Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2005-6: Word and Image
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Publication Envisioning Cultural Visions: Visual Arts in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot(2006-04-01) Catalano, JanineIn studying modern art and poetry for the past several years, I have become interested in how these two categories are defined and conceptualized. Too often the visual and literary arts are envisioned as decidedly separate spheres; but, particularly in the art of the twentieth century, these lines begin to blur. As critic Roger Shattuck describes, "To a greater extent than at any time since the Renaissance, painters, writers, and musicians lived and worked together and tried their hands at each other's arts in an atmosphere of perpetual collaboration." The great minds from both comers cross their genre boundaries for intellectual discussion and exchange of ideas and theories. Textual aesthetics become a part of art and artistic practices influence writers as these modernists collectively strive to follow Ezra Pound's credo, "Make it new."Publication Artist Statement(2006-04-01) Flake, RebekahI am a senior majoring in German and minoring in art history, and am especially interested in German visual culture in the twentieth century. My thesis topic is the role that publicity and fame play in the preservation of architecture, specifically in German mass-housing developments built in the 1920s and early 1930s by progressive architects working in the Modernist style. In my opinion, what was written about them over the years influenced their reputation and has led historians to hold the physical structures in high regard. The significance of the architecture stems in part from the fact that: a) the architects themselves were eager to publicize and promote their theories; b) there were many exhibitions and therefore catalogs, press releases, and critiques drafted of avant-garde designs and applied arts; and c) these buildings fulfilled a much-discussed and often-politicized need for urban housing in post-World War I Germany.Publication CartoGraphica(2006-04-01) Krueger, TaraThe best way to begin a discussion about maps is to define what a map is and what it does. A map is a way of cataloging information with a relational property; it is an interpretive explanation of spatial relationships. It need not represent Earth, and it need not even be real. Some of the most interesting maps chart places that don’t even exist. There are as many kinds of maps as there are things to show on a map. They can show politics, geography, topography, statistics, regions, cultures, places, transportation, demographics, history, and more. The one common feature of them all is that they show, in some way, space; whatever else they do or do not display, they show something that is physically related to other things.Publication Made in the USA: Rewriting Images of the Asian Fetish(2006-04-01) Chang, Maggie"My voice reveals the hidden power hidden within." A woman of Asian descent appears to be an entertainer, possibly a courtesan or geisha, wearing a pseudo-Chinese dress and hairdo; her hands are curled in front of her in an "Oriental-like" gesture as if she is dancing, and her head is tilted coyly with a cryptic smile (Figure 1). She gives a sexually suggestive expression and gaze but hesitates to speak. Another version with the same woman reads, "In silence I see. With WISDOM, I speak." These advertisements make up one part of the "Find Your Voice" Virginia Slims campaign. The campaign consisted of four different ads, each featuring women of distinctive races with stereotyping text.Publication The Curatorial Voice in Contemporary America(2006-04-01) Bubbers, LisaOriginally I looked to curatorial practices to investigate the theme of 'word and image' due to the interplay of words such as wall texts, brochures, catalogues and promotional cards in conjunction with the art as image. When I approached the research I began to see these various texts as a framing device, or filter, for the work. My research into curatorial practices in contemporary art examines the field's historical growth and present condition. If in this talk the explicit relationship between words and images seems lost, it is not lost, but rather embedded into the intrinsic nature of exhibition. A viewer utilizes texts to narrate an exhibit, those texts are manifestations of the curator's thoughts and intentions for the show, and these intentions are formed by a theoretical foundation. My interests grew from the microcosm of text and image relations to the larger history and condition of exhibiting contemporary art and the curatorial profession. A curator can speak personally about his or her own views of how to set up a show, but when exhibiting art is considered generally and historically, many issues come into play. Most important are issues of the art market, the institutional system, the power of the curatorial voice, and the capacity the exhibition has to echo a cultural current.Publication The Contemporary Haggadot: Interrelations between Text and Iconography(2006-04-01) Breger, SarahIn discussing Passover the Bible states that "in every generation a person is obligated to view himself as if he too had journeyed out of Egypt." Jews have taken up this call, and on the night of April 12th Jews from all over the world will sit down to retell and relive the Exodus at a Seder - the festive meal of Passover. Indeed eighty-three percent of American Jews report that they attend Seders as opposed to the fifty-three percent who report to belong to a Synagogue.Publication A Way of Seeing What Can Be Looked At: Visual Perception in Avant-Garde Cinema(2006-04-01) Alberto, CristinaThe great American filmmaker D.W. Griffith once said, "The task I am trying to achieve is above all to make you see." The kind of seeing that Griffith is referring to presumably relates to a cognitive understanding of the world, a process of communication whereby personal beliefs effect change on those of other people; but implied in this statement is also a sense that the best way to make people 'see' or understand, is through the technology of the motion picture camera.Publication Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora’s Bulgarian Madonna: Creed, Criticism, Propaganda(2006-04-01) Assenova, ValentinaOf life-size height, with crossed hands on her lap, she watched me calmly and intensely, aware of her beauty and immeasurable power. Behind her, in bright hues glowed flowers and fruit. The woman appeared as if she herself was born of their gleam, but at the same time she does not merge with it, her image does not get lost in its light. She distinguishes herself; she stands apart, filling the canvas with the lightness of the nuanced tones of her festive dress, with the piercing whiteness of her face and hands. Unsurpassed in her beauty, the Mona Lisa, and also magnificent like her in dignity, the Bulgarian Madonna.Publication Redux: Graphic Novels Detached from Words(2006-04-01) Yang, ConnieI wanted to create a sequence of events through visual narration, namely pages out of a graphic novel. However, I wanted it to have personal meaning to every person who explored this project, to make it their own narration and not any one else’s. To that extent, I made all the pages interchangeable. The twelve layouts each bear unique designs using imagery that is generic enough to have appeared in many graphic novels. Trees, cityscapes, feathers, and motion lines are motifs that are used time and time again. They ground the storytelling in a stage, and the lines and angles of the panels help the story flow from one to the next.Publication Reducing the Round Table: Visual and Textual Narrative Redaction in Medieval Arthurian Romance(2006-04-01) Passaro, Jonathan NIn a powerful image in an illustrated manuscript of La Mort le Roi Artu, King Arthur sits atop the Wheel of Fortune as three other figures cling to the wheel below him. The image -like the ominous dream that inspires it - perfectly captures King Arthur's liminal status as he transitions from a powerful monarch leading a strong coalition of knights to an enfeebled leader attempting to hold together an increasingly fragmented alliance. The image is evocative of the Round Table itself, where Arthur would be seated at the center with his knights spread out on either side of him in the ultimate embodiment of egalitarian rule. In this context, however, the Round Table is pitched on its side to become the Wheel of Fortune, with men desperately grasping the sides rather than stoically seated around it. King Arthur, perched atop the wheel, occupies a precarious position, waiting to be pitched from the wheel at the whim of the female representation of Fortune, who stands at the center of the image.