Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item We: stitching together communities and the self master of fine arts exhibition and analysis(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2022) Yonke, Angela Jean; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jeremy HatchIn this thesis I created work which visualizes the complexity, support, and importance of community, seeing one another's perspectives, and discussed self-care, our disposable culture by using materials which have symbolic meaning, and were relatable to the viewer. I structured the show to encourage play, engagement, and a desire to connect through use of semiotic visuals and simple directions. I took on the role of director and producer to inspire collaboration and connection within the exhibition. I used everyday window screen material to create clothing for participants to try on. The screen was embroidered with yarn to represent different emotional states through fiber mark making and color. People were invited by strategically placed icons and photographic imagery to try on the items and figuratively try on others' thoughts in an attempt to connect, reflect, and associate the skin of a building to their own body and perspectives. Examples of mending on the screens and photographs of my sewing club stitching on each other presented opportunities to talk about repair and valuing of possessions and the self. Using overlapping screens to create moire patterning, I alluded to the power of people to enrich and transform lives when we interact and overlap, and to see others as windows of opportunity. I presented a community knowledge sharing project, with an online archive and individual visual component, for neighbors to learn from each other and build community, my own shared skill being clothing mending. Gallery-goers were welcomed to add to a collaborative embroidery piece, take screen patches home to mend their own screens, and pose for photographs of themselves in the clothing. I witnessed participants positively interacting with the work. I measure its success by the conversations started and reactions shared regarding ideas which this body of work stimulated by attending and bodily experiencing the show. Further evidence can be seen in the online sharing of the work, and continued stories relayed to me. In this thesis paper I intend to delve more deeply into my research, symbolic use of materials, and conceptual basis for the work.Item Toward new narrative constructions and interactivity in natural history applications(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2016) Reed, Jeffrey Connor; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dennis AigThe natural history film genre has long played a critical role in the understanding of science and natural history for its audience. The demands of a ratings-based industry that calls for familiar story structure and minimal scientific depth compromise this position of authority. Time constraints and the adherence to passive spectator narratives further inhibits the transmission of factual information. Interactive media formats present opportunities to reconsider the narrative construction and expand natural history films beyond traditional forms. In this paper, I explore how employing innovations of interactive documentaries, video games, and informal learning environments in the design of an interactive natural history application can remove the current limitations associated with traditional wildlife film and promote deeper scientific understanding.Item Convivial(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2016) Phan, Larry; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dean AdamsHow are artists today influenced by the last 20 years of the art movement of Relational Aesthetics? My research is focused on the Relational Aesthetics method of participant engagement as a form of art practice. Combining traditional craft mediums and cooking I explore the ways social engagement and Relational Aesthetics can create community within the spectrum of contemporary art. I use traditional craft mediums to create tactile and visual familiarity to engage gallery goers as well as community participation.Item Sanctuary(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1994) Robinson, Susan RaeHuman beings have a long and rich history of creating sacred places. From Anasazi kivas to Gothic cathedrals, man has built an environment to suit his spiritual needs. For a lot of people, the ancient traditions are still a powerful source of inspiration, but for some, although still valuable, they lack a modern perspective. Joseph Campbell, an expert on mythology, said, "We in the West have named our God; or rather, we have had the godhead named for us in a book from a time and place that are not our own." In my sanctuary I am attempting to create a space for our own time, based on what I perceive our needs to be. In this sanctuary, the accent is on experience, attained by active exploration of the space. Joseph Campbell said people need to seek out their "own experience: not [have] faith in someone else’s." This sanctuary requires the participant to physically search the space with a small flashlight for objects, textures and images that allude to the mystery of life on earth, and beyond. The limited length of the flashlight beam demands a closer scrutiny of the space and increases the intimacy within the structure. One cannot merely shuffle along a traditional museum wall and view the area. Our culture has transformed us into passive viewers and insatiable consumers. We watch television, listen to the radio, watch sports with religious devotion, and passively glide through galleries and museums, consuming information, but gaining no experience. However, in this environment, the idea of the traditional viewer is obsolete.Item Working progress(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1990) Karson, Terence BrooksAs the artist my intention is to immediately make the viewer aware of the space he is in by placing him in direct contact with the work. To make him watch his step. He is in darkness, he is walking on plastic, the radio is making noise, a machine is glowing, clicking, buzzing. There is activity. I want to make the viewer feel, if only for a moment, like an intruder, as if he were somewhere he shouldn't be. It is not a natural setting for the viewer. He is an intruder into the art process. This is the gallery's realm, the curator's realm, the artist's realm. The public is not invited to work in progress. After the initial uneasiness, the viewer is drawn into the space through curiosity. By using familiar things that he can identify with, the newspapers, the plastic, the desk and the things in it, the ladder, the paint, the radio and the gallery space itself, I hope to bring the viewer from a state of slight discomfort to a state of recognition of the various elements and on into a state of response to the images on the screen and on the floor. Once the recognition is established, I hope to bring the viewer into a state of familiarity and active participation, playing a guessing, game with the images he perceives and the space he finds himself in. The knowledge and information brought to the installation by the viewer is critical to the viewer's perception and interpretation of it. In this setting the viewer is brought into the process of art and becomes a part of it. The viewer is no longer an intruder but an essential participant.Item Second sight : continuum(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2013) Holton, Christopher James; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dean AdamsThe speed and transcontinental abilities of sophisticated telecommunications impact our physical and physiological being within cultural structures. The developments of certain technologies have continued to push the boundaries of the conceptual transfiguration of a person's perception of space and reality, manipulating our senses and assaulting our feeling of corporeality. Through my installation, I present the viewer with multiple modes of telecommunications, allowing the viewer the options of being an active participant in their experience, or become a passive spectator. I aim to challenge the individual to discover a higher awareness to their physical being through social-technological interaction, and question the ethical responsibility of social-political structures implementing these given technologies.