Date of Award
12-2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Legacy Department
Visual Arts
Committee Chair/Advisor
Detrich, David M
Committee Member
Wrangle , Anderson
Committee Member
Hung , Christina
Abstract
Have you ever been really secure in what it means to be? If not, it's ok. If so,
don't be delusional. Either way, I have created a series of devices that present the
challenges of self-division and fluctuation, and reveals this complicated human
characteristic not as a product of being broken, fractured, and dysfunctional, but as an
advantageous ability to adopt complex multiple perspectives, sometimes simultaneously.
These devices can be thought of as 'gym equipment' to exercise the more
immaterial, invisible portions of ourselves. Strengthening the connections between
physicality and the mental/emotional aspects of our bodies demonstrates an ability to
exist as a physical, psychic, and social instrument. Through direct physical engagement
users are made aware of how their desire to investigate each device further leads to selfexamination,
and the felt effects each device administers. With this shift in focus more
internal dialogues occur, discussing to what degree a specific individual is autonomous
(if at all), and to what extent we are contingent upon the characteristics of the spaces we
inhabit (particularly our interactions with others). As this dynamic takes place in a shared
social space (gym, gallery, park, mall) those willing and open to interact with the devices
can find themselves momentarily held in a liminal space between the device they decided
to interact with, and the group that is now observing their very public performance of
private doubt and discovery.
If you decide to physically participate with these unusual objects you will find
yourself in a variety of positions. These 'positions' can be thought of as physical
postures, mental perspectives, and social standings. As you occupy these devices,
undergoing various forms of transformation, remember that feelings of lack of control or
instability are present and analogous to other interactions and relationships that we
become involved in daily. The strangeness of these objects, and the peculiarities of the
tasks they solicit push and pull the emotions often felt when encountering something
different and external to ourselves to amusing extremes. Doing so equips those who
participate with a desire to further understand how they define themselves. These
experiences may be habit forming.
Recommended Citation
Stewart, Adam, "Magic Meat" (2011). All Theses. 1269.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1269