Digital Commons Network^™

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …

Fluid Futures: The Revitalization Of Yangzhou Through Its Historical Waterways, Feiyang Wu

Masters Theses

In China, cities such as Yangzhou, which in pre-modern times played central roles in the political, cultural, and economic functioning of the country based on their geographic location, proximity to water-based trade routes, and connections to the imperial court, are today facing uncertain futures due to waterways no longer being critical to trade, and government-driven development being focused on first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. With this, the working-age population migrates from smaller cities toward these urban giants, leaving behind aging relatives, a less robust and diversified economic base, and few attributes other than cultural tourism that …

A Thesis, Or Digressions On Sculptural Practice: In Which, Concepts & Influences Thereof Are Explained, Set Forth, Catalogued, Or Divulged By Way Of Commentaries To A Poem, First Conceived By The Artist, Fed Through Chatg.P.T., And Re-Edited By The Artist, To Which Are Added, Annotated References, Impressions And Ruminations Thereof, Also Including Private Thoughts & Personal Accounts Of The Artist, Jaimie An

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exercise in, perhaps a futile, attempt to trace just some of the ideas, stories, and musings I might meander through in my process. It’s not quite a map, nor is it a neat catalogue; it is a haphazard collection of tickets and receipts from a travel abroad, carelessly tossed in a carry-on, only to be stashed upon returning home. These ideas are derived from much greater thinkers and authors than myself; I am a mere collector or a translator, if that, and not a very good one, for much is lost. I do not claim comprehensive …

Searching For The Hyperobject: Crystals As Transscalar Vehicles, Jay Costello

Masters Theses

When I touch the street outside my house, I'm touching Los Angeles—a contiguous vector of material bisecting a continent. A slab, a stone, dust and oil, a googolplex of tightly packed anisotropic particles... At nightfall, I sneak to the edge of the highway and break off a piece. 'What does it mean for a worm to be aware of the scale of the planet?' Bruno Latour's evocative questioning of scalar jumps prompts an existentialism that places me somewhere between the hyperlocal and the massively distributed. Like a cosmic traveler floating through the universe, I feel adrift. I look around, grasping …

Interstice, Shravan Rao

Masters Theses

When I was about three years old, I distinctly remember being too small to see what was on top of the table. A couple of years later, when I could see those objects, I thought the world around me had grown smaller. In a way, it did, as I experienced, lived, captured, remembered, and shared the space repeatedly. This sense of the world shrinking was exaggerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing new behaviours and modes of interaction to emerge. Continually shaping our modern lives, virtual technologies redefine how we access and share information and stories or even explore new places. …

Fungi In Flux | Designing Regenerative Materials And Products With Mycelium, Arvind Bhallamudi

Masters Theses

As the world grapples with the escalating crisis of climate threats and environmental degradation, this research delves into the synergistic potential of design and biology, developing safe and sustainable materials for applications in prototyping, furniture and interior design. Harnessing the power of a unique organism - fungi, the study proposes an accessible, efficient, and resilient material resource system. It utilizes local waste streams and mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) to grow functional structures. An experimental and small-scale protocol is modeled by testing bio-fabrication and bio-printing methods. The composites' performance qualities and characteristics are evaluated through mechanical testing and a …

Beyond The Lines, Miranda-Max De Beer

Masters Theses

Long-held frameworks and philosophies developed over human history have rarely accounted for dynamic flux or shifts between parallel states of being; they’ve ignored the glaring consequences humanity’s brief occupation of the Geologic Timeline will have on the planet. These beliefs have enabled societies to operate through life as if there was no tomorrow, (ab)using the Earth without considering those who eventually reap what’s sown. Beyond the Lines identifies manifestations of the mindset that restricts how we understand living systems and the world around us as so much of what exists in tandem with contemporary society does not adhere to the …

Access In Ambiguity, Moritz Lónyay

Masters Theses

The wealth of color present in nature has long been a major source of inspiration for works of art and design. Yet as more species become extinct due to habitat loss, climate change and unchecked hunting, will we face a less colorful, more monotonous future? How will this impact art and design and how could either be utilized as tools to counteract the loss of color? This thesis speculates upon such a future by the sixth wave of mass extinction and instigates a movement that celebrates color. Growing up in the Anthropocene, the first geological epoch in which human existence …

Temporary Urbanism-Spatial Democracy In The Temporary City, Shijie Li

Masters Theses

This thesis is committed to exploring and discussing the way people behave in the temporary urbanism, perceive and deploy their space arrangement rights and how this nourishes relationships between people, between people and society, and brings a greater sense of spiritual identity and belonging to people.

The modern city is the result of the spatial distribution of material production, urban space is political and oriented to the distribution of power, and citizens are deprived of the subjective qualification and right to participate in the creation o f urban cultural space. Many factors have led to the monopolization of human participation …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet

Masters Theses

Unearthing Complexity investigates conceptions of time and surface through geological stories of the water and earth. Building on theories of deep time, hydrofeminism, critical zones, and grounding, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of time scales other than our own and a more tangible understanding of the embodied experience of matter in the universe. Working toward a new literacy of the water and earth in which they are recognized as living, changing bodies to which we are inherently tied at a molecular level, the site of this multiscalar inquiry occurs in the coastal zones of the Narragansett Bay where …

Wast3d Potential, Andrew Larsen

Masters Theses

Waste is obsolete. Standard building industry practices are harmful to the environment. Non-traditional construction methods were examined as alternatives. Circular design logic was the guiding principle in material choice. Additive manufacturing is a proven modern method for building construction. Research on 3D printing case studies revealed that recycled plastic is a proven material and readily available. Removing plastic waste from the environment and sequestering it in architectural components gives the material a new purpose. The component of focus was a building block for a wall assembly. Inspiration was taken from the hexagonal Basalt rock formations found near volcanic fault lines. …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

Fertilizer Waste Mistreatment Facilities: Investigating The Barrier That Keep Waste In And Attention Out At Central Florida's Phosphogypsum Stacks., Harsha Devaraj

Masters Theses

This project investigates the physical and narrative barriers constructed by the phosphate mining and processing industry to dissuade public engagement with its phosphogypsum sites in Central Florida, USA. The barriers around PG utilize decades of misinformation, racial geographies, and misrepresentations of scale, origin, and risk to create powerful narratives about how we should imagine and relate to these materials. These barriers hinder sustained public attention to their sites, enabling extractive industries to expand while avoiding oversight and responsibility. Attention to how these barriers around phosphogypsum are constructed allows us to recognize these strategies at work in how we see and …

How Do You Define The Watershed? Individual Representations Of The Blackstone River Watershed And Their Roles In Collaborative Watershed Governance, Casey Merkle

Masters Theses

Key leaders of civic environmental stewardship organizations shape collaborative watershed governance. Individuals perceive and construct the watershed through past experiences, feeling, emotion, values, and practices. It is not well known how these individuals perceive and construct their own representations of the watershed and environmental stewardship practices. This thesis explored individuals past experiences, feelings, emotions, values, and practices in the Blackstone River watershed to a) examine the ways in which key leaders of civic environmental stewardship organizations represent the watershed b) understand how individuals think, feel, and engage in environmental stewardship practices and, c) reveal the congruences and incongruencies of individual …

Algal Alterity : A Study Of Florida's Algae-Crisis-Culture, Katelyn Flood

Masters Theses

This research critically engages with the ecology of media discourse surrounding Florida’s “harmful algae crisis” . It uses a content analysis of online news media articles to address how the presence and unique processes of aquatic algae organisms are entangled with people and cultural practices. Specifically, this work grapples with the dynamic relationship between algae organisms and the cultural production of meaning through visual imagery/stimuli. It examines both visual and textual representations of algae in mass media communications covering the harmful algae crisis or “red tide crisis” of 2017 and 2018: an extreme period of aquatic algae proliferation and hazardous …

The Kitchen Table: Relationships With The People, Food And Land That Sustain Us, Chelsey Frost

Masters Theses

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which interactions with food and around food affect an individual’s sense of self, connection to community as well as to friends and family, and sense of place. Short, personal narrative gives way to discussion of such themes and ideas as home, homemade food and terroir. It becomes clear that acts of celebration of and gratitude for food, particularly in connection with a specific place or line of heritage, play necessary roles in the development of our personal identities and in our search for belonging. These stories are based on …

Mobility Justice And Social Capital In Strawberry Mansion And Kensington, Philadelphia Pa, Rebecca Fruehwald

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the theoretical and practical relationship between mobility justice and social capital. A literature review establishes the theoretical relationship through an overview of history and policy. The relationship is then explored through a case study of Strawberry Mansion and Kensington neighborhoods in Philadelphia. These sections are then connected by considering how they are both impacted by the larger system of capitalism. The real-world example of gentrification is given for how all these elements interact and affect each other, and the practical relationship between mobility justice and social capital is established. Finally, policy implementations and paths for possible future …

Exploring Multimedia Storytelling As A Novel Tool To Inspire Americans To Participate In Wildlife Conservation, Megan Brief

Masters Theses

Human and nonhuman animal lives are intimately entangled. In the age of the Anthropocene, it is imperative to reexamine our proximity and kinship with nature. Human-wildlife conflict can evolve into coexistence through conservation efforts marked by creativity and compassion. To inspire conservation action among North American audiences, we must enact novel ways of disseminating scientifically technical concepts. Multimedia storytelling can encourage equitable involvement among lay participants in conservation spaces. When inclusive of Indigenous knowledges, and conscious of damage narratives, such innovative stories can empathetically communicate wildlife degradation and injustices, as well as animate vulnerable human and nonhuman communities.

Growing Quelites In The City: Exploration On Memory And Food Sovereignty In Mexico City, Paola Valeria Ramirez Ensastiga

Masters Theses

In Mexico, as in the world, the number of people living in urban areas is increasing. In addition, urbanization directly generates a fragmentation of the natural habitat and causes the loss of biodiversity. Native edible crops are also being threatened by a constant decline in biodiversity, causing negative ecological, economic and even cultural impact. Until now, the main guardians of the edible biodiversity have been indigenous peoples. Several authors agree that the way in which indigeous people relate to nature may shed some light on how to face the ecological and climate crisis that we are experiencing today. I argue …

Sensuous Knitting: Making Practice That (Re)Members Ecological Entanglement, Sarah Manion

Masters Theses

Conceptualizing the climate crisis as a system of broken relationships calls for a broader understanding of entangled ecological interrelationality. Developing deep and effective responses relies on a stamina for complexity grounded in a recognition and acknowledgement of the way ecological entanglements are revealed to us. Within this frame, practice may provide unique opportunity for the development and promotion of this attuned awareness. To explore this possibility, the personal practice of sensuous knitting is used in this thesis as a way to demonstrate the intersections between intellectual modes of understanding and embodied forms of knowing. Using elements of autoethnographic narration of …