Date of Award
Spring 5-30-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
James Goggin
Second Advisor
Lucinda Hitchcock
Third Advisor
Keetra Dean Dixon
Abstract
This thesis examines and retraces ways in which graphic design is fundamentally concerned with relational space, and tests spatialized theories, methods, and potential for praxis.
My practice investigates the relational qualities and dimensions of graphic design at three distinct scales.
1. Spatial logic (format) within a design object [Design space, book space, format, structure, sequence, counterforms, etc. (authority structure vs agency of user) within the design].
2. Spatial relations (sequence) between participants across a network. [Space to hear & see each other; to relate and connect].
3. Space within the world (circulation) [Space as composition, product, relational; not container, not fixed. Power and agency operating in physical space].
Through research, experiments, and projects, I examine the materiality of language in relation to the construction and composition of space.
Understanding how language is made to operate authoritatively in space, and how space as a composition can be reordered and interrupted, opens the possibilities for understanding & agency within the subjective, the interpersonal, and the environment.
Treating language and space as elastic allows us to see what is as only one version of what might be. This re-visioning becomes generative in its potential for affective strategies towards connection and collaboration, and a catalyst for organizing and action.
Recommended Citation
Leeper, Elizabeth, "Space as a practiced place" (2017). Masters Theses. 58.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/58
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