Nickolas Roblee-Strauss ’22.5 hails from Western Massachusetts and studies anthropology and modern culture & media. With an interest in cultural production, his work focuses on visuality, affect theory, and narrativity. Through his work this summer and more broadly, he seeks to integrate theory and artistic practice.

Project:

My project aims to engage with the question of artistic practice in terms of both function and waste in the 21st century, particularly in regards to resource extraction, environmental degradation, and catastrophe. Through studio visits, analysis of process from material acquisition through proliferation and interviews that posit the artists themselves as philosophers, I will survey local artistic production and understand how artists situate themselves amongst the ecosystems that surround them and the materials they transform. I am particularly interested in art that contends with additional positive externalities from its production, be they social, environmental, or aesthetic.

Advisor: Myles Lennon