Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

English

Date of Award

5-2022

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Matthew Holtmeier

Committee Members

Joshua Reid, Jesse Graves

Abstract

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes examines the ways we encounter environments as readers/viewers of operas, literature, film, and sound recordings, and how each medium requires different detail-gathering techniques. Respective to the previously mentioned mediums, Sun & Sea (2017), Mount Analogue (1952), El Mar La Mar (2017), and Energy Field (2010) are analyzed by engaging with environmental media studies and invention. Reflecting the nature of each landscape—summits of mountains, aporias of deserts, and mysteries of waterscapes—an elemental approach is taken in investigating how these spaces may be noticed, internalized, recorded, and traversed by both the artist and viewer. With an emphasis on limitations of mediums, language, and equipment, this thesis argues that artists/readers/viewers in turn inhabit these rendered environments—while a looped response (termed as operatic mysticism) threads ekphrasis and imagination before and during the production, in the art proper, and in our minds during and well-after consumption.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by Andrew Demczuk 2022

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