DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/ES6M-CB93

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6629-9004

Defense Date

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Kinetic Imaging

First Advisor

Bob Paris

Second Advisor

Paul Rucker

Third Advisor

Semi Ryu

Fourth Advisor

Wes Taylor

Abstract

For my MFA thesis exhibition entitled Reanimator/Reflection, I used artificial intelligence to create three new works of sound and live-generated video art, each based on mirror reflections and 100-year-old racist post-pandemic horror literature by early 20th century American author H. P. Lovecraft. The themes of these writings mirror the issues of our current time. The primary works of Lovecraft that I referenced in the exhibition are “Herbert West: Reanimator,” (1922) a serialized tale about graduate school experiments which attempted to return the dead to life during a plague, and “Nyarlathotep,” (1920) a prose poem that suggests even our dreams might become infected as with a fever. These two particular texts were written shortly after the early 20th century influenza pandemic that lasted from 1918 to 1920; they directly address that pandemic and its associated fears; and, then as now during the time of COVID-19, these pandemic fears are often expressed in racial terms.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-14-2021

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