Digital Commons Network^™

World Settings, Elizabeth Meiklejohn

Masters Theses

Acoustical building materials, with their ability to absorb and diffuse sound, can reshape the character of interior spaces in profound ways. Woven textiles often perform as acoustical materials, whether by coincidence or by design; strategic use of textile structure and dimensionality can yield specific experiential qualities in homes, offices and shared spaces. The way certain materials manipulate sound can feel otherworldly, as if they break the laws of physics or the familiar parameters of one’s surroundings. The same properties can be found in emergent visual patterns and illusory lighting conditions, which provoke an investigative, deliberate way of looking.

In this …

Accidental Commensality Eating, Belonging, And Mazaa On The Streets Of Jaipur, Rini Singhi

Masters Theses

Commensality is more than just eating together at a shared table. "Who can eat with whom and what" is a divisive issue in India, where food and eating serve as functions of inclusion and exclusion. In this paper, I examine street food stalls in Jaipur as sites of eating together with strangers and ask, What forms of commensality do street food stalls enable? Can eating together on the street expand ideas about eating together in public? As part of my fieldwork in Jaipur, I observe the surroundings of street food stalls, participate in heritage food walks with guides, and document …

Sacred Pleasures : A Patronage Festival Of The Erotic And Play, David Dávila

Masters Theses

Sacred Pleasures emphasizes human connection and experience. The transcalar use of the erotic and play in spatial design can redefine the current cultural value of production and capital. The proposal addresses three scales of these socioeconomic and spatial conditions: system, architectural, and human scale. The erotic is used as power and resistance. Play is used as a method to achieve agency and to mediate human connection.

The thesis resists from within the context of Puerto Rico, an island product of colonization by two entities, Spain and the United States of America. It addresses the relationship between Puerto Rico and the …

!, Nick Larson

Masters Theses

This thesis uses the exclamation point to represent a way of thinking and working methodology. The exclamation point in mathematics represents a factorial function, an operation for determining all possible orders of a set. Colloquially, the meaning of the exclamation point relies entirely on context. Within a yellow triangle, it means caution or danger, but at the end of a sentence delivering good news, it means excitement. In the context of this thesis, the exclamation point represents enthusiastically and exhaustively reordering objects, words, and processes to highlight shifting meaning.

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 …

Other Realms, Louis Rakovich

Masters Theses

Can a system existing in rigid order be taken back to a state of malleability, a space of potential not yet actualized?

If creation reduces the infinite to produce the finite, then in the simplest sense, creation is the process of bringing something tangible, real, out of the ether—out of the primordial chaos of possibility. The technique of defamiliarization can be viewed as an agent of de-creation, the active reversal of creation, in order to make creation possible once again. As such it holds spiritual power in its own right.

In pursuit of this state of renewed potentiality, I use …

Reengineer Value, Maxwell Altman

Masters Theses

Through adaptive reuse an equitable densified inhabitation solution can be instituted for the Broad Street Synagogue, using a doctrine of value defined by emotion instead of economics to generate positive experience through materiality.

An initial investigation into dwelling and the concept of value has instigated a desire to redefine value from the traditional economic stance. Value in living currently suggests a focus on qualities that directly influence and maintain aspects of monetary value, however value can be placed instead in what influences emotional well being. Equity becomes a powerful motivator for the inclusion of positive influences, even when not directly …

Openness, Qiwen Ju

Masters Theses

We perceive the world as flat when we close one eye. When both eyes are open, the world takes on a three-dimensional quality.

Our childhood, education, family, and environment form and bind our cognitive perspective. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes: “You can’t see Mount Tai by blinding your eyes with one leaf.” Truth is exceedingly difficult to discern. Like the obscuring leaf, there are blind spots in our vision. Prejudice is often the narrow leaf that obstructs perception, preventing us from seeing with greater dimension.

For actual comprehension, we can only see through the eyes, hearts, and minds of …

Connect: Translating Complexity Through Visual Simplification, Ilhee Park

Masters Theses

CONNECT: Translating Complexity through Visual Simplification brings complex data into concise visual systems that encourage ease of access. With a background in Human Factors Engineering, user engagement remains a central focus in my design. Whether reducing barriers to scientific information or untangling deeply complex data, design must contain intuitive concepts without the need for extended explanation. Using bold color and geometric shapes as the core design language to render pictorial narratives, this thesis maps my development as an information designer through modes of gathering, deciphering, and interpreting.

Anybody Home? Figural Studies In Architectural Representation, David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Architectural figures are charged with the task of bringing an architectural drawing, rendering, or model to life. They speak to us in ways that other elements of a drawing cannot, or rarely ever do. This is their charge, their vitality, their animacy, which can turn without moment’s notice, from the opening of a projective narrative in the tune of an invitation to live, to the swallowing of this extradimensionality by the overdeterminations of scale, proportion, order. I don’t want to assume that architectural figures serve a completely transparent, banal, self-evident role in architectural representation — the trope of human-as-scale. Instead, …

A Thesis On The Entanglement Of Art And Design, Racquel Clarke

Masters Theses

Design exists in the realm of functionality while art is used to invoke creativity heightened by one’s passion. Rather than perfect art and design as separate entities, we should find ways to entangle art, design, and visual graphics to create new languages that solve problems. Addressing color, and hybridity as it relates to form and identity allows for one to come to a foreground that heightens their experience to elevate. Utilizing the entanglement of art and design can birth a new language while altering the paradigm of how one receives and conveys an idea. Using graphic design as a tool, …

Rising To The Occasion : A Resiliency Strategy For Brickell, Miami, Stephanie Gottlieb

Masters Theses

As a result of climate change, there has been an increase in flooding all over the world, especially in coastal areas. The coastal city of Miami, Florida is about seventeen feet above sea level at its highest point, with much of the city at five feet or less above sea level. This study is focused in the neighborhood of Brickell. The neighborhood is on the coast and thus acts as a barrier between the Atlantic and other neighborhoods in Miami. The neighborhood has also been the center of a lot of recent growth and development and has become a cultural …

Youkoso Tokyo : Guidebook To A New Cybercity, Evelyn Ehgotz

Masters Theses

Tokyo exists in an urban Feedback Loop, a concept that takes from theories of post-urbanism and cybernetics. Essentially, there is a loop between the physical city and the image or representations of the city. Both versions of the city are accepted as valid, but by analyzing the image versions as heterotopias, there is a view into the social constructs and conceptions of the city. East Asian cities are especially impacted because of techno-orientalist tendencies of the West. Tokyo, being one of the most well-documented and temporal, has been imagined and reimagined as simultaneously high-tech and mysteriously ancient. This is most …

Towards A New Immersion, Kaijie Huang

Masters Theses

The rapid development of informational technologies and computational technologies in the past few decades had made previously expensive computational devices affordable for the general public. Personal computers in the 1990s and 2000s, Smartphones in the 2010s, and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets especially in recent years(2020s). The extraordinary immersive qualities of VR had sparked a new wave of exploration of this newly developed media.

The immersive medium has a long history in human society even before the invention of computers. It can take as many forms as literature, drama, painting, sculpture, photography, film, digital media and so much more. Depending on …

A Digital Surreal, Michael Garel-Martorana

Masters Theses

As architects, much of our work lives within our various computer softwares. Rendering within architectural practice allows us to fabricate highly calculated, realistic representations of our work- a method by which we place ourselves within a space, inhabit it, or make it familiar.

“A Digital Surreal” seeks to explore how rendering can be employed as a space for the production of narratives that instead challenge our perceptions of space. Drawing from artwork from the Surrealist movement, the project considers the characteristics of work by artists including Rene Magritte, Kay Sage, and Conroy Maddox, amongst others, along with contemporary architectural precedents, …

Astoria Houses: A Resilient Community, James Juscik

Masters Theses

As climate change leads to more intense and frequent storms throughout the northeast, architecture needs to adapt to be able to protect life and property. As we can see from Superstorm Sandy, and the more recent Hurricanes Ida, and Henri the current architecture and infrastructure is failing its purpose. Nowhere is this more true than in Astoria Queens.Among the New York City neighborhoods most impacted by climate change, Astoria has received little investment to make it more resilient. The Astoria Houses public housing complex becomes the perfect site to design a new mixed density, resilient neighborhood of the future.

Astoria …

With Water, Kt Mcleod

Masters Theses

Focusing on the coastal areas of Maine and the existing water conditions, this thesis proposes the integration of architecture to engage with and help facilitate a micro-climate while serving the surrounding natural environments.

Reference: A Field Guide For New Practices, Eric Mason

Masters Theses

The following work is an experimentation within architecture to promote a social ideology of reuse, where we must first re-frame and dismantle the traditional perceptions of building materials, in order for the discipline of architecture to utilize the practice of unbuilding.The thesis analyzes the suburban condition and its relationship to big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Through a re-imagining of this relationship the question of material longevity centers itself as the main design motive for the project and how a new understanding of this potential can be extruded through community engagement. This new depot which the work understands …

An Atlas Of Speculating Flooded Futures ; Water Keeps Rising, Victoria Barlay

Masters Theses

This thesis is a study of the histories; past, present, and future, concerning scenarios the landscape of Charleston South Carolina might take through the next 200 years. The focus of this visualization is on the sea level rise of the Atlantic ocean and the river deltas that feed into it. Charleston is a city in one of the earliest colonized American cities and thus carries a deep history of prosperity and suffering. A gateway for British colonization in the early colonies, Charleston was also a port for the sale of enslaved peoples. The many generations of people who call this …

The Inner Dialogue Of Cultures: "Core-To-Core Confrontation" In My Name Is Asher Lev And Davita's Harp, Sara Marie Williams

Masters Theses

Chaim Potok’s novels My Name is Asher Lev and Davita’s Harp offer an immersion into an otherwise private culture. They are doorways of sorts into the twentieth century Jewish community in America, full of complex history and a necessary resilience developed after centuries of oppression. These two novels are examples of what Potok calls “core-to-core confrontation,” as his main characters experience tension between cultural expectations and their desires which appear to contradict those standards. Davita and Asher live in the complex reality of community, demonstrating that it is natural to desire various outlets of expression and still be a unified …

Aesthetic Implications Of Using The Computer Medium In Music, Rodrigo Valente Pascale

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I reflect on the relationship between the materiality of computers and computer music. Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler had a fundamental role in unraveling how media shape discourse and influence their conveyed message and history. These were important discoveries that built the foundation for the field of Media Studies. Throughout this thesis, I will revisit reflections of researchers who contributed to this field and point out how the medium molds computer music’s history and aesthetics. After reviewing the role of the materiality of computers, I will indicate some aesthetically compelling directions of computer music, which consider features …

The Weight Of The Interaction: An Exploration Of Fat Women's Experiences In Healthcare Settings, Danielle Snow

Masters Theses

Despite making up a large portion of the United States population, fat people are stigmatized, discriminated against, and treated as deviant. Though there is a large body of interdisciplinary literature on obesity and health, and a large body of sociological literature on stigma, there is little literature on fat stigma. Thus, using a Goffman’s stigma theory with the added contribution of Foucault’s concept the medical gaze and medical anthropological concept delegitimization, this qualitative thesis explores the health care experiences of 13 White and 2 Black fat women in the U.S. First, context for fatness and health is explored within chapter …

Benzofuran Derivatives Substitute For The Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of 3,4methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Mdma) In Male Sprague-Dawley Rats, Candace Johnson

Masters Theses

4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is currently under evaluation in phase III clinical trials as medication-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is expected to be approved by the FDA for clinical use in the near future. MDMA is also a popular abused substance with risks for cardiovascular toxicity and neurotoxicity, particularly when misused at higher doses. Characterization of the behavioral and neurochemical effects of novel psychoactive substances is an essential step in the development of safer alternative therapeutic agents. Drug discrimination is a preclinical behavioral assay with pharmacological specificity for characterizing in vivo drug actions in the central nervous system. This …

The Bean Pie: Black Muslims And Identity In Early Twentieth Century Detroit, Alexandra Christine Bicknell

Masters Theses

The bean pie is the product of culinary traditions set forth by the Nation of Islam. Nation members used the navy bean to whip up a custardy dessert utilizing religiously approved ingredients. Milk, eggs, brown sugar, and whole wheat flour transformed a savory, well-cooked bean into a sweet treat. Pies made from beans were not invented by the Nation of Islam, but they became symbolic of the culture and institutions established by Black Muslims in America. The Nation of Islam shaped Michigan and the midwestern region’s social and cultural identity. The Nation promoted that Black people ought to have power …

Where Have All Our Women Gone? Using Art To Destigmatize And Celebrate Biblical Womanhood, Emma Catherine Ream

Masters Theses

In the 21st century, young Christian women struggle with understanding and applying practical aspects of Biblical womanhood in their day-to-day lives. Extreme views make it difficult for young women to navigate life in a way that makes sense in the cultural context of the 21st century. Young women today struggle to utilize the full range of talents and gifts that God has given them, and more importantly, they struggle to align their lives with Scripture. The lack of knowledge concerning what Biblical womanhood is, combined with confusion about how it is applied, impacts not only the women themselves, but everyone …

Creating A Solid Mystery: Solving The Case For Plot, Michelle Grace Cannon

Masters Theses

When it comes to mystery, one of the most key figures of the genre is the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie. This beloved author has written over 60 mystery novels in her lifetime. Studying her work has shown that Christie put much time and effort when crafting her stories. The Queen of Mystery carefully planned to ensure her stories had a solid plot her readers could easily follow and enjoy. This thesis focused on analyzing Christie’s process and looking at how the process could be applied in a mystery manuscript.

Finding Faith Within The Fantasy: Helping Middle Graders Conquer Foes And Fears, Joy Johnson-Summerville

Masters Theses

The Balance of Time is a work of middle grade fantasy that explores the struggles of children in the world today. It was written with the intent to help all children understand the world and the people around them. The story follows a pre-teen protagonist as she navigates familial relationships, loss, and a world in chaos. Along with her siblings, she finds herself in a position to restore a sense of balance in her own life and in the world. The critical review, “Finding Faith Within the Fantasy: Helping Middle Graders Conquer Foes and Fears,” examines previous works of middle …

Inquiry-Based Teaching And Learning As A Tool For Achieving A Scientifically Literate Future: Combating A Post-Truth World, Lauri Elizabeth Davis

Masters Theses

Truth is under attack across the world. This can be seen in the lies spread by Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine to the misinformation spread about combatting the COVID-19 virus. The authoritative and trusted nature of science is being undermined by unfounded beliefs and opinion. Many Americans lack an understanding of how science is done nor have basic knowledge about common scientific information. What is needed is to increase the level of scientific literacy in the United States. Inquiry-based teaching and learning has been touted as a way for developing more scientifically literate citizens, because inquiry-based teaching 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 …

Un-Done: The Historiographical Dialogue Between Past And Present, Rachel Cobler Wollert

Masters Theses

Art critic for The Nation and professor of at Columbia, Arthur C. Danto led the charge with his essay “The End of Art” in 1984 to declare the end of art. Thirty-eight years later, the awareness of colonial problematics in the elite institutionalism of art history today warrants a reanalysis of art historical ontologies of progress (and their ties to colonialism), which have seemingly disbanded in the discipline’s current rhetoric. Because Danto’s historical framework to end art focuses on progress through artistic means, does it fall short or even negate itself by missing the deconstruction of colonial afterlives still present …