3132 research outputs found
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Timing Diaspora, Diasporic Art in Two Acts: Examining Black and Caribbean Diasporic Temporality
Full text linkThis MRP explores the temporal dynamics of Black and Caribbean diasporic art through two independent chapters. The first chapter focuses on the work of the Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) Collective, a multidisciplinary creative enterprise founded in 2014 in Philadelphia, PA, by musician and poet Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) and community activist and housing lawyer Rasheedah Phillips. Through their self-publications and creative manifestos, the BQF Collective investigates applications of Afrofuturist theory, quantum mechanics, and Indigenous African theories of time to the production of community, Black, queer, and womanist futures. This chapter interrogates BQF theory and practice as a potent tool for challenging conventional Western timelines and time consciousness, offering avenues for the creation of alternative temporalities and temporal liberation for Black individuals. Particular attention is given to the application of BQF theory in the Black Quantum Futurism Collective’s Time Zone Protocols project and Prime Meridian Unconference. Here, I argue that BQF theory delineates a visionary and retrospective philosophy with a chronopolitically urgent practice.
The second chapter presents an examination of three exhibitions of Caribbean diasporic art that took place in and around Toronto, Ontario within the last three years. These include Fragments of Epic Memory (2021-2022) at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Kept Alive Within Us (2023) at the Art Gallery of Guelph (AGG), and Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art, 1950s–Now (2023-2024) at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In this chapter, I contend that the curatorial organization of Fragments, Kept Alive Within Us, and Life Between Islands positions the artworks in relation to a diasporic perspective, specifically as a result of the exhibitions’ temporal framing. Time and temporality denote underexamined areas of diasporic and Caribbean (diasporic) art history, even though time and temporality intertwine with all facets and determinates of cultural identity. For diasporic individuals, this relationship to time is doubly mediated due to what I identify as a “diasporic temporality,” which results from the interpolation of two incommensurable cultural time-spaces—that of the host land and that of the homeland. In this way, diaspora may be characterized as a spatial and temporal condition. By recognizing diaspora as a temporal and spatial condition, (characterized by the experience of “dwelling-in-dischronotopicality”), I underscore the complexity of diasporic experience and the necessity of a pluri-temporal approach to holistically assessing diasporic art. Later, I also examine the implications and limitations of positioning non-diasporic art under a diasporic temporality
Bodies of Empathy: A Data-Driven Approach to Fashion Design
Full text linkBodies of Empathy aims to explore the role of fashion design and wearable technology in data physicalization for enhancing empathy. By mapping data into the physical form of garments, this research attempts to bring data back to the physical world and make it relatable to the people from whom it has been collected. Data can be too complex for non-experts to understand. It is necessary for information designers to find new and engaging ways to communicate the insights from this data to everyday people so they can be empowered to understand and act on it for the betterment of society. The field of fashion design, which considers garments/clothing as an extension of the body, can give insight into how designers can leverage on the affordances of garments in the communication of complex information. Wearable technology garments have the power to extend our embodied senses, enhancing our understanding of data and inspiring empathy. Through engaging in an alternative fashion design process, devised from combining research through design, data visualization and soma design methods, the project maps African Immigrant data onto garments. These data-based garments created are aimed at inspiring empathy in wearers to improve emotional connectedness
Embracing the Inexplicable - Exploring Human Attachment to AI within the Haunting Ambience of Brutalism
Full text linkBrutalism has evolved from its humble origins—an 20th-century offshoot of late modern/postmodern architectural styles—into a distinct paradigm for a new generation grappling with climate change, global conflict, and an uncertain future that potentially threatens all forms of life on Earth. This illusion and fear both haunt and fascinate us. The material presence of Brutalism has sparked speculation and misinterpretation.
This thesis examines the materiality of Brutalism through a series of digitally processed photographs that present altered fragments of images, reassembled into a narrative that examines dreams as a backdrop for collective imagination and the collective unconscious. The central research question posits brutalist architecture as an emotional ark: can it effectively address individual fears and nightmares while fulfilling certain desires? As a relic of the last century, what is its allure today? This thesis draws on Freud’s concept of the uncanny and integrates notions such as the supernatural nature of power and ontological errors.
It begins with traditional documentary photography and confronts it with the untapped potential of innovative technologies like artificial intelligence. This creates a discourse in the ambiguous zone between the originality of art and the authenticity of images. The montage narrative approach not only reveals how brutalism serves as a utopian refuge for human desires but also suggests that what we see and hear may not always be true, let alone our own subjective and unique fantasies
Design Affordances and User Perception: Investigating the Relationship Between Space Design and Pedagogical Possibility in an Innovative Learning Environment
Full text linkThis major research project explores how teachers and school leaders at Branksome Hall,
an all-girls International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada perceive
the affordances (potential uses) of a new Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) under
construction. This study adopted a social constructivist approach. First, primary research
involving virtual reality (VR) walkthroughs identified the spatial features participants perceived
as supporting their current and future teaching practices. Following this research, a teacher
workshop built upon these features, exploring how well they aligned with the stated aims
of the building. Abductive thematic coding was applied to the data according to the themes
presented in Frelin and Grannäs’ (2022) TEALE model—two additional themes were also
uncovered that fall outside of this framework. The findings aim to guide the transition to utilizing
the iCAST effectively through the creation of spatial profiles for each space under study. Each
profile provides a dynamic resource for teachers that can be used to empower an exploration
of the impact of space on pedagogy and to inspire the development of innovative practices.
Seven insights were developed based on the analysis of primary data and secondary research.
These insights were used to guide the development of five key practice implications for Branksome
Hall’s next steps, which involve cross-team collaboration, revisiting the building’s aims, engaging in
futures workshops, and intentionally developing teachers’ spatial literacy and professional learning.
This project highlights the evolving nature of educational purpose and how educators’ perceptions
of space are influenced by their core educational philosophies. Interestingly, the affordances
perceived outside of the TEALE model align more closely with the European concept of “Bildung”
and a more participatory approach to 21st-century learning
Maybe We’re Creative: What I Learned about Co-creation in Design by Dancing with My Dad
Full text linkIn the realm of creativity, the challenge of collaboration without sacrificing individual integrity remains significant, with some individuals and groups historically compromising more than others. This study investigates whether co-design practitioners can derive valuable insights from creative processes, such as dance, to enhance efforts. This autoethnographic research is written from the ‘I’ perspective, chronicling the making of a documentary using interviews, dance classes, personal journals and reflections from the researcher and her dad, a main participant. It explores the research process as a site for healing and embodied learning. This study explores influences on creative practices, extending choreographer Twyla Tharp’s insights on lived experience and expression into a conceptual systems model for reflection on evolving dynamics affecting the self in relation to others.
The study advocates for broader recognition of reflective, embodied practices alongside community engagement as pivotal in design and especially in co-design work
Connecting Threads: A Look at Contemporary Craft Artists
Full text linkTextile-based craft has historically been considered women’s work and has had strong ties with ideas of femininity and traditional gender roles. Artists have interacted with these associations in a variety of ways from using them in political protest for women’s rights, to works challenging social norms and beyond. Connecting Threads explores the ways in which contemporary craft intersects with modern ideas and discourses of feminism and queerness; how contemporaries are using craft to explore these ideas if at all. This project examines this through the lens of three exhibiting artists and their work, placing them amongst other contemporary craft exhibitions and the historical backgrounds of feminist and queer art
Thinking Beyond the Hand
Full text linkThis thesis probes the interconnections between humans and material culture. Drawing from the areas of anthropology and philosophy, it searches for reasons to make in a complicated world over-saturated with stuff. With a process of practice-led research and a critical framework of thinking through making, this research investigates the interactions which occur between mind, body and materials when making an object from beginning to end, including the tools. Through working with green wood in a long-winded and low-tech way, I engage in a process that makes no sense to the economic systems we live within. This approach questions whether making can function as a way of living in the world that generates and sustains hope and provides a point of relation with other beings. The point of this project is not the finished objects or the acquisition of skills. Although these have a worth of their own, the significance is in the combining of the conceptual and the practical to bring new understandings to the urgency of making for the human conditio
Robot and You
Full text linkAs robots become more advanced and more integrated into today's societies, it has become more important than ever to research these increased interactions and understand them. It is here that games can be useful, for their unique ability to build relationships between players. Likewise, games have also been used to push new technologies, like chess playing robots being used to push Artificial intelligence. With that said, this thesis will explore new forms of interactions between humans and robots, through the medium of games, building upon the existing technology to better understand and even establish human robot relationships. The project portion of this thesis utilized iterative design and game design to create robots that can play games with humans. These games include Tag, as well as a custom game called Robo Chicken
Emotions - A personal narrative of dyslexic adult
Full text linkMy research project focuses on creating an interactive and accessible web experience consisting of personal stories of a dyslexic adult with late detection.
I share emotional and informational aspects of my personal stories about discovering being dyslexic as an adult and other aspects of dyslexia in an engaging manner for the audience. Through my research, I share my learnings, retrospections, and observations in the form of stories and provide a repository of valuable existing resources (videos, podcasts, books, and articles) to understand better the emotional and behavioural characteristics of a dyslexic adult. The inclusive design approach ensures an adaptive ecosystem, embracing diversity and differences and creating an accessible experience. The interactive documentary, narrative, and information visualisation layers represent personal data in a storytelling format.
Using the autoethnography method, I understand my relationship with dyslexia and its implications for me. The insights gained from the self-reflections and observations are visualised in an informative and interactive manner to share with the dyslexia community. The design research method helped structure the research process to create an efficient and practical design.
Using the iterative design process, I created an interactive web and mobile experience, which is a culmination of my own audio stories, multiple dyslexia-specific resources, and an inclusive format of customization elements to enable accessible viewing for other dyslexic viewers from the community.
The main element of the project is to tell an audio-visual story that is relatable and provides an ability to enable people from the community to connect through my content. Through this project, I try to generate valuable takeaways for the dyslexia community or individuals after engaging with the interactive web experience and allowing them to help themselves better