Digital Commons Network^™

Performative Design, Lenita Ann Eldhose

Theses and Dissertations

The field of design is one that holds the power to empower, bridge gaps, inform, evolve and revolutionize human thoughts. To gain a higher understanding of the correlation of anthropometrics and ergonomics in an embodied space relative to the discipline of dance connecting one’s mind and body. The need for a space that instills a sense of freedom for artists to experience and execute their art and to reside alongside their mentors and traveling artists. The need for a space that can bring the diverse cultures that live in and around Richmond together through an expressive form of art. Providing …

“Disability Is An Art…”: Disability As Discourse/Counter-Discourse, David Adelman

Theses and Dissertations

This is a multipart thesis focused on the intersection between disability and art. What does it mean as an artist to engage the topic of disability? Relatedly, how do artists, art objects, and various aspects of culture contend with or confront disability? It is my contention that many disability artworks work to produce mediations of embodied, lived experience for their audiences. In other words, this kind of art takes the concept of disability, which we might otherwise experience only intellectually, or at a remove, and make that concept material, corporeal, and sensuous – creating an object which makes power relations …

Ms. An (Meeting Students’ Academic Needs): A Socially Adaptive Robot Tutor For Student Engagement In Math Education, Karina Liles

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a new, socially adaptive robot tutor, Ms. An (Meeting Students’ Academic Needs). The goal of this research was to use a decision tree model to develop a socially adaptive robot tutor that predicted and responded to student emotion and performance to actively engage students in mathematics education. The novelty of this multi-disciplinary project is the combination of the fields of HRI, AI, and education. In this study we 1) implemented a decision tree model to classify student emotion and performance for use in adaptive robot tutoring-an approach not applied to educational robotics; 2) presented an intuitive interface …

A Case Study Of Teachers’ Experiences Integrating Visual Literacy To Improve Middle School Struggling Readers’ Comprehension, Dianne Tetreault

Theses and Dissertations

Because the meaning of literacy is changing, teachers lack understanding of how to teach older students the skills they need to read and be proficient in an ever-changing digital world. Moreover, only 34% of U.S. 8th graders read at the proficient level, according to the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the process of how middle school teachers in a large urban district in Florida understand and integrate visual literacy for teaching comprehension in their lesson plans and class instruction after completing professional development and subsequent curricular support on …

Franz Roh And Visual Juxtaposition In Foto-Auge, Irini Zervas

Theses and Dissertations

This study of Foto-Auge (1929) is grounded on the approach of Franz Roh and aims to unlock the book’s meaning through an analysis of layout and visual sequence. This thesis also demonstrates how Foto-Auge proclaims photography’s ability not merely to record, but to disrupt any sense of reality in images.

A Strategic Communication Plan For The Florida Tech Wellness Committee, Anushka Karina Boyd

Theses and Dissertations

With rising healthcare costs, it is critical for corporate wellness to be prevalent in the workplace in order to assist employees and their family members to make healthy lifestyle choices. The materials provided in the following design project serve as a guide for the Florida Institute of Technology Wellness Committee in the form of a strategic communication plan. For the Wellness Committee to succeed and have a more profound presence on campus, missions, goals, and objectives must be set in place. In addition, to efficiently make use of their time, the Office of Human Resources staff members should set tasks …

A Heuristic Method For The Determination Of Assembly Network And Line Design For Discrete Manufacturing Processes, Ismael Hernan Naranjo Velez

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents with a proposed alternative precedence algorithm which is determined by the Solid surfaces of the product design. The representation address in this paper address the manufacturing planning from all manufacturing levels of the product. Sequence is introduce to this paper in order to proof the propose precedence network alternatives. Both manufacturing level solutions are heuristic. This thesis explores the connection of the precedence and the sequence, as it introduces physical manufacturing constraints and its relationships to the station process planning. Precedence network are usually determine by the designer principal point and assembled connections. The proposed algorithm avoids …

You Can Teach Design: A Survival Guide For Studio Art Professors, Katharine Anne Grierson-Merryweather

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis defines both design and the role of a designer, and includes an exploration of the differences between art and design. Additional topics covered are the history of design education, the principles of design, and the expectations for design education held by students and the design industry itself. From my own research and experiences as a professional designer and design instructor, I have outlined a curriculum on how to produce students who can create good designs, as well as know how to act as professional designers.

Model Profile For The Federal Programs Director In The State Of Mississippi, Rico Jamel Buckhaulter

Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) requires that each school district throughout the state employ a licensed administrator serving as the federal programs coordinator, director, or administrator in a full or part-time capacity (Mississippi Department of Education, 2013). The federal program director is responsible for the management and implementation of federal funds in public schools. Federal funds are defined by law and used to improve student achievement, enhance teacher quality, increase equity and access to educational resources, and provide innovative strategies for recruiting teachers and improving graduation rates (No Child Left Behind, 2001). The work of federal program directors involves …

Strategic Advantages Of Visual Violence, Roxanne Brook Vigil

Theses and Dissertations

This research discusses the role of visual violence as it relates to non-state actors within asymmetric warfare as a form of indirect coercion, siting the logic of Thomas Schelling. It argues that irrationality, as a perception from the state actor toward the non-state actor is a rational approach in order to produce the desired fear and publicity. The amount of fear and publicity is measured by the amount of inhumanity that is presented within the visual narration and the amount of irrational hysteria that comes from the audience. In using a comparative and visual analysis, two non-state actors who utilized …

The Rise Of The Listicle: Using Eye-Tracking And Signal Detection Theory To Measure This Growing Phenomenon, Jason Robert Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

As online technology continues to progress, the modes of communication through which content can be shared have exponentially grown. These include advances in navigational options for presenting information and news online. Though the listicle has been around for centuries, the internet has proliferated its growth, as content producers rely on its structure as a vehicle for sharing information. This research shows that in the case of listicles, format had no direct effect on recall, however, participants who had a greater interest in the content showed significantly higher levels of memory sensitivity. This critical finding suggests that news outlets and content …

The Association Of Feline Behavior To Acoustical Features Of Kitten Directed Speech, Daniela Acevedo

Theses and Dissertations

This study observed responses of cats to kitten and adult human directed speech. Human vocalization analysis showed significant variation in harmonicity for kitten directed speech. Playback experiments analyzing feline responses to owners and strangers using kitten and human directed speech showed higher attentiveness to a stranger’s kitten directed speech.

Principals' Self-Efficacy In Low Scoring Middle Schools In Mississippi, James Foreman Derryberry

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the self-efficacy (also often referred to as self-confidence) of principals as determined by school administrator certification credentials and teaching endorsements at low performing middle schools in Mississippi. In educational literature, the term “self-confidence” is often referred to under the nomenclature of self-efficacy. In the context of an educational environment, self-efficacy pertains to a principal’s capability to organize and execute courses of action required in leading and managing a school. Successful school management requires a leader who is task oriented, consistently stays focused, employs effective strategies, and utilizes managerial skills. The investigation focused on the self-efficacy, as determined …

Strategies For Passing School Bond Elections, Christy Harris Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Inadequate, deteriorating, old school buildings and facilities are a major concern in many school districts across the country. Studies have determined that students perform better and learn more in newer, cleaner facilities. For school districts to be able to afford new constructions or renovations, school bonds are often necessary. There are numerous requirements to obtain a school bond, but the largest hurdle is getting the registered voters support on an election day. A qualitative case study was conducted to determine which strategies are beneficial to school districts in need of passing a school bond. Lowndes County School District in northeastern …

A Strategic Communication Plan For Dominica-America Scholarship And Culture, Inc., Joan Juliana Joseph

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this design project was to develop a strategic communication plan for a nascent US-based nonprofit organization with a transnational focus. To accomplish this goal, the researcher drew on concepts and propositions of business and communication theories, best practices and recommendations of nonprofit practitioners and consultants, and studies from research centers. This research was necessary to discover the principles and elements critical to the design of a basic strategic communication plan. To develop a plan specific to the real world experiences and challenges of the nonprofit, the researcher utilized a qualitative research methodology using semi-structured interviews and action …

Livestrong Or Lie Hard: A Pentadic Analysis Of Deception And Reputation Management In 'The Armstrong Lie', Harper D. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Kenneth Burke's pentadic analysis has been a staple within the context of rhetorical criticism since the early days of critical communication studies. Throughout the years it has evolved from a heavy text criticism to application to film and documentary. The Armstrong Lie is another documentary that highlights the controversial actions of former seven-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong. This film provides an opportunity in which the pentadic analysis can be applied in order to really dissect the message that is being told. Through application of the pentadic analysis to The Armstrong Lie it is possible to identify the true …

Socially-Responsible Entrepreneurship Education: A Qualitative Study Among Egyptian Teachers, Mohamed Shabana

Theses and Dissertations

Raising citizens who can contribute to the betterment of the existing conditions has become a critical goal. Socially-responsible entrepreneurship can play an important role in attaining this, as it works towards social and economic contributions that do not ignore or violate the rights of the other, including the environment. The aim of this qualitative research is to explore to what extent the Egyptian faculties of education focus on socially-responsible entrepreneurship education as well as the obstacles and best practices for this socially-responsible entrepreneurship education in the Egyptian context. Seven fresh graduate females from a faculty of education in a public …

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Multimodal Pedagogies, Processes And Projects: Writing Teachers Know More Than We May Think About Teaching Multimodal Composition, Jessica B. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Multimodal writing refers to texts that use more than one communicative mode to convey information. While there is much scholarship that examines the history of alphabetic writing instruction and the alphabetic composing processes of students, little research explores the historical origins of multimodal composition and the processes in which students engage as they compose multimodal texts. This two-part project takes a fresh approach to studying multimodal writing by exploring the multimodal pedagogies of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric and writing teachers, analyzing the role of mental and physical images in modern writers’ composing practices, and investigating contemporary students’ processes for …

Misencounters, Francisco J. Besa

Theses and Dissertations

We are immersed in an era of supermodernity, an age defined by excesses: of information—the acceleration of historical time—spatial overabundance—the nullification of distance by electronic media and transportation—and an excess of self-reflexive individuality. In this context, the idea of place is giving way to non-places: designed spaces in which social relations are tangential and the boundary between the individual and the group is increasingly mediated. Media plays an important role in the creation of non-places, by favoring a removed form of communication made pervasive and extensive through mobile devices. The blurring of the line between media and actuality …

Designing Effective Messages To Promote Future Zika Vaccine Uptake, Jeanine Guidry

Theses and Dissertations

The Zika virus is associated with the devastating birth defect microcephaly, and while a vaccine was not yet available in early-2017, several were under development. It is imperative to identify effective communication strategies to promote uptake of a new vaccine, particularly among women of reproductive age. Moreover, though the Zika outbreak has received much social media attention, little is known about these conversations on Instagram. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, was to understand current Zika-focused communication on Instagram and to inform effective communication strategies to promote future Zika vaccine uptake intent.

The study aims were: (1) explore Zika conversations …

Ineffable: Latency In Symbolic Languages, Sirah Yoo

Theses and Dissertations

The design process demands comprehensive knowledge of visual signs and symbols with a focus on visual literacy; it is related to visual syntax, semantics, and the pragmatics of contexts. My work is an interdisciplinary investigation into how designers integrate polysemantic signs into their design process for particular and highly individualized audiences. By analyzing the role of signs in specific contexts across the spectrum of arts, society, literature, and semiotics, a designer's understanding of the cyclical nature of interpretation and reinterpretation in complex environments creates an avenue for cultivating a new schema that provides further levels of interpretations and different access …

The Reflection, Tamara Joksimovic

Theses and Dissertations

The Reflection– focuses on analysis of two realized Production of University of South Carolina Theatre, and my learning experience during my Professional Internship in The Theatre Company- La Fura Dels Baus, Barcelona, Spain. The Productions that will be the subject are Scapin, written by Bill Irwin and Mark O'Donnell, and directed by Louis Butelli, school year- 2015/2016; and Grounded, written by George Brant, and directed by Robert Richmond, school year- 2016/2017. The analysis will explore the importance of collaboration within the Production process and an understanding of the text and its transposition to theatrical space. It will deal with important …

Recovery From Design, Cassandra J. Ellison

Theses and Dissertations

Through research, inquiry, and an evaluation of Recovery By Design, a ‘design therapy’ program that serves people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities, it is my assertion that the practice of design has therapeutic potential and can aid in the process of recovery. To the novice, the practices of conception, shaping form, and praxis have empowering benefit especially when guided by Conditional and Transformation Design methods together with an emphasis on materiality and vernacular form.

Positions Of Place: Converging Viewpoints In Visual Communication, Gregory J. Schmidt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes a body of work that explores our visual relationship to the physical spaces and places we inhabit in our everyday lives. Today we live in a complex world where we are bombarded with fragments of information and inundated with distractions. As designers, we are equipped with tools and methods that allow us to experience and interpret our environment through multi-faceted perspectives and from different viewpoints. My approach to graphic design adopts techniques and practices from a mix of different disciplines. The work focuses on a design process that alternates between the parallel depiction of first-person and third-person …

The Institute Of New Feelings: Plastic Identities And Imperfect Surfaces, Weijian Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Digital media are moldable spaces where an image is simultaneously a thought. This instance and flexibility enables digital existences to be malleable, transformative, situational, and unstable. They are plastic images. Video games generate digital bodies that are a fusion of subjectivities and cybernetic simulations, in a perceivable and ambiguous process. Such bodies are extensions of ourselves, being girlish, imperfect, unfinished and happening—digesting and emitting clusters of feelings, regardless of our biological gender and age. The performative experience of play is progressively departing from spectacle, gambling and competition, and increasingly shifting towards an emotional journey of alternate realities, spreading subjectivities into …

Open / Close: Assimilating Immersive Spaces In Visual Communication, Anika Sarin

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in two spaces obverse to each other: open and closed. An open space develops organically based on how people inhabit it. Interacting with an open space is a dynamic, sporadic, multisensory, immersive, and subjective experience. In such spaces, we are confronted with an alternative aesthetic, one that is in conflict with the seamlessness of a closed space. A closed space is anchored on definite variables like structure, use and boundaries. While interaction between people and space is important, the space is tightly controlled and interaction is designed. Through this thesis project, I present a method that metaphorically …

Planar Refrains, Stephen Anthony Nunes

Theses and Dissertations

My practice explores phenomenal poetic truths that exist in fissures between the sensual and physical qualities of material constructs. Magnifying this confounding interspace, my work activates specific instruments within mutable, relational systems of installation, movement, and documentation. The tools I fabricate function within variable orientations and are implemented as both physical barriers and thresholds into alternate, virtual domains. Intersecting fragments of sound and moving image build a nexus of superimposed spatialities, while material constructions are enveloped in ephemeral intensities. Within this compounded environment, both mind and body are charged as active sites through which durational, contemplative experiences can pass.

Reverberation, …

Accelerating Object Extraction And Detection Using A Hierarchical Approach With Shape Descriptors, Bassam Syed Arshad

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic object recognition is a fundamental problem in the fields of computer vision and machine learning, that has received a lot of research attention lately. Miniaturization and affordability, of both, high resolution digital cameras and advanced computing hardware, have further advanced the scope and applications of object recognition methods. While there are different methods, that build upon various low level features to construct object models, this work explores and implements the use of closed-contours as formidable object features. A hierarchical technique is employed to extract the contours, exploiting the inherent spatial relationships between the parent and child contours of an …

El Son De "El Cuervo": The Transformation Of Armonía Practice In The Mariachi Tradition, Adolfo Estrada Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

In mariachi scholarship to date, armonía practices are often overlooked. The armonía instruments provide essential rhythmic and harmonic support, yet their specific practices are assumed to be invariable. Close analysis suggests a more complex story. This work provides an analysis of the armonía within the son jalisciense song form in particular, by comparing several performances of the popular son jalisciense song “El Cuervo ” (The Crow). Analysis reveals that the armonía underwent a homogenization process before arriving at present-day practices, and I argue that the 1965 Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán recording is the point of homogenization on which future …