Date of Award
Spring 5-30-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
Keetra Dean Dixon
Second Advisor
James Goggin
Third Advisor
Andrew Sloat
Abstract
This thesis examines the ways that a history of secular magic has shaped contemporary culture and design lexicons. It reviews modes of secular magic as design principles as well as the terms by which the meaning and value of these modes changed over time.
I carry on the legacy of magician filmmakers who thoughtfully questioned the material nature of their surroundings and tools in order to unearth new modes of visual experience. With film, delight drives invention which in turn strains vision and perception, requiring a certain collusion with the audience. My work celebrates the notion of the double take and the value of prompting an audience to look twice at their environment and to understand it as mutable.
Through constant interrogation of tactility, reconfiguration of the mundane and the craft of editing, I re-pose stories for the screen that court humor and delight as they tease out layered themes of human experience.
Recommended Citation
Buckley, Lake, "Double takes : secular magic & empathic vision" (2017). Masters Theses. 65.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/65
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