Abstract

What’s in it for us? examines how value can be created, abstracted, and redefined through material practice, participation, and shared experience. Situated in the space between maker and mender, the artist works in the symbiotic relationship between creation and repair. Wood is the primary material of creation, often in its imperfect form. It becomes both medium and metaphor representing intrinsic value while helping to challenge the systems that’s equate value with market and currency. From a multidisciplinary approach and adaptive nature, the work pulls from personal history, interfaith upbringing, and influences from conceptual art to traditional craft. This thesis transitions from an examination and criticism of economic systems to an exploration of time, attention and emotional resonance. Interactive objects and installations help to express the artists rejection of passive consumption, instead inviting engagement, reflection, and collective participation. Ultimately this thesis argues for a reorientation of value. It asks the question What’s in it for us? Forcing a move away from the personal to the collective. This work creates an environment that encourages presence, curiosity, empathy, and shared experience. It positions art as a site for reclaiming meaning within an increasingly abstracted and transactional world.

Publication Date

5-5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Furniture Design (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

Design, School of

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

Andy Buck

Advisor/Committee Member

William Tracey

Advisor/Committee Member

Rolf Hoeg

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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