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Animation : 2D versus 3D and their combined effect

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2021 Digital Design Prize: Matthew Pugh’s “Animated Spaces” and “Creature-Like Objects: Animistic Interactions With Smart Buildings + IOT Objects”

Animated Spaces: Kinematic Characters for Maison du Peuple, The Work-Home Pivot

by Matthew Pugh (MArch II ’21) — Recipient of the Digital Design Prize

Animated Spaces: Kinematic Characters for Maison du Peuple, Interior

At the GSD, I’ve been engrossed in a strange new world of objects with digital organs, of spaces animated in response to their occupants’ daily lives, and of empathetic interactions between humans and the objects they live with. My submission showcases design work emphasizing digital animism on two parallel tracks: one interested in animated interactions within architectural spaces—bringing them to life with kinematic actuation—and the other with anthropomorphized interactions with our IOT-laden objects.

The first section, “Animated Spaces,” demonstrates animistic interactions with the smart building through my thesis project, “Working in the Fun Palace: Archigrammatic Interactions With the Smart Building.” As opposed to the screen-based approach of many smart building designers, the project pulls from the playful, robotic design thinking of the 1960s to imagine kinematic interfaces for our increasingly ubiquitous smart building systems.

I developed three unique digital design techniques that animate traditional architectural representation tools: First, the project uses Bongo, an inverse kinematics plug-in for Rhino, to design robotic partition systems that allow spaces to reprogram with technocratic efficiency, in tune with the rhythms of their occupants’ day-to-day lives. Second, I used animation software to create narrative representations of the experience of living in such a roboticized interior. Finally, I designed a tool using Processing and Grasshopper to create a large dataset of suggested program-paired layouts, with the intent that this dataset could be used to train a ML model to react to occupants and repartition the space on its own accord.

The second section, “Creature-Like Objects,” showcases a similar form of digitized animism, but at the scale of the devices in our increasingly IOT-laden homes. The projects explore new forms of anthropomorphic interactions between occupant and a smart hub that starts to take on creature-like autonomy.

Creature Like Objects: Smart Home Creatures + The IOT Menagerie
Computation
Responsive Environments

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How Architecture Graduates are Animating the Film Industry

Written by Sabrina Santos
Published on August 15, 2015

After spending five-figure sums on their education, you might think that architectural students would, at the very least, continue in the architectural profession. However, as investigated in a new BBC Business article , many students of architecture “are using their newly-learned digital animation and design skills to break into the world of film .” With a growing demand for both architectural and all other kinds of animations, the number of film careers built from architectural foundations seems to be burgeoning. Architects-turned-filmmakers now work on a wide variety of projects, from special effects in Beyoncé videos to Oscar-winning films, to visualization films of future architectural projects.

Learn more about how digital animation has created a “two-way street” between architecture and film, here .

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$An image for Hawkins\Brown's "Romance of the Sky" proposal, created by Factory Fifteen, a visualization and animation company founded by alumni of the Bartlett's "Unit 24" for films and architecture. Image © Factory Fifteen$

建筑毕业生如何进入到电影界

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Filmic Development of Architectural Animations

2005, International Journal of Architectural Computing

This paper proposes a general method to make animated presentations of architectural designs, based on cinematographic techniques. Particularly, it reviews theoretical documentation about filmmaking as well as several productions that exhibit remarkable locations. The proposed method first comprises of a planning stage, with the narrative and graphic formulation of the presentation. Next is an elaboration or adjustment stage for the

Related Papers

Proceedings of CAADRIA2012: the 17th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia 25-28 April 2012, Chennai, India. pp. 637–646.

Maha Zeini Al-Saati

eCAADe proceedings

Gabriele Novembri

A movie which is developed from site location video, sync sound, and computer graphics animation can provide a highly convincing simulation of reality. A movie that conveys a sense of the space, materials and juxtaposition of objects of a proposed architectural design provides a special kind of realism, where the representation may be of a proposed building that exists only within the mind of an architect. For an experienced architect, however, the movie may not provide a good surrogate experience for what it feels like to actually be within the architectural space. In these case studies, a few projects that combine moviemaking and computer-aided design technologies are examined. These projects were completed using a combination of resources at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The integrated use of these media is presented as conceptualized with the Electronic Design Studio, a research project that has been supported over the pas...

Chintan Patel

The director's desire to make his picture as true to the tale and place as feasible necessitates the use of architecture to bring out the authenticity as well as realism aspect. This paper is based on Architectural involvement in to theatre and film making process. To understand the important role of architecture, first go through by the glimpse of history of world theatre to Indian Sanskrit theatre. How Indian cinema were origin and presently film making processes involving with architecture, try to present in this paper. The relevance of visual design has been stressed by theatre directors, filmmakers, and animators. Designers have researched the influence of character placements, lighting configurations, and camera movements on transmitting the story, eliciting emotions and moods, and engaging viewers. Many research initiatives concentrated on adjusting the narrative material to the interaction, while the visual presentation received less attention. Authors introduce a novel method to interactive storytelling based on filmmaking theory in this article. The structure is based on principles derived from filmmaking, cinematography, and visual arts theory. Such adaptation, the authors propose, will result in improved engagement and a more interactive story experience.

This thesis examines the interdisciplinary application of film, video and computer graphics to architecture. Three projects provide the basis of research: 1) An "interactive" videodisc of the design and construction of the Sagrada Familia Temple in Barcelona. 2) A videotape sketch of an urban space, "Trinity Church", December 1982. 3) Slow scan transmission of video images between Copley Square and the computer graphics lab of the Visible Language Workshop, M.I.T., April 1982. They investigate the potential of a media technology that is non-traditional for architects to: 1) Document the Design and Construction of contemporary building. (Projects 1 and 2) 2) Be used to assess the social and environmental impact of architecture and urban design. (Projects 2 and 3) 3) Communicate the pathos, cultural qualities, observable symbols and images of architecture and urban design. (Projects 1 and 2) 4) Document or creatively express architecture through: (a) Computer 3-D A...

ACADIA proceedings

Aron Temkin

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCHIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69).This thesis examines the interdisciplinary application of film, video and computer graphics to architecture. Three projects provide the basis of research: 1) An "interactive" videodisc of the design and construction of the Sagrada Familia Temple in Barcelona. 2) A videotape sketch of an urban space, "Trinity Church", December 1982. 3) Slow scan transmission of video images between Copley Square and the computer graphics lab of the Visible Language Workshop, M.I.T., April 1982. They investigate the potential of a media technology that is non-traditional for architects to: 1) Document the Design and Construction of contemporary building. (Projects 1 and 2) 2) Be used to assess the social and environmental impact of architecture and urban design. (Projects 2 and 3) 3) Communicate the p...

This paper sets up a paradigm for creative architectural animations, drawing cinematic, architectural and narrative theories together to form a ‘Spatial Character’. Based on this definition, students created architectural animations. These served as working platform of an entry to the FEIDAD-Competition that defined and placed architecture into a cinematic context.

IJERA Journal

Architecture and cinema are two distinctive worlds which are interlaced with each other in many ways. Their association is not only a physical establishment but also in a metaphoric sense. The vocabulary of film is found in architecture at numerous levels. Time and again, architecture manifests itself as the background of a scene, a setting for various actions or a way to convey the mood of a scene or an era. They work together like the mind and body to decipher the sensory aspects. This research will try to examine the role of architecture in cinema, to evoke the emotional response in the audience by creating a catalog of architectural elements and composition that enhance the frame to create a definite mood

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Animation'

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Knoell, Tiffany L. "Animating America: Warner Bros. Animation During the Depression." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1331398666.

Marcusson, Oscar. "Algoritmiska Animationer : En studie av automatisering av animation." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för informationsteknologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-16560.

Jones, Timothy. "Animating community : reflexivity and identity in Indian animation production culture." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/53461/.

Pappas, Michael A. "Experimental animation." Virtual Press, 1994. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/917014.

MAGALHAES, MARCOS AMARANTE DE ALMEIDA. "SPONTANEOUS ANIMATION." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2004. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=5561@1.

Fraidoon, Noora. "ANIMAtion Studio." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/25223.

Rossouw, Wilan Burger. "Interchanging animation." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/53341.

Jerlardtz, Emilia. "Anatomy and Animation: Anatomically Based Animation Skeletons for Quadrupeds." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för Industriell utveckling, IT och Samhällsbyggnad, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-13442.

Stainback, Pamela Barth. "Computer animation : the animation capabilities of the Genigraphics 100C /." Online version of thesis, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11460.

de, Almeida Johansson Cezar. "Animation och gestalter : En studie om hur förenklade animationer påverkar gestaltbildning." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för kommunikation och information, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-5294.

Sharaf, Nada [Verfasser]. "CHRvis: an animation extension for animating constraint handling rules / Nada Sharaf." Ulm : Universität Ulm, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1190727315/34.

Lin, Xinze. "Web-based Sprite Sheet Animator for Sharing Programmatically Usable Animation Metadata." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informationsteknologi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-197456.

Thörner, Eddie, and Alexander Tyrling. "Animation av fräsverktyg." Thesis, Halmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET), 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-4650.

Björklund, Niklas. "Acting in animation." Thesis, University of Gävle, Ämnesavdelningen för datavetenskap, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-4698.

It is important to remember actors and animators are similar in many respects, but also very different in some. They both frame and provide life to a character, through thoughts and feelings. To obtain a better understanding of how professional animators work and what methods they use, this thesis contains general background information on animation and the Principles in Animation, as well as the analysis of acting and the different acting concepts. By studying these methods and utilizing them in my own work, a short animation was developed to visualize a characters personality through his actions. The result was then applied to a questionnaire to determine if the audience could pick out the characters personality only through the animation without dialog, music, or sound. According to the interviewed audience, they could feel some of the characters emotions and pick out some of the inner thoughts and feelings from the animation.

Saunders, Breton M. "Fast animation dynamics." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.621917.

Kim, Hana 1980. "Multimodal animation control." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29661.

Yu, Jinhui. "Stylised procedural animation." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1999. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6737/.

Robison, David J. "Community Animation Workshop." Bradford University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4016.

Morisawa, Tomohiro. "Producing animation : work, creativity, and aspirations in the Japanese animation industry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a38a83ae-d123-4192-94b1-4279ab82b521.

Hui, Gan Sheuo. "The concept of selective animation : dropping the "limited" in limited animation." Kyoto University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/136473.

Ivarsson, Osvald. "Real time animation control in Android : Improving the workflow of creating and configuring animations." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för datavetenskap och kommunikation (CSC), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-172847.

Montanari, Lucia. "Frattali e computer animation." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/14685/.

Billström, Johan, and Alexander Fjellström. "3D-animation i reklamfilm." Thesis, Södertörn University College, School of Communication, Media and it, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-2597.

Study objects : Three different productions companies which the authors have chosen to be anonymous. Purpose : The purpose with this study is to examine why production companies choose to use 3D-animations in television commercials, and what different kind of aspects affects their decisions. Theoretical : The theoretical chapter reviews the history of 3D-animation andtelevision commercials and other fields that will be relevant laterin the analysis and discussion. Method : A case study has been made on three different companies, two of the companies are active in post-production and the other one is active in the consulting area. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with two of the companies. The last interview was conducted via e-mail. Conclusions : There were different ground aspects (economy, control, targetaudience, consumer impression) that affected a productioncompany’s decision in whether or not to use 3D-animation in theirproductions of television commercials.

Anders, Jörg. "Character-Animation mit Blender." Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, 2008. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-200800841.

Ottosson, Joakim, and Stefan Eriksson. "3D Animation Karlshamns AB." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för teknokultur, humaniora och samhällsbyggnad, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-1524.

Connor, Daniel F. "Simulating three-dimensional animation /." Online version of thesis, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11551.

MAGALHAES, MARCOS AMARANTE DE ALMEIDA. "THE TIME OF ANIMATION." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2015. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=25672@1.

Pickup, David Lemor. "Example-based water animation." Thesis, University of Bath, 2013. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607612.

Ezzat, Tony F. (Tony Farid). "Trainable videorealistic speech animation." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8020.

McGill, Jarrett. "Finding Personality in Animation." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2021. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/642.

PROVOT, XAVIER. "Animation realiste de vetements." Paris 5, 1997. http://www.theses.fr/1997PA055029.

Pegorier, Claire. "Animation d'acteurs de synthèse." Paris 8, 1995. http://www.theses.fr/1995PA081020.

Robert, Christian. "Animation en long sejour." Limoges, 1988. http://www.theses.fr/1988LIMO0179.

Ripp, Raymond. "Animation graphique et interactivité." Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg) (1971-2008), 1991. http://www.theses.fr/1991STR13081.

Zongker, Douglas. "Creating animation for presentations /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/6862.

Björkqvist, Sara. "A comparative study between factual animation and cartoon animation in a learning context." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Medie- och Informationsteknik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-130021.

Holmqvist, Lucas, and Eric Ahlström. "Comparing Traditional Key Frame Animation Approach and Hybrid Animation Approach of Humanoid Characters." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för kreativa teknologier, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-14813.

Safuoglu, Hikmet. "Within normal limits /." Online version of thesis, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11610.

Beccaletto, Stefano. "Leap Aided Modelling & Animation." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/13320/.

Wang, Huamin. "Practical water animation using physics." Diss., Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31745.

Blackstone, Eric A. "Hydrogen sulfide induced suspended animation /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5075.

Torstensson, Erik. "Physically-based Real-time Animation." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-10076.

The field of real-time computer animation is undergoing major changes, and many of the methods used to this point are no longer sufficient to achieve the degree of realism that is desired. There is a need for an animation method that provides greater realism, simpler ways to create animations, and more vivid and lifelike virtual creatures. This thesis suggests the possibility of doing that with a physically-based method, by researching current and alternative solutions, developing an architecture for a physically-based system, and describing an implementation of such a system.

Jokela, Juha. "Naturvetenskaplig animation inom QUASI-projektet." Thesis, Mälardalen University, Department of Innovation, Design and Product Development, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-238.

Denna rapport är en del i mitt examensarbete för att animera vad som händer i en jästcell när den utsätts för salt. Mälardalens Högskola deltar i ett EU-finansierat forskningsarbete kallat QUASI-projektet. Det är ett projekt som pågår mellan olika högskolor i Europa. Projektet forskar i biokemiska processer på cellnivå. Animationen är tänkt att hjälpa lärare och studenter att förstå ämnet bättre.

Allander, Karl, Jim Svanberg, and Mattias Klittmark. "Intresseväckande Animation : Utställningsmaterial för Mälsåkerprojektet." Thesis, Mälardalen University, Department of Innovation, Design and Product Development, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-703.

Under sommaren 2006 öppnar Mälsåker Slott för allmänheten och ett av de planerade projekten är en multimedial utställning om norrmän som tränades där i hemlighet under andra världskriget.

Författarna till denna rapport är alla studenter av informationsdesign, med inriktning mot illustration på Mälardalens Högskola. Då vi har ett stort intresse av animation föreföll detta projekt mycket intressant.

Vi ingick i en projektgrupp som innefattade dataloger, textdesigners samt illustratörer. Illustratörernas del av projektet var att skapa det visuella materialet på ett intresseväckande sätt. I rapporten undersöks möjliga lösningar för animation, manér, bilddramaturgi samt de tekniska förutsättningar som krävs för att skapa ett lyckat slutresultat. Rapporten beskriver tillvägagångssättet för att uppnå dessa mål vilket inkluderar metoder som litteraturstudier, diskussioner samt utprovningar. Utställningsformen är experimentell och arbetet har därför givit ett slutresultat som kan ses som en

fallstudie i sig.

Utprovningar av det färdiga materialet visar att vi efter förutsättningarna lyckats uppnå ett gott resultat. Animerat bildspel fungerar i sammanhanget bra som informativt utställningsmaterial.

Picard-Limpens, Cécile. "Expressive Sound Synthesis for Animation." Phd thesis, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 2009. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00440417.

Simmler, Urs. "Design Animation Option (DAO) Creo1.0." Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, 2011. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-68481.

Guler, Mehmet Soner. "3d Animation For Hand Preshaping." Master's thesis, METU, 2006. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12607117/index.pdf.

Thornton, Thomas Lance. "Computer animation of quadrupedal locomotion." Texas A&M University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/1400.

Chih-KuoYeh and 葉智國. "2.5D Cartoon Animation and Animating Streamlines." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/27984826403786047301.

盧雅宣. "Animation Ordering of Debugging Animation." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00915677810602616547.

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2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition features 7 artists

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Carrying on a tradition that began in 1970, seven graduate students from the School of Art will present their work in the 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition in collaboration with the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

The exhibition, “Leaving to Arrive,” with installations in UAMA and in the school’s Joseph Gross Gallery, will run from April 15 to May 10. A public reception is scheduled for May 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the School of Art’s lobby and atrium.

Featured will be the work of graduating MFA students Jacqueline Arias, Nathan Cordova, Drew Grella, Hanan Khatoun, Tessa Laslo, Anita Maksimiuk and Dana Smith .

This annual MFA Thesis Exhibition, the culmination of the Master of Fine Arts Studio Degree, is presented during a graduate student’s final semester in the three-year degree program. During the last year of their coursework, graduates work closely with faculty to develop a body of original art to present to the public in lieu of a written thesis. The result offers visitors the opportunity to see new, cutting-edge art in a variety of mediums and styles.

“This is the next generation of artists who will be going out and impacting the discipline and thinking about what their next chapter looks like,” School of Art Director Colin Blakely said.

A look at each student’s installation and their artist’s statement:

Jacqueline Arias

Title: “A Lived Experience”
Gallery: UAMA

The monumental engineering feat of the Panama Canal came at great cost: 40,000 people were displaced, and their villages submerged forever. During the construction of the canal over twenty thousand men and women, brought from the West Indies, lost their lives. Decades after these tragedies, I found myself on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, as an adoptee from Costa Rica, inhabiting foreign soil with a new identity and language. It was here where I forged a profound connection with the people and the culture of Panama.

This installation tells the story of these interconnected experiences. Utilizing rope and pulleys, I interrogate the ramifications of power structures on individual bodies and collective identities. The constructed knots reveal the ongoing legacy of imperialism. Rope and AI technologies are transformed from their roles as signifiers of power and control to find meaning and connection amid the tumultuous currents of displacement and cultural erasure. The individual strands and fibers of the dismantled rope reflect the complex paths carved by my lived experiences. My hands and body recode history both materially and digitally through embodied knowledge critiquing unethical adoption practices and labor exploitation in Panama.

“A Lived Experience” grapples with the trauma of colonial dehumanization and the yearning for reunion with one’s homeland and culture.

Nathan Cordova

Title: “Feeling a Future Coming”
Venue: UAMA

My project considers the potential of friendship and offers a pointed critique of institutions and our consumption of their products. Friendship is slippery and difficult to maintain. There are social and cultural taboos that attempt to constrain our friendships. This is a social experiment that breaks through the isolation we all feel. What does it say about our present moment where amidst profound loneliness, we desire visceral connections with each other to problematize the limits of our individual bodies? By inviting participation, I’m asking myself and my friends to step out of this isolation and to encounter each other anew. I’m valuing critical connections over critical mass, applying force on strategic pressure points that form the boundaries of typical friendships. There is a momentary embodiment of liberation in this act, as I re-imagine what is possible.

I appropriate and re-contextualize collections of digital images of western domination gathered from the internet. This involves engaging with both the visible architecture like the skyscraper, and the supposedly invisible infrastructure, such as data centers and military drones. Anger and pleasure play an important role, offering a means of embodiment and exploration of the collection’s emotional and sensorial dimensions. Through a material intervention, I challenge notions of fixed identity and embrace the fluidity and multiplicity of human experience. This interruption utilizes an interdisciplinary process of layered blurring that transforms their symbolisms into something elemental; liquid and flame, semen and squirting, embodied presence etching sunlight and sifting blood.

Blurring the boundaries between past and present, self, and other, I invite viewers to engage these collections on a visceral level through the presence of their own reflections in black acrylic surfaces mediated by images layered with physical ejaculate, traces of our sequential self-pleasure. Remixed marketing videos from The University of Arizona and Raytheon (now rebranded as RTX Corporation) point to their mutually beneficial relationship built on endless cycles of debt and death.

All of this works together to disrupt conventional modes of perception. Challenging the rigidity of these images as repositories of meaning and enforcers of social order, “Feeling a Future Coming” reconfigures their signifiers to a point of emergence, where all futures become possible again. Reclaiming agency over our bodies and desires is a fundamental step toward liberation, contributing to a more empathetic and introspective society that questions rigid authority and embraces the beauty of uncertainty.

Drew Grella

Title: “No Trespassing | Passing | Trespassing”

“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.” Bruce Chatwin

I moved to Tucson during the Covid-19 pandemic when everything was shut down. I spent a lot of time roaming the desert and the town. Walking in the liminal space of the dry Rillito riverbed was especially surreal, strewn with trash, memorials, votive sculptures, and lost possessions. While my body moved through this new and unique place, my mind mapped my impressions of nature, waste, and the boundaries between public spaces and private property.

Deliberate walking is simple and beautiful. It is my method for collecting the imagery which emerges when I draw. Intuitive drawing is simple and beautiful. It is my method for revealing to me what I did not know, what I cannot put into words. In the studio, the walking body becomes the drawing body, continuing a contemplative stroll.

Hanan Khatoun

Title: “Sheer”
Gallery: Joesph Gross

My separation from culture, language, and family as a member of the Lebanese Diaspora has driven my desire to narrate the experience of what happens after the sensationalizing of war and displacement wears off. The struggle of forging and finding space for one’s identity both within and outside the structures of culture, religion, and family is a reality for those who are generations removed from another home. I am a second-generation immigrant from Lebanon, one of the smallest countries in the world, yet the diaspora population outside the country is larger than that within. Being removed from one place and living in another is common in an increasingly globalized and colonized society. In what ways do we create space for navigating these realities?

“Sheer” is a physical space representative of my search for cultural identity. I construct a space for navigating this self-conception using familial archives, trinkets, documents, photographs, and oral storytelling. These all hold unique language and memory, which in turn, become proof of experience. Woven together they create an identity which I embrace and push against. The act of weaving enables me to explore how disparate things often come together to make a chaotic but contained whole. The work is viewed only at a distance through a fabric cage, indicative of the structures and barriers against which I struggle to understand my multicultural identity.

Tessa Laslo

Title: “Imprints”
Gallery: Joseph Gross

In my performative drawing and video works, I delve into the intricate web of personal trauma, investigating its impact on my body, relationships, and self-perception. The lingering effects of sexual assault has left me grappling with fragmented memories and physical scars while igniting a profound anger — an emotion that pervades my work and influences my ability to engage in intimate relationships.

The emotional and physical effects of this trauma are not portrayed as overwhelming obstacles in my work, but rather as integral components of an ongoing narrative. I revisit past abuse to illuminate the resilience and strength that can emerge from a process of artistic confrontation and self-discovery. Imprints combines cyanotype and soft pastels in large-scale drawings alongside a video installation using a twin-sized bed. I’ve opted for materials that lack any semblance of preciousness. The paper is weathered, beaten, and used; worn down by time and wear. Each crease and tear are reflections of the sense of violation that still affects my body and mind. The physicality of the paper, marked by violence, serves as a tangible manifestation of my emotions and experiences, grounding them in truth.

Anger, a powerful undercurrent in my artistic expression, stems not only from what I have experienced, but from the ongoing emotional and physical ramifications that are likely to persist throughout my life. It is a visceral response to the violation of my autonomy and the enduring consequences that ripple through my existence. This anger weaves itself into the fabric of my art, becoming both a driving force and an intense element that shape the narrative of my work.

Anita Maksimiuk

Title: “Infinity Stone: American Prawda”

As a printmaker, my work engages the symbology of migration, root-taking, rootlessness, and the urban environment. This is largely based on my experience as a first-generation American in Brooklyn, New York and beyond. Watching the city’s immigrant enclaves gentrify and lose their sense of sanctuary motivates me to document, preserve, and question the familiar through printmaking.

By creating cityscapes that deconstruct and reconfigure the iconic, I preserve both places and histories that fade along with the immigrant. As I move through this country, I keep in mind the glare of separation, the repairs I’ve made, and the fractures that remain.

“Infinity Stone: American Prawda” features primarily lithography, with screen printed elements. Historic mediums once prevalent in both fine art and advertising, these two processes challenge and contrast one another.

Methods of deletion, stencil and layer come together to form the printed image, all while honoring its ghost. These approaches allow me to subvert the traditional application of the lithography process, working the limestone surface until it becomes a source of light, color and texture. Starting with photographic images from my personal archive, I coax information out from the surface of the stone chemically. As the landscape is layered, removed and replaced, it begins to mimic the motions of an overdeveloped urban space.

I use the stone to create one-of-a-kind prints rather than producing editions. Using shifts in scale, photographic elements and a non-traditional approach to the process, I reclaim it as a tool of documentation, propaganda and mystery.

Pushing the lithograph beyond its traditional black and white, drawn image, the group of foldable posters presented here re-casts an iconic cityscape in an intimate light, worked into existence entirely by hand. Hung as banners, these images will travel, degrade, and return as I do.

Meant to be approached, the light and horizon that grounds these prints let the gaze linger while the viewer imagines, yearns, or simply remembers. This perspective alludes to an unattainable yet promising aspect of building a home, nationality and a claim to a city. The images take on an iconographic quality, representing a place that is constantly in motion. It is a horizon that is constructed over, bought, sold, and advertised as an object of desire. Here, it is reconstructed as a symbol of hope, haven, and history. It will tear but persist, both physically on paper and intangibly, within the child looking towards home.

Whether these prints become mementos or mirages, they ultimately take on the role of documents. I see my evolving work as a journey, a narrative and a documentary practice, bound within a fleeting medium.

Title: “The Sonoran Desert: A Model for Surviving the Sixth Extinction”

Since the Cambrian explosion over 500 million years ago, an astounding variety of exotic and resilient life forms have thrived and diversified throughout the world. Starting as primitive cells in a world slammed by catastrophic events, the life forms today in the rugged Sonoran Desert have developed extraordinary physical defenses key to their survival. This beautiful yet brutal desert inspired me to investigate the world of invertebrates and microorganisms, the survivors of multiple planetary catastrophes, whether gathered from a habitat in my backyard pond and examined under a microscope or encountered while roaming the desert.

Constructing oversized ceramic sculptures and drawings re-creates and interrogates the magnificent structures that these creatures have used as protection for survival. Bringing attention to these armored desert microorganisms and insects who have learned to adapt to extreme heat and long-term drought may teach us much as we enter the era of the Anthropocene. We can learn from their secrets as concern arises over our own adaptability.

Father inspires alum Trujillo’s Oppenheimer exhibit

Alshaibi, serafim named mellon-fronteridades faculty fellows.

What Do You See?

Tailgate Party

I fell down some stairs

Floral Arrangement

Half Off Special

Finished Papers

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