Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.
Theses that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Title
Access Type
Campus Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Art
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2009
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
painting, identity, order, definition, power, panoptic
Abstract
This essay is an introduction to the context and processes of ‘undefinition’ in the work of the author.
Through fragmentation of the original image, the depicted image problematizes identification. Gaps in the portrayal allow for personal interpretation to bias the definition in order to make our perception visible.
Definitions are the means of power, and we primarily order and define the world visually. Foucault describes this as Panoptic technology. Unless we learn to understand how we see individually, authoritarian definitions will remain the de-facto means of operating powerfully.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/836806
First Advisor
Shona Macdonald
Pillar of Box Frames and a Formation of Dividuals made up of 12 columns each of 12 Strata
_MG_8098.jpg (2564 kB)
Columns of Dividuals seen through a Box Frame
_MG_8068.jpg (3247 kB)
Formation of Dividuals in 7 Columns of 12 Strata and Pillar of Box Frames