Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fences in art'

This project attempts to tie together different threads of my experience. It begins with the memory of looking through the garden fence and hedge of my childhood and considers the simultaneously separate and enmeshed lives of my immediate family and those outside of it. In this project I have engaged with the garden as a point of connection, a means by which to consider the possibility of more Edenic, sustainable futures rooted in concepts of care. An investigation into care, through my making, has been central to my research. Under the harsh structures of apartheid, the natural world carried on in spite of the social and environmental restrictions implemented by the apartheid government. I am interested primarily in human experiences of care, belonging and relationship against the backdrop of migrancy, the displacement of discarded people to infertile land, and the loss of indigenous cultures and natural areas. My intention in this work is for the viewer to be reminded of the unending cycles of nature - seasons, joy, nurturance and recurrence - in their silent yet peripatetic way. In this turning towards nature there is a recognition of the spiritual essence of the world as separate and distinct from humankind's inhumanity to each other. In a contemporary context, the prevalence of people from across Africa displaced into South Africa demands a closer consideration of human connections to the land, as does the recent crisis of Syrian migrants in Europe and the ensuing ethnic xenophobia. At present there are 60 million people displaced due to war, religious tension, politics and race. However, there is hope in the care provided by non-governmental organisations, the United Nations, governments and grassroots initiatives; people who want to help those with a bag and a child on their back.

As a first-generation Georgian to be born the year after Soviet Union collapsed, I carry the weight of the uncertainty and the shared memory of the years before my birth that is engraved in the minds of the people around me. Through the years of chaos that had to come later, I always thought that me and my country grew up and matured together, as the peers of same age. Transition from a strictly Atheistic society into predominantly fundamental Orthodox Christian nation has been the process that I witnessed while growing up. Being raised by an Orthodox iconographer father, working on frescoes and icons have left the permanent mark on my identity as an artist. My work, through the range of media, deals with this clash of radical ideologies, while drawing from Orthodox iconography and compositions, I transport the images into a neutral, sterile state where they are re-examined and re-evaluated. Even though my work deals with social issues in Georgia, I see most of it as an autobiographical narrative that addresses the local space that I come from.

I pull from what I see in my urban surroundings. There is always a sense of dread fused with optimism that prevails. Is it beautiful? Fragments of low-riders and tricked-out cars become symbols of desire and the glowing red lens of a stop light becomes a Cyclops poised to defend his garden. Candy-coated, blooming, dripping and seductively slick confronts you with the obvious warning: STOP! You could be next… …The grass really is greener on The Other Side of the Fence. At least until winter comes.

Living the vast majority of my life in an area that celebrates diversity but thrives because of illegal cross-border activities (undocumented workers, drug imports) at times the distance between the United States and Mexico is in fact as thin as the width of a fence. Though it is typical for a filmmaker to hope to present a unique take on a subject, given how I have seen the topics of immigration and the perspective of the purpose of homeland security portray, I am confident that there is an opportunity to show these issues in a more personal, less aggressive light with the use of first person accounts instead of a dependence on the most violent aspects of these topics. The main subject will give character to this agency by blurring the lines of his life as an agent and as a citizen.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008.
Thesis Advisor(s): Lawson, Letitia. "December 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 30, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-42). Also available in print.

Ocupar as Fendas: Intervenções na cidade com uma Bicicleta Visual é composto por uma investigação-ação na cidade de São Paulo, na qual três intervenções urbanas foram realizadas: Ruínas Transitórias, Contra-Vigilância e Metro Quadrado. Para executar as ações foi desenvolvida a Bicicleta Visual, um veículo elétrico equipado com projetor de vídeo e um computador. A Bicicleta Visual atua como um dispositivo de ativação do espaço, ao projetar imagens em movimento sobre a arquitetura. As imagens projetadas e o modo como são feitas configuram uma intervenção urbana. As intervenções urbanas instauram desvios, rupturas e novas tensões, explicitando as contradições da cidade - distensões perceptivas, dissensos, que gestam a possibilidade de reflexão sobre a partilha do sensível. Essas ações propõem ao complexo tecido do espaço público novas experiências e invenções, anunciando outras formas de convivência. Nesse tipo de trabalho, que pretende intervir na realidade, prioriza-se, enquanto metodologia, o processo, os meios, a criação de formas que permitam agir e pensar simultaneamente. Esse tipo de pesquisa, transformadora do real, é denominada investigação-ação. Ocupar as Fendas é um trabalho composto de três procedimentos fundamentais: deslocar, projetar e intervir. Ruínas Transitórias investiga a transitoriedade dos espaços vazios gerados pelo processo de gentrificação e as apropriações formais e informais dos mesmos. Contra-Vigilância interage com a esfera da vigilância e da segurança privada nos enclaves fortificados da metrópole paulistana. Metro Quadrado verifica a relação entre o valor do metro quadrado e os tipos de uso do espaço urbano. Com a finalidade de enfatizar o processo de construção da intervenção urbana - e o que nela é mais potente, subversivo e transformador -, esse trabalho cria quatro vozes textuais que dialogam com as ações, deflagrando a experiência de investigar-agir.
Occupying the Gaps: Interventions in the city with a Visual Bicycle is formed by an investigation-action in the city of São Paulo, where three urban interventions were made: Transitory Ruins, Counterwatch, and Square Meter. The Visual Bicycle, an electrical vehicle equipped with a video projector and a computer, was developed to implement these actions. It serves as a space activation device by projecting moving images on the architecture. Those projected images and the way they are made convey an urban intervention. Urban interventions create digressions, ruptures, and new tensions, exposing the city\'s contradictions - perceptive distensions, dissensuses, begetting the possibility of reflection about the distribution of the sensible. Those actions offer new experiences and inventions to the complex fabric of public space, announcing different forms of socialization. In this sort of work, which aims at intervening in our reality, the methodological priority is the process, the means, the conception of ways to allow acting and thinking simultaneously. This kind of reality-transforming research is called investigation-action. Occupying the Gaps is a work comprising three basic procedures: displacing, projecting, and intervening. Transitory Ruins investigates the transience of empty spaces generated by the process of gentrification, as well as both the formal and informal appropriations of those spaces. Counterwatch interacts with the world of watchmen and private security in the fortified enclaves of the metropolis. Square Meter notes the relation between the value of a square meter and the ways urban space is used. With the goal of emphasizing the process of building an urban intervention - and its most potent, subversive, and transformative aspects -, this work creates four textual voices that converse with the actions, prompting the experience of investigating-acting.

Dans l'art des jardins japonais, les clôtures, les limites, les seuils et les transitions semblent jouer un rôle tout à fait particulier. Focalisé sur la ville de Kyoto, ce travail de recherche propose, sous la forme d’une monographie historique, une analyse systématique de l'évolution des limites des jardins d'agrément, depuis la fondation de la ville en 794, jusqu'à l'époque Meiji (1868-1912), ère de modernisation et d'industrialisation du pays. Se plaçant dans le cadre de la mésologie (l’étude des milieux telle qu’elle a été définie par Augustin Berque), cette recherche resitue ces éléments de jardin dans un contexte culturel large - historique, sociétal, environnemental, symbolique… - afin de mettre en lumière les processus complexes qui donnent forme à leurs morphologies. Les premières clôtures de Kyoto – les épais murs de pisé entourant les quartiers (chō) -, sont un héritage direct de l’urbanisme de la Chine des Tang. On assistera, au fil des siècles, à une diversification, mais aussi à une japonisation des formes, avec des dispositifs s’éloignant progressivement de cette matrice chinoise des origines. Cela se se traduit par l’introduction de nouveaux matériaux (souvent de nature organique - bambou, bois, haies vives…), par une tendance à la complexification des planimétries, mais aussi par des mises en forme de l’espace plus indirectes, procédant souvent par stratifications successives, par effets de détours, de répartition de la fonction de séparation sur une pluralité d’éléments fonctionnant de manière conjointe. Ainsi, la démultiplication des limites est souvent préférée au trait net qui signaliserait la différence entre l’ici et l’ailleurs. D’une manière générale, on est en présence d’une spatialité plutôt introvertie, indirecte et multistrates. Avec l’époque Meiji et l’introduction de la typologie de la grille en fonte (calquée sur des modèles occidentaux), cette spatialité traditionnelle se verra profondément transformée. En effet, la grille, sa transparence, ouvrent la voie à une spatialité de l’ostentation, et d’une visibilité panoptique jusque-là inconnue. Autrefois caché, l’intérieur de la parcelle devient le centre de l’attention…
In Japanese gardens, fences, boundaries, thresholds and transitions seem to be of particular importance. This research, focused on the city of Kyoto, is organized in the form of a historical monograph, based on the systematical analysis of the evolution of garden limits, from the city’s foundation in 794 till the Meiji period (1868-1912) - an era during which the country undergoes profound modernization and industrialization. Placed within the theoretical framework of mesology (the study of milieux as defined by Augustin Berque), this research envisages garden limits within a broad cultural context – encompassing historical, societal, environmental, symbolic… aspects - in order to bring to light the complex processes which bring about their morphologies.The first fences of Kyoto – thick earthen walls surrounding the neighbourhoods (chō)-, were a direct heritage of the Chinese town planning model under the Tang dynasty. With time, the types of fences within the city tend to diversify, as do building materials, with a trend away from the Chinese matrix towards an increased use of organic materials (bamboo, wood, hedges etc.). One can also observe a gradual shift to the stratification of limits, with complex spatial devices containing a succession of boundaries signalling separation, rather than clearcut lines separating the within from the without. Generally speaking, the spatiality of the urban plots is rather introverted, indirect and multilayered. With the Meiji period and with the introduction of the typology of cast iron gates and fences (inspired from Western – especially Victorian - models), a new spatiality of ostentation and panoptic transparence emerges, something hitherto unseen in the rather shaded, hidden Kyoto parcels…

This thesis looks at illegal public art produced on state built barrier walls. The focus is on the artist Ron English, and his artworks produced on the Berlin Wall, Israeli Barrier Wall, and Mexican Border Fence. I examine English’s works in their respective contexts of Cold War divisions, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and tensions at the border between United States and Mexico. I also situate English’s works in relation to other artworks produced on these barriers. I argue that English is doing something different from other barrier wall artists in his work in Palestine and Mexico, offering a framework for understanding the primary motivations and tactics behind barrier wall art and highlighting English’s unique contributions.

Chapter One of this thesis looks at psychoanalytical object relations theory dealing with early childhood, with an aim to outline the shift that has taken place within critical thinking on personal development--from an emphasis on oedipal relations to the auspicious re-exploration of pre-oedipal states. Here the main theme derives from the paradoxical nature of the human skin, whose fluid sensory and communicative qualities profoundly shape our psychological functioning, and thus ultimately our creation of (gendered) knowledge in all its forms.
Chapter Two seeks to establish some of the possible socio-political implications of a recovered pre-oedipal sensibility, by way of situating the place of the personal within critical discourse--the cross-fertilization of critical theory and self-critical artistic discourses. Using the specific example of film, my central conceit consists in drawing a parallel between the skin and the filmic screen as both being simultaneously introjective and projective liminal membranes.
Chapter Three is a case study of sorts, one which traces the manifestations of a liminal subjectivity during a critical phase in the history of my native Nordic culture--the period of transition between pagan and Christian society. Its spirit is then shown to be alive and well within the ensemble films of Ingmar Bergman, whose work has come to stand as something of an archetype of the Nordic film form.
The second section, PRAXIS, appropriately provides this project's own creative component, a sketch of a film scenario that I hope to one day be able to liberate from the stasis of the written page and project into the uncertain spaces of a theater screen.

Given the diversity found in today's Japanese culture and the size of the country's population, it is easy to see why the understanding of Japanese wind band repertoire must be multi-faceted. Alongside Western elements, many Japanese composers have intentionally sought to maintain their cultural identity through the addition of Japanese musical elements or concepts. These added elements provide a historical and cultural context from which to frame a composition or, in some cases, a composer's compositional output. The employment of these elements serve as a means to categorize the Japanese wind band repertoire. In his studies on cultural identities found in Japanese music, Gordon Matthews suggests there are three genres found within Japanese culture. He explains these as "senses of 'Japaneseness' among Japanese musicians." They include Fence, Flavor, and Phantasm. Bringing a new perspective to the idea of Japanese influence, I trace the implementation of these facets of Japanese music through the wind band music of Japanese composers. I demonstrate that Japanese wind band genres are the result of a combination of Japanese musical elements and Western influence and argue that the varying levels of this combination, balanced with historical and cultural context, create three distinct genres within the Japanese wind band repertoire.

This thesis describes the development and subsequent use of a computer simulation model, FENDS (Forest Ecosystem Nitrogen Dynamics Simulator), designed to investigate growth and nitrogen dynamics in managed stands of Pinus nigra var. maritima (Ait.) Melville. The literature is reviewed as three subject areas. First is the production of biomass, its partition within trees and changes which occur during stand development. Second is the cycling of nitrogen within forest ecosystems including inputs to, and losses from the system. The review ends with a description of the types of model that have been developed in relation to forestry, with emphasis placed upon the computer simulation models. An overview of the model is provided together with an account of its development. The current version is described in detail and assumptions upon which it has been based are discussed. A number of key areas for which information is lacking have been identified including: 1) allocation of growth to tree and ground vegetation components, particularly root systems; 2) turnover rates of root systems; 3) mechanisms controlling storage and remobilisation of nitrogen in trees; 4) changes in opitimum nitrogen concentrations which occur during stand development; and 5) breakdown of recalcitrant organic matter and associated nitrogen dynamics. The model has been used to simulate weeding, fertiliser applications and thinning operations and to examine potential interactions. Results from these simulations are discussed.

碩士
國立成功大學
藝術研究所
103
Spaces and geography are the important topics of contemporary art in many ways and forms; artists usually using map as artwork, and became a big theme of Contemporary Curating. Because the local art’s academic communities in Taiwan, the research of map art are not very popular recently, the research almost focus on artist’ personal experiences and work life, it seldom discuss about maps. But in contemporary art, map as art has became more popular and common; this thesis hope can be a beginning, and let people find the fascination and multiple meanings of map art. First, I traced back to maps’ appearance through art history, there are some implies in the paintings , this can help us to realize the arts of maps. Second, the sites and cartography’s theories that related to map art to reveal issue. When artists used the maps, whatever map-drawing or documents, reversal map’s sovereign position, strip objectivity of the maps, and expose hidden subjectivity. Why Artists use maps as art? Because maps not only could indicate a wide view of history and territory, but also have character; maps express the system clearly space information, at same time, map can emphasize or hide something, artists can use above mentioned to create map art. Finally, this thesis discuss two artist’ ‘works, one is China Basin Plans: The River Dragon Breathes Fire by Peter Fend, another is China is Near by Joyce Kozloff, both of them are created map art over twenty years. Peter Fend used satellite map to reveal ecology and environment of global topic, Joyce Kozloff showed the everyday life by photos, signs, Google maps, and showing her imaginative of ‘’China’’. The artist using map as art can make audiences know about the role of map in contemporary art, and realize map arts have multiplicity ideas.