Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Comparative Studies

Given the world is increasingly driven by technology, it should come as no shock that art museums are working to increase their online presence. Many museums have maintained websites since the earliest days of the World Wide Web, but recently these museums are seeking to digitize their collections in order to make them publicly available for Internet users. While smaller museums struggle to find the finances and expertise to commit to this task, larger institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art maintain the financial wherewithal to begin such massive undertakings. However, the question remains as to why any museum might wish to make their highly-prized collections publicly available online. The impetus behind museums' “going online” results from the European histories of aristocracy and connoisseurship from which the museum emerged, and the struggle of American museums to make good on their missions to service “the people” in spite of such historical influence. The Internet has been viewed both skeptically and liberally as a means to complete this mission, but the consequences of “going online” remain intertwined in the present formation of the public's understanding of the Internet its liberal use of content. At best, it is currently possible to look at the previous trajectories of both these institutions, the museum and the Internet, in order to begin to tease apart some of the merging areas of discourse. At first glance, it may seem that the two are not so different, which may in fact prove true, but even the most gentle investigation under the surface of these two institutions will show great dissimilarities in their discourse and methods of control. The Internet and the museum may in fact be at ideological odds with one another, and yet that has not prevented their inevitable merger. The museum has traditionally functioned by leveraging controlled access to the content of its collections as legally manifested through copyright, while the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philip Armstrong PhD (Advisor); Kris Paulsen PhD (Committee Member); Allison Fish PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Arts Management; Comparative; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Art Education

Net.art is an art form that uses the Internet as a medium, and has been created specifically for viewing on the World Wide Web. For the art instructor whose curriculum includes art criticism, art history and aesthetics with studio activities, including net.art in such a way that encourages critical thinking and new perspectives on art as well as the Internet is a daunting challenge. The art instructor needs the computer skills necessary to assist students in creating net.art, as well as an understanding of the cultural, technological and theoretical underpinnings of net.art in order to demystify it for students. Net.art tends to be highly conceptual, strongly challenges commonly held notions regarding art, and often requires the viewer to have some knowledge of the history of the Internet. It also requires the viewer to understand the Internet as a cultural phenomenon rather than a technological tool. My primary empirical objective was to formulate effective pedagogical strategies for the high school art instructor incorporating net.art into their curriculum in such a way that would facilitate students' critical thinking, meaning making, and deeper understanding of the cultural aspects of the Internet. The principal research question is: how can net.art be integrated into a high-school level computer art and graphics curriculum? Over the course of the study, the principal investigator engaged in reflective practices that enabled her to devise pedagogical strategies that, in turn, facilitated a demystification process that enabled the students to overcome their initial disorientation and became increasingly able to appreciate and understand net.art. Despite the students' familiarity with the Internet and traditional art forms, however, they were not able to translate their knowledge gained from these experiences into an adequate vocabulary in which to describe and interpret net.art as an artistic form When asked to compare the web sites they are more accustomed to wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vesta Daniel (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Art; Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2023, Studio Art

This essay describes my thesis for my BFA degree in Studio Art. This paper serves as a memoir of my journey as a painter to flow state. In this essay I outline how social media addiction causes anxiety and how I overcame that anxiety through being in the present through flow state and finding the sublime in my work.

Committee: John Sabraw (Advisor) Subjects: Aesthetics; Fine Arts; Mental Health; Philosophy

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Contemporary Music

Telematic music is a little-known sub-genre of telematic art and a new phenomenon in the world of music. This paper seeks to provide aspiring telematic musicians with the necessary knowledge and background that will enable them to participate in this art form by supplying a historical and aesthetic background for the elements of telematic art, discussing commonly used technologies and how they are implemented today, investigating performers who employ telematics, and examining the telematic opera Auksalaq. Additionally, this paper explores the adaptation of telematic art into telematic music. Chapter I reviews artistic and technological precursors of telematic art, centered around its three main aspects: telematics, integration of art forms, and interactivity. Chapter II provides a general guide for the aspiring telematic musician, covering the unique variables associated with performing telematically and giving practical advice relating to topics such as choosing technology, preparing telematic music, and more. Chapter III explores the current state of telematic music and creates a framework for analyzing it. This chapter includes an interview with Scott Deal, an accomplished musician and telematic artist and also discusses Auksalaq, one of the most ambitious telematic art projects to date.

Committee: Roger Schupp (Advisor); Elainie Lillios (Committee Member); Conor Nelson (Committee Member); Bonnie Mitchell (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

MFA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

Vignettes is a series of six large industrially-woven tapestries examining the language of pornography and its effect when juxtaposed with non-pornographic imagery. Titles of streaming online videos from a pornographic website are superimposed over images of majestic, unspoiled landscapes. By separating these phrases from their visual contexts, the specific qualities of pornographic language are evident: it is a language of classification that is violent, sexist, racist, and degrading. This is important because the usage of such language is not arbitrary or context-specific; it reflects our genuine feelings about the societal position of women and about the extent of our voyeuristic privilege.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, Art

I am part of the Millennial Generation that grew up bearing it all on Facebook, and anybody can become a YouTube celebrity. All of our actions now have the potential to become spectacles to be shared with the masses. Technology influences everything, and it is changing at a dizzying pace. The future is an unknowable and exciting time. Knowing our history is important because it helps us understand our current condition. It is interpretations of these stories that get passed down through the generations. The work in Speculation on the Trajectory of Human Kind is how I deal with the technology and social media overload, by creating my own interpretation of human history through a cavewoman named Ugha and a future woman named Xugha. Ugha and Xugha are one and the same person, and act as a stand-in for me. In my historical interpretations I use narrative and humor to open the door for viewers to consider the serious and complex hypotheses being explored. It is easier for us to laugh at Ugha, a less developed person, than at ourselves, even though we may not have any more knowledge about the questions of life. I use Ugha, and her future self, Xugha, as starting points to evaluate where we are as a people now, and how we got to this point in our evolution. Questions about the emergence of our humanity cannot be answered with certainty. Just what is it that makes us human, where does this knowledge come from, and how can we trust it, are some of the larger questions that are at stake in my research. There are as many versions of the stories as there are sources. I am interested in the narratives the literature provides, and the ambiguity of our knowledge. The artifice of my sets serves to support the instability of the knowledge that inform the stories I tell. Flat, painted backgrounds and pedestrian materials such as cardboard are used for props. The museum diorama is a stylistic influence and sets the foundation for my departure. Museums are a trusted sou (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert Derr MFA (Advisor); Rebecca Harvey MFA (Committee Member); Jessica Mallios MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Art History

Skawennati Tricia Fragnito is a digital artist whose work emerged in the 1990s and continues to involve themes of colonialism through Internet communities and narrative. This study examines the artist's Internet artworks, first looking at CyberPowWow (1996-2004) and Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (2008-) as virtual gathering places to discuss possibilities of using the Internet as an alternative place for First Nations and Native Americans to show artwork. In her Webworks, such as the TimeTravellerTM (2007-) series and Imagining Indians in the 25th Century (2000-2001), Skawennati reworks historical notions of the past to expose colonialism from the perspective of a Native character. The most recent body of work, 80 Minutes, 80 Movies, 80s Music, is a series of freely-distributed music video project hosted on the video sharing Website Vimeo that was founded in 2004, that explores the historic colonization of network television and music in the 1980s by undermining notions of nostalgia and broadens perspective onto current electronic colonialism. Skawennati's work keenly exemplifies digital art's participating and expansive possibilities for understanding territory, distribution and sharing of “space.”

Committee: Kimberly Paice Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jordan Tate M.F.A. (Committee Member); Morgan Thomas Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Art

The Unexpected Reflection Collection was an art installation composed of an accumulation of Internet derived images. The images were appropriated from photographs of mirror reflections found on the website, Craigslist.com and contained overlooked and accidental subject matter. The collection of images was integrated into a rotating video sequence and rear-projected through multiple sheets of mirror-like glass. The format of the installation was designed to seduce the viewer through revolving candid images and to ultimately reveal to the viewer his or her own reflection. This thesis writing addresses the vulnerability of privacy and the unintended public access that is granted with the rapid evolution of Internet technology. Candid photographs and reflections are used in this project to illustrate ideas of exposure and intimacy. This writing explains in detail, the process of determining all aspects of the thesis installation and their relationships to the concepts.

Committee: Robert Ladislas Derr (Committee Chair); Charles Massey (Committee Member); Amy M. Youngs (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Art Education

The objective of this study is to determine how museums might incorporate the use of online publishing and communication technologies as a tool to initiate and foster connections with their audiences. This research is designed with the expectation that it will contribute to knowledge regarding how such communication technologies are understood and received. The ultimate goal is to help museums and cultural institutions develop comparable interactive capacities that encourage dialogue and more deeply engage the communities they serve. In this study, a review of literature and extant online communities will be used to inform the development of a prototype online museum community that demonstrates how such an interface might extend an institution's education, public relations, and community outreach capabilities. A refined online museum community prototype based on this research may be of use to museums aiming to construct an online museum community that both reflects the institution's character and furthers its educational objectives.

Committee: James Sanders (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Art Education

This study explores how the way students learn through visual culture can inform the design of Web-based art education instruction. It focuses on four interrelated topics relevant to current art education curriculum and Web-based learning in higher education: technology and learning, constructivist theory, visual culture, and graphic design. A literature review of each topic in addition to undergraduate student interviews about their experiences contributes to discussing ways to improve Web-based instruction. This interdisciplinary case study presents a critique of the current usability guidelines and standards used for developing websites. The research places an emphasis on the visual interface that serves as the main form of communication between the function of the website and the student audience. The information provides a foundation for interactive design recommendations applicable to Web-based instruction. Recommendations made as a result of this research are applicable to improving constructive, inquiry-based teaching and learning environments in art education and related academic disciplines.

Committee: Robert Arnold (Advisor) Subjects: