Digital Commons Network^™

Grave : Landscape Necromancy, Jil Sanchez

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the phenomenon of festivity in order to better understand the spatial qualities of platforms for experiences of release. The work is grounded in the intimate connection between post-industrial landscapes and the emergence of raves and electronic music. The design approach questions western cultural norms by creating a scenario for a combined rave venue and cemetery. The investigation’s material and spatial manifestations are applied to Red Hook Grain Terminal, an ideal latent venue for raves, concerts, and other festive and contemplative functions on New York City’s fringe. The project aspires to widen the range of conversations landscape …

Light Installations For Le, Yiqi Jiang

Masters Theses

This investigation derived from a personal childhood memory of an autistic boy, living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). His struggles to communicate and to have people understand him drives this thesis investigation in hopes of better connecting people of all abilities through accessible design. After serving a summer term working at a special needs inclusion camp, there is the exposure to the lack of awareness and communication gap between design and people living with autism. The study develops a series of strategies that strengthen communication between people with and without ASD and ultimately seeks to educate the design profession on …

Fluid Solid : Can We Converse With Granite?, Patrick T. Beals

Masters Theses

This investigation seeks to detect sources of the quantitative granite anomalies through various methods and use available resources to allow for an immersive, qualitative, and perhaps didactic experience, which will build a conceptual foundation for design of the in-between spaces made by the negative form of granite architectures. This thesis is about timescales and lenses by which to view them in partnership. With lenses are assumed perceptions, ones that define the understanding of the object in the viewfinder of the landscape, and in this case, the timescales which will be addressed in the following three phases:

Phase 01 Background : …

Borderscape : Weaving Political Boundaries In The Amazon Through Water Performance, Lucila Silva-Santisteban

Masters Theses

This research project is about how to connect political bordering urban systems through the natural structure for a coherent occupation between the built environment, ecosystems and resources following the Landscape Architecture lens that can address different scale systems simultaneously to create a holistic approach between them. And the proposition of a new type of landscape of this threshold territory as its own kind. Specifically looking at the bordering cities in the heart of the Amazon Region in South America that fall between Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

Why the Amazon?

Not only because of the usual fascination, but because of the …

Remnant Landscapes As Homo Sapiens Preserves : It Is The Dystopian Utopia, The Shrine For Modernity, The Home Of Everyone, Yuan Zhang

Masters Theses

When it comes to remnant landscapes, what else can they be instead of being turned into parks, community gardens, or new architectural or urban development?

This thesis starts with a critique towards the very popular post-industrial park, the High Line, where the original materials of the site was completed removed then artificially re-fabricated. By transforming it into a publicly well accessible landscape, the design destroyed the possibility for a citizen to build his/her own intimate relationship with this piece of land because of a much visible ownership. Therefore, the goal for the thesis is to provide a powerful critique to …

Narratives Of Public Space : A Manifesto For Future Urban Landscape In Manhattan, Jaehong Chung

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the history of public space and how it has changed over time. Looking specifically at how social, historical, and advances in technology have influenced and changed the meaning and use of public spaces. Studies of history and its characteristics and case studies check the validity of paradigm of public spaces in Manhattan. The modern features of Manhattan have been completed over 200 hundreds years with Industrial revolutions and influx of immigrants. Due to these reasons, the main focus was to track of causalities among life style changes, social paradigms, and changes of urban landscapes.

As cities developed, …

Magkasama, Christina Chen

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how Filipinos can navigate their cultural identities through apparel. The Philippines has a history dominated by colonialism, diaspora, and assimilation. These systemic issues have contributed to the erasure of Filipino culture and they continue to impact the culture today. Because of these issues, many Filipinos living in America experience a disconnect from their cultural heritage and struggle to engage with their cultural identities. This thesis uses apparel to help Filipinos understand the source of their confusion towards their heritage and provides them with agency and ownership over their identities.

Blood In The Water : Tracing An Interspecies Alliance Between At-Risk Humans And Jellyfish In The Mediterranean, Ala Tannir

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the Mediterranean Sea as a space of simultaneous ecological and political resistance to human-induced violence articulated by the concept of the Anthropocene. In one capacity, the Mediterranean Sea is the space that connects the extracting impulses of European States to the raw materials and resources of their ‘former’ colonies in Africa and the Middle East. Despite being divided in relation to national interests, the Sea defies the easy legibility of such bordering practices, and exemplifies a “vast, complex expanse” that contains many of the contradictions of national and regional interests that are pursued in isolation …

Communicatronics, Adi Azulay

Masters Theses

Design in its nature is a future facing practice. But the future is hard to predict or often even imagine. So how are we as designer to approach these types of problems?

In this thesis I attempt a novel design methodology to derive insights and produce new interaction models for long range communication. The methodology, which can be applied to any topic, focuses on a study of the past. More specifically using experimental archeology, the practice of rebuilding historical objects in order to test functionality and viability of a hypothesis. For this project I learned how to send smoke signals …

Transitions : Designing Acceptance In A World Of Change, Hanna Mclaughlin

Masters Theses

As a creative discipline, design works to instigate change. Often, a design’s success hinges on effecting a change in a user’s life, whether that be prompting the user to accept a new way to communicate, provide care, or share resources. A well-designed product can be offered to a user, and even acquired by a user, yet never be integrated into their daily life. This abandonment may be due to a flaw in the product’s function; however, it can also be due to a lacking system of support for the user while they are integrating the product into their life. In …

Empowerment Of People Of All Abilities, Kasia Matlak

Masters Theses

For my thesis, I sought ways to redefine disability, by focusing on people with lower limb amputations. I focused on the most troublesome part of their daily interaction with a prosthesis, which is a socket. My primary concern was to improve the experience with it, as it is where prosthesis attaches to the body. I looked at disability, prosthetics, body image, identity, and loss. After an amputation surgery, people experience a grief that is comparable to the loss of a loved one. Historically, some people deal with grief by creating and performing rituals. Those rituals have proved to be helpful; …

P-Lax : Toys For Adults, To Play & Relax, Zhizi Liu

Masters Theses

Adults don’t play enough. There is so much emphasis on working and being productive in modern day life, but this can have negative effects—for an adult this can lead to high stress and a sense of guilt when one isn’t being productive. My mission is to help adults de-stress and take a break from work by reintroducing play into their day-to-day interactions. Toys for children are often used for educational purposes and to help enhance their creativity and social abilities; toys for adults can instead used to improve mood, and to help release pressure that is built up from everyday …

The Past Is Today, Afra Al Dhaheri

Masters Theses

Process is a vital element to construction and deconstruction. Yet, materiality serves as a vehicle to expose the aesthetics developed by the process. However, without memories, the construction of these bodies of work would have never been conceived. Rapid change was the initial experience that formed memories in the first place, it was inevitable. Hence, an adaptation method had to be examined. The trees had proven to be worthy of the investigation. The trees required materials and the materials demanded a process. Process developed the work and the work had to have context. Context evolved from memory and required more …

Humor And Allegory, Christopher Goodale

Masters Theses

This series of works proposes the merging of aesthetic interests that undermine the self-seriousness of the artist and the idea of labor in painting. Painting’s slowing of time can hopefully extinguish the peripheral noise of the outside world and provide space for thought. These paintings propose different ways to help the viewer understand visual depth, narrative, and formal decision-making. The optical depth of red, the spatial depth of glazed paint, and the spiritual depth of the figure can provide multiple meanings and possibilities. Another metaphor for the development of this series of paintings would be one comedian telling a joke …

The Farce Of The Frame, Dominic Musa

Masters Theses

Both argument and joke, this series of works offers a critical inspection of the world. Characters trace their steps through the scene of each painting, questioning their place within the appearance of things. The central character is the artist-as-critic. Through this character, with his looming magnifying lens, we are implicated as readers of the faux world—an absurdist play intoxicated with scribbled lines, decorative patterns, and conflated histories—as we embark on a quest for an understanding of human existence. Emptied of any emotional concerns, the characters investigate the world they live in, searching for any indication of hope or a reason …

Lamination Of Reality : Ever-Thickening And Thinning Space, Leekyung Kang

Masters Theses

Since 2014, my work has navigated question of surface and through this search in order to redefined conventional understandings of space. Often times, my imagery draws on architectural infrastructure (such as construction sites and scaffolding), exposing the underlying structural framework within these landscapes. Through the recent installation, I establish a correlation between the bone/skeleton of the location to expose a more raw and unseen space, which is present but never fully revealed.

In Google Earth, the camera eye traverses different surfaces from the urban streetscape to the underground to the cosmos. Within this virtual landscape, glitches exist that are virtual …

Exploring The Relationship Between Athletic Identity And Career Maturity Among High Profile Student Athletes In Revenue Producing Sports Attending A Division Ii Institution, Renida S. Clark

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between athletic identity and career maturity of high profile male athletes at a Division II institution in the Midwest. The study was guided by Donald E. Super’s (1957) career development theory. Participants were high profile male student athletes, who were currently enrolled at the institution and played a revenue producing sport (narrowly defined as men’s football and basketball). Semi-structured interviews were conducted that prompted participants to describe their experiences as high profile student athletes and how those experiences contributed to their athletic identity and career maturity. Findings suggest that …

“The Cracked Pots Of Humanity”: Post-World War Ii American Literary Perspectives On Psychiatric Treatment/Containment Of Mental Disorders, Jennifer Chichester

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which characters in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces grapple with the concept of “madness” on individual and societal levels. Each of these Post-World War II novels question whether “madness” is a social construct. Is the person mad, or is society? These three novels, written in an era when inpatient psychiatric care was losing its prominence as a method for treating those deemed insane, reflect the growing trend of deinstitutionalization in the 1950s …

Black Male Persistence Through Stereotypes In College, Taylor B. H. Boyd

Masters Theses

Stereotypes create threatening environments for Black males on campus causing social, psychological, and academic effects of Black male collegiate success. The theoretical underpinnings of stereotype threat and critical race theory drive this study and explain where stereotypes derive from and how they create threatening environments for stereotyped Black male collegians. In addition, this thesis seeks to break the deficit narrative surrounding Black males in college. In doing so, this study highlights how Black males persist through stereotypes and the threatening environments they create in both academic and social settings in college. The qualitative phenomenological research design captures the lived experiences …

The Polyphonic Survivor: Dialogism And Heteroglossia In Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale", Joshua Novalis

Masters Theses

Using Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of polyphony, dialogism, and heteroglossia, this thesis will seek to show that Art Spiegelman's Maus is an innately heteroglossic work. Through the use of the graphic novel medium, a multi-perspectival blend of visual and textual narrative, Spiegelman creates a work where various key voices are allowed to speak within the work—without any one voice being given full authority over the other. Vladek Spiegelman, for example, is given the ability to speak freely, despite his narrative’s shortcomings. Although Spiegelman shows Vladek’s perspective to be flawed and inaccurate at times, Art’s interviews with Vladek provide a perspective into …

Batman As Monomyth: Joseph Campbell, Robert Jewett, John Shelton Lawrence, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, And The Hero’S Journey To Gotham, Andrew Thigpen

Masters Theses

In 1988, Jeffrey Lang and Patrick Trimble wrote an article called, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,” which explains the absence of a hero of the American monomyth in comic books. The American monomyth was proposed by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence and describes a community in harmonious paradise threatened by evil. The normal institutions of law and order fail to defeat the evil, but fortunately, a hero from outside the community arises to resist temptation, defeat the evil, and return the community to its peaceful condition. Lang and Trimble observe the death of Superman during the events …

Standard Deviation, Wooksang Kwon

Masters Theses

Through my work, I highlight both peripheral and intrinsic aspects of graphic designers' quotidian lives to reveal new ways of thinking about design tools, media, and processes.

As a creator who always seeks for novel perspectives, I keep observing and interpreting irony in aspects of the world. Using storytelling methods, I portray a certain object, machine or system in a way that deviates from its intended purpose.

I animate static media to convey sequential stories. I use familiar tools of designers to discover their inconspicuous characteristics. I translate graphic elements that we usually experience through two dimensions into three dimensional …

"Only The Name Is New:" Identity, Modernity, And Continuity In Afghan Star, Timothy Olson

Masters Theses

In 2005 a televised singing competition took Afghanistan by storm. In a nation previously known for censorship of music and violations of women’s rights, a new precedent began to take shape. People of all ages and ethnic groups followed Afghan Star and cast their votes by mobile phone—a technology that had only recently become available. Though followed by a sea of controversy, Afghan Star has persisted for more than a decade and remains one of the most popular television programs in Afghanistan. Prior to the Taliban, Afghanistan already had a vibrant musical culture, but most people felt that playing music …

No Stone Unturned: Defining The Role Of A Worship Assistant, Brittany Mcgilberry

Masters Theses

This paper will encompass information and the philosophy of the role of a worship assistant in ministry regarding the vision of the church, the use of appropriate equipment, and effective rehearsal strategies.

The Role Of Metastasis Suppressor Cd82 In The Deactivation Of The C-Met Signaling Pathway In Prostate Cancer, Katie L. Uhl

Masters Theses

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States. Metastasis plays a major role in patient prognosis and treatment options. One of the factors that influences metastasis is the activation of the c-Met signaling pathway. Activation of the growth factor c-Met results in cytoskeletal rearrangement, migration, and invasion. Previous studies have shown CD82 to act as an active metastatic suppressor in normal, healthy cells and is downregulated in various forms of cancer. When CD82 is re-expressed in cancer cells, the cells no longer express metastatic characteristics. The purpose of this …

Nutrition And The Person-In-Environment Perspective: Implications For Social Work, Kayla Harter

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between nutrition and social work education, practice, and perceptions on nutrition. Licensed master’s level social workers in the state of Michigan (n=45) were recruited online through Grand Valley State University’s School of Social Work listserv, social media, social work professors and colleagues. Participants completed an anonymous online survey through Google Forms which included 18 questions. The online survey involved open and closed-ended questions focusing on 1) integration of nutrition in practice; 2) perceptions on the value of nutrition in social work; and 3) nutrition training during and after graduate …

The Extent Of The Christian Approach In Converting Chinese Buddhists Encountering Physical Or Spiritual Difficulties In Life, Ann Ge

Masters Theses

This research paper presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative survey of Chinese Christians from Buddhist backgrounds, with a special focus on the Christian response to life trials, since, in Buddhism, any spiritual or physical adversity tends to be attributed to bad Karma from one’s past. The biggest aim of the research is to investigate more effective ways of leading Chinese people to Christ. The survey focuses mainly on three aspects of the respondents’ conversion stories: (1) their backgrounds, (2) their life changes after conversion, and (3) their inter-religious perspectives. In terms of background, most of the respondents had …

The Doctor Will Skype You Now: College Student Attitudes Towards The Integration Of Telemedicine (Healthspot® Kiosk) At John Carroll University, Kasey A. Foley

Masters Theses

There has been a spike in the nation’s interest in telemedicine over the past decade. Mobile applications, remote-monitoring devices, and image-sharing software have been designed to provide patients convenient access to medical attention. One of these technologies, an enclosed medical booth called the HealthSpot® kiosk (HSK), was installed in the John Carroll University Student Health and Wellness Center in 2014. The HealthSpot® kiosk utilizes videoconferencing technology to simulate face-to-face communication between providers and patients. This new technology would seem to be a good fit for a small college campus, as college-aged students accept technology quickly, and small campuses often have …

Engagement Of Early College Students In The Graphic Design Classroom, Kelly Ann Vander Kley

Masters Theses

This thesis creates recommendations for methods to increase classroom engagement, specifically in classrooms consisting of art/design students within a dual enrollment setting. The recommendations follow the investigation of literature and the examination of studies related to engagement features of young college students who are studying graphic design. This thesis examines factors that potentially reduce classroom connectivity, and looks deeper into how those factors play a role in the engagement levels of students. I begin with a focus on overall classroom engagement followed by a closer look at engagement of early college students in the graphic design classroom. After an examination …

Alaska Native Artifacts; Eskimos And Aleuts Of The Bering Sea Rhythm Of The Sea Collection, Marcia Sue Taylor

Masters Theses

“Only his artifacts provide his earthly testimony” (Thiry 1977, p. 5). The purpose of the research is to catalogue Eskimo and Aleut artifacts that comprise an unprovenienced (anonymous) collection in the Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University, and provide a corresponding ethnography. This will be accomplished in two ways: (1) a museum curation project, and (2) an ethnographic study that will focus on cultural synthesis within the parameters of artistic styles of harpoon head artifacts and geography as these pertain to the artifacts and their distribution. Analysis of the collection’s harpoon heads will provide both artistic and inventive evidence of …