title: Drawing as Practice: the Past as Potential

contributor: Smith, Heather Kai (Heather Kai Smith) (author)

contributor: Emily Carr University of Art + Design Graduate studies (Degree granting institution)

format:
29 p.
electronic
50 pages
electronic

subject: Drawing Feminism History

abstract: This document expresses a theoretical and practical description of my research and studio practice. I engage in mining and querying historical and political archives, specifically those documenting the North American Women’s Liberation Movement of the late 1960s to early 1970s. Images and text are collected, then re-presented through the act of hand drawing, furthered by layering and assembling the resulting images to stimulate embedded strategies of resistance and subjectively understand the affect of those positions in the present. A direct interest in themes of potentiality, possibility and the ability to visually and physically express these notions frames my practice. In short, through this work I am asking what are the capabilities of revisiting historical images as sites for latent possibilities of collective engagement? Drawing returns these images to the present, and therefore asks the viewer to reconsider the hopes and failures of the past, the ideals and goals not-yet-realized. The ultimate installation strategies of this work: fragmented, rearranged, layered and reorganized simultaneously seek to crowd the viewer in multiple drawing events, eliciting the sentiment of the crowd, the mass, and re-emphasizing the individual. Ultimately my practice engages in multiple temporalities – past, present and future, through a careful and embodied practice of observation, deliberation, and generative translation.

abstract: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts.

abstract: 1960s - 1970s


title: Living Organisms for Living Spaces

type: Text thesis

contributor: Silva Diaz, Juliana (Juliana Silva Diaz) (author)

format:
50 p.
electronic
electronic

rights: This thesis is available to view and copy for research and educational purposes only, provided that it is not altered in any way and is properly acknowledged, including citing the author(s), title and full bibliographic details.

subject:
Textiles
Sculpture
Uncanny, The (Psychoanalysis)
Decoration and ornament
Latin America

abstract:
This paper examines the concept of materiality and how my work engages it. In line with art historian Edward J. Sullivan, I approach materials as potential objects functioning as cultural signifiers. I explore the idea of material through Monika Wagner’s approaches as active matter that is full of energy. That means that materials do not need to be handled by human hands in order to be activated; they have the power to speak by themselves. The selection of materials I make to develop the project focuses on fabrics and garments used in the language of decoration. This decision is driven by my interest and observation of ornamentation in architecture and home decoration.

Through ornamentation I explore the tension I find in the relationship that we have as subjects with culture and nature. In this tension, I scrutinize the need of humans to control almost everything around them. I inspect the actions and signs imbed in ornamentation to exert control. In order to narrow the point of reflection I bring up memories from my Catholic childhood to exemplify the sources of nourishment and support the visual language that I develop.
I draw on Sir Ernst Gombrich in order to illuminate the psychology of the ornamentation and problematize nature-culture dualities. Gombrich remarks that the need for ornamentation is connected with our biological inheritance. Our cognitive system requires ways to order and systematize so as to create states of comfort and tranquility. This modus operandi is applied to every aspect of our life. I parallel this need to control with colonialism.

Along with the material exploration and the attempt to disrupt the tendency to order and control, I study Gretchen E. Henderson’s approach to the idea of ugliness as “matter out of place”, and also to Ernst Jensch’s understanding of “the uncanny” as something unusual that causes confusion. These are the strategies and methods I apply to the materials to create uneasiness and alter viewer’s perception. Ultimately, my intention is to provoke viewers’ curiosity to explore ways of seeing outside of the paradigm that controls them.

abstract: Materiality

abstract: Textiles/fabrics

abstract: Art

abstract: Sculpture


title: Woven Narratives

contributor: Fluevog, Britta (Britta Fluevog) (author)

contributor: Emily Carr University of Art and Design Graduate Studies (Degree granting institution)

format:
71 p.
electronic

subject:
Weaving
Textile art
Activists
Art and society
Social change
Social Justice

abstract:
My body of work for my thesis brings together a strong aesthetic and material based practice into the realm of social justice. Through cultural context, artistic and theoretical references, my driving motivations in art practice are discussed.
I use weaving, ceramics, performativity and process as manifestations to expand the discourses of textile and political art. Organic shapes, texture, and a plethora of details in the work allow meandering investigations by the viewer and create art that continually changes. Touch, texture and the handmade are explored in relationship to the maker and the performativity of making. Local, industrial, and indigenous materials are explored in relationship to their places of origin and the connotations they carry. The textile-orientated works of contemporary artists such as Sascha Reichstein, Sara Rahbar and Lisa Anne Auerbach, which are politically radical, influence my practice. Through the lens of social justice and intersectionality, my work investigates borders, refugees, globalism and colonization in relation to textiles and makers. I use the relationship of textiles to social justice and activism to create a working method in which to start my material explorations. The act of making alone can provide a powerful statement that has the ability to reframe the way we view and act within our world. The body is used to forefront the human element around issues of injustices. Females are picked both for the relationship to textiles and because of their marginal position within intersections of race, gender, class, citizenship and culture.


title: From Site to Place and Back and Forth: Towards a Fluid Methodology

type: thesis Text

contributor: Lavoie, Nathalie (Nathalie Lavoie) (author)

format:
47 p.
electronic

coverage:
Mackenzie River (N.W.T.)
Northwest Territories
Canada

subject: Phenomenology--Earthworks (Art)--Art, Modern--Site-specific art--Mackenzie River (N.W.T.)

abstract:
Site-specific art practices are becoming increasingly prevalent. This observation draws on the amount of recent literature devoted to the subject and its popularity as locus for biennials. However, several authors note that a clarification of the term and its meaning are necessary (Kwon 2, Cartiere Re/Placing 43). For example, one may associate site specificity as art related to the topography of the site, and regard place-specificity art as work that use the topography as well as addressing social contexts (Lippard Lure 275-281, Cartiere Re/Placing 43). Through a critical literature review and sited artistic practice, this thesis examines the role of place-specificity within site-specific art, the use of relocation of a work as a method, and the reconciliation of the lyrical and the critical in art productions, in an attempt to construct a methodological framework adapted to my location. I first introduce the context of the
research: living in a small, remote locality. Proposed methods to conduct research while living in Northern Canada are outlined: they include a phenomenological experience of place, the use of water as an art medium, and practice-led research. I then define in more detail site-specificity and place-specificity, and offer examples of both practices utilizing artists’ works engaging with water as a medium: Andy Goldsworthy, the Snow Show, and Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison. Analysis of these works furthers inquiry on environmental art practices, the romantic impulse, and relevant spatiotemporal theories, notably drawn from human geography. Non-representational theories, a subgenre of human geography, are considered as an alternative framework to view “natural” sites and their unfolding. Subsequently, the thesis focus is examined through the creation of new sited works, produced in the community of Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Finally, a discussion tying the theoretical research and artistic practice ensues.


title: Curator As Lead Artist

contributor: Emily Carr University of Art and Design Graduate studies (Degree granting institution)

format:
18 p.
electronic
electronic

subject: Curatorship

abstract: My thesis research methodology investigates the spaces between curatorial and artistic practices. More specifically, I am interested in the boundaries and slippages between these separately defined disciplines, and the potential that exists in testing points of crossover and confusion. With this in mind, this thesis considers the curator as collaborator as artist position, to explore beyond the conventional expectation that artists make works of art which curators then display. Through my work, I attempt to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges that arise when curators take on increasingly authorial and creative roles in both the production and presentation of the work of others. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, a curator who has in the past refused to use this professional designation, notes that “the curator is the most emblematic worker of the cognitive age” (Balzar 9). Christov-Bakargiev’s quote is an important place to begin my research because although she acknowledges that curators are significant, she hesitates to identify as one, demonstrated by her use of the term agent and such (Judah). If curators are at the forefront of cultural production, where does that put the artists? This thesis project is a way to investigate, through creative and material practice, the historical and contemporary discourse around a specific type of relationship between curating and art making: the area where the labour of curators and artists intersects. Additionally, it attempts to blur and reframe the ethical questions raised specifically regarding issues of authorship, artistic responsibility, collaboration, and contextual engagement. In our spectacle driven culture with a multitude of content readily available, we increasingly value those able to reshape, select, and organize this content in generative ways. New modes of practice, organized around the position of a kind of lead artist or curatorial artist, provide a critical space for rethinking the possibilities of making, postproduction, representation, and display.


title: Mash Media Storytelling: Linking Story Not HTML

format:
34 p.
electronic

subject: Media--Internet (social aspects)--Online social networks--Digital storytelling--Storytelling

abstract: This paper will define the role of the mash media storyteller, a discipline born from the changing face of participatory media. These mash media storytellers create character collaboratively, understand Web 2.0 tools, and perform on the stage of the Global Theatre. By combining examples of my own work and those of other mash media storytellers I will seek to inspire a new generation of storytellers to take full creative advantage of the media age we are now living in to collectively tell, share, and participate in the global story.

abstract: Web 2.0

abstract: Internet

abstract: Remix


title: Manual |'manyә(wә)l|

contributor: Kristinsson, Helgi (Helgi Kristinsson) (author)

format:
55 p.
electronic

subject: Art museums--Guidebooks--Philosophy--Art museum visitors--Curatorship

subject: Curator Space (Gallery)

subject: Exhibitions

abstract: Manual |'manyә(wә)l| Noun: Instructions For Learning and Understanding a Subject Manual of the Artist's Aphorisms Based on Theory and Practice, Experience and Reflection. This manual is an investigation and a search for meaning within a gallery space. The essence of my practice as an artist is the research I do within the exhibition space prior to making or installing an artwork. By participating in the creation and the management of 1612 Gallery, I have been studying and reflecting on all aspects of that space as a gallery: researching its history, location and functionality and by observation I have seen how different artists respond to this gallery space. My research has included looking at the history of art galleries through catalogues and fieldwork, as well as studying the writings of art historians, curators and artists as they consider the gallery as a space for exhibiting art. The 1612 Gallery, Emily Carr University Graduate students studios and gallery located at 1612 West 3rd in Vancouver, British Columbia, functions as my case study and is also used as a comparative tool in my understanding of the nature of “the white cube” gallery space. My research question focuses on how the gallery and exhibition space influences the work on display and how, by placing an artwork within a certain space a specific meaning is created. My method was to place myself in the centre of the investigation, where I took on the roles of the carpenter, cleaner, facilitator, artist, curator and exhibition maker. My purpose was to better understand the role of the artist and the curator, complete with the obligations, and the tasks that comes with these roles, and to better understand how a space; with its white walls, its ideology, and its dialogue becomes an art gallery. My thesis artwork will be a final site-specific sculpture based on these reflections.

abstract: Art galleries

abstract: Curator

abstract: Artists

abstract: Space


title: The Convergence of Intangible and Material Wealth

format:
44 p.
electronic

coverage:
Northwest Coast of North America
Canada

subject: Indigenous art--Indigenous people -- Canada--Formalism (Art)--Northwest Coast of North America

subject: Indigenous people

abstract: My thesis explores traditional Northwest Coast cultural objects as a vehicle for contemporary narratives. I researched the premise that the narratives in contemporary Northwest Coast Aboriginal art are derived from the convergence of formalism and culturally specific visual language. Formalism in Northwest coast art began in the late 1950s. In 1951 the potlatch ban, which made it illegal for Aboriginal’s to create or use cultural items in a traditional way, was lifted.  I argue that the lifting of the ban allows for the challenging of formalist principles in Northwest Coast art. I situate my own practice as part of this legacy. I argue the convergence of formalism and the re-emergence of cultural teachings led to the formation of an approach to art practice I am calling Northwest Coast bilateralism. The artist creates and distinguishes between artworks for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences, the artworks may be aesthetically identical, but their context and use are very different. Northwest Coast bilateralism defines and is defined by this dual history of art production. It is what allows the contemporary Aboriginal artist to pull references from outside the traditional culture while still maintaining the aesthetics of traditional Northwest Coast Aboriginal art. The implication of bilateralism in contemporary Northwest Coast art is that it must always be interpreted according to two different systems of meaning and value. This thesis is a narrative account of my process of interpreting these theories.

abstract: Art

abstract: Aboriginal

abstract: Northwest Coast


title: Memory Trace

contributor: Nickerson, Brittany (Brittany Nickerson) (author)

format:
34 p.
electronic
electronic

subject: Photography Memory Archives Feminism Collage Deconstruction

abstract: This thesis explores the relationship between memory and representation to photographic images. Through my practice of archive and image space deconstruction I investigate the ability of images to be traces of collective history and tangible representations of memory. My practice uses a feminist auto-ethnographical approach to challenge the notion that archives are assembled with objectivity. I deconstruct and fragment my own family archive as a way to address the way in which our preconceptions of photographic truth can lead to misrepresentations of identity and memory.

abstract: Representation

abstract: Autoethnography

abstract: Deconstruction


title: Crafting the Perceptual Event

contributor: Kennedy, Christann (Christann Kennedy) (author)

format:
46 p.
electronic
electronic

subject:
Painting
Abstraction
Color in art
Modernism (Art)

abstract: This thesis project is a material inquiry into the perceptual consequences of colour, pattern and shape, as well as a personal investigation of the terms of Western abstraction. In this paper, I will describe and contextualize three bodies of studio work I have developed during my time as a graduate student. I will articulate how these projects reanimate certain Modernist tropes, especially the concepts of non-objective form and colour-as-subject. I will also link my works to an additional set of concerns, which include the spatio-temporal implications of modular structure and three-dimensional form, and the significance of labour-intensive material craft in the digital age. Stripe Set is a series of painted canvases with the same composition but different colour palettes. As a modular work, this project can be reconfigured in response to architectural situations and opportunities of exhibition context. It queries notions of originality and multiplicity while delivering an experience of chromatic intensity that calls a viewer’s attention to their embodied situation. The Polychrome Lozenges are a series of serigraphs on cotton paper that explore the boundary between object and image while paying homage to the history of striped painting within the 20th century canon. The Intermedial Experiments are a collection of works made from wood and fibreboard that blend combinations of drawing, painting and sculpture to generate instances of perceptual surprise. In addition to coming off the wall into literal space, these pieces mark a significant shift as they depart from arbitrary colour palettes to consider how specifically sourced colours can link abstract artworks to our everyday perceptual experiences.

abstract: Multiples

abstract: Colour

abstract: Perception


title: The Phantom and its Reflection: Representing Absence

contributor: O'Kain, Gardiner (Gardiner O'Kain) (author)

format:
60 p.
electronic

subject: Ontology--Installations (Art)--Conceptualism--Conceptual art

subject: Drawing

abstract: In this paper I demonstrate my understanding of absence as a recurring theme in my own practice.  I reflect on the theme of absence in an abbreviated art historical and literary context, and use theory, poetry, film and philosophy that address the phenomenon of absence, to investigate the value of absence as a theme in the production of my own images and objects.  Absence is central to my practice in large part because of the nomadic (1) childhood that has shaped my ways of relating to people, places and language.  For this reason, I see the study of absence as a compelling element of ontology; as a way to situate my art practice and as a line of inquiry that is essential to my creative productivity.  In this paper, and in light of the theme of absence, the reader may discern three predominant motifs: failure; language; the sea. It is also my intention to demonstrate through the structure of the writing, a specific approach to creative thinking and working.  In this text the reader may move through the work according to her or his own peregrinations and make her or his own connections between and among those ideas (2). So while the thesis is specific: it is about my research; my aesthetic sensibilities; my journey, and my belief in the significance of absence in cultural production, the writing style is a way of acknowledging that an idea acts like a living organism.  An idea is sustained and changed by every hand that turns it over to inspect it. (1) The term, “nomadism” is used in different ways by different theorists. For example, Deleuze and Guattari mete out a complex definition of nomad art as having “’close-range’ vision...and ‘haptic’ space,” (492) and use the term to describe a way of considering history in a non-linear way: a “nomadology” (23).  While these ideas may apply to my own work, I am more interested in the term, “nomad” as it is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “a member of a people who have no fixed residence but move from place to place usually seasonally and within a well-defined territory.”  The question then becomes, “What is my ‘well-defined territory, and what am I doing here?’.”  (2) See especially footnote 23, on Graham Badley.


title: Chinarian Myth and History: Historical Re-invention and Ethnographic Illusions

format:
50 p.
electronic

subject: China--Folklore--Ethnology--History--Myth

abstract: This thesis project, Chinarians, proposes that our understanding and perceptions of the past are more influential than any actual “historical” events. For this studio thesis project, I am studying a mythical ancient culture: the Chinarians. The Chinarian culture was loosely influenced by the Huns, a tribe of nomads that emerged from ancient China and whose descendents are said to be Hungarians and Turks. Chinarians is visually manifested through the construction of relics, replicas, and reenactments. The project is an investigation into issues of hybridity, and explores the intricacies of cultural representation in the solidification of knowledge types such as historical documentation and ethnography. In this paper, I examine the key methodologies that Chinarians draws from: history, myth, ethnography and reenactment, all of which intersect in my work. These methodologies will include the exploration of both material artifacts, in the form of relics, replicas, and reconstructions, and mythopoeia. In each section, I will elucidate the methodologies by providing an artist or writer as an example.


title: Building Food Communities

contributor: Peterson, Michael (Michael Peterson) (author)

format:
175 p.
electronic
electronic

subject:
Local foods
Food industry and trade
Food security
Design
User interfaces (Computer systems)
Communication in design

abstract: As food systems have become industrialized, information about food production has been obscured, causing threats to food security. Local food systems provide an alternative, and consumers and producers are increasingly using them. However, local food systems present their own challenges. Employing participatory research methods, including contextual conversations with producers and diary studies with consumers, this thesis explores the design of the Community Foods service which allows consumers to more easily connect and communicate with producers. As part of the service, I propose a greater involvement of locally-owned stores in food systems as they increase access to local foods without increasing the time required from producers. The main aspect of the Community Foods service is a digital platform that allows consumers to explore and search the local food opportunities across stores, markets, and individual producers within a community. Through these methods, the Community Foods service provides greater access to local foods, proposing new connections within a community and ultimately new ways of moving through it based on food.

abstract: In support of the fulfillment of the degree of Master of Design at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

abstract: User experience design

abstract: System design


title: Holey Roket: Eco-centric Vernacular Design

format:
53 p.
electronic

subject: Cooking--Ecology--Design--Industrial Design--Sustainability

abstract: Holey Roket is a cooking stove type designed to improve existing cooking systems. Recognizing that more than fifty communities in Africa, South America and Asia use briquettes as a primary cooking fuel, this design project seeks to help improve local cooking solutions. Designed to use the biomass briquettes similar to those available in rural communities around the world, Holey Roket was developed in collaboration with Legacy Foundation, an Oregon-based NGO advocating alternative fuel technology. Designed for biomass briquettes, Holey Roket aims to dramatically reduce fuel consumption and harmful emissions. Borrowing from existing stove technologies and working in collaboration with local entrepreneurs, this design typology and social network has evolved as the fabrication of briquettes improves and knowledge about this alternative fuel is shared. Holey Roket is based on the understanding that, together with stove design and briquette fabrication, information sharing is necessary to help create better cooking systems. Holey Roket designs are currently being tested in four international contexts: DR Congo, Chad, Uganda, and Cambodia. Existing briquette manufacturing enterprises in each place represent different sets of socio-cultural relations and demand an adaptable consultant-design methodology capable of working with different materials, briquette recipes, gastronomic cultures, and social structures. Holey Roket represents a methodology designed to connect with local entrepreneurial networks and involves communicating information about stove technology and the adaptation of a Holey Roket typology across different contexts. This project is informed by the eco-centric concept of “ecosophy” developed in writings of Arne Naess and Felix Guattari. Ecosophy recognizes the philosophical milieu as a field of intrinsic social, economic, and cultural relations where one needs to find ways of partaking in non-anthropocentric collaboration. Extending ecosophy to a design context, Holey Roket looks at ‘vernacular’ building processes that unfold according to traditional, site-specific designs. Holey Roket engages with the virtual environment as a form of direct action. Accumulated information from various environments contributes to the single product-type data-base, and brings diverse local knowledge to a common table. Adaptations of Holey Roket show how experimentation gradually becomes tradition, and in the process, resilient, ever-more efficient cooking stove concepts are adapted to an increasing number of environments.


title: The Velary: A Library For Your Clothes

format:
134 p.
electronic

subject:
User-centered system design
Service design (Customer services)
Fashion
Fast fashion
Sharing economy
Sustainability

abstract: Existing consumption practices in the fashion industry are using excessive resources. Largely caused by the ever increasing consumer cycles, in which we are now seeing as many as 52 “seasons” a year at large fast fashion retailers. Simultaneously technology and social media have been speeding up our own cycles of identity creation and connection, and in response movements such as minimalism and essentialism that advocate for owning less, and living with more intention, have gained mainstream exposure. Founded in contemporary contexts this thesis explores how the integration of sharing economy and circular economy principles in retail services can offer paradigm shifting user experiences. This concept engages users in considered consumption that builds off of existing personal identity and wardrobe composition. And supplements these with mid-term garment leasing that provides a sense of renewal. Considering the existing context of over consumption I set out to draw insights from personal experiences through ethnographic research methods that revealed individual behaviours, needs, and expectations. Through a process of analysis and synthesis, I identified a hybrid approach to sharing garments that allows for an integration of ownership, and shared-use to foster a transition away from highly consumptive practices. The Velary is a library for your clothes. It is a garment sharing service that introduces a two-tiered wardrobe that consists of a core wardrobe (garments a user already owns, loves, or would invest in independently), and a renewal wardrobe (garments provided through the service that update a users wardrobe for a specific time frame, between 1 and 6 months). The two-tiered model allows users to maintain a curated and intentional core wardrobe that is personally significant, and the renewal wardrobe allows users to engage with change cycles without the wasteful outcomes of highly consumptive behaviours fostered by fast fashion. This model is flexible and considers new modes of use and ownership within existing contexts. Building upon circular economy practices around material waste, The Velary moves beyond the product itself to explore alternative modes of consumption. The Velary considers behaviour change from an altruistic and functional perspective, it engages users in experience models that remove barriers to sharing which are based on the fear of losing control. The two-tiered wardrobe approach can be generalized as a hybrid sharing model, where users engage in both owning and sharing. This can be applied to examine behaviour on a scale of impact where we analyze the implications of consumer behaviour considering the most problematic areas (which in this case has been identified as fast fashion). The application of this model of behaviour mapping can lead to the creation of new systems that shift behaviour in key areas before introducing completely new ways of engaging in retail or consumption.


title: Don’t Confuse Your Conceptualists: Text, Humour and Conceptualism

format:
48 p.
electronic

subject: Conceptualism--Writing in art--Artists' books--Words in art--Language and languages in art--Humor in art

abstract:
This essay considers humour and contemporary art practice as cultural forces, through which the expression of the intangible is possible. These ideas are examined through my recent works: Everything I Know About History…, an installation in advertising space; Don’t Confuse Your Conceptualists and My Roommate Recalls a Text Work, large vinyl wall text installations; and the artist books Synopses, Missed Connections, and Excerpt. Related to imagination, humour and art practices have the ability to access something vital that is beyond the reach of language alone. I consider French philosopher Henri Bergson’s theories of humour, determining the function of humour to be human and social, while looking to the contemporary poet Kenneth Goldsmith to further my understanding of
conceptual writing practices. Early conceptualism is defined as a precedent for my practice. Mirroring and reframing existing content, repetition, humour, and self-reflexivity are strategies I use to make artwork in a post-conceptual trajectory.

abstract: Text

abstract: Irony

abstract: Writing

abstract: Humour

abstract: Language


title: Rollback

contributor: Phillips, Kimberly (Kimberly Phillips) (thesis advisor)

format:
65 p.
electronic
electronic

subject:
Indigenous knowledge
Art, Modern
Plastics as art material
Five Nations
Weaving

abstract: This thesis and accompanying projects utilize and experiment with Indigenous methods for education and art making framed by the theory of self-conscious traditionalism. My studio work uses the strategies and techniques of contemporary art making as a process for reconnecting and reclaiming Indigenous practice for the purposed of presenting within cultural spaces. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) have a centuries-old way of intercultural communication called wampum that stands at the intersection of oral and written communication. Conventional wampum are shell beads woven into belts or strings also called wampum, which use mnemonic design to stand in place of written documents. In my practice I abstract theories associated with wampum tradition and extrapolate their uses to a contemporary art platform for presentation and dissemination of works to my audience. In this paper, I document my creative process and trace the methodologies that inform my practice, referencing art mediums and signifiers rooted in traditional practices of production. I use found and reclaimed elements from commercial consumerist landscapes as raw materials which after processing result in a product I label Rollback Rawhide. By working in this way the finished projects become expressions of ancestral heritage through design, form and the process of production. Like wampum belts the retelling/presentation of the works attempt to operate in context-specific encounters aiming to deliver specific information to the viewer. Whether it is in the gallery, classroom, public space or a cultural gathering the projects attempt to operate as communicators and even educators facilitating the kind of experiences that I believe are necessary moving forward.

abstract: In support of the fulfillment of Low residency Master of Applied Arts degree.

abstract: Weaving

abstract: Indigeneity

abstract: Wampum

abstract: Haudenosaunee

abstract: Plastics

abstract: Repurposed

abstract: Indigenous ways of knowing

abstract: Regalia


title: 'Talking Things': Bridging Social Capital through Transformation Design

contributor: Contractor, Zara (Zara Contractor) (author)

format:
98 p.
electronic

subject: Community--Urban Planning--Social capital--Sociology--Transformation

abstract: The importance of building social capital, particularly in urban neighbourhoods has been a topic of discussion for sociologists, political scientists and psychologists for some time now. This thesis addresses the issue through the lens of an emergent branch of design known as Transformation Design, which focuses on collaborative and multidisciplinary ways of creating a change in behavior through design. Employing participatory methods and borrowing from theories of narrative empathy and Thing theory, this thesis describes a praxis centred around the design of an experience where the exchange of narratives around everyday objects of personal significance creates a dialogic learning experience that builds social capital. The resulting project, Talking Things, is a toolkit that is intended to encourage dialogues amongst members at community centres and neighbourhood houses, but can be adapted and employed in other circumstances where the goal is to build a sense of belonging and community. The toolkit describes a workshop with step-by-step instructions to prompt and facilitate the exchange of narratives. Though the primary objective is to engage people in an informal, collaborative learning experience, the stories can be recorded and have an online presence that sustains the conversations. This thesis contributes to the growing discourse of the designer’s role within a community, which stretches beyond the designing of places and things; and into an agent of change.


format:
56 p.
electronic

subject: Painting--Memory--Contemplation

abstract: This thesis aims to provide a context in which to situate my interdisciplinary art practice concerned with painting that addresses architecture. The paper explores my childhood memory of space and contemplation as themes that are essential in shaping my art practice as a whole, but also as my way of relating to art, nature, and the built environments such as parks and gardens. By reflecting on and conflating historical, cultural and philosophical contexts from a Western and Asian perspective, I will investigate how my work has been transformed through my personal journey from Korea to Canada, and how my practice can be situated at the intersection between art and architecture and the space between the real and surreal. Chapter one will examine my childhood memory of looking at a little bonsai pot in my family garden, the catalyst to create my own art work amidst the realization of what I will refer to here as an “innerscape”. In this section, I will also introduce four predominant motifs in my artwork triggered by this childhood experience: Imagination, Space, Scale and Nature. In the following chapters, I will investigate these four themes by mirroring each in a relevant series of works: Water Series, City Series, Inventory of Architectural Forms and Pebble Series. The critical works Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard and Space and Place by Yi-Fu Tuan will provide underpinning theories as a bridge to connect these chapters together. The final chapter, “Things Which Can Be Seen Only If You Should Stop” will reflect on my experience of co-existing between eastern and western culture. In addition, it will discuss my research, aesthetic sensibilities and the philosophical context in which my artistic process operates. Through an investigation of different historical and theoretical backgrounds of contemplation in Asian perspective, I will provide a theoretical context for the processes that constitute my practice.

abstract: Space

abstract: Nature

abstract: Imagination


title: Drawing From the Museum's Ruins

contributor: Beringer, Jan Christian (Jan Beringer) (author)

subject: Art museums--Drawing--Installations (Art)--Museum techniques--Exhibitions--Art -- Exhibition techniques

abstract: This thesis project is based on an examination and critique of the cultural  history museum's exhibition  space, working outside of its traditional rules, functions and typologies. The imaginative process and potential of drawing is re-activated by a final installation based work in the physical exhibit space. Implicating the viewer within a possible future for the museum, this thesis project deconstructs assumptions of how we view and interpret the past in a normative and embodied museum experience. Located within my interrelated practices as an exhibit designer and artist, this thesis project focuses on my art practice, with the concept of the ruin resonating as an aesthetic trope for re-imagining the museum exhibition space. My research functions within a related temporal and theoretical spiral, building the foundations for my thesis project from such diverse drawing and installation based art practices as Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), and Pablo Bronstein (1977). I am redrawing fragments of established discourses and exhibit archetypes within the politicized and contested history that frames  our habituated expectations  of the museum as a cultural experience. Through the potentiality of ideas and propositions, my final drawing and installation based work use the blank space to re-imagine our blank relationship with the blank museum. Both my thesis and art practice are an idiosyncratic response to the physical and ideological thresholds of the museum, rupturing a pictorial space within the conceptual ruin of the museological frame.

abstract: Space

abstract: Art galleries


title: Consciousness, Matter and the Invisible

type: Collection Text thesis

subject: Consciousness--Conceptual art--Mysticism--Media--Perception--Technology

abstract: In my work in the MAA program I have focused on bringing the invisible/inaudible into the scope of human consciousness. Human perception is limited to our senses, and in this thesis I will investigate how we can allow for the perception of the invisible/inaudible through the method of constructing translational systems that transform signals from one state to another by applying a range of tools. In order to approach a thing we cannot see, we have to consider both the physical world, in which the thing exists, and how the thing is perceived in consciousness. The idea of mind and matter existing independently of each other is traced back to René Descartés and his method of doubt and logic which excluded the spirit from the physical world which he described as motion in three dimensions where everything was made of matter. His work laid the grounds for reductionism in neuropsychology which led to the idea that the human brain, and eventually consciousness, could be reduced to simple interactions of units of matter. This allowed Alan Turing to describe his theoretical computational device which had states synonymous to human mental states and eventually resulted in the creation of the modern digital computer. In response to the reductionist view of consciousness, Amit Goswami describes what he calls monistic idealism; a model of the world where matter and consciousness are not incompatible terms but are parts of a unified system. Wassily Kandinsky used color, or frequencies of light, in combination with shape to portrait objectless ideas originating from within himself, allowing the spirit a physical representation through his consciousness. I look at my work in the same terms, but instead of using frequencies of color I use frequencies of sound to represent spiritual values. I also draw some of my methods and inspiration from James Turrell and the way he emphasizes the human perceptual apparatus in his work. In my own work I construct parascientific experiments that investigate physics, consciousness and their relationship. These experiments resulted in the creation of systems constructed for the analysis and reconstruction of units of time, or frequency. My artworks discussed in the thesis are constructed around the concept of time, which I consider to be the primary aspect of my work.


title: Beyond Personal Documentary

contributor: Campbell, Peg (Peg Campbell) (thesis advisor)

format:
35 p.
electronic
electronic

subject: Documentary films

abstract: The personal documentary and the biographical film, at their very best, reflect both a desire to discover and need to reveal, discover that which is already forgotten and reveal how the personal story is implicated in social realities and historic processes. When a documentary does not embody a passion to discover a forgotten truth it simply become a chronology and cannot be referred to as personal, and when it fails to suggest how the personal is emblematic of some larger social or political phenomenon it becomes a form of pornography of the self. The successful personal documentary is thus inherently a form of investigation, an inquiry into the self or the nearby, and frequently into the past, tackling directly the problem of memory and time, and so the films often take on the structure of the fragmented nature of the broken down recollections that are its materials. In my research for the past three years, I’ve been working towards finding a new form for my work, one that would enable me to keep creating film-based art which in its essence can still be referred to as both personal and documentary, but would step beyond linear storytelling, beyond non-linear storytelling to a place where moving images and sounds create an actual new space in the gallery, a space with no beginning or end, a magical space that feels familiar and strange at the same time. My films will often tackle themes of exile, immigration and otherness, and use an idiosyncratic approach to history, by telling my own subjective unofficial history of a particular time. In her book, Experimental Ethnography, Katherine Russell Identifies four distinct, subjective voices of the filmmaker: as the speaker (narrator), as the seer (the person holding the camera), as the seen (the person on camera), and as the editor (277). It is this last editorial voice of the writer of temporal structures, the collagist, that is most central to my films and is one of the primary concerns of this dissertation.

abstract: Documentary

abstract: Film

abstract: Personal


title: The Space Between Ecology and the Object

type: thesis Collection Text

subject: Object (Aesthetics)--Ceramics--Textiles--Labor--Ecology

abstract: My practice interrogates the space between an object and its ecology: the relationship between material practice and complex systems, such as living ecosystems, and the environments in which they are situated. My main interest is our current ecological crisis and the precarious relations which now exist between living species and their contexts largely as a result of human interventions in the natural world. This growing awareness of the fragility of the natural world, its biodiversity, life processes, and interactions among organisms, transforms my view of the world and inspires my imagination. My practice relies on a temporal process of making, sustained through multiple stages of hand production. This approach to making allows me to intervene in and potentially rebuild more holistic and regenerative ecological relations. Exploration of materials related to ceramics and textiles are produced in an effort to create an object that mirrors the transformation of an ecosystem, or at the very least demonstrates the object as dependent on the ecology of the studio.


title: Designing a typeface for Vietnamese culture

subject: Typography--Vietnamese language--Visual communication--Group identity

abstract: Owing to the long history of being colonized by China and France, the Vietnamese language has been exposed to the cultural conception of other nations. It has been separated by great gulfs in time, geography, different social and political systems, and language divides. Within Vietnam’s typographic landscape, such influences have evidently been carved into both the visual and identity of every letter created. Informed by this context, this research applies the current Vietnamese written language as a rudiment to develop a platform for conversations and insights of Vietnamese visual culture. Through secondary research and practice-based research located in the studio, this thesis document presents the process of developing Tre Việt (Vietnamese bamboo), a cultural-specific typeface that draws on characteristics from Vietnamese language and traditions. By reflecting on the intrinsic nature of the letterforms and informed by the Vietnamese cultural symbol, the research seeks to enhance the beauty of the country’s culture. At the intersection between communication design and Vietnamese conventional visual elements, the body of work described has sought to reflect the Vietnamese culture. Study and consideration of the intrinsic nature of Vietnamese letterforms and cultural symbols has informed the work. The result is a character set consisting of upper case, lower case and diacritic marks. A cultural book and visual samples provide a general look at the final outcomes and scenarios where this typeface is applicable. Finally, there are the discussions about future developments of Tre Việt typeface and the research question: How do I use typography as a means to support and reflect the Vietnamese cultural identity?


title: Virtual Loops: Deconstructing Painting to Explore the Aesthetics of Mediation

rights: This thesis support image is available to view and copy for research and educational purposes only, provided that it is not altered in any way and is properly acknowledged, including citing the author(s), title and full bibliographic details.

subject:
Technology in art
Painting
Painting, Abstract
Abstraction
Installations (Art)

abstract: This thesis document outlines the key concepts and research practices I undertook to explore the aesthetics of mediating digital and analog logics through materiality and painterly abstraction. It culminated in a body of work of 8 paintings and a ﬁnal thesis exhibition from March 22 to April 1 at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. This work builds on my practice as an abstract painter to deconstruct painting and use a site responsive installation method to explore the optical dimensions of borders, boundaries, and surfaces to negotiate between digital and analog logics. This interest in a medial condition coupled with the impact of Covid 19 focused my observational and material research to center around the site and idea of LCD and plasma screens of personal computing devices. The screen mediates between two categories of digital and analog, and in an attempt to study communication loops between these two categories I use digital processes of laser cutters, 3D scanners, and 3D printers as well as analog processes of silicone casting and paint drying to explore diﬀerent variations of transmutation. The materials I choose are based on visual eﬀect and the relationship with transparency/translucency and opacity/obscuring. Through fusing an expanded painting practice (using ﬂat, painterly elements) with the spatial and sculptural (using the actuality and volume of sculpture) I want to consider the digital as a state of abstraction that is constantly mediated between the analog forms of real. This research draws on the theories of the media archaeology of colour by Carolyn L Kane for my selection of colours and surfaces, Alexander Galloway’s conception of the digital as an epistemological category that exists outside of personal computing devices, and Bernhard Siegert’s notion of cultural techniques to frame the screen as a material technic that reinforces ideas and divisions of digital and analog, while these categories and ways of thinking have long historical precedents.


title: Mind Rain, The Journey of Accessing

subject:
Painting
Memory
Figurative painting

abstract: The MFA thesis writing reflects how accessing memories assists me in constructing a new visual language for my representational paintings. Through the process of collecting visual references of objects, space and figures, from auto-ethnographic sources to Persian miniatures, I had the opportunities to look at their historical and cultural backgrounds and compose images that reflect my socio-political state. Material experimentations with surface qualities, sizes, as well as paint applications, let me experience different visual characters to bring more sensibility to my image. These layers of visual meaning and narrative are also trying to construct a historical account from my particular generation’s experiences. During an iterative studio process I was inspired to bring chaos to composition and appreciate uncertainty in mark-making. These methodologies also helped me to construct the unsettling expression that overlaps with the titles and small poems (translated from Farsi) that echoed my lived experiences.


title: Unspoken Intentions and the Rooted People Heard Me All the Same

subject:
Trees
Stó:lō
Botany
Plant communication
Photography
Coast Salish
Mycorrhizas

abstract: 'Unspoken Intentions' and 'the Rooted People Heard Me All the Same' is a composition demonstrating an intertwining of Coast Salish knowledge and western scientific evidence. The confluence of these two worldviews form the foundation of my art practice. I shift between the mediums of film photography and print making to visually represent my understanding of the importance honoring ancestral knowledge, three communities and interconnectedness. This paper also documents the journey through development of my thesis project 'Feet Deep in Wet Earth and Watery Pools', where I explored the relationship between water, root systems, lichen, and fungi – and how their unspoken agreements to work together, create healthy complex environments and how that complexity is an overlooked blessing to S’ólh Téméxw.


title: MORE WOMEN IN BUSINESS: A participatory approach to empower women entrepreneurs

contributor: Farvardin, Nikoo (Nikoo Farvardin) (author)

contributor: Aitken, Jonathan (Jonathan Aitken) (thesis advisor)

format:
90 p.
electronic

subject: Business Businesswomen Entrepreneurship Design Research

abstract:
It is no exaggeration to say that we are living in an era of emerging startups. However, although women's presence in business has become more prominent, they still experience systemic discrimination in such areas as access to resources or capital. Statistics demonstrate that only 16% of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises are owned by women (Grekou, Li, & Liu, 2018). Moreover, women often encounter more obstacles in starting and running businesses compared to their male peers (Guzman & Kacperczyk, 2019). One way of closing this gap is empowering women entrepreneurs and offering them solutions specifically catered to their needs.
This project is a design-led investigation into empowering women entrepreneurs in Canada using participatory design methodologies to identify their major problems in order to generate appropriate solutions. The research explores the following questions: What are the main difficulties for women entrepreneurs before and after launching their businesses? How can women entrepreneurs be empowered to effectively tackle the underlying problems and continue their businesses with fewer obstacles?
In this regard, this research went through needs-finding phases, including resource analysis (articles, interviews, online platforms, podcasts, forums, etc.), deep interviews, and co-creation workshops with generative activities. During the participatory activities, a broad spectrum of people who can be affected by design solutions —women business owners, investors, and mentors— were engaged in order to generate insights on women entrepreneurs’ activities, challenges, and achievements.
This project demonstrated that even though women encounter different obstacles due to a variety of factors, accessing mentorship and connection to the right community is a frequent request among women. This can have an enormous impact on the success of their ventures. Furthermore, the investigation revealed that, by and large, entrepreneurs struggle with finding available resources or have no idea what already exists — which consequently imposes financial and time costs.

To discuss the identified needs and offer feasible solutions, ideation sessions were organized with creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and mentors. Reaching out to the target group for this research was challenging, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring a tailored strategic approach fitting the new situation.

The research uncovered two potential opportunities. First, a space for women entrepreneurs to connect with other entrepreneurs, share their experiences and ask and answer questions. And second, a space to refer to and share entrepreneurship resources. In this regard, an interactive and collaborative platform is offered to facilitate communications between entrepreneurs along with a library of entrepreneurship resources accessible to beginners and experienced entrepreneurs alike.

abstract: Women empowerment

abstract: Gender parity

abstract: Participatory design


title: Food& - Food as the Gateway to Community Engagement and Ecological Thinking

contributor: Nguyen, Anh (April) Nhat (Anh (April) Nhat Nguyen) (author)

contributor: Gillieson, Katherine (Katherine Gillieson) (thesis advisor)

format:
72 p.
electronic

subject: Design Sustainability Community Food

abstract: Responsible for 60% of biodiversity loss (WWF 2018), our food system is in dire need of re-imagination and reconstruction. Besides its ecological impacts, food carries within itself the traditions of a family, a community, or a region. It sustains our livelihood, drives conversations, and evokes memories. Regardless of our social or political backgrounds, we are all connected to and through food in one way or another. It is thus a most promising medium to not only raise awareness about ecological matters but also encourage climate actions. Through the application of participatory design, this project aims to gain insights into individuals’ domestic food practices and the challenges they encounter in adopting a more sustainable lifestyle. The findings gathered through a series of exploratory activities inform the development of an actionable-knowledge- sharing platform in which participants learn from and contribute to the collection of sustainable food practices across cultures. The proposed collaborative community will serve to empower environmental advocates to make concrete impacts within the current food system.

abstract: Participatory design

abstract: Design for sustainable behaviour

abstract: Domestic food practices

abstract: Ecological thinking

abstract: Community engagement

abstract: Knowledge sharing


title: Monologue: an investigation of how visualization could be used to help us record and reflect emotion

contributor: Neat, Cameron (Cameron Neat) (thesis advisor)

format:
80 p.
electronic

subject:
Graphic design
Mental health
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Information visualization
Emotions

abstract: China's unique social development of rapid urbanization, high population density, and the emergence of new culture have put heightened demands on my generation (Millennials) and increased the need to care for our mental health. As my generation became satisfied with their material life, our demand for spiritual healing surfaced and increased. But traditional cultural ideology, stigma surrounding mental health issues, and the lack of psychological education and consult resources make Chinese people less likely to seek psychiatric healthcare. Social Anxiety Disorder is one of the neglected but ubiquitous emotional disturbances among the young generation in China. This study addresses the cultural and social context of Social Anxiety as well as the needs of individuals who suffer from Social Anxiety for a healthy way of emotion expression. This thesis studies an interdisciplinary approach of design through borrowing concepts from professional psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Art Therapy to explore the possibility of self-emotion management for socially anxious individuals, and design a language which records and translates emotion data visually and can be used systematically. Using research methods such as Heuristic Inquiry, Cultural Probes, and Information Visualization, I have developed an interactive emotion tracking tool, which provides users the opportunity to record and reflect their emotional experiences in order to gain self-awareness, and achieve emotional healing and regulation.

abstract: Emotion visualization

abstract: Design for well-being

abstract: Social anxiety disorder

abstract: Emotional self-awareness

abstract: Information design


title: Tactile Learning: A Note-taking device for the Blind

contributor: Vansia, Khushboo (Khushboo Vansia) (author)

contributor: Emily Carr University of Art and Design Graduate Studies (Degree granting institution)

format:
114 p.
electronic

subject:
Blind
Blind, Apparatus for the
Note-taking
Haptic devices
Product design

abstract: This design research project aims to both investigate how blind people create and recall notes and identify the challenges they face when doing so. This study examines the proper use of ethics, methods, analysis of processes, and concept development to explore potential solutions to the creation and recall of notes by blind people. Covid-19 restrictions widened the scope surrounding this subject by forcing the experimentation of online research through different digital platforms. Studying the differences in multiple fields of the unknown boundaries experienced in the daily lives of blind people and the real-time advantages of sighted people has led to the realization that minority communities, such as the blind community, are falling behind in terms of accessibility. The blind have many difficulties to overcome and the lack of current technology designed to assist in taking and recalling notes is a major stepping stone in many blind people's education and careers. Multiple note-taking methods and platforms are available for sighted people, facilitating the creation and recall of notes. Note-taking methods take many forms from highlighting, underlining, or writing notes in the margins. As a non-sighted person, options are limited to voice recordings, bookmarking or dog-earing a full page, or using a braille typewriter or stylus- slate. Voice recordings are difficult to search through afterwards, marking a page only gives a general idea of the highlighted material, and a braille typewriter or stylus-slate creates an excessive amount of paper notes. All of which makes finding notes and the recollection of data incredibly challenging. This research outlines crucial findings from expert and participant interviews and surveys; it also analyzes podcasts, blogs, videos, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook target groups. The design of a single device that brings together different note-taking methods onto one platform and enables users to have the flexibility to take notes efficiently is proposed in the hopes to facilitate note-taking without the need of additional devices.

abstract: Tactile

abstract: Technology

abstract: Community


title: TL;DR: Adolescents and Long Form Fiction in the Digital Age

contributor: Bergthora, Jonsdottir (Bergthora Jonsdottir) (author)

contributor: Emily Carr University of Art and Design Graduate studies (Degree granting institution)

format:
88 p.
electronic
electronic

subject: Literacy Adolescents

abstract: Hurried, fragmented, distracted reading associated with digital formats is becoming the norm—pushing aside reflective, deep reading associated with print. Students’ reading and writing is increasingly moving to digital platforms associated with hyper-reading, whereas the school environment places emphasis on more focused attention and commitment to the text based on deep reading principles. Students aged 13–16 as well as educators were involved in a series of activities including interviews, co-creation, and user-testing, looking into how print associated reading skills could be translated and facilitated in a digital format. Focusing on bringing the positive aspects of the digital format into play: reader customization, interactive activities and annotation, the proposed system situates itself within the classroom, building upon the Guided reading comprehension strategies. This project is guided by the convergence of various notions and theories including: guided reading, the connection between  ow and deep reading, the notions of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation and the role of gamification. With those strategies in place, the project seeks to add to the spectrum of reading choices as well as to the conversation of extending deep reading into the digital realm.

abstract: In support of the fulfillment of the degree of Master of Design at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

abstract: Digital

abstract: iPad

abstract: Reading comprehension


title: Conversation Fuel

contributor: Kunnath, Binoodha (Binoodha Kunnath) (author)

format:
52 p.
electronic

subject:
Autism
Exposure therapy
Virtual reality
Role playing

abstract: Many young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder do not receive adequate professional support to develop communication skills during puberty. As a result, these individuals face poor transition outcomes in critical areas like developing social connectedness through conversational skills. Previous research investigating these outcomes' psychological impact has shown that these individuals often expressed their desire to build friendships despite their social skill difficulties. These unique challenges have intensified during the pandemic owing to a further lack of in-person interaction opportunities. This project details the everyday challenges these individuals face based in Canada through the lens of their counsellors. The counsellors were able to provide in-depth information about what they expect in a tech-supported tool that can help their clients overcome challenges in communication and practice self-regulation through role-playing. It was important to study this subject with the counsellors' help to incorporate the right self-regulatory exercises into the tool. I used generative design research to understand the current support tools used by counsellors in their practice to develop their clients' conversational skills who self-identify themselves as high functioning ASD. Many autism interventions during in-person counselling sessions depend on playful interactions and games such as flashcards and board games, grounded in findings on the positive influence of play on learning. Previous studies have investigated the potential of interactive technology for autism education, showing that it enhances the learning experience and reduces the need for continuous assistance. However, these strategies are rarely used as direct input for designing tech-supported tools that counsellors could use in their virtual counselling practice and acknowledge the variability in the tool functionality based on different individuals with high functioning autism. The tool is focused on embracing those differences and allowing the counsellors to tailor the exposure therapy based on individual needs. The research so far has indicated the possibilities of incorporating virtual reality platforms in tandem with biofeedback as a virtual reality exposure therapy. I applied the research results as a guide to building a remote virtual environment to support exposure therapy. The virtual reality platform could be an adequate interface to improve the virtual counselling sessions by providing in-tool options to customize the scenarios, build avatars, observe body language and incorporate assessment goals using biofeedback into the experience. These scenarios and exercises are based on the input by the counsellors during the co-design workshop.

abstract: High-functioning autism

abstract: Remote therapy

abstract: Health design


title: Ghosts: Perception, Painting, and the Index

subject: Painting Perception

abstract: How does one form a meaningful, generative understanding of the one’s surroundings in contemporary society? Currently, social media and portable electronics appear to serve widely as methods of filtering and segmenting the world around us into easily consumable portions. What is at stake in this kind of mediation and what role can visual art take in encouraging the formulation of knowledge based on primary, rather than prescribed, modes of perception? This paper examines the potential of primary experience in daily life and the hypothesis that modes of perception normally associated with the appreciation of art can be made use of in the context of daily life. Through using established methods of representation, such as painting, to reframe normally unremarkable entities as valuable art objects, the artwork discussed aims to transfer ways of looking at art into the realm of daily life. This fracturing of perceptual conventions is strengthened through the use of the index as a tool of conceptual expansion, directly connecting art objects with the subjects they represent and the processes with which they were made. Working from the pedagogical theories of Joseph Albers, and Rosalind Krauss’ writing on the index and the flatbed picture plane, this research attempts to lay a pathway for the continuation of an investigation of direct perception as a tool of knowledge production. My research is placed in relation to the work of Gerald Ferguson, Ellsworth Kelly and William Anastasi. In looking at the artwork that I have produced over the course of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design Master of Applied Art program, this document is a record of a variety of attempts to trigger the modification of customary patterns of comprehension and the generation of more intimate understandings of our immediate surroundings.


title: Contemporary Art and Nomadic Subjectivities: Rethinking the Subject in an Interrelational Context

subject:
Psychology
Subjectivity in art
Identity (Philosophical concept) in art
Self (Philosophy) in art
Poststructuralism
Homosexuality and art
Sexuality

abstract: This essay interrogates the notion of subjectivity and poses the following questions: How does one become a subject? What positions constitute his/her subjectivity? How are these positions interpreted by others? How can we envision an ethics that doesn't take the unitary subject or universal moral norms as its foundation? To this end, I trace poststructuralist discourses around identity and sexuality, and investigate the subject both as shaped by the self and called into being by an Other. The proposition presented as a result of this discussion is to think of the contemporary subject as a nomadic one, and to seek an ethics that can accompany this understanding. Interpellation and power relations in Althusser and Foucault, resistance to power in Butler and Žižek, and nomadic subjectivity and ethics in Deleuze and Guattari and Braidotti form the core of this paper's theoretical explorations. These notions provide a framework within which my three studio projects Indefinitions, Card No. IV and Dear, can be thought. These projects investigate gay subjectivity, psychology as ideological power, and emotional vulnerability; respectively. Interspersed within the essay are further links drawn to some of the ways in which subjectivity is negotiated in contemporary art, with reference to specific artworks by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Sophie Calle.


title: Navigating Spaces, Being in Place

subject:
Collage (technique)
Walking
Place attachment
Environmental psychology
Phenomenological psychology

abstract: This paper outlines an emerging methodology that links separate art projects made in multiple locations. Accumulation (of both materials and experiences over time) combined with a process of interruption serve as a common line of enquiry that reflects both my past and present situations as a temporary resident in a foreign country. Through a psycho-geographical and phenomenological lens the work uses the experience of movement through a landscape (natural or urban) as a site where the visual and haptic sensory information imprints itself in the mind. Mapping, tracking and recording these experiences points towards a broader engagement with ideas about attachment to places that are not yet home. My work utilizes the methods of layering, collage and assemblage as a means to visualize and contrast our complicated experiences of time that cross borders and continents in a highly mobile and technological society. I ask what can be learned by questioning our connections to place and how do these experiences contribute to our sense of belonging? How do we carry these experiences with us to create continuity between places, past, present and future? Filtered through the ambiguity of memory I build upon patterns of association, trusting in intuitive yet controlled responses where the work becomes a site to explore our permanent and temporary relationships to place.


title: Fixing Femininity

subject:
Nature
Photography
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Ideology
Religion
Feminism
Femininity

abstract: Informed by my personal experience with organized religion and conditioned ideologies, my photo-based practice aims to explore my position as a female photographer who contributes to the commodification and consumption of women’s images while also undermining and complicating standard and stereotypical versions of female narrative. In this paper, I unpack the impact of my personal history with Evangelicalism, the importance of nature as a reoccurring motif in my images, the role of the camera and photographic exploration, and the trajectory of my practice as established by my thesis photo series titled "Finding The Pieces".


title: Design As A Site For Self Realization Through Embodied Practices Of Observation, Making And Performance

subject:
Intuition
Taoism
Cultural appropriation
Discursive works

abstract: We all experience various changes and uncertainties in our lives in both positive and negative ways. This thesis validates different fields of study, interests and lived experience. The Chinese Daoist concept of Zi Ran, a transcultural identity, and an interest in Japanese culture, inform a series of design actions that apply embodied practices of observation, making and performance. This mix of design actions, informed by a particular lived experience, are used to consider western discursive and ontological design theory as well as ArturoEscobar’s call for a pluriverse of design. The Communication Studies term thin-slicing is developed in relation to time and as a means to sort through and validate how past and present personal experiences inform the intuitive actions of a designer. Means for transcultural identity and different cultural perspectives to be applied to approaches and concerns in the design field are explored. This body of work upholds the uniqueness of life experiences as a key contributor to designers and their designs/design(ing). Overall, the intent is to share and validate what others of different experience and non western backgrounds have to offer.


title: Language Learning Activity Paradigm

subject: Technology Education Language Design Research

abstract: In this study, I investigate the application of active learning approaches, with the help of call and mall frameworks. These interactive learning solutions emphasize learner-created content, with the goal of improving the vocabulary development of grade 7 students. It is assumed that the use of computer and mobile technologies can increase the capacity for learning vocabulary. With a concept prototype, that demonstrates the translation of a textually based Language Arts lesson plan into a visual paradigm for active learning, I create a more porous and malleable language learning model for the Google Generation. My hypothesis is that this prototype will benefit the learning of Language Arts for 7th grade students. Such an instrument could ultimately provide students with the opportunity to engage in knowledge creation and sharing across formal and informal learning environments. The methodology used for this thesis essay begins with defining a problem by utilising both academic and qualitative studies. This is followed by the collecting of evidence from alternative learning approaches, which are defined by their various strengths and deficiencies through product analysis, case studies and theoretical grounds. The essay concludes with a proposed design and concept prototype testing, which I have called The Language Learning Activity Paradigm (llap).


title: Material Traces: Mapping Habitat Loss in Northern British Columbia

contributor: Van Dyke, Joshua (Joshua Van Dyke) (author)

format:
53 p.
electronic
electronic

subject: Information visualization

abstract: This material research examines the movement of data between digital and analog space, tracing its migration between states, the falling away of its meaning and its reconstruction. This idea was tested by visualizing ecological data models through an automated reduction process to simulate a continuity of wildlife migratory patterns. This process explores material as a vector for accumulated knowledge, illustrating a recession of Woodland Caribou populations in British Columbia through a contraction of their herd ranges over a twenty-two year period. The use of modern GIS and digital manufacturing processes references visually a history of narrative and spatial representation, such as bass relief carving, cartographic projection, and cognitive mapping, relevant today as the meaningful interface between man, the wilderness, the wood matrix and landscape changes. The wood matrix, our forestry industry is composed of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. The primary sector processes raw materials, including saw milling, pulp and paper, and composite panel manufacturing. The secondary ‘value-added’ sector covers re-manufactured wood products, engineered components, mill work, furniture, pallets and containers. Tertiary sector covers equipment supply, education, research, consulting, transport and distribution. These historical examples of spatial representation and digital manufacturing processes have informed the production of artifacts, which record a body of data that points towards a probabilistic future, a forewarning of a vanishing point of biodiversity.

abstract: Material research

abstract: Digital manufacturing

abstract: Mapping

abstract: Data visualization


title: Finding Water: The Machine of Awesome Bright Liquid Blueness

contributor: McLeod, Christopher (Christopher McLeod) (author)

format:
51 p.
electronic
electronic

subject:
Social practice (Art)
Sculpture
Interactive art
Performance

abstract: The Machine of Awesome Bright Liquid Blueness project investigates the ideas of convenience, fashion and entertainment as they relate to a specific community’s choice around drinking water. A hybrid of participatory and dialogical art practices incorporating an interactive sculpture along with the artist performing direct community outreach is the foundation of what the artist refers to as a performance sculpture. A performance sculpture utilizes an interactive sculptural apparatus as an activation or focusing point within a larger community engagement project. The process of directly recruiting, consulting, and collaborating with community partners is a key part of a performance sculpture. Projects work to combine both art product and process in order to facilitate a public through emblematic, supportive, and participatory means. Guided by a migration of educational methods and socially engaged art practices, a performance sculpture is multimodal in its strategy. Its projects operate with five root concerns: examining how art and a communal experience actually operate in everyday life; speaking a language that everyday people can understand; existing in a public space; instigating a collective action; and creating ubiquity and embracing popular methods of cultural production. The level and amount of these concerns will vary from project to project and audience to audience.

abstract: In support of the fulfillment of low residency Master of Applied Arts degree.


title: Showing and Telling Sweet Lies

subject:
Installations (art)
Memory
Counterfactual histories
Narrative art
Archives

abstract: Throughout this paper, I will lay out some of the underpinnings of my practice. My practice is multivalent; it ranges widely, draws from many sources and employs a multitude of media. It reflects my explorations in using the parafiction as a narrative device to investigate memories and history. It relies on research to explore backgrounds and linkages. It is about collections of objects as allegorical devices and the play with the archive, the Wunderkammer and museological tropes. My practice is an examination of the potential of the narrative and its narrator(s) to reveal the wonders of the everyday. This paper traces my investigation and analysis of the narrative as a means to understand fictions that deal with possibles and plausibles, specifically through the works of Mieke Bal, Manfred Jahn and Carrie Lambert Beatty. Referencing the films of Patrick Keiller and works by Rodney Graham I examine the role of the narrator, as a not always reliable guide, for uncovering forgotten, misplaced and speculative memories and histories. I reveal the narrator as “trickster” whose disclosure of information offers only clues and trace elements. The evolution of my own work, from just prior to and during the MFA, illustrates my material and theoretical explorations that have led to the body of work called Remote Viewer, presented in the 2018 MFA Graduate Exhibition. By referencing the practices of artists Susan Hiller, Mark Dion and Cornelia Parker, I illustrate how my play with everyday objects as allegorical devices operates in support of my speculative narratives. Similar to the practices of Tom Sachs and Richard E Prince, I employ models and dioramas to highlight the inherent magic of the sometimes futile attempt to replicate memories and events. This paper is also about the struggle to define and “own” my art practice. A practice that over the course of my MFA, through playful exploration and experimentation has developed faster than my theoretical “understanding” of how it operates. This “final” version is the next step in catching up and closing the gap.


title: imother: Creating in Chaos, Living with Screens

subject:
Painting
Domestic life
Play
Cyborgs
Mother and child
Parenting
Social media
COVID-19 (Disease)

abstract: The body of work presented within this document is wide-ranging, sometimes performative, material based or ephemeral. Although I discuss my use of traditional media like painting, drawing and video, I also describe how I expanded the very notion of the ‘tool’ for making art by working with domestic objects. At the heart of my practice is the evolution of my children as ‘cooperators’ and finally, a re-making of myself into a ‘cyborg-artist-mother,’ an alter-ego who I call imother. My research explores the relationship between humans and technology through the lens of my concerns as a parent. This is within the context of the significant changes occurring in the ontology of social machine learning which is fuelled by the development of highly controversial, albeit effective algorithms that allow social media applications (and others developed to share media) to exploit our highly consumptive human behaviour. This thesis does not endorse a luddite politics. Instead, I describe how my practice evolved from painting into an inquiry about connectivity — a connectivity between my art practice and parenting and during the recent Covid-19 pandemic more widely, realizing the importance of creating a ‘cyborg-artist-parent’ community. Throughout my discussion, I draw attention to the problems I see emerging from my children’s dependence on digital technology, social media and apps for entertainment and play. My discussion therefore hones in on how I ‘queered’ the space of play through my art practice, first through the medium of painting, and then evolving into interventions in online gaming.


title: The Divorce

contributor: Tsang, Henry (Henry Tsang) (thesis advisor)

format:
36 p.
electronic

subject:
Marriage
Divorce
Performance art
Chinese
Video art
Artistic collaboration

abstract: This thesis is the work of our collaboration. Throughout the writing are narrations from both Feng Xingyue and Liu Yuan that tell the entire creative process of our work. These narrations work as a timeline and thread together our work and research. We are collaborating artists and partners in life who have worked with each other for many years. China’s social issues are our interest points. This article can be divided into three parts: the history of marriage, marriage in China and its problems, and our Divorce project, an art piece that includes a Chinese wedding ceremony.

abstract: Everyday life


title: The Continuous Failures of Optimism: An Investigation of the Screen, Futurity, and Digital Affect

contributor: Holliday, Kevin (Kevin Holliday) (author)

contributor: Cutler, Randy Lee (Randy Lee Cutler) (thesis advisor)

format:
27 p.
electronic

rights: This thesis is available to view and copy for research and educational purposes only, provided that it is not altered in any way and is properly acknowledged, including citing the author(s), title and full bibliographic details

subject:
Internet
Technology
Affect (Psychology)
Installations (Art)
Assemblage (Art)

abstract: Futurity Digital Screens


title: Inspiderations: Connecting With Arthropods To Inspire Ecological Sustainability

type: Text thesis Collection Text

contributor: Chartrand, Valérie (Valérie Chartrand) (Author)

subject:
Ecology
Insects
Spiders
Installations (Art)
Climate change
Photography
Printmaking

abstract: Through my practice, I consider how artists can communicate a sense of empathy, compassion and kinship with insects and arachnids that encourages thoughtful cohabitation and the adoption of sustainable ecological practices. The focus of my research is the loss of biodiversity and reduction in insect populations due to climate change and human interference in insect life cycles. I evoke the decline in species primarily through imprint techniques with insects and non-toxic materials. When working with insect bodies, only gather and work with found insects that have previously perished, and insect materials purchased from ethical sources. Reflections on killability of nonhumans and the looming ecological crisis caused by the loss of species are a key part of my practice and of my approach in memorializing dead insects in a subtle, poetic way. My passion for printmaking and my work with found insects lead to reflections on environmental decline, as the resulting imprints convey presence through absence. Through material research, ecological reflections, and attempts to establish kinship with nonhuman animals, the explorations I undertook as part of my creative research have resulted in a body of work documenting live arachnids and insects and memorializing fallen ones.

abstract: Digital

abstract: Imprint

abstract: Empathy


title: To Hear and be Heard: Listening, Embodiment, and Ceramics

subject:
Sculpture
Ceramics
Sound art
Throwing (pottery technique)
Listening
Science in art

abstract: This thesis is a phenomenological investigation of sound as a form of touch and the effects of close listening. A methodology for studio process is first proposed that relies on a background of memories and embodied experiences that contribute to a narrative about sonic observations and how one can materially visualize them through the creation of sculptural objects, instruments or vessels. Science is employed as part of the theoretical framework and as a generative guide to help map out a visual language, using clay as a conceptual medium, to express what it means to hear and be heard. This thesis addresses the sonic experience and considers several associated psychological meanings from it. Ultimately, the thinking and narratives discussed in this thesis contribute to both the fields of ceramics and sound art in rendering a body of non-auditory ceramic sculpture that considers how careful listening to sound acts as a form of resistance and suggests further explorations.


title: The Forgetting

contributor: Paleczny, Suzanne (Suzanne Paleczny) (Author)

format:
77 p.
electronic

subject:
Painting
Memory
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Dementia
Families
Narrative art

abstract: “How is the body a vessel for memory?” and “How do the stories we recall and recount create who we are?” These are the questions explored in this thesis through the lens of memory loss and family, alongside an analysis of the challenges of representation. As I navigate the impacts of my parents’ dementia, I explore the fluid nature of memory, how memories are made, stored and lost, and the importance of memory in the making of the self through the construction of a personal narrative. My experiences of the chaotic, fragmented and disorienting effects of memory loss are expressed visually through the development of a language based on line (in particular, blind contour line), the iterative process of layering multiple images, the use of concepts such as the unfinished, the fragment, the gap and trace, as well as the expressive use of colour. These elements are used to create a series of large oil paintings that reconsider the nature of portraiture. Rather than following a traditional format, this thesis document draws on stories and memories, fragments that weave together a meandering narrative that mimics the visual structure of the artwork. Memory loss opens up questions of identity, and through stories lost and stories told, ultimately leads to the question “what can we truly know of others and ourselves?”

abstract: Family

abstract: Loss

abstract: Line

abstract: Fragment

abstract: Trace


title: Networked Knowledge: Cultural Sharing Amongst Dispersed Immigrants

contributor: Mukhopadhyay, Prakriti (Prakriti Mukhopadhyay) (author)

contributor: Lantin, Maria (Maria Lantin) (thesis advisor)

format:
66 p.
electronic

subject:
Immigrant experience
Globalization
User interfaces (Computer systems)
Virtual computer systems
Mindfulness

abstract: Global immigration and population displacement are happening now at rates higher than ever before in modern society. There is a compelling opportunity to take advantage of networked technologies to preserve cultural identity in the face of immigration while addressing problems of cultural integration. Personal devices such as cell-phones and laptops that let us connect to the internet and one another are now widely affordable and available. There is potential here that one might exploit by sharing a network of knowledge that brings immigrant populations in touch with one another and with the culture of their new “chosen” homeland. This document presents a design research-based approach to possible future explorations in the field of service design that promotes culture preservation. It explores how a personally accessible mobile application can help to create and more importantly, visualize a network of peers one can depends on for culturally relevant information. The application was co-designed via a collaborative workshop with members of PICS: Progressive Intercultural Community Services, Surrey (British Columbia), a non-governmental organization that has been serving the community since 1987. The article also explores how building a virtual community can be the node to forming real-life communities and aid in cultural integration for recent Indian immigrants to Vancouver. Furthermore, the article proposes subjective solutions and their implications for a future mindful globalization.

abstract: Interaction design

abstract: Network knowledge

abstract: User experience

abstract: Service design

abstract: Social innovation

abstract: Immigrant communities

abstract: Application design


title: The Transmutation of Visceral Desecration: Marginalizing Women, Murder and the Urban Environment Contextualized in Film

subject: Experimental films--Abstract films--Feminism--Missing person -- Women--Rape

abstract: This thesis is made up of a 35mm film, reinsertion, and a praxis paper that investigated my film processes and research, concerning the missing and murdered women of Vancouver. The catalyst was my experience living in a city in shock during the Pickton Trial. In 2007 Robert Pickton was charged with 26 counts of First Degree Murder. He was tried and found guilty for six out of a possible 26 murders that took place on his pig farm in Coquitlam. My goal was to create a film that positions the responsibility of the murders on the City of Vancouver, its police, City Hall and residents. My research focused on my personal experiences in the community and feminist discourse. Through the creation of an experimental film about the murders, I explored ideas such as authorship, experiential art and absence as representation. Simultaneously, the film subliminally communicates the trauma of the aforementioned women. This thesis pursues several key questions: Can a city be a sexual predator? Who has the right to tell a story? Can film emote without narrative? It concludes that a society, by inaction, can condone atrocities, that the stories we tell are inherently our own and that trauma can be communicated through subtle movements, gestures or objects.


title: Social Fabric - Experiential Design for Social Anxiety

format:
65 p.
electronic

subject:
Social phobia
Anxiety
Handicrafts

abstract: The recent development of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat has extended our individual social networks and widened our social circles. For socially anxious people, increased communication via social media has also lead to decreased exposure to communication in real-life situations; this, in turn, has lead to lessened social comfort in their daily lives, and increased anxiety and panic in social situations. This study addressed the cultural contexts of social anxiety as well as the needs of socially anxious people by engaging them in joyful, low-stress social experiences. The result of this research was the development of a visual framework for mitigating social anxiety in group settings that can be applied in different social contexts. Research methods such as material practice and self-inquiry played crucial roles in this study by contributing to the investigation of the research contexts as well as the emergent design outcomes.

abstract: Exploratory design

abstract: Material practice

abstract: Social anxiety

abstract: Self-inquiry


title: Adoption + Adaptation In Performance Cycling

type: Collection thesis

subject:
Bicycle racing
Cycling
Industrial design
Bicycle industry
Mountain bikes

abstract: This research has explored the relationship between cyclist and machine, through exploratory research methods and heuristic exploration by proposing a series of custom hardware interventions as way of enriching mountain bike rider’s experience. Changing the mountain bike rider’s experience and the mindset of the community of avid cyclists and industry by thinking outside the frame to thinking inside it. The work ahead focuses on performance hardware development as a gateway for avid mountain bike riders to think deeply about their relations with the bike, by exploring rider’s experience from a cyclist’s point of view, and by exploring ways in which industrial design can bring performance and improvement into the bicycle industry through adaptability of the frame to rider and terrain. Adaptability is a key factor between the terrain, the cyclist + machine. This research explores adaptable hardware systems allowing for changes or adaptations to the machine’s geometry depending on terrain, preferences or affinities. Focusing on the means of change, particular to the bicycles’ frame geometry, the frame transforms from the fixed hardware of a simple conveyance to a system of an enabler, making the cycling experience more emotional and self-reflective. Exploratory and applied research leveraging my own experience has emerged as a model, journaling and describing experiences, forming case studies for others to understand broadly how we meaningfully engage in bicycle riding. Cycling culture and its community as observed through volunteering for one of the most prestigious race in the world called the British Columbia Bike Race, served as multi method tool, where observation, conversations and stories helped inform my research, and explore how humans relate to objects and how adaptable objects become for a specific use. Applied heuristic assets and integrated experience design, with a focus on the user experience and its role in the cycling environment, demonstrates the very present cognitive improvement of human beings through the use of invention and mechanization. This research and the design outcomes will take into account several aspects specific to the bicycle like: Fit, Geometry, Materials + Processes, Culture + Ergonomics, accomplished through Practice based research by way of a collaboration and partnership with Landyachtz Bicycle Company, of Vancouver BC, where bicycles are hand built and crafted.


title: Mindful Pieces: Promoting Self-Regulation in Students with Learning Differences

subject:
Art therapy
Mindfulness
Education
Classroom environment

abstract: In the field of developmental psychology, mindfulness, or the state of present awareness, has shown promising results in enhancing self-regulation abilities in children in classroom settings. Such findings may suggest particular benefits to children with learning differences, who commonly struggle with the ability to control thoughts, emotions, and behaviours due to neurologically- based challenges. Unfortunately, many mindfulness interventions, which include activities such as yoga and martial arts, require specialized training on behalf of the instructors. Furthermore, formal mindfulness practices (such as meditation) do not suit the limited attentional capacities of young children. A similar intervention that requires introspection, art therapy has presented art-making as a familiar, non-verbal, engaging, and enjoyable action that “demands presence in body, mind, feelings and, many would say, soul” (Learmonth & Huckvale, 2008, p.11). Borrowing concepts from art therapy, this thesis project explores art-making as a way for children with learning differences to practice mindfulness in classroom settings. Specifically, this project introduces a tool that implements mindful art-making as a transitional activity in grades 1-3 classrooms. The research takes place at Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School (KGMS), an alternative elementary school in North Vancouver for students with learning differences. Through iterative processes of prototyping, user testing, and feedback, this research devises a mindfulness tool that accommodates both for the gifts and challenges of children with learning differences, and the skillsets of their teachers.


title: Neotropical Migration

contributor: Monsalve Sosa, Teodoro (Teodoro Monsalve Sosa) (author)

contributor: Reeves, Ben (Ben Reeves) (thesis advisor)

subject:
Interspecies encounters
Birds
Collage
Painting

abstract: Neotropical migration is a project where material and conceptual research is focused on visual and intellectual strategies of receptivity in the viewer towards humans and interspecies relations. Working with painting and collage, I am also invested in human dialogue with the natural world from an Ecuadorian mestizo perspective. Analyzing the natural phenomenon of bird migrations has allowed me to visualize my ideas about my personal migration in the form of paintings and collages. While in painting I weave together narratives from different periods from western painting history; the collage work explores an interdisciplinary dialogue of aesthetic transformations, where I aim to generate elastic and hybrid narratives that lend themselves for fluid ways of sharing knowledge. Through my material practice, I weave and juxtapose diverse visual universes together so that they might emerge as new ecosystems expanding beyond their established meanings whether in biology, astronomy, anthropology, etc. My aim is to open a dialogue with histories of representation like painting history and natural history, to challenge their aesthetic structures and re-imagine them in a contemporary art context.

abstract: History