VES 2017 Senior Thesis: elsewhere—here

For many Visual and Environmental Studies students, the Senior Thesis is the capstone experience in the department. Students conceive their theses in conjunction with the department and work closely with faculty members as principal advisers. Throughout the yearlong process, students develop and refine their ideas into a thesis work, concluding with its presentation in this annual exhibition, elsewhere—here is the title of the 2017 Senior Thesis exhibition. Selected collectively by the students for their group exhibition, the title refers to the tensions at play between the material spaces of the gallery and studio and that of the psychological space of the creative process. Presence is questioned as the sites of art making become manifold from concept to production to presentation.

The Department of Visual and Environmental Studies is home to a range of studio and theoretical studies in the arts at Harvard University. It offers courses in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, and animation, as well as photography, film history, the built environment, and contemporary art. The academic experience transpires in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, where thinking and making intersect to enable students from a variety of disciplinary studies to be aware of their visual environment.