Irish Neutrality: Louis MacNeice’s Poetic Politics at the Outset of “The Emergency”

This article builds upon previous scholarship attuned to Ireland’scomplex position as a neutral state during the Second World War (“TheEmergency”), and which points out Louis MacNeice’s hostility towards the Irish government’s official stance. It does so by looking at “The Closing Album” as a political lyric critiquing Irish neutrality’s isolation0ist and damaging effects and shows how the poem – in the act of critiquing neutrality – asserts the modern poet’s position as an emotionally invested political spokesman. I argue that the nation’s political goals were irreconcilable with postcolonial artistic aims: Irish writers were intent on constructing an image of Irishness that was not dictated by British coloring and was exportable through the medium of their art, while the government aimed at becoming a self-sufficient,sovereign nation. This split between politician and artist during The Emergency ushers in a modern Irish poetry that is at once political and aesthetic.

Creature of Habit

Undergraduate Graphic Desig

Generative Parables: AI as an Artform

There used to be only two things an individual could count on for sure: death and taxes; but there seems to be a third in our modern era and that is technology advancing at a rapid rate. With these advancements come new tools, methods, and of course questions. The recent introduction of artificial intelligence to the public has been no exception. Whether it is ChatGPT writing blog posts or MidJourney creating images of unreal places, AI has begun to seep into many aspects of our lives. One field that this phenomenon has started to deeply impact is the world of art. Many artists will ask whether this introduction is good or bad, but few have asked the question of whether AI can truly be considered art. Can images or assets made with artificial intelligence be defined as art? Or are they merely remixed versions of other artists work in which they were trained in? I sought to answer this question through two methods, experience and comparison. I first created my own artwork using various AI models to understand the tools themselves. I then researched similar advancements and how they were received by the community. Finally, I asked the question of what is the definition of art and whether AI art could safely fit within the boundaries. In my findings I found that AI is merely another tool in the artists toolbelt and that just like each advancement from the past, the community would adapt and change accordingly. But most interestingly, I learned that art is all about the process. The tools used to create matter less than the artist using them in the process. I believe this changes our perception of art as a whole and should encourage us to view every aspect of our lives as art

Irish L’humour Noir: Peter Foott’s The Carpenter and His Clumsy Wife

In this essay I read Irish director Peter Foott’s short film, The Carpenter and his Clumsy Wife (2005), through Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic theory,“The Decay of Lying” (1891). I argue that Wilde’s critique of Realism as a“complete failure,” and as a corollary from this, that Lying “is the proper aim of art,” while convincing and useful, stops short of Grotesque Comic theory that combines the real and surreal. In grotesque comedy we encounter exaggerated, nightmarish lies; but beneath the surface there is a certain psychological realism – laughter is a coping mechanism. Foott uses grotesque humour to illicit confused laughter from his audience; he makes the vulgar beautiful and the real surreal. In other words, Foott blurs the boundary between life and art, thus undermining the fundamental ordering structures of society. In this article I focus on the boundary between Art and Nature, and between workspace anddomestic-space. The carpenter’s wife moves from the domestic-space into the workspace; and the carpenter replaces his natural wife with an artificial recreation.Keywords: Peter Foott; Oscar Wilde; grotesque humou