Scholarship & Research

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Navigating in the synthetic void: a hardboiled investigation
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2022) Pomarico, Thomas John; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Rollin Beamish
Society is in the midst of a rapid and drastic shift of ontological perception. Technological advancements in connectivity have altered the rhythm and scale of life due to media saturation, social media, and surveillance. The success of these viral technologies has many obvious benefits; however, they also harbor malicious tendencies when left unchecked. Prescience visions of dystopia by authors George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and David Foster Wallace, once seemingly outlandish, have now become apparent. Shosana Zuboff's 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' published in 2018 would have read as science fiction 25 years ago. As a temporary panacea to the pace of technological engagement, I offer the creative process as a way to alter duration. Using 1940s and 1950s film noir as a metaphor for the environment and challenges of the modern artist. Through this examination a code of conduct emerges to navigate the disruptive pitfalls of media addiction. Construction of the art object involves a multistep conceptual and physical practice guiding behavior away from excessive technological encroachment. My research paper aims to elucidate this process and its potential benefits to an outside observer.
Smiths Onion Institute exhibit : a perhaps hand
(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1971) Smith, Lesley Winfield
It occurred to me that I could take advantage of clay's strength in container-massiveness if I made other things like machines and technical apparatus of the future which sit when they are used, the form being a housing for the works. I also liked the "toy" idea for art, raising (or lowering, if you will) art to the point of physical participation. One of my last ray guns emitted a variable high pitched sound and flashed, being controlled by the participant. Ceramics was not a very applicable vehicle for a portable electronic object because of the weight. I tried papier-mache and though it was effective it was not satisfying to me. At this point my work began to split into two definite areas; the three-dimensional "machines" and the two-dimensional primarily the display of ray guns in use. The potentials in creating the Smiths onion Institute as the framework to unify loosely related forms was very exciting. Some of my observations of life have entered into this and helped formulate several axioms for the Smiths onion Institute. 1. Smiths onion ray guns do not kill. But they do make it rough on the enemy (i.e. changing to crybabies, giving them a headache or a toothache, putting them to sleep, etc.) 2. Woman is the superior human animal, gifted with greater stamina, patience and understanding, sensitivity and intelligence - when emotions do not interfere. Woman's Liberation of the early 1970's on Terra (Earth) began to prove this, gradually elevating WOMF., to the prime positions of responsibility and control. Smiths onion Intergalactic Time Agents (S.I.T.A.) were, are and will be all women attired in self-pride, self-respect, self-confidence, their space-time helmets and carrying Smiths onion ray guns. They travel through space and time affecting history, primarily in time of war or conflict. The nude female form, long an inspiration for art, is an epitome of organic form. And I believe, contrary to contemporary taste, that all variations of the female can be beautiful: slender, plump, stocky, short or tall. I intended to show as great a variety of figures as possible as S.I.T.A. Agents. The differences were considerably neutralized during the process of making the finished photographic historical scenes. I went further in several cases to visually experiment with contrasting crisp, cold metal with the soft grace of female forms. The effect, though jarring, is softened by the total processing.
Parallel realities
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1997) Muhsam, Armin Herbert
I am interested in the after-life of machine parts, their existence after functionalism, their motionlessness, their being awkwardly out. of place and, above all, the chaotic accumulation of fragments in the junkyard, which seems to mock the hierarchical order within which they once functioned. What if these parts started moving again, not according to logical assembly plans but according to the random order they lie about in the junkyard? What would it be like if these fragments formed new machines, animated by internal forces or by residual energy from their previous use? They would be doing what. I imagine being every technician’s nightmare: The established order collapses and is replaced by unpredictable chaos. For me, this scenario is the stimulant for my art, the incentive to fix these situations into an image. When I work with found junk parts, they serve as outside referents of which I make numerous studies. These drawings not only transform the object but also help generate fresh ideas and explore pictorial possibilities. I then transfer the drawings onto big canvases. Once enlarged, the forms develop a dynamic on their own and I often rely on this element of chance to produce unplanned changes in shapes and spatial relationships. When I finally paint these compositions I have arrived at a reality that runs somewhat parallel to the one I had started out from.
Technology : pursuing the dialectical image
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) van den Bosch, Craig David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Rollin Beamish
Using the term, “dialectical image”, my current work addresses the dynamics of biology vs. technology and asks whether there will be a harmony between the two as the gap closes. The term dialectics has taken on a multitude of forms over the years. It can be defined as logic or any of its branches or any formal system of reasoning or thought. In addition, it can mean the juxtaposition or interaction of conflicting ideas, forces (virtual reality vs. reality, biology vs. technology) or in other words, a Marxist process of change through conflicting forces. In this instance, the conflicting forces are entropy and technology’s utopian promise. In today’s terms, “"dialectics" can also refer to an understanding of how we can or should perceive the world (epistemology, the theory of knowledge), an assertion of the interconnected, contradictory, and dynamic nature of the world outside our perception of it (ontology, the study of being or existing), or a method of presentation of ideas or conclusions.

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