https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6272 2026-10-29T04:34:56Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150564 Title: Escape as a visual trope : the art of Pawl Carbonaro Abstract: The decision to base my dissertation on Pawl Carbonaro and his practice emerged not only from an academic interest in Maltese and contemporary art, but also from a long-standing familiarity with the artist’s work itself. Growing up, Carbonaro’s works were rather familiar to me. His name and works surrounded me from a young age, particularly through family connections to the artist and spaces in which his paintings were present. Although at the time I did not yet understand the wider artistic or cultural significance of Carbonaro’s practice, this early familiarity perhaps established a certain degree of awareness regarding the atmospheric and emotional qualities that his paintings carry. There was (and there still is) also a sincerity and genuineness within the work itself that left a lasting impression on me from a young age, eventually developing into academic curiosity. Initially, my interest in Carbonaro’s work emerged primarily through his landscapes and abstract compositions. However, as the research progressed, it became increasingly clear that the works resisted any fixed categorisation. Paintings that do appear formally concerned with chromatic decisions gradually open to broader questions surrounding artistic process, memory, and the relationship between lived experience and a painted space. Engaging with archival material and exhibition catalogues further revealed just how layered Carbonaro’s practice is, particularly in terms of personal experience, travel, along with artistic encounter which the paintings then absorbed. Researching a living artist also presented a unique methodological experience. Unlike studies rooted entirely in archival material or historical distance, this dissertation developed through direct engagement with Carbonaro himself, alongside conversations with scholars and artists whose perspectives further contributed to shaping this research. Furthermore, the relatively limited scholarship dedicated to Carbonaro allowed this study to occupy a space that required both analytical interpretation and negotiation between biography and production but also influences and formation, along with cultural context. Throughout the process of writing this dissertation, one aspect of Carbonaro’s work remained particularly compelling to me: the way his paintings continuously move between familiarity and distance. Although deeply rooted in place and a lived experience, his works never fully settle into fixed interpretations, instead remaining open, shifting and imbued with emotion. This quality perhaps reflects what makes Carbonaro’s practice enduringly relevant within both a Maltese and a broader Mediterranean artistic context. Ultimately, this study does not seek to provide a definitive reading of the artist’s oeuvre, but rather to contribute to a deeper understanding of complex negotiations that continue to shape it. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150563 Title: Troubling the gaze : a queer exploration of the Venus nude through intimate and ambiguous forms of representation in a fine arts project Abstract: Seeing can be coincidental. Looking is intentional. The act of looking implicates one is looking at something. This something is transformed into an object of vision, a thing enveloped within the context of the onlooker. Its boundaries are defined through the surveyor’s thoughts, preformed constructs and ideas. Looking is therefore not inconsequential. Female identity within Western culture is constantly shifting and diverse, but it may be seen as an identity formed by the look. Growing up as a woman meant constantly questioning whether the women I saw on billboards and magazines, or those found within the pages of an art book, were like me. They looked curated to a specific type of audience, and obviously well-manicured. I didn’t really think anything of their interests, ideas or personalities. The media I consumed didn’t seem to think about it either. This dissertation posits the act of looking as heavy with implications. It utilises the Venus nude painting tradition as an example of a broader phenomenon of female objectification within Western media and art history. The project attempts to survey alternative ways of representing the female body by exploring queer theories and artistic applications. The nude sessions are proposed both as a way to maintain a link to the nude painting tradition, and as a site to experiment. In entertaining close kinship with the models, allowing the pre-existing connection to take over the session and its results, the researcher explores an alternative to the traditional artist-model relationship. In the end, the project ultimately uses queer ‘’troubling’’ and ambiguity as a route towards non-extractive viewing experiences, and greater intimacy and care in female representation. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150562 Title: Unpicking her patterns : challenging gender and cultural stereotypes through critical creative artistic engagement with the experience of lace making Abstract: I grew up to the rhythmic clicking of my grandmother’s bobbins, a soundtrack of shared time and a language of fondness that I was eager to learn. To me, her hands, manoeuvring dozens of bobbins with effortless grace, were never symbols of domestic duty but markers of an intimate, intergenerational bond rooted in love rather than obligation. As I began to unpick the broader historical narrative of the craft, I was forced to confront a difficult tension: while my memories were filled with the joy of making, the rest of the world often viewed the downcast gaze of the lace-maker as a sign of passive subservience. The dissertation is born from this internal conflict. This project is a practice-based research inquiry that seeks to validate the domestic space as a primary site of knowledge production. Moving beyond a mere technical history, the goal of this research is to reposition lace not as a static, romanticised relic, but as a dynamic site of intellectual and socio-political resistance. The research framework is structured around three developmental stages: first, learning as “Being With," which treats the intergenerational transmission of skill as a process of "relatedness" rather than just a technical exchange; second, the creation of a digital archive, which transcribes haptic memory and the "sensuous geographies" of the home into a multisensory record; and finally, the micro-curation of domestic assemblages. Through this integrated approach, I aim to translate personal, "hidden" experiences into a final curated installation comprising of video logs, "sofa-red" panels, and sculptural lace-pillows that function as an active argument for the home as an intelligent space. Ultimately, this project is a personal and academic commitment to proving that the "intelligence of the home" is a vast, complex world that requires the viewer to lean in and listen more deeply. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150561 Title: Self-tracking as a creative process : reflections on data, technology and self-portraiture via a textile installation Abstract: This dissertation is written at a moment in which the conditions of being seen and recorded through machines have quietly become the conditions of daily life. Our relationship with technology is getting more and more intimate, often without us realising it. Generative AI has amplified this exponentially. Within the span of this degree, I have witnessed how these technologies have become embedded into every aspect of society, from nation-wide legislative decision-making to interpersonal communication. Bearing the weight of one's own decisions has always been a troubling part of the human condition, and wanting to outsource responsibility is as human as it is dangerous. It appears that humanity has finally succeeded at circumventing this anxiety by creating a technology that excels at mimicking human logic yet does not carry the same inhibitions, nor consequences. This is where the motivation for this research lies. We are in uncharted territory, and as most of us have little control over the development, implementation, or training of new technologies, all we can do is approach them with open eyes, a critical mind, and awareness about the material, social, economic, and capitalist structures from which they emerge. This research is one such contribution. By intersecting data generated through self-tracking technologies with self-portraiture, it seeks to critically examine our increasing transparency to technology and those who control it. I will leave you with the ending of a speech given by Geoffrey Hinton, after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the field of AI: “There is also a longer term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that are more intelligent than ourselves. We have no idea whether we can stay in control. But we now have evidence that if they are created by companies motivated by short-term profits, our safety will not be the top priority.” Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z