Olivia Sharpe's Design, Arts and Technology Capstone Research

Goddess Research Series: Circe - Enchantress, Independent, Misunderstood While developing my digital series on goddesses, I discovered that few figures offer as much complexity as Circe. Often dismissed as a secondary antagonist in the Greco-Roman tradition, she is actually one of the most visually and thematically rich figures in mythology. For this post, I looked into two main sources to see how Circe changed from a "scary" villain in ancient stories to a powerful, independent sorceress in modern ones. I want to use this research to help me move past the "evil witch" tropes and create something deeper for my final project. The first source is Homer’s The Odyssey, which provides the foundational narrative for Circe. In the story, she is the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and the nymph Perse. She lives alone on the island of Aeaea in a, "mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood," where she is surrounded by tamed wolves and lions. ...

The Power of Illustrative Representation (Published Feb. 12th, Edited Feb. 13th)      This entry's focus is on Chidiebere Ibe, a Nigerian medical student recognized for creating inclusive medical illustrations. He went viral in 2021 for creating an illustration of a Black pregnant woman. Historically, medical textbooks have defaulted to white representations for anatomical studies. This is a dangerous practice, as it often leaves practitioners unprepared to identify conditions on darker skin tones. Since this viral illustration, he has expanded his portfolio through the Illustration Chan ge project, which features medical illustrations of people of color. His recent work covers conditions as they appear on darker skin tones, including atopic dermatitis, lupus, and breast cancer. In relation to my project, I can use representation as a tool for validation and world-building. Chidiebere Ibe's Black Fetus Illustration      To further this research, I also look...