Suffering: A search for meaning

James E. McGinley

Statement of Purpose
In his Divine Comedy, Dante laments .In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself within a dark wood, where the straight way was lost.. Like Dante, we also often seek to find our way; to understand our own dark wood. Unfortunately, our path is often blocked. This essay explores such a block to the moral understanding of our lives . suffering. It offers no solution because I believe understanding can only come from within - whether prompted by existential compassion, inexpressible insight, or grace. Fortunately, we are not alone in our search. We can stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, whose literature, philosophies, and experiences both challenge and enrich us. It is upon these luminaries on which this essay builds. The purpose of this essay is not to convince; rather, it is to explore. It accepts our common moral freedom and is an attempt to cast my own weak light onto our universal search for the meaning of suffering within our lives.

Reclaiming Urban Riverfronts

Mohamad Kashef

Statement of Purpose
Over the last several decades, riverfronts in many American and Canadian cities have been neglected, blocked by highways, encased by concrete walls, or abandoned by industrial facilities that have moved to outlying suburbs. The purpose of this conceptual intervention is to reclaim the riverfront in the city of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada as a major recreational and economic resource for the region. The Great River slices through the downtown of the city of Cambridge, creating a picturesque urban environment that can be enjoyed only through peering outside the edges of formidable 10-foot concrete walls that jacket both sides of the river (Fig. 1). The proposed design project opens a quarter-mile stretch of the concrete wall facing the downtown area and creates a multi-level river landing (Fig. 2) that provides recreational opportunities for downtown residents and visitors.



Signatures of Human Movements: Understand Gestural Content Using Motion Capture Trajectories  Gongbing Shan

Statement of Purpose

Unlike any kind of artistic representation, motion capture is faithful to nature. Therefore, the trajectories obtained from human movement using 3D motion capture technology shows the beauty of the nature of our movement, which has never been revealed before with scientifically proven accuracy. For faithfully conveying the beauty of complex and multi-segmental human motion, this paper tries to initiate the exploratory Pattern-Finding of the movement in order to unveil more hidden beauties and art from our nature.


 

Lugh
Michael Maguire
 

Statement of Purpose
I produce a series of contemporary “mythic creatures:” large-scale, figurative sculptures visually
rooted in the prehistoric and medieval imagery of Ireland. In my artwork, I have been challenged
to apply certain ancient world methodologies, designs and surface treatments to realize a
contemporary idea/image. I have been exploring monolithic forms based upon the art of ancient
Ireland for over ten years. The rough and often crude, weathered imagery strikes me as true:
basic and powerful archetypal forms and patterns emanating from the gut or the unconscious,
rather than from a “focus group” or marketing survey. I am also impressed with the ability of
artisans from earlier times to make incredible artwork without elaborate mechanisms and
systems. The resourcefulness of its makers and the expedient immediacy of the work challenge
me to seek the more direct, simple route to produce my own work. Working primarily in clay, I
have produced a series of sculptures based upon the megalithic standing stones that dot the Irish landscape, and a series influenced by the rigid wooden Celtic Shercock figures. My fascination  with ancient artwork is similar to that of early modernist artists, such as Joan Miro,   

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, all of who collected artwork and images from ancient and so-called primitive cultures.


 

Fernery at Morris Arboretum
Michael R. King
 

Statement of Purpose

This is a series of three photographs of a piece of historical architecture. The fernery at Morris Arboretum is the last freestanding Victorian fernery in North America. I have always been drawn to the dichotomy of this structure: it is old and yet futuristic looking at the same time; the interior climate is static and warm while the weather and seasons continually change beyond the glass; and the enclosed ferns provide a tranquil contrast to the outside din of an urban park.


 

The Troubles with Terry: What the Career of An ‘Independent Auteur’ Can Tell us About Creativity in the Filmmaking Industry  Kevin Corbett
 

This critical essay overviews Gilliam‟s career, including an analysis of the stylistic and thematic patterns present in his films. In doing so, this essay will attempt to situate Gilliam within the larger film community/industry, addressing the question of whether or not he is in fact an indie auteur. Finally, this essay will show that lessons learned from Terry‟s troubles include the problematic role of the creative process within the economically determined environment that is modern filmmaking, even independent filmmaking.

POSED: Michelangelo as Choreographer
Shawn T Bible
 

I am interested in a physical embodiment and movement analysis of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti’s (1475-1564) creative influences in posing the human form. POSED is a modern dance resulting from physical and biblical research of Michelangelo’s figures in the frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in an effort to determine his merit as a choreographer. Michelangelo painted people in a choreographed fashion expressing muscular tension and perceived motion, much like a dance utilizes human bodies as architecture in space to convey specific kinesthetic responses. Analytically, Michelangelo was choreographing his subjects to convey discernible biblical narratives and obtain specific physical reactions from his viewers and should be credited.


 

Twenty Kernel Sentences about a Newborn
Greetings from the Course Syllabus
Four Ways to Fix April

Roy F. Fox
 

The three poems included here, like much of 20th century poetry, are personal, even

confessional, in nature. However, they are likewise sufficiently impersonal, allowing the “voice” of

each to focus not on the individual speaking, but on the issue at hand, poking fun at the

institutions of parenthood, higher education, and the popular self-help movement. These poems

can be considered “List Poems” or “Catalog Verse,” basically lists, like we take to the grocery

store. This most elemental of structures is maybe our most ancient poetic form, while at the same time, the most contemporary. Lists appear throughout the history of many cultures—from the Bible, to the works of Homer and Virgil; from the poetry Milton, to the prose of Kerouac; from

Whitman, to the 1950s “Burma Shave” signs along American roadways; from Hopkins’ spiritual

litanies, to the lyrics of Bob Dylan. This basic list form is especially suited to our own fragmented,

high-speed, data-drenched lives. Contemporary influences are visible in the poems here, in their

appropriation of non-literary genres; in their “echoes” of other texts; and in the speaker’s sense of isolation and paranoia, barely held at bay through a teetering sense of humor.

SWART: A Natural Pairing
Lou Storey
 

SWART, the combination of art and social work, is a natural pairing that has informally
existed in different contexts in the history of art, but has not, until now, been directly named. Art
and social work are both difficult to define: no single statement can encompass all of the rich
possibilities. In an attempt to articulate its mission the National Association of Social Workers
(NASW) created a Code of Ethics. One of the basic tenets of this code is that social workers must use their skills to challenge social injustice. The use of art toward this same goal, regardless of historic or stylistic allegiance, but framed from the perspective of content and intent, can be understood as SWART. A well know example of this combination can be seen in the midtwentieth century with the famous American collagist and social worker Romare Bearden. His vibrant and socially conscious artworks, produced off-hours on weekends and evenings, strongly reflected social work ethics. Unlike other artists, such as Pierre Bonnard who in the 1890s left a law practice to be an artist, or Paul Gauguin who in 1885 jettisoned a life in banking for his art, Bearden’s career as a social worker was intrinsic to his art and a direct source of inspiration.