Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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This written and visual research project sets out to consider how the notion of opacity marks photographs of environmental despoliation. It argues that opacity can be a critically potent framework...Show moreThis written and visual research project sets out to consider how the notion of opacity marks photographs of environmental despoliation. It argues that opacity can be a critically potent framework in photographic practices that engage with the ecological crisis by means of its construction of more affective modes of communicating a phenomenon that is itself often marked by incomprehensibility. In doing so, it conducts a comparative visual analysis of two photographic series: Anthropocene by Edward Burtynsky and Oil and Moss by Igor Tereshkov. It concludes that Burtynsky’s series constructs an awesome visuality that pursues a revelatory approach but, in actuality, ends up reasserting a set of beliefs that are already widely known, consequently not inciting new, critical modes of contemplating the ecological crisis. Tereshkov’s work, on the other hand, works to recombine the aesthetic with the critical; focusing on the interactions between the images’ visuality and their tactility, this thesis argues that Oil and Moss’ critical potency is established by means of its destabilising, disruptive aesthetics of the opaque. The ecological crisis is also a crisis of imagination: as humans, we struggle to grasp and make sense of the scale and severity of the devastation that appears to be creeping closer and closer. As such, we are in need of new, innovative modes of imagining our physical environments and how we relate to them. Photography, in its simultaneous ability to remember the past, to contemplate the future, and to imagine alternative iterations of the present, is one itinerary through which that may be achieved.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
Neoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for...Show moreNeoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for various reasons, but usually rely on the notion of conveying to the viewer a certain set of skills. Since these media are therefore consumed for a specific purpose intended, the viewer already pre-establishes a certain attitude and understanding, and furthermore gains a reflective understanding of this phenomenon itself. This thesis aims to reconsider the notion of spectatorship through a lens of phenomenology, in order to reevaluate the idea of a spectator's own understanding of their experience of a medium, which this thesis names "cognitive spectatorship," and shows how the genre of instruction videos and this new viewing attitude play into the Neoliberal ideology.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2024-08-31
2024-08-31T00:00:00Z
The topic I discuss in this work is that of the practices of collecting and exhibiting of Orientalia at the turn of the Early-Modern period in Europe. In particular, I focus on the setting up of...Show moreThe topic I discuss in this work is that of the practices of collecting and exhibiting of Orientalia at the turn of the Early-Modern period in Europe. In particular, I focus on the setting up of rooms dedicated to the showcasing of goods coming from the Orient and analyse how the exhibiting practices altered the perception of the Orient in the European societies of that period. The main research question upon which this whole work is hinged is: how did the collecting and exhibiting practices of Orientalia change in Western society during the Early-Modern period, to what degree can the evolution of these practices be seen as a way for Westerners to familiarise with the Orient, and with what consequences for the understanding of the Orient in European Early-Modern society? In order to find an answer to this question, the analysis I propose here is devoted to the study of several objects, spaces and practices, not only from a historical but also theoretical perspective. The central case study of this work is the Rijksmuseum Lacquer Room (assembled in Leeuwarden at the end of the 17th century). However, this study takes its steps from an analysis of the way Orientalia were treated during the Middle Age and Late Renaissance and surveys the shift which took place during the Early-Modern period and the reasons behind it. Such a historical analysis takes place in the first two chapters of this work, where I first focus on Europe in general and then specifically to the case of the Early-Modern Netherlands. The last two chapters of this work are instead dedicated to a discussion linked to the theoretical aspects regarding the collections of Orientalia and their showcasing in Oriental-style Rooms. In particular, I focus on the concepts of domestication and on the agency of objects, and later on issues related to Orientalism and that of collecting as a gendered practice. Starting from this analysis I propose further insights on the conception of the Orient in the context of Early-Modern Netherlands and suggest new prompts for future research.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis explores how composting can be a fruitful practice and concept in contemporary art. Current artistic practices resonate with the planetary problems that arise when people tend to feel...Show moreThis thesis explores how composting can be a fruitful practice and concept in contemporary art. Current artistic practices resonate with the planetary problems that arise when people tend to feel disconnected from soil. There is an increasing awareness that soil is not merely dirt but is in fact essential for human and other life forms on Earth; still, the understanding of soil as a resource prevails. Composting is one way to counter soil-exhausting systems, such as industrial agriculture, and work towards a soil-nourishing approach since composting is the transformative decomposition of organic waste into nutrient-rich humus. Composting offers a means of caring for and relating to soil instead of disconnecting from it. Material and speculative facets of composting can be observed in art and enable to expand and review the agricultural practice and understanding of composting. The material and speculative qualities of artworks can urge a reconsideration of human relations with earth, soil and our planet, by making them sensible and imaginable. Therefore, the question that guides this thesis is as follows: how can we humans re-imagine our relationships with earth through material and speculative forms of composting in contemporary art? Composting entails a web of interdependent relations between humans and many non-human actors, such as microorganisms and the environment. In her book Staying with the Trouble (2016), the feminist biologist and philosopher Donna Haraway engages with this idea of composting in a metaphorical way to imagine the world as one big compost pile. Hence, it is in this composting world that humans must learn other ways to be part of planet Earth’s web of relations. The material aspects of composting in art are examined primarily on the basis of the exhibition M for Membrane (2020) by the artist TJ Shin at the Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center in New York City. The speculative possibilities of composting are mainly investigated through the artwork Untilled (2012) by the artist Pierre Huyghe at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. In dialogue with complementary theories, the analyses of contemporary artworks aim to develop ways to replenish Haraway’s concept of composting and substantiate the idea that art can be fertile soil for a flourishing world: art as humus.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
2022-08-31T00:00:00Z
How can you conceptualise a multi-layered and chronologically dense case study in its entirety without losing focus on the parts, and vice versa? This methodological problem lies at the heart of...Show moreHow can you conceptualise a multi-layered and chronologically dense case study in its entirety without losing focus on the parts, and vice versa? This methodological problem lies at the heart of this thesis, in which the seventeenth-century Roman church of Domine Quo Vadis will be used as a case study. Using a palimpsestic framework, this thesis sets out to explore the historical and material dimensions of the Domine Quo Vadis while also acknowledging its status as a mediator of the divine.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis offers an iconographic analysis of the architectural language with which the round church in the Ideal City of Urbino (unknown artist, c. 1480-1495) is depicted. With new insights on...Show moreThis thesis offers an iconographic analysis of the architectural language with which the round church in the Ideal City of Urbino (unknown artist, c. 1480-1495) is depicted. With new insights on the artist's most likely architectural as well as theological sources of inspiration for the round church's building structure and stylistic language, this research contributes to filling a gap in the vast literature on this Renaissance painting.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
closed access
Deze scriptie presenteert een geschiedenis van het beleid van het Gemeentemuseum Den Haag op het gebied van toegepaste kunst en vormgeving, in de periode 1980-2010. Tevens onderzoekt deze thesis in...Show moreDeze scriptie presenteert een geschiedenis van het beleid van het Gemeentemuseum Den Haag op het gebied van toegepaste kunst en vormgeving, in de periode 1980-2010. Tevens onderzoekt deze thesis in hoeverre meer inzicht wordt verkregen wanneer deze museale kroniek wordt getoetst aan de gelijktijdige ontwikkeling van een academische discipline. Twee vragen staan in dit onderzoek dus centraal. Met wat voor ideeën is toegepaste kunst en vormgeving in de periode 1980-2010 in het Gemeentemuseum verzameld en gepresenteerd? En hoe waardevol is het om deze geschiedenis te toetsen aan de gelijktijdige ontwikkeling van designgeschiedenis als wetenschappelijke discipline?Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis analyzes the art performance The Modern Procession, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Belgium-Mexican artist Francis Alÿs (1959), and performed on June 23,...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the art performance The Modern Procession, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Belgium-Mexican artist Francis Alÿs (1959), and performed on June 23, 2002, in New York City. By using interdisciplinary literary research and comparative media research, this unique performance is first studied from an art performance perspective, with a focus on art performances held on the streets. Secondly the performance is placed in the context of definitions of religious processions, and in the third chapter, the Modern Procession is analyzed from an anthropological and social-geographical standpoint. This thorough analysis does not only reveal the many layers of the Modern Procession, but also what happens when art is taken out of the museum and presented in a new context. By presenting the collection of the MoMA on the streets of New York, the connection between collections and museums is made clear: it is namely art that forms the real heart of a museum, not the building where it is displayed.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
closed access
‘The Making of Modern Art’ is a long-term exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that ostensibly presents the story of modern art. This thesis explores the significances and implications of...Show more‘The Making of Modern Art’ is a long-term exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that ostensibly presents the story of modern art. This thesis explores the significances and implications of this: how does presenting modern art history as a story, and specifically one that is ‘made’ in the present tense, challenge dominant forms of history that claim to be singular and objective, and how does an exhibition such as this implicate the art historian whose methodologies of writing and representation similarly tend to obscure their own historical position? ‘The Making of Modern Art’ uses copies of paintings, of exhibition form, and of modes of history-writing. These copies, I suggest, function as translations. By engaging with these copies as translations, I explore how originality, authorship and subject-object relationships might be conceived of differently in contemporaneous art historical practices. The contemporary is a historical position, and contemporaneous artistic practices that address or re-imagine modern art history might, or indeed should, have implications on how we continue to write and reinforce particular forms of history.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
Abstract The German exhibition documenta is inarguably one of the most well-known perennial exhibitions worldwide and takes part every four to five years in Kassel (Germany). The topic discussed in...Show moreAbstract The German exhibition documenta is inarguably one of the most well-known perennial exhibitions worldwide and takes part every four to five years in Kassel (Germany). The topic discussed in this MA thesis, is the 14th edition of documenta and its partial re-location to Athens (Greece) in 2017. This thesis is a critical examination of stereotypical assumptions about Greece’s past that were included in the discourse of the exhibition, and manifested through the public program Exercises of Freedom and the artwork The Parthenon of Books by Marta Minujín. Additionally, these case studies were analyzed based on their common participatory factor using theories of spectatorship by Claire Bishop and Jacques Rancière. This research demonstrates that the documenta14, in the cases of these artworks, conceptualized greek past through the dominant Eurocentric framework.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
The societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by...Show moreThe societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by taking on the Museo de América as a case study. The Museo de América was chosen due to the limited international scholarly literature on the relationship museums in Spain, a once powerful and important colonial power, have with contemporary museological discourse. The research question is therefore, to what extent is the Museo de América able to create ‘contact zones’ and capture the changing narrative about indigenous communities in the Americas. This thesis uses Anthony Shelton’s methodology underlying critical museology as a set of tools as well as James Clifford’s concept of ‘museums as contact zones’. This research provides a better understanding of how an ethnographic museum in Spain addresses the colonial and authoritative practices in which museums were built on. The analysis of the Museo shows that some of the Museo’s underlying curatorial practices are consistent with Shelton’s methodological interdictions. However it also identifies a few limitations to the Museo’s capacity to navigate the challenges of bridging historical and cultural gaps across centuries. The most significant being the lack of an indigenous voice regarding the conquest itself. By including indigenous voices and presenting them as active participants, museums can play a critical role in providing visitors with the tools to better understand the evolution of modern society’s values.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
closed access
In the last three decades, the world has changed tremendously because of the internet and new digital technologies. This change has affected the way how cultural institutions are working internally...Show moreIn the last three decades, the world has changed tremendously because of the internet and new digital technologies. This change has affected the way how cultural institutions are working internally and also the external interaction with the public. Starting from the 1990s onwards, digital exhibitions have evolved. Digital textile and dress exhibitions are not restricted by time or place and grant broad public access to the collection of institutions. With the case study of the Textile Research Centre (TRC), this thesis shows the benefits and limitations of digital textile and dress exhibitions for opening up access to heritage collections and analyzes its prejudices and barriers. The research is carried out through a literature review, an extensive critical visual analysis and a digital lace exhibition that has been conducted in the frame of this work. The analyzation shows that virtual exhibitions are more accessible when providing a user-friendly layout, quality images of the objects, and the quality of information.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
Rotterdam was een bloeiende koopvaardijstad in de zeventiende eeuw. Hoewel weinig bekend, was er een aanzienlijke groep kunstenaars actief. Aan de hand van kunstwerken die het dagelijks leven in de...Show moreRotterdam was een bloeiende koopvaardijstad in de zeventiende eeuw. Hoewel weinig bekend, was er een aanzienlijke groep kunstenaars actief. Aan de hand van kunstwerken die het dagelijks leven in de stad, in de kerk en op dan wel aan het water verbeelden, is een beeld geconstrueerd van een welvarende koopvaardijstad. Met behulp van teksten is nagegaan in hoeverre deze afbeeldingen een realistische impressie zijn. Onder het corpus is een schilderij aangetroffen waarop naakten te zien zijn die een bad nemen, terwijl een passagiersboot hen passeert.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
In the age of the Anthropocene, we are faced with unprecedented challenges; we have realized we are exploiting the Earth’s resources, society is becoming more complex, and urbanization is...Show moreIn the age of the Anthropocene, we are faced with unprecedented challenges; we have realized we are exploiting the Earth’s resources, society is becoming more complex, and urbanization is increasing at a rate never before witnessed. Understanding these challenges is loaded with uncertainty, both in defining the problems and how humanity should respond. One response is that of urban sustainability. Primarily addressed from the perspective of urban planning, urban sustainability focuses on infrastructural and technological solutions. This thesis posits that questions of sustainability in cities however cannot be disconnected from the cultural dimension. Using a comparative case study of two festivals – Burning Man and DGTL Amsterdam – the relationship between humans and their surroundings is explored. The analysis of the festivals focuses on the manifestation of ‘sustainability’ as a set of values through the artworks presented on the festival terrain and the framing of the festival experience. Political ecology theories are used as tools to explore the relationship between humans and their environment. Urban experimentation acts as a theoretical lens to understand the festival as a ‘microcosm’, a breeding ground for creativity and culture, and likening it to the city. The thesis presents a reading of urban festivals that outlines how culture can be introduced to urban sustainability research in response to questions to test political ecology in practice. In doing so, the thesis brings together the once disparate categories of human and nature.Show less
