Digital Commons Network^™

Going To The Sea, Lingyi Kong

Masters Theses

“Good-bye Icarus” is a work that aims to blend art, history, and environmental exploration through illustration, an interactive graphic novel, visual documentation, and programming language narratives.

A year of coastal life in Rhode Island has provided me with endless inspiration in terms of design language. I’ve ventured into blending dynamic visuals from TouchDesigner with illustration, a pioneering approach as far as I’m aware.

My narrative is based on seaside scenery and mythology metaphorical elements, making image programming to capture the essence of waves a focal point and central experiment of my work. Furthermore, after crafting a dynamic design visual language, …

A Dispatch From The Site Office, Adrian Pelliccia

Masters Theses

In the middle of the 20th century, a rare confluence of political, economic, and cultural forces aligned to produce a slate of highly progressive policy and design agendas for social housing in the United Kingdom. A widely shared utopian ambition to house all people with dignity was made real by a motivated government and its well-resourced planning and architecture offices, tasked with bringing this vision to bear in the built environment. In London, the London County Council Architect’s Office and later local council-led architecture and planning offices were at the forefront of designing and delivering high quality, formally ambitious housing …

What Does Water Want?, Julia Woznicki

Masters Theses

This thesis begins with an exploration of our relationship with water at multiple scales, from microscopic study of desert moss to macroscopic research of freshwater resources. It evolves to embody a methodology of holistic, bioregional design that interweaves systems of ecology, economy, material landscape, and reconsideration of temporality in our built environment. This project also explores how that methodology may adapt between the Global North and the Global South.

No new plastic has been used in the process of this thesis. Material innovation using hemp hurd guides the exploration of how biomimetic principles can be achieved not only through form …

Textile Tectonics: Shaping Space Through Soft Studies, Lela Gunderson

Masters Theses

Textile Tectonics: Shaping Space Through Soft Studies challenges the conventional use of fabric as an architectural material, seeking to expand its potential utilization in architectural spaces through re-thinking the partition wall.

Architecturally, textiles tend to exist in tension, attached to a support structure that provides the pliable, planar material a fixed form. The sensory qualities of the material (its ability to filter light and the way it moves in response to outside factors) along with the material’s practical qualities (its light weight, flexibility, and acoustic properties) make textiles a popular choice for architectural spaces—but there is a narrow understanding in …

Dreampool, Xia Li

Masters Theses

DREAMPOOL is a spatial experience of virtual architecture based on the public bathhouses of northern China during the 00s - 10s. It focuses on the significance of nostalgia and the connection between architectural space and the spiritual world. The dreampool began with my interest in Bathhouse and Dreamcore videos that were popularized on the Chinese internet during the pandemic.

Like every nostalgia trend emerging, such as steampunk, some young Chinese people are starting to miss their childhood life around the year 2000 at a time when they are losing their public space and socialization. Public bathhouses, as a collective memory …

I Am Becoming., Dai Asano

Masters Theses

This is a collection of essays documenting my grappling with the idea that time is always in motion. When you say now, it is not now anymore, but we are still in now, a new now. How can I stay in the now without being swept away by the current of time? Describing a film by Ozu Yasujiro, Deleuze writes, “The vase in Late Spring is interposed between the daughter’s half smile and the beginning of her tears. There is becoming, change, passage. But the form of what changes does not itself change does not pass on. This is time, …

Folding (And Unfolding): A Site-Responsive Strategy For Reusing Construction And Demolition Waste, Jennifer Ansley

Masters Theses

Discarding—in its most reductive formulation— is a sorting operation that makes distinctions between materials (as well as objects, people, communities, and landscapes) based on perceived value. In her book Waste of the World, Nicky Gregson, therefore, argues for a more careful collection-curation strategy that revalues and re-signifies “waste” to make it available for repair and reuse. Gregson, however, points to limited space and infrastructural capacity as a potential barrier to the development of new material handling strategies. My design responds by proposing a network of walls and paths that operate in each of the sites I’ve identified as an …

Detroit Jazz Geographies: Marronage And Speculative Urban Futures, Denzel Amoah

Masters Theses

The Detroit Jazz Clubs of the 1920s-1960s existed as an emblem of marronage, or as an escape from a colonial world, becoming a spot of refuge and freedom for Blacks living in Detroit. There they were able to create a subculture that was antagonistic to hegemonic norms.

Currently, Detroit is on the precipice of a new development plan, titled ‘Detroit Future City” which aims to revitalize the city through the bolstering of industrialization and commerce. The history of Detroit has shown the dangers of what industrialization can do and alternative modes of development should be explored.

To honor the legacy …

Conspicuous Repair: Drawing Attention To Brokenness In Public Landscapes, Ashley Pedersen

Masters Theses

Repair, as a design provocation, encourages material conservation, hands-on engagement with materiality, and evaluation of maintenance routines all of which contribute to a model of sustainability that values a circular economy and degrowth. Through visible repairs that focus our ongoing attention on brokenness, repair has the potential to illuminate, and start to address the systemic causes of brokenness. In this way, repair can be a catalyst for increased stewardship of a place.

Conspicuous Repair: Drawing Attention to Brokenness in Public Landscapes investigates clay as a suitable material for the repair of masonry in urban landscapes which has the potential, through …

Fluid Futures: The Revitalization Of Yangzhou Through Its Historical Waterways, Feiyang Wu

Masters Theses

In China, cities such as Yangzhou, which in pre-modern times played central roles in the political, cultural, and economic functioning of the country based on their geographic location, proximity to water-based trade routes, and connections to the imperial court, are today facing uncertain futures due to waterways no longer being critical to trade, and government-driven development being focused on first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. With this, the working-age population migrates from smaller cities toward these urban giants, leaving behind aging relatives, a less robust and diversified economic base, and few attributes other than cultural tourism that …

New Craft: Craft Practices In The Digital Era, Paulina Bereza

Masters Theses

Advancements in technology point to a thriving future through the allure of new tools and the promise of enhanced performance. With the current environmental crisis, military invasions and broader global conflicts, how can we utilize new digital media in a way that dismantles oppressive positions of power? Looking towards the future, I explore the potential of materiality and new methods of making, to reshape our relationship with the environment and each other. I collaborate with newly adopted forms of intelligence, artificial and automated, to express and reconcile the accelerated cultural shift. From ancient fibres to digital circuits, what will the …

Empathetic Reverberations, Tianyue Wang

Masters Theses

Plants play a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth and remediating pollution, making them indispensable components of ecosystems. However, their efforts in combating pollution are often overlooked and underappreciated by humans. This oversight can lead to a failure to recognize the severity of pollution and raises ethical concerns about using plants merely as tools for pollution control. This thesis advocates for acknowledging the essential role of plants in mitigating pollution caused by human activities and emphasizes the need to respect and protect their intrinsic value. The methodology of this research involves developing landscapes that honor and recognize the vital …

Tethered By Nourishment - Exploring Sovereignty Within An Urban Food Apartheid, Benjamin Bailey

Masters Theses

“Tethered by Nourishment” explores how the principles of food sovereignty could be spatially cultivated within an urban environment afflicted by a food apartheid. The urban environment I explore is the Elysian Fields Ave. neutral grounds (colloquial term for road medians) in New Orleans. Working with a series of food-generating landscapes, the proposal imagines multiple cultivation sites to support neighborhoods and communities struggling with fresh food access. These sites allow for varying levels of engagement from start-up farming plots for urban agriculturalists to food forests for more passive food collection. Approaching a multifaceted problem like equitable urban food access requires a …

A New Grounding, Corey Watanabe

Masters Theses

Amidst our climate uncertain reality, the question arises as to how we address the seemingly endless spiral of ecological degradation and loss we witness each and everyday? Through a cultural reframing of our relationship with invasive species, A New Grounding asks how collective ritual may serve as a vehicle to understand, heal through, and eventually embrace the trials and tribulations of ecosystem change.

Invasive species have become a major driver of the evolution of our landscapes. Research has shown their disturbance is often rooted in an underlying human environmental disturbance, however, for many these highly adaptive plants have become a …

Beach Autonomous Zone, Carl Garvey

Masters Theses

This thesis project responds to issues surrounding beach erosion on Long Island’s Atlantic Coast by envisioning policy and design decisions that activate a destabilization of the shoreline and a managed retreat away from beaches. Contrasted to methods and goals of conventional coastal engineering, a beach autonomous zone sets an extended, moving setback in which coastlines are treated, in effect, as conservation easements, allowing for and encouraging beaches to return to more natural states. On four sites of different scales representing different built beachfront conditions, I visualize the negotiations between human desires and the needs of a beach that arise under …

Corner Revolution: Beyond “Skynet”, Brightening Grey Space And Building Security, Caimin Shen

Masters Theses

The existence of surveillance areas restricts many bad behaviors, but why do we still feel vague anxiety and uneasiness when walking through street corners and promenades in a city protected by a network of cameras? As China has implemented grid management of cities through the establishment of the “Skynet”—— a system that uses facial recognition and surveillance cameras to strengthen public safety, the crime rate has dropped significantly. But public safety doesn’t just mean fewer criminal activities. Reducing people’s perceived insecurity and anxiety has become a new challenge in China today. “Corner Revolution” explores the transformative power of architectural design …

Icons Of Solitude: Peace, Quiet, And The Urban Condition, Jack Schildge

Masters Theses

The urban environment lacks sufficient public places to be alone, where individuals can feel free to seek respite from the intensity of city life. While solitude is easily achievable in the vast landscape of the natural world, it is something that must be carefully and deliberately carved out within the confines of the city and remains inaccessible to many. We’ve all heard of follies in the landscape, both sitting in remote places and dispersed throughout public parks in either case taking advantage of open space, but why couldn’t we carve room for follies in denser environments? What can be extracted …

Absence Leaves A Mark: Illustrating Filipino Migrant Stories, Nina Martinez

Masters Theses

From July to October 2023, I volunteered at Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a New York City-based grassroots organization run by Filipino im/migrant workers dedicated to combatting labor trafficking. Every meeting opened with the same reminder: stories shared in this room do not leave it. Illustration became a tool for respecting the privacy of the members, many of whom were undocumented. Avoiding faces, I copied down objects, places, maps, and handwriting.

Absence Leaves a Mark explores the idea of illustration as field note when working with migrant populations. Beyond depicting visual witness, illustrated field notes can contain findings from research and …

Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry, Dani Epstein

Masters Theses

Designed Impermanence: Transformative Shapeshifting, A Decoded Alchemical Inquiry is a methodological deconstruction of our relationship to the built environment.

Our present existence is governed by craft and material hierarchies, conformed perceptions, and socioeconomic contextual drivers. Recognizing these tendencies, formats, and desires are critical in order to construct proposed introductions to re-envision alternative methods of building future realities. Redesigning new parameters through shifting physical configurations serve as indexes for visual propositions to redefine our existence through perceptions of time, adaptation, and materiality.

This research is centered around four themes: material craft ecology, adaptive alchemical constructions, reactionary behavioral assemblies, and evolving responsive …

From One Nature To Another, Sarah Mann

Masters Theses

Lichen‭, ‬fungi‭, ‬and soil each represent a microcosm of nature‭. ‬They are all quintessential examples of complex symbiosis‭, ‬yet they are often treated as lifeless materials‭. ‬But what if we took a moment to connect with each one on a daily basis‭ - ‬would that impact the way we envision the future‭? ‬

For most of us‭, ‬our homes won’t be radically changing any time soon‭; ‬therefore‭, ‬From One Nature to‭ ‬Another‭ ‬invites us to bring these entities inside and‭ ‬reflect on their possibilities as collaborators‭. ‬Each piece was carefully researched and designed to‭ ‬provide the correct atmospheric …

Stand By, I'M Getting Ready., Mina Kim

Masters Theses

This thesis introduces a tangible user experience featuring wearable and portable items designed to allow anonymity while fostering social interaction. Covering one layer on one’s eyes and allowing for gradual removal, these items humorously transcend social norms, functioning as conduits for expressing inner emotions through an external action of signaling.

Inspired by the absence of physical-world boundaries akin to digital ‘Do Not Disturb’ modes, the research delves into crafting user experiences that safeguard personal boundaries in face-to-face interactions. It targets the apprehension felt in unfamiliar group settings and the impact of external stimuli on personal comfort. The research endeavors to …

Endless Form, Kaela Kennedy

Masters Theses

Endless Form is a gentle argument for a practice rooted in embodied seeing and communicating. It invites the reader through multiple actions of visual and linguistic perception – observation, seeing, and attention – and examines how these methods operate to widen our fields of understanding to more empathetically engage with the world as an ecological whole. It claims that graphic design, as a practice built on the relationship between visual form and language, has a unique ability to translate the unending feedback loop between the eye, the seen, and the language we use to define it. It argues for ways …

From Here To The Ground, Courtney Mccracken

Masters Theses

Art, for me, is a thinking process. It is also a process of connection to body and place. It directs my fractured attention toward the things I care about. As I labor through process, I am gifted with a moment of attentiveness. In a time where everything feels urgent, and our perspective can be warped by the endless flood of information, making art is a chance to stop, to think, and to feel.

It is a space for holding, and a space for being held.

Recently, I have been working primarily in animation and sound design, experimenting widely across media …

Better Together, Jack Dumala

Masters Theses

“Better Together” comprehensively explores the spectrum of play from early childhood to adulthood, presenting how play has always been a means of connection and communication. Although the research encompasses all age groups, particular attention is given to teenagers, a community often overlooked. The artifacts and investigations portray how a combination of purposefully designed household objects and readily available items within the home environment can be leveraged to facilitate connection through gaming and various activities. The overarching goal is to offer practical tools and insights to enhance togetherness within families with teenagers.

While We Were At Dinner, Anna Glass

Masters Theses

Mealtime is globally recognized as a time to gather, as food catalyzes connection. This project delves into this human practice of commensality and both explores and emphasizes the significance of communal eating and its benefits through designed objects. Through a collection of six designed dining experiments, this study examines the role of novel tabletop objects and unusually curated meal environments. The way these experiments are designed highlights how communal mealtime experiences can be used as tools for social engagement and disruptors of cultural norms.

Furniture and tableware designs have the power to challenge the assumed arrangement of traditional mealtime rituals, …

Advanced Practice Nursing Initiatives In Africa, Moving Towards The Nurse Practitioner Role: Experiences From The Field, Deborah C. Gray, Melanie Rogers, Minna K. Miller

Ellmer School of Nursing Faculty Publications

AIM: This paper discusses the development and progression of the advanced practice nurse practitioner role in Africa.

BACKGROUND: Providing adequate primary health care is problematic in Africa. The World Health Organization and International Council of Nurses proposed that nurses, specifically advanced practice nurse practitioners with the requisite skills in disease prevention, diagnosis and management, can be key to solving the primary care issue.

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: This paper utilized publications from PUBMED, CINAHL, policy papers, websites, workgroups, conferences, and the experiences and knowledge of authors involved in leading and moving forward key events and projects.

DISCUSSION: Four African countries have …

Why Do Cochlear Implant Candidates Defer Surgery? A Retrospective Case-Control Study, Masanari G Kato, Vivian F Kaul, Diana Hallak, Lisa Zhang, Aaron C Moberly, Yin Ren

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective(s): Despite undergoing thorough cochlear implant (CI) candidacy evaluation and counseling, some patients ultimately elect against implantation. This study sought to identify patient-related and socioeconomic factors predicting CI deferral.

Methods: A retrospective study of adult (≥18 years old) CI candidates presenting between 2007 and 2021 at a tertiary academic CI center was performed. The primary outcome was device implantation. Data collected included age, gender, hearing status, race, zip code of residence, median family income (MFI), distance traveled from the CI center, marital status, employment status, and insurance status. Multivariable binary logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of implantation.

Results: …

Closure Of Dialysis Clinics In The United States In 2021-2023, Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, Dawn P Edwards, David Henner, Daniel L Landry, Donald A Molony, Preethi Yerram, On Behalf Of The Medical Advisory Council Of The National Forum Of Esrd Networks

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Hanh Cao Yu

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Four Network Principles For Collaboration Success – With 2024 Prologue, Jane Wei-Skillern, Nora Silver

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2013, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

This article identifies a set of four counterintuitive principles that are critical to collaboration success and offers insights for how nonprofit leaders can ensure that their collaborations can have an impact that is dramatically greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Based on a decade of research developing detailed case studies on a range of successful networks, the authors have identified a common pattern of factors that are essential to effective networking.The principles are to focus on …