This thesis is an exploration into somatic movement methods to help ease chronic pain. The study follows my personal experience as a researcher and a dancer with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions. I carry forward a body-centered autoethnographic frame, as the prevailing ethos of this work revolves around considering bodily experience as an authority in personal well-being. My research follows the spirit of the Intuitive Inquiry research methodology developed by Dr. Rosemarie Anderson and evolved as I progressed through my own research and organizing processes. This thesis document is organized according to eight physical cycles of intuitive inquiry that emerged from my movement and research processes. The cycles address my conditions of chronic pain and disability, my history with dance competition in the United States, my experience with conceptualizations of the body, and the successes I experience with somatic practices, particularly Tensegrity as it applies to the body. My intuitive physical cycles conclude with a proposal for methods of movement and inner-body communication that promote ease in the body and sustainable movement.

As digital cameras have become more popular over the las two decades film cameras have started to fade into obscurity. Film cameras are now common items at thrift stores as people are getting rid of them to buy more modern cameras. Some of these cameras have undeveloped canisters of film in them that their owners forgot about. For my Honors Thesis I plan to make a photo book comprised of photographs from these undeveloped rolls of film I find.
So far, I have found three rolls of film that were able to be developed. Some of the rolls I have found were blank or too damaged to be developed. I will continue to search for more as I do this project. My goal is to have eight to ten complete rolls by the time I begin making my book.
Developing the pictures is always a surprise. They had remained undeveloped for years until I found them. I never know what will be on the roll. I always have so many questions when I see the pictures for the first time after they are developed. I wonder who took the pictures, where/when they were taken, how they ended up in a thrift store and how subjects would feel about the pictures today. I would like to be able to answer all of these questions, but I know it would be difficult to track down the people in the photos.
Even though the photos are of strangers they seem to still have a sense of nostalgia for me. They remind me of my memories from the era they were taken in. This connection is one of the bases I want to use for my presentation of the photos. One idea I have is to sequence these pictures from least clear to most clear, starting with pictures that can barely be comprehended. I think this would accurately represent memories in my own life. Many of my early memories are more blurred and less coherent but the more recent memories are much clearer. Sequencing will be an important tool for conveying my intended message. There are also many other tools I can use in post processing; however, I want to try to keep the photos as original as possible. There are some ways I could explore manipulating the photos without changing their original unedited look. Some ways I could do this are cropping, resizing and narrative. I will continue to explore these tools as I progress through this project.

With Each Passing Day is a thesis exhibition presented in Northlight Archive in Tempe, AZ, accompanied by a photographic book. This work investigates me and my changing relationship with my mother as I grow into a young woman and slowly finding more of her qualities within myself as each day passes. This thesis project explores the process of growth, finding independence, and understanding acceptance and control.

This creative project documents the changes to the Lopiano Habitat just north of Tempe Town Lake. Over the course of the project, the once restored wetland and desert habitat became overrun with debris and the plants and animals of the area were directly affected. Upon researching the city's choice to renovate the space, it was discovered that it was due to the increasing number of homeless and underserved individuals using the space for housing. Using photographs, the project displays the changed environment from lush habitat to trash-filled dirt patches. With the help of Julie Anand and Heather Green, I was able to select the best images to display as large scale prints, as well as small scale books that I constructed for my committee. Bioimagery was utilized to show what does not always meet the eye, and in some cases showed the effects that the demolition was having on the plant life, including what one of my committee members described as "an infection." They also acted as a metaphorical level to the photos in some cases, such as the hooks present on the regrown bamboo shoots that were slowly reclaiming the space. It was with the help of Dr. Page Baluch and her bioimagery lab that I was able to capture the smallest of details present on the samples I collected. The project serves as a potential starting point for other artists and community members to have a voice in the conversation and to hold the city accountable for their actions, especially when it comes to the underserved population. If they can spend so much time and funds into destroying what was once a beautiful habitat, why not put that effort into resources for the population they are trying to remove?

With cities expanding and human development rapidly increasing, areas of dark sky are decreasing, resulting in beautiful stars and constellations appearing to disappear. The purpose of this project is to photograph the night sky and capture the natural beauty of the Milky Way and constellations All of the images captured for this project were taken at various locations around Arizona. Influences from cities and other human development are visible throughout the various photographs.

Whitney Nicoson’s Honors thesis exhibition, Tripoli Shores, is a collection of photographs that stems from an initial interest in portraiture—a desire to observe and render the change of identity shown by the artist and her mother during a particularly difficult period in their lives. While experiencing paralleling hardships, the two spent time together living at her grandfather’s cottages along the St Lawrence River in Upstate NY. The traditional notion of portraiture gradually grew beyond the representation of self to the documentation of the space. This space was once the epitome of structure, stability, and strength. Over the years, neglect and disrepair caused an inevitable breakdown in the structure. Nicoson seeks to create a permanent documentation of a home that is changing. With an interest in how the photographs of space relates to the change seen in the artist and her mother, the exhibition pursues the idea of forming identity in a place that is also forming its own.

Shirin Neshat is recognized as the most prominent artist of the Iranian diaspora. Her two photographic series, Women of Allah (1993-97) and The Book of Kings (2012), are both reactions to the socio-political events and the change of female identity in Iran. The search for Iranian identity has a long tradition in Iranian photography. Neshat's figures, with their penetrating gazes, heavy draperies, and body postures, make reference to nineteenth-century Qajar photography. Through various cultural elements in her artworks, Neshat critiques oppression in Iranian society. Neshat employs and inscribes Persian poetry to communicate contradiction within Iranian culture.

To read Neshat’s photography, it is crucial to register her use of Persian language and historical poetry. Although the reading and understanding of the Persian texts Neshat inscribes on her photographs plays a fundamental role in the interpretation of her work, Neshat’s artworks are not entirely conceptual. The lack of translation of these included texts in Neshat’s exhibitions indicates a decorative use of Persian calligraphy. The Western eye can aesthetically explore this exotic Eastern decorative calligraphy. The formal qualities of Neshat’s photographs remain, even if the viewer is unable to read or understand the Persian texts.