COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
The Tannhauser Gate
Creator:
Thompson, P. Seth
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Photography
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Photography
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
Richard Wagner’s opera "Tannhäuser" and Ridley Scott’s film "Blade Runner" are ageless myths deconstructed in
Joseph Campbell’s "Hero with a Thousand Faces." This is the legend of a hero’s journey, or monomyth, from the
physical world’s limitations to absolute awareness of the Jungian “Self,” the totality of the conscious and
unconscious mind. Referencing both the film and the opera, my thesis "The Tannhauser Gate" examines the image,
commencing with the 1986 televised explosion of the Challenger shuttle, as the catalyst in an ontological search of
the Self. By highlighting the slowly vanishing boundary between images and our reality this thesis will uncover the
fundamental consequences of image consumption, which results in a compromised identity and a distorted reality.
The Tannhauser Gate will represent a personal path to enlightenment from the hero’s initial call to adventure from
the ordinary world of reality to the supernatural/mythological world of the image and back again.
Joseph Campbell’s "Hero with a Thousand Faces." This is the legend of a hero’s journey, or monomyth, from the
physical world’s limitations to absolute awareness of the Jungian “Self,” the totality of the conscious and
unconscious mind. Referencing both the film and the opera, my thesis "The Tannhauser Gate" examines the image,
commencing with the 1986 televised explosion of the Challenger shuttle, as the catalyst in an ontological search of
the Self. By highlighting the slowly vanishing boundary between images and our reality this thesis will uncover the
fundamental consequences of image consumption, which results in a compromised identity and a distorted reality.
The Tannhauser Gate will represent a personal path to enlightenment from the hero’s initial call to adventure from
the ordinary world of reality to the supernatural/mythological world of the image and back again.
Publisher:
Atlanta, Ga. : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2012-05
Format:
PDF : 22 p. : ill