Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

McConnell, Brian

Abstract

This thesis exhibition explores how digital culture affects identity and connection through a series of paintings made through collage, mixed media, and reflective surfaces. It looks at how identity is fragmented in the digital age when we construct personas online that are selected and, therefore, less authentic. The paintings juxtapose the use of analog methods with digital imagery, in order to ask about the tension between vulnerability and performance and the authenticity of online interactions. The series is about emotional exhaustion, curated personas, and the search for genuine connection. Reflective elements and textures mounted and layered encourage viewers to engage in a dialectic between themselves and the mediated world, between 'digital self' and the 'authentic self.' The thesis hopes that this work can provoke discourse regarding the ramifications of digital culture on self-perceiving and interpersonal relations in recognizing the human dependence on depth and vulnerability in our fragmented reality.

Extent

53 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (MFA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2024.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00014548

Format

pdf

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