daydreaMeD: A Creative Representation of Maladaptive Daydreaming

Each day, we might find our attention drifting to somewhere else: the things we need to do, the things we shouldn’t have done, or a fantasy that popped into our heads. For most people, mind wandering happens in fleeting moments of boredom or lack of focus; however, for some individuals—including myself daydreaming can be both time consuming and addictive to the point of becoming maladaptive. Maladaptive daydreaming is “defined as an extensive fantasy activity that replaces human interaction and/or interferes with academic, interpersonal, or vocational functioning” (Somer, 2002). Those with MD daydream for hours on end, replaying the same storyline or characters in their head and becoming consciously and completely immersed in their daydreams. These individuals will physically interact with their daydreams, through activities such as speaking or pacing. Relatively little research has been conducted on MD, and it is not yet classified as a psychiatric disorder; however, there is a large online population of self-proclaimed “maladaptive daydreamers.” There are forums, websites, and YouTube videos all dedicated to discussing the experiences of MD. For some, daydreaming is an outlet; for others, it is ruining their life. Through my research, I seek to mix psychology and creativity in order to answer the questions: What is maladaptive daydreaming? What does it look like? How can this be portrayed through fictional characters? Although daydreaming has been seen numerous times in literature and film, never has it been labeled as maladaptive nor addressed as MD. My novel entitled “daydreaMeD” follows the lives of three teenagers who experience maladaptive daydreaming: Ally, Jeanie, and Edgar. The three meet on an online MD forum, where they chat about their lives, ambitions, and daydreams. Each of them experiences MD in a different way, which I based on my survey of numerous MD qualitative studies and narrations. I hope to show readers what MD looks like daily and how this condition can alter one’s life. By presenting a creative work of this understudied condition, I hope to shed light on the subject and create a further sense of validation in those who experience the same thing but have not found the words to tell their story quite yet

My Mother\u27s Research/My Daughter\u27s Voice: A Twofold Tale

We write about experiences in the field as mother/researcher/teacher and daughter/student. How was the researcher/teacher influenced by her motherly role? How does a daughter/student experience the displacement of traveling to a new country for her mother’s research? We write simultaneously and present a twofold tale of movement, education, and consciousness

A case study of Tracie Morris\u27s Project Princess

In this study, I explore the intertextuality in spoken word poetry using Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess (1998) as a case study. My hypothesis is that the intertextuality in spoken word poetry is derived from its genealogical contributions. Using narrative inquiry, I investigate Project Princess as page poetry and oral performance text anchored in the genealogy of spoken word poetry. The following research questions guided this study: How does intertextuality function in Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess? What role does the genealogy of spoken word poetry play in understanding the intertextuality in Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess? In what ways does the intertextuality in spoken word poetry play at the intersections of race, gender, and class in Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess? What are the pedagogical implications for studying the intertextuality in spoken word poetry derived from its genealogical contributions in twenty-first century classrooms using Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess as an example? The conceptual framework consisted of intertextuality theory, public pedagogy, and performance studies, to explore the ways in which sites of resistance emerge from the poet’s narrative of lived experiences and social realities. Data was collected from page poetry, spoken word poetry, video, an audio interview of Tracie Morris, essays written by or about Tracie Morris, and Tracie Morris’s website. I used narrative analysis to interpret the data using four interpretative models: structural analysis, thematic analysis, dialogic/performance analysis, and visual analysis. The findings revealed that intertextuality in Tracie Morris’s spoken word poem Project Princess emerged as non-chronological storytelling, language and accepted meanings, signification (signifying), and created counter-narratives that opened discursive spaces as sites of resistance. The implications for education based on this study suggest that intertextuality in spoken word poetry in twenty-first century classrooms may be used to uncover hidden transcripts contained in Project Princess or other spoken word poems; identify themes across Morris’s narrative or other spoken word poems and their connection to the genealogy of spoken word poetry; create safe-spaces for dialogical exchanges and social interactions; and facilitate meaningful dialogues and social interactions among participants

Taking Jazz Singers Seriously: Gender, Race, and Vocal Improvisation

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Watch. Watching

Karl Jirgens is head of the English Department at the University of Windsor. He is the author of four books, two of fiction, Measure of Time (1998, Mercury Press) and Strappado: Elemental Tales (Coach House Press, 1984), and academic studies of Bill Bissett (1992) and Christopher Dewdney (1996), both from ECW Press

WRITING UTOPIA NOW: Utopian Poetics In The Work Of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

This thesis examines Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s DICTEE (1982), Audience Distant Relative (1977) and Reveillé dans la Brume (Awakened in the Mist) (1977). The premise of the thesis is an exploration of the various ways in which these works both perform and gesture toward the possibility of a ‘utopian’ experience of nonalienation. In Cha’s vocabulary, this takes the form of ‘interfusion’ and is related to the role of the artist as alchemist. Cha employs formal and linguistic innovations in her text, mail art and performance works to invite active participation from her readers and audience in a gesture toward embodied intersubjectivity. Her grappling with the challenges relating to the articulation of subjectivity place her work at the centre of contemporary critical debates around subjectivity and innovative poetics. In particular, recent scholarship on race and the poetic avant-garde has called for cross-disciplinary approaches to reading DICTEE as a text that explores the intersections of subjectivity and its performance in contemporary innovative poetics. Developing a theory of Utopian Poetics from my reading of Ernst Bloch’s utopian philosophy, I explore the ways in which DICTEE and Cha’s other works perform a yearning for non-alienated subjectivity that remains necessarily open and incomplete. My reading of DICTEE, in particular, is primarily informed by my own practices of yoga and meditation, and these practices form the basis of both my scholarly and creative engagements with this research. This scholarly thesis comprises Part 1 of a two-part submission. Part 2 comprises my own creative experiments with UtopianPoetics

A Tank Full of Wishful Thinking: Crystallizing the Rhythms of the Road

This presentation is a personal exploration of American car culture — the roads that enable it, the everyday actions that sustain it, and the values that justify it. I use a constellation of mobilities, autoethnography, and rhythmanalysis in order to tap into the political, personal, and aesthetic ways our road-centered culture shapes and constrains our lives in mundane and extraordinary ways. I argue that our road system of mobility is largely taken for granted, and is stubbornly persistent due to deeply held cultural values. I use a variety of artistic, evocative methods, including narrative, poetry, and music, because I argue that knowing is not enough — we must feel it in our guts if we ever hope to enact change

Integration of Assistive Technologies into 3D Simulations: Exploratory Studies

Virtual worlds and environments have many purposes, ranging from games to scientific research. However, universal accessibility features in such virtual environments are limited. As the impairment prevalence rate increases yearly, so does the research interests in the field of assistive technologies. This work introduces research in assistive technologies and presents three software developments that explore the integration of assistive technologies within virtual environments, with a strong focus on Brain-Computer Interfaces. An accessible gaming system, a hands-free navigation software system, and a Brain-Computer Interaction plugin have been developed to study the capabilities of accessibility features within virtual 3D environments. Details of the specification, design, and implementation of these software applications are presented in the thesis. Observations and preliminary results as well as directions of future work are also included