MA, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History

After eighty years of obscurity the German Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) has reemerged as a valuable subject of study. The Baroness was an artist and a writer whose media included poetry, collage, sculpture, performance and costume art. In chapter one I firmly establish the Baroness's position as a Dada artist through examining her shared connections with the emergence of European Dada. In final chapters I will examine the most under-examined aspect of the Baroness's various mediums-her performance and costume art. In the second chapter I will explore the Baroness's work utilizing performative and feminist theories in relation to Marcel Duchamp's female alter ego Rrose Selavy. Finally, I will discuss the theme of “The Other” as a social and cultural commentator within the Baroness's performance art. A study of the Baroness's Dada performance art during her ten years in America can broaden our understanding of New York Dada.

Committee: Theresa Leininger-Miller (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; History, Modern

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Creative Writing/Poetry

In Almond Overflow & Other Stunts, groups of people and objects do actions: They make films and artworks, attempt big, ambitious business exploits, experience romance, hijack institutions and occasions, change plans, or cast off to form other groups. Water is both a space and a vehicle for events in the poems. Different characters engage the speaker in an array of dates, gigs, friendships, and memberships in which emotional connections are made. A fairly consistent speaker confronts, embraces, resists, becomes, and shifts again. A recurring character is the stunt double, who collaborates with the speaker, stands-in for his stunts, and they date on and off. Some of the actions are inspired by performance art, particularly of the 1960s and 1970s, over-the-top social media antics, action movies, and other dramatic practices. Another motif is artistic productions taking place within the poems, such as filmmaking, sculptures, installations, commercials, and edits toward meaningful excitement. Through continuous movement, the collection is interested in poems behaving as actions or stunts as well as literary constructions.

Committee: Lawrence Coates (Committee Member); Larissa Szporluk (Committee Chair) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation investigates the works, thoughts, and practices of everyday life of a diverse range of emerging contemporary Syrian artists and filmmakers who created art during the Syrian crisis since 2011. Some stayed in Syria. Others fled the country. Some engaged in armed resistance or political activism. Others lost their lives. This dissertation is primarily concerned with how these individuals created art that reflected the everyday life of Syrians throughout the crisis. The focus on everyday life is crucial because it shifts scholarly attention on the Syrian crisis away from the war itself and onto the overlooked Syrians who are creatively trying to survive it. Drawing on interviews, aesthetic analysis, and participant-observation, I argue that Syrian artists try to reclaim the Syrian identity and homeland concepts back to their cultural heritages and away from political or war realities. In addition, I discuss a new model of the Syrian body of survival and its representations based on its transformations between different modes of survival practices. This dissertation seeks to enrich art history, Performance Studies, and scholarly approaches to the Syrian crisis by positioning Syrian art as a global and contemporary art phenomenon and by documenting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting its artists to the international public. It pays particular attention to Syrian art's local, regional, and global specificity while also considering how the artworks and films are produced, distributed, and presented across international art arenas. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to clarify what it means to be Syrian today, a concept that has been mostly unrepresented, misrepresented, or distorted by stereotyping.

Committee: Charles Buchanan (Advisor); Garrett Field (Committee Member); Erin Schlumpf (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Film Studies; Fine Arts; Middle Eastern Studies; Performing Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Art

The Space Program is a program of missions and media in space, including: • Space Program (program), 56-page printed program accompanying the Space Program (live), 2017 • Space Program (live), installation-performance (30 minutes) with six video projections, technical equipment, convex mirror, and ukulele, 2017 • Missions in Space, pilgrimages and performances in space, 2016 - ongoing Mission Equipment, functional sculpture for Missions in Space, 2016 - ongoing • Transmissions, postcards and other communications from Missions in Space, 2016 - ongoing • Support the Space Program, a yard sale exhibition to fund the Space Program, 2016 The Space Program in all its forms—including this document—is necessarily reflexive, which is to say that it addresses its own form as content and acknowledges the “I” of the author(s). I, Melissa Yes, am an artist and graduate student at The Ohio State University (OSU), and I am a time-space mechanic, a wily bricoleur. I take things apart and remake them. When I break something down, I see how it contains and is contained within systems that can be rewired. In the Space Program, I deconstruct images, sounds, timelines, and popular Western values and narratives to tweak a system of connections among people, media, and messages. In the Space Program (live), I steal snippets of (mostly) popular American film and television programs, break them into pieces, and pattern them into my own (re)invented narrative. In so doing, I take apart constructs such as masculine American individualism, Manifest Destiny, and habits of dualistic logic. The Space Program is a mixed signal, both in the fact that it is a mixture of forms and sources of media, but also because with the Space Program I am communicating multiple (seemingly opposed) things at once. Making and unmaking—seeming opposites—are ways of naming transformation. Production and consumption are one process—a digestion—and the Space Program digests objects, interactions, moving (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Todd Slaughter (Committee Chair); Ann Hamilton (Committee Member); Michael Mercil (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Performing Arts

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This is a feminist project that investigates the performative practices of contemporary female Colombian artists. It was guided by a main research question: Is there a particular kind of strength that comes from their specific situation as contemporary Colombian female artists? As such, this dissertation relies on fieldwork and critical theory in order to elucidate how such diverse individuals perform multiple art practices and what they do in and with their art practices. Two dozen women opened their doors, provided their time for video taped conversation and gave their archival material for the realization of this project. The main hypothesis this dissertation worked with relates to the existence of a possible double work or doubling of the work a woman artist executes in the need to undo what has been culturally assigned in order to then create her own images, ideas and concepts about being a woman in her society. Within the undoing and the doing, a liminal space allows the artists to realize how the cultural ideas of feminine essences evidence a conceptual void. Once the artistic work uncovers these supposed essences as false expectations, the strength that emanates from the vantage point of un-definition becomes the source of unbound creativity that produces artwork of political significance. The themes that emerged during fieldwork and writing show that in the same way these artists become others; multiplying possibilities of being while in their practices, they are able to influence their surroundings in minute, effective ways. Otherness is a central theme that has aided the understanding of the work these women realize. An important theoretical source is the seminal work of Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, even though in five chapters the artistic work of nine artists are thoroughly discussed through multiple theories that traverse the text. Some of the theorists that have aided the present text are: Gloria Anzaldua, Rosi Braidoti, Judith Butler, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Marina Peterson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Vladimiri Marchenkov Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jennie Klein Ph.D. (Committee Member); Louis-George Schwartz Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Art Criticism; Art History; Cultural Anthropology; Dance; Fine Arts; Gender Studies; Latin American Studies; Literature; Performing Arts; Philosophy; Theater

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2012, Dance

This investigation integrates extensive multidisciplinary research concerning contemporary societal problems as well as theories regarding the significance of utilizing performance art as a means for social activism. The research for this study exposes political corruption, cultural manipulation, and spiritual indoctrination. Politics, culture, economics, and spirituality are disscussed as four major dominant power structures within contemporary culture. Another major component discussed in this essay is the initial stages and rapid acceleration towards a paradigm shift within modern culture. Evidence suggests the corruption of the ideals held by most institutions are obscuring and deterring workable solutions to our collective problems. Additionally, this paper articulates the characteristics of a new emergent planetary culture.

Committee: Marina Walchli Ms. (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Dance; Earth; Economics; Education; Environmental Economics; Environmental Justice; Ethnic Studies; Fine Arts; Mass Media; Music; Performing Arts; Pharmacology; Religion; Spirituality; Sustainability; Theater; Theology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2013, Leadership and Change

As a performance artist and arts activist I present my research project to the audience in performative writing, a postmodern research style that advocates the integration of the artist/researcher identity. In the summer of 2010, I left for Egypt to teach a performance and installation art workshop at Artist Residency Egypt, the first step of the Firefly Tunnels Project, a virtual and tangible exchange between artists in the United States and Egypt. This venture began with the awareness that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 was approaching. What I could not have foreseen were the other world events that would have a direct impact on the project: Arab Spring and the Egyptian revolution, the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the United States, the execution of Osama Bin Laden, and presidential elections in both the United States and Egypt. Sites of Passage, the final exhibition, ran from September 9, 2011-February 14, 2012 (extended) at the Mattress Factory Museum, one of the only installation art museums of its kind. The exhibit included site-specific works, curatorial tours, discussion panels, workshops, community outreach, and a performance series. I curated all of the artists into the three workshops held in Egypt and the United States, which were compulsory to the exchange process. This document is a performance ethnography that includes an auto-ethnography providing thick description of the experiences and events of this bicultural journey. There are eight videos in mv4 format, plus images to help give dimension to the work. Theoretical dispositions will also be performed throughout the document. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Committee: Carolyn Kenny PhD (Committee Chair); Lynne Conner PhD (Committee Member); Annie E. Booysen DBL (Committee Member); Celeste Snober PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Design; Ecology; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Epistemology; Experiments; Fine Arts; International Relations; Language; Linguistics; Metaphysics; Middle Eastern Studies; Multicultural Education; Multimedia Communications; Museums; Peace Studies; Pedagogy; Performing Arts; Spirituality; Teaching; Technical Communication; Theater; Theater Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Music

Tracking the development of experimental music from 1920 to 1970, this paper seeks to explore how Artists have dealt with and worked within the Absurdity of Life. From Arnold Schoenberg, to John Cage, to Fluxus, the artistic shifts brought by these artists move toward a gradual acceptance of the Absurd and the break down of the Art/Life divide. Accompanying the research is a portion of an opera I wrote that simultaneously analyzes, comments on, and participates in the conflict between the Absurd and the Ideal in Art. The opera follows the poet Stephane Mallarme on his journey to create perfect expression through language despite several Absurd scenarios ranging from the fantastic to the deeply human.

Committee: Robert McClure (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Music; Performing Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Art

"What Comes After the Blues" is an art installation by Matt Kurtz that uses found objects, video and performance art to reclaim identity in the ruins of industry and faith. The videos and projections exhibit dualities through site-specificity and personal narrative. Spiritual objects are reimagined while abandoned materials are sanctified. Oftentimes the objects in this installation serve as material memory for past experiences and expand on the concepts of the videos they interact with. Viewers are given the opportunity to participate in the installation through sound performance and meditative play. In his artwork, Kurtz enters the sacred voids of his past and considers local mythology, musical familiarity and the evangelical conditions of his background to convey his experience.

Committee: Eli Kessler (Advisor) Subjects: American History; Art History; Fine Arts; Folklore; Music; Religion

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

From 2017 to 2020, I conducted a series of artistic experiments that resulted in multiple sculptures and performance. The experiments explore the concept of the strange, presence and co-presence and examines how humans have and may confront what lies beyond the scope of the familiar. Subsequently, the 2018 series that utilize the wearable sculpture questions the possible materiality of absence. The thesis serves as the final report and record of the art practices during the three years. I hope that the record serves the academics and artists in the future who wish to explore the same topic.

Committee: Todd Slaughter (Advisor); Ken Rinaldo (Committee Member); Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

This document joins two inverse, yet complementary bodies of text which reflect the interdisciplinary nature of a creative practice that amalgamates the methodologies of art, science, and domesticity. ACSE (Allium Cepa Stella Erratica, or onion planet) was a speculative laboratory constructed and operated in an art gallery as a strategy for testing an artistic hypothesis. Designed to enable experiments for new planet development through onion propagation, ACSE incorporated bio-art, durational performance, installation, and social engagement. The first text, Experiments in Biological Planet Formation is a research article for an unspecified scientific journal that outlines the objectives, functions, and public experience of the ACSE laboratory, including a detailed materials and methodologies section for successful reproduction of experiments and future plans for primus protoplanet space propulsion. The second text, Plants: Nourishing Bodies, Nourishing Planets, reveals the speculative nature of the laboratory and its purpose from the perspective of an artist statement. It is a personal narrative that weaves storytelling, historical references, and future projections about the possibility of nurturing an onion planet for human colonization into a predictive reality to generate dialogue about the collective social and environmental experience of the now. ACSE utilizes labor as both a performance and a process for understanding and creation. It is a place in which being lost in practice is a productive form of world-building. Through the enaction of care and tenderness in a laboratory/ art gallery setting, a productive interspecies collaboration is yielded to the benefit of both technician and specimen. The durational performances of experiments conflate common perceptions of laboratory, kitchen, and art studio. Thus, the experimental methods employed blur lines between cooking, dissection, and object making, not to challenge the value or efficacy of science, art, or d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amy Youngs (Advisor); Ann Hamilton (Committee Member); Michael Mercil (Committee Member) Subjects: Astronomy; Biology; Experiments; Fine Arts

BFA, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Theatre and Dance

Even though there are no records of optical illusions being studied until Epicharmus' work in the 5th century B.C., evidence of their application in art can be traced back to the cave paintings of the Paleolithic Era. It is impossible to assign a specific date to the creation of illusions because they are not merely inventions, but a reflection of geometric forms seen in nature. This paper begins with an analysis of different optical illusions based on Richard Gregory's research. It then looks at how illusions have been used in performance in the past, how projections can support commonly used optical illusion methods, and how we can use projections to incorporate interactivity into live performance. The aforementioned information is then used to help inform decisions regarding the application of projections to a choreographed dance piece. In this section, several different projection surface options are also discussed. Being able to use projections as a medium and output allows for many new paths of artistic exploration, but along with this opportunity comes the need to determine how the technology can have the most meaningful impact.

Committee: Nicholas Drashner (Advisor); Tippey Brett (Committee Member); Honesty Tamara (Committee Member); King Gregory (Committee Member) Subjects: Dance; Design; Fine Arts; Performing Arts; Psychology; Theater

MFA, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Art

The Sacred Transfigured are the cumulative results of researching textile processes as sacred ritual resulting in artifacts that can be engaged in a participatory manner by the viewer. Questions I aim to resolve through the artworks presented are: Why are textiles special? How can material like wool and linen be transfigured into precious artifacts? What about this construction process is sacred? What is the role of the artist in that process? These questions are explored through weaving, felting and stitching specifically to examine the unique and magic qualities of textiles that can serve as tools of communication between artist and viewer. The artifacts presented are both precious objects and theatrical garments serving to heighten the senses of the viewer and help construct a certain aura around the wearer.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Performing Arts; Textile Research

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Music

In recent years, scholars have commenced to reevaluate the advent and origins of 20th-century artistic movements, with the repositioning of experimental artistic networks like Fluxus as a decentralized, transnational network of artists, a component as integral to Fluxus' identity as its interdisciplinarity. Despite such claims, many art historical and musicological inquiries remain focused upon the activities of Fluxus artists within historically conceived artistic “centers” in the United States and Western Europe, as opposed to a more holistic investigation of Fluxus' “transnational” aspect. Informed by archival and ethnographic research, and engaged with art historians, musicologists, and cultural anthropologists, this dissertation interrogates these dominant narratives through three interrelated, yet distinct case studies involving Icelandic and non-Icelandic artists: Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman's scandalous performance at Reykjavik's Theatre Lindarbær, the emergence of the Icelandic collective SUM, and Magnus Palsson's role in experimental arts pedagogy. Such an investigation is not only concerned with examining Iceland's (and the Nordic region more broadly) historical and socio-political position within this transnational milieu, but also the individuals who cultivated, embodied, and lived these cross-cultural exchanges, who have been relegated to the periphery of contemporary historiography.

Committee: Arved Ashby (Advisor); Ryan Skinner (Advisor); Richard Fletcher (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Music; Scandinavian Studies

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Interdisciplinary Studies

Objective: Art song is a unique genre in the realm of European classical music, which embraces the combined beauty of vocal melody, instrumental accompaniment, and text. In a performance context, the same composition can be performed with a variety of emotional interpretations. The purpose of this study was to determine sound production differences relative to two emotional interpretations in performing an excerpt from a classical art song. Methods/Design: The first author, a soprano with a master's degree in vocal performance, recorded an excerpt from “La Mort d'Ophelie” composed by Hector Berlioz (1803-69). The excerpt was sung in two contrasting musical interpretations: an “empathetic legato” approach, and a “sarcastic” approach with emphatic attacks. Microphone, airflow (Glottal Enterprises MSIF-2), and electroglottography (EGG; Kay Model 6103) signals were digitized. These recordings were analyzed for acoustic, airflow, and glottographic measures. The vowels in the musical excerpt were analyzed in terms of intensity, long term average spectra (LTAS), fundamental frequency vibrato rate and extent, vowel onset, intensity comparison of harmonic frequencies, and glottal measures based on electroglottograph waveforms. Results & Conclusions: Data analyses revealed that stressed vowels, when performed with the emphatic approach compared to the legato approach, had faster vowel onset, increased glottal adduction (relative to the EGGW25 measure), increased intensity of harmonics in the 1500 to 3000 Hz range, inferred increase in subglottal pressure, increased airflow for the /f/ consonant, and greater aspiration airflow for the plosives /t/ and /p/. The vibrato extent for both fo and airflow were both greater for the emphatic approach. Findings also revealed larger amplitude values of the EGG waveform, but this finding was not statistically significant. Long-term average spectrum (LTAS) analyses of the entire production displayed minor increases across all fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ronald C. Scherer Ph.D. (Advisor); Jane Rodgers D.M.A. (Committee Member); Emily Pence Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Satterlee D.M.A. (Other) Subjects: Music; Music Education; Speech Therapy

MFA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Art

The exhibition (History Says…) is expressing the unavoidable contradictory nature of my life – my existence. Through the use of a personal narrative projected onto my bare body, the work extends beyond personal physicality and asserts that the personal is political. My body is the vessel that carries within it the natural paradox of the self. I am making connections of my own past and ruminating on those narratives to situate my naturalized/politicized body into a greater understanding of where I, as a subject/individual, am placated in a wider societal view. Through the use of text I am purposely using a form of categorization our society relies on in order to comprehend the world around us. I am beckoning the viewer to ask themselves if they believe the text, the image, the conjuring of their own mind, or the person in the flesh they encounter in a given moment. Through a contradictory narrative of travel between oppression/oppressor, intimacy/alienation, and failure/achievement there is the hope that the true pragmatics of situations such as `being comfortable in my own skin' can be seen from many angles. Nothing is presented within a revelation of positive or negative light but rather in the narrow middle spaces where openness, love, and understanding exists simultaneously with close-mindedness, hatefulness, and confusion – it happens in the same breath. There is no right or wrong in the objective sense but instead subjective senses of normalcy, legality, and morality take precedent within the space. Through (History Says) I am reclaiming my own narrative – unabashed, unashamed, and with or without the world's permission. I am willing myself, allowing myself, to both embrace and reject these labels of identity.

Committee: Darice Polo (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Art/Art History

Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) was an accomplished French-American artist who worked during the latter half of the twentieth century. She worked in a variety of mediums, and is known largely for her sculptures of abstracted women called Nanas. In this thesis, an attempt is made to construct a narrative timeline of Saint Phalle's artistic oeuvre, and focuses primarily defending the centrality of one distinct piece: Hon—en katedral (1966). The first section outlines a brief history of Saint Phalle, and then details Hon—en katedral in terms of its conception, construction, reactions, and performative theory. The second section is a narrative chronology, one that focuses specifically on Saint Phalle's artistic development and each series of works she created from the 1950s to her death in 2002.

Committee: Andrew Hershberger Dr. (Committee Chair); Skinner Green Rebecca Dr. (Committee Member); Eber Dena Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2018, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Due to a change in purpose and structure of haute couture shows in the 1970s, the vision of couture shows as performance art was born. Through investigation of the elements of performance art, as well as its functions and characteristics, this study intends to determine how modern haute couture fashion shows relate to performance art and can operate under the definition of performance art.

Committee: James Slowiak (Advisor); Lisa Lazar (Committee Member); Sandra Stansbery-Buckland Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

This body of woven work results from my interest in exploring the concept of stress, a dominant aspect of living in our fast paced, technologically advanced society. It represents an attempt to focus and concentrate on meaningful content through active engagement in construction, such as hand weaving, felting and spinning; methods antithetical to the causes of contemporary stressors. I will be relying on the systematic nature of weaving as an organizational tool to express the natural urge to find balance and structure. In addition, the physical and metaphorical aspects of the textile medium will support the analogy between cloth and skin, as a form of literal and figurative protection. To acknowledge the cumulative nature of stress I will make a series of objects to reveal a sense of transformation over time. Through the use of the unique language of textiles I will be examining the effects of mental, physical and emotional stress generated by personal experience.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Taryn McMahon (Committee Chair); Davin Ebanks (Committee Chair); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Chair) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Fine Arts; Performing Arts; Sustainability; Textile Research

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2018, Art History (Fine Arts)

This research's intention is to define and classify what art games are and how these three particular games rely on the audience to activate the artworks, thus making the audience's interactions essential to complete the artworks. Technology has always impacted the art world and shaped the media that artists experiment with and use. Today, there are many artists who use games as their method for conveying their ideas and messages. This paper will examine how three artists use gaming structures to critique historical and social topics through the audience's interactions with the artworks' gaming structures. The three case studies about Pippin Barr's The Artist is Present, Tale of Tales' The Path and Wafaa Bilal's performance Domestic Tension will examine how these artworks exemplify and use the elements of the particular genre of games, art games. Through looking at research done on digital space and the case studies this paper will address how these artworks create a shift from the focus of the artwork being on the creator or artist to how the interactions and performance of the audience complete the works.

Committee: Jennie Klein (Advisor); Mark Franz (Committee Member); Lee Marion (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History