Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2015

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Author's Department/Program

Art (Sculpture)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

Abstract

Humankind’s continual creation of and progression into virtual space is a hugely significant event on our evolutionary timeline, one that signifies a sort of imminent and already in-process departure. While the more popular notion of our species’ eventual exodus is linked to outer space and planetary exploration, our existing conceptualization of cyberspace connotes an identical unknowable vastness and sense of discovery, with its depiction relying on nearly identical imagery. The projection of a virtually based human future is thereby left with an already carved out spot in the collective imagination. The lone floating astronaut locked into a suit unable to fully touch ground, let alone anything around her, is analogous to the inert body behind the screen, marveling at the visual expanse before her. In Food of the Gods, Terrence McKenna writes, “Our future lies in the mind: our weary planet’s only hope of survival is that we find ourselves in the mind and make of it a friend that can reunite us with the earth while simultaneously taking us to the stars,” (McKenna 135) pinpointing the crucial role that earth would continually play in this schema, as the floating planetary station granting us virtual access to space, made of the same material as our brains and our bodies.

Language

English (en)

Advisor/Committee Chair

Michael Byron

Second Advisor

Jennifer Colten-Schmitt

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