A&A Intranet

Project Abstracts

ABSTRACTS

  1. Dashboard
  2.  → 
  3. Faculty Information
  4.  → Faculty Abstracts

PROJECT ABSTRACTS
2019–2020 A&A FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS

blank
Cathy Braasch—Architecture

DRAWING LABORATORY: The Pedagogy of Robert Reed

This proposal is seeking funding for publishing expenses for Drawing Laboratory: The Pedagogy of Robert Reed, which documents and analyzes the undocumented curriculum of Robert Reed (1938-2014). Reed taught drawing for nearly fifty years and was the first black professor tenured at the Yale School of Art. His curriculum is key to understanding the Bauhaus legacy in the United States and the curricula of contemporary art programs. Based on interviews, Reed’s private archives, and the implementation of curriculum at the 2019 Robert Reed Drawing Workshops, this book provides access to Reed’s pedagogical innovations for a broad audience of art and design students and educators.

Alexandra Staub—Architecture

Ethics in the Built Environment

In the project Ethics in the Built Environment, I will develop an edited book and write a substantial theoretical chapter for a volume that will, for the first time, bring together stakeholder theory, principled negotiation theory, and architectural theory. I will also organize an international, two-day symposium (separately funded) to be held at Penn State in the Fall of 2020. This grant application seeks funds for a graduate research assistant who will assist me in developing a detailed book proposal to be sent to an academic press in the Summer of 2020.

Naomi Pitamber—Art History

Conquering the Sacred East: The Orthodox, Latin, and Muslim Histories of Hagia Sophia, Panagia Antheniotissa, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

My second book project, entitled Conquering the Sacred East: The Orthodox, Latin, and Muslim Histories of Hagia Sophia, Panagia Atheniotissa, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, centers on the persistence of sacred space epitomized by three monuments spanning the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. Each was built by one culture, and throughout their medieval histories, were taken over, converted, and rededicated for use by Orthodox Christians, Latin Christians, and Muslims. The transfers and renovations coincide with contestations of power between western European crusaders, Byzantine Orthodox Greeks, and north African and Egyptian Muslim powers during the period of the crusades.

Stephen Mainzer—Landscape Architecture

Socio-Ecological Structure of Pro-environmental Governance in Pennsylvania Counties

As the climate crisis rages forward, the current breakdown in federal governance is a threat to resilient energy development. Instead, state and county governance might offer opportunities to guide ecologically sensitive energy decisions. Yet, our previous work found that the Pennsylvania counties most in need of transitioning to a renewable energy economy were among the least likely to vote in favor of pro-environmental platforms. This study proposes to leverage socio-ecological systems (SES) data from a statewide pilot study to investigate this conflict in greater depth through a geospatial and statistical analysis of four representative counties.  Through this process we expect to identify SES structures that influence counties’ support of pro-environmental initiatives, specifically renewable energy implementation.

Baljinder Sekhon—Music

Original Saxophone Compositions—Portrait Recording

This grant is to support the recording, publication, and release of my original compositions for saxophone on a commercial album. My work is presented to audiences in two ways: live performance and recording. It is essential to have compositions recorded by first-rate performers in an environment where the composer is collaborating with the performers and engineer. The result of such a scenario is a recording that definitively represents the artwork at the highest level. This album will assist future performers in understanding my work, generate reviews from commercial media outlets and journals, and provide a definitive representation of my compositions.

Christopher Kiver—Music

19th Amendment Centenary Commissioning Project

In November 2020, the Glee Club will present the world premiere of three commissioned works by women composers to mark the centenary of the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution granting women the vote. Students will visit the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls and the Susan B. Anthony home in Rochester. Related interdisciplinary events will provide an immersive experience and engaged scholarship opportunities for performers and the community through collaboration with the College of the Liberal Arts, Humanities Institute, Special Collections Library, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and The Palmer Museum of Art.

Christopher Guzman—Music

J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Partitas:  A Concert Tour and Premiere Video Recording

The collection of six keyboard Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is a masterpiece of the Baroque era which, unfortunately, very rarely receives complete live performances. I plan to study these in great depth with one of the most important Bach keyboard scholars of our time, Robert Levin, professor emeritus of Harvard University. After meeting with Professor Levin, I will perform at various schools in the United States, Singapore, Taiwan, and China. Remarkably, there is no commercial video recording of the complete Partitas by a single pianist available online. I plan on producing the first video recording of this important collection of works, in addition to publishing two audio CDs, which will showcase Penn State’s new Recital Hall and beautiful Hamburg Steinway piano.

Naomi Seidman—Music

The National Flute Associate Library: Exploration and Discovery

The National Flute Association (NFA) music library is held at the University of Arizona Fine Arts Library in Tucson, Arizona. This library includes music donated by flutists since its founding in 1974. The library contains five special collections of sheet music in closed stacks which are mostly uncatalogued and contain rare and fragile materials. These materials do not circulate, and there is very little online catalog information about them. have received permission from the University of Arizona Library and the NFA to visit the library to research the contents of these collections and to identify rare and out of print materials for further research and study.

Eduardo Navas—Visual Arts

Remixing Analytics: Metaproduction for Image, Sound, and Text

I propose an art and research installation, and series of dialogues that comprise my practice and research on remix studies. The installation will include research on the emerging role of machine learning as an integral part of the elements of selectivity and remix in contemporary creative production. The installation is to be considered a merging of art, research, and pedagogy. It will include research documentation and visualizations about the role of remix as both research method and creative practice.

Aaron D. Knochel—Visual Arts

Zooming Out: Scaling Up National to Global Initiatives in Media Arts Standards and Curriculum 

My research explores digital technologies impact on arts learning, more generally known as the media arts. I propose researching three scales of context for understanding media arts pedagogy in art education by focusing on practice at the local, national, and global context. Impacts of this research are to develop a better understanding of the media arts at a global scale to initiate, catalyze, or allow reconceptualization of a domestic media arts agenda. Grant funding provides capacity to develop case studies of media arts pedagogy, cultivate professional learning communities in media arts pedagogy and educational policy, and disseminate research findings.

Nichole van Beek—Visual Arts

Systems-Thinking in Art Practice: Growing Compostable Materials in Support of Climate Action

I am seeking “Seed Funding” to continue to research and test compostable materials that can be used to create two- and three-dimensional art works, and props, costumes, or sets for community events. I will be combining mycofoam, kombucha leather, agar and starch-based bioplastics, and handmade inks, dyes, and paints to make lightweight components. I am aiming to exhibit the work during the late summer and fall of 2020, and to develop possible workshops, curriculum, and a written guide for growing, using, and composting these materials.

Cristin Millett—Visual Arts

Ex-Utero: A Sculptural Exploration of Ectogenesis

With the assistance of College Project Funding, I will complete phase 2 of my research by creating Ex-Utero (June–August, 2020). Prior Seed Funding supported an exploratory visit to SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia in 2017. As a result, I received a Fulbright Scholar Award to Australia (2020). Project Funding from the College will support the creation of Ex-Utero, a sculptural artwork based on the science of ectogenesis, the replacement of the fecund uterus by a machine. Ex-Utero will prompt questions and conversations about the socio-cultural impact of ectogenesis, a science that will change the future of humanity.

CLOSE ALL

PROJECT ABSTRACTS
2018–2019 A&A FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS

blank
Brian Alfred—Visual Arts

NYC Exhibition

This project is a body of work of new paintings, collages and a new animation that will result in an exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York City in the fall of 2019. There will also be a publication that will consist of a book with images of all the work from the exhibition with accompanying essays by various creative individuals about the creative process. The essayists will be creatives (poets, architects, fashion designers, musicians, etc) who work in New York City and the images of the work will be from my photographs of the city.

Michelle Bae-Dimitiadis—Visual Arts

Mobile EcoWalk + Oral Stories: Counter-Cartography of Refugee Youth on Environmental Justice

The proposed research project, Mobile EcoWalk+Oral Story: Counter-Cartography of Refugee Youth on Environmental Justice, examines how media art educational practice would better serve refugee youths’ GPS mobile app-making as an arena of critical engagement in and provocation to environmental justice of the U.S. land where they were dislocated. Using a qualitative mixed method of Youth Participatory Action Research and Critical Ethnography, this interdisciplinary study is designed to explore ways to motivate and advance refugee youth’ civic engagement for environmental sustainability and social change using GPS mobile media.

Kikora Franklin—Theatre

Presenting, Teaching, Performing Mojah: Dance of the African Diaspora

Mojah is an original dance technique that blends multiple forms into one: West African, modern, and jazz; it is a classical form for African-related movement. If successful in receiving funding, I will extend prior research through curating an exhibit that highlights the evolution of Mojah, its cultural and historical underpinnings, and its impact on students who continue its tradition. In addition, I will collaborate with other artists (musicians, dancers) to choreograph, perform, and conduct workshops at national and international venues. I also plan to submit this work for panel, performance, and workshop presentations at national and international conferences.

Shannon Goff—Visual Arts

CLAY / HOUSE / PLAY / HOUSE

CLAY / HOUSE / PLAY / HOUSE will be an interactive, participatory collaboration with preschool students and their teachers at The Child Care Center at Hort Woods. This project will manifest as a tile mosaic structure for installation on the center’s playground. CLAY / HOUSE / PLAY / HOUSE will tour the students through the transformative material of clay mined from the site. It will be of the place, about the place, in the place. The playhouse will serve as a physical reminder to the power of making, the importance of play and interaction with the community and nature alike.

Darla V. Lindberg—Architecture

Outside the Skin: Systems approaches to society’s larger structural issues

My first book-length project, Outside the Skin: systems approaches to society’s larger structural issues, takes a whole-systems look into the mechanisms behind the production of the built environment (read currency, power, and influence). Organized around systems of Doubt, Indeterminacy, and Synchronicity, the messy topics of self-interest, cooperation, and coordination are framed within five rational game-theoretic games developed by social scientist and Nobel Laureate in Economics, Elinor Ostrom. Intent on presenting a novel systems-wide approach to thesis originality, the work aims to be a resource positioning a critical stance in relation to questions of social justice and equity within design research.

Eric McKee—Music

The Sound of Romance: Approaches to Sound Design in the Construction of the Romantic Couple in Early Hollywood Sound Films, 1927–1933

Audiences of early sound films found one scene particularly problematic: the love scene. The sound of lovers confessing their feelings, leading to a dramatic clinch and five-second kiss, made audiences uncomfortable. The typical reaction was uncontrollable laughter. Producers and directors responded by experimenting with a variety of techniques aimed at suspending viewers’ sense of disbelief and drawing them into the emotional undertones of the scene. By 1933, studios developed a well-defined set of conventions, and audiences no longer complained. This project seeks to better understand this transitional period in cinema history by answering the questions: Why were love scenes were so devastatingly unsuccessful and how did Hollywood fix the problem?

Bryan E. Nichols—Music Education

A Novel Examination of Voice Dosimetry in Classroom Teaching Settings

The purpose of this proposal is to initiate an empirical study using quantitative measures for the study of voice use by teachers in music classrooms. Voice dosimetry is an established measurement protocol of speaking duration and amplitude in other types of settings but has not yet been used in a music education context. Using the recording measurement device purchased with these proposed funds, we can measure the impact of instructional delivery on the singing teacher’s own voice. There is demonstratable interest in the potential for voice dosimetry measurement, thus we predict interest from top-tier journals.

Almudena Ribot—Architecure

Build It Together: BIT. A Proposal for a Documentary Film About Collaborative Architectures

This is a proposal for the making of a documentary that is accessible to both architects and the general public. The subject is engaging for both audiences: How do you involve users and non-experts in the architectural design process. The documentary will show how architects find ways to include users, using examples of buildings where the non-expert has had a determining role in the design process. The majority of the initial research has already been completed. We will use this grant to translate complex architectural ideas into an accessible Graphic Language and prepare further for the production of the film. We will produce the documentary at a future third stage.

Raymond Sage—Music

The Muir Project: (working title) An exploration of the life and meditations of the Scottish-American naturalist and father of the American National Parks, John Muir

I am applying for funding to write, prepare and present an original solo ‘play with music’ on the life and writings of famed Scottish-American naturalist, John Muir, father of the National Park System. Muir’s writing and spiritual meditations were paramount in influencing the establishment of Yosemite as a national park along with many other national and historical landmarks. He was also the founder of the Sierra Club, America’s most influential environmental organization. The first workshop/performance of the piece will be a collaborative venture of the Penn State NU Musical Theatre Festival and The Premiere Musical Series, a new musical theatre festival at Indiana University Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance.

Jean Sanders—Visual Arts

Abhyasa and Vairagya: Yogic Principles Applied in the Studio

I am requesting support from the College of Arts and Architecture, for funds to travel to and conduct research at the Frans Masereel Centre in Kasterlee Belgium, and the Cill Rialaig Project in County Kerry Ireland. The work that I propose to do is based on the yogic concepts of Abhyasa and Vairayaga. These Sanskrit terms are interpreted to mean practice and detachment. Given the time and space, I will be able to immerse myself completely into these yogic concepts as they are applied to my studio practice of making photogravure prints that will be used in installations in Ireland.

Robin Thomas—Art History

Palaces of Reason: The Royal Residences in Enlightenment Naples, 1734–59

My book project is the first comprehensive study of three palaces built near Naples during the reign of Charles of Bourbon (reigned 1734–59). These palaces were all built outside the capital, at Capodimonte, Portici, and Caserta. I consider them within their broad political and economic context to argue that new ideologies spurred their construction. These modes of thinking saw the palaces as more than amenable loci of royal pleasure or blunt assertions of political power. Neapolitan writers and royal ministers regarded them as monuments to the nation itself and felt that they improved its cultural, social, and economic health.

Sarah Watts—Music Education

The Vast and Varied Musical Sounds of China: A Narrative Exploration and Application

The purpose of this narrative research is to highlight the musical lives of Chinese culture bearers representing over two dozen ethnic groups and geographic locations. Participants represent a variety of professions and walks of life and different musical competencies. Semi-structured interviews focus on each participant’s musical upbringing, experiences with traditional and contemporary musics, and ways in which their musical contributions reflect their ethnic and geographic origins. Stories, songs, instrumental performances, and informational photos and videos will be collected, coded, analyzed, and compiled into curricular materials for use by music teachers in schools and parents and children in the home.

CLOSE ALL

Our Location

124 Borland Building
University Park, PA 16802

Newsline Archive

View our email campaign archive here!

CONTACT US

Questions, Comments, Suggestions? Drop us a line!