Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
Paul Soulellis
Second Advisor
James Goggin
Third Advisor
Ryan Waller
Abstract
FUTURE AS MEDIUM through critical examination develops a working premise for advancing designed visualizations of the future. In an effort to build new models of practice that consciously work towards the future, I undertake a set of delicate negotiations rooted in critical inquiry as well as creative production, all expressed across three temporal contingencies: yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I work the terrain of the past as an assembled archive of speculative worlds created by architects, designers, and artists, and problematize the mediation of futures through a close reading of their world-building tools. I use this archive to make sense of my overall visions and methodology, always looking to the future.
In the present, I measure these accounts against the ideological and systemic biases of designers and the complex world we inhabit, allowing opportunities for nuance, true plurality, and the incorporation of diversity for effective social engagement.
Tomorrow explores adaptive models for an alternative pedagogical framework and the invention of new visualization strategies. Behaving like an “ologist”, taking a somewhat scientific and ethnographic approach to understanding my subject matter and intended audience, I finally ask (and attempt to answer) these questions: Are there ways for us to build multiple yet collective futures? Can we use the future as medium?
Recommended Citation
Nolan, Georgie, "Future as medium" (2021). Masters Theses. 678.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/678
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Comments
View exhibition online: Georgie Nolan, Future as Medium