Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'ART / Techniques / Life Drawing'

The creative project was a series of three, mixed media drawings created on multiple layers of transparent plexiglass. The artist designed a frame in which three sheets of plexiglass were contained. This unit portrayed a three-dimensional drawing. The artist then experimented with a variety of mediums to determine which material was best suited for successful rendering on plexiglass. The artist then did a number of sketches to determine what images would best convey the idea of humankind's close connection to the land, air, and sea.The primary accomplishments achieved in this project were the knowledge gained in the experimentation of materials and the ability to create a composition on multiple layers of plexiglass. Through these successes, the artist was able to effectively create a series of three three-dimensional mixed media drawings.
Department of Art

This thesis is a practice-based inquiry into contemporary Reportage Drawing in the UK. The role of the practice in present day, its various forms and purposes and how digital media has influenced both the working process and reception of such work, is discussed through comparisons of visual work and theoretical engagement from practitioners. Verbal and visual contributions from current artists about their methods, means and motivations are included to present a clear picture of the varied forms of documentary drawing. This research is structured around questions and issues raised about the process of Reportage Drawing from original reportage drawings made observing everyday life in Kisumu, western Kenya. It begins with a brief historical overview of Reportage Drawing and develops with chapters visually engaging with the drawings from Kisumu and other artist's contirbutions. The main body of drawings is designed to be viewed as a visual display as specific groups of drawings create a dialogue about the various issues raised. At the heart of this research is the investigation into observational drawing, the presence of the reportage artist as a documenter of the every day and the question of the importance of this specific field of art. Attention is paid to the practical aspects of making work as this often influences artists' choice in engaging in this form of drawing while reasons behind the commissioning of reportage artists are also elaborated on. This all contributes to the objectives of this thesis, which is to create the start of a database of contemporary reportage artists, present a clear picture of the nature of reportage drawing in' present day, including its limitations, and reflect on my own work in the light of others' while championing this practice.

Studies on Brazilians living in Britain show that, along with loneliness, unemployment and cost of living, the lack of proficiency in English is a key problem. However, there is little qualitative information about how the host language affects their daily lives. This interdisciplinary practice-based research asks how an art practice activated by experiences of displacement and dislocation in language can become a place of enunciation for decolonial selves. To this end, this research includes not only individual practices, but also collective activities carried out with a group of Brazilian women living in London, as a research focus. The endeavour to deal with English language has engendered writing processes in my visual work, which became a place for experimenting bilingual and fragmentary voices against the initial muteness in which I found myself on arrival in London. Using photography, printmaking, drawing, postcards, and artist’s books I have explored life-writing genres of diary, language memoir, and correspondence to raise an immigrant consciousness, explore accented voices and create practices for writing life individually and collectively. Assembling words and turning their meanings became strategies for expanding limited vocabularies. Once an impassable obstacle, the host language was transformed into a territory for exploring ways to know stories about language and write life narratives through art practice. This research is informed by humanist and feminist geographical approaches to space and place, postcolonial life writing, border thinking and a context of practice ranging from transnational art, accented cinema, visual poetry, conceptual art, and socially engaged art. It provides insights about English language in the lives of Brazilian women in London and offers a view on a practice in visual arts as place of enunciation for decolonial selves.

My thesis examines the event of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, which has branches in over 120 cities worldwide. Dr Sketchy's combines the format of a life drawing class with burlesque performance, creating an event that focuses on both the performance and the creation of art by the attendees. Dr Sketchy's was begun in New York in 2005 by its creator Molly Crabapple, now an internationally recognized artist and popular alternative celebrity. I focus my study on the Christchurch branch of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, founded in June 2010 by Audrey Baldwin, a performance artist and Fine Arts graduate of the University of Canterbury. In my thesis I discuss the way Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School combines and compromises between the life drawing format and the burlesque performance, despite the differences and seeming incompatibilities between these two forms. I investigate Dr Sketchy's as a contemporary cultural performance which combines and to some degree inverts established genres of performance. I give a detailed history of burlesque performance and of life drawing within art education to allow a comprehensive comparison of the two traditions, particularly the way each has conceptualized the nude female body. I argue that the combination of the two forms allows Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School to transgress the traditional boundaries of each format and introduce influences that would otherwise endanger the status of life drawing and burlesque performance within their respective contexts. I also argue that the nude within Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School transgresses the traditional conception of the nude within life drawing by using burlesque as an acceptable reference for the transgressive elements of the show. The arguments put forward in this thesis are the product of extensive participant observation, interviews and literature reviews on the relevant art and performance traditions.

Art therapy practice in palliative care offers a creative way of responding to the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of the dying individual within the principles of integrated whole person care. In this research spirituality is identified and defined through a retrospective 'critical and imaginative ethnography of the everyday'. The methodology described in chapter two focuses on the ethnographic imagination and incorporates a reflexive approach to define the meaning-making that takes place in art therapy with people who are living with a life-threatening illness. The case studies focus on the artefacts created by the terminally ill and dying person within a typical art therapy intervention. The analysis reveals a variety of meanings attributed to the artefact with a particular emphasis on the spiritual significance of the art-making process and the drawings and paintings created. In order to achieve this reference is made to developments in practical theology as a way of throwing light on how art therapy can facilitate the expression and exploration of spiritual and religious areas of need. This is important for art therapy practice as spirituality in hospice and palliative care is considered to be an important concern and an essential dimension of support. The modem hospice movement has always valued this aspect of the experience of the terminally ill patient and continues to pay attention to the meaning of dying and death and its spiritual significance. The analysis of the art-making process and the artefacts in art therapy demonstrates the profound importance of meaning-making at the end of life. This also provides evidence of the contribution that art therapy can make to palliative care. This adds to the support of the continued relevance and preservation of a psychosocial model of care that integrates the emotional, spiritual, psychological, physical and social aspects of patient care. It also raises the profile of the pastoral dimension to care of the dying by placing art therapy as an allied profession to the role of chaplaincy within health care contexts. The argument in this study is that the integrated approach cannot be assumed to be a secular stronghold that ultimately marginalises the religious and spiritual significance of cultural and social relations. Spiritual and religious meaning continually refuses to disappear and occupies a significant place within the economy of health care practice. Throughout the modem hospice movement it has been argued that the bio-medical model has to be continually challenged and critiqued in order to prevent the erosion of psychosocial aspects of care. Equally, the organisations that provide the environment of care for the terminally ill and dying person need to foster a culture of open, reflective debate and dialogue to avoid institutionalised attitudes and behaviours becoming established that can ultimately crush the human spirit. Art therapy contributes to the community of hospice and palliative care as an integral part of the complex cultural and religious dimensions of human experience at the end of life.

This exegesis is an exploration of meditative process in painting and drawing and accompanies an exhibition of paintings and large drawings called What Lies Beneath. The text contains several passages, called "meditations," which accompany the themes approached in the chapters and give insight into the thoughts and practices of the artist. The methodology involves the examination of the evidence of the work produced by selected artists, looking at the words of artists in notebooks, diaries and interviews and surveying a small number of local contemporary artists. The text opens up the possibilities of drapery and garments and of still life as paths to meditative practice in painting and drawing. The qualities that characterize meditative process/practice, derived from my observations, are categorized. Some of the strengths of these processes are revealed through the examination of the work of artists, both contemporary and historical. The work of Vermeer, Sanchez Cotan, Francisco Zurbaran and contemporary artists Anne Judell, Simon Cooper, Jude Rae, Alison Watt and Eva Hesse highlight different aspects of the meditative process in painting and drawing. The art works in the exhibition are documented and bring out the meditative processes that have contributed to their creation, including the use and meaning of the subject (drapery and the garment as a form of still life).

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study postulates that drawing functions as a valuable vehicle that facilitates reciprocity between the drafter and her life-world. This relationship of exchange can bring about transformation of the self. The study is a qualitative study that aims to establish an understanding of how drawing functions as a vehicle facilitating reciprocity between the drafter and her life-world. In order to effectively research the transformative potential of reciprocity between artist, drawing, and life-world, theoretically and practically, the study is divided into two main parts. Firstly, it constitutes a theoretical section, which forms the foundation for further exploration in the second part of the study. Secondly, the study focuses on the practical manifestation of the theories as manifest in my drawings and in selected drawings of Diane Victor, whose work primarily functions as ‘a third person perspective’ in relation to my own work. The study is rooted in a psycho-analytical framework, focusing on Self psychology and Intersubjective Psychoanalysis of personality psychologists such as Jung, Miller, Goldberg and McAdams, amongst others, as well as the writings of philosophers, art historians and drawing theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Catherine de Zegher, and Suzi Gablik. Valuable links are forged between the transformative potential of drawing, the psychological and the spiritual. Parallels are drawn between notions derived from self-psychology and theology, based on the premise that human beings constitute body (physical aspect), soul (mind and emotion) and spirit, three components that are hardly divisible and that work together in drawing, effecting the transformation of the self. I argue that a failure to acknowledge the significance of the interactivity between these facets limits and inhibits the transformative potential of the drawing process. Through interactivity between the self and her life-world through drawing, moments of ‘recognition’ and ‘knowing’ occur - concerning hidden ‘truths’ of the self, which could affect personal transformation. In this study, life-world comprises inner and outer world, a visible and invisible world. The visible world focuses on the interaction of the self with nature and culture, and the invisible world focuses on the interaction of the self with a psychic world, which includes the workings of the conscious and unconscious mind in drawing and their connection with a spiritual dimension. The spiritual aspect in drawing is researched through the notions of transformative “presence” and the “transcendent function” of drawing. The study explores the psychological and spiritual value of drawings as transformative selfobjects to address the general neglect of the spiritual. I affirm that there exists a mutually conducive potential and influence that the interplay between the spiritual and the psychological in the drawing process bring about. As a “selfobject”, a drawing attains its own ‘silent visual language’ replacing or assisting the role of the therapist, becoming pivotal in a transformative ‘interpersonal dialogue’. Lastly, Jung (Miller, 2004:4) claims that the unification of the conscious and unconscious eventually results in “a living birth that leads to a new level of being, a new situation” (Miller, 2004:4).
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die studie veronderstel dat teken funksioneer as 'n waardevolle voertuig wat wisselwerking fasiliteer tussen die tekenaar en haar omwêreld, ‘n wisselwerking wat kan lei tot transformasie van die self. Die studie is 'n kwalitatiewe studie wat daarop gemik is om 'n begrip te kweek van hoe teken funksioneer as voertuig wat wisselwerking fasiliteer tussen die self en haar omwêreld. Ten einde die transformatiewe potensiaal van sodanige wisselwerking deur middel van teken effektief te bestudeer op ʼn teoretiese asook ʼn praktiese vlak, word die studie verdeel in twee hoofdele. Eerstens bied die studie 'n teoretiese gedeelte wat die grondslag vorm vir verdere ondersoek in die tweede deel. Tweedens fokus die studie op die praktiese manifestasie en toeligting van die teorieë in my tekeninge en in geselekteerde tekeninge van Diane Victor, wie se werk hoofsaaklik funksioneer as ‘ʼn derde persoon perspektief’ in verhouding tot my eie werk. Die studie is gewortel in 'n psigo-analitiese raamwerk, met die fokus op Selfsielkunde en Intersubjektiewe Psigo-analise van persoonlikheidsielkundiges soos Jung, Miller, Goldberg en McAdams, onder andere, sowel as die geskrifte van filosowe, kunsgeskiedkundiges en tekenteoretici soos Jacques Derrida, Catherine de Zegher en Suzi Gablik. Die studie het dus ten doel om betekenisvolle bande te smee tussen die transformerende potensiaal van teken, die sielkundige asook geestelike werking wat dit teweegbring. Parallelle word getrek tussen begrippe in selfsielkunde en teologie, gebaseer op die veronderstelling dat die mens bestaan uit liggaam (fisiese aspek), siel (verstand en emosies) en gees. Hierdie onderskeie aspekte (liggaam, siel en gees), is moeilik deelbaar en werk onlosmaaklik saam in die tekenproses ten einde die transformasie van die self te bevorder en te bewerkstellig. Ek argumenteer dat indien ‘n mens versuim om die betekenis en waarde van die interaktiwiteit tussen hierdie fasette te herken, word die transformatiewe potensiaal van die tekenproses misken. Teken kan derhalwe beskou word as ʼn effektiewe voertuig wat wisselwerkende prosesse tussen die self en haar leefwêreld fasiliteer, waartydens daar oomblike van ‘erkenning’ en ‘weet’ voorkom met betrekking tot verborge ‘waarhede’ van die self wat persoonlike transformasie kan beïnvloed. In hierdie studie word daar na omwêreld verwys as 'n interne asook ʼn eksterne wêreld, 'n sigbare en onsigbare wêreld. Wisselwerking dui op die interaksie van die self met die natuur asook kultuur as die sigbare. Wisselwerking dui ook op interaksie van die self met 'n psigiese, onsigbare wêreld. Hierdie psigiese wêreld van die self omvat die bewuste en onderbewussyn deur middel van teken, asook die verband met' n geestelike dimensie. Die geestelike aspek in teken word bestudeer deur die konsepte van transformatiewe "teenwoordigheid" en die "transedentale funksie" van teken. Die studie ondersoek die sielkundige en geestelike waarde van tekeninge wat as transformatiewe ‘selfobjekte’ die potensiaal besit om die algemene verwaarlosing van die geestelike aan te spreek. Ek bevestig dat daar 'n wedersydse bevorderlike wisselwerking en invloed bestaan tussen die geestelike en die psigologiese wat deur wederkerige prosesse binne die tekenproses gefasiliteer word. As 'n ‘selfobjek’ kommunikeer tekeninge deur hul eie ‘stille visuele taal’ en toon die potentiaal om die rol van ʼn terapeut te vervang, of alternatiewelik, te ondersteun, deur middel van visuele ‘interpersoonlike dialoog’. Laastens, beweer Jung dat die eenwording van die bewuste en onbewuste eventueel kulmineer in "ʼn lewende geboorte wat lei tot 'n nuwe vlak van bestaan, 'n nuwe situasie" (Miller, 2004:4).

Exquisite is defined as carefully selected or sought out. I believe myself to be a selected soul placed in a body of circumstance. My work is self-explorative and telling of those circumstances in hopes of evoking empathy. Our bodies function and exist on many different levels. What I understand as normal for most differs vastly from what is normal for me. I aim to offer my perspective on the world, establish understanding, and blur the lines of normalcy.

This project considers the relationship between the theory and practice of art as a historical narrative of conflict and contradiction, beginning over four hundred years ago in Renaissance Italy, with the emergence of the first art academies, concluding, in the British context, with a number of battles in art education after the Coldstream report of 1960. Nicholas Pevsner’s Academies of Art Past and Present (CUP 1940) is the starting point of this research, a text which has proven of continual importance for enquiries into art education. Immediately relevant are feminist art history, (Nochlin 1973, Parker & Pollock 1983), and a number of American academics’ accounts of art education in America. (Goldstein 1996, Singerman 1999, Elkins 2001). Guided by Pevsner’s Academies, my project develops through site visits to European Art Academies, where I photograph life drawing and anatomy rooms and collect historical imagery from archives. No longer the height of art theory, the life room is the historical object of this thesis, analysed as the remains of a previous fine art system, and as a space of fantasy. Juxtaposing original material gathered on site visits with their reproduction in Pevsner’s book I offer a re-reading which considers the tradition of copying in the academy with that of the mechanisms of reproduction in modernity. My use of photography in the life room abuts one system with the other, while image maps follow each chapter using the convention of the image essay and Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas. My chapters prepare a context in which my photographs can be read as traces of a much older tradition of observation, representation and pedagogy. I consider the anatomy theatre in relation to the life room and questions of feminism, representation and the female body. I move on to the Bauhaus and the rejection of academic art and finally to of the Hornsey Sit-in of 1968 and the Coldstream Report, where the relationship of theory to practice, and to the ‘academic’ in art education is fiercely debated.

This thesis presents new theories and creative techniques for exploring ‘designing for home happiness'. Set in the context of a primarily unsustainable and unhappy world, home is understood as a facilitator of current lifestyle practices that could also support long-term happiness activities, shown to promote more sustainable behaviour. It has yet to be examined extensively from a happiness perspective and many homes lack opportunities for meaningful endeavours. Service Design, an approach that supports positive interactions, shows potential in facilitating ‘designing for home happiness' but its tools are generally employed for visualising new systems/services or issues within existing ones instead of exploring related subjectivity. Art therapy techniques, historically used for expressing felt experiences, present applicable methods for investigating such subjective moments and shaping design opportunities for home happiness but have yet to be trialled in a design research context. This thesis therefore explores how Art Therapy and Service Design can be used successfully for ‘designing for home happiness'. A first study proposes photo elicitation as a creative method to explore, with participants from UK family households, several significant home happiness needs. Subsequently, art therapy techniques are proposed in Study 2 through two bespoke Happy-Home Workshops. This gives way to the Home Happiness Theory and Designing for Home Happiness Theory, which enable designers to design for home happiness. The Designing for Home Happiness Framework emerges from these studies proposing a new design creative method delivered through a workshop with specialised design tools and accompanying process for creating home happiness designs (i.e. services, product-service-systems). Through two Main Studies the framework is tested and validated with design experts in two different contexts, Loughborough (UK) and Limerick (Ireland), confirming its suitability and transferability in ‘designing for home happiness'. Resulting concepts support collective home happiness and social innovations by facilitating appropriate social contexts for their development. Overall, this research is the first to combine art therapy techniques with service design methods, offering original theories and approaches for ‘designing for home happiness' within Service Design and for social innovation. Collectively, this research delivers new creative methods for service designers, social innovators and designers more generally to investigate and support happier experiences within and outside the home for a more sustainable future.

Advancements in virtual reality (VR) have facilitated a new drawing experience for digital artists. These have provided the experience for artists to have an embodied human-computer interaction (HCI) while drawing. This project focuses on exploring and understanding how analogue life drawing practices can be redefined in the digital realm of virtual reality. In this practice-led project, the analogue life drawing creative practice is the foundation for making immersive drawing artworks in the virtual environment. This is alongside theoretical research into aesthetic experience, embodiment, disembodiment and presence in conjunction with conducting semi-structured interviews to understand other drawing practitioner experiences with immersive drawing.

This research uses a questionnaire and a bridge drawing directive to explore the lived experience of transitioning out of a high-demand religion. Subjects include disaffiliated Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Fundamentalist Protestants who were recruited through a dedicated website via limited promotion in online communities for disaffiliates. Visual and textual responses are analyzed through qualitative coding, with additional analysis performed on the artwork using Hays and Lyons’ (1981) bridge drawing criteria. Results reveal the psychological, social, behavioral, identity, and existential effects of disaffiliation. Results also produce seven emergent themes: ambivalence; embracing uncertainty; social justice; simultaneous transitions; freedom and constraint; growth; and remaining ties. The paper then explores the subjects’ lived experiences, latent content in the artwork, and the role and value of artmaking in healing from these difficult transitions. Lastly, this paper discusses treatment considerations, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research on religious struggles and disaffiliation.

Nas páginas desta pesquisa aborda-se as características construtivas relacionadas à visualidade dos trabalhos desenvolvidos à partir de 2004 e estabelece intersecções entre arte, arquitetura e paisagem. Realizada em duas frentes, teórica e prática, a parte inicial da pesquisa destina-se a uma revisão de um modus operandi através de uma leitura crítica do contexto histórico, com especial destaque ao minimalismo. O conjunto de trabalhos visa articular a noção de lugar a partir de gestos construtivos, com a intenção de evocar formas poéticas que sugerem pontos de vista sobre uma paisagem.
The pages of this research discuss the constructive approach related to the visuality of the artworks developed since 2004 and establish intersections between art, architecture and landscape. Developed in two fronts, both theoretical and practical, the initial part of this research is meant to a review of the modus operandi through a critical reading of the historical context, specifically observing the minimalists. The selected artworks articulates the notion of place through the constructive gesture, with the intention to evoke poetic forms, suggesting certain views of a landscape.

Déployant une esthétique tournée vers la claire lisibilité des images garantissant leur performativité narrative, la ligne claire s’est naturellement constituée comme un style graphique idéel pour la bande dessinée. Mais en bâtissant un univers orienté vers la neutralisation de l’empreinte plastique de l’auteur, elle restreint singulièrement les ressources expressives de la représentation. À l’orée des années 70, de nombreux auteurs américains et français participent à redéfinir de façon radicale les canons du neuvième art et explorent le potentiel figural de l’image et du récit : l’icône et la linéarité narrative se trouvent alors perturbées par de multiples expérimentations. Elles sont placées en déséquilibre et accède à travers cette instabilité à une richesse insoupçonnée. La bande dessinée découvre l’équivoque et s’accorde à l’incertitude d’une pratique expérimentale et non plus normée. Tourmentée, l’image atteint à une puissance poétique qui étend le champ d’expression du neuvième art. Nous souhaitons observer les conditions d’émergence de ces auteurs et de production de ces œuvres qui entrent en dissidence avec l’esthétique « classique », afin d’analyser les procédés stylistiques employés pour détourner la bande dessinée des conventions de la ligne claire. Nous verrons ainsi que les diverses stratégies que nous avons relevées conduisent, selon les degrés d’intensité développés par les auteurs, à une conversion des images et des récits qui les amènent progressivement à s’éloigner de la limpidité figurative et narrative pour aller vers une confusion figurale de plus en plus affirmée
The Clear Line naturally constituted itself as an ideal graphic style for the comic strip by deploying an aesthetic turned towards the clear legibility of the images, guarantying their narrative performativity. By building a graphic universe oriented towards the neutralization of the author's plastic imprint, it strangely restricts the expressive resources of the representation. At the dawn of the 1970s, many American and French authors tried to radically redefine the canons of the ninth art and explore the figural potential of the image and narrative: the icon and the narrative linearity are then disturbed by multiple experiments. They are placed in imbalance and access through this instability to an unsuspected wealth. Comics discover this ambiguity and the uncertainty of an experimental practice no longer normed. Tormented, the image reaches a poetic power that extends the field of expression of the ninth art.We wish to observe the conditions of emergence of these dissenting authors and works parting with the "classical" aesthetic, and analyze the stylistic processes used to divert the comics from the conventions of the Clear Line. The various strategies we have identified, to the levels of intensity developed by the authors, lead to a conversion of images and narratives, gradually moving away from figurative and narrative limpidity towards a growingly assertive figural confusion

Overall, this doctoral study aimed to contribute to the existing knowledge and clinical practice regarding male infertility, especially in relation to the potential sources and clinical impact of sperm apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the context of assisted reproductive technology (ART). This thesis encompasses three independent studies, each of which addresses a single aim related to different aspects of male infertility and ART practices. Study 1 examined the relationship between sperm apoptosis and ROS levels and ART outcomes. On the day of oocyte retrieval, the levels of sperm apoptosis (measured using Annexin V staining) and intracellular ROS (measured using dihydroethidium staining) were measured in neat and processed semen samples from a total of 170 male patients whose partners were undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment cycles. In general, higher levels of apoptosis and ROS were associated with lower sperm motility, sperm count and advanced paternal age. No correlation was observed between sperm apoptosis and fertilisation rate, blastulation rate, day 5 embryo quality (D5EQ) and clinical pregnancy. Similarly, there was no correlation between sperm ROS levels and fertilisation rate and clinical pregnancy. However, higher levels of ROS might be associated with poorer early stages of embryonic development, as indicated by blastulation rate and D5EQ. Together, the findings suggest that although sperm apoptosis and ROS had an adverse effect on sperm parameters, the effect on clinical outcomes was minimal. Study 2 compared the efficacy of three sperm preparation methods, namely density gradient centrifugation (DGC), the swim-up method and SeaforiaTM, in reducing the levels of sperm apoptosis and ROS. The measurement of sperm apoptosis and ROS levels were performed on a total of 17 pooled semen samples before and after sperm preparation. The main findings suggest that all three methods effectively reduced sperm apoptosis levels in the neat samples. However, only swim-up and SeaforiaTM were effective in reducing the ROS levels. Compared with DGC and swim-up, SeaforiaTM also produced samples with a higher total yield. Study 3 investigated the effects of different time intervals during ART sperm preparation on clinical outcomes. Three time intervals including pre-wash interval (time between ejaculation and sperm preparation), post-wash interval (time between sperm preparation and insemination/sperm injection) and total interval (time between ejaculation and insemination/sperm injection) were calculated and retrospectively analysed from a total of 8,079 IVF/ICSI cycles. The results showed that prolonged pre- and post-wash and total intervals had an adverse effect on sperm motility and clinical outcomes including fertilisation rate and pregnancy outcomes. Intracellular ROS production during prolonged incubation was considered to be the most likely facilitator of this observed effect. In summary, this thesis demonstrates that although their effect on ART outcomes were at low levels, higher levels of sperm apoptosis and ROS were associated with poorer sperm parameters, and suggestive of, a lower chance of natural conception. The cumulative findings of this thesis are indicative of the central role of ROS levels in sperm physiological functions and suggest that minimising intracellular ROS production through sperm preparation techniques and time optimisation may be beneficial to improving ART outcomes

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Esta dissertação relata uma experiência em arte e educação desenvolvida em uma escola particular em São Paulo, entre os anos de 1984 a 2016. São abordadas, neste relato, quatro práticas: o ateliê livre, o ensino sistemático de desenho, as técnicas e as formas de ver e os rituais de convivência. A análise e a reflexão sobre as práticas desenvolveu-se no caminhar do relato, sob o ponto de vista e o apoio de diversos autores, entre eles, Cecília Salles, Jorge Larrosa, Paulo Freire, Jacques Rancière, Michel de Certeau, Ítalo Calvino, Carl Jung, Thierry de Duve e Celso Favaretto, além de depoimentos dos professores e falas dos alunos. O diálogo entre tantos vetores faz saltar à vista a importância do ensino da arte nas escolas em sua complexidade, em sua vitalidade e em sua contribuição para um crescimento integrado do aluno, com espaço para ser e estar no grupo. A pesquisa analisa documentos produzidos pelas equipes de arte e traz imagens ilustrativas desse processo.
The present dissertation describes an experience on art and education carried out in a private school in São Paulo, between 1984 and 2016. In such report, four practices are broached: free workshop, systematic drawing instruction, different techniques and ways of seeing, and rituals of coexistence. Analysis and reflections on such practices were developed during the course of the report, under the point of view and support of several authors, among them, Cecília Salles, Jorge Larrosa, Paulo Freire, Jacques Rancière, Michel de Certeau, Ítalo Calvino, Carl Jung, Thierry de Duve, Celso Favaretto, in addition to teacher testimonials and student talks. The dialog between so many vectors stresses the importance of art teaching in schools in all its complexity, vitality and in its contribution to an integrated growth of the student, with space to be and relate to the group. The survey analyses documents produced by art teams and presents illustrative images of such a process.

Prenant appui sur une analyse des œuvres artistiques et littéraires dont Utopie de T. MORE, le Samurai Virtuel de N. STEPHENSON ainsi que Le Corps utopique, suivi de Les hétérotopies de Michel FOUCAULT, la thèse examine trois hypothèses de l’espace territorialisé par les artistes : Le Topos, l’Hétérotopos et l’Utopos. Trois genres d’espaces ont été étudiés : Les MUVEs (Second Life et les Open Sims), les Machinimas et le cinéma (le film Avatar de J. CAMERON).Ces nouveaux espaces artistiques favorisent une communication entre les territoires réels et concrets avec ceux virtuels et actuels se trouvant dans le cyberespace comme le mentionne P. LEVY. Selon lui, les créations et les textes de Fred FOREST ont mis en évidence la notion du cyberterritoire.Ces territoires numériques en émergence sont hétérotopiques et considérés comme des espaces autres, hétérogènes, de transition et de contestation selon FOUCAULT.L’approche des enjeux utopiques de ces espaces numériques et fictionnels instaurés dans le film Avatar de James CAMERON et les Machinimas nous conduit à être attentifs à la problématique du corps envisagé comme avatar, aux espaces virtuels et à la manière dont les artistes appréhendent des îles de Second Life. Il s’agit de dégager les codes des mondes virtuels et de comprendre les enjeux utopiques des espaces virtuels conçus comme un territoire virtuel imaginaire.La thèse analyse l’espace internet, en tant que topos hypermatériel et virtuel, dont les programmes et les interfaces peuvent simuler le réel, le dépasser tout en nous faisant entrer dans un monde rêvé ou bien utopique
According to an analysis of artistic works and literature, among which are Utopia of T.MORE, Snow Crash of N. STEPHENSON and The utopian body followed by heterotopias of Michel FOUCAULT, the present thesis examines three hypotheses of the space territorialized by artists : the Topos, the Heterotops and the Utopos. Three types of space were studied: the MUVEs (Second Life and the Open Sims), the Machinimas and the cinema (the film Avatar by J. CAMERON).These new artistic spaces support a communication between the real and concrete territories and the virtual and actual ones which are found in the cyberspace as mentioned by P. LEVY. According to him, the creations and texts of Fred FOREST brought out the notion of cyberterritory. These digital and emerging territories are heterotopic and are considered as different spaces, heterogeneous, transitional and of contestation, according to FOUCAULT. The approach of utopic challenges relative to these digital and fictional spaces, which are found in James CAMERON’s film Avatar and the Machinimas, compels us to be attentive to the question of the body considered as avatar, to the virtual spaces and to the manner with which the artists apprehend the Second Life isles. This aims at extricating the codes of the virtual worlds and understanding the utopic challenges of the virtual spaces which are conceived as an imaginary virtual territory. The thesis analyzes the space in the internet, as an hypermaterial and virtual topos of which the programs and the interfaces can simulate the real, go past everything, leading us to a world of dreams or to a rather utopic world

Master of Visual Arts
This Dissertation explores the metaphor of Ariadne’s thread in terms of interconnection, when an element from the everyday is used as a locus linking broader concepts of time and space. Such experiences and associations are reflected in the work of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Lucio Fontana, Richard Tuttle, Mona Hatoum, Simone Mangos, Anya Gallaccio and Yoshihiro Suda. In relation to my own work, the metaphor of interconnecting thread allows a sense of freedom and journey of discovery. My studio and related research are closely aligned in developing my understanding of interconnection, through my studio process of making and continuing experiences of looking at and interpreting others artists’ work.

Towards a peripatetic practice: negotiating journey through painting investigates painting as a way of comprehending lived experience of travel. The project develops from curiosity about journeys and their potential for bringing the artist into encounters with the world, and proximate to its issues and concerns. Aims of the project focused on peripatetic practice as a means of redirecting a personal experience of rootlessness towards connecting with others, and considering and communicating the complexity of cross-cultural experience through painting. Objectives as such were to investigate through practice the function and form of peripatetic painting, and to document this through film and writing. The study acknowledges travel as an ancient way of knowing the world and takes inspiration from the paradigm of the nomadic storyteller as exemplified in the Bengali tradition of Patuya Sangit (scroll performance). With a sense of the capacity for painting to provide spaces of connection and empathy, the study draws on the writing of John Berger and Suzi Gablik, exploring a confluence of ideas about the evolving social role of the artist. Key influences are historic and contemporary peripatetic creative practices, which include the writer Freya Stark, the colonial painter William Simpson, and the artists Phil Smith and John Wolseley. The project also incorporates methodological approaches which borrow from anthropology, situating the artist as observer, participant, and ultimately, agent. Practice in this context is immersive, and takes on social, interactive dimensions for which making paintings becomes a means of knowing and questioning the nature of cross-cultural experience. Explorations took the form of increasingly immersive journeys in Australia, India and Pakistan and a series of paintings utilising extended scroll formats with additional outcomes of documentary films. As the key research spaces for practice-led research, the scroll paintings employ pencil, collage, watercolour and oil, and a metaphoric fusion of styles and techniques of painting and drawing, notably Persian miniature and life portraiture as a means of accounting for and sharing the abiding experiences and encounters yielded through travel.

Multi functional health monitoring wearable devices are quite prominent these days. Usually these devices are battery-operated and consequently are limited by their battery life (from few hours to a few weeks depending on the application). Of late, it was realized that these devices, which are currently being operated at fixed voltage and frequency, are capable of operating at multiple voltages and frequencies. By switching these voltages and frequencies to lower values based upon power requirements, these devices can achieve tremendous benefits in the form of energy savings. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques have proven to be handy in this situation for an efficient trade-off between energy and timely behavior. Within imec, wearable devices make use of the indigenously developed MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). This system is optimized for efficient and accurate collection, processing, and transfer of data from multiple (health) sensors. MUSEIC v2 has limited means in controlling the voltage and frequency dynamically. In this thesis we explore how traditional DVFS techniques can be applied to the MUSEIC v2. Experiments were conducted to find out the optimum power modes to efficiently operate and also to scale up-down the supply voltage and frequency. Considering the overhead caused when switching voltage and frequency, transition analysis was also done. Real-time and non real-time benchmarks were implemented based on these techniques and their performance results were obtained and analyzed. In this process, several state of the art scheduling algorithms and scaling techniques were reviewed in identifying a suitable technique. Using our proposed scaling technique implementation, we have achieved 86.95% power reduction in average, in contrast to the conventional way of the MUSEIC v2 chip’s processor operating at a fixed voltage and frequency. Techniques that include light sleep and deep sleep mode were also studied and implemented, which tested the system’s capability in accommodating Dynamic Power Management (DPM) techniques that can achieve greater benefits. A novel approach for implementing the deep sleep mechanism was also proposed and found that it can obtain up to 71.54% power savings, when compared to a traditional way of executing deep sleep mode.
Nuförtiden så har multifunktionella bärbara hälsoenheter fått en betydande roll. Dessa enheter drivs vanligtvis av batterier och är därför begränsade av batteritiden (från ett par timmar till ett par veckor beroende på tillämpningen). På senaste tiden har det framkommit att dessa enheter som används vid en fast spänning och frekvens kan användas vid flera spänningar och frekvenser. Genom att byta till lägre spänning och frekvens på grund av effektbehov så kan enheterna få enorma fördelar när det kommer till energibesparing. Dynamisk skalning av spänning och frekvens-tekniker (såkallad Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, DVFS) har visat sig vara användbara i detta sammanhang för en effektiv avvägning mellan energi och beteende. Hos Imec så använder sig bärbara enheter av den internt utvecklade MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). Systemet är optimerat för effektiv och korrekt insamling, bearbetning och överföring av data från flera (hälso) sensorer. MUSEIC v2 har begränsad möjlighet att styra spänningen och frekvensen dynamiskt. I detta examensarbete undersöker vi hur traditionella DVFS-tekniker kan appliceras på MUSEIC v2. Experiment utfördes för att ta reda på de optimala effektlägena och för att effektivt kunna styra och även skala upp matningsspänningen och frekvensen. Eftersom att ”overhead” skapades vid växling av spänning och frekvens gjordes också en övergångsanalys. Realtidsoch icke-realtidskalkyler genomfördes baserat på dessa tekniker och resultaten sammanställdes och analyserades. I denna process granskades flera toppmoderna schemaläggningsalgoritmer och skalningstekniker för att hitta en lämplig teknik. Genom att använda vår föreslagna skalningsteknikimplementering har vi uppnått 86,95% effektreduktion i jämförelse med det konventionella sättet att MUSEIC v2-chipets processor arbetar med en fast spänning och frekvens. Tekniker som inkluderar lätt sömn och djupt sömnläge studerades och implementerades, vilket testade systemets förmåga att tillgodose DPM-tekniker (Dynamic Power Management) som kan uppnå ännu större fördelar. En ny metod för att genomföra den djupa sömnmekanismen föreslogs också och enligt erhållna resultat så kan den ge upp till 71,54% lägre energiförbrukning jämfört med det traditionella sättet att implementera djupt sömnläge.

The topic of my diploma thesis is drawing; it follows from the title ? Utilization of Unusual Drawing Techniques in Art at Elementary School. There are two parts in my diploma thesis? the theoretical one and the practical one. The first chapter introduces the phenomenon of drawing ? it is about drawing, its principles and colours. The second chapter is about Art at school - teacher?s duties, children?s personalities and about Art. At the end of theoretical part there is the third chapter about history of drawing. We can see the differences between historical and current styles of drawing in pictures at the end of the diploma thesis. The practical part is focused methodologically and it shows several techniques which can be inspiration for teachers at elementary school. Several photos of children?s drawings included as attachment to my diploma theses.

This master thesis is composed of two sections, a theoretical and a practical one. The first chapter of theoretical part is focused on medieval European art with emphasis on a medieval artist and a wall painting. Next chapter describes ascetic life through religious order and their significant personalities. This part is primarily focused on a life of saint Augustin. The third chapter is about a project of Department of art which is focused on a creation of haptic models for sightless people and it describes its outputs. The practical part introduces a creation of haptic model according to a wall drawing of saint Augustin. This drawing is placed in cloister of a former Dominican monastery in České Budějovice. It represents a final conception of unordinary haptic model which is created in an embossed linear drawing.