Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
Kathy Wu
Second Advisor
Anther Kiley
Third Advisor
Clement Valla
Abstract
I do whatever I can to not work on my laptop. But when I do, I'm greeted with the pristine landscape of Mac OS Tahoe — it was Mac OS Sequoia for a long time until recently. These default wallpapers are engineered layers composing an image: mediated, highly designed, presented as though they were simply found. Where an image lives determines what it means.
From the digital camera to the phone camera, effortless distribution, infinite storage: photography has reshaped not just how we make images but what we think they're for. I'm as interested in moving existing images around as I am in making new ones. The systems that organize and distribute images — operating systems, satellite maps, Google Image search, interstate signage, disposable print — always leave a remainder. Something that wasn't supposed to mean anything. A broken tile where resolution runs out. A placemat. A paperweight.
That remainder is where I work. It's what gets lost when we consume images at the speed and volume that screens make possible, and what I keep trying to recover. I don't recover it by making something singular and authored. I work with anonymous, throwaway, mass-produced images and find the aura hiding inside them.
Recommended Citation
Kim, Faith, "Mediated Landscapes, Image Road Trip" (2026). Masters Theses. 1644.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1644
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.