Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Media Studies

Reader 1

Friedlander

Reader 2

Gonzales-Day

Rights Information

© 2023 Rooney Glucksman

Abstract

Once I’ve decomposed, will you still use my parts; the objects and collections I leave behind?

Quilting myself into existence explores how dreamscapes function as non-real spaces for the construction of identity. This thesis focuses specifically on how the process of photography parallels dreams in the traditions of magical realism and surrealism; highlighting form not content. When examining identity in this thesis, I found my own material collections and memorabilia to be inseparable from myself. The nature of collections relies on their growth, change, and consumption. This thesis emphasizes individual identity as not so individual, and considers how we collectively weave identity through patterns and repetition. Collections surpass the value assigned to each individual object and metamorphose into a whole; creating individual identity. The process of quilting and weaving transforms collectively shared materials and textiles into individual artworks.

The photographic process of digital negatives is self-examination exemplified. What starts as an analogue photograph morphs into the abstract and surreal through digital manipulation. Thus, another image is born anew, transformed as a negative once again, captured as a silver gelatin print, and ready for its examination in perpetuity. The process of photography relies on the artistic choices the photographer makes, paralleling dreams in the sense that the artist’s unconscious permeates external reality.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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