3,708 research outputs found

    The Craft Hub Journey:Project Catalogue

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    Introducing the Craft Hub project and the International Exhibition ‘Investigating Craft Practices across Europe’, including its journey across Europe, the artistic curation and set-up methodology for a replicable, accessible and sustainable design, adapting to seven unique exhibition spaces and content. The recurring themes, Heritage, Sustainability, Experimentation, Technological Innovation, Empowerment and Social Inclusion create common threads running through the activities and research carried out by each Craft Hub partner

    Posthuman Creative Styling can a creative writer’s style of writing be described as procedural?

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    This thesis is about creative styling — the styling a creative writer might use to make their writing unique. It addresses the question as to whether such styling can be described as procedural. Creative styling is part of the technique a creative writer uses when writing. It is how they make the text more ‘lively’ by use of tips and tricks they have either learned or discovered. In essence these are rules, ones the writer accrues over time by their practice. The thesis argues that the use and invention of these rules can be set as procedures. and so describe creative styling as procedural. The thesis follows from questioning why it is that machines or algorithms have, so far, been incapable of producing creative writing which has value. Machine-written novels do not abound on the bookshelves and writing styled by computers is, on the whole, dull in comparison to human-crafted literature. It came about by thinking how it would be possible to reach a point where writing by people and procedural writing are considered to have equal value. For this reason the thesis is set in a posthuman context, where the differences between machines and people are erased. The thesis uses practice to inform an original conceptual space model, based on quality dimensions and dynamic-inter operation of spaces. This model gives an example of the procedures which a posthuman creative writer uses when engaged in creative styling. It suggests an original formulation for the conceptual blending of conceptual spaces, based on the casting of qualities from one space to another. In support of and informing its arguments are ninety-nine examples of creative writing practice which show the procedures by which style has been applied, created and assessed. It provides a route forward for further joint research into both computational and human-coded creative writing

    Of Fears and Bodies in Early Romantic Poetry

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    This thesis approaches psychophysical expressions of different and changing fears in the Romantic poetry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This period was chosen because of the immediate and rapid effects of the French Revolution on the formation and perception of the English nation, along with the newfound need to search for meaning that many people felt within a rapidly changing world. The writings of the Romantic poets under question in this thesis, namely William Blake, William Wordsworth, Mary Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joanna Baillie, and Anne Bannerman, reflect this quest to understand personal and political fears, as well as the coping mechanisms that take fear as a dominant emotion of the times and turn it into a Gothic space for the exploration of personal and political anxieties through Gothic bodies and the interaction between bodies of fear and bodies in fear presented within the spectrum of terror and horror. More specifically, I will explore the interaction between the self and Gothic bodies of fear in different psychophysical manifestations in a selection of Gothic poetic texts. For these writers, the fears generated through the contact with abject bodies that haunt self and nation can destabilise preconceived ideas of self and society and facilitate healing and re-evaluation. To this end, I will follow contemporary theorisations of varying fears to acknowledge the fact that fear comes in many shapes, degrees, and kinds for these writers, and so do the Gothic bodies that reside in their writings, from Blake’s horror bodies to the spectral bodies that haunt the poetry of Baillie and Bannerman. The importance of fear as an emotion in this context is related to its strong physical impact and its relevance for the contemporary socio-political arena in matters of personal and political threat, safety and control. This thesis will focus on the various responses of early Romantic writers to these anxieties

    Discursive Constructions of the European Identity in Germany during the Euro and Refugee Crises of the EU [vĂ©dĂ©s elƑtt]

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    This research investigates the manifestations of European identity construction by the political and media discourses within the depressing context of the Euro crisis and refugee crisis of the European Union (EU) in a case study country- Germany. It utilizes the main aspirations of the Social Identity Theory (SIT), which asserts that social, economic, and political processes are highly critical in forming an ‘ingroup’. In doing so, it provides a novel approach to the European studies on the nexus between the EU integration and its crises. Although the literature previously engaged in explaining the formation of European identity through the lenses of the SIT, the theoretical novel of this research comes from the fact that it will investigate the way European identity is constructed, instrumentalized, and manifested during the financial and refugee crisis, which is of critical importance for the enrichment of the discipline, since social identity is mediated by the involvement of different social comparative contexts and content. The empirical contribution of the current study accommodates the extension of the empirical body of knowledge in Germany, which has occupied a key, initial, and unique position during both crises in formulating these mechanisms to fight with the crises. This study argues that political and media discourses became a critical tool of disseminating the collective identity construction during the times of crises that posed rigid challenges to political, social, and economic processes of the EU. This is because the crises provided a viable ground for the articulations of the different manifestations of the European identity construction implying ‘what it means to be European’ due to the incremental salience of the European affairs within the public. While the crises have opened up leeway for the member states to become less Euro-centric because of the possible dramatic repercussions, identity construction, focusing on increasing the levels of commitment to ingroup for the sake of the common good of the community, may play an instrumental role in convincing European citizens to bear the dramatic consequences and costs of the crises. Therefore, an inquiry concentrating on answering how the European identity is manifested and instrumentalized in responding to and answering the crises is of critical importance. Based on such premise, this research conducts extensive qualitative frame analysis of political and media discourse at key moments of the crisis. The manifestations of the European identity construction are found to differ between two crises during the course of the analysis, which can be explained by the fact that the imperatives of the crises altered considerably. The detailed qualitative analysis of the media and political discourse covering the euro crisis found that European identity construction is manifested to be shaped in accordance with the needs of the different time frames of the crisis. Accordingly, at the political discourse level, the European identity is operationalized and instrumentalized in line with the political claims and interests of the political elites in the governance and in the opposition. The beginning of the crisis in Greece evoked little political interest and attraction in formulating immediate response since the country often was accused of being as ‘debt sinner’ ‘the guilty other of the European in-group’ and the crisis was externalized and portrayed as ‘home-made’. Yet the aggravation of the crisis necessitated to the formulation of a European-level solution that arose the concerns of political legitimization. At that point, European identity construction was vitally used as a discursive act of instrumentalization and operationalization through consolidating Germany’s commitment to the European community, which is regarded as its historical responsibility, vis a vis its historical otherness to Europe. During the refugee crisis, regardless of the political leaning and stance in respect to the crisis, the European identity construction is manifested as a tool of both internal and external othering to bolster both intra- and inter-group differentiation. It demonstrated that the pro-refugee stance adopted by the media discourses regardless of their political leanings exhibited often external othering vis a vis the in-group of the European community presented as a community of humanitarian responsibility. Therefore, they were highly converging with the pro-refugee mainstream political discourses. In this respect, the divergences between the political and media discourses manifesting the European identity construction in framing the crisis can be traced in accordance with their having whether pro-refugee or anti-refugee stances. As a sum of the findings of the analysis of both crises, the research revealed that different phases of the crises have involved different discursive practices of identity construction, thus, the first hypothesis, ‘change in the identity construction is correlated to be reflected by the social processes within the society’ is proven to be right. Although identity construction encompasses different angles as per each crisis, it has been mainly within the German understanding of the European identity. Therefore, the second hypothesis, ‘The manifestations of the European identity construction appeared differently in framing the different EU crises’ is proven to be wrong

    An “other” experience of videogames: analyzing the connections between videogames and the lived experience of chronic pain

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    In this dissertation I argue for the connections between the lived experience of chronic pain and videogames, exploring what interacts with and influences them. To answer this, I draw on cripistemology as I engage in autoethnography, close-reading and close-gameplay, restorying, mixed methods design, formal interviews, surveys, and inductive coding. I further argue for pushing back against the unhelpful binaries that define the “human” and a false idea of “universal” experience or ability, instead pointing to the intersectionality that better reflects the biopolitics of disability, including both debility and capacity. I engage with these methods in three specific projects that consider additional sub-questions to further tease out why videogames disability, chronic pain, game design, lived experience, human centered design, embodiment in video games have impacted me so deeply and how this ties to my identity as a disabled woman. I further offer this dissertation to highlight the growing research of lived experience and disability in the field of game studies, providing empirical data that offers a foundational look of how I as a member of the chronic pain community think and feel about videogames, as well as how a small portion of the chronic pain community discusses videogames and the range of experiences this encompasses. In doing so, I unpack and argue on the relationship that exists between chronic pain and videogames, and further articulate why this matters. In Chapter 1 I provide necessary history and information regarding my research to better articulate the findings as presented in the following chapters. In Chapter 2, I analyze my connection to Animal Crossing: New Leaf (AC:NL) (Nintendo EAD, 2012) and explore opportunities about genre and mechanics as reflections of my own daily lived experience with chronic pain, especially including my experience in a 2014 pain rehabilitation program. Through this process, I define the “slice of life” genre and argue that AC:NL is exemplary of its markers. In Chapter 3 I provide a deep reading and analysis of Nintendo’s GameCube release Chibi-Robo! (Skip Ltd. et al., 2005) to “restory” the titular main character to have chronic pain like my own. Through the lens of debility and capacitation machines, I map these ideas onto the biopsychosocial model to organize a thorough analysis of his restoried identity. In modding the game’s narrative to reflect a lived experience of chronic pain like my own, I interweave fanfiction with deep reading and deep gameplay to unpack what representation I am looking for in videogames both narratively and mechanically. In this I further argue how this practice can be used to inform future game design. Finally, in Chapter 4, I interview members of the chronic pain community to understand their perspective on the connections between their lived experience with chronic pain and videogames, as well as how additional factors of their identity impact those experiences. For this I engage in a mixed methods design to conduct a survey and formal interviews to offer foundational work on how the chronic pain community interacts with videogames. I offer this project to intersect current research in chronic pain and videogames (and its related technology) that focuses on games as tools for “curing” pain, and argue the importance of considering what embodiment people with chronic pain already have in videogames instead. Ultimately, I argue for the necessity to complicate current design practices in human centered design (HCD) and game design. To do so, I highlight the lived experience of Othered identities to combat misguided notions of “universal” intent. In this, I analyze the inherent connections between videogames and disability, in this case chronic pain, through embodiment and lived experience. I center in on how my experience of chronic pain has impacted the way in which I engage and think about with videogames, and further, how my experiences align with that of the chronic pain community

    Removing the Obstacles that Confront: The Impact of a Nontraditional School Reform Model on the Graduation Rate in an Urban School District

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    Although access to education in the United States has improved for students across race, class, ethnicity, and gender, not all demographic groups’ progress has kept pace with access (Mujic, 2015). Over the past two decades, more high school dropouts have been enrolled in public schools serving predominantly African American and Hispanic students of low socioeconomic status (Mujic, 2015). This portraiture study involved interviewing and observing six participants in an established nontraditional educational setting. The study aimed to examine educators’ perceptions regarding using a nontraditional school reform model to improve graduation rates in an identified urban school district serving predominantly African American and Hispanic students of low socioeconomic status. National, state, and local education may benefit from these findings to improve graduation rates nationwide. School districts and individual schools may also benefit from these findings and adopt the strategies employed to increase the graduation rates for the students they serve.Ruttencutter, Gwen S.Gunn, Nicole P.Ed.D.Educational leadershi

    Germany in Search of a Mythology

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    Thomas Mann, in an essay on Freud, defined myth as the foundation of life because it is timeless and provides insight into the higher truth. The verbal power of the mythologically oriented artist bends the phenomena around him to fit his ironic and superior gaze. His tools are words. He molds them into symbols, metaphors, and images with which he connects apparent irreconcilables in a striking new image or impression, thereby creating his mythical world. Ernst Cassirer established the indissoluble union of language and myth in the unconscious grammar of experience. Language and myth are two diverse shoots from the same parent stem, the same impulse of symbolic formulation, springing from the same basic mental activity 
 the same inner process 
; they are both resolutions of an inner tension, the representation of subjective impulses and excitations in definite objective forms and figures

    Para-texts: Alterity and Infected Reading in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy

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    This thesis examines Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy within an ecocritical and deconstructive framework. Published in quick succession in 2014, the trilogy – composed of Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance – traces the shadowy outline of ‘Area X’, the name given to a mysterious stretch of coast along the Eastern Seaboard. While the official explanation for Area X is an ecological disaster, the reality is much weirder; inside Area X, things transform. Drawing predominantly on Annihilation, I explore how acts of writing manifest within Area X, as well as how this language ‘infects’ the narrative tissue of the trilogy itself. By situating writing outside the human body, I argue that The Southern Reach Trilogy represents writing – and thus language more broadly – as a distinctly nonhuman alterity
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