Graphic Content Warning; Personal and Political Traumas

The written portion of this thesis work is meant to address and further investigate the visual work created using mediums of print and found video. This artistic research has been interested in examining varying associations with truth, recollection, and evidence. This includes the recollection of public histories and news-media narratives as well as my own history and trauma. Through this work my aim was to create a deconstruction and revolt against how associations are formed, and how to understand imagery as information. This thesis first discusses my relationship to appropriated imagery, then connects and examines it through the addition of poetic elements and events from my own lived experience

'Where the cattle went, they went': towards a phenomenological archaeology of mustering in the Kunderang Gorges, northeastern New South Wales

The paper seeks to understand the relationships that developed between former pastoral workers and the rugged landscape of the Kunderang Ravines through a consideration of the results of a joint program of archaeological and oral history research. Mapping the 'landscape biographies' of former Aboriginal and settler pastoral workers and their descendents, and 'story-trekking' (after Green et al. 2003) along their remembered narrative paths allows a more embodied approach to the archaeology of cattle mustering to emerge. By riding and walking along familiar pathways and mustering routes, pastoral workers and their kin created a familiar sense of being-in-the-landscape (after Bender 2001), while simultaneously creating that landscape. In many ways, the work on Kunderang can be understood as a response to Gaston Bachelard's call for 'each one of us [to] speak of his roads, his crossroads, his roadside benches; each one of us should make a surveyor's map of his lost field and meadows' (1969: 11) and to understand those habits which he describes in the same work as the 'passionate liaison of our bodies' with a space or landscape (in Wise 2000)

Portable Tor Router: Easily Enabling Web Privacy for Consumers

On-line privacy is of major public concern. Unfortunately, for the average consumer, there is no simple mechanism to browse the Internet privately on multiple devices. Most available Internet privacy mechanisms are either expensive, not readily available, untrusted, or simply provide trivial information masking. We propose that the simplest, most effective and inexpensive way of gaining privacy, without sacrificing unnecessary amounts of functionality and speed, is to mask the user's IP address while also encrypting all data. We hypothesized that the Tor protocol is aptly suited to address these needs. With this in mind we implemented a Tor router using a single board computer and the open-source Tor protocol code. We found that our proposed solution was able to meet five of our six goals soon after its implementation: cost effectiveness, immediacy of privacy, simplicity of use, ease of execution, and unimpaired functionality. Our final criterion of speed was sacrificed for greater privacy but it did not fall so low as to impair day-to-day functionality. With a total cost of roughly $100.00 USD and a speed cap of around 2 Megabits per second we were able to meet our goal of an affordable, convenient, and usable solution to increased on-line privacy for the average consumer.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, IEEE ICCE Conferenc

Exploring the knowledge of wildfire smoke mitigation and tolerance measures within a high-risk community in San Diego County, California

This study focuses on a community’s interest and knowledge on air quality mitigation measures in regard to smoke exposure from wildfires. A combination of semi-structured in person interviews and online surveys were available for those individuals that lived or worked in Ramona, California. The residents in Ramona had varying knowledge, concern levels and responses when discussing air quality mitigation measures with regards to wildfire smoke effects and impacts. Wildfire smoke itself was not a major concern of most residents within the area and many had described wildfire smoke mitigation measures as being conditional measures not applicable to the entire community but specific towards those individuals sensitive to poor air quality in the community. Many individuals felt underinformed or had misinterpreted messages from state agencies regarding the effects of wildfire smoke exposure on human health. Given the limited familiarity with wildfire smoke exposure effects within the community more promotion of wildfire smoke exposure effects and air quality resources available to the public should occur. The messaging that is promoted by state and federal agencies should also be clarified to not send mixed messaging to community members

Remote Design of an Outdoor Kitchen

WPI students must complete a junior-year research project, typically at an international site. Some students are unable to engage in a residential project due to responsibilities close to campus. Turn Back Time (TBT) is a farm and nature-based organization, 10 miles from WPI. TBT is building a residential yurt village to support these students. This project aims to design and build an outdoor kitchen to support the village, as well as the personal, educational, and professional growth of WPI students

Interpretive Technology in Parks: A study of visitor experience with portable multimedia devices

The GPS Ranger is a new portable technology that provides visitors to Cedar Breaks National Monument (CBNM) with interpretive information specific to a location. The GPS Ranger uses a built in global positioning system to trigger video, audio, or slideshows that are displayed on a 4 inch display. The GPS Ranger is new to natural area parks like CBNM. Technological advancements have enabled devices like the GPS Ranger to be used in many new places. Researchers have a history of investigating and publishing literature on park visitor experiences with interpretive media. However, no exploration of the experiences visitors have with technology like the GPS Ranger exists. The purpose of this study was to undertake an exploratory investigation of GPS Ranger experiences. In doing so, it will begin to fill important gaps in literature and guide land managers and researchers to make more informed decisions. Specifically, this study used the qualitative process of hermeneutics to guide the investigation of the experiences GPS Ranger users have at CBNM in southwest Utah. The following central question guided this study: What experiences do GPS Ranger users have at Cedar Breaks National Monument? In order to investigate the central question, the following research questions were investigated: 1) What expectations do visitors have when coming to Cedar Breaks? 2) What experiences do GPS Ranger users have at Cedar Breaks? 3) What are the experiences GPS Ranger users have with the technology? Interviews were collected from 27 GPS Ranger users following their experiences at CBNM. Results showed visitors primarily expect to experience elements of nature during their visit. Furthermore, GPS Ranger users primarily had experiences focused around nature and learning. Technology was not identified as major part of their CBNM experience. Finally, visitors’ experiences with the technology are positive but some problems were identified. The GPS Ranger was enjoyed by nearly all users. They perceived the device benefiting their experiences by giving information they would have otherwise missed. The device may have caused positive and negative changes in behavior. Future research can use this study as a starting point to better understand information gathering behavior, the difference between users and non users, and to investigate potential impacts of technology on natural area visitors

Revitalization of the Valley of Enchantment Elementary School Nature Center, an on-site learning facility

Relevance to the California science, history, and social-science frameworks

CSBS Kudos, Fall 2018

Inside This Issue:--Faculty Accolades--Student Spotlight--Departmental News--New Faculty and Staff--Alumni Highlightshttps://scholarworks.uni.edu/csbskudos/1024/thumbnail.jp