MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Design Activism: : Public Intervention to Raise Awareness of White Supremacy
No full textThis project was developed for the course Design Studio III (DESN310) in Fall 2020. It is an imagined public intervention that exposes white supremacy as a hateful and discriminatory ideology, with the goal of educating and raising public awareness of this issue. This idea aligns with the concept of "paradox of tolerance," which stands for limiting intolerant ideologies to preserve society and tolerance itself. The project took inspiration from a white supremacy demonstration in an Edmonton parking lot in September 2020. Although no crimes were reported in that event, if one looks at this demonstration from a semiotic perspective, one understands that it represents oppressiveness and violence against specific communities in our society. This work\u27s concept bases itself on the argument that white supremacist ideology is oppressive. Therefore, it uses crime scene investigation elements to represent the idea of semiotic violence against segments of the Canadian population, and it mimics white supremacist guerilla strategies of repurposing urban spaces to spread their ideology. The project targets a broad audience, showing the urgency of the situation and how threatening this demonstration is for minority groups in Canada, the BIPOC population, and immigrants, who deserve reassurance that they are welcomed and protected in this society.
Department: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Wayne William
I Would Just Go - MacEwan Book of the Year Design Series
No full textFor this creative project, the goal was to visually communicate a significant theme or emotion within Iain Reid\u27s Foe. The postcards series focuses on the theme of discontent in relationships and recognizes that a person can always honour their right to feel joy.
Department: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
“Tree Rings” (Album Design Competition, Breath & Being Honourable Mention.)
No full textThe design of this album cover evokes a sense of peace, wonder and reflection. This intimate look at the centre of a tree and its rings allows the viewer to reflect and connect with their own natural state of being. This self-reflective and vulnerable state that the viewer feels is just like the tree rings that are featured on the cover, they are hidden from view until we allow ourselves to open up and share with the world. In this album Roya invites her listeners to open up with her and share some intimate moments as they join her on this musical journey and get to know her. The design highlights that the cracks and hardships in our lives make us who we are and helps create and shape our very own state of being. This feeling of calm and connection are enhanced by the colour palette. The soft and light colours leave a sense of joy and comfort and allows the viewer to feel safe and content and will leave them feeling comfortable enough to open up and enjoy the connection and intimacy that comes from the album. Viewers are invited to sit back and enjoy as well as get up and dance as the intimate and deep conversations unfold throughout the album as they become a part of the forest.
Department: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
The Effects of Word Length on Handwriting Perception
No full textHumans are social creatures, and a large part of our communication skills are developed through reading and writing. Unlike typeface, handwriting is unique to each individual writer and can characterize a person. Our brain engages differently when reading and writing handwriting versus typeface. Similar to faces, handwriting is a complex visual stimulus containing multiple dimensions. This study looks at the effects of word length in handwriting perception using traditional psychophysical techniques. Recently, we have developed a set of standardized handwriting stimuli that we can use to investigate whether or not the perceived gender of handwriting depends on the number of letters within a word. Stimuli will be composed of 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 letters and participants will rate the perceived gender of the handwriting. There are two alternative outcomes we expect to find with this study. Handwriting perception may reflect global visual processing (efficient processing) or local visual processing (inefficient processing).
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicole Anderso
A Tale of Tails: The description and potential function of tail-flagging behaviours in Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris)
No full textNot only do animals communicate with one another, but they also demonstrate the use of mixed communication strategies. One such strategy, multimodal communication, involves multiple sensory signals used together to communicate messages. For example, an animal may use visual signals, auditory signals, or a combination of both, to communicate. Although multimodal communication has been observed in many animal species, there is still a surprising lack of data. Many studies focus on either a single aspect of the multimodal signal or on the joint signal alone. However, information about multimodal signals, as well as each component unimodal signal, are needed in order to understand and categorize the purpose of joint messaging. Our study aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating multimodal communication in Eurasian red squirrels. Since Eurasian red squirrels use visual and acoustic vocal signals in both joint and independent contexts, they provide an excellent opportunity to study the specific circumstances in which multimodal communication occurs. Additionally, because there is minimal research on Eurasian red squirrels, this study will provide preliminary investigations into how this endangered species communicates and navigates the world around it.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Shannon Digwee
A Study of Mindset- Rethinking the Structure of Mindset and How Growth Mindset Interventions are Delivered
No full textHaving a growth mindset (i.e., the belief that traits are changeable with effort), is advantageous in many diverse domain-specific areas, such as academic performance, problem solving creativity, and ability to handle stress and anxiety. With such a variety of different domain-specific mindsets, it is reasonable to question whether there is a general quality underlying where one falls on an overall mindset spectrum. This general mindset, or mind mindset, would be the belief that many traits, attributes, and personality characteristics are changeable with effort. In study #1, we aim to determine whether a mind mindset exists. We will use online self-reports of nine different domain-specific mindset measures to determine if there are correlations across measures within participants. If a mind mindset exists, interventions targeting increasing one’s overall growth mind mindset could potentially influence all other domain-specific mindsets. Similarly, we will investigate ways to effectively deliver growth mindset interventions. Actively engaging in material, by applying the information to one’s life or teaching others, improves retention of that material over passively listening to that material being taught. In study #2, we aim to determine whether an active vs. passive growth mindset intervention is more effective for improving exam scores. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) Active intervention, 2) Passive intervention, or 3) Control. If there is a mind mindset mediating where one falls on all mindset spectrums, and active interventions are shown to be more effective, vast improvements in growth mindset intervention efficacy may be made.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michele Moscick
Sensitivity in Face Perception with Masked Faces
No full textCOVID has affected every aspect of our lives. The imposed protocols have drastically restricted the ways we are allowed to interact. When people do have a chance to socialize, the use of surgical masks has become normative. Along with acting as a protective barrier against the virus, surgical masks also act as a visual barrier that blocks the reception of information critical for the formation of our perceptions. A recent study by (Freud, et al., 2020) examined the effect that surgical masks have on face recognizability. This study found that recognizability of masked faces was markedly lower. The decrease in recognizability of masked faces indicates that masks likely disrupt holistic processing. The present study will examine if masked faces are more recognizable when they are moving (dynamic). We hypothesize that dynamic-masked faces will convey cheek, nose and jaw dimensions, giving the perceiver more elements to bind together, or motion itself could be an element that becomes integrated into holistic processing. We are also interested in determining how emotional identification is altered when the face is covered by a mask. In accordance with previous literature, we hypothesize that masks impair the recognition of disgust, happiness, surprise and fear, while increasing the recognition of anger and sadness (Guarnara et al., 2017). Our goal is to leverage the restrictions we are experiencing due to COVID, to prove that human perceptual systems integrate dynamic information to more accurately recognize faces, while also investigating the emotional perceptions of masked interactions.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle Jaric
Examining Pressure Instability in the Troposphere in a Climate Change Scenario
No full textMeteorology is a branch of geophysics concerned with the atmosphere\u27s processes and phenomena and atmospheric effects on our weather. The atmospheric pressure depends on the temperature, and hence, temperature variations cause pressure instability, which directly impacts humans. Earth\u27s climate is severely affected by anthropogenic emissions, which cause an increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We analyzed the effect greenhouse gases have on the atmosphere\u27s pressure by considering the temperature of dry air, the virtual temperature of moist air, and the virtual temperature for CO2-rich air. In this talk, we manipulate a mathematical model describing the variation of atmospheric pressure to altitude for the three temperature scenarios, using partial differential equations. We will also demonstrate how atmospheric pressure instability correlates to climate change. Further, we utilize the model describing the variation of pressure to altitude in the adiabatic system\u27s three temperature scenarios.
Department: Mathematical Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ion Bic
Hierarchy of Consumers
No full textInspired by visual diagrams of ecological pyramids, Hierarchy of Consumers consists of a series of embroidered wall hangings that examine the location and role decomposers play in these visuals. In diagrams of ecological pyramids, decomposers are often depicted as an external entity, separate from the pyramid itself, or are not even present in many versions, despite the importance of decomposition at every level of the pyramid. Through the embroidery, an ecological pyramid is artistically reinterpreted and restructured, showcasing the presence and importance of decomposers in ecosystems by highlighting their role as consumers of all other organisms.
Department: Art and Design
Faculty Mentor: Leslie Sharp
