Fine Arts, Faculty of

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    A cup of tea in infinite futures: a positive look at speculative fates
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2024) Kelly, Isabel; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Martin, Annie
    “A Cup of Tea in Infinite Futures: A Positive Look at Speculative Fates,” explores the sentimental aspects of speculation for the future. Research pertaining to this thesis has included examining the connection between the concept of speculation, its use in the speculative fiction genre over the past twenty years (in literature, film, art, and social media), and its shifts in culture. Furthermore, I will share observations about how these fictions have affected everyday / slice-of-life speculation during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this background in mind, how have these cultural speculations on an individual and collective level altered personal imaginings of life to come? The culmination of my own speculations about the future will provide the content for a series of vignette/diorama scenes. These scenes will present possible outcomes that I’ve imagined for myself as kinetic sculptures.
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    Alternative resources for theatre: 3D printing, woolen felt and gelatin adapted to produce The kiss of blood: developing alternate techniques to implement renewable, biodegradable, and local resources to decrease the carbon footprint
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Drama, 2022) Traughber Simon, Carla; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Wasilewski, Julia
    An Evening at the Grand Guignol 2022 was presented at the University of Lethbridge in the spring of 2022. Three short plays were presented to fulfill the vision of Mia Van Leeuwen. Van Leeuwen directed the production as a whole and the final play, The Masque of the Red Death. Jay Whitehead directed the opening show, The Lighthouse Keepers. The second show, The Kiss of Blood, was directed initially by van Leeuwen and subsequently completed under the direction of Justin A. Blum. Blum was familiar with the work. The costumes and special effects for The Kiss of Blood were my assignments. Designs for The Kiss of Blood were facilitated by my research which focused on manufacturing procedures, including digital manufacturing, gelatin moulds, and woollen felt. A priority for this research was the utilization of local and sustainable resources to minimize our carbon footprint.
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    Assume the position : play's mediation of institutional anxiety
    (Lethbridge, Alta : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2016) Morman, Megan Mae Marie; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Gill, Don
    Assume the Position uses visual art’s flexible methodologies to consider the complex structural, affective, socioeconomic, and spatial relations between visual artists and the cultural institutions with which they are imbricated. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach that draws from visual art, cultural studies, and sociology, my practice-based research explores anxiety as a physical and temporal approach, as well as a significant relation-to-objects under neoliberalism. Materially diverse projects privilege playful approaches and new attitudes toward temporality as strategies for mediating these contemporary affects. Projects cohere by their strategic complication of vision and time, privileging the local, and emphasizing approachability by engaging humour, play, and the saturated, visual language of childhood.
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    Attic foot and elbow to tip of middle finger
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2023) Knight, David; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Kavanagh, Mary
    Presented at the Penny Gallery, University of Lethbridge, in June 2023, my Thesis Project, Attic Foot and Elbow to Tip of Middle Finger, consists of three primary thematic arcs organized into chapters: “Stair Iterations,” “Window Meditations,” and “Systems of Measure” – that together represent the culmination of two years of research, writing and creative activities. The defense of this work concludes in an exhibition that centers around five main projects: Stair Iteration III: Gamma, Retrospect, Near Poet, Ropes and Rulers and Growth Chart | Social Body. The exhibition focuses on the built environment while considering its relation to formal, bureaucratic, and cultural structures and systems. By separating windows and stairs from their usual placement within an architectural space, recontextualizing and altering these standard architectural elements, I consider perceptual changes in scale, memory and its fallibility, the recollection of objects, time and space, alteration of convention, as well as instruments and systems of measurement.
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    Bridging dualities: the piano pedagogy of Marie Jaëll (1846-1925)
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Music, 2021) Letourneau, Carmen R.; Oye, Deanna
    Marie Jaëll (1846-1925), pianist, composer, and pedagogue, was a brilliant figure at the close of the nineteenth century, although she fell into relative obscurity in the twentieth. She is best known for her piano pedagogy, in which she set out to transform the study of piano using rational principles and empirical analysis. She stands at a major turning point between the pedagogy of the nineteenth century and modern pianism. In this thesis, I discuss Jaëll’s innovative divergence from tradition, placing her method and theories in the context of the development of piano pedagogy. In her search to understand and explain the underlying principles of piano playing, she brought scientific reasoning and experimentation into the realm of art. In her attempts to reconcile personal experience and observation with scientific theories, she stepped outside of traditional models of learning and teaching piano.
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    Collaboration and the creation of a new piece of music : an analysis of the roles played by composer, poet, and singer in William Bolcom's Briefly it enters for soprano and piano
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Fine Arts, 2012) Sinnott, Rachel; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Youngdahl, Janet
    This document looks at American composer William Bolcom’s song cycle Briefly It Enters, from a collaborative standpoint. The cycle was written with soprano Benita Valente in mind and the poetry is taken from the work of American poet Jane Kenyon. Chapter one of the thesis offers a brief history of the practice of writing for specific singers among composers in Europe and the United States. Chapter two provides biographical information about the participants involved in the project. The third chapter narrates a timeline of events leading up to the work’s premiere; chapter four is a musical analysis of the cycle from a singer’s standpoint. Included within chapter four are ideas about the poetry, vocal considerations for Valente, and the effect of Kenyon’s death upon the creation of this work. The fifth chapter provides insight for performers who wish to learn and perform this cycle in the future.
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    A comprehensive performance project in horn literature, with an essay : selected Handel vocal arias repurposed as horn repertoire
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Music, 2015) Viejou, Sarah D.; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Staples, Thomas W.
    At present there is a lack of music for the horn player who wishes to advance from beginning study to more difficult repertoire. This collection of fourteen pieces has been created to fit into this gap and to provide the horn player with an opportunity to develop necessary skills for advancing, including finger technique, increased range, ornamentation, and musicality. The pieces in the collection are transcribed from the da capo arias of the operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel, according to specific criteria, and they have been edited in ways that may interest, aid, and motivate the advancing player. There are certain learning outcomes and planned goals for the études, and it is hoped that both teachers and players will find them to be of great value.
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    The corrosive moment : a look at the apocalyptic glitch
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of New Media, c2012, 2012) Blicharz, Marta; Luce, Emily
    This thesis focuses on the contextualization of my artistic practice, which explores digital glitch as a disruptive force and an aesthetic treatment in the contemporary technological world. While the body of work draws on the methodology of glitch art, this paper attempts to relate the idea of glitch to a wider range of philosophical and artistic frameworks stemming from Lettrism, Situationist International, Punk, and Nihilism. The aim of this investigation of a digital disturbance through its categorization into natural, stimulated and assimilated glitch, is to facilitate an understanding of the glitch event as both something threatening and attractive, while it transitions from a spontaneous to a controlled process in a photoreal image. The passing of the destructive glitch from life to art is placed against the backdrop of the apocalypse, which one may imagine as a literal and metaphorical disaster in the physical world and value systems of western society.
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    Creating more diversity in Canadian theatre: from the actor's perspective
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Drama, 2024) Roberts, Andrea Lilli; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Scott, Shelley
    Actors in Southern Alberta, particularly in Lethbridge and Calgary, currently want more diversity and inclusion in theatre. There is an absence of research that supports the actor's perspective with respects to diversity and inclusion in theatre in Southern Alberta. This thesis explores issues of the lack of representation, opportunities, and tokenistic casting practices that ultimately affect actors in Canadian theatre, and more specifically, Southern Alberta. This thesis contains a comprehensive literature review of Canadian theatre, interviews with four racially diverse, professional actors who live and work in Southern Alberta, and a detailed case study of a ground-breaking, Indigenous-led theatre production at the University of Lethbridge, 'Yisstsiiyi.' 'Yisstsiiyi' was a devised creation, staged in the University of Lethbridge's main theatre, in the fall of 2023. The collaboration between Calgary's Indigenous theatre company, Making Treaty Seven, and the University of Lethbridge's Faculty of Fine Arts (Department of Drama), researched in this thesis, demonstrates that measures towards a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse theatre landscape in Canadian theatre is achievable, but there is still a lot of progress to be made, in order to de-colonize antiquated theatre practices.
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    Digital imperfections : analog processes in 21st century cinema
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of New Media, 2014) Evernden, Christopher Blake; Taylor, Aaron; Olsen, Deric
    Present day cinema’s singular pursuit of digital visual effects has resulted in a perceptual alienation of the audience due to missing constructive collaboration between artist and audience resulting from the imperfect mix of multiple analog and digital sources in the creation of the illusions. The digital’s ability to represent anything and everything on its own reduces the viewer to a mere spectator and no longer an imaginative participant. The reintroduction of imperfect analog effects, married to the digital medium, allows the viewer to contribute to the illusion rather than be pushed away by the perfectionist digital rendering that does not require their assistance. Both absence and imperfection are essential to selling the illusions of the cinematic landscape. This thesis project, the feature film Prairie Dog, is designed to address this singular digital disconnect in present day cinematic illusions by creating and experimenting in a variety of analog effects in combination with digital processing to illustrate the viability of analog incorporation in present day digital cinema.
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    Dr. Soanes' Odditorium of Wonders : the 19th century dime museum in a contemporary context
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Arts, c2013, 2013) Edmundson, Jane; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Mills, Josephine; Ramp, William
    19th century dime museums were a North American phenomenon that flourished in urban centres from the mid- to late-1800s. Named thusly due to their low admission cost, dime museums provided democratic entertainment that was promoted to all classes as affordable and respectable. The resulting facilities were crammed with art, artifacts, rarities, living human curiosities, theatre performances, menageries, and technological marvels. The exhibition Dr. Soanes’ Odditorium of Wonders strives to recapture the spirit and aesthetic of the dime museum to invoke wonder in the viewer and to combine art, artifacts, and oddities to provoke questions about the boundary between education and amusement. Both the academic and curatorial texts utilize a mix of methodological approaches appropriate to museology, art history and cultural history: theoretical research into historiographical issues concerning theories of display and spectacle; archival research and discourse analysis of historical documents, and material culture analysis (including the semiotics of display).
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    Dressed to kill: the costume design for Merry debaucheries and a Dance with death
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Drama, 2023) Johnson, Jaime; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Wasilewski, Julia
    Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death has been adapted with both metaphorical and literal representations of death as in Mia van Leeuwen’s devised adaptation performed at the University of Lethbridge in 2022 for A Night at the Grand Guignol: 2022. In the costume and mask design for Prospero and his court members I endeavoured to contribute to the atmosphere of a strange world where nothing mattered except the amusements of an elite group hiding from the terrors of a real-life threat of plague. I also sought to create a unique representation of death, personified, that is both beautiful and terrifying. In this paper I outline the research into the obscure style of theatre used in this production, its connection to Gothic literature, the historical representations of Death in art, and the costume design for the Emcee character, Prospero and his court, and the Death character.
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    Erratic : a personal look at studio practice as research
    (Lethbridge, Alta : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2015) Caussy, Roy; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Martin, Annie
    My thesis work is comprised of two components. The first component is my thesis exhibition, which will showcase the bulk of my research as an MFA candidate in studio art. The second component is this essay in which I will attempt to further illustrate the ideas that have steered my academic research, and informed my thesis exhibition. The purposes of this essay are the following: to explain the ideas, intentions, and goals that may not be noticeable when first viewing the projects in my thesis exhibition; a second goal is to emphasize the importance of the role of intuition and solitude in pursuing areas of interests in studio research.
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    Exhibition by institution: a culture work simulator
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2021) Morrison Fox, Amber Rose; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Miller, David
    Exhibition by Institution: A Culture Work Simulator is an art museum simulator through the first-person perspective of an entry-level cultural worker. The simulator is based on Nanaimo Art Gallery, a regional, publicly funded, art museum in Nanaimo, British Columbia. The premise of the simulator is inspired by tasks required of entry-level gallery employees, some real and others more poetic, and it poses a critique of institutions spurred by neoliberal structures of funding that cause persistent job insecurity in the arts and culture sector. This artwork is a three-dimensional environmental narrative created through an emergent process with digital tools, transposing and appropriating a local organization as a way of exploring virtual space.
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    Farm in ancient China: a video game concept
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Department of New Media, 2019) Hu, Yuntao; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Graham, James
    My thesis project is a video game concept which depicts Calendar Valley, a game that simulates ancient China and allows the player to farm like a traditional Chinese farmer. Modern farming is highly industrialized and chemical-based. It has disrupted the environmental equilibrium and disconnected traditional farming families like mine from their farmlands. Traditional Chinese farming, based on nature and sustainability, is becoming forgotten. Knowing the importance of traditional farming practices and appreciating the technology-dependent urban lifestyle, I have attempted to bridge the paradox of traditional and modern practices by proposing a farming simulation game. As video games are not merely intended for entertainment, but also can be applied to education, it is feasible to embed the goal of connecting traditional Chinese farming with modern audiences into a video game which simulates ancient China.
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    FeelGrove: a concept for a discursive smartphone application for the visualization of affective states positioned against the neoliberal paradigm
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of New Media, 2024) Sijacic, Lidija; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Clark, Christine
    FeelGrove is a concept for a discursive smartphone application with game elements that acts as a response to the neoliberal framework and the values it propagates, such as competition, self-tracking and self-optimization. The app constitutes a tool meant to enable its users to visualize their emotions through the creation and keeping of digital fantastical plants which act as emotional representations. Aside from the concept for the app, the project includes interface design and accompanying artwork, including four distinct 3D plants depicting different emotional categories and 3D representations of physical settings related to these particular emotions. Additionally, this paper examines the roles that information technology, design and play assume in propagating neoliberal values.
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    From our sex to our souls : directing Michel Marc Bouchard’s The Madonna painter
    (Lethbridge. Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Department of Theatre and Dramatic Arts, 2012) Guist, Sean; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Whitehead, Jay; Hanrahan, Gail
    Michel Marc Bouchard calls his play, . a parable of lies disguised as a fable; writ in scarlet pigment, in holy wine and hemoglobin, all the shades of red that flow through us from our sex to our souls (9).” Using these vivid statements as a starting point, I explore my process, inspiration, concepts and choices for the University of Lethbridge production of The Madonna Painter, March 20 to 24, 2012, in partial fulfillment for the degree Master of Fine Arts.
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    Hamlet : the design as process
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Theatre and Dramatic Arts, c2012, 2012) Barrus, David W.; Schultz, Roger
    This thesis represents the written portion of the Degree Requirements of the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design. The Thesis production of HAMLET, by Wm. Shakespeare (edited by Brian C. Parkinson), was the University of Lethbridge Department of Theatre and Dramatic Arts third show of the 2011 – 2012 Mainstage Theatre season, running February 14 – 18, 2012, performed at the University Theatre in the University of Lethbridge Centre for the Arts, Lethbridge, Alberta. HAMLET was directed by Brian C. Parkinson, with the assistant direction of L. Jay Whitehead and Yvonne Mandel. Contained within this written portion of the thesis is a discussion of the design concepts for this production, along with photographic records of models, technical drawings, and other pertinent information.
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    Here | Now | Look | See: information visualizations of recent climate records in Alberta
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of New Media, 2014, 2014) Clark, Christine; Elias, Leanne
    This thesis is an analysis of the application of information visualization and design to wicked problems, a class of problems whose complexity, interconnectedness and fluctuation make them extremely difficult to resolve, and serves as a supporting document for my studio research and practice. In this paper I identify challenges that emerge with information visualizations of wicked problems and describe methods for addressing these challenges through my practice-based research project. Using climate data provided by Dr. Stefan W. Kienzle, Associate Professor of Hydrology and GIS at the University of Lethbridge, my research project attempts to use information visualization to communicate the climate data by applying design strategies that explore the relationship between aesthetic and functionality.
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    How can I miss you if I don't know you're there?
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : Universtiy of Lethbridge, Department of Art, 2017) Stringam, Sarah Lisbeth; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Fine Arts; Kavanagh, Mary
    How Can I Miss You if I Don’t Know You’re There? is an MFA thesis project that addresses the inevitable contradictions and tensions inherent in human/animal relationships. This work is a series of sculptural pieces installed using the tropes of museological methods of display and classification. Concentrating on invertebrates, I engage concepts like empathy, care and mothering in the context of these vilified subjects, contrary to the dominant dualisms characterized by Western, Christian, capitalist culture that hierarchize species. As I explore my entanglement with nonhuman others, attempts to convey affection blur with acts of unintentional subjugation as I implicate myself in the precarious balance between care and harm with respect to the use of living and dead organisms.