Digital Commons Network^™

Unnatural Nature: A Visual Artist’S Reflection On Myth, Medium, And Feminine Being, Rong Xu

Masters Theses

My artistic journey has been guided by a childhood fascination with mythology and how our ancestors interpreted the natural world. As my practice evolved toward digital media, I began questioning what "nature" truly means—is it an objective reality or a construct filtered through cultural lenses and personal experience?

The transition from traditional to digital tools—from physical brushes to Apple Pencil and Wacom stylus—removed much of the spontaneous dialogue with materials that once mirrored nature's own randomness. While I initially celebrated my ability to simulate traditional techniques digitally, I now recognize this transformation demands a fundamental reconsideration of how artists connect …

Embodied Archives, Emerging Futures, Xuân-Lam Nguyen

Masters Theses

Fifty years after the end of the U.S.–Vietnam War, this thesis reflects on the entangled relationship between the two nations, inspiring hope while challenging dominant representations of trauma and tragedy. Drawing from autobiography, family history, folk art traditions, colonial photographs, hierarchies within art history, archives of student activism, and key geopolitical events, the work explores the complex intersections of queer identity and glitchy historical narratives. Combining research-based inquiry with time- and labor-intensive processes, it reimagines historical materials to construct alternate possibilities for the future.

A Personal Manual Of Escapism, Qing Wen

Masters Theses

In this fast-paced, information-saturated era, avoidance has become a common mechanism of self-preservation. Confronted with global crises and structural instability, the current generation increasingly adopt a pessimistic stance toward the future: some retreat into virtual worlds, others find themselves unable to bear the weight of real-life responsibilities, and many turn to art as a private sanctuary. But is avoidance only a pejorative term?

It wasn’t until recently that I realized, nearly all of my creative work has stemmed from a place, or an action of escape. The imagined worlds I’ve built, the spaces I created to flee from reality—without knowing …

Where Motion Lingers..., Cheng-Lin Lee

Masters Theses

In the pursuit of seamlessness, modern technology has become oversimplified, reduced to simple taps and pushes of buttons. This standardized interaction feels distant and mechanical, offering services without inviting touch, movement, or emotion.

This thesis explores how technology can blend into everyday life in a gentle way. The designed objects will focus on integrating familiar movements that elicit moments of harmony within interactions with technology. Through design transformations, this project seeks to uncover how everyday movements, like lifting a handle and placing flowers, can transform our technological exchanges into something felt rather than simply performed.

The findings reveal that when …

The Red Thread: Objects As Medium, Hsin-Ning Alin Yang

Masters Theses

There are moments when people hesitate to speak their emotions or needs
—whether it’s love that feels too shy to articulate, needs that risk sounding too forceful, or feelings too vague to verbalize. By shifting the priority of emotion and communication factor ahead of pure functionality, this thesis posits that objects can serve as an alternative medium of communication.

This thesis begins by examining the root causes of communication difficulties and the coping strategies people use, ultimately identifying five situations in which objects can effectively substitute for verbal interaction. Building on these categories, the thesis explores how an object’s features, …

Rooted In Embodied Making: A Notebook On Process, Vija Lietuvninkas

Masters Theses

This thesis takes the form of a wooden box containing an archive of fragments – scanned notebooks, sketches, photographs, emails, journal entries, and other materials – that trace a year of embodied, process-based inquiry. Rather than presenting a linear argument or a polished final product, the work reflects a nonlinear, exploratory methodology grounded in making, wandering, and self-reflection.

Born within the context of the 2025 Sustainability Design Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative at RISD examining the material culture of wood across design fields, this project documents the artist’s evolving engagement with green wood as both material and metaphor. Through practices such …

Pressing Into Absence, Linda Sok

Masters Theses

Pressing into Absence traces the materials, processes, and works I have engaged with between March 2023 and May 2025, positioning historical and contemporary narratives in dialogue with one another. This book interweaves colonial-era source materials (from 1864- 1928) - writings, etchings, and paintings of Cambodia produced by persons from the United States of America and France - with personal anecdotes from my travels to Cambodia in 2024. These accounts are layered alongside speculative reflections in the form of text, sketches, mind maps, and material explorations. These archival remnants and personal experiences are folded together and positioned as equally reliable sources. …

Where The Ocean Ends, The Mountains Becoming, Yuchen Wang

Masters Theses

The father figure casts a long shadow—both a scaffold and a snare. Inherited silence, latent anger, and the fear of being seen are unspoken legacies that bind me. I move within a structure he built that promised protection yet enforced obedience. There, love was often inseparable from control.

This work emerges from the fracture between resistance and inheritance, between the instinct to escape and the compulsion to remain tethered. The paternal presence is no longer a person, but rather a system—an architecture of power and repression—that continues to influence my gestures, choices, and silences. Even distance fails to sever the …

Smora: Breath As Memory, Pratikesh Pundkar

Masters Theses

Smora: Breath as Memory explores smell as a medium for memory, presence, and emotional communication in a world dominated by visual and audio stimuli. The project investigates olfactory interaction through multisensory design, proposing a tangible product system called Smora Cassette that captures, stores, and shares scent memories. Grounded in user research, expert interviews, and material prototyping, Smora speculates a future where smell reconnects us to the truth of lived experience, offering a poetic yet grounded alternative to AI-generated realities.

Graphic Gestures On The Digital Surface; In Defense Of The Observational, Soyoung Ro

Masters Theses

This thesis offers a subjective and process-based exploration of digital tools, challenging the dominant function-driven mindset that often defines digital design today. Rather than prioritizing speed, efficiency, or usability metrics, this work is a shift in focus toward experience, spatial awareness, and the subtle dynamics of interaction.

Rooted in acts of attention—looking inwards, looking outwards—this approach begins by setting aside assumptions about what tools are for, in order to ask how they shape our behaviors and ways of thinking. In doing so, it proposes a design methodology grounded in presence over productivity, process over execution, and agency over automation.

The …

Show Time!, Georgia Oldham

Masters Theses

Time is always ticking and never easy to hold on to. Luckily, twisting over sketchbooks and doodling in page margins, sequential artists are on a mission to capture it for everybody. They’re even going to tell you a story along the way. This thesis explores my relationship to sequential art as it relates to time, storytelling, accessibility, and the performing arts.

Textus Complexus, Vishakha Ruhela

Masters Theses

textus complexus investigates how language shapes thought by merging scientific rigour and poetic action to challenge reductive narratives. My inquiry stems from a fascination with complexity as an existential condition—one that resists homogenisation, preserves collective memory, and demands inclusive, multidimensional engagement. Hybridity, as a spectrum from complicated to complex, becomes a methodological tool to uncover latent connections that lead to cross-communication, and articulate transitional spaces through recursive processes. By systematising multiplicity via layering, modularisation, and indexing, my work foregrounds expression through form, where structural clarity emerges from cumulative gestures rather than simplification.

The projects in this thesis trace the roots …

A Futurist Exegesis Of Matthew 24:1-42, Kenneth Garcia

Masters Theses

This thesis explores a Futurist exegesis of Matthew 24:1-42, emphasizing its prophetic fulfillment in future events rather than historical or allegorical interpretations. It critiques Preterist and Historicist views, arguing that key elements—including the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, and the second coming of Christ—remain unfulfilled. By analyzing the text in its historical, grammatical, and theological context, and correlating it with Daniel’s visions and Revelation, this study defends the position that Jesus’ discourse predicts end-times events such as the rise of the Antichrist, the rebuilding of the third temple, and global tribulation. This work affirms the hope of Christ’s imminent …

Surviving Olympus, Kendra Alexandria Grant

Masters Theses

Pandora has lived with her mother and grandfather always watching the world from a distance for her safety, as her mother told her. Their safety comes to end when Zeus takes them from their home and intends to put them to death, but the kindness of a stranger saves them with the plot of a fake marriage. Follow as Pandora learns to navigate her new world of Olympus in this dystopian society of clones and an impending war.

Character Dialogue And How It Works In Cinema, Janet Best

Masters Theses

BEYOND THE DOOR is a psychological thriller screenplay about an abandoned house and two sixth-grade girls with a shared trauma.

A Phenomenological Study On The Effects Of Graded Performance Evaluations On The Longterm Musical Engagement Of Students In Malaysia, Qianxi Lim

Masters Theses

This qualitative transcendental phenomenological study aimed to research the effects of graded examinations, such as the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and Trinity, on the musical engagement of students who have taken private music lessons. Graded examinations are widely used in Malaysian private music studios, and most music teachers and students use the examinations as the primary source for music education. Participants shared their demographics, experience with graded examinations and private music lessons, and current musical engagement through an online questionnaire on Google Forms. Eight Malaysians who have taken private music lessons and graded examinations were …

The Influence Of Paint, Kaylyn Dunn

Masters Theses

This thesis is made up of multiple essays aimed at examining the relationship between identity, craft, and narrative development. It emphasizes how societal expectations affect self-worth, personal happiness, and identity development. It combines literary, sociological, and Christian viewpoints to highlight the significance of portraying complex and diverse individuals to reflect on the relational nature of identity. This thesis also provides a thorough analysis of theoretical frameworks and practical methodologies for creating compelling characters. By examining psychological models, sociocultural influences, conflict, voice, and genre-specific techniques, it demonstrates how complex character creation enhances narrative. The culmination of this thesis, a novel called …

Science And The Humanities: Are They Two Polar Entities?, Elizabeth Mckenna Silvey

Masters Theses

Science and the humanities are often perceived as being separate entities. In academic settings, there is little to no overlap in these courses of study. One can obtain a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts degree, but there are no academic majors that allow for the study of both the humanities and the sciences. Despite the seemingly different courses of study, it is through careful examination of literature and thoroughly delving into pieces of literature in order to excavate the meaning and purpose behind the work, that one is able to see the distinct connections between the two …

Bringing Light To The Knowledge Gap Regarding Menopause Symptoms And Hormone Therapy, Jayme Kendall

Masters Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to raise awareness about the knowledge gap regarding many common menopause symptoms and the positive impact of hormone therapy (HT), a.k.a. hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and menopause hormone treatment (MHT).

Methods: An initial review of current literature is useful for identifying relevant professional resources of knowledge and understanding the problem. Further, analyses of The Menopause Society, the 2002 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, and Dr. Mary Claire Haver's work shed light on the problem and provide insights to help build a successful educational campaign. Additionally, visual analyses of "When to Try Hormone Therapy," …

T E C H R E V O L U T I O N - Navigating The Digital Classroom: Challenges And Opportunities Of Online Learning, Wes Poole

Masters Theses

Research indicators confirm that that online learning is complex, with both challenges and opportunities to be found. There are several benefits to online learning, including flexibility, accessibility, personalized learning, and collaboration, but there are also many challenges associated with it. While equity and assessment are still major challenges, technology barriers are still present, engagement is limited, and communication is limited.

There is no doubt that self-directed learning, also referred to as online learning, provides innovative pedagogical approaches and also connects learners all over the world through self-directed learning. As a result, it is imperative that existing challenges be addressed, effective …

Examining The Relationship Between Biblical Characters And Mental Health: Identifying A Christian's Well-Being, Shanetia Sharie Chapman

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to examine the intersection between biblical texts and mental health within the framework of Christian belief systems. Through a critical analysis of key biblical narratives involving figures who exhibit experiences analogous to contemporary psychological struggles, this study investigates the influence of scriptural interpretation on believers’ perceptions of mental health and their coping mechanisms. By employing textual analysis, the research seeks to evaluate the potential of biblical teachings as therapeutic resources. Ultimately, this thesis aims to contribute to developing culturally and theologically informed approaches to mental health awareness and support within Christian communities.

"I'M Good," Ain't Nobody's Happy, Nikkole Stafford

Masters Theses

The composition of this thesis will comprise an artistic statement, critical paper, and the first 90 pages of a fiction-based manuscript created during the pursuit of my master’s degree in creative writing at Liberty University.

Beginning with the artist’s statement, I will present the creative mindset utilized in composing the chapters of the manuscript that best reflect my declaration to be entitled as an author. My critical paper will follow my artist’s statement, which will further discuss the fundamental themes that highlight this story, which are social acceptance, faith, and redemption. Using the platform of a fiction novel, I will …

The Evolution Of The Drum Set In American Musical Theater, Andrew M. Wert

Masters Theses

For several decades, American musical theater has been an essential part of the entertainment industry and has provided large-scale employment for musicians. Over the past several decades, composers have produced new works incorporating contemporary music styles and ensembles. This project will explore the changes in music styles in the music of musical theater from vaudeville to the present, analyze the effect that popular music in America has had on the techniques used by composers and orchestrators who write for drum set in musical theater, and examine changes in the function of the drum set player in pit orchestras. Ultimately, this …

Self-Expression As Communication In The Student Film, Matthew Sereno

Masters Theses

The student film is an often overlooked artistic medium, a one-and-done, means to an end kind-of form. Within the academic sphere, the student film holds value as a part of class curriculum, yet such a finite definition is often hindering. Once a project is completed and graded, it is often forgotten (except, of course, in the circumstances of grading). In the case of a student film that is extracurricular in nature, i.e. the passion project, incentive-based reasoning is forfeit. The student film, in all regards, is an overlooked, neglected artistic medium. Such oversight of the student film by both individuals …

Life Immediately After Death, William Berger

Masters Theses

The Bible is the believed, canonical, complete message of God. It teaches morals, values, ethics, virtues, righteousness, truths, and salvation. Every part of life can and should be guided by the words of God for the purpose of accomplishing His final goal. God’s goal for his creation is to achieve through salvation and His grace dwelling with Him in His New Earth and New Heavens. To accomplish this, God created people to be immortal. Within this immortality, death plays an integral part. Because God begins His creation with a defining statement of how it all started, God facilitates an understanding …

Scared Straight: Investigating The Psychological And Moral Dimensions Of Horror, Angelica Martinez

Masters Theses

This research examines the psychological and moral dimensions of the horror genre through qualitative analysis, with particular emphasis on its potential to convey ethical and spiritual meaning. While often dismissed as mere entertainment, horror frequently engages with profound questions of morality, fear, and the human condition. This study argues that horror, especially in its psychological, apocalyptic, and religious forms, serves as a vehicle for moral instruction and reflection. By tracing thematic developments from the 1970s to contemporary expressions of the genre, the research identifies a resurgence of interest in spiritually charged narratives. The findings suggest that horror can play a …

From Comics To Courage: The Real Life Impact Of Superheroes, Dylan A. Perkins

Masters Theses

Are superheroes good for society? Do fictional stories of heroism have nuggets of applicable truth for the every day, normal citizen? Can it even be a motivation for people who follow religion? All of this and more are explored in this thesis assignment as we examine the history of Marvel and DC Comics and how superheroes have been developed during times of war and uncertainty throughout history. Much of this discourse serves as inspiration for the creative draft which is an original novel excerpt that goes into the life of Jack, a child experiment born with extraordinary abilities set against …

A Deconstruction Of The American Dream Through An Analysis Of 'The Great Gatsby', Juliet Hila Katherine Sage

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the physiological, social, relational, and spiritual issues associated with materialism through Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It examines wealth and prosperity, “The American Dream” through Jay Gatsby, and argues that Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship was shaped by Fitzgerald’s personal life experiences. Fitzgerald concludes that financial success and societal achievement cannot replace human connections. Through the character Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates that obtaining “The American Dream” does not guarantee success in all areas of one’s life. This paper dives deeper into the psychological, social, and spiritual ramifications of materialistic gain. As a result, the premise of this thesis concludes …

Misidentification In A Digital Age: The Ethical Implications And Challenges Of Ai Integration In Scientific Illustration, Bethanie Dian Clawson

Masters Theses

Scientific illustration is a crucial resource in scientific communication, providing visual educational assistance for fields such as science, medicine, and agriculture. This thesis explores the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on scientific illustration and examines the strengths and weaknesses of AI-generated scientific illustration as compared to human-made illustration. Through the analysis of peer-reviewed sources, this study brings awareness to the common issues presented in AI-generated scientific images, explaining the risks associated with professional, research, and public settings.

To address these challenges, research is presented to explain tactics to mediate potential errors associated with AI-generated images, the importance of human intervention …

Apologetics And Storytelling In The Lord Of The Rings, Jeffrey R. Ober

Masters Theses

Storytelling has been used for Christian education since the Christian faith first began. The problem is that while storytelling is known as a strong message of communication that has been used throughout the ages; and while it is used by some apologists like C. S. Lewis; there are more opportunities for pastors and others to engage in apologetics and evangelism using storytelling. Christians can use stories to reach others for Christ, just as others throughout history have used stories and storytelling to communicate other traditions and ideas. While this is a good start, there are more opportunities for Christians to …