Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


PostlewaitThesis.pdf (6.08 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Miniatures Matter: Agency and Affect in Photographs by Lori Nix

Postlewait, Mariah A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395676896

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Art/Art History.
Recent anthropological theory suggests that miniatures have a powerful role in affecting human perception and identity formation. Likewise, photographs have long been acknowledged as having captivating power over the people who view them. The artistic value of miniatures, however, has been contested and photographs of miniatures are often thought of as endearing rather than evocative. This thesis argues instead that the photographic process amplifies the transformative power of the miniature. In this thesis, theories of miniaturization, object agency, and affect are applied in an investigation of Lori Nix’s photography series The City. Nix crafts tiny miniature dioramas to form the sets of her photographs, depicting interior scenes of a destroyed city. Works like Living Room, Subway, and Library spark explorations of human-miniature and human-photograph exchange. Utilizing theoretical lenses, this series is approached in a segmented fashion—as objects, as photographs, and as locations for interactions and psychophysical exchanges. Through this analysis, the vast and nuanced potential of such objects (whether miniature, photographic, or both) becomes evident. With miniature objects, viewers can, through lived corporeal knowledge and experience, imagine what it would be like to hold, examine, and interact with the contents of Nix’s works. Viewers are able to draw comparisons with their own bodies, with their surroundings, and with life-size versions of the same types of objects in order to better explore and understand the works presented. As photographs, Lori Nix’s works remove viewers from the actual objects—able to see but not touch, interpret the miniatures’ actual size but not know for certain—and their processes of thought and investigation are disrupted by format. The objects within objects and worlds within worlds afforded by the works that comprise The City allow for new investigations of the power of photographs, miniatures, and photographed miniatures that affect the art world and the world at large.
Andrew Hershberger, PhD (Advisor)
Stephanie Langin-Hooper, PhD (Committee Member)
96 p.
Art History; Fine Arts
ART HISTORY; LORI NIX; PHOTOGRAPHY; MINIATURES; OBJECT AGENCY THEORY; MINIATURIZATION THEORY; AFFECT THEORY; THE CITY

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Postlewait, M. A. (2014). Miniatures Matter: Agency and Affect in Photographs by Lori Nix [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395676896

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Postlewait, Mariah. Miniatures Matter: Agency and Affect in Photographs by Lori Nix. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395676896.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Postlewait, Mariah. "Miniatures Matter: Agency and Affect in Photographs by Lori Nix." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395676896

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1395676896
2,087
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.