MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Teaching every body: A critical analysis of school programming on body image
No full textBody dissatisfaction in children grows into harmful practices as they age. Schools provide education and programming to promote body satisfaction and positive body image in adolescents, but these teachings can be improved. This paper analyzes educational stakeholders’ services on body image through a critical lens while suggesting solutions to improve lessons, courses, and programming. Through braiding internal lessons with external programs, schools can fight against the potential risks of negative body image on adolescents. The literature review highlights the need for early education on body image and the importance of caregiver intervention. A critical review of the teacher and student dynamic introduces the opportunity that teachers as caregivers have to promote positive body image. Next, this paper discusses external intervention programs and the effectiveness of gender-specific programming while remaining critical of a lack of male-focused programs. This paper then discusses how teachers have more opportunities to hold open discussions for students to learn and share. Lastly, this paper describes how physical education classes can be modified to promote feelings of attractiveness and positivity while correcting misconceptions regarding exercising and gender. These changes to school programming will promote positive body image in students and open up classroom conversations
Art and Archaeology: Understanding Drawing within Archaeological Contexts
No full textObservational skills provide the foundation for many archaeological techniques. In particular, drawing skills were once seen as critical in archaeology and so they were taught frequently within archaeology classes. Drawing can take a variety of forms, from using a pencil and paper to heavy duty drawing tablets used for animation; however, no matter the materials used to draw and sketch, observing is critical for producing an accurate drawing. The widespread use and adoption of digital photography and image-making has resulted in a decline in the use of drawing within archaeology, and such skills are now only briefly considered in archaeological teaching as practical and worthwhile endeavours. The analytical importance of drawing within archaeology is not usually considered beyond its role in providing visual representations for readers of archaeological reports or through its informal use by researchers in the field. This paper considers the role drawing can have within archaeology and suggests that drawing can and should be used as a tool to aid in critical observation. Two main sources of data were collected for this study: a collection of interviews with specialists (archaeologists, artists, etc.); and an experiment involving eight individuals to test whether critical observation skills were improved if individuals are provided instruction in basic drawing techniques. The results of this study suggest that drawing can be a useful mode of observation that generates data for archaeological interpretation rather than simply being a means of representing data.
Department: Anthropology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hugh McKenzie
 
Typographic Interpretation of “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
No full text“The Pedestrian” is the short story by Ray Bradbury about a night in the life of Leonard Mead. Set in a dystopian 2053, Mead is walking alone through his neighbourhood when he is confronted by a police car. After struggling to understand his reasoning behind going for a walk, the police car arrests Mead, explaining that he is being sent to a psychiatric facility. This final design is playing off of the intrusive nature of the car’s speech. It is very aggressive in its tone as compared to Mead’s soft descriptive nature. When approaching this project, it was apparent that the car’s dialogue must be all-caps and sans-serif. On the other hand, Mead is a writer by profession, being very descriptive and poetic in his narration, calling for a soft serif with plenty of rags, creating fluid shapes. The two types of dialogue are very different to represent the difference between human nature and that of a robotic car. The car is not engaged in the conversation, shown by being right-aligned, as if they were two separate monologues. The small caps within the body text represent the cold nature of the scene the reader is placed in.
The Background imagery is an abstract rendering of headlights to show that car’s presence. The car’s speech changes in value depending on its volume, getting dark the softer its tone is.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Visual Exploration of the Theme of Copies in Ray Bradbury’s Marionettes, Inc.
No full textThis experimental layout project includes the second half of the short story Marionettes, Inc. by Ray Bradbury, about two friends, Smith and Braling, who have issues with their marriages. To escape his manipulative wife and live out his dream of going to Rio, Braling purchases a Marionette, a perfect replica of himself. Eventually, the Marionette develops feelings for his wife and locks Braling in a toolbox to take over his identity. The bird’s eye design for this story is that the left side of the spread reads typically, but the right side reflects the text on the left. The background on the right uses a photocopied paper background, signaling the theme of copies, which is vital in the story. The layout employs a two column grid, except for the repeated word ‘tick’ which is dynamic to foreshadow liveliness on behalf of the Marionette. Another clue is the story’s last line when Braling’s Marionette takes over his identity. The final dialogue is from ‘someone,’ and it is left ambiguous so the reader can infer the switch in identity. To clarify this, the words ‘someone said’ are the only two words reflected the opposite way. The text on the right is a fleshy pink colour to symbolize humanity. The reflected side is black and white to represent the technological nature of the Marionette, except the words ‘someone said,’ which are also in pink. The final conversation utilizes type variations to show the change in dominance and tone throughout the discussion.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Unspeakable: A Game Adaptation of MacEwan\u27s Book of the Year Design Series "How to Pronounce Knife"
No full textLanguage has a significant part in the book How To Pronounce Knife. Many of the characters from the book encounter challenges in their everyday lives that have to do with language but still embrace who they are, and they don’t try to be what societal norms are. This ideal and raw characteristic of the characters from the books is what inspired this card game. Unspeakable is a card game that challenges players to guess words and phrases based on the book how to pronounce knife. It is perfect for people who read the book. The game involves acting phrases or words from the book provided by the other team. The objective is to have your team guess the answer without talking and using gestures alone. The game is easy to play anywhere, requires less preparation but needs a lot of imagination. It is created to learn how to communicate with others without using a single word and get rid of language barriers, just like how the characters in the book show so many ways to communicate, not just by language but also through gestures and connections. The packaging design reflects the lightness of the short stories and how ferocious the characters are. Vibrant colours are used to demonstrate the character’s rich experiences and to break how society describes immigrants’ lives as sad and tragic. The primary colours are red, white, and yellow to unify it with the book still. The unique, minimalistic, and joyful shapes mirror the book’s artful blend of simplicity and sophistication. The wordmark logo represents fold pages to indicate how the game is based on a compilation of short stories. There are 100 cards with words or phrases from the book, a sand timer, a score- pad, and a game guide inside the box. The cards are also colourful to keep the dynamic feeling from the packaging to the inside. The words are bolded and have a page number beneath so the players can still reference where the word or phrase came from in the book. Overall, the design makes the packaging dynamic and whimsical, which associates with the book’s general feel.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Parasocial Relationships and its 65 years of Evolution: Reevaluating the Accepted Definition
No full textThis research is to define and comprehend the primary effects of parasocial relationships with the aim of raising the discourse through a grounded theory approach. The research will explore different online platforms that may result in the manifestation of parasocial relationships: Twitch, YouTube, and Reddit. This research will focus on the users of the online platforms (not the creators). The research data gathering method will include multiple distributions of the same survey, interviews with users from the platforms, focus groups, and analyze existing data on parasocial relationships within the platforms. The goal is for the researchers\u27 grounded theory to be supported by the collected data. This research will also explore how parasocial relationships have evolved historically; Such as, before the internet: how individuals formed parasocial relationships through the radio, through writing letters, through television, etc. This research is being conducted to critically evaluate the previous research that has been done on parasocial relationships and combine it with our current research to create a grounded theory and add to the discourse regarding parasocial relationships. This research also intends to define parasocial relationships and their effect on individuals.
Department: Communication
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lucille Maz
Designing a low-cost, open-source, 3D interior space scanner
No full textThis project designed an open-source, low-cost 3D interior space scanner. The purpose of this design was to aid in making 3D scanning technology more accessible to a wider range of users. Two range-finding technologies, LIDAR and ultrasound were investigated during the design process. Several key metrics were used in the evaluation of the design: total cost below $500 CAD, accuracy of scans within 2 cm of real dimensions, simplicity of use and assembly for non- technical users, reliable supply chain for components, scan times, as well as open-source compliant hardware and software. The design was determined to be successful by these metrics. All software and hardware sources have been released online for free public access.
Department: Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Philip Mees and Dr. Jeffrey Davi
I Woof You: How Pet Pictures Influence Online Dating Selection
No full textOwning and living with pets has been shown to have many benefits, including improved psychological well-being, increased physical activity, and better social functioning. With respect to social functioning, pets have been hypothesized to act as a “social lubricant” by facilitating social interactions. In support of this hypothesis, dogs have been shown to have a significant impact on adult courtship behaviour. . Research in this area has mostly looked at heterosexual daters, with the majority of the studies not accounting for the role of sexual orientation.
The present research aims to use mock online-dating profiles (e.g., Tinder) to experimentally evaluate how a) the presence of a dog in a dating profile may impact partner selection and ratings of their personal attributes, b) how the characteristics of the dogs presented in dating profiles may impact partner selection, and c) whether a respondent’s sexual orientation and dating platform will interact with the above factors when selecting a potential partner. It is hypothesized that having the dog present will lead to higher successful matches than when the dog is absent for both heterosexual and LGBTQIA2S+ participants. In addition, it is hypothesized that profiles accompanied by family dogs (e.g., Labrador) will lead to more success in dating matches than “aggressive” breeds (e.g., Rottweiler).
Findings from this study will help expand our current knowledge about the benefits of owning pets in facilitating social interactions. Moreover, we will also extend our understanding of dating selection behaviours outside of the heteronormative context.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Legg
Sensitivity in Face Perception with Masked Stimuli
No full textThe use of face masks during the pandemic has been common in nearly all public interactions. Along with being a protective barrier against the virus, masks also act as a visual barrier that blocks the reception of critical social information. A recent study conducted by Freud et al. (2020) examined the effect of masks on facial recognition. They found that recognizability of masked faces was markedly lower regardless of whether the face was masked during memorization or recollection. Masks were found to inhibit recognizability akin to an inverted face. Face inversion is known to disrupt holistic processing, inhibiting face recognition. The decrease in recognizability of masked faces indicates that masks could disrupt holistic processing. This study examined if masked faces are more recognizable when they are moving (dynamic). Participants were presented with 10 masked or unmasked faces for memorization. The faces were either static or dynamic, which was counterbalanced across participants. The recognition test included 10 old and 10 new faces and participants made forced-choice “old/new” judgements. We hypothesized that dynamic faces would significantly improve the recognition of masked faces, more so than unmasked faces. This would suggest that moving faces could improve holistic processing by affording more visual information to the perceiver about the occluded face (dynamic masked faces could convey concealed facial dimensions).
Preliminary data confirms that recognition of dynamic masked faces was faster and more accurate than static masked faces, allowing for the guarded conclusion that motion is an element used to encode and recognize faces.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle Jaric