Eli Brooke BFA Printmaking Thesis Spring 2021

transcription as a devotional practice

transcription as a devotional practice

Part of what makes humans successful as a species is how we seek out patterns and create stories to make sense of them. These entwined processes help us understand how to navigate the world in which we find ourselves. Understanding this need for meaning-making as embedded in the intersections of history, family, and culture begins to explain why our perceptions as individuals or groups can be so different and at odds. If we pay attention to larger patterns, this understanding offers possibilities for imagining beyond the cultural traps we find ourselves caught in.

My practice is a personal one, my instinctive way of taking notes for re-story-ing our shared reality. I create ephemeral work, transforming everyday office and school supplies into conduits for meaningful contemplation by centering texts that have reshaped my understanding of the world and my place in it. By methodically transcribing the well-crafted words of storytellers whose worldviews resonate with my own, I transmute their meanings through my body, elevating and infusing them into temporarily sacred objects. This practice and its artefacts help me to remember what makes sense to me while navigating a world that often doesn’t. The work I make is meant to be handled and examined, taken apart, reassembled, contemplated, and returned to, and is one of a kind. I don’t make these pieces to sell or put in a gallery, but occasionally they emerge as a potential bridge to a conversation.

My thesis year coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic; the importance of virtual communication and documentation during this time cannot be overstated. While a website can’t replace the experience of physically touching, interacting with, and manipulating the work, it is quite useful for making it accessible to more people over an indefinite time period. As I made choices to display these pieces virtually as simply and interactively as possible, the website itself became integral to my thesis work as a whole. Where I had originally imagined a physical library of the books included in a viewing, I have been able to embed external multimedia links for viewers to research further into these writers and thinkers. My hope is that the way I’ve engaged with these words aesthetically will allow a cumulative meaning to emerge across and among the voices included, whose work has profoundly influenced my personal evolution.

Olive Stephens BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Yu Zhong BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Gabriela Watson BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Chloe Zock BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Anna Peterson BFA Printmaking Thesis Spring 2021

Kaitlyn Petrik BFA Intermedia Thesis Spring 2021

Jens Pettersen BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Sharlene Prosser BFA Sculpture Thesis Spring 2021

Emma Reiter BFA Printmaking Thesis Spring 2021

Lindsey Rhoads BFA Sculpture Thesis Spring 2021

Noah Beckham BFA Painting Thesis Spring 2021

Susannah Becket BFA Graphic Design Thesis Spring 2021

Christian Bengel BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Rachel Bondesen Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Yasmin Correa BFA Painting Thesis Spring 2021

Ryan Zweber Sculpture BFA Thesis Spring 2021

Kamrin Matlock BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Tristan Matlock BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Jazmine Monks BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Mazey Moon BFA Sculpture Thesis Spring 2021

Taylor Nicholson BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Korine Parreno BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2021

BFA Thesis Portfolios SP21 (Illustration Thesis Portfolios)

Gray Roberts BFA Video + Sound Thesis Spring 2021

Nicole Sagal BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Jason Scheuermann BFA Graphic Design Thesis Spring 2021

Kamaryn Schneider BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Frey Soares BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Linnea Cat Stahura BFA Intermedia Thesis Spring 2021

Ross Stevens BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Cazzie Starrk BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Kali Wallner BFA Photography Thesis Spring 2021

Eli Brooke BFA Printmaking Thesis Spring 2021

Devin Crandell BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2021

Kirsten Driggers BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Marina Dwor-Frecault BFA Intermedia Thesis Spring 2021

Emily Ferguson BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Chloe Greve BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Emma Harris BFA Painting Thesis Spring 2021

Olivia Harwood BFA Painting Thesis Spring 2021

Beth Jensen BFA Illustration Thesis Spring 2021

Kiana Lamberton BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Spring 2021

Jeff Lippincott BFA Painting Thesis Spring 2021