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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Art
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
steve snell, alec baldwin, adventure art, mfa thesis quest
Abstract
I went into the wilderness and I found Alec Baldwin. This is not a lie. It is also a title for a video installation and this thesis. In it, I investigate three separate adventure-performances, providing a theoretical context for their existence, meaning, and relationship as a form of artistic practice. I call this practice ‘adventure-art’, using the term to describe a performance-based action in which the artist publically explores his or her reality through some type of physical adventure, search, quest, or challenge. It is an attempt to engage oneself and others at both at the physical and mediated levels, reconciling, confusing, and merging the real with the simulated. In this thesis, I explore the confluence of consumption, creativity, the real, and the simulated within American popular culture from the perspective of a middle-class, suburban, white-male, art student – me, Steve Snell.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/1949591
First Advisor
Jerry Kearns
Second Advisor
Mario Ontiveros