Set up as a visual investigation, the research explores how the addition of paint and graphite materials onto the surface of found and discarded photographs, creates a visual and conceptual disjuncture by punctuating and altering the temporal frame of the photograph. The research is positioned in relation to Susan Sontag’s description in On Photography (1977) as to how the photograph can at once “transfix” and “anesthetize” the subject matter, which through the passage of time serves to create an “aesthetic distance,” and Roland Barthes’ observation in Camera Lucida (1980) that the photograph is “platitudinous.” The tendency to project nostalgic sentiment onto the found vernacular photograph is explored, drawing on Susan Stewart’s notion of the authentic object in On Longing (1984), which, it is argued, when expressed in the form of the found photographic object, becomes an emblem of loss, further exaggerating the sense of distance and impenetrability. Working specifically with the found photograph prompts a questioning of previous critical commentaries concerning painting over photographs, as in Gerhard Richter’s ‘Overpaintings,’ where Joannes Meinhardt (2009) suggests that the addition of paint intensifies the essential “speechlessness” of the photograph. This research extends these discourses and contributes a counter critical position, supported and articulated through an original body of work. It proposes that the applied paint on the surface of the found photograph punctures the essential “speechlessness” and unknowability magnified within this subset of photography. The very physical materiality and difference offered by the paint medium ruptures the perception of distance and mediates the tendency towards nostalgic interpretations, bringing a level of stability and certainty in the face of the uncertain, fluctuating meaning and temporal plane of the found photograph.

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone and camera on social media. iPhoneography, the photography taken or edited with the iPhone, has set the trend of nostalgic photography on social media during the 2010s; thus, the iPhone, a high-tech camera, produces low-tech-looking images. This dissertation attempts to find out why iPhone photographers (iPhoneographers) take, edit, and share images that mimic photographs taken with analog photographic equipment. I argue that nostalgia allows iPhoneographers to use the iPhone as a creative tool and to belong to a community. Based on the arguments of Vilém Flusser—who suggested that photographers are more interested in the camera and the process of taking pictures than in the photographs produced—this work focuses first on the iPhone camera and the camera apps. (This work also considers the writings of Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, and W. J. T. Mitchell, as they pertain to photography and iPhoneography.) It traces the beginning of the nostalgic photograph style to 2008, when the Apple App Store offered apps that behaved like toy cameras and rendered images similar to those produced by toy and Polaroid cameras. The Hipstamatic app set the trend in 2009, and Instagram made it mainstream. Nostalgia is more a source of inspiration and creativity than a source of melancholy and longing for the past. The iPhoneography community on Facebook tends to form small groups that share and curate specific topics, such as clouds, portraits, flowers, and images produced with Hipstamatic. A small survey of the iPhoneography community shows that the community considers iPhoneography an art.

ABSTRACT This study delves into the notion of klezmer as both a link in the chain of Jewish continuity and a mirror to the multifarious variations of Jewish identification. It explores the music in relation to various events within the last century of Jewish history, such as the Jewish enlightenment movement, migration from Eastern Europe and the Holocaust, and draws on various discourses of memory and identity to frame and elucidate the music. It also proposes the theory that klezmer could indeed be an archetype, comprised of mnemonic and archetypal musical devices, that resides deep within the Jewish collective unconscious and rouses nostalgic yearnings to reclaim a cherished yet imperilled heritage. Embracing this notion of klezmer as archetype sheds light on the contemporary klezmer scene, particularly in Germany, Poland and the United States of America, and the many social, cultural and moral sensibilities that define it. Paving the way for the various avenues of Jewish, and often non-Jewish, memory work and identification klezmer not only sounds the synthesis of cultural, social and religious boundaries, but also emerges as a bastion of Jewish continuity.

The relationship between nostalgic associations and fundamental developments in design: lines and construction in commercial sportswear / Program: Master Programme in Fashion and Textile Design

The work deals with pictures of GDR in German prose written after 1989 by authors coming from GDR and born after 1960. Literary pictures of GDR could be perceived as reflections of memories of individuals or as fictional images of this country. These pictures can't be compared with analyses researched by historians. The main aim is to show how these pictures create the collective memory of this state and how can the collective memory influences picture of GDR, that plays dominant role in today's German society. The case study compares nine literary texts and shows different aspects of reality of life in GDR. Humour and nostalgia were used as an important part of this picture. The comparison includes parallels and differences, in picturing this country, used by two last generations of authors in GDR.

This study uses the pop music scene as a tool to analyse contemporary cultural history in Asia, with a focus on the cold-war and post-cold war period (1960s-1990s). The primary objective is to present how Pan-Chinese music shaped peoples’ collective memories in Asia and to investigate issues such as cultural history identification, cultural worship, colonisation, nostalgia, and how these influence each other. The secondary objective is to analyse which factors can influence peoples’ collective memories, since similar pop music and historical backgrounds in Asia can be located. A particular focus is Deng Lijun (also known as Teresa Teng) (1964-1995) who is considered the most influential popular singer able to transcend ideological barriers in Asia. Through in-depth interviews carried out in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan during 2010, audience perceptions focusing on Deng Lijun's personality, music and performances were recorded and analysed in order to create focal points regarding the collective memory of her work. The main interest of this thesis is not only her role as a singer, but also her ability to capture different cultural imaginations, to initiate processes of identification and to transcend different country’s frontiers (Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South-East Asia and Japan), particularly since these countries champion different ideological perspectives. Her fame and commercial success had a huge cultural impact, and as a result she was the first cultural carrier to break the boundaries of the Cold-War era in Asia. Apart from examining the social, cultural and political factors that influence pop music, the industry behind it and shared audience memories, the focal point of the thesis is to draw attention to aspect of time by examining how the cold war in Asia reconstructed pop music’s cultural symbols and how these symbols were transformed through different ideological structures and facets. Using the information gathered from interviews and archives, this study explores the role of popular music in political struggles between warring ideologies and shows how those struggles both informed and were informed by the sentimental songs of a global popular music idol.

Landscape art reinvents itself throughout history, along with changes in relationships between humans and nature. During unprecedented processes of urbanization, industrialization, and globalization, the past two hundred years witnessed shifts in global landscapes. The idea of using art to cope with a sense of loss becomes the departure point for my art project. To contextualize my work, I will discuss art scenes in urbanizing Europe and contemporary China and explore the powerlessness of individuals under the formidable trend of development reflected in landscape art.

In Willa Cather's My Ántonia, nostalgia marks both the ambience of the novel and its critical focus. This thesis illuminates Cather's self-aware deployment of nostalgia as an artistic tool and nostalgia's role in Jim Burden's agenda-driven narrative. Jim adopts nostalgic narrative as propaganda to justify and glorify his past and present life, presenting his past as a simplified and romanticized origin myth. However, through the novel's frame narrative and the frequent, jarring vignettes of violence and discord, Cather undermines Jim's authority as a narrator and prompts reconsideration of Cather's endorsement of his nostalgic creation. By appreciating the complex deployment of nostalgia within the text we are prompted to reconsider assumptions about nostalgia, Cather, and Cather's interest in representations of the past.

No description available.

The author investigates the voice in diverse genres and styles, documenting and interpreting vocal performance through a contextual analysis of specifically chosen repertoire. This repertoire is drawn from collaboration with two musical groups, the Renaissance Players and Coda and from the author's artistic direction and presentation of four diverse recitals: American Songs, Italian Baroque, American Folk and Theatre and Nostalgia. Each recital is treated as a separate case study, in which the process of selecting, rehearsing and performing the repertoire is closely examined. Recordings and selected examples of scores are included to illustrate the findings. The discussion concludes with a synthesis of context and process within the framework of a global perspective celebrating diversity. / Master of Arts (Hons)