Enhancing illusionism within the encased contemporary art diorama through the integration of screen-based animated film

In the late nineteen eighties artists started to create a highly illusionistic type of small scaled diorama, which I refer to as the encased contemporary art diorama. Such dioramas are typically presented encased in a box-like structure with a glazed viewing window situated at the front. Artifice such as realistically coloured and shaped miniature forms, strategically positioned mirrors and quantified atmospheric lighting are used to enhance the verisimilitude of the mimetic resemblance to life-sized reality. As a maker of animated films, I became curious about the ways in which illusionism within such dioramas might be enhanced through the integration of screen-based animated film. To pursue this line of enquiry, I first strove to understand how illusionism functions within encased contemporary art dioramas, and I travelled to Lyon, France to view an exhibition of such dioramas at the Musee Miniature et Cinema. As there is an apparent lack of text on how illusionism functions within such dioramas, I modelled my initial research on texts about illusionism in representational pictures, how artists create visual illusions and the role of the viewer in the formation and perception of illusions. I engaged the writing of Michael Fish to assist in identifying different illusion types. To fully view the interior of an encased contemporary art diorama, the viewer must alter the location of their eyes in relation to the diorama and its contents, concurrently the encasement prevents any tactile appraisal of the diorama’s contents. I refer to Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment to account for the ways the viewer’s embodiment can influence their perception of dioramic illusions. The outcomes of my studio practice include animated films, and dioramas both with and without screen-based animated film integrated within them. The resulting illusions achieved are appraised and discussed, limitations are identified, and future potentials contemplated.Doctor of Philosoph

Kapsula

Selections from the 14th Annual York University Art History Graduate Student Symposiu

Visual aids in wildlife conservation education

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Interactive toon shading using mesh smoothing

Toon shading mimics the style of few colour bands and hence offers an effective way to convey the cartoon-style rendering. Despite an increasing amount of research on toon shading, little research has been reported on generation of toon shading style with more simplicity. In this paper, we present a method to create a simplified form of toon shading using mesh smoothing from 3D objects. The proposed method exploits the Laplacian smoothing to emphasise the simplicity of 3D objects. Motivated by simplified form of Phong lighting model, we create non-photorealistic style capable of enhancing the cartoonish appearance. An enhanced toon shading algorithm is applied on the simple 3D objects in order to convey more simple visual cues of tone. The experimental result reveals the ability of proposed method to produce more cartoonish simplistic effects

A survey of teachers' reactions to instructional materials suitable for social studies in elementary grades.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Quest for Fire: Explorations in Expanded Animation

Quest for Fire is the result of two years of theoretical and studio-based research on the current status of animation and its possibilities as a contemporary art medium. This project brings to life the notion of expanded animation: work that challenges established understanding of moving imagery through the use of installation and live performance. Quest for Fire takes on the moving image as its subject matter, drawing parallels between animation at the start of the twenty-first century—a medium in flux—and its eclectic historical origins. Using fire as a metaphor for animation, this project strips down the moving image to its simplest elements and explores thematic connections with technology, the control over time, magic and illusion. Quest for Fire creates an expanded experience of animation, one that is intrinsically linked to a singular time and space as it was at animation’s inception in the 19th century

From corporeality to virtual reality: theorizing literacy, bodies, and technology in the emerging media of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities

This dissertation explores the relationships between literacy, technology, and bodies in the emerging media of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). In response to the recent, rapid emergence of new media forms, questions arise as to how and why we should prepare to compose in new digital media. To interrogate the newness accorded to new media composing, I historicize the literacy practices demanded by new media by examining digital texts, such as video games and software applications, alongside analogous “antiquated” media, such as dioramas and museum exhibits. Comparative textual analysis of analogous digital and non-digital VR, AR, and MR texts reveals new media and “antiquated” media utilize common characteristics of dimensionality, layering, and absence/presence, respectively. The establishment of shared traits demonstrates how media operate on a continuum of mutually held textual practices; despite their distinctive forms, new media texts do not represent either a hierarchical or linear progression of maturing development. Such an understanding aids composing in new VR, AR, and MR media by enabling composers to make fuller use of prior knowledge in a rapidly evolving new media environment, a finding significant both for educators and communicators. As these technologies mature, we will continue to compose both traditional and new forms of texts. As such, we need literacy theory that attends to both the traditional and the new and also is comprehensive enough to encompass future acts of composing in media yet to emerge

Virtual Nature: A practice-led enquiry into the relationship between painting and vernacular photography through the process of the painted monotype

My practice-led research explores the relationship between painting and vernacular photography through the process of painted monotypes. This project has developed from an ongoing fascination with the visual qualities of photography and what happens when you translate photographs into other material forms, such as painting. The aim of this project is to develop images that interrogate how painted monotypes provide a distinctive interpretation of embodied experience through their visual, material and sensory qualities. Today, like no other time in history, photography is embedded in our daily lives through hand-held devices and the interface of the digital screen. My research examines how this embedded experience of the photographic relates to the processes and visual qualities of the painted monotype. The project is focused on three primary locations as subject matter: the aquarium, the botanical glasshouse and the habitat diorama. Through my research I explore how these sites function in optically and conceptually similar ways to the world of images, through shared notions of virtuality and indexicality. This research is informed by the work of Édouard Vuillard, Mamma Andersson, Peter Doig, David Hockney and the landscapes of Gustav Klimt. These painters interrogate the territory between painting and lens-based images in very specific ways, relating to visual perception, embodied vision, figure and ground relationships, and visual textures. In a theoretical context, my examination of the relationship between painting and photography has been motivated by the writings of Elizabeth Wynne Easton, Aaron Scharf, John Berger and Russell Ferguson; while Anne Friedberg, Rob Shields, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Geoffrey Batchen, Kris Paulsen and Johanna Love have been instrumental in determining a connection to the virtual and the index in my research