Seeing is Believing
University of Texas at Austin
Craftowne: The 7th Hole - Gallery Art as a Graphic Novel and Theatre
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Billy Simms
This paper considers the development of Craftowne: The 7th Hole an art gallery exhibition that strives to use images and written text to breakdown the boundaries between visual art, graphic novels, and theatrical performance by presenting the artwork of seven fictional artists and describing an event that changed their lives. The Craftowne; The 7th Hole is currently in on display at The Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum in Hamilton, OH, USA until August 2021.
The Transformative Timeline of the GIF(t) View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shannon Mc Carthy, Natalie Tyree
When the GIF was first created and introduced in 1987, the focus was on creating images that didn’t lose their quality, while also optimizing for support and performance in the early days of The Web. Little did GIF developer Steve Wilhite know that this file format would go on to evolve the moving image from simple and functional web animation to a larger than life medium in contemporary culture. This study dissects the evolution of the GIF as it relates to practical applications and experimental uses and implementations in art and design.
Rewind: Sentimentality and Feeling Backwards
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elana Maloul
This paper centers the video game Life is Strange (2015), and uses textual and narratological analysis of player blogs, gaming statistics, and game mechanics to describe how its representations of white girlhood move beyond visual cues and into its mechanical makeup. Its gendered and racialized processes emerge through play when its mechanics most restrict player actions. Utilizing queer of color critique, which treats race, gender, and sexuality as co-constitutive, I describe these stakes by positioning the game within its context of gendered and racial violence in the gaming community. By reorienting literary theories of sentimentality for new media analysis, I show how the game’s deployment of a queer, white girl as its avatar formalizes patriarchal logics of sentimentality.
