Theses and Research
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Item Aaron Smith BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Aaron SmithCollaborations is a joint effort between Aaron Smith and Colin Cathey who are organizers of participatory events. The panels and drawings that you see in front of you are artifacts from these events; we’ve been applying the term Happening to these because it helps describe the participatory, performative, and impromptu qualities of these collective actions. The work ultimately is about setting up a collaborative experience where participants can engage in a very automated state of creative energy exploring the physicality of mark making, sound and movement.
The inquiry is about exploring the language of mark making and how it correlates into understanding the dynamic of the Happenings themselves with a focus on how participants styles push and pull and influence one another. It has gradually become a process of engaging in this communal energy with friends and allowing it to teach us about the visual language of painting. Chance is a central influence and is the main guiding principle. The work operates very much on its own with us and the other participants functioning as vessels under the collective influence of the work.
Conceptually this work is trying to live outside the realms of the consumer marketplace
from a cultural and socio political perspective while also sharing a strong resemblance to the philosophy of the Fluxus and Gutai. The work is meant to be in opposition to professionalism and the pretentious, serious and inaccessible aspects of the traditional art scene while also focusing to explore the pure vitality of these mediums. The materials are just the materials and speak for themselves. The work utilizes the vocabulary of play, automatism, and action painting within the context of community involvement.Item Abigail St. John Illustration Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Abigail St. JohnThings Will Get Better: An Alphabet Journey is an illustrated poetry book that focuses on key moments in childhood, both the light and the dark. It is a journey through the growing pains of adolescence and the realization that we’ve made it out the other side okay. Though it is hidden within the imagery, this book is heavily inspired by the traditional alphabet book. The poem flows through the alphabet, touching on each letter as a memory, moment in time, or feeling. These moments are often activated through visual metaphor, characters and/or symbols. Each letter has a story, a history in which there are countless moments of significance. The repetitive mantra, “things will get better” is at the center of the book’s rhythm, while the alphabet pushes the loose narrative forward. The overall goal of this publication is to promote opening up, relying on a the network of supportive people you have in your life, and hopefully coming to the realization that we aren’t defined be the difficult moments in our lives, rather it is how we move forward and learn to trust again.
Item Aidan Jung Bosanko BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Aidan Jung BosankoAll Wrapped In Bodies is a collection of collaborative art projects. The intention behind this work was to bring together diverse communities by collaborating with and supporting different local emerging artists. I produced four music videos in collaboration with different local music producers. I also started an art collective and organized three community events highlighting work by 26 different Portland artists. The goal with each of these projects has been to resist our country’s current social and political atmosphere of separation, isolation and marginalization by providing a platform of resources and exhibition opportunities for artists to connect with community and share their creative perspectives.
Item Amelia Forman Photography Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Amelia FormanMy thesis project explores the idea that it is important to help support people’s emotional wellbeing, we can help with emotional well being through art, by working with colors and flowers. I have created a collection of flowers and colors in a book that can be shared, so it can be helpful to anyone viewing it. The title of my book is Flowers, Colors and Emotions. How can flowers and colors be used to help with emotional wellbeing? How can different colors represent emotions? Colors are linked to emotions, generally cool colors are considered more calming but by shading and mixing most colors can be used. The heart of my work is the photographic screen prints I created. It is important that all three elements (flower, color and emotion) work together. I made 10 final photographic screen prints of the close up photographs of flowers. I chose to add an emotion in text onto the print to show the viewer what emotion I thought the print represented, even though it may not be the same emotion that the viewer may have. There is a research project that was done by the Psychology department at Rutgers University in 2005. In the study they determined flowers do have an immediate and sometimes longer term emotional effect on people’s mood, social behavior, and memory.By designing and creating these books I have been able to share my love of flowers with a new understanding of the emotional effect that they have on people. We might not all share the same emotion when we see the flower prints in the books but I think that everyone will experience an emotion and I hope that my books will generate smiles and a calming feeling when people view them.
Item Andrew Newell BFA Sculpture Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Andrew NewellThis work has been driven by the idea of the technological Singularity. Like science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s famous adage says, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Once humans build a self-improving intelligence we will have effectively created a machine god. This machine will be infinitely more intelligent and capable than humans. I believe this could result in the complete loss of human autonomy. This work uses religion to talk about the development of intelligences greater than our own and what effects they may have on humanity. It draws parallels between religion and humanity’s dependence on technology and points to both as means of social and moral control.
These sculptures are a cautionary tale, meant to make the viewer ask themselves about the future of humanity and its development of technology. These pieces are constructed primarily from discarded objects sourced from the refuse of everyday life and cheap or secondhand materials. By viewing these sculptures the audience is asked to look at the technological methods of control that have subtly affected their lives and to imagine futures where those methods are taken to an extreme. These works demonstrate that the road to Singularity will be a rocky one that poses risks to humanity’s future.
Item Angelica Trimble-Yanu General Fine Arts Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Angelica Trimble-YanuIyeska is a multimedia installation combining the processes of photography, printmaking and sculpture. Iyeska encapsulates sacred space as a continuous presence of indigenous narrative through ancestral landscape, movement, color and light. This work evokes remembrance through the ceremonial interaction with my sacred homelands in the Makȟóšiča, South Dakota. Iyeska explores the concepts of Indigenous survivance and traditional Lakota knowledge through the combined language of ancestral memory and sacred space.
Item Ann-Marie Engelberth Illustration Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Ann-Marie EngelberthHaven is a post-apocalyptic children’s book that tackles living in a world devoid of plant life. After finding an curious pouch while exploring the wasteland, Tala and her friends are guided by three spirits on a journey to bring flora back to their desert town, Haven. Each spirit is representative of different positive influences of nature on the environment including food, clean drinking water, and beauty. Throughout the book runs a parallel narrative of the giant androids that rule Haven with an iron fist and their gradual decline in affluence during the course of the story. The androids are representative of the dangers of conformity, utilitarianism, and unhindered negative influences of technology. Haven is an 8” x 8” book that runs for eighty-four pages and is divided into a prologue and three chapters. It is aimed at children between six to nine years old. For my thesis project, I took the entire book will be taken up to the final line-art tonal stage, with two interior full-color spreads and an illustrated cover in order to appeal to publishers at the concept stage.
Item Applications of Environmental History on Bolivia’s Coca Trade(2010-04-23T17:39:06Z) Baptista, RafaelBolivia’s coca trade offers one of the most compelling narratives of the complexity of environmental history in Latin American. This is indeed a case where economic instability, social power struggles, and neoliberal economic policies combined to pose not only a highly visible social and health threat (worldwide increase of drug consumption) but also a threat to long-term sustainability of both the environment and agricultural crops.Item Ari Gabriel BFA Animated Arts Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Ari GabrielI dreamt of words floating in the eaves and cloth catching fragmented selves, and I, like a bird in a chimney waiting for the fire, I dreamt of that house. Gods of the House Do Not Perform Miracles is an animated installation utilizing stop-motion animation, film, and spoken word.
Item Ashley Cozzetto BFA Photography Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Ashley CozzettoMy thesis project, A Garden of One’s Own, is a series of eight 11” by 14” unique photographic collages. By adding layers of imagery then subtracting them by scraping into the emulsion, rubbing away the paper, tearing, cutting, or the use of digital tools, mimics the thought process and the deterioration of memories. Like memory, certain things come to the foreground, clear and recognizable and some details are forced to the background, blurry and covered up by something else. Repetition in making or using the same bits of images over and over bring forth the idea of trying to remember something I am forgetting or will eventually forget. I have created an invented space that mimics the landscape as familiar yet different by constructing a visual reinterpretation of the natural world, turning it into something unnatural by manipulation. This project was initially inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. Rather than a utopia, which does not exist, a heterotopia is an other place, a place that can be found in real life. They are places that mirror but distort reality, one example Foucault gives is a garden. Garden’s are stuck between wilderness and artifice. I see my thesis work relating to the idea of garden by the way I have modified and manicured landscape imagery to my taste and visual preference. I have enforced order and pattern, constantly adjusting and adding to the pieces, similar to how one would garden. By using uniform 11” by 14” sized pieces my goal was to allow the viewer to come closer and intimately investigate the work. Up close the viewer will notice the layered recognizable details in each piece, and the further away one gets the more the imagery morphs into something else, details fade away leaving only the light and dark aspects of composition to stand out. Similar to the way one would think back on a past memory, where tiny details can can disappear and you are only left with the bigger picture. This work as a whole is a metaphor for feeling like I am currently residing in an in between space, I am morphing and shifting much like how the garden and nature in general is constantly going through cycles. There is an uncertainty about my future, and it’s scary and exciting at the same time. In this work I wanted to reflect on my feelings of the unknown, and mediate through the act of physically making.
Item Audrey Meschter BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2023Audrey MeschterWith three collections based in different geographical regions of the state, Rowena is a graphic apparel and accessories brand designed in Oregon, for Oregon. Each collection is inspired by the visual qualities and color palettes of the landscape they are designed for, presented as a prototype shop in a professional website setting. The collections — Forest, Coastal and Desert — present in a unified, cohesive manner but are also curated to reflect their chosen region individually, too. Designed for lovers of the outdoors and design, Rowena seeks to bring these two worlds together for both the enthusiasts and the quiet participants. Named after the Rowena Crest viewpoint, Rowena is inspired by Oregon and seeks to share its beauty through collections of thoughtfully designed products.Item Austin Salazar BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Austin SalazarStarting from a place of confusion, and feeling lost, I wanted to break free from myself. I abandoned a conceptual framework and created the work first, focusing on the intuitive decisions made during the process rather than working towards a predetermined goal. Through a blind exploration of materials, line, marks, color, and composition, I’ve created a playful and eccentric body of work. The result is a combination of graphic characters, toy-like contraptions, and ambiguous mark making.
Item Ben Glas BFA Video & Sound Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Benjamin Glas-HochstettlerItem Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium Schedule, Spring 2012(2012) Biology DepartmentThis is the 2012 program for the Biology Department's Senior Symposium. The annual Biology Senior Symposium takes place each spring. The program lists the biology student's name, time of the presentation, title of their thesis, their adviser/mentor, and their abstract.Item Bradley Hoseley Printmaking Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Bradley HoseleyThis body of work is a compilation of making myself more visible, collecting and providing a history of a time, and trying to encapsulate the raw energy of existing in a world that continues to destroy the communities that I embody. From hardcore punk to early gay rights movements, the parallels of these communities, embody similar mentalities and similar ideology. I intend to spark the anger to stand up against the enemy and for those who live in heteronormativity can question why.
Item Briar Parks Animated Arts Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Briar ParksThe Hyperflat artist aggregate is a collective art practice that doesn’t distinguish between art and the everyday performance. In my thesis project I have created a system / stomach designed to digest hierarchies, and make feedback loops out of the leftover fragments. it is a system of humans and puppets working to shatter dichotomies in identity, building connections and harnessing the paradoxes between contrasting perspectives. A person’s position in the Hyperflat artists aggregate is determined by their costume, know as a Scarab. A Scarab is a mask / hat / puppet hybrid that connects its wearer to the artists aggregate and to a language of icons. all Scarabs have an elemental and a psychic signifier built into their design / structure that is directly connected to the Hyperflat language. Scarabs are intended to shift between individual and collective identity by being worn as hats and masks. This range of functions is designed to provide the wearer with a palette of identities, a kind of toolbox for making performance art including Animation, everyday Fashion and sensory deprivation.
Item Briar Stratas Sculpture Thesis Fall 2018(2018-11-01) Briar StratasIn this project, titled Coevolution, I have created an immersive installation designed to merge the viewers reality with one in which they readily recognize their role in their own future. The installation seeks to both ask and answer the question of whether or not we have the power to change our timeline. Sculpture, painting, and set design come together to tell the story of the Quantum Time Capsule and its contents: various seeds from future plants and The Chrysanthemum, an organic device which transmits telepathic communication. These have been sent back through spacetime from humans of the future in an attempt to change our timeline for the better. The objects are now being studied in a laboratory, which serves as the setting for the installation. The message sent back to us in the capsule is that we as individuals have the power to shape our own futures through direct action. Actions cause ripples and waves through time which can redirect paths and potential futures for ourselves and those around us. We must take responsibility for our actions and inaction as soon as possible if we wish to divert the calamitous future of climate disaster and global suffering we are creating for ourselves through complacency with the current paradigm.
Item Can Virtue Make Us Happy? The Art of Living and Morality(2010-05-12T18:56:17Z) Burns, KathrynIs happiness found through an external focus on accomplishing goals in the material world? Or is happiness fashioned through an internal focus on performing one’s duty according to the moral standards of one’s community (religious or secular)? Might happiness (eudaimonia) consist in taking personal responsibility for one’s creative capacity to accomplish things that nature cannot accomplish on its own? Might viewing virtue in terms of the origins of one’s creativity rather than the external consequences of one’s actions lead to an understanding of virtue that allows us to be human and happy?Item Can Virtue Make Us Happy? The Art of Living and Morality: Otfried Höffe(2010-05-11T18:47:31Z) Murphy, ErynHöffe’s first question is how to determine and define “the good.” He cites three habits, three interests, and three meanings that, together, form a recipe for an understanding of goodness. “Good” can apply to any one of the three meanings of ethos: Ethos 1, the habits associated with the relationship between an organism and its location; Ethos 2, moral habits that correspond to societal conventions; and/or Ethos 3, habits that form a personal course, independent of society’s influence. Habits can be evaluated through the lens of three interests. They can be examined empirically, through description of cultural moral habits and through explanations of origin and function. They can be examined with concern for the normative task, either in an effort to evaluate the validity and morality of the habit or to prescribe “should” imperatives that apply to both eudaimonistic and deontological views. Finally, they can be examined through attention to moral philosophy, seeking a meta-ethical standard for standards.Item Casey Finn BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017(2017-11-01) Casey FinnAnalog Oceans and Nuclear Fusion is a triple channel panoramic projection in the shape of a broken circle. You can’t go outside of the circle, you can only go inside of it; into total immersion. Surrounding you, a fabric constantly activated by found footage. The fabric’s smooth surface allows the screen’s form and visual content to be emphasized. The silence accentuates the visual immersion and screen shape. The footage is from my own personal 16mm collection and online archives. I have minimized temporal signifiers with the exception of the frailty of analog film: the scratches, color transformations, and glitches. This indicates a sense of time and history. The past is collected and crystallized into the present viewing experience.
Watch the film of the installation here: https://vimeo.com/246697884