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Thesis: Ph. D. in Architecture, History and Theory of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2014., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (pages 495-524)., The paintings of U. S. artist Arthur B. Davies (1863-1928) spoke to his viewers in terms of the emergent discipline of psychology, creating visualizations of dreaming. This dissertation examines his work and its reception between 1890 and 1920, exploring the diversity characterizing American beliefs about dreams and their function in the unconscious. Painted during a period in which shifting, coalescing disciplines contested the understanding of the inner world of the modern psyche, Davies's art uneasily blended figuration and looser forms of representation, calling up the ambivalence with which his contemporaries greeted profound socio-cultural changes in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As I show in five chapters that parallel the trajectory of the artist's career, the discourses of Symbolism, science, spiritualism, psychoanalysis, and various forms of modernism all laid claim to the value of dreams and to Davies's art in wide-ranging, even contradictory ways. Reading Davies's paintings in light of critical responses and popular sources, I examine his varied reception across the art world. First, Sadakichi Hartmann's arguments for Davies's ability to capture suggestive, visionary meaning of Symbolist dreams in the 1890s asserted his paintings' significance as transcendent forms of creative imagination. Then, as psychology emerged as a discipline, Davies's paintings were reinterpreted in light of newly scientific approaches to the unconscious. These claims were paralleled by the competing and overlapping tenets of Spiritualism, the pursuit of psychic research, and the foundation of new religions and forms of popular psychotherapy. After 1909, views of the subconscious began to coalesce under the psychoanalytic approaches offered by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, which nonetheless blended with the philosophies of Henri Bergson, to extend and also challenge prior interpretations of dreams. In the teens when Davies explored Cubist form after his involvement with the, by Emily Willard Gephart., Ph. D. in Architecture, History and Theory of Art

Thesis: Ph. D. in Architecture, History and Theory of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2014., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (pages 495-524)., The paintings of U. S. artist Arthur B. Davies (1863-1928) spoke to his viewers in terms of the emergent discipline of psychology, creating visualizations of dreaming. This dissertation examines his work and its reception between 1890 and 1920, exploring the diversity characterizing American beliefs about dreams and their function in the unconscious. Painted during a period in which shifting, coalescing disciplines contested the understanding of the inner world of the modern psyche, Davies's art uneasily blended figuration and looser forms of representation, calling up the ambivalence with which his contemporaries greeted profound socio-cultural changes in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As I show in five chapters that parallel the trajectory of the artist's career, the discourses of Symbolism, science, spiritualism, psychoanalysis, and various forms of modernism all laid claim to the value of dreams and to Davies's art in wide-ranging, even contradictory ways. Reading Davies's paintings in light of critical responses and popular sources, I examine his varied reception across the art world. First, Sadakichi Hartmann's arguments for Davies's ability to capture suggestive, visionary meaning of Symbolist dreams in the 1890s asserted his paintings' significance as transcendent forms of creative imagination. Then, as psychology emerged as a discipline, Davies's paintings were reinterpreted in light of newly scientific approaches to the unconscious. These claims were paralleled by the competing and overlapping tenets of Spiritualism, the pursuit of psychic research, and the foundation of new religions and forms of popular psychotherapy. After 1909, views of the subconscious began to coalesce under the psychoanalytic approaches offered by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, which nonetheless blended with the philosophies of Henri Bergson, to extend and also challenge prior interpretations of dreams. In the teens when Davies explored Cubist form after his involvement with the, by Emily Willard Gephart., Ph. D. in Architecture, History and Theory of Art

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., CD-ROM contains copy of thesis in .pdf format., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139)., This thesis traces the formation of the international market for Japanese bonsai during the late 19th and early 20th centuries against the emergence of the United States and Japan as industrial, imperial nations and argues that bonsai represented an intermediary figure that supported a process of mutual imperial legitimation between the two countries. It examines the major mechanisms through which bonsai was created, marketed, and distributed-the commercial nursery, the catalog, the auction, and the exhibition-as well as American responses to bonsai. The formation of the bonsai market can be read within transnational consumer, aesthetic, and scientific discourses of cultural exchange. In the U.S., a split antiquarian and popular market for bonsai developed as part of the broader taste for Japanese goods as popularized at the World's Fairs of 1876, 1893, and 1904. In Japan, the newly established commercial nursery system and manufacturing and cultural policies of the new Meiji government, intended to establish Japan as a modern nation-state, supported the supply and formation of U.S. bonsai markets. To argue for bonsai's imbrication within a "botanic imperium," this thesis examines the relationship of bonsai to changing understandings of Japanese landscapes in both countries, and maps the relationship of the botany, geography, and agricultural science to shifts in horticultural practices and landscape aesthetics, as well as their literal and rhetorical deployment by Japan's Sapporo Agricultural College on Hokkaido Island and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry. During this period, bonsai represented a global commodity that mediated and transformed a range of values (historical, cultural, political, and financial). Drawing upon Benedict Anderson's discussion of "print capitalism," this thesis suggests that bonsai can be understood as a form of "plant capitalism" that materialized the challenge, for the U.S., of how to at once appreciate yet c, by Sarah R. Katz., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., CD-ROM contains copy of thesis in .pdf format., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139)., This thesis traces the formation of the international market for Japanese bonsai during the late 19th and early 20th centuries against the emergence of the United States and Japan as industrial, imperial nations and argues that bonsai represented an intermediary figure that supported a process of mutual imperial legitimation between the two countries. It examines the major mechanisms through which bonsai was created, marketed, and distributed-the commercial nursery, the catalog, the auction, and the exhibition-as well as American responses to bonsai. The formation of the bonsai market can be read within transnational consumer, aesthetic, and scientific discourses of cultural exchange. In the U.S., a split antiquarian and popular market for bonsai developed as part of the broader taste for Japanese goods as popularized at the World's Fairs of 1876, 1893, and 1904. In Japan, the newly established commercial nursery system and manufacturing and cultural policies of the new Meiji government, intended to establish Japan as a modern nation-state, supported the supply and formation of U.S. bonsai markets. To argue for bonsai's imbrication within a "botanic imperium," this thesis examines the relationship of bonsai to changing understandings of Japanese landscapes in both countries, and maps the relationship of the botany, geography, and agricultural science to shifts in horticultural practices and landscape aesthetics, as well as their literal and rhetorical deployment by Japan's Sapporo Agricultural College on Hokkaido Island and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry. During this period, bonsai represented a global commodity that mediated and transformed a range of values (historical, cultural, political, and financial). Drawing upon Benedict Anderson's discussion of "print capitalism," this thesis suggests that bonsai can be understood as a form of "plant capitalism" that materialized the challenge, for the U.S., of how to at once appreciate yet c, by Sarah R. Katz., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., CD-ROM contains copy of thesis in .pdf format., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139)., This thesis traces the formation of the international market for Japanese bonsai during the late 19th and early 20th centuries against the emergence of the United States and Japan as industrial, imperial nations and argues that bonsai represented an intermediary figure that supported a process of mutual imperial legitimation between the two countries. It examines the major mechanisms through which bonsai was created, marketed, and distributed-the commercial nursery, the catalog, the auction, and the exhibition-as well as American responses to bonsai. The formation of the bonsai market can be read within transnational consumer, aesthetic, and scientific discourses of cultural exchange. In the U.S., a split antiquarian and popular market for bonsai developed as part of the broader taste for Japanese goods as popularized at the World's Fairs of 1876, 1893, and 1904. In Japan, the newly established commercial nursery system and manufacturing and cultural policies of the new Meiji government, intended to establish Japan as a modern nation-state, supported the supply and formation of U.S. bonsai markets. To argue for bonsai's imbrication within a "botanic imperium," this thesis examines the relationship of bonsai to changing understandings of Japanese landscapes in both countries, and maps the relationship of the botany, geography, and agricultural science to shifts in horticultural practices and landscape aesthetics, as well as their literal and rhetorical deployment by Japan's Sapporo Agricultural College on Hokkaido Island and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry. During this period, bonsai represented a global commodity that mediated and transformed a range of values (historical, cultural, political, and financial). Drawing upon Benedict Anderson's discussion of "print capitalism," this thesis suggests that bonsai can be understood as a form of "plant capitalism" that materialized the challenge, for the U.S., of how to at once appreciate yet c, by Sarah R. Katz., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-144)., In 1956 in Los Angeles, California, Wallace Berman, a Beat assemblage artist, poet and founder of Semina magazine, began to make a film. Over ten years, the film now known as Aleph became Berman's personal record, documenting family, friends, Verifax collage artwork and inspirations from popular culture. Paint and Letraset were applied across the film celluloid, creating a palimpsest of code and gesture. Aleph is also delineated with Hebrew letters, representing Berman's interest in the Jewish mystical Cabala. Translated as "tradition," "reception" or "transmission," the Cabala ascribes the word of God with hidden meaning, creating a channel from the divine to the human -- a transmission of secret codes. The core of this thesis frames Wallace Berman's film Aleph as both a transmission and an unfinished, unstable document. The form and content of Aleph enact the process of transmission and represent transmission itself. However, since the film is unfinished, abandoned and left with excess fragments, it possesses unstable meaning. This thesis will not substantiate a stable art object; rather, it will frame a process -- transmission -- through which multiple meanings are carried, and through which the unfinished, unstable film object operates as a catalyst towards one possible unity of message: "Art is Love is God.", by Chelsea Ryanne Behle., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-144)., In 1956 in Los Angeles, California, Wallace Berman, a Beat assemblage artist, poet and founder of Semina magazine, began to make a film. Over ten years, the film now known as Aleph became Berman's personal record, documenting family, friends, Verifax collage artwork and inspirations from popular culture. Paint and Letraset were applied across the film celluloid, creating a palimpsest of code and gesture. Aleph is also delineated with Hebrew letters, representing Berman's interest in the Jewish mystical Cabala. Translated as "tradition," "reception" or "transmission," the Cabala ascribes the word of God with hidden meaning, creating a channel from the divine to the human -- a transmission of secret codes. The core of this thesis frames Wallace Berman's film Aleph as both a transmission and an unfinished, unstable document. The form and content of Aleph enact the process of transmission and represent transmission itself. However, since the film is unfinished, abandoned and left with excess fragments, it possesses unstable meaning. This thesis will not substantiate a stable art object; rather, it will frame a process -- transmission -- through which multiple meanings are carried, and through which the unfinished, unstable film object operates as a catalyst towards one possible unity of message: "Art is Love is God.", by Chelsea Ryanne Behle., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-144)., In 1956 in Los Angeles, California, Wallace Berman, a Beat assemblage artist, poet and founder of Semina magazine, began to make a film. Over ten years, the film now known as Aleph became Berman's personal record, documenting family, friends, Verifax collage artwork and inspirations from popular culture. Paint and Letraset were applied across the film celluloid, creating a palimpsest of code and gesture. Aleph is also delineated with Hebrew letters, representing Berman's interest in the Jewish mystical Cabala. Translated as "tradition," "reception" or "transmission," the Cabala ascribes the word of God with hidden meaning, creating a channel from the divine to the human -- a transmission of secret codes. The core of this thesis frames Wallace Berman's film Aleph as both a transmission and an unfinished, unstable document. The form and content of Aleph enact the process of transmission and represent transmission itself. However, since the film is unfinished, abandoned and left with excess fragments, it possesses unstable meaning. This thesis will not substantiate a stable art object; rather, it will frame a process -- transmission -- through which multiple meanings are carried, and through which the unfinished, unstable film object operates as a catalyst towards one possible unity of message: "Art is Love is God.", by Chelsea Ryanne Behle., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007., Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42)., As a young heiress of the Duke fortunes, Doris Duke's interest and investment in art was not highly unusual given her social background. However, her method of acquiring these objects was more unconventional than other collectors of her time. When the term "Islamic" is tacked onto these art objects it further complicates her collection, with issues of matronage and Orientalism at the forefront. Prominent American collectors, such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, exhibited an interest in Eastern art long before Doris Duke planned her honeymoon trip to the Muslim world in 1935. Still, there is very little hard evidence of the Duke's interacting with such people during Doris' childhood. This begs the question, how did Doris Duke develop an interest in Islamic art and culture? Since she was a very private person and collector, it is hard to speculate what inspired her curiosity for Islamic art. What might be a more informative and interesting avenue to follow is the impressive network of connections that allowed her the means to acquire such a substantial collection. Her self-created residence in Hawai'i, Shangri La, is now a visible culmination of the relationships she forged in her fascination with Islamic art and architecture, which she continually developed from its inception in 1937 until her death in 1993., (cont.) Although Duke was highly dependent upon her advisors during the construction of Shangri La, she was purposeful in the procurement and placement of the objects she commissioned, which showed an independent will that varied from other wealthy American patrons of Eastern art at this time. An examination of these art-oriented relationships will help to trace the refinement of Duke's palette for Islamic art, whose chief architectural accomplishment was one that she truly thought of as Islamic and uniquely her own., by Saima J. Akhtar., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007., Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42)., As a young heiress of the Duke fortunes, Doris Duke's interest and investment in art was not highly unusual given her social background. However, her method of acquiring these objects was more unconventional than other collectors of her time. When the term "Islamic" is tacked onto these art objects it further complicates her collection, with issues of matronage and Orientalism at the forefront. Prominent American collectors, such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, exhibited an interest in Eastern art long before Doris Duke planned her honeymoon trip to the Muslim world in 1935. Still, there is very little hard evidence of the Duke's interacting with such people during Doris' childhood. This begs the question, how did Doris Duke develop an interest in Islamic art and culture? Since she was a very private person and collector, it is hard to speculate what inspired her curiosity for Islamic art. What might be a more informative and interesting avenue to follow is the impressive network of connections that allowed her the means to acquire such a substantial collection. Her self-created residence in Hawai'i, Shangri La, is now a visible culmination of the relationships she forged in her fascination with Islamic art and architecture, which she continually developed from its inception in 1937 until her death in 1993., (cont.) Although Duke was highly dependent upon her advisors during the construction of Shangri La, she was purposeful in the procurement and placement of the objects she commissioned, which showed an independent will that varied from other wealthy American patrons of Eastern art at this time. An examination of these art-oriented relationships will help to trace the refinement of Duke's palette for Islamic art, whose chief architectural accomplishment was one that she truly thought of as Islamic and uniquely her own., by Saima J. Akhtar., S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007., Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42)., As a young heiress of the Duke fortunes, Doris Duke's interest and investment in art was not highly unusual given her social background. However, her method of acquiring these objects was more unconventional than other collectors of her time. When the term "Islamic" is tacked onto these art objects it further complicates her collection, with issues of matronage and Orientalism at the forefront. Prominent American collectors, such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, exhibited an interest in Eastern art long before Doris Duke planned her honeymoon trip to the Muslim world in 1935. Still, there is very little hard evidence of the Duke's interacting with such people during Doris' childhood. This begs the question, how did Doris Duke develop an interest in Islamic art and culture? Since she was a very private person and collector, it is hard to speculate what inspired her curiosity for Islamic art. What might be a more informative and interesting avenue to follow is the impressive network of connections that allowed her the means to acquire such a substantial collection. Her self-created residence in Hawai'i, Shangri La, is now a visible culmination of the relationships she forged in her fascination with Islamic art and architecture, which she continually developed from its inception in 1937 until her death in 1993., (cont.) Although Duke was highly dependent upon her advisors during the construction of Shangri La, she was purposeful in the procurement and placement of the objects she commissioned, which showed an independent will that varied from other wealthy American patrons of Eastern art at this time. An examination of these art-oriented relationships will help to trace the refinement of Duke's palette for Islamic art, whose chief architectural accomplishment was one that she truly thought of as Islamic and uniquely her own., by Saima J. Akhtar., S.M.