Digital Commons Network^™

Surrogate Memories In Animation And Sound, Jared Duesterhaus

Theses and Dissertations

A document in support of my exploration into memory in relation to the mediums of animation, sound, and theater. A reflection on remembering as a creative act.

Monumentalizing Rituals Of The Palestinian Diaspora, Reema Abu Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

Displaced Palestinians have historically sought to preserve their Palestinian memories and identities in order to remain connected to their lost homeland. Despite the importance of memory for them, and their history of suffering and exile, there have not been any significant monuments designed to preserve their collective memory.

This thesis considers the adaptation of a traditional monument by redesigning it to the specificity of the Palestinian diaspora. In doing so it proposes the monumentalizing of four Palestinian rituals to add significance, meaning and permanence to them. The four rituals are making maamoul, applying orange and mashmoom perfume oil to …

Exploring The Creation Of Immersive And Responsive Spaces For Interrelationship Through The Concept Of Playfulness, Yonghun Jung

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 is causing serious damage to many countries. As of May, the number of confirmed patients worldwide is at 3.35 million and the death toll stands at 239,000 people. As a way to prevent the pandemic, most countries encourage people to keep social or physical distance and self-quarantine. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they recommend that people stay at least six feet away from each other and the South Korean government also recommend keeping their distance from each other at least two meters.

Because of the current situation, …

Cultural Production In Qatar: Design, Dialog And The New Authentic, Asma Derouiche

Theses and Dissertations

Qatar, as a rapidly modernizing Arab country with a highly heterogeneous emergent community, is working to achieve a balance between accelerated development and cultural identity. Qatar’s cross-cultural environment and diverse attributes offer unprecedented opportunity to produce forward-looking, “100% Qatari Products,” that express a New Authentic.

This thesis explores social dynamics governing cultural production in Qatar, and it challenges unproductive manifestations of social hierarchy—particularly related to norms surrounding the default working relationship between designers and artisans. The research highlights and celebrates the inherent diversity of the Qatari artifact, creating a platform and methods wherein designers and artisans collaborate equally and meaningfully. …

Spit In My Mouth: Queer Intimacies, Material Intra-Actions, And Sensuous Becoming, Gm Keaton

Theses and Dissertations

This document describes my multidisciplinary art practice as it intersects with New Materialism, Queer and Affect theory, Ecology, and my embodied and experiential knowledge as a queer subject. The writing is divided into two categories. One is more theoretical, thinking through these different discourses. The other realizes them through relationships and intra-actions between my material kin and me. With these two modes of writing,I propose that embodied and felt knowing is as valid and illuminating as more traditional forms of knowledge. These sections are interdependent and resist linear logic, offering relational meanings to each reader as they find their way …

I Hope My Black Skin Don't Dirt This White Tuxedo, Luis A. Vasquez La Roche

Theses and Dissertations

I Hope My Black Skin Don't Dirt This White Tuxedo is a series of works--sculpture, installations, and performances--that explore themes of shame, failure, commodity, ephemerality, ritual, resilience, erasure, race, and death. The research and interest in these themes stem from a page of the Trinidad and Tobago Slave Registry. I use the research that surrounds this document to highlight different moments in history, in my personal life, and to imagine near futures.

Arabic Beyond Arabic, Abir Zakzok

Theses and Dissertations

Arabic is the best and the most complicated language of all time!” Even though this statement seems like an exaggeration, it is what I grew up hearing; from my Arab parents as a child, my Arab teachers as a student, and my Arab customers as a salesperson. The Arabic language has a significant role in Arabs’ identity, yet most Arabs only scratch the surface and do not fully grasp the embedded meaning of the language. I have long been fascinated by the relationship between language and community as well as how it translates to design - specifically, the relationship between …

Paul By Paul By Paul, Paul Finch

Theses and Dissertations

In 2020 flamboyant fashion is associated with queer performativity. Psychologist Alan Downs and queer theorist madison moore understand this to be a response to a culture that is hostile to sexual behaviour and gender expression that falls outside a rigid binary. I study the history of flamboyant aesthetics and camp sensibilities from an intersectional perspective, and locate designers and artists who have produced clothes in ways that materialize the political implications of fashion. As a studio-based artist, I employ traditional sewing techniques, digital technologies, and performance to create clothes and new media works that demonstrate a circular understanding of time, …

...And Yet The Devil Exists, John Hee Taek Chae

Theses and Dissertations

...And Yet the Devil Exists is a project that explores the ways in which ideology determines reality. It is an installation that plots and connects the historical and personal narratives that have defined my sense of identity–narratives in which perceptions of reality shatter, mutate, or hybridize when confronted with power, opportunity, or coercion. The installation component of the project consists of three parts. The first is an infrastructure made of wooden beams upon which paintings and images are installed; I call this the lantern. In the center of this is a round table on top of which is a nonsensical …

See As One, Min Haeng Kang

Theses and Dissertations

Everything that exists in the world is made from “nature.” Humans who initially coexisted with nature began to distinguish themselves from what is human and what is not. Unlike past systems that used to reuse all materials, Society so far has focused on maximizing economic profits along with advancing technology. As a result, the nature of the earth is being irrevocably destroyed, and I think the basis for this lies in the distinctions made between the human and the non-human.

I am always seeking to be in a state where I do not have an atman, like the Buddhist concept …

Spooky Stuff, Petra A. Szilagyi

Theses and Dissertations

A real imaginal exploration of the aesthetics of the supernatural.

Sensory Substitution, Key To Inclusive Learning, Fathima Z. Zahir

Theses and Dissertations

Visually impaired students, in primary education, encounter unique challenges while learning creative skills, exploring artistic expression and developing problem-solving skills, because so much instructional content is delivered visually. Sensory substitution—an approach that replaces visual information with feedback from other intact senses like touch, sound, taste or smell—provides an opportunity to address those challenges.

Through the use of sensory substitution, this thesis proposes concrete ways to capitalize on the enhanced abilities of visually impaired primary school students. The research outcome of this thesis is a system of templates that puts these enhanced abilities to work for visually impaired students, to support …