The Ultimate American Icon is the Astronaut: Who is More Heroic or More Alone?

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Title The Ultimate American Icon is the Astronaut: Who is More Heroic or More Alone?
Creator Andrew Rice
Description My work is about the human condition and specifically about loneliness and melancholy. Who; or what is the subject of that loneliness? While I believe in most art as stemming from; yourself, from within and somewhat autobiographical, I am confident that I am commenting; on people and humanity as a whole. Loneliness is an inevitable trait of the human condition. I; feel there is the search for meaning amongst the isolation and emptiness of the universe that; cannot be fulfilled. Everybody can be lonely and inaccessible. Everyone has walls built up; around them. This is perhaps more and more true the further technologically advanced we; become, relying more on technology and social media for interaction with each other.; Through the internet, people can now create alternate ideals of themselves online via real; time video games, Facebook, twitter, email, etc. Individuals are putting another protective; layer up between them and the real world, creating a buffer, preventing access to them, and; what is lost is that face-to-face interaction.; "...Facebook is interfering with our real friendships, distancing us from each other, making us; lonelier...social networking might be spreading the very isolation it seemed designed to; conquer."; (Stephen Marche. "Is Facebook Making us Lonely?" The Atlantic. May 2012 p62); There is value and a certain pleasure that comes with being in another's presence. Everyone; carries a certain energy, and when we interact with each other our energies also interact.; These are things that you cannot experience through an alternative medium, and the; astronaut in his suit can be seen as a metaphor for this barrier that is put up around us.
Subject MFA Thesis Paper; Printmaking
Date 2012
Work ID 2012MFA-AndrewRice
Rights ©Andrew Rice, 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Type Text
File Name 2012MFA-AndrewRice
ARK ark:/87278/s6hd0x16
Setname uu_aah_mfa
ID 1733782
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6hd0x16