Abstract:
Infectious Design is a creative project in which I studied the microbiology of venereal diseases and from their characteristics created a line of jewelry. The following packet contains a record of this process, culminating in pictures of the final works. I thought it was important for an observer to see my entire idea development from inspiration to creative manifestation. This thesis begins with my application for an undergraduate fellowship. In this application I detail my initial reasons for beginning this body of work and the timeline in which it was to be completed. This is followed by my polished artist's statement, which appeared in the show on April 25-29 with the body of work. The middle of my thesis is divided into sections, one for each disease. These sections are subdivided into research, designs, models, and pictures. In the research section I complied all of the photocopies I made from the texts I read. I felt that these photocopies would benefit my readers and viewers because they contain the notes and sketches I took on them. They also give the reader an opportunity to see my "sources" first hand. The design section contains either drawings I made for my works, written ideas, or 3d explorations, however, the bulk of the metal practices I made are in the models section. The pictures section contains either plain pictures of each piece, or pictures of the works in promotional designs I made with them. After the last disease I have a section about the grant symposium I competed in. This section includes pictures of me presenting, copies of the award I won, and a press release about the symposium. The next section contains colored pictures of some pieces while the remaining works can be found on the compact disc I included in the section at the end. The last few pages are my works cited, and a page containing the code I wrote on each photocopy so that it could be traced to it's original.
