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The Art of Extraction: ABSTRACT
Anthropocentric society faces a multiplicity of environmental challenges, catalyzed and perpetuated by urban-industrial culture. Many of today’s perspectives and sustainable strategies cannot accommodate the challenges’ inherent complexity. Because urban-industrial society is only projected to grow, both in enormity and influence, the only viable option is to elucidate the complexity and employ it.
A potential setting in which to frame this exploration is the intersection of urbanism, landscape, and ecology –an overlap first introduced by the theories of Landscape Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism. Here, urbanization is not just discussed as an isolated phenomenon but one that is embedded within and responding to a variety of systems and scales. The methodologies of Landscape Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism also acknowledge artists and the visual arts as invaluable tools for realizing, communicating, and inspiring the new perspectives and modes of intervention needed to address the aforementioned urban complexity. Such artists who operate within this realm include Sissel Tolaas, Maya Lin, Katrin Sigurdardottir, David Maisel, Olafur Eliason, Mierle Ukeles, Suzanne Lacy, Steve Rowell, Mel Chin, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Case study analyses reveal many of these artists begin their investigations with provocative, searching questions situated within the realms of urbanism, landscape, and ecology. This is proceeded by relative scientific research and/or community involvement or outreach. Furthermore, the artists work within and extrapolate from a variety of other disciplines —increasing the scope and applicability of their work. The information they collect via this multidisciplinary approach is then metaphorically translated to the visual arts, where the public can not only physically or sensorially experience it, but understand and deduce its meaning and significance: public awareness being one of the more essential aspects of a sustainable society and at the root of our current struggle.
As a designer and architect, I will engage the artist’s mindset to explore the current and complex issue of resource extraction within Superior, Arizona: a topic at the core of urbanism, landscape, and ecology. While the town is not considered "urban" by standard definition, it and its surrounding landscapes are indirectly sculpted by the needs of urban society —rendering it the setting for this application. Within a group, we will begin with a searching question. We will conduct relative scientific research, engage the community of Superior, and call upon a variety of other disciplines to aid and inform our work. Through metaphor, the research and resulting discoveries will be artistically represented and composed within a designed exhibition of hopeful “things” (See Bruno Latour, “From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik”). This exhibition will theoretically take place on Superior’s currently dilapidated Main Street, amid a more accessible sphere. The eventual goal of the project is to illuminate and understand the complexities of resource extraction, specifically within Superior, while also enabling public awareness and empowerment through lucidity and comprehension.
Anthropocentric society faces a multiplicity of environmental challenges, catalyzed and perpetuated by urban-industrial culture. Many of today’s perspectives and sustainable strategies cannot accommodate the challenges’ inherent complexity. Because urban-industrial society is only projected to grow, both in enormity and influence, the only viable option is to elucidate the complexity and employ it.
A potential setting in which to frame this exploration is the intersection of urbanism, landscape, and ecology –an overlap first introduced by the theories of Landscape Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism. Here, urbanization is not just discussed as an isolated phenomenon but one that is embedded within and responding to a variety of systems and scales. The methodologies of Landscape Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism also acknowledge artists and the visual arts as invaluable tools for realizing, communicating, and inspiring the new perspectives and modes of intervention needed to address the aforementioned urban complexity. Such artists who operate within this realm include Sissel Tolaas, Maya Lin, Katrin Sigurdardottir, David Maisel, Olafur Eliason, Mierle Ukeles, Suzanne Lacy, Steve Rowell, Mel Chin, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Case study analyses reveal many of these artists begin their investigations with provocative, searching questions situated within the realms of urbanism, landscape, and ecology. This is proceeded by relative scientific research and/or community involvement or outreach. Furthermore, the artists work within and extrapolate from a variety of other disciplines —increasing the scope and applicability of their work. The information they collect via this multidisciplinary approach is then metaphorically translated to the visual arts, where the public can not only physically or sensorially experience it, but understand and deduce its meaning and significance: public awareness being one of the more essential aspects of a sustainable society and at the root of our current struggle.
As a designer and architect, I will engage the artist’s mindset to explore the current and complex issue of resource extraction within Superior, Arizona: a topic at the core of urbanism, landscape, and ecology. While the town is not considered "urban" by standard definition, it and its surrounding landscapes are indirectly sculpted by the needs of urban society —rendering it the setting for this application. Within a group, we will begin with a searching question. We will conduct relative scientific research, engage the community of Superior, and call upon a variety of other disciplines to aid and inform our work. Through metaphor, the research and resulting discoveries will be artistically represented and composed within a designed exhibition of hopeful “things” (See Bruno Latour, “From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik”). This exhibition will theoretically take place on Superior’s currently dilapidated Main Street, amid a more accessible sphere. The eventual goal of the project is to illuminate and understand the complexities of resource extraction, specifically within Superior, while also enabling public awareness and empowerment through lucidity and comprehension.
ContributorsTwilling, Emilie Marie (Author) / Stayner, Christian (Thesis director) / Harris, Catherine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Social media has forced us to more publicly define who we should be apart from who we are. In the age of technology, there is an increased societal pressure to hide imperfection - to keep the raw, sensitive aspects of our lives to ourselves. For my honors thesis/creative project, I chose to explore the disparities between the lives we share in person and the lives we share online. As a BFA student in Ceramics, I wanted to use the skills and techniques I've acquired throughout my years in college to visually represent my personal observations of social media use, identity in the age of technology, and the taboo of imperfection. My motivation for this project was to question, what is reality? I believe social media has led to an environment of under sharing. We share what's easy, what's happy, what's comfortable. Either that, or we focus on the negative, discounting the blessings and privilege we are so lucky to have. Positive or negative, this platform is a shallow way to communicate and understand humanity. There is always some underlying insecurity, anxiety, or tragedy behind every success or celebration. After reflecting on these insights, I continued my research by exploring aspects of different imagery, form, and function in clay. Ultimately, I decided to create a series of four interactive head sculptures. My main objectives for these sculptures were to embody issues of mental health, reference social media, and to have the viewer interact with the pieces.
ContributorsMegehee, Mary Grace (Author) / Beiner, Susan (Thesis director) / Chung, Samuel (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
My creative project involved the creation of a short, abstract animation set to EDM music. It's meant to mimic the graphics displayed in the background of EDM concerts and was inspired by Beeple and the graphics he designed for EDM artist, Zedd. Under the guidance of my director, Meredith Drum, and with help from my second committee member, Muriel Magenta, I was able to use Audacity to edit the music, Autodesk Maya 2016 to model and animate the animation, the HIDA render farm to render the frames using Maya Software and mentalray, Adobe After Effects CC to assemble and edit the animation, and Adobe Media Encoder to export the end product. The final animation included 20,855 individual frames, totaling to 14 minutes and 28 seconds in length. The project takes the viewer through seven worlds to express the idea of feeling isolated in your home, exploring the world, and then returning home with a new perspective. Each world evokes a different emotion through the interaction of its visual and audio design to allow the viewer to experience the intended storyline without explicit characters or plot detail. Due to the importance of maintaining plot flow, I utilized beautiful, yet difficult, design elements including glass textures, ocean shaders, and paint effects to create drastically different world designs specific to each song. These songs were chosen from a variety of EDM artists and edited to flow together seamlessly through each world and evoke a different emotion. Throughout the thesis process, I gained more skills in animation and editing and greatly improved my ability to use each application. While there is plenty of room to grow, I have improved exponentially as an artist from when I began this project to the moment I completed it.
ContributorsMallik, Ajanta Angie (Author) / Drum, Meredith (Thesis director) / Magenta, Muriel (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
DescriptionThrough artist book, printed photographs, paintings, writing, and web design, August Tang deconstructed their identity as a nonbinary person. Both educational and expressive, the creative project was a manifestation of a coming out journey, affirmation of gender identity, and experiences relating to gender with friends, family, and strangers.
ContributorsTang, August B (Author) / Button, Melissa (Thesis director) / Sanft, Alfred (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
SYSTEMA NERVOSUM is an interdisciplinary personal narrative on design, music, and identity. The project is composed of eleven parts, each addressing the themes of interconnection, the power of the human body, internal and external misunderstanding, and fear. The goal of SYSTEMA NERVOSUM was to create a body of work that reflected the very essence of creative and interdisciplinary thinking.
ContributorsSmall, Elizabeth Quincy (Author) / Bates, Denise (Thesis director) / Ach, Jada (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
This creative is established in the field of business, with an emphasis on fashion, art, and<br/>the creation of a body-positive exhibit. Using qualitative research from experts on fashion<br/>curation, we seek to create, curate and pitch a fashion exhibit. Using the information we gather<br/>from experts from two different museums, we will create a new age exhibit that pushes the<br/>boundaries of fashion as art through our theme of body positivity.
ContributorsGulinson, Chloe (Co-author) / Palmer, Jacqueline (Co-author) / Gray, Nancy (Thesis director) / Leslie, Bush (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Crazed Oasis strives to create a community-based, sustainable clothing brand that looks and feels great, while creating a community that is safe and welcoming to individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to educate all about the world to provide an understanding and appreciation for all individuals and cultures. The current climate of the world is a crazy one, and the clothing industry is highly unsustainable. Crazed Oasis is creating the solution by building a community to create new friendships and connections while focusing on the important topics of the world, such as sustainability, mental health, human rights, arts and passions, and more. Through our clothing products, we will educate and create a culture of understanding through art.
ContributorsEllis, Connor (Author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lawson, Brennan (Committee member) / Plunkett, Nina (Committee member) / Higashino, Kat (Committee member) / Bauer, Nolan (Committee member) / Stephan, Roman (Committee member) / Adarsh, Sid (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
“Tell It to the Frogs: Fukushima’s nuclear disaster and its impact on the Japanese Tree Frog” is a representation of the work from Giraudeau et. al’s “Carotenoid distribution in wild Japanese tree frogs (Hyla japonica) exposed to ionizing radiation in Fukushima.” This paper looked to see if carotenoid levels in the tree frog’s vocal sac, liver, and blood were affected by radiation from Fukushima’s power plant explosion. Without carotenoids, the pigment that gives the frogs their orange color on their necks, their courtship practices would be impacted and would not be as able to show off their fitness to potential mates. The artwork inspired by this research displayed the tree frog’s degradation over time due to radiation, starting with normal life and ending with their death and open on the table. The sculptures also pinpoint where the carotenoids were being measured with a brilliant orange glaze. Through ceramic hand building, the artist created larger than life frogs in hopes to elicit curiosity about them and their plight. While the paper did not conclude any changes in the frog’s physiology after 18 months of exposure, there are still questions that are left unanswered. Why did these frogs not have any reaction? Could there be any effects after more time has passed? Is radiation leakage as big of a problem as previously thought? The only way to get the answers to these questions is to be aware of these amphibians, the circumstances that led them to be involved, and continued research on them and radiation.
ContributorsWesterfield, Savannah (Author) / Beiner, Susan (Thesis director) / McGraw, Kevin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Experimentation with glaze materials resulted in 2 functional and interesting base glazes with multiple color variants each. A semi-matte stoneware glaze was created, however after being unable to replicate a specific coloring without drying out the glaze, it was discovered that using this glaze to spray over specific studio glazes produced a more pleasant color effect than the glaze by itself. A glossy clear glaze was created. The glaze crazed minimally, and color variants were created with the rare earth metals erbium, praseodymium, and neodymium, resulting in celadon-like glazes that were pink, green, and bluish purple respectively. Finally, A semi-matte stoneware glaze with high spodumene content was created with two specific color variations
ContributorsVilen, Zachary Kwochka (Author) / Beiner, Susan (Thesis director) / Steimle, Timothy (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05