T H A N K S 

The editors of Elements would like to thank the following individuals 

for their generous support of and assistance with this issue of 

Elements: 

BEN Bl RN BAU M, Executive Director of the Office of Marketing Communications 

EAMON N BON N ER, Senior Graphic Designer, Office of Marketing Communications 

ELIZABETH BRAN DES, Art Director for the Office of Marketing Communications 

CUTBERTO GARZA, Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculties 

DONALD HAFNER, Chair of the Undergraduate Fellowships Committee 

JOYCE MANNIX, Business Manager for the College of Arts and Sciences 

ANNA MARIE MURPHY, Deputy Editor of Boston College Magazine 

JOSEPH QUINN, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences 

BARBARA VI ECH N ICKI, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration 

We would also like to give special thanks to the Dean's Office 

of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Marketing 

Communications for providing budgetary support that made 

this publication possible. 

Q U E S T I O N S & C O N T R I B U T I O N S 

I f you have any questions, or would like to contribute a letter for 

our next issue, feel free to contact the journal at elements@bc.edu. 

COVER 

Photo of the Blue Koran, courtesy of the David Collection, 

Copenhagen, Denmark, accession number 77.2004 

Elements, Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2006 

Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Service Building 103, 
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 

Printing: Kirkwood Printing, 904 Main Street, Wilmington, MA 01887 

For submissions guidlines please refer to http://www.bc.edu/elements/ 

E L E M E N T S STAFF 

E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F 

GREGORY WILES 

M A N A G I N G EDITOR 

REBECCA KRAUS 

H U M A N I T I E S 

CAROLINE GELMI, Senior Editor 

EMILY CERSONSKY, Editor 

CATHERINE HALSEY, Editor 

KAELIN GRANT, Editor 

NATHANIEL CAMPBELL, Editor 

NATURAL SCIENCES 

BILL HILLMANN, Senior Editor 

KATHERINE WU, Editor 

ALLISON LORD, Editor 

SOCIAL SCIENCES 

KERRY BRENNAN, Senior Editor 

CHRISTOPHER LAWS, Editor 

PAUL WEN DEL, Editor 

MARISA COCHRANE, Editor 

LAYOUT 

DAM I EN CROTEAU-CHON KA, Senior Editor 

KATHRYN BRADY, Editor 

MARIA MASAVEU, Editor 

WEB MANAGER 

DAM I EN CROTEAU-CHONKA 

FACULTY ADVISER 

PROF. MARK O'CONNOR, 

Director, College of Arts and Sciences Honors- Program 

Copyright © 2006 by Trustees of Boston College 

mailto:elements@bc.edu
http://www.bc.edu/elements/


E D I T O R ' S N O T E 

Everyone knows the greatest artists of all time. Picasso, Monet, and 

Rembrandt are among the most oft-cited names on any college campus. 

Yet the vast majority of the Boston College student body would have 

trouble naming just three of the great artists of the last 50 years. 

Perhaps some would name Christo, the French artist who most recently 

placed hundreds of orange curtains in New York City's Central Park. 

But many would even question whether or not wrapping the Reichstag 

in cloth constitutes "art." It seems that, at least in the classic academic 

sense, our modern society's appreciation of art has waned. One of the 

articles in this second issue of Elements examines the work of the great 

American 2 0 t h century artist Rothko, a painter who would be hard-

pressed to find fame outside of art history circles. 

Of course the definition of art cannot be confined to painting. Art en-

capsulates everything from music and literature to sculpture. Art 

began as man's attempt to recreate nature. And at least unti l the last 150 

years, mainstream art was praised for its virtuosity at recreating the 

human experience. Michelangelo's David is the greatest recreation of 

the human form i n sculpture. But as human thought evolved, the idea 

of what constituted "reality" changed. Perhaps the human mind could 

create a reality separate from that found in nature, intellectuals theo-

rized. Although Cervantes in Don Quixote foresaw this shift in thought 

centuries earlier, by the mid-ic)th century art became focused upon a 

new representation of reality. Artists such as Monet and Picasso began 

to warp what they saw in nature into a very distinct art form. Not sur-

prisingly, this period seems to mark the peak of the popular recognition 

of art. Painting, sculpture, and even literature in large part ceased to 

represent any tangible reality found i n nature. Art became obscure. 

Impressionist exhibits continue to be the most popular at art museums. 

It seems that slight alterations to an observable reality are what draw the 

most admiration from modern audiences. A l l popular modern media 

fit this mold. Movies allow viewers to get lost i n an imaginary but famil-

iar world. Popular music also creates a slight diversion from a perfect 

natural beat through its use of syncopation. In short, the viewer of art 

wants to utilize his imagination but only to a certain degree. And so we 

have seen a division of art into the academic and the popular. Art has 

always been the business of the high-minded wealthy classes; this rule 

has eroded of late. Some even consider pornography a form of artistic 

expression. Several of the articles in this issue of Elements examine the 

artistic elements of everything from the Koran to presidential speeches. 

What we find is that art is ubiquitous: no longer just to be found behind 

a ticket counter with a $10 museum admission charge. Name three of 

the great artists of the last 50 years: Francis Ford Coppola, Meryl Streep, 

and, of course, John Lennon. 

GREGORY WILES 

Editor-in-chief