Digital Commons Network^™

Game / Landscape / Us, Dongqi Zhang

Masters Theses

Assumption: Today’s game companies often try to hire landscape architects to do virtual environment design. With the prompt expansion of technology, gaming has already become a unique and huge industry worth billions of dollars. More and more people have become immersed in video and computer games. If we acknowledge this is true, what are the reasons?

Rationale: People lose focus on the physical landscape when they participate in it. In contrast, “A game, of course, is a constructed world with a narrative already baked in.” (King, 2015) Some people love virtual games because the real world lacks what they long …

When We Are Old : A Mutualism System For The Canal Network And Its Aging Community, Jiali Li

Masters Theses

Population aging is a severe problem. The whole world is aging and especially in China. As of the 2010 census, the number of people in China over 60 has reached 178 million, which is 23.6% of world’s aging population. It means 1/4 of the aging population live in China. This thesis will focus on the third-tier cities which have more urgent aging issues and more vulnerable commercial and political statuses, which leads us to Yangzhou, a typical third-tier city in Jiangsu Province. In the context of aging society, the government of Yangzhou keeps moving the elderly from the livable canal …

The Social Life Of Working Waterfronts : Strategies For Renewing The Social Value Of Productive Harbors, Evan Davenport

Masters Theses

The Social Life of Working Waterfronts is an independent thesis project that envisions the expanded role of an urban waterfront as a landscape for both industry and everyday life. The project calls for new synergies between public and private stakeholders to challenge the cultural perception of industrial landscapes and renew social and ecological value of productive harbors. By integrating industrial processes with civic life, working waterfronts can begin to operate mutually for industrial and societal needs. This proposal aims to establish spatial and systemic commons between a declining city and its thriving commercial fishing port by engaging and celebrating the …

Salt Pans Matter : A System Of Ecology And Culture Cohabitation For Cabo De Gata, Andalusia, Spain, Chenglin Zhu

Masters Theses

This thesis book seeks new meanings for the concept of “cohabitation”, it is important to understand “cohabitation” as the link to connect cultural inheritance and natural restoration. We need to find a way to coexist with nature and create something beyond - the new relationship for “economy, nature, and culture.”

The salt pans in Cabo de gata of Andalucia, Spain is not just a potential habitat for the migrating birds, especially for flamingos, but also for the cultural heritage of the traditional craft of salt production. Unfortunately, it is the only salt pan still under operation in the region today. …

Landscape Succession : Oil Field Transformed Through Landscape Process, Yuanbin Wang

Masters Theses

The Inglewood Oil Field is located in Los Angeles, California. It is a fully functioning and one of the largest urban oil field in the United States. Facing the increasingly tense relationship between neighboring communities and the expansion of oil fields, the site has attracted a lot of public attention over the years.How to integrate the landscape process as part of the evolution of the industry is critical to this project. This project examines landscape architecture as a remediating agent within a fully functioning oil field. It proposes a process to heal the site through a simultaneous evolution. By using …

Regenerative Assemblage : Future Vision For The Canals Of Pingdingshan, Meng Wang

Masters Theses

Most northern Chinese cities have inadequate drainage infrastructures, especially those tertiary cities that were built after World War II. These cities have small to middle size urban area but with high density. They are served by drainage infrastructures which are in the form of canals. These canals were built at the same time as cities with goals of protecting themselves from flooding and transporting stormwater in summer. With the growth and development in the past 80 years, the urban area has become much denser. Many cities have been installing underground pipelines to collect and transport stormwater. Thus the water level …

Hab Mitigation : Wetland Restoration In Farmlands, Jae Won Wang

Masters Theses

How could landscape strategically contribute to the collection and filtration of the nutrients that get transported in the river and introduce a new wetland system in the farmlands that utilize existing underdrainage systems and introduce a new paradigm of agricultural practice that could be applied in the future and eventually mitigate the Harmful Algae Bloom issue?

Abjad Orientations, Mohammed Nassem

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates verbal and visual language through a lens of translation, queerness, and diaspora . Looking at graphic design as a reconciliatory space , I make use of its formal and typographic systems as devices to tell stories , examine cultures , and negotiate conflicting principles .

Abjad Orientations is a process of shifting the focal viewpoint to reorient myself and/or my audience and allow for a closer probe of our cultural reality . My eclectic identity as a Queer , Muslim , multilingual Arab living in the United States drives the form and content of my design inquiries …

Record : From Signal To Atmosphere, And The Spaces Between Silence And Noise, Amy Auman

Masters Theses

Record is both a noun and a verb. Its meaning shifts through pronunciation, beginning with our cognitive interpretation and then emerging as a translation that we project from our mouths. This thesis book is an artifact, or record, of the past two years of artistic inquiry. My work, however, lives through movement in time—it records my impulses. This thesis is merely an open archive.

A range of stimuli competes for our conscious attention. The signals we choose to notice emerge from the periphery of our atmosphere, which includes everything from noise to silence. I use design to amplify and alter …

Standards, Rules, Setting, Robert Mcconnell

Masters Theses

Greetings. Welcome to Standards, Rules, Setting. This short preamble serves as a user guide to the material that follows. It is, essentially, a set of standards that govern the organization and progression of the various items in this publication.

Everything in this book has been conceived and constructed in line with the Graphic Design Thesis Book Protocol. As my body of work deals with the communication of messages and the manipulation of their governing conventions and norms, this publication — as well — has been organized along similar principles.

There are five types of components in this thesis book: sections, …

Regeneration Of Memory And Home : Rebuilding Urban Resilience And People's Mental Perceptions After The Camp Fire In Paradise, Ca, Xinye Xie

Masters Theses

We are losing, we are forgetting, we are moving forward, we are adapting to the dynamic world. Just like the growth and regeneration circle of the forest, cultures, and cities are all regenerating themselves based on what they have, what they have lost, and what has been erased. Memories of the past are essential parts of our modern society; they reflect our current situation and are also a metaphor of the future.

As designers, when facing a landscape which has been partially ruined or erased, how can we help people to reconnect themselves with what has been erased, rebuild their …

Time Traveler : Interpreting Landscape Process Through Time By Immersive Narrative, Zhiyuan Yang

Masters Theses

Phenomenon1: A fact or situation happens in the present or current period, like this moment’s wind or this spring’s raining. People usually have a sensory experience of the phenomenon.

Landscape Process: a. The phenomenon is extending and changing through time. b. Nature tries to take back its space/land verses human construction and expansion through natural powers like tsunami, forestification. c. The landscape designer is using ecological methods to recover or improve the environment.

Problems: Landscape process, whether through natural behavior or human behavior, usually takes decades or even centuries to see its impacts. For instance, the ice age2 iteration is …

Lost & Found : A Model For Retreated Landscapes, Madison Murray

Masters Theses

I feel as though it is crucial to structure this book in a way that takes you on the same journey I have taken through thesis, and life.

Growing up along the California coast has left me with an intense passion for environmental awareness and sustainability. I excelled in these courses throughout high school and eventually found myself taking more Environmental Science courses in college, during which I took a trip to India. There, I studied the environmental and economic effects of globalization. I remember stopping in Mumbai to witness the effects that clothing dyeing operations had on the downstream …

Recovery In Reverse, Shiyu Bei

Masters Theses

This project provokes awareness of natural resources protection in Tibet, and it raises questions about its political, environmental, and cultural impact. Through constructing a 2.5 km wall out of pre-cast concrete blocks over a long period of time, it works to provoke people both on-site and off-site.

The wall acts as a new injury to the land just like the extraction of resources from the earth again and again. Starting with another wound, I am hoping to raise awareness of the status of this landscape, helping it to recover in reverse. When facing this large international issue, I am not …

Emerging Ecotone, Tongyi Zhang

Masters Theses

Along with the development of society and economy, waste landscape becomes an inevitable result of urban involvement where technological innovation plays a very important role. Computer science, as the most important technology in the 21st century, also affects the physical spaces by enlarging our social distance. People prefer to contact physically less with others unless necessary, causing shrinkage of our community spaces. Abandoned commercial space, which has lost its social function, is one of the typical effects derived from both economic evolution and community shrinking.

In fact, Josh Sanburn (2017) in TIME mentioned “by 2022, analysts estimate that 1 out …

Evolution Of A Type : Street Vending As Urban Strategy In Guangzhou, China, Yuying Shen

Masters Theses

As China continues its program of building new cities and encouraging urban resettlement from smaller towns and the countryside, informal activities that were once typical of urban areas – such as street vending – are being evicted by the government in the name of cleanliness and beautification. In reality, the motivation of eviction has to do with land values and the desire to replace the low-end population: street markets in the downtown areas could be developed into programs that bring large-scale money-making, like shopping malls; street vendors are viewed as undisciplined, messy and outmoded.

If we recognize the conflict between …

Walking Mediation : Bringing Back Rituals On Temple Visits On Mount Putuo, Zhejiang, China, Tianjie Chi

Masters Theses

Mount Putuo is a culturally significant Buddhist pilgrimage site with over a 1000 years history. Traditional walking paths were marginalized on Mount Putuo after a new bus circulation was developed to accommodate more visitors efficiently.

In the past, people were arriving at the old dock, walking through the forests, meeting pavilions and gates, and finally reach the temple. Linear spaces and trees embracing the path help them clean up their mind before they meet burn the joss sticks. Nowadays, most visitors arrive at the modern new dock and spend 20-30 minutes to wait in line for the bus, playing phone …

Tanzania : A New Architectural Pedagogy, Cameron Leandri

Masters Theses

According to Habitat for Humanity, the impact of poverty on education in East Africa remains one of the biggest challenges faced by the region. Self sufficiency is the most sustainable way to advance a society and is a missing link that would help empower developing communities. This thesis imagines a more accessible network of education for the greater region of Kigoma, Tanzania. It proposes this through a two-step system, the first programmatic, the second architectural. Both strategies seek to strengthen the connection between local and global communities, as an education mission.

The proposed educational network utilizes a Central Hub located …

Motherhood Story Project: Transforming Societal Perception Of Mothers Through Portraiture & Storytelling, Andrea Caresse Lewis

Masters Theses

In our modern western culture, there are two drastically different views of motherhood. Society often paints mothers as women who give up on their bodies and careers to pursue a life of seemingly purposeless identity. While the reality is that women devote their entire being to the growth and development of a new human, continuing the very concept of civilization as we know it. Because of this dichotomy and plurality of worlds, mothers often feel ostracized, alone, and completely unprepared for the new journey they have embraced. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the realities of motherhood and …

The Effect Of Ethnic Identity On Biblical Unity In Its Role As An Apologetic, Caroline Boozer

Masters Theses

This thesis will consider the effect that ethnicity has on identity formation as it impacts church unity. Unity is the chief form of evidence by which the Christian church is supposed to be recognized. The way that believers love one another is how Jesus teaches people will know that they are His disciples (John 13:35). Ethnic tensions are a cause of disunity in both the Old and New Testaments. The issue of ethnic identity and relations and the impact that they have on unity in the church is an apologetic for the power and counter-cultural teachings of Jesus. The purpose …

The Utilization Of Visual Design Systems To Promote Higher Levels Of Learning In Educational Environments, Keenan Sultanik

Masters Theses

Traditional higher education environments have changed very little in the last hundred and fifty years, while technology has advanced in nearly every other area of society making each more productive and more capable. This study identifies key aspects of a comprehensive and universal visual learning system that incorporates a more holistic approach to design and interactivity in educational environments. The desired effect of this is elevating classroom learning to higher levels as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy. In this thesis, I have collected and explored empirical and observational data to examine the relationship between effective learning environments and the use of …

Schumann's Dichterliebe: A Revelation Of A Great Composer's Life And Passion, Justin Robinson

Masters Theses

From a young age, German composer Robert Schumann’s passions for music, drama, and literature were evident. Through personal tragedies and an uncertain career path, these talents guided Schumann into a successful career in composition. Childhood interests in literature and the influence of German author Jean Paul Richter had a profound effect on Schumann’s compositional style. His view that music was the most effective aesthetic vehicle for expression was combined with Jean Paul’s definition of Romanticism to create a philosophy of music Schumann would come to live by. In the face of poverty, commercial failure, and artistic frustration with piano composition, …

A Case Study Of The Edwards House: How A Community Fought To Preserve Their Cultural Heritage, Carolyn Grace Klima

Masters Theses

This study examines why an architecturally significant, Queen Anne style mansion in Downers Grove, Illinois was demolished even though citizens valiantly tried to save it for one year. With all the information available in the form of books, journals, websites and videos concerning historic preservation, why did the citizens of Downers Grove fail to save this historic gem? Academic literature shows the significance of historic preservation from economic and sustainability standpoints. Communities have used historic preservation to revitalize main streets across America, and large corporations like American Express and Walmart have supported historic preservation. Unfortunately, architecture is the most fragile …

"Thus Saith The Lord": The Theological Rhetoric Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nathaniel Ryan Davis

Masters Theses

This text seeks to explain the rhetorical appeals that Martin Luther King, Jr. used to persuade his audience of the fundamental truths of human dignity, sin, justice, and hope.

Persecutor’S Remorse: Mimetic Desire, Institutions, And Shūsaku Endō’S Loving Gaze On Persecutors, Jirayu Smitthimedhin

Masters Theses

Building on Mark Williams’ thesis that Endō’s characters often reconcile with an unconscious Other within themselves, I will argue that Endō’s “weak” characters are trapped by mimetic desire and are drawn toward acts of persecution; their status as persecutors depends on their relationships—whom they wish to imitate or whom they imitated in their past. While Williams and other Endō scholars often focus on the psychology and existential choices facing Endō’s characters, I point out how contextualizing Endō within the postwar Daisan no shinjin writers reveals Endō’s criticism of institutional powers, particularly because institutions can become “centers of desire.” Drawing on …

When Fingers Meet Strings, Kara Joy Gibson

Masters Theses

There is a great need for a current and comprehensive curriculum for young harp students. Most of the available instruction books and volumes are over half a century old, and while they have held up in some ways to the test of time, in many others they have fallen short. When Fingers Meet Strings is a fully comprehensive harp method book, meaning it can be used as a stand-alone curriculum for harp pedagogy.

The Distortion Of The Trinity: An Investigation Of The Trinity As Evidenced In The Teachings Of Three Major Religions, Laken Hendron

Masters Theses

The nature of the Trinity is a central and salvific doctrine within biblical Christianity. The divine nature of the person of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is pertinent to Christian teachings and a proper understanding of God is crucial to authentic worship and belief. Cults or heterodoxic religions, such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostalism have discounted, distorted or dismissed the Three-in-One doctrine of the Trinity, as found in classical Christian theism. These false doctrines can affect teachings about justification, sanctification, the role and work of the cross and an understanding of the nature of God. The …

Animal Heads: Exploring Christian Themed Solutions And Mental Health Through Comics, Mariannette Oyola-Perez

Masters Theses

The second leading cause of death for the ages of 10-24 is suicide, a statistic that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows has steadily risen since 1999. Although it is seldom spoken about in mental health circles, an enmity seems to exist between Christianity and modern psychology in regards to mental illness and how it should be treated; this enmity could be preventing helpful Christian-based principles from being shared with the at-risk population while simultaneously excluding Christians from a conversation they need to be a part of.

Interestingly, further research shows that the at-risk demographic overlaps significantly with …

Factors Affecting International Students’ Developmental Functioning: Student And Faculty Perspectives From Liberty University, Andrea S. Childs

Masters Theses

The enrollment rates of international students are increasing, but the attrition rates of international students may also be on the rise. Aligning with Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, the goal of this study was to obtain insight about the encounters that undergraduate international students face. The purpose of this study was to evaluate these encounters to ascertain and compile core themes that will promote international student success. Data gathered from undergraduate faculty also contributed valuable insight. Recommendations were made for both the international student body and the undergraduate faculty. This qualitative research design investigated a small sample of undergraduate international students and …

Exploring The Enneagram Through Visual Aesthetics: Profiles For Personal Home Décor, Sarah K. Casmass

Masters Theses

The home is an environment that is the prime center for self-expression, personal sanctuary, and solace. On a psychological level, the home is a representation of the individual and, therefore, that individual should identify and find pleasure in their personal home space. Decorative art has long provided visual solutions for our innate desire to accentuate our spaces and express ourselves. However, there is a need for a connection between the visual arts and the augmentation of our basic psychological needs through home décor. With countless resources available for an individual to become more self-aware, there is a deficit in the …