Art Department

This thesis investigates consumption as an instinctual need, consumption as a religion and consumption as a way to create identity. The work I created in the form of pillows, brooches, handkerchiefs and shirts materializes my interest in transmuting the human body.

In the written component of this thesis I explore the overlap between geometry, phenomenology, and light in artwork in an attempt to achieve the most potent and relevant phenomenological communication with the senses of the body. In the following work I look at other artists’ use of the main concepts I address in work: geometric shape and linear form, phenomenology and an awareness of space and body, and light. In doing so I also relate ways in which they have influenced my own work, and flesh out some of the issues surrounding the use of these elements.

My intention with this thesis project is primarily to create a work of art that makes a symbolic as well as an ecological gesture. Foremost, I want to create fodder for symbolic and literal dialogue: public dialogue; dialogue between the individual and the outdoor, living environment; and dialogue with self. The project will provide a phenomenological experience for the body: an intimate space for contemplation; a structure to move into, onto and around; an experience of the out of doors; and a close encounter with living plant life made into art.

This thesis explores systems of order within material culture–how they are made manifest in the physical world and how this informs all those who live and create within these systems. She uses her own work to explore the relationship between rigid orders and the organic processes of living by involving grids, boundaries, and accumulated materials.

Through the saturation of my lifestyle with hand built objects and tools such as a stove, an oven, and a habitation, and handmade foods, and social environments, I attempt the union of art and life. Exploring various levels of low art, from the soil up, I question the art space, the object, the icon, the commodity, and the architecture of urban space.

My work attempts to break down romantic notions of self-sufficiency and sustainability. I realize that many of these constructs are the result of a great distance and inexperience in how these foods are actually produced and how much work it takes to prepare them. Exposing these processes though action in public space, as well as mapping agriculture and the sources of other foods though video, book and installation, I give attention to the foundation of industry on which every aspect of our lives reside.

My thesis investigates human experiences with ‘hyperreal’ environments. In theory, hyperreality is a constructed world that is more ‘real’ than real, where simulation exists without having reference to a real object. The transformation of both urban and natural spaces into hyperreal landscapes due to the growth of consumer culture informs the experience of my digitally constructed photographs. Rather than being discreet objects that hang on the wall, these images are meant to physically engage the viewer by transforming into actual environments. As the mind reads the images, the body experiences them as real places. My goal is that the viewer will not only feel the phenomenological effects of the large-scale images, but also recognize the images as digital constructions.

This is a redesign of a supermarket. Though most design place the bottom line on financial success, this project has a “double bottom line” that allows for environmental and social responsibility. This new supermarket is a co-op style facility that takes bulk-purchasing and container reuse to a high level. It also attempts to address some systematic problems found in the current state of food production and distribution.

This project is two-parted. The first is this paper, representing the analytical component of my work. The second is a series of container designs as well as a concept sketch for the proposed co-op.

The interaction of word and image constitutes a large theoretical genre. Many of the contributors to this genre seem to feel that there is some sort of “problem” in this interaction, as evidenced by such essays as Roland Barthes’ “The Rhetoric of the Image” and W.J.T. Mitchell’s “Word and Image.” My own view of this “problem” is that, at a certain point, the interaction of word and image can become less of an issue and more of a symbiotic relationship. Inspired by aesthetically loaded examples of written words, I will call this relationship “word as image” rather than “word and image.” By researching various historical and cultural examples. This study makes both theoretical and aesthetic consideration of this interaction, culminating in a series of paintings that were created in response to my research, while still remaining faithful to the personal style of art making I have developed.