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Every day, nature is being used and is also being destroyed through over cutting and overgrazing of forests and grasslands because of the expansion of human numbers. The economic and material demands of growing villages and towns are not the causes but the results of human activity. What is the impact of the careless occupancy of so many of earth's human occupants? Are we turning everything in nature into something human-made and human used? My artworks emphasize how nature as a lay concept is changed by humans' desire for comfort and materialism. In addition, since human creation is another form of nature, it proposes a new relationship between humans and nature.

The visual part of this project has revolved around ideas that have been in the process of forming themselves for a few years. But if I could assign a topic or a totalizing theme to the project, I would be limiting it in a very particular way. I see Nostalgia as a beginning and in no way something that has come to fruition or to a speci!c resolution. If anything I consider it as a still evolving subject; it is very youthful and fresh for me. The project also rejects a new way of working for me from creating the set to the final production of images. The aim of the piece was to engage in a dialogue with a tradition of image making and reject upon photographs and its role in forming of collective memory. I wanted to examine the role of the space in the formation of one's recollection of the past and to emphasize the impact of such onto present behaviors and understanding of the space and the codes of power that it conceals. My evaluation will directly address historical, psychoanalytical, and biological questions of dominant visuality and sight in the contemporary societies of spectacle. I want to relate to Maurice Blanchot's passage about how "everyday losses its power to reach us; it is no longer what is lived, but what can be seen or what shows itself, spectacle and description, without any active relation whatsoever" or, to go even further, to employ words of Alice Yaeger Kaplan who blames the denigration of memory in this society of spectacle, where visuality and recall is so heavily centers itself around visual sensory experience and memory heavily relies on use of images as a primary basis for the authenticity. I would like to amplify necessity of vrigorous interrogation of the images and concepts that inform and later constitute our memories as individuals and as a collective society as a whole. The body of work presented as photographs under the title of "Nostalgia" that hung on the walls of the SPAS gallery in October-November of 2008 are a manifest to my thought process and my rejections on the impact and danger of image-based recall. I further examine the-knownto-me nature of what appears to be personal recollections and the role of them in the creating the !nal images. As they exist in their !nal form they present no validity and yet violently defend their role in my memory and, perhaps, from now on in the memory of many others.

This text is an accompaniment to an endeavor spanning approximately thirteen months in which I used photographic and literary processes to create documents concerning my history. These nearly universal processes were chosen because of their correlative nature. Images are read in a similar fashion to texts and both facilitate discourse. This thesis is an investigation on a personal level about the manner in which experiences are had, documented, and in many ways conditioned. The photographs that amount to the physical portion of this thesis explore the personally anecdotal within the context of generalized methods of documentation. In this work I discuss how a consciously reflective engagement with particular processes can actively shed light upon, and ultimately proctor, the manner in which experiences are created.

This thesis culminates in an exhibition resulting from the artist’s investigation of the relationship between space and time, and on perception and experience of space with connections to ‘everyday’ ideas of space. A recurring link in this paper is the process of ‘being present’ in relation to spatial viewing. The artist’s studio practice focuses on the visual changes she sees within a particular space or spaces, and how these visual changes are perceived and experienced when presented to the viewer in a photographic image. The intention is to present a photographic image to the viewer that not only changes the space from which it originally came, but also highlights the beauty of the space that may be missed or overlooked. The research questions the way people see, the visual representation of the ‘void’ or ‘empty space’, and spatial representation. The paper also discusses how the artist visually perceives and experiences space. The work of other artists and writers who research space, time and perceptual consciousness are also considered.

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In this Thesis Report I have attempted to document the process whereby my photographic concerns shifted from images of urban life to images of the natural world, and from the use of the 35mm and 2\ format to the 8x10 format. I discuss the development of my Thesis Proposal. It began when I heard a Teisho (talk) by Eido Roshi on "the preaching of non-sentient beings." I then show how my residence at Dai Bosatsu Zen Monastery influenced the direction of my Thesis work. In this Thesis Report I also discuss in some detail my experience of the two aspects of photographic work, that is photographing in the field, and then printing in the darkroom. I describe both the technical and the emotional aspects of the photographic work. In addition to the above material I attempted to answer the question: "What is the preaching of non-sentient beings?" I do this in two ways. First, I quote various individuals in diverse fields who explore the many possibilities of the question. I then give a brief statement of my own conclusions.

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In the spring quarter of 1988 I became acquainted with computer graphics which opened up great visual possibilities for me. The computer enabled me to layer and integrate various photographic fragments of reality, and enhanced my ability to reveal aspects of my personality-- my fears, my desires, and my feeling of confusion between contrasting values within my life. I could now communicate on a more general level, dealing with not just personal but cultural issues such as the role of mythology in our everyday life and how we deal with all the information that we absorb in modern life.

The PURPOSE OF THE THESIS is to utilize the human figure in movement as recorded over an extended period of time to create photographic panoramas of flowing, anamorphic design.

Although it was written over a year before this section, the thesis proposal which appends this report still serves as a good introduction to my ideas on myth in general , and in particular to my way of thinking when I began this inquiry into the photographic representation of myth. In exploring the visual and artistic dimensions of myth, I found that my thoughts and feelings on the subject changed vastly as the work progressed; however, the end result of this process of exploration has led me back to the beginnings of the work and allowed me, as T,S. Eliot put it, "to know the place for the first time." In a sense, then, this thesis report serves as a kind of travelogue, describing a journey which is not physical, but mental, internal, circular, and perhaps spiritual.

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The basic intention of my work is to visually represent concepts through juxtaposed images. The concepts I represent may be elementary, but this does not limit the relationships between images, which may be highly complex. The inspiration for the linkage between images commences intellectually, but because I wish to create unique, and visually appealing pieces, I also deal with the evocative qualities of these juxtapositions.

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Please seek out the real purpose of this report in the photographs. It is with these images that I have tried to communicate what I have thought, felt, and dreamt. My work is experimental in technique. The images are created as fantasies juxtaposed with the tradition of design, figure, line, planes of dimension, and overall composition. By using color materials in a non-conventional way, I am exploring the range of photographic possibilities with color, form, drama, emotion, mystery, and life. Photography functions beautifully for these narrative elements because of its ability to transform a real event into something mysterious, removed from , but still a part of, reality. During the time the thesis was developing, my emphasis was directed toward recording visions. Daily passages of nightly dreams were remembered and recorded in my journal (the journal and pen remained bedside) to facilitate remembrance of color, actors, and stage settings, the dream theater revealed. From these performances, I formulated the direction of characters, colors, textures, and setting to be presented in the photographic medium. Beginning with the blackness which is essential to the dramatics, the pictures are wonderfully colorful, filled with intentionally chosen spaces, line, light, and mystique that surfaced on the print. In this way, I have tried to fill this photographic space with life and color in hopes of enhancing visual awareness.

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I intend to explore, with a small format camera, people's gestures and physical attitudes and the way in which these are enhanced by their relationship to the environment.

I have been very interested in the creation of space (atmosphere) by framing a portion of the environment with a viewfinder. I am specially interested in the relationship of people with people and their connection with their environment. My curiosity stems from my background in sociology; I have a BA in sociology concentrating in urban society and the structure of culture. I also studied urban anthropology and did a hands- on- investigation of Irish culture which resulted in a hand made photography book . The photographic work of Walker Evans, Ernest Haas, Robert Frank, Linda Connor, Dean Brown, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston has helped me in my study of environments because of their different and unique approach to their surrounds. I have studied the concept of documentary photography through the written work of Howard Becker and the editorial work of David Featherstone in order to gain a better understanding of the use of words and images.

The enthusiasm that the editors of the Philadelphia Photographer showed for William Henry Jackson's 1872 Yellowstone views reflects the complex level of perception and understanding to which photography had arrived by late midcentury. Although Jackson had been commissioned as official photographer to the Geological Survey of the Territories to gather visual documentation for the survey to be an objective documentarian his photographs simultaneously depicted the artistic beauty of the region and, through their realistic illustration, transported the viewer to the far-away place.

By way of introduction, it seems appropriate to reflect upon my artistic endeavors prior to graduate study and how my interest in the use of high technology in art eventually led me to the production of "Test Target Display," a laser videodisk. After completing my BFA degree in studio art, I searched for employment in a related filed. As an undergraduate, I had developed a serious interest in photography and was very fortunate to be hired as a biomedical photographer at a teaching hospital. This position provided me with access to excellent darkroom facilities, as well as many scientific instruments used in medical research image recording. My job required a proficiency at operating this equipment and I quickly found a way to integrate these high-tech image makers into my own work.

The purpose of this thesis will be to try to share with you an energy and character that I find in trees, in the earth, in the qualities of light, in the intimacy of houses and yards. There is a simple yet deep-running link between our created spaces (our homes) and the spirit and body of the woods. I feel a strong kinship between myself and the land that produced me- -a super-blood tie, a joining from long ago--that transcends anthropocentric thought and concern. I want to know that link, to be at ease with the earth and to extend this rapport as a way of understanding my sentiments about home and emotionally secure territories.

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A thesis, for me, wasn't easy to produce. The embryonic ideas that led to its creation surfaced in the Fall of 1982. It began with "writing" that, for no other reason than to categorize, I called poems. These poems were the stimulus for the thesis that was displayed for one week in March of 1984. In the next few pages, I will try to unravel and explore some of the complexities that produced the thesis project, "Indecisions In Patti Scoffield".

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