The Wolf and the Whale: aesthetic relationships between electroacoustic music and poetry inspired by the Canadian landscape

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).La présente thèse explore les relations esthétiques entre la poésie et la musique. Elle examine les éléments qui unissent et qui différencient les deux formes d’art, en mettant l’accent sur les caractéristiques que la poésie contemporaine et la musique électroacoustique ont en commun. Pour tenter d’expliquer la façon dont les caractéristiques de la poésie peuvent servir d’outil de composition musicale, ce document s’appuie sur des recherches récentes et plus anciennes concernant la musique et le récit, l’esthétique des musiques électroacoustiques, la psychoacoustique, la poétique, la sémiologie, la linguistique ainsi que l’histoire de la poésie et de la musique. Cette approche globale présente une analogie entre le son environnemental et le mot poétique, communicateur d’image, de sentiment et d’histoire qui, lorsque recontextualisé en musique, peut à la fois transmettre et provoquer des émotions. En effet, dans la musique électroacoustique, le son environnemental peut détailler de manière explicite les caractéristiques d’un espace acoustique réel; cependant, grâce à la transformation créée par le traitement du signal, le son peut également passer du côté abstrait. Ce mouvement entre les sons perçus comme réels et ceux perçus comme abstraits se compare à celui observé dans la poésie contemporaine. Les deux formes d’art peuvent également exprimer un sens littéral et symbolique. La présente thèse cherche à définir la façon dont ces éléments communs, entre autres, permettent de surmonter les obstacles intercommunicationnels naturellement entraînés par les différences syntaxiques entre la poésie et la musique afin de permettre une interprétation associative de la poésie en musique. La thèse se termine par l’analyse musicale de quatre compositions, dont trois ont été créées grâce au soutien du Conseil des arts du Canada. Ces trois pièces, qui forment le noyau de mon doctorat, exemplifient la musique inspirée par la poésie et composée à partir d’enregistrements de sons environnementaux. Trois œuvres des poètes canadiens John Steffler, Don Domanski et Marilyn Dumont évoquent les différentes régions du Canada d’où les enregistrements sont tirés. Ces poèmes, variés sur le plan esthétique, utilisent un langage distinct pour décrire la diversité de l’écologie canadienne moderne. Le contenu de chaque poème, de concert avec mon propre souvenir empirique des environnements qui font l’objet des enregistrements, est la source d’inspiration principale de la musique. La quatrième pièce utilise également la poésie comme base de la composition; il s’agit toutefois d’une œuvre antérieure, moins axée sur l’exploitation du potentiel de l’enregistrement de sons environnementaux pour créer une œuvre musicale représentative d’une imagerie poétique portant sur un lieu précis. Elle est présentée à titre d’exemple de l’évolution de mes stratégies et de mes préoccupations compositionnelles.This thesis explores aesthetic relationships between poetry and music. It looks at both the analogous and disparate traits of the two arts with a focus towards the shared qualities of contemporary poetry and electroacoustic music. In suggesting how those of the former lend themselves as a tool for the composition of the latter, the paper touches on current and past research concerning music and narrative, electroacoustic aesthetics, psychoacoustics, poetics, semiology, linguistics and the history of poetry and music. This broad approach considers environmental sound as similar to the poetic word – a communicator of image, feeling, and history that, when re-contextualized in music, has the ability to both convey and elicit emotion. Indeed, in electroacoustic music, environmental sound can explicitly detail the characteristics of a real acoustic space, however, with the transformative effects of signal processing it can also shift into the abstract. This motion between sounds perceived as real and abstract parallels motion in contemporary poetry. Both arts can also express literal and symbolic meaning. This thesis investigates how these and other shared traits overcome intercommunicative barriers that arise naturally from their syntactical differences to mediate associative interpretations of poetry in music. The thesis ends with the musical analysis of four compositions, three of which were created with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. These three pieces are the fruition of much of my doctoral work, exemplifying music inspired by poetry and composed from recordings of the Canadian environment. The regions represented in these recordings feature in the work of contemporary Canadian poets, John Steffler, Don Domanski and Marilyn Dumont. Varying in aesthetic, these poems use distinct language to depict the diversity of modern Canadian ecology. The content of each poem, in combination with my own experiential memory of the recorded environments, provides the inspiration for much of the music. The fourth piece presented also uses poetry as a foundation for composition; however, it is an earlier work that is less concerned with exploiting the potential of environmental recordings to create music representative of location-bound imagery in poetry. It has been included as an example of how my compositional strategies and concerns were refined

Jumping in the snow : an exploration of early childhood educator career commitment

This study examined the experiences of early childhood educators that had chosen to make teaching a career. Little research exists that examines resiliency and persistence factors in association with career commitment ideals of early childhood educators. Work experiences in early childhood programs have been researched extensively yet without the focus on those that have stayed in the field for at least five years or more. Questions addressed by this study involve how educators describe and perceive their role and overall careers. Additionally, background experiences, life experiences, personality factors, and resiliency were deeply explored. The study involved a three-part interview series to explore experiences and perceptions of early childhood careers. This case study was conducted on four early childhood educators that have been in the field and identify as committed to their careers. The setting was a campus child care center. Each participant was interviewed a total of three times and observed in their classrooms three times. Analysis was done on all interviews and observations to find themes between participants. Five emergent themes were identified as a result of this study. The findings revealed important factors that relate to career commitment in early childhood educators. Findings further indicate a need for programmatic and policy infrastructures to support new teachers, mentors, and peer learning opportunities. The study also outlined several recommendations that address the greater implication for the field. Recommendations include issues around competency, qualifications, education, well-being, and quality of early childhood educators

Identifying Sources of Prehistoric Turquoise in North America: Problems and Implications for Interpreting Social Organization

Well-made turquoise beads are rare in North American archaeological sites, and the prehistoric sources of turquoise are limited. Mining the turquoise, manufacturing the bead, and using it as part of a bracelet or necklace involve numerous human interactions to transport the raw material from its source to the place where it is finally found in an archaeological context. Accurate identification of turquoise sources affects our interpretation of prehistoric behavior and is the focus of this paper

Developing Effective Instructional Skills: The Master Educator Program at SUNY Buffalo State

[ES] With higher education facing budget cuts and declining enrollment, instructor effectiveness continues to be crucial, particularly in a state of increasing workloads with restricted resources. However, the dilemma of how to develop effective instructional skills while still maintaining a research agenda stems from a larger contradiction within professional disciplines; teaching is essential to the profession but holds a devalued position compared to research. It is not enough for educator to recognize that teaching and research are mutually reinforcing, universities must also recognize and support this reality. Understanding that we must learn to be good instructors, even as teaching is devalued, led our School of Professions to reflect on how we can develop strategies for becoming effective educators while still fulfilling our research (and service) agenda. With the Master Educator (MEP) program, our school is developing internal talent via instructional coaching between our School of Education (SOE) and our School of Professions (SOP). Research indicates that traditional forms of professional development are not effective. In turn, research on instructional coaching in K-12 setting has indicated a much higher implementation rate than traditional approaches to professional development; however, to our knowledge, there have been no attempt at implementing instructional coaching at the university level. The MEP is the first program to implement this practice at the university level.Mathien, LD. (2020). Developing Effective Instructional Skills: The Master Educator Program at SUNY Buffalo State. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):221-228. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11020OCS22122830-05-202

Rationale for Participation in JMU Worksite Wellness Programs

Effective employee wellness programs require an adequate understanding of the needs of employees. An employee wellness needs assessment was created to target the understanding of specific topics of interest, incentives and barriers to participation, and general health status of university employees. The majority (74.1%) of the 639 survey respondents (15.3% response rate) were female (age 45.7 ± 11.7 years), full-time employees. Employees were most interested in participating in programs involving physical activity, nutrition, and lifestyle wellness. Stages of change related to these topics include physical activity (pre-action: 42.3% and action: 44.7%), nutrition (pre-action: 37.4% and action: 42.2%), and work/life balance (pre-action: 44.9% and action: 23.9%). Flexible time off from work was the greatest incentive to participate while time, scheduling conflict, and location were the greatest barriers to participation. The majority of employees designated that they were in good health, of note, 33% of respondents were overweight and 22.7% were obese. Depressive disorders were the most commonly indicated diagnosed disorder, followed by high cholesterol, asthma, and high blood pressure. There were significant correlations between employees having been diagnosed with a specific health condition and their likelihood to participate in a corresponding program. For example, high blood pressure diagnosis was significantly associated with likelihood to participate in a blood pressure management program (Cramer’s V=0.407,

Holocene evolution of summer winds and marine productivity in the tropical Indian Ocean in response to insolation forcing: data-model comparison

The relative abundance of <i>Globigerinoides bulloides</i> was used to infer Holocene paleo-productivity changes on the Oman margin and at the southern tip of India. Today, the primary productivity at both sites reaches its maximum during the summer season, when monsoon winds result in local Eckman pumping, which brings more nutrients to the surface. On a millennium time-scale, however, the % <i>G. bulloides</i> records indicate an opposite evolution of paleo-productivity at these sites through the Holocene. The Oman Margin productivity was maximal at ~9 ka (boreal summer insolation maximum) and has decreased since then, suggesting a direct response to insolation forcing. On the contrary, the productivity at the southern tip of India was minimum at ~9 ka, and strengthened towards the present. <br><br> Paleo-reconstructions of wind patterns, marine productivity and foraminifera assemblages were obtained using the IPSL-CM4 climate model coupled to the PISCES marine biogeochemical model and the FORAMCLIM ecophysiological model. These reconstructions are fully coherent with the marine core data. They confirm that the evolution of particulate export production and foraminifera assemblages at our two sites were directly linked with the strength of the upwelling. Model simulations at 9 ka and 6 ka BP show that the relative evolution between the two sites since the early Holocene can be explained by the weakening but also the southward shift of monsoon winds over the Arabian Sea during boreal summer

Case Study: Use of Open Education Resources in Business Capstone

[EN] Recent studies on textbook costs in the United States have indicated that there is a direct relationship between textbook costs and student success. With textbook costs increasing at a rate higher than the cost of living, many students have cited the textbook cost as an extremely important factor when obtaining (or not obtaining) a textbook. Open educational resources (OER) are tools that educators can use to supplement or build a course. OER are free for anyone to reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute and are a low-cost, tailored solution for faculty and students. There have been calls for research that demonstrates how OER are being put into practice. This case study examines the responses of users to a voluntary survey in a capstone business course that implemented OER in lieu of traditional textbooks. The study suggests that, for teachers and students, as well as self-directed learners, OER provide a valuable resource to eliminate the pay wall, improve learning design, and support the power of the community through sharing and collaboration.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Mathien, L. (2018). Case Study: Use of Open Education Resources in Business Capstone. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 143-150. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.7914OCS14315

Stéphane Callens, Démocratie et télé-surveillance

Voilà un petit ouvrage dans l’air du temps, tant le sujet est nourri par l’évolution des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC). Le titre est explicite. Au fond, le thème est bien celui de la démocratie et de son rapport à l’organisation des liens de sécurité entre acteurs – publics et privés –, tout en préservant au mieux les libertés individuelles. L’ouvrage propose un état des lieux avec définitions, cadres juridiques et exposé des limites de la télésurveillance. Il se ..

“Tous journalistes”! Les professionnels de l’information face a un mythe des nouvelles technologies

The ideology of transparency and liberty of expression without any limits, created by the digital convergence of electronic supports, has constructed the myth of “we are all journalists”. And this myth is sustained by many illusions cherished by the behaviours of social, political and economical actors, but also by every one participating in this belief. With the online Medias and the citizen initiatives in the “information society” each person can attest “I’m a journalist!” Is the transformation of the mass media activities meaning disappearing of journalists? Obviously however, in comparison with the social functions of the journalists in the society through the historical Medias, “the sum of blogs does not make a new public space”! The Web is not the exclusive future of the news. In the environment of the mutation of the information and communication technologies, the new or outlaw practices are numerous to heckle the journalist as professionals of information in a social and democratic system. But the future of the journalists who are fully participating at all the debates of society could not be restricted in the closed field of the social partners.Le “tout information” , comme le “tout communication” résultant d’une idéologie de la transparence et de la liberté d’expression sans limite, nés de la convergence numérique des supports électroniques, a conduit au mythe de “tout journalistes”. Et celui-ci nourrit bien des illusions sur les comportements des acteurs sociaux, politiques et économique, ainsi que sur le tout un chacun en tant qu’acteur de l’information participative. Dans la “société de l’information ” tout le monde peutil donc se prétendre journaliste? Or, manifestement, par rapport aux fonctions sociales assurées dans la société par les journalistes via les médias historiques, la somme des blogs ne saurait constituer un nouvel espace public. Dans le contexte des mutations technologiques, des usages nouveaux ou détournés par les promoteurs comme par les usagers, les motifs ne manquent pas pour que les journalistes se repositionnent en tant que “professionnels” dans un système social démocratique. L’avenir du journalisme participant pleinement des débats sociétaux il ne saurait rester confi né dans le seul champ clos des “partenaires sociaux”