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Stories of Rivers and Gold: Counter-Archives of a Guyanese Transnational Identity
Get PDFThis thesis positions Guyana as the subject of analysis and takes the inquiries, possibilities, and outcomes through the work of three contemporary artists of the Guyanese diaspora: Christie Neptune, Farihah Aliyah Shah, and Sandra Brewster. What constitutes an archive for the post- and de-colonial persons? For those who seek to reconstitute personal identities, navigate fragmentation, and include the land, family, memory, and stories, how are they meant to preserve, organise, and archive them for the future? How do we synthesise the existence of colonial archives, their inevitable status as a means to primarily hold power and collect information but also, all that they may exclude or lack? How can archives be reconstituted, with powers of preservation put in the hands of the oppressed, to uncover forgotten histories and forge new futures? What can that archive look like?
Through selected critical analysis of artworks and conversations with artists, woven with storytelling and explored further through the theoretical lenses of Black and Caribbean and arts-based scholars, this thesis forms a publication that explores the practices of these artists as a new means of capturing what the archive could look like: a counter-archive. Counter-archiving is decolonial praxis: to look beyond the white and Eurocentric colonist powers-that be and their formulation, stakes, and narratives that have been central in archival practices. Counter-archives are stories, photographs, family archives, and new media, amongst other practices; it is exercising presence of or resistance to the gaps in history by actively exploring or interpreting them; it is both a concrete space for holding material and a metaphysical space for holding memory and absence. It goes beyond mere collection and preservation and instead considers alternative modes of production, cultivation, and holding as means that we use to connect to the past and legitimise presence. The post- and de-colonial archive, through counter-archiving, is one in which the past, present, and future are intertwined to critically inform one another. This thesis and publication are a space for critical fabulation, speculation, poetics, storytelling, and relationality.
Keywords: archives, counter-archives, post-colonial, de-colonial, publication, guyana, caribbean, diaspora, identity, memory, fragmentation, storytelling, interview, conversation, critical review
Diasporic Spidering, Counter-Archiving, and Collective Memory
Get PDFDiasporic Spidering, Counter-Archiving, and Collective Memory is an experimental exhibition that aims to foster community through interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration and uncover a process of critical curatorial practice. This exhibition displays select videos from Rhodnie Désir’s BOW’T TRAIL and features a commissioned sculptural installation by Alberto Castillo titled Silk Strands, Silk Traces. Travelling across the Americas to experience the ports and portals of ancestral memory that exist within the aftermath of Transatlantic Slave Trade, Désir’s BOW’T TRAIL offers a poignant yet poetic entry into the histories of migrants who left voluntarily and involuntarily. Considering the global map as a web further situates Désir’s choreographic methodology as a ‘diasporic spidering,’ itself. Nadine George-Graves explains that “Diasporic heritage survives despite the odds, and Anansi’s processes of journeying, gathering (wisdom and memory), gaining insight, sharing, and connecting are diasporic spiderings.” Experimental in nature, Diasporic Spidering, Counter-Archiving, and Collective Memory explores my emergent curatorial practice as a ‘diasporic spidering,’ utilizing Desir's choreo-documentary methodology and the creation process of Silk Strands, Silk Traces as research materials. This exhibition uses the gallery space as a site for valuing choreographic methodology as an artistic product as a way of celebrating the multiplicity of Black thought, history, and communities, now
Designing An Instrument Controller to Enhance Cultural learnings in A Music Blended Video Game
Get PDFThis Thesis explores the author's attempts to investigate and design a video game that considers learning about Chinese culture as its primary purpose, while exploring the possibilities of incorporating music and novel and interactive instrument controllers into such a game. The possibility of blending these three elements together to create a special branch of games, and what interesting and thought-provoking ideas might come out of this design process, is what the author wants to explore in this design process. In this paper, we will look at how music and interactive instrument controllers can be integrated into a video game aimed at learning about Chinese culture from the author's attempts to design two prototypes using Unity and Arduino
The Symphonic Passion Chorus: A Case Study in Meaning-Centered Service Design
Get PDFOrganizations that provide services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggle to provide meaningful participation for their constituents. IDD adults experience higher rates of loneliness and isolation than the general population—a situation that the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated. However, in contrast to these difficulties and trends, the Symphonic Passion Chorus, a musical choir for adults with IDD in Toronto, has supported song learning and socialization for its members for the past 19 years.
Incredibly, despite challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the choir maintained a stable membership supported by a resilient community, even overcoming Information and Communication Technology (ICT) barriers through home-grown and community-generated workarounds.
To better understand factors that contribute to the choir's longevity, resiliency, and ability to overcome barriers, we employed a qualitative research design consisting of semi-structured interviews, field observations, and thematic analysis, revealing how the choir can be understood as an intrinsically meaningful (rewarding for its own sake) coordinative art form that draws members together, thus fostering cohesion: E.g., members described being motivated by opportunities for creative expression and shared purposes, which inspired them to self-organize to develop ICT-based adaptations and workarounds in response to pandemic-related challenges to maintain connections to each other and the intrinsic rewards of the choir.
Our findings suggest that the choir's self-regulating feedback loops are akin to a complex adaptive system, which can provide insights for improving adaptable and resilient supports for the adult IDD population.
Informed by these findings, we offer recommendations for 1. Meaning-Centered Design (MCD), which we conceptualize as integrating intrinsically meaningful activities with the core service activities of an organization; 2. Embedding participatory research into organizational activities to reveal emergent community-driven innovation that supports organizational aims that fall outside of official organizational mandates.
Our findings, MCD conceptual model and recommendations serve as a framework for developing inclusive, resilient, and adaptive services that enhance the well-being of individuals and communities
Exploring the Future at the Edge of Chaos A transformation of Jackpine using strategic foresight
Get PDFThis study examines the application and transformational impact of strategic foresight on a small business, specifically examining Jackpine, a design and strategy firm.
The research was motivated by a desire to enhance Jackpine’s business model and operational resilience through structured foresight integration. The investigation involved a series of workshops and the implementation of the Foresight Maturity Model (FMM), assessing changes in foresight capacity over time (Grim, 2009).
Initial results indicate that Jackpine experienced a significant enhancement in foresight capabilities, with an average improvement of approximately 32% across various foresight disciplines. This improvement was particularly notable in visioning, planning, and scanning, where efforts shifted from ad hoc to mature levels of foresight execution.
The study utilized participatory methods, engaging both internal team members and clients in foresight exercises, which facilitated practical applications and insights. The findings underscore the utility of strategic foresight in fostering a proactive, rather than reactive, organizational culture (Conway, 2019). This aligns with Stuart Kauffman’s "edge of chaos" theory, which posits that the most innovative and adaptive states occur at the boundary between order and chaos (Kauffman, 1993).
By situating Jackpine at this juncture, the firm has cultivated an environment where strategic foresight drives innovation and adaptability.
This research contributes to the understanding of how small businesses can effectively implement and benefit from foresight practices, providing a model for others in the industry. Future work could explore the long-term impacts of sustained foresight practices on business resilience and innovation capacity
Why have there been no great women eroticists?
Get PDFThis thesis project seeks to explore the erotic image-making of (queer) women and femmes as a means of challenging current established understandings of sexual desire and cisheteropatriarchal sexual scripting. Drawing on bell hooks’ concept of the oppositional gaze and Audre Lorde’s theory on the erotic as power, I suggest ways of seeing these works as proclamations of power and potential roadmaps towards queer eutopic futures. Also, in order to create these worlds which are wholly divested from institutions which champion power imbalances, I probe further and suggest a framework for liberating desire from these institutions
Over the Event Horizon: Denyse Thomasos, Black Abstraction, and Diasporic Spacetime
Get PDFDespite her successful career, the late Trinidadian-Canadian painter Denyse Thomasos remains sorely underdiscussed in academic literature. To rectify this fap, this paper takes a comprehensive close reading of Thomasos' monumental abstractions of the city, the prison, and the slave ship, as well as a mysterious series of untitled final works. Drawing on physics, Black Canadian literature, decolonial poetics, and spatial theory, I posit that Thomasos' abstractions are intensely affective because they wield space and time as aesthetic and conceptual means of articulating an inarticulable experience of being Black in Canada. In doing so, I conceptualize twin theories of "state spacetime" and "diasporic spacetime" as broader analytical frameworks for reading Black diasporic artistic production as a gravity-bending force within the capitalist, white supremacist rhythms of the state
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Graphic Design: Identifying Benefits, Challenges, and Ethical Considerations
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved at an accelerated rate over a short period of time. Its influence is already evident in graphic design practices, driven by its capabilities to automate and streamline various design activities and practices. This ranges from creating visual content, generating complex and realistic images and graphics, to editing images, transforming design aesthetics, and inspiring design concepts. As technology continues to advance, AI has the potential to have more significant influence which raises ethical concerns and challenges that need to be addressed. These include intellectual property issues, data bias, job displacement, privacy threats, and issues with transparency of source and influence.
This research project will explore the perceptions of incorporating AI into graphic design processes. Through a contextual review, a series of interviews with graphic design professionals, and an analysis of current AI applications and tools, the study will highlight potential benefits, challenges, and ethical considerations surrounding the integration of AI in graphic design. The aim of this investigation is to help graphic design professionals make informed decisions regarding the use of AI in their work, and shed light on the changing graphic design landscape and the implications it will face due to the integration of AI
Quiet Interaction: Designing an Accessible Home Environment for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Individuals through AR, AI, and IoT Technologies
Get PDFAs technology rapidly evolves, voice-command-based smart assistants are becoming integral to our daily lives. However, this advancement overlooks the needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community, creating a technological gap in current systems. To address this technological oversight, this study develops a Mixed-Reality (MR) application that integrates Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to fill the gaps in safety, communication, and accessibility for DHH individuals at home. By employing the User-Centric design methodology, this study begins with a needs assessment through a literature review and online survey to understand the unique challenges and preferences of the DHH community. The key contribution of this study lies in its innovative integration of technologies within a Mixed-Reality (MR) framework, with the goal of creating a more inclusive and accessible home environment for the DHH community
Slaying Fiction / Disruption and transgression in Queered Game Identities
Get PDFGames have an incredible potential for embodiment and connecting with players by offering interactively staged play possibilities. Games enable the development and portrayal of individuals and their stories by immersing players actively in assuming roles while facing in-game actions and their consequences. While games that display the complex nuances of queerness populate the independent and personal game scenes, most games in the AAA scene neglect or shallowly represent queer characters, their stories, and identities. The thesis research draws from games as case studies, queer theory, queer game theory and autoethnography, exploring how biographical narratives can be built into digital games to express queer identities. A game prototype showcased at an exhibition illustrates the research, The Spy. Designed as a visual novel game, it uses autoethnography to inspire its story settings and themes, building on aspects of my identity and past to (re)create a storytelling graphical adventure game. I iterate theory and praxis via research-through-design, elucidating guidelines that support existing narrative tools, implemented in my game. The game illustrates themes of transgression, disruption, oppression, and liberation in queered self-identities intertwined to processes of disclosure. This thesis aims to provide a body of research and guidelines that allows game makers of all levels ethical and meaningful approaches to depicting queer identities in games, along a freely published game on itch.io that coalesces theory, findings, and my personal story