital materials. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-162).