DineLight; Lighting and The Dining Experience

abstract: This dissertation focuses on lighting and the dining experience as an experiential phenomenon at upscale restaurant setting. The aim is to better the understanding of the impact of lighting on upscale dining experiences, on a global scale. In addition, special emphasis was given to understand the theatrical approach of lighting in staging the dining experience. This research follows a sequential exploratory, mixed-methods approach, which consisted of a qualitative phase, followed by a quantitative phase. The qualitative phase gathered data in the form of interviews and observations, which was then analyzed using thematic analysis. The second phase involved creating a measure which I term, ‘DineLight,’ as an instrument to assess correlational relationships between lighting and specific dimensions of the upscale dining experience. The quantitative data was analyzed using a two-tailed Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results revealed that lighting can affect four aspects of the overall dining experience; atmosphere, service, sociality, and food. This research revealed a new perspective when looking at the impact of lighting in a certain context, beyond the atmosphere perception. The results of qualitative data and quantitative data were combined and produced two main reference tables for lighting at upscale restaurant setting; lighting characteristics and approaches, and lighting fixtures. These two tables operate as guidelines for successful lighting practices in upscale restaurants. This research demonstrates the applicability of the ‘DineLight’ instrument to reveal new insights regarding the upscale dining experience, contributing not just to research in the area of lighting design, but also providing practical applications for restaurateurs and others in this industry.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Architecture 201

Painting and Stuff, LOL

Our own human experience is a distinct realm which can never be precisely duplicated in another lifetime. It frames our whole view of existence and, as artists, affects our art making process. The theory of the Tabula Rasa functions as the inspiration of my work and this writing examines my personal view of growing up in the internet age and America, and how my view of life, as well as artistic practice, is shaped by a consumerist culture that has gone global. Additionally, as a figurative painter, I create a context with other artists who create work about their own experience such as Liu Xiaodong, Jan Steen, Kehinde Wiley, Patrick Martinez, and Roger Shimomura. This paper ties many facets of culture together, along with my personal reflection, to ultimately examine its effect on my art

Improving efficiency through layout optimization for Les Klar Couture.

Applied project submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, April 2019Les Klar Couture is a fashion company located in Ghana and noted for its simple, decent but classy designs. Selling at affordable prices, Les Klar hopes to expand its operations worldwide, a few years to come. It, however, focuses on empowering its clients to have confidence in themselves and to dress to suit their body sizes. The company currently runs its main branch at North Industrial Area and is yet to operate at its new branch in Kasoa. However, after conducting a needs assessment test, it was realized that the layout plan adopted in the old branch does not allow the workers to be very efficient due to lack of space. The owner is therefore unsure of which layout plan to adopt for the new branch. Thus, intensive research was carried out to explore and understand how the layout strategies adopted by firms, influences the efficiency of workers. Again, this can have a large influence on the perceptions clients create about a brand. A well designed layout also prevents casualties that may occur in the workplace. Thus, Les Klar adopted a layout plan that encompasses both the office layout and the process-oriented layout for the new branch. An implementation plan in a 3D format was created for the company to enable them to operate the new branch. Part of the solution was however implemented by the company but could not be fully implemented due to unavailability of the remaining equipment. For this solution to work effectively, the company should employ experts to aid with an inventory management system to help them minimize cost and to increase their presence on social media through various forms of advertisements.Ashesi Universit

Mapping the In-Motion Emotional Urban Experiences: An Evidence-Based Method

Urban settings affect the experience of people in places and the measurement of such urban experiences is the focus of this article. The ‘experiential Environmental Impact Assessment—exp-EIA©’ method and its application to the Città Studi area in Milan are presented. The method couples urban studies with environmental psychology and ICT for educational purposes with a sample of architecture students divided in two groups (N = 18). Experiential data are collected via a dedicated app installed on the participants’ mobile devices, and an automatic data processing and analysis produces spatialized results creating maps of the overall urban experience. In particular, the emotional reaction of participants through a ten-minute walking path is assessed. A group activity focused on the link between urban features and subjective evaluation of places by participants is combined with the results obtained via the application of the circumplex model of affect. Results show that the path is characterized by two main emotional experiences, passing from a pleasant to an unpleasant experience within the short walk in both groups, offering some insights on the urban design of the area. The results are part of the teaching process to increase students’ awareness about experiential design, yet the process is conceived also as a tool for professionals

The impact of commercial and artistic photography on the portrayal of reality

This report discusses the impact of commercial and artistic photography on the portrayal of reality. It is based on my six-month experience as an intern at Atelier Mai 98 in Paris, a studio devoted to the production of pictures for the luxury market. In my reflection I intend to demonstrate the close bonds between photography and the advertising industry as far as its conception, distribution and aestheticization are concerned. My aim is to discuss how commercial photography creates codes that modify the perception of reality for commercial reasons whereas artistic photography designs an alternative world by revealing the invisible

Queerying Public Art in Digitally Networked Space

There is an increasing interest among geographers in studying social engagement with public artwork, but there remains a lack of scholarship on how such engagement operates in digitally networked space. This article examines this gap on the basis of a virtual ethnography involving (social) media analysis on encounters with Paul McCarthy’s temporary installation Tree in Place Vendôme, Paris, 2014. This artwork, a 24-metre inflatable resembling a giant butt plug, unleashed a heated debate over social media about the artwork’s (mis)uses of the locality and urban public sphere. From this case study, remembering/forgetting and materiality/digitality emerged as ambiguous values/appropriations of this public artwork. Accordingly, experiences navigated between, foremostly, obscene and/or misplaced (the artwork’s postmodern/‘sexual’ style vs. the site’s classical architecture and Paris’ alleged ‘romantic’ image), ludic, and radical (i.e. anti-normative message towards permanence and heteropatriarchy). Considering such ambiguous and sexuality-related ramifications, I engage with ‘queerying’ as method for examining online mediated public-art engagement. The study demonstrates how receptions and interactions digitally intertwined with the temporary material artwork (where the examined digital material was not an intentional part of the artwork as initiated by the artist). Specifically, the queerying analysis shows how dialectical online and offline public-art engagements with Tree negotiated (i.e. mediated) and augmented (i.e. enhanced) one another and offered alternative ways for conceptualising user agency and spatial connectivity. This study can be of use for critical geographers using online media as both sites and tools for examining the bottom-up digital co-production of public art