Connected: An Artist’s Investigation into Digital Communication

The purpose of my thesis was to develop a body of utilitarian ceramic pottery, which examines the internal conflict I have with digital communication and its impact on social interactions. I draw inspiration from historic ceramic artworks for my wheel-thrown and hand-built forms. My traditionally inspired utilitarian forms are ornamented with surface decorations that represent contemporary symbols of the digital age. By doing this I intend to create artworks that allow the viewer to contemplate the evolution of human communication and their own reliance on technological devices. My studio investigations incorporate scholarly research of historic artworks and time periods combined with personal reflections regarding contemporary society’s reliance on digital communication. My written thesis examines my creative process, how my approach to instruction has influenced it, and how my studio investigations have impacted my pedagogical teaching philosophy. The culmination of this project will be a shared graduate art exhibition in the Wallace Anderson Gallery in April

Narrative Reliefs From the SW and NW Corner Pavilions of Angkor Wat.

This study examines the religious and social meaning of the reliefs from the western corner pavilions of the temple of Angkor Wat (12th century AD.). It investigates how visual narrative was articulated by the Khmer, and how the reliefs contributed to the sacredness of the temple and the consolidation Suryavarman II's kingship. In Part I (Chapterl), after a brief introduction on the political and religious status of Cambodia at the time of Suryavarman II, the Indian texts to which the stories of the reliefs refer are extensively discussed. After a critical analysis of the literature available on the reliefs of the corner pavilion, a detailed examination of the reliefs of the south-western and north-western pavilions is then presented in order to establish the base for their interpretation. For a better understanding it was essential to study, even if briefly, narrative reliefs from other sites of the temple. Part II (Chapter 1) deals with the use of semiotics, seeking a level of meaning of the reliefs underlying that revealed by iconography. Semiotics provides the possibility of an analytical practice, of describing and explaining the process and structures through which meanings are constituted. This is followed by an investigation into narration's techniques used by the Khmer in depicting events in the reliefs. Chapter 2 includes my attempt to interpret the narrative, the analysis of the arrangement and selection of the themes, and their narrative program. It results that narrative elements were fundamental components of a sacred discourse. Finally, in Chapter 3, the conclusions of the study are summarised. The reliefs are symbolic of the temporal power of the king, and affirm his right to rule the Khmer in intimate association with the divine. Moreover, they were used for creating the image of a sacred universal meaning, a visual representation of Khmer metaphysics. They were the visual manifestation of devotion to Vishnu. To Part III belong all the maps, tables and illustrations supporting the text of the thesis

Developing product platforms:analysis of the development process

Several authors have highlighted the importance of companies enhancing their new product development process through a multiproduct strategy. This means planning the development of a product family upon a platform, which allows shorter lead times in developing new derivative models. The platform itself has proven to be more flexible when given a modular architecture, so this shifts attention onto evaluating product platform architecture. This paper analyses three industrial cases in order to draw conclusions on the implementation of platforms and modularisation, and in particular on how they deal with this issue. First of all, an interpretation framework is proposed which defines the element taking into account managing with platforms. Secondly, the achieved results in terms of platform flexibility are studied. The paper measures them through analysing the way in which the trade-off between distinctiveness and commonality is dealt with. Finally, since the ability of firms to develop robust product platforms resides in NPD process management and organisation, organisational settings and process flows are examined. ? 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

the peak stress method combined with 3d finite element models to assess the fatigue strength of complex welded structures

Abstract The Peak Stress Method (PSM) is a rapid and engineering application of the notch stress intensity factor (NSIF) approach for the fatigue strength assessment of welded structures, which employs the singular linear elastic peak stresses calculated by FEM using coarse meshes. First, the PSM was calibrated to rapidly estimate the NSIFs by adopting 3D, eight-node brick elements and by using the submodeling technique. Given the increasing 3D modelling of large and complex structures in the industry, the application of the PSM combined with 3D FE models has recently been speeded up by calibrating ten-node tetra elements, which allow to directly discretize complex 3D geometries making submodeling unnecessary. In the present contribution, the PSM has been calibrated by analysing several 3D mode I, II and III V-notch problems, by adopting either four-node or ten-node tetra elements. In particular, the 3D PSM with ten-node tetra elements has been extended to V-notch opening angles that had not been taken into account in a previous calibration, namely (i) 120° under mode I and (ii) 90° and 120° under mode III loadings. Then, an applicative example has been considered, which is relevant to a large-scale and rather complex steel welded structure, having overall size on the order of meters. The mesh density requirements to apply the PSM to the considered large-scale welded structure using either four-node tetra elements or ten-node tetra elements have been compared in order to assess the solution time required by the two types of FE meshes