This Master thesis has conducted a research centring around freedom in videogames. Via means of Ubisoft’s action-adventure videogame Assassin’s Creed II (2009) this thesis aims to determine the...Show moreThis Master thesis has conducted a research centring around freedom in videogames. Via means of Ubisoft’s action-adventure videogame Assassin’s Creed II (2009) this thesis aims to determine the extent in which the player is free and able to experience freedom in both Assassin’s Creed II individually, as well as compared to three videogames to provide a contextualised framework specifically for Assassin’s Creed II as is used in the methodological framework of this thesis. The three compared videogames being Minecraft (2011), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), and Halo Wars (2009) have worked towards providing a contextualised answer in discussed modes of freedom as depicted and present in Assassin’s Creed II. Via both surface layer narrative and underlying structural algorithmic build of videogames, Assassin’s Creed II has been analysed using a philosophical approach via theories and debates on freedom, as well as via the use of algorithmic models and the potential dangers algorithms pose in regards to the player-experience of freedom in videogames. Ultimately, this thesis uncovered the potential dangers of algorithms within Assassin’s Creed II, and thereupon via the compared videogames the potential controlling-tendencies of the use of algorithms in the digital environment.Show less
The Album of Drawings (object number: PK-T-AW-xxx) housed in the University of Leiden's Special Collections presents a compelling enigma within art history. Comprising 80 intricately executed pen...Show moreThe Album of Drawings (object number: PK-T-AW-xxx) housed in the University of Leiden's Special Collections presents a compelling enigma within art history. Comprising 80 intricately executed pen and brown ink drawings embellished with grey wash, these depictions meticulously portray episodes from the Old Testament. The illustration spans Genesis through Judges, highlighting the relationship between God and His people and the latter’s struggles, faith and challenges as they define their identity and purpose, guided by divine intervention and historical context. Measuring around 4.2 × 5.6 cm, each drawing showcases remarkable detail and skill. The elusive identity of the artist adds an intriguing dimension to the collection. This research aims to uncover the album's history, the artist's pictorial references, the drawings' purpose, their likely creation date, and their status as copies or original works. Employing an object-oriented methodology, the study combines visual and iconographical analyses with examination of relevant literature and technical resources, including watermark and transfer techniques. The album consists of two sections: eight drawings of fruits and nuts, believed to be created by the album's owner, and 80 Old Testament drawings attributed to an anonymous Netherlandish artist, potentially originating after 1659. Visual scrutiny suggests that most drawings are adaptations of widely disseminated contemporary prints, drawing inspiration from prominent artists like Antonio Tempesta, Jost Amman, and Pieter Hendricksz. Schut. These drawings display thematic and compositional correlations with identified sources, hinting at the artist's access to a diverse array of visual materials. The sequential arrangement of scenes echoes a picture Bible, possibly intended for broader distribution through printing. The inquiry into whether these biblical drawings are copies or original creations is pivotal. Despite drawing from existing compositions—a prevalent practice—evidence suggests deliberate alterations, infusing them with a distinct style, emotional depth, and focus on human actions. These modifications, coupled with the amalgamation of diverse sources, elevate the drawings beyond mere reproductions. The artist's conscientious choices underscore the intricate interplay between artistic value and intended purpose. In conclusion, this research provides an in-depth exploration of the Album of Drawings, shedding light on its historical context, artistic origins, and potential functions. Through meticulous analysis, the study enhances our understanding of Netherlandish biblical illustration in the seventeenth century and fosters a deeper appreciation for these captivating pen drawings.Show less
This thesis explores the decolonial concept of 'pluriversal' presented in the institution of Framer Framed Amsterdam through the exhibition "To those who have no time to play" by Russian...Show moreThis thesis explores the decolonial concept of 'pluriversal' presented in the institution of Framer Framed Amsterdam through the exhibition "To those who have no time to play" by Russian performance artist Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya). It uses concepts, theories, and analysis methods of decolonial praxis and museology. Thus this thesis examines the role of pluriversality in the exhibition through various applications and proceeds to approach the exhibition as decolonially as academically possible.Show less
The importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as...Show moreThe importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as themselves as artist designers. Little attention has been paid to the labelling practices of nineteenth-century dressmakers, although it is known to have been widely applied. Just as few women have been identified while the dressmaking trades were a female dominated industry. For the Netherlands in particular, it is interesting to examine dressmakers and their labelling practices as the lack of Dutch couturiers made Dutch dressmakers the most important figures in the Dutch dressmaking trades of the nineteenth century. This thesis aims to identify Dutch dressmakers through their labels while questioning to what extent late nineteenth-century Dutch dressmakers used their labels for branding their fashion houses and how this related to the Western European fashion practice. The Dutch labelling and dressmaking practices are contextualised and compared with their Western European counterparts through literature analysis and stylistic object-based analysis of labels found in five Dutch museums and seven museums from across Western Europe. The exceptionality of these labelling practices in a female dominated industry is explored as a notion of female agency through the concepts of feminisation, female individualisation and authorship. In addition, this thesis examines how the commercial significance of a dressmaker’s name as a brand name manifested itself in a dressmaker's labels and advertisements. This research results in fourteen biographies of Dutch dressmakers whose labels, together with the Western European labels, can be divided in three stylistic categories. It shows that the strength of the label as a branding tool laid in the continuous use of the same design, just like a signature. This thesis argues that the strongest example of female agency lies in the dressmaker’s name on the label which speaks of an awareness of her own originality and individuality, while at the same time publicly claiming her authorship.Show less
For this research, I investigated a selection of prints of Atlas Van Stolk, to substantiate the claim that they encourage critical thought and public debate. With an art-historical analysis of...Show moreFor this research, I investigated a selection of prints of Atlas Van Stolk, to substantiate the claim that they encourage critical thought and public debate. With an art-historical analysis of these works, I demonstrate that the cooperation between Atlas Van Stolk and the Rotterdam Public Library makes them as a whole greater than a sum of its parts. A brief overview of the task that the Rotterdam City Council has set to make Atlas Van Stolk publicly accessible, provides insight into the future aims of the Van Stolk collection. A historical analysis of the origins and collection policy explains the role and function of the collection to serve both historical and public interest: now and in the future. A subsequent analysis of the library as a public space sheds light on its mission and public policy and explains its position to expose heritage to a wide audience. The outline of the history, present, and future substantiates the connection between Atlas Van Stolk and the Rotterdam Public Library to actively pursue social development and education. An art-historical analysis of nineteen newsprints from the time 1500-1815 demonstrates that the combination of entertainment and education in these prints makes newsprints an inherently publicly engaging medium. Theoretical analysis of the intermediality of a selection of prints explains their educational and entertaining function because of the interplay between text and image. The public sphere and the public space come together because the library functions to create a democratic environment that stimulates critical thought, active citizenship, and community participation. The outcomes of the theoretical analysis and the methodology are translated into present-day cultural values of democracy and critical citizenship within the public sphere by means of the exhibition proposal.Show less
This study reconfigures museum visitors’ art experience in the digital age through a transdisciplinary analysis based on digital ethnography, media phenomenology, and affect theory. Through...Show moreThis study reconfigures museum visitors’ art experience in the digital age through a transdisciplinary analysis based on digital ethnography, media phenomenology, and affect theory. Through interviewing visitors of the Nxt Museum, Amsterdam, this thesis investigates the ways in which persons engage with and are present in front of the hypermediated installation art in the exhibition Unidentified Fluid Other (June 2022–September 2023). The immersive and spatial qualities of the installations retain an enticing quality that are a popular photographic motif for visitors and designate the institution as a heterotopic environment. Moreover, the installations possess an alluring aesthetics of hypermediation that provokes profound, embodied and affective sensations in their viewers. Instagram usage and smartphone photography hereby significantly reshape and restructure visitors’ attention and behavior in the gallery space, resulting in a remediation of their embodied experiences via the hand-held device that oscillates between a desire for immediacy and profuse hypermediation. In renegotiating their sense of presence and sense of selves in the art experience, visitors resort to a dual engagement with the installations whereby they actively experience the art with and without their phones. This research therefore identifies smartphone photography as an additional trajectory in the contemporary museum experience, as an extension of the visitors’ selves. The effects of smartphone remediation on embodied affectivity and presence of visitors in art spaces thus retain beneficial qualities which may inform cultural institutions and art historical research at large.Show less
JODI, a famous artist duo and one of the pioneers of Internet art, started exploring the Internet as an artistic practice in the mid-nineteen nineties. The work wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (1995) will be...Show moreJODI, a famous artist duo and one of the pioneers of Internet art, started exploring the Internet as an artistic practice in the mid-nineteen nineties. The work wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (1995) will be exhibited in the upcoming exhibition REBOOT, among other influential works from the Netherlands. However, how is an online, non-physical artwork exhibited in the context of a physical exhibition? This thesis will look at five different exhibitions in which Jodi.org was displayed and analyze how the work behaved differently depending on the social context and time. By looking at the social biography, through different behaviors of the work, across these five different moments, this thesis aims to design a display model for the upcoming exhibition REBOOT. The designed display is an innovative way of approaching the online work wwwwwwwww.jodi.org and carrying it out into the physical realm.Show less
This thesis demonstrates that the famous British painter J.M.W. Turner should not just be seen as a painter of landscapes and marine paintings, but also as a topographical artist. Topography, the...Show moreThis thesis demonstrates that the famous British painter J.M.W. Turner should not just be seen as a painter of landscapes and marine paintings, but also as a topographical artist. Topography, the representation of specific places or monuments, played a major role throughout his career. Proof of this can be found not only in the sketches, drawings, and paintings that he produced, but also in his training and teaching. Moreover, this thesis touches upon the influence of reproduction techniques and the importance of his social network for Turner's topographical production.Show less
In 1992, the High Court of Australia took the radical step of breaking with Australian legal precedent to determine that the continent was not, in fact, terra nullius at the time of British...Show moreIn 1992, the High Court of Australia took the radical step of breaking with Australian legal precedent to determine that the continent was not, in fact, terra nullius at the time of British colonisation. As a result of this landmark case, Indigenous Australians became able to obtain recognition of Native Title over their traditional lands and waters. This fundamental change to Australian land law has required the legal system to accept Indigenous forms of evidence as claimants seek recognition of Native Title. In some instances, this evidence has taken the form of contemporary, acrylic paintings: specifically, Ngurrara Canvas II in Application of the Ngurrara People, and Women’s Native Title Painting and Men’s Native Title Painting in Application of the Spinifex People. While scholars from anthropology, art history, legal studies, Indigenous studies and cultural studies have examined the use of these paintings in Native Title claims, assertions by most of these researchers that the paintings constitute evidence in the legal meaning of the word have not been securely bedded in an appropriate interdisciplinary framework. Taking an interdisciplinary approach spanning the fields of art history and law, this thesis asks how the National Native Title Tribunal and the Federal Court of Australia have determined the probative value of these acrylic on canvas artworks by Indigenous Australian claimants in Native Title claims. In doing so, it examines how Australian art historian Rex Butler’s concept of “meaningfulness without meaning” (drawn from a discussion regarding the relationship between Indigenous art and Abstract Expressionism) can clarify how decision makers treat painted evidence. The thesis concludes that when determining Native Title claims, decision makers may legitimately accept Indigenous artworks as evidence of continuous connection to Country which the law requires, without requiring an understanding of what an artwork ‘means,’ and that these artworks can be considered transitional objects which transcend legal understandings of tradition.Show less
This MA thesis explores the relationship between human experience, the interface theory of perception, and consciousness through the artistic project Listening Space. The project, conducted by...Show moreThis MA thesis explores the relationship between human experience, the interface theory of perception, and consciousness through the artistic project Listening Space. The project, conducted by Afroditi Psarra and Audrey Briot, involves intercepting and decoding NOAA weather satellite audiovisual transmissions using a DIY satellite tracking station and a weaving machine. This research employs a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from art history, neuroscience, philosophy, and physics, to investigate two dimensions of the human experience: the physical and the metaphysical. The first chapter focuses on the human physical experience, utilizing the reversed engineered methodology of Erwin Panofsky and iconographic analysis to explore the symbolic values and meaning of artworks. It examines the ecologies of Listening Space, such as human-centered computing, interface design prototyping, environmental sciences, information visualization, binaries, and weaving, in relation to Donald Hoffman's interface theory of perception. This chapter tests the extent to which Listening Space illuminates the physical human experience against Hoffman's theory. The second chapter delves into the metaphysical human experience and its connection to idealistic philosophical theories by Wayne M. McDonnell, Itzhak Bentov, and Bernardo Kastrup. It explores consciousness, space-time, energy, vibration, frequency, and the limitations of Hoffman's theory. Through an analysis of Listening Space's ecologies, the chapter investigates how the project can shed light on the metaphysical human experience and its relationship with idealistic perspectives. The research findings reveal that Listening Space effectively merges technology and artistic exploration, transforming invisible transmissions into tangible representations. It serves as a platform to explore the metaphysical human experience, highlighting cosmic consciousness. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of art, specifically Listening Space, to provide deeper insights into the human experience and the realities beyond. The project's ecologies align with philosophical theories on consciousness and propose a way of metaphorically portraying the human brain as a fractal antenna. By intertwining theoretical concepts with Listening Space, this study tries to enrich our understanding of the physical and metaphysical dimensions of human existence and invites contemplation of universal consciousness.Show less
This thesis is set to study depictions of motherhood in contemporary art that portrays inter-species relationships. Through the case studies of two specific artworks, Maja Smrekar’s Hybrid Family...Show moreThis thesis is set to study depictions of motherhood in contemporary art that portrays inter-species relationships. Through the case studies of two specific artworks, Maja Smrekar’s Hybrid Family and Ai Hasegawa’s I Wanna Deliver a Dolphin…, this thesis investigates how they offer different solutions to the nature-culture divide. For the relevance to the academic fields of posthumanism, feminism, and environmental studies, the method of discourse analysis was used to unearth important terms, concepts, and theories which were applied to the case studies to answer the question: What possibilities do Smrekar's and Hasegawa's works offer in an attempt to resolve the nature-culture binary and renaturalize cultural issues regarding motherhood and kinship? The topics, discourse, and case studies are relevant today, as they highlight and question societal and cultural structures that uphold an unjust system that has actively been harming humans, animals, and the environment. A posthumanist and feminist approach is an attempt to view these issues from different angles and study whether the artworks of Hasegawa and Smrekar offer useful insights into tackling the nature-culture divide.Show less
Around the years 1630s, the artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) asked his pupil Abraham Van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675) to travel to Paris and accomplish a set of drawn copies after frescos made a...Show moreAround the years 1630s, the artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) asked his pupil Abraham Van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675) to travel to Paris and accomplish a set of drawn copies after frescos made a century before by the Mannerist artist Francesco Primaticcio and his assistant Niccolò dell'Abbate in different Parisian châteaus. In the year 2020, a hitherto unpublished group of 17 drawings and counterproofs by Van Diepenbeeck from this commission arose in the collections of the Rubenianum in Antwerp. This thesis explores the enterprise, with special attention to this set of 17 drawings and counterproofs. Moreover, it analyses the use that Rubens made of these drawn copies, back in his Antwerp workshop, as fundamental sources of inspiration for his future artworks.Show less
The Tokyo National Museum is considered to be the oldest national museum in Japan, finding its origins in the Yushima Seidō exposition of 1872. As such, the various changes of the institution...Show moreThe Tokyo National Museum is considered to be the oldest national museum in Japan, finding its origins in the Yushima Seidō exposition of 1872. As such, the various changes of the institution throughout its history give an impression of the development of the Japanese concept of a museum. This Master thesis takes a closer look at several historical examples of traditional Japanese exposition practices, the advent of the modern museum in Japan, and various Western influences on Japanese culture during the 19th and 20th century. By presenting this overview, this thesis aims to present a better understanding of significant cultural differences between traditional methods of display in the West and in Japan. By observing the historical development of the Tokyo National Museum, as well as the more modern installations which were part of the exposition celebrating the museum’s 150th anniversary, the institution provides a case study illustrating the confluence of non-Western traditional display practices and the Western concept of a modern museum.Show less
