MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Soliton Solution for the Korteweg-de Vries Equation
No full textKorteweg de Vries (KdV) model is considered quintessential in modeling the surface gravity water waves in shallow water. In this project, we are interested in starting from the Elliptic Jacobian Functions, and performing a complete analysis of these functions to discover that one can recover the soliton in the particular case, when m approaches 1, wherem is a parameter between 0 and 1 in the definition of the Elliptic Jacobian Functions.
This analysis will provide us with an understanding of cnoidal periodic waves and how, through them, we can derive the soliton solution. Finally, this project grants readers a deeper understanding of the origin of solitons and their applications in water wave theory
Album design process
No full textIn my typography 2 class, we were tasked to design an album for the band, Up and Over Trio. Each student had different ideas and interpretations for the album design, and I want to showcase mine.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
The Pedestrian: A Visual Exploration of Tone and Imagery
No full textWords that emphasize the theme and mood are highlighted in purple, italicized, and bolded, so they stand out to the reader at first glance to give an idea of what the story is about without reading it. In contrast, on the right side, words that portray feelings of fear, anxiety, and the symbolization of his dystopian society are highlighted in red. Behind specific keywords in red, there is an echo of them in distressed typography to exemplify how Leonard feels hearing them and emphasize their importance to the tone and theme. The title is tracked out and has its baseline adjusted to symbolize Leonard’s walk and the story’s abrupt turn. Purple footprints lie under the text to act as imagery describing the footsteps he leaves. They connect to the title to make it appear like it has turned into footsteps, emphasizing his walk’s central part of the story. The overlay of a purple to red gradient symbolizes the shift in tone from Leonard’s calm, lonesome walk to his fearful encounter with the police car. A different typeface is used when the police car speaks to separate the two speakers in the text visually. It is also more prominent than the body text to demonstrate the police’s power over Leonard and their stronger voice. A fourth treatment is applied to specific words when Leonard speaks. It minimizes the text size and tracks the text out to portray the sound of his voice like a distant whisper.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Visual Storytelling Through Expressive Typography
No full textThe short story “House Taken Over”, by Julio Cortázar is about two siblings living in a big ancestral home together. Throughout the story, something not specified is gradually taking over parts of the house, leaving the siblings with less and less space. By the end, the entire house is taken over, and the siblings have been kicked out of their home. In the story, the siblings have plenty of comfortable space and by the end, are constricted to a small area where it is crowded and uneasy for the two of them. This layout resembles the story by beginning with space between each line and ending very close together, almost overlapping. Dialogue is differentiated by being very spaced out, representing the attempt to hold their place in their home. An illustration of a door depicts every section of the house closed off, leaving less space to live.
The typeface Kefa was chosen to create dense text, which is ideal for this layout. Minimal color keeps the layout clean and legible. Purple and red highlight the contrast between the pleasant as well as the troubling experiences in the house. Decreasing point size, tighter kerning, and tracking is used to achieve the look and feel of the crowded text. Gradually increasing the column length takes over the entire page by the end, representing the house being taken over.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Breaking the Grid to Visually Enhance Literature
No full textThe grid is a tool that designers use in layout design to create balanced visually appealing designs. This project challenged students to explore breaking away from the grid to visually enhance an assigned short story. Through literary analysis, sketch, and peer critique this project seeks to develop a system to break out of the grid in a deliberate and logical way. Following the themes of ejection, and the vivid imagery surrounding the layout of the house, this story uses a blueprint as its grid. The story sits comfortably in the house in two equal columns until it is suddenly interrupted. “I heard it at the end of the passage” pulls the reader away from the grid as it sits outside of the col- umn that had been set before. These larger texts continue to interrupt the grid and Take Over our reading experience on the next page. Everything that happens after the house begins to take over happens on the right side of the page and, due to the higher volume of text, feels more cramped, just as Irene and her brother do. The house continues to interrupt the text and breaks up both columns. The columns are different widths on this page, the wider column represents the long slow days as the pair of siblings struggle to find things to do with their days, while the thinner column represents the speed at which the house finally succeeds at ejecting them from their own home.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Up and Over - A Vision of Perseverance
No full textThe hot air balloon is a vision of perseverance, strength, and freedom. Combined with the sunrise\u27s mystery of what a new day might bring, this album package compels the viewer to think and wonder, just as the music of the Up and Over Trio desires to incite thoughtful introspection. The name Up and Over has grown to represent the Trio’s resilience through the challenges of freelance and side jobs, finally coming together to create their first album. The sunrise indicates this new beginning, while the hot air balloon serves as a visual representation of rising up and over. Across the package, images of balloons drifting across a muted sunrise lend themselves to a compelling experience of deliverance and tenacity. The progress to a sky of blue, so as the viewer opens the package, they are guided from the bright orange sunrise on the cover to a soft morning glow that follows soon after. The record’s centre labels bring the viewer to the cornerstone of their journey: when they look up during their ride through the clouds and the rising sun to behold the very thing controlling their rise and fall — a flap at the top of the balloon that releases hot air. This little hole dictating rise and fall is controlled by a simple cord within the pilot’s grasp. On a journey through the hardships and challenges of life, everyone stands at the helm of their ship with the power to fall down or rise up and over.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
DESN 315 Visual Narrative and Storytelling: Project 3 Stories from the future
No full textA 9-Part series of illustrations that depicts the future in 2050.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Adolfo Rui
Stronger Than Fiction: Examining the Appeal of Fictional Characters in Parasocial Relationships
No full textParasocial relationships have become a popular topic of discourse throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when people are expected to keep a distance from each other. First coined by Donald Horton & Richard Wohl, parasocial interaction, unlike face-to-face interaction, is a one-sided perception of face-to-face interaction between an audience and a persona in a piece of media (Gregg & Schippia, 2017, p. 2). One particular parasocial relationship that has gained prominence in recent years is the parasocial relationships that individuals have with fictional characters, such as those in books, movies, television shows, and video games. According to Allen (2017), there are three major responses to parasocial interactions: 1) attractiveness or likeability, 2) perceived similarity, and 3) perceived realism. The researcher of this study aims to evaluate the most influential traits of a fictional character\u27s appeal in parasocial relationships by conducting a survey and interviewing interested candidates over the age of 18. This study seeks out a sample of individuals 18 and older by posting a survey to a Facebook group dedicated to anime and manga communities and then reach out to the respondents interested in being interviewed. The interviews will then aim to understand how the participants perceive their parasocial relationships with their favourite fictional character and the most appealing traits of these fictional characters.
Department: Communication
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lucille Maz
Cinematic Horrors of The American Body Under Capitalism
No full textI’ll be presenting my English Honours thesis which examines how horrific representations of the human body on screen and in film reflect a connection between identity formation and periods of economic development in 20th and 21st century America.
Department: English
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Joshua Toth and Mike Perscho
Tarrying with Trauma While Improvising Gender in Who Do You Think You Are?
No full textAlice Munro’s 1978 collection of linked stories, Who Do You Think You Are? enacts what Lorraine York calls Munro’s theory of fiction as “tarrying with difficult emotions and knowledges.” Judith Butler’s seminal 1988 theory of gender performativity postulated that improvising gender incurs obvious and covert social punishments, but that performing gender includes the possibility of innovation. Rose, the protagonist, succumbs to and contests norms imposed on women in the southwestern Ontario township of Huron County during the 1940s to 1970s. This thesis explores Rose surviving punitive social conventions in her cultural context which are contiguous with trauma. For Rose, failure to conform is what Jack Halberstam defines as “queer failure”: it is a triumph of personal authenticity over gender essentialism and an acceptance of human imperfection. In the journey towards self-knowledge, Rose’s surviving trauma and defying gender scripts cause the “sticky affects” of shame and humiliation identified by Amelia DeFalco; the feeling that women are not afforded hope; and, in stressful situations, emotional dissociation and emotional economies, as identified by DeFalco and York. Rose’s marriage fails because of a sadomasochistic power struggle. Rose tarries with disconnection from others and from self; however, she innovates gender and subverts the intergenerational cycle of victim- victimizer by achieving a sense of community and strengthening personal authenticity, which Margaret Atwood says is, for “Munro’s women,” “an essential element, like air.”
Department: English
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Jack Robinson and Dr. Svitlana Kry