Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons^™

Exploring Homogeneity In Today's Cultural Expression, Roderick Hunt

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

This article examines the increasing cultural homogeneity driven by the internet's global reach and accessibility. Roderick Hunt—an educator, brand expert, and fashion designer—integrates writing into his creative practice and brand ethos. Through his label, Uniform Journal, he merges ideas and products, emphasizing both form and function. In a Q&A discussion, Hunt explores how the internet has influenced contemporary cultural practices and challenges the notion of originality in an era of digital interconnectedness.

Volume 6, Issue 2

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Volume 6, Issue 2 (Fall 1987), continues its dedication to showcasing a diverse array of literary voices through poetry, fiction, and critical reviews. Although this issue is labeled as Volume 6, Issue 1 within the journal itself, it is officially recognized as Volume 6, Issue 2 in the Nebo archive. Featuring contributions from writers such as John Gery, H.L. Hix, and Katharyn Machan Aal, this issue explores themes of war, memory, identity, and the craft of storytelling. Highlights include poetic reflections on personal and historical trauma, introspective explorations of human relationships, and critical essays on contemporary literary works. …

Volume 6, Issue 1

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Volume 6, Issue 1 (Spring 1987), continues its tradition of showcasing a rich array of literary voices through poetry, fiction, and critical reviews. This issue presents a mix of evocative storytelling and thought-provoking verse, featuring works by authors such as Grace Cash, Jim Finley, and Paul Lake. The selections engage with themes of history, place, love, and existential reflection, capturing both the personal and the universal. With its roots in Arkansas Tech University, Nebo remains a vibrant platform for emerging and established writers, offering a compelling collection of creative expression.

Volume 5, Issue 1

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Volume 5, Issue 1 (Spring 1986), showcases a diverse range of literary works, including poetry, fiction, and critical reviews. This issue features compelling short stories that explore themes of identity, memory, and transformation, while the poetry selections capture moments of personal and collective experience. Highlights include works by Jack Butler, Marian Motley-Carcache, and other contributors, as well as critical reviews of contemporary literary works. Published by Arkansas Tech University, Nebo continues its tradition of providing a platform for emerging and established writers.

Volume 4, Issues 1 & 2

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Volume 4, Issues 1 & 2 (Spring 1985), represents another milestone in Arkansas Tech University’s biannual literary journal, continuing its tradition of publishing exceptional poetry, fiction, and literary reviews. This double issue brings together a wide array of voices, styles, and themes, reflecting both the emerging and established literary talents that Nebo seeks to amplify.

This edition features works from a diverse lineup of writers, including Barbara Eckstein, Jack Butler, Janet McCann, Vernon Frazer, Marvin Schwartz, and Daniel Mark-Epstein, among many others. Their works explore human relationships, memory, place, and transformation, offering readers a compelling mix of …

Volume 2, Issue 2

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 1984), continues Arkansas Tech University’s tradition of publishing exceptional poetry and fiction through its biannual literary journal. Edited by students with faculty guidance, this issue features a compelling selection of works that explore themes of memory, transformation, identity, and the intricacies of human experience.

This issue includes poetry and fiction from a diverse group of writers, including John Gery, Wyatt Prunty, Laura McLaughlin, David Mason, and many more. Their works range from deeply personal reflections to broader cultural commentaries, showcasing a wide variety of literary styles.

Additionally, Nebo proudly celebrates the achievements of …

Nebo: Volume 2, Issue 1

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo, Arkansas Tech University’s literary journal, continues its tradition of showcasing innovative and thought-provoking creative writing in its Spring 1984 issue. This volume brings together poetry, fiction, and essays from a diverse range of voices, reflecting the evolving landscape of contemporary literature. Featuring work from both emerging and established writers, this issue delves into themes of memory, transformation, and the human condition. Readers will discover a collection rich with narrative depth, poetic experimentation, and critical literary discourse. As Nebo enters its second volume, it reaffirms its role as a space for artistic expression and literary excellence.

Nebo: Volume 1, Issue 2

NEBO: A Literary Journal

The Fall 1983 edition of Nebo (Volume 1, Issue 2) continues the journal’s commitment to showcasing compelling poetry and fiction that push the boundaries of literary expression. This issue brings together a diverse collection of works, exploring themes of human experience, memory, relationships, and artistic interpretation. With contributors ranging from emerging to established voices, the selections in this issue offer a wide spectrum of poetic lyricism and narrative depth. Featuring works from Lawrence Millman, Warren Hope, Turner Cassity, and many others, this volume engages with the complexities of storytelling and the power of the written word.

As Nebo maintains its …

Nebo: Volume 1, Issue 1

NEBO: A Literary Journal

Nebo Literary Journal is a dynamic collection of contemporary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that highlights emerging voices in literature. Curated by Arkansas Tech University, this issue features a diverse range of storytelling, lyrical expression, and thought-provoking essays that explore themes of identity, human connection, and the power of narrative. With contributions from talented writers across genres, Nebo serves as a creative space for literary exploration and artistic expression. Whether through evocative poetry or compelling short stories, this issue invites readers to immerse themselves in the richness of modern literature.

Maine Career Exploration: Final Evaluation Report, Julia Bergeron-Smith Mppm, Msw, Sarah Goan, Madison Burke, Becky Wurwarg, Amy Geren, Shannon Saxby

Publications

The Maine Career Exploration (MCE) Program was a two-year, $25 million pilot initiative launched in 2022 by Governor Janet Mills as part of the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan. The program aimed to connect young people aged 16 to 24 with Maine’s economy through paid, age-appropriate career experiences that matched their interests, while also expanding career exploration opportunities in schools and communities and building long-term infrastructure to sustain these efforts. Managed by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, MCE distributed funding across three main streams: the Maine Children’s Cabinet Career Exploration Pilot Project, the Maine Department of Education’s …

Serious Music With Bea Witkin: An Upper West Side Audio Walk, Megan Hattie Stahl

Theses and Dissertations

Serious Music with Bea Witkin is a site-specific audio walk on New York City’s Upper West Side produced by Megan Hattie Stahl. This immersive, musical documentary explores and extends the life and work of composer Beatrice Witkin (1916-1990). Across four stationary chapters and three walking interludes, participants follow a one-mile route from Riverside Park to Straus Park by way of Witkin’s longtime residence on West End Avenue. Through guided narration, archival music, interviews and recordings of contemporary musicians sight-reading a 1985 string quartet piece by Witkin, Serious Music invites listeners to consider where music begins and ends.

Witkin, who graduated …

Digital Zines As Mental And Sexual Health Communication Tools For Latina Teens: Format And Content Acceptability And Initial Findings, Jenn M. Lilly, D'Andrah Almanzar, Susan R. Pace, Dante D. Bryant

Social Service Faculty Publications

Recognizing the potential of digital zines (defined as selfpublished,

online publications combining artwork and

text) as culturally tailored health communication tools,

this article examines the acceptability and impacts of two

digital zines about mental and sexual health created by

Latina young people for Latina teens as a health communication

strategy. We conducted an anonymous online

survey completed by Latina teens who read the zines (32

for sexual health and 33 for mental health). Data analysis

aimed to explore, summarize, and interpret the collected

data using an artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced

approach. Survey participants found the zine format and

content acceptable and …

Nft And The Future Of Art, Ying Kang

MA Theses

This thesis focuses on exploring the history of NFT, the effects of NFT on art and the future of art. There are many factors affecting NFT, including human subjective factors, such as the pursuit of economic interests and the psychology of blindly following the trend, as well as objective factors, such as macroeconomic policy changes, technological developments, COVID-19 pandemic, cultural advocacy for diversity and democratization, Russia-Ukraine conflict, collapse of major cryptocurrency entities, financial regulation, and endogenous flaws. These economic, political, technological, social, cultural and other factors are complicated and mutually influential, leading to NFT ups and downs in the past. …

You Go, I Will Wait, Rasim Bayramov

Theses and Dissertations

On the other side of the coast, a hand is waiting. On the other side of the shore, someone is waiting for you to come. This space between you and them is an asymptote. The more you wait, the colder the pan is to the hand. But the salt of the sea will cover and warm your hand. There’s much to play with while you wait. The destination is only a promise, a figure disillusioned. Waiting spaces are enchantingly altering

in their premise. A bureaucratic fantasy with no avail and no ending. Systematically accumulated levels of power and control lies …

Rhythm Against Poethics, Jayvyn Dacas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis stages an auto-poetic ethnography that listens to, and moves with, the anterior spaces of Black life. Those murmurs, hums, musical hesitations, and infrastructural vibrations that refuse capture by dominant epistemic regimes. Drawing from Ramon Amaro’s reading of Sylvia Wynter, Katherine McKittrick and Alexander Weheliye’s reflections on sound, Fred Moten’s insights on displacement, and Tendayi Sithole’s attention to the phonographic, the project situates music production as method and unworlding. Through engagements with the 808, sampling, sound systems, and embodied listening across Florida. Spaces like the warehouse, the party, record stores, and community become the work of Black voices, and …

Conversations With Neighbors, Tatiana Pinheiro

Capstones

Conversations with Neighbors is a series of conversations that aim to explore the depths of our neighborhoods here in NYC. It’s a place where history, culture and location unite to connect with the people and experiences we often miss in plain sight.

Unpacking Bias, Accountability, And Ethical Practices In Ai, Manya Chandra, Micol Hebron

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study is based on understanding how text-to-image generative AI platforms perpetuate biases such as racism and sexism and decoding how this bias is programmed within large language models and datasets. In this study, the results of generative AI are analyzed through the lens of affect and affect theory, as they are applied to investigate the machine learning and computer theory behind generative AI algorithms. The purpose of the study is to explain why generative AI is biased and whether this bias is generated due to current trends or to deficits and biases within the database that it draws information …

Asmrtistry In Immersive Sound: Investigating The Effectiveness Of Immersive Sound Technologies In Eliciting Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, Scott D. Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite a wide array of immersive sound technologies available to digital media creators who specialize in making audio-visual content that aims to elicit Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), only a few sound reproduction modalities are widely used: mono/stereo and binaural recording. To date, nearly all research studying ASMR, a bio-sensory phenomenon wherein people feel brain tingles triggered by calming audio-visual cues, has been content to carry out ASMR studies entirely with stereo and binaural sound reproduction methods. Therefore, it stands to reason that more understanding about how diverse immersive sound modalities like wave field synthesis, or three-dimensional spatial audio for …

A Retrospective Review: Oxford County Wellness Collaborative's Contributions To Community Health, Emma Schwartz, Rachel T. Gallo Mph

Publications

Since 2011, Oxford County Wellness Collaborative (OCWC) has been transforming personal, environmental, and economic health by building strong relationships among people and organizations. OCWC contracted with the Data Innovation Project at the Catherine Cutler Institute of Health and Social Policy to synthesize previously collected or reported data and collect primary data to conduct a retrospective evaluation. The evaluation team used this data to convey past successes, better understand the outcomes of the collaborative to date, and provide recommendations for OCWC’s next steps in furthering its impact.

Embodied Abstractions: Identity And Representation In The Digital Era, Srikar Hari

Masters Theses

The digital image is a copy in motion. As it accelerates, it deteriorates.

It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, squeezed through

digital connections, resized, uploaded, downloaded, reformatted

and re-edited.

- Adapted from “In defense of the Poor Image” by Hito Steryel

With today’s digital technology, the image is no longer a stable

representation of the world, but a programmable database that

is updated in real time. It is not only part of a program, but it

contains its own operating code: the image is a program in itself.

Consequently, the image’s rhetoric has taken on …

Resonant Perceptions: Exploring Autistic Aesthetics Through Embodied Cognition, James Hutson, Piper Hutson

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This study investigates the nuanced realm of aesthetic preferences among individuals with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) compared to neurotypical individuals, addressing a significant gap in understanding the diverse perceptual experiences within the neurodiverse community. The impetus for this study stems from the growing recognition of neurodiversity and the need to appreciate how individuals with ASC uniquely experience and interpret their environment, particularly in the context of aesthetics. Employing a dual-method approach, the research integrates data from comprehensive surveys and in-depth interviews to construct a comparative analysis of aesthetic preferences and experiences. Participants encompassed a broad demographic spectrum, ensuring a diverse …

Aspirations Incubator: 2017–2023 Final Evaluation Report, Sarah Goan, Elora Way, Emma Schwartz, Becky Wurwarg

Publications

The Rural Futures Fund launched the Aspirations Incubator in 2017 as a six-year pilot initiative aimed at supporting youth development in rural Maine by increasing resiliency, fostering connections to communities, and expanding students’ awareness of opportunities beyond their everyday environments. The program partnered with select rural youth organizations to build capacity for mentoring-based programs serving students from seventh grade through high school graduation. Guided by the Trekkers Youth Programming Principles, the initiative focused on long-term mentorship, meaningful relationship-building, and community engagement. A comprehensive multi-year evaluation conducted by the Data Innovation Project at the University of Southern Maine examined the implementation …

Maine Career Exploration: Interim Evaluation Report, Sydney Brown, Julia Bergeron-Smith Mppm, Msw, Sarah Goan, Madison Burke, Becky Wurwarg

Publications

The Maine Career Exploration (MCE) Program is a two-year pilot initiative designed to connect young people with Maine’s economy through hands-on, age-appropriate career exploration experiences. Launched in 2022 with funding from Governor Janet Mills’ Jobs and Recovery Plan, the program seeks to provide meaningful paid work experiences, expand career exploration programming in schools and communities, and create sustainable infrastructure to support long-term career readiness opportunities across the state. Managed by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, the initiative invests in three main areas: the Maine Children’s Cabinet Career Exploration Pilot Project, the Maine Department of Education’s Extended Learning …

Recursive Documentary Design And An Awareness Of The Mechanism, Wayne Defremery

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This essay documents 3D-printed sculptures displayed at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Document Academy. To raise awareness about the cultural significance of the mechanisms that produce digital substance, the sculptures lend material heft to some of the abstractions that help to constitute textual representations of a sixteenth-century Korean lyric and modern Korean poems from the early twentieth century in digital environments. The essay also describes previous exhibitions of the sculptures that utilized augmented reality technologies. By documenting the ways augmented reality technologies represented 3D-printed sculpture that documents digital texts that represent printed documents and manuscripts, the essay suggests how …

The Regenarrative: How To Change The Story In Order To Change The Future, S. Rose Bigheart O'Leary

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Abstract

In the era of Climate Change, many are concerned that the end of the Anthropocene, or the end of the era of human life on Earth, is upon us. Western European colonialism and its subsequent systems (settler-colonialism, colonial-capitalism, and globalization - sometimes termed “neocolonialism”) have all been implicated in contributing to unsustainable behaviors linked to accelerating climate change. In searching for possible solutions, some have called for listening to Indigenous Peoples, citing ethics of sustainability found among many Indigenous cultures. However, the cultural products of settler-colonialism are still dominant in ways that do not allow for Indigenous worldviews to …

Envisioning Futures: A Photovoice Study On How An Urban Afterschool Program Empowers Caregivers To Be Agents Of Change In Their Community, Ellen Mays

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As part of comprehensive whole-family out-of-school-time programming, parent engagement and education play an important role in addressing achievement and opportunity gaps in low-income neighborhoods. Parent groups have the potential to be a unique space of social justice work by creating supportive, innovative spaces to build social capital and organize around common action goals. This photovoice study looks specifically at “Parent University,” a parent out-of-school-time meeting group that focuses on empowerment education by providing opportunities for parents to meet, engage in rich consciousness raising dialogue, identify areas in need of change, and create and implement action for social change. This study …

Hands Are Hard: Unlearning How We Talk About Machine Learning In The Arts, Oscar K. Keyes, Adam Hyland

Tradition Innovations in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education

Evoking the spirits of Fluxus scores and art education drawing books from the early 1900s, this instructional art object guides the reader through a series of poetic prompts, designed to investigate the phenomenon of “bad hands” created by generative artificial intelligence. By now everyone has seen the AI-generated images of hands from the uncanny valley. A body of discourse has emerged to discuss “bad hands” in generated images, including their usefulness as a media literacy tool for identifying synthetic images and as evidence of the continued necessity for humans’ artistic abilities. However, these applications may be short-lived as it is …

Beyond 365 Days: A Retrospective Evaluation Of Trekkers, Sarah Krichels Goan Mpp, Madison Burke

Publications

The Trekkers program in Rockland, ME is a non-profit outdoor-based mentoring program that has served young people in mid-coast Maine since 1994. Its unique long-term mentoring model supports students over six years that begins when they are in 7th grade and continues until they graduate high school. Trekkers’ model focuses on building social, emotional and intellectual resiliency in young people through one-to-one peer mentoring, as well as the use of expeditionary learning, community service and adventure-based education. Trekkers’ programs are designed to provide an ongoing supportive network for young people in the community by connecting them with caring adults while …

Balanced Blended Space: Proposing A Universal Theoretical Framework For Combinative Reality, David Smith, Frederick Bianchi

Publications and Research

In today's fragmented societies, a unified framework for communication and collaboration across different realities is crucial. We introduce Balanced Blended Space (BBS) as a framework for describing combinative reality, encompassing virtual, physical, and conceptual realms, all intrinsically connected. Interactions within these environments shape our perceptual space. This paper outlines key axiomatic assumptions, criteria for a universal framework, and fundamental terminology. We identify deep symmetries enabling the BBS framework, including Cognitive and Computational Symmetry, Physical and Virtual Symmetry, Mediation Pathway Symmetry, Space-Time Symmetry, and Sensory Symmetry. We propose tests to determine its viability, emphasizing virtual intelligence as a collaborative partner. We …

"The New Technologist" By Reggie James (Internet Journal, Issue 001: 4-6, 2024), Reggie James

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

An essay depicting the conceptual image of "The New Technologist", an arbiter of taste in our ever-present, technological future. The ethics of creative practice as a technologist are as important as the impact of the products. Our cultural aptitude for technology as creators is called into question while our creative potential parallels the rise in technological accessibility. TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu …