Imagining the world through the lens of loser and hoping for a better future
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Anna Pierga
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
My thesis is an attempt to create a bridge between my artistic practice and theoretical research behind its themes and topics. I highlight imagination as a tool to recreate one’s world in order to survive a hostile, success-oriented and normative daily reality. The text is divided into three main sections. Each focusing consecutively on childhood,
queerness and examples of imagination in fairy tales and artistic practices; all understood through the lens of failure. I look at childhood as a queer and highly creative universal experience of living on the edge of established social norms.
I draw on queer writtings such as Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstram and Cruising Utopia: Then and There of Queer Futirity by José Esteban Muñoz in search of utopia and longing for a better future.
In the final part of my thesis I refer to Ursula Le Guin’s essays on fantasy and science fiction, fairy tales and artistic practices. I explore various examples of failed heroes and the role of imagination in order to rewrite the present for a queerer future of more possibilities.
Rubberneckers
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author(s): Joana Dos Santos Almeida
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Fine Arts
This Thesis is comprised of a series of chapters, which combine personal observations and analysis of existing theory and literature regarding the concept of trauma within the artistic context.
Throughout the text, I explore the choices and intuitive origins of the artistic practice with reference to my own experiences and connect them to my interest in the
traumatic.
Using Griselda Pollock’s writings on Trauma and art as a foundation, I explore the theoretical sides of trauma and how it operates, specifically that of psychoanalytical, scientific and philosophical texts. I aim to weave connections between the act of observation inherent to the artistic practice and the same spectacle associated with violent subject matter. This becomes the basis for the development of what I call, the ‘traumatic method’, which involves my ongoing research into this relationship.
Questions of affect and embodiment become key components of this thesis in regards to the function of using trauma as a conceptual starting point during the artistic process. Specifically the importance of re-enactment and treating the traumatic as a medium within itself rather than simply
subject matter.
THE BENEFIT OF INCONVENIENCE- Revealing public space by walking and mapping
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author(s): Shuk Wun Li
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
MA Interior Architecture
From the moment we wake up in the morning, we are triggered by the loud alarm, travel to work on crowded trains, and make thousands of decisions every day. Inconveniences can arise in every situation, and while most people accept them, very few try to fix them. The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly the biggest inconvenience experienced by everyone on the globe simultaneously. People's way of life has been affected by it, and the world has been shut down for more than two years since December 2019. Despite the destructive effects of the virus, it has given everyone a chance to pause and reflect on their lives. The topic of my thesis is based on the idea that I benefit from the inconveniences of daily life. After moving to the Netherlands, I realized that it takes me more time to complete daily tasks than it used to, and my life has become less hectic. So, I started reading articles on the benefits of inconvenience. Kawakami writes that “the benefit of inconvenience cannot be derived from mere nostalgia for 'the good old days or by thinking positively about the inconvenience.” He also thinks that convenience does not necessarily satisfy people and enrich human life. Yet, we have become so dependent on convenience that we no longer pay attention to its consequences. While the purpose of this paper is mainly to identify the benefits of intentionally experiencing inconvenience in our built environment, a discussion of convenience will also be included to compare the different levels of inconvenience. Are there any inconveniences associated with 'too much convenience'? What are the ways in which inconvenience is purposefully incorporated into the everyday environment? This paper will investigate these questions and provide suggestions for implementing beneficial inconveniences in the built environment.
The Bitrh of new identity: Generation Fake wealth
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Jose Marie Romarate Sta. Iglesia
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague 2023
BA fashion and textile
Imelda Marcos was the First Lady of the Philippines for 20 years. She is an image of wealth (ill gotten) and the display of wealth. She is real and not real, her possession of wealth is real and not real. The image display of fake wealth by Imelda is not isolated, it is the humour of contemporary culture ‘fake it til you make it’. It is also fuelled by our daily life in the consumption of technology. Instead of criticising these behaviours of displaying fake wealth, we embody them somehow, it intrigues us to the extent of making films such as on Netflix ‘Inventing Anna’ and ‘Tinder Swindler’.
‘Generation fake wealth’ is a group of people whose goal is to portray having abundance in wealth despite their financial capacity. It is this extravagance in life that excites reality. This research will look into the diverse areas of thoughts and great people of our time. It will traverse to different ideologies such as: postmodernism, social capital, the search for beauty in this troubled times and political identity. They are important because they discuss the complex intertwining of realities, the reality itself and its possible multiple copies. The intangible commodity is the image; the image is a reflection of reality but not the absolute truth which we assume to be real. Social media is the main platform for portraying our alternative reality and its discrete influence
Paper Person
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Lukas Dovydėnas
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
[School] Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague 2023
[Department] Fine Arts
This research paper takes influences from lived experiences, theoretical works and works of art to craft a post-human story about living in the city of surveillance capitalism. I am pursuing artistic research by imagining a world where there is technology which broadcasts everything a person sees.
I am using artistic research as a tool to exaggerate perceived world’s issues. Because I believe that through a combination of theory and storytelling we can make and subvert the narratives of contemporary society. To make myths for the world yet to come.
The work concludes with a fictional interview between the main character of the story and me, followed by an interview of artificial intelligence.
Vessels of Home: A Search for Belonging
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Naomi Arabel Moonlion
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023 - BA Photography
'Vessels of Home' is a 'Search for Belonging.' As more and more people feel disconnected from the world around them, finding belonging is no longer only a question of physical place, but of creating moments in an imaginative space. These moments of belonging are short-lived, they are hard to grasp and contain in our ever individualizing world. Yet, I believe they can be found and nurtured through conscious acts and rituals.
Rowan Moonlion proposes various ways to cultivate moments of belonging, through stories contained in the vessels of Fire, Earth, Water and Air (Le Guin 2020). Firstly, in Fire, regarding human interactions: rejecting patriarchal and capitalist notions of group thinking, by letting go of identity definitions based on difference. Secondly, in Earth, considering nature: returning to our connection to the land, to understand the unifying power of interbeing. Thirdly, in Water, looking within our bodies: searching for sensorial experiences of belonging by making our bodies our homes. Finally, in Air, gazing in our minds and memories, imagining new worlds, holding stories together with our ancestors.
Witchcraft and Earth honoring rituals are used as a framework to explain and exemplify the four proposed layers. 'Vessels of Home' combines academic research grounded in queer and feminist theory, conversations with witches and other lived experience stories, poetic reflections taken from Moonlion’s artistic practice, and practical tools like rituals, recipes and affirmations. Together the four layers of belonging and the four types of writing form a unifying whole. Moonlion urges you to connect to your own personal form of belonging, and hopes you will learn to understand the value of trying to live in harmony with all else on this Earth.
The elements return again and again in a cyclical manner. The circle of life is ever present.