Digital Commons Network^™

The Subconscious As Politics: An Inquiry Of Collaborative Design Education Through Radical Speculation, Nina Jun Yuchi

Masters Theses

For two years, I’ve been keeping a dream journal in which I record anything I can remember as soon as I wake up. The pages have slowly filled up with scrawls and doodles and fragmented memoirs of a life that doesn’t even seem like mine and yet, every dream I can vividly remember feels like a portal into an alternate dimension in which my subconscious reality is as tangible as my conscious one.

Eventually, dreaming became a key method in my research to seek out and materialize alternative worlds. It became the object of my obsessive interest in visualizing speculative …

Making Space : Creative Learners, Digital Spaces, And The Relationships Between Them, Natalia Spritzer

Masters Theses

This thesis is an inquiry into the growing prevalence of digital learning environments or digital spaces in order to assess the impact of leveraging these spaces on learners' creative identities. What is being examined in particular are web-folios or personal websites (digital spaces), the interactions that learners have with these environments, and how it infers to the potential of digital space as a medium for a variety of advancements. Through qualitative analysis in the form of observations, interviews, and surveys done throughout a collaborative research workshop, this thesis speculates that digital space can be utilized as a means for providing …

A Collision Of Technology And Art Learning, Feifei Shen

Masters Theses

This research thesis investigates the integration of technological tools into the curriculum and pedagogy of art education. By focusing explicitly on art education outside of school, it examines how technological tools expand the art learning possibilities for children and youth, enrich their art learning experiences in balance and connection with traditional arts media as well as strengthen engagement for those digital natives. Meanwhile, this research aims to contribute to a current understanding of technology integration into art curriculum and pedagogy for children and youth through literature reviews and research projects using a variety of methodologies, and then to determine what …

The Effect Of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva On The Tongue, Amy Backal, Amanda Harrop, David J. Goldhamer Dr.

University Scholar Projects

FOP is a rare genetic disorder in which skeletal muscle and associated connective tissue progressively turn to bone through a process called heterotopic ossification (HO). The extra skeletal bone growth is cumulative, eventually trapping patients in a second skeleton that eventually leads to death by asphyxiation. The FOP mutation is autosomal dominant that can be inherited or acquired sporadically. Unfortunately, FOP is currently incurable with no therapeutic options to inhibit bone growth or reduce existing bone nodules. My project intends to further our understanding of the cellular mechanisms of the disease within the tongue muscle. A population of cells known …

20th Sunday In Ordinary Time - 14 August 2022, Joe Tedesco

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time - 4 September 2022, Joe Tedesco

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Vulva Gazing: Power And The Gendered Body, Aaliya Jamal Zaidi

Masters Theses

How does a gendered gaze determine what we feel shame about?

In patriarchal society, the male gaze is normal. Within its sights, the vulva, the external female sexual and reproductive organs, is viewed negatively — censored and ignored, or labeled with euphemisms and slurs across cultures. The modern western medical canon upholds and reinforces this view of the vulva, through a combination of disinterest and omission. This cultural aversion leads to a personal aversion. For people with vulvas this manifests in a lack of information about their own bodies which leads to shame, pain and even death.

Vulva Gazing is …

Beyond Spectacle : Parametric Design To Life In Space, Ding Xu

Masters Theses

In recent years, with the help of rapid computational developments, Parametric Design has become common in architectural practice. Parametric architecture, due to its unique appearance, has rapidly been associated with certain aesthetic trends. This is mostly because architects initially adopted it to make radical forms, not because parametric techniques demand any specific geometry.

For the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects, the team built a dynamic and fluid structure using parametric techniques. The form evolved from the spiraling shapes found in nature, and the fluid geometry provides a continuum of space and a system of logic. As a …

Re:Connection: Exercises In Unplugging And Mindfully Reconnecting, E. J. Roseman

Masters Theses

How can architecture encourage focused attention and mindfulness in an increasingly distracted and distractible world? As a primary means of connectivity in the 21st century, smartphones and social media have provided unparalleled efficiencies, connectivity and entertainment. However, constant engagement with richly-pixelated virtual worlds has also brought about mass addiction to devices as college students log more compulsive “screen time” than ever before. Mental health issues such as crippling anxiety, diminished attention spans, and unhappiness, are on the rise as students disconnect from the physical world and are consumed by their virtual one.

This thesis is comprised of a series of …

Unfolding Embodied Experience: A Process-Driven Immersive Exhibition Design Model, Mooa Seongah Kang

Masters Theses

The collections of most museums are comprised of two-dimensional artworks—paintings, drawings, prints, and photography—and are generally presented within a white cube gallery platform. Within this restricted static view, displays rarely consider multisensory engagement and immersion that reveals the accumulated time and effort of creation. Yet for many artists, the process is as important as the finished product.

My impetus for this design initiative began by questioning traditional methods of display. Is it possible to reveal the hidden depth embodied in two-dimensional artworks, allowing audiences to participate with all their senses in the journey of an artist’s experience? In other words, …

Technologies Of Territoriality: Indigeneity, Surveillance, And The State, Elspeth Iralu

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation examines the global spatial surveillance of Indigenous peoples, nations, and territories in the twenty-first century through a multi-site relational analysis of colonial surveillance and Indigenous cartography in the United States, India, and Palestine. Analyzing Indigenous graphic novels, video games, virtual reality, performance protests, and visual art, I demonstrate how air and the aerial perspective actively shape what happens on and below the ground. I argue that Indigenous experiences of and responses to colonial and counterinsurgent surveillance are not limited by the geographic and legal bounds of nation-states but are rather linked through global histories of militarization and colonialism. …

To Be Seen To Be Heard: Embracing Social Anxiety In The Workplace, Jingxuan Chen

Masters Theses

Social anxiety has become the third most common mental illness in the U.S, but there still is a lack of public understanding of this issue as it often goes unspoken. Through my research, I found that social anxiety is deeply entangled with environments, situations, and interpersonal interactions; especially within unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and unsafe situations.

Workplace exacerbates social anxiety as people are constantly being evaluated by others, exposed to new situations, and required to perform well, which leaves no room for people to share the unspoken and seek support. Guided by the questions of what social anxiety is and how it …

Image Crisis Of An Entire Industry – Case Study Of The Polish Escape Room Market, Oliwia Dusińska

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

In January 2019, a fire broke out in one of the escape rooms in Koszalin, Poland. That tragic event caused an image crisis for the entire industry. This article is an analysis of the crisis, its course, the parties involved in the conflict and the actions they implemented. The results of the keyword research of press publications show that there has been a significant deterioration in the image of the industry and the way it was presented in the media. Escape rooms – previously equated with great fun – suddenly became symbols of death, danger and putting profit above safety. …

The Cthulhu Journey : Storytelling Through An Architectural Immersive Experience, Rui Zhang

Masters Theses

The exhibition of sequential art is becoming increasingly popular. The subjects of these shows vary from fantasy, horror to science fiction depending on the style of authors. Compared with other 2d images, sequential art requires more narrative framing. Typical exhibitions show sequential art like regular images, however narrative is the essence of sequential art. This thesis will find a way to exhibit sequential art forms in a way that respects that they are based in storytelling. I will develop an immersive experience of sequential art. Immersion is also a narrative-based experience, if we combine the immersive experience with the sequential …

The Aesthetics Of The Mexican Public Garden And Its Photographic Compositions (1912-1982), Victor Hugo Rivera-Diaz

Masters Theses

In Mexico, there are currently several collections of photographs which depict the history and development of public gardens and ecological corridors under the management of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. By focusing on two exemplary collections—the Nacho López Collection and Vicente Luengas Collection—I apply a visual studies approach to the photographic archive in order to formulate the Mexican public garden as a branching set of aesthetic (sub-)categories, all of which take into account the creation of garden landscapes vis-à-vis land use policies and historical accounts during the rise of Mexican modernity. In so doing, the primary sub-categories of …

Problems Related To The Capital Assets Pricing Model On The Warsaw Stock Exchange: Applications Of The 5-Factor Fama And French Model, Michał Gnap

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

This paper represents an attempt at empirically assessing the applicability of the Fama and French five-factor model in explaining the cross-sectional variation of stock return for the Polish market. Consistent with Fama and French results, this research shows that value, profitability and investment risk factors play an important role in assessing the expected return of an asset. Many researchers have since sought to identify alternative asset pricing models that could serve as the benchmark empirical asset-pricing model. It is hoped that the analysis conducted in this paper tests whether the revised five-factor model that incorporates the profitability and investment factors …

The Use Of Green Bonds And Green Covered Bonds In The Realization Of The Principles Of The European Green Deal, Joanna Muczyńska

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

The main aim of the article is to present the prospect of usage of green bonds and green covered bonds as the implementation tools for the principles of the European Green Deal. The material is based on the analysis of the sources of current Polish and European legal and financial public information acts, as well as the case study on the issuance of green bonds and green covered bonds. The European Green Deal was presented on December 11, 2019, as an action plan for more efficient use of resources, by transitioning to a clean circular economy, preventing climate change, countering …

The Effect Of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva On The Tongue, Amy Backal, Amanda Harrop, David J. Goldhamer Dr.

Honors Scholar Theses

FOP is a rare genetic disorder in which skeletal muscle and associated connective tissue progressively turn to bone through a process called heterotopic ossification (HO). The extra skeletal bone growth is cumulative, eventually trapping patients in a second skeleton that eventually leads to death by asphyxiation. The FOP mutation is autosomal dominant that can be inherited or acquired sporadically. Unfortunately, FOP is currently incurable with no therapeutic options to inhibit bone growth or reduce existing bone nodules. My project intends to further our understanding of the cellular mechanisms of the disease within the tongue muscle. A population of cells known …

Military, Art & The Inbetween, Andrew Storck

Masters Theses

I find myself navigating life from the perspective of both a civilian and military service member. Everyday, I am between domestic, civilian spaces and military memories as my military service has impacted every aspect of my adult life. Serving in the United States Air Force allowed me to travel the globe while working alongside people from every class and race, on missions focused on tasks greater than ourselves.

My artistic practice explores how my time in the military has affected my transition back into civilian life by using sculpture and installation to express a variety of emotions. I hope my …

Dear City, Give Me Some Space; Creating Space For Ephemeral Forces In A City, Abinaya Sivaprakasam Thamilarasan

Masters Theses

Architecture of the past was regarded as a concrete entity, both in its materiality and approach, unresponsive to change within a city. Climatic and societal shifts greatly impact cities ill-prepared to adjust. How can the intractable architecture of the past become flexible? Does the current environmental devastation we’re witnessing demand architecture that can embrace, rather than neglect, such shifts?

Situated in Chennai, a densifying coastal metropolis in India, the adaptation focuses on two key shifts. Firstly, the climatic shifts: the alternating patterns of severe flooding, and periods of droughts. Second, the transient youth population within the city. They both share …

One Land / One Ocean: Reactivate Coastal Commons In Urban Territory, Chengie Zhang

Masters Theses

We all live in the same common -– the ocean common, sharing various common pool resources. With industrialization coming after capitalism, the resource regime is shifting and developing. The Blue Revolution and industrial aquaculture stand out as a strategy to efficiently gain resources to meet the population growth and the resource demands. However, it will reveal another form of cultural exploitation. People in the global south will become a labor resource for the global north and increase extreme coastal poverty brought by the depletion of mangroves for land and industrial places. In this book, I want to discuss the possibility …

Matingkad - Flamboyant, Bhen Alan

Masters Theses

In the Tagalog language, matingkad is used when describing colors or light. Its English translation, flamboyant, usually describes a character of a person - a queer, performer, drag?

People have called me flamboyant due to the way I dress, my gestures, and how I approach my work. Because of this, I have experience discrimination and abuse towards my race and gender, as well as my citizenship status. Therefore I have learned to begin employing flamboyance to be opaque (matingkad na kulay).

With this experience, I had to adjust the opacity of my body as a way of survival …

Breaking | Grounding | Growing: Expanding The Rhode Island Gardening Reentry Programs As A Pathway Towards Stability, Juliana Soltys

Masters Theses

What happens to the over two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails?

Changing in sentencing laws and policies have created a cycle of imprisonment, racially isolating and oppressing BIPOC communities. Reintegration and reentry programs are an avenue to break the cycle of recidivism. Through my work, I have developed hands-on, structured opportunities for justice-involved adults to rebuild a life for themselves by increasing the accessibility of gardening reentry programs. This project creates a space for mentorship and support for Rhode Island’s formerly incarcerated people with the goal of helping them to develop vital life skills through growing and …

Slow Ruptures; Slow Formations, Asta Thrastardottir

Masters Theses

Language shapes our understanding of identity, place, and self. As a graphic designer, I question the existing structures of language, while using it as a material to build new formations. Nudging against certainties, I challenge how the stories we are told can dispossess us, even flatten us.

My method is a constant attempt to peel back the layers and study what lingers below. When questions arise, I look to the ways in which visual artists and writers have seen through this surface. I observe, listen, and hold stories closely, passing them back and forth between my hands. Using annotation and …

Capture, Control, Circulate : Can We Queer Regulatory Power In Graphic Design?, Adie Fein

Masters Theses

Capture, Control, Circulate addresses regulatory power, the transmission and enforcement of culturally-sanctioned behaviors and identity. How does regulatory power operate in graphic design and what—if anything—can the graphic designer do to subvert that operation? The methodologies for subversion explored in this book typically draw from queer and trans* experience and thought. Therefore, the work herein takes up issues of identity, normativity, marginalization, and community.

This thesis also considers design education, and its contemporary emphasis on the capture and control of content. It advocates instead for an educational model that centers circulation; that is, graphic design’s capacity to platform, to publish, …

Alien Encyclopedia, Zengqi Guo

Masters Theses

Alien Encyclopedia is a body of work that analyzes, expands, redefines, and leverages the definition of “alien” as both problematic and an avenue of possibility. By mapping the word “alien” as a fragmented play of alternatives, I translate the lessons derived from this exploration into a maker’s lexicon. I use “alien” to frame my identity, as a prompt to ground my projects, a factor to interrupt existing typography and to spark questions, a generative tool to explore the interpolation between the familiar and unfamiliar, and to incite new solutions and actions to solve the problems we are facing now. Alien …

Community Conservation & Engagement Through The Architecture Of Public Transportation, Liam Costello

Masters Theses

A good public transportation system......should be extensive, quick, and efficient, while also being equitable and accessible as well as environmentally friendly and resilient to cope with climate change and rising sea levels. Until the 1980s, Philadelphia had an extensive streetcar network. From 1977 until 1992, however, all lines serving northern Philadelphia were abandoned, leaving the city’s once-expansive public transit system a shell of its former self. The communities formerly served by streetcar have the lowest average household income in the city and are mainly communities of color. Additionally, many of these residents do not own cars. Therefore, the people who …

Remnants, Sarah Chriss

Masters Theses

Remnants is a revision of our interaction with land extraction through reimagining processes of representation and image-making. By altering perspective and focus, the visual effects of commodity culture shift toward the consequences that occur before and after our consumption. Dependably lost in translation, spatial and temporal information of material exchanges across the globe uphold and preserve the synergy of our commodity transactions. In a field constantly playing with and pushing against the boundaries of representation, remnants aim to redraw lost connections of material transformations through a granite quarry in Rhode Island. Representation is a tool to revise visual narratives that …

Food For An Island : On The Relationships Between Agriculture, Architecture And Land, Melinda Groenewegen

Masters Theses

Hawai‘i is in a food crisis relying on 85-90% of food to be imported to the islands while 41% of its agricultural lands are unfarmed. My thesis focuses on O‘ahu's broken food system and restoring the community’s identity and relationship to their food and land. On an urban scale, the project maps out the agricultural lands of O‘ahu that are being underutilized and owned by large corporations. Then, the project zooms into a town as an example of how to reinterpret the land. The chosen site was a sugar plantation and is still currently owned by Castle and Cooke. Next, …

Time Enough At Last, Scott Lerner

Masters Theses

As an art history buff and sci-fi aficionado, I’m constantly thinking about the stories told of human progress, or lack thereof. Have modern humans surpassed their ancient ancestors or have they only managed to create more technologically advanced ways of carrying on with their same base drives for power, status, and violence? If we turn to popular media, this question becomes particularly intriguing. Our visions of the future are often just a confused jumble of the past; we reanimate old ideas and images when trying to imagine the things to come. An example of this can be found in Star …