Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Lavender Jane Gartlan 

Design for Stage + Screen

As a qualified makeup artist, I came to IADT to develop my makeup and film skills, which I have done, as well as improved on my design abilities. In the last year I really expanded my confidence with performance art, performing at Prague Quadrennial 2023 and doing Drag, burlesque style performing for crowds up to 100 people. I have done volunteer work for over 10 years and continued this in IADT working with involvement in societies and the Student Union. I have been elected to be the next IADTSU President 2024/25.

Project Description

For my Major project, I examined Surrealist artists and how they portray the body and surrealist ideas and I reflected on my own experiences of body dysmorphia and eating disorders. My experiences with body dysmorphia have led me to hold unrealistic standards for myself. Haunted by thoughts of my own body not being how I see it to be, eating disorders and living in a society where body modifications and surgery are possible, my self-image has fluctuated over the years. I imagined my distorted self-image into reality using prosthetics, creating this surreal character and world.



Shinto and Miyazaki: Spirituality in Studio Ghibli Films

This thesis examines the overt spiritual characteristics of the Shinto religion exemplified throughout Miyazaki’s films, focusing on the three epics: My Neighbour Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001). Shinto is so prominently placed in his films that, in viewing his work an audience can be said to be witness to Shinto. While Miyazaki is consistently reserved on the question that his films could be religious in genre, as an audience we are witness to deeply spiritual content and specifically the influence of Shinto. This thesis aims to comprehensively show strategies of spirituality at work in his films, aiming to identify how Miyazaki creates universally accessible films, how he uses Shinto to aid in his narratives and how Shinto influences his characters to conclude that Shinto has an active role in Miyazaki’s work.