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Questioning El Fu-Toro: The Misrepresentation and Potential of the Bull as Spain’s National Symbol
No full textOur perceptions of other countries, as foreigners and tourists, are mainly shaped by simplified stereotypes and imagery provided to us through media rather than through reality. The Toro Bravo, also known as the Spanish Fighting Bull, is undoubtedly an iconic image of Spain, but as locals turn their backs on bullfighting due to changing societal values and the cultural oppression experienced under Franco: the question arises of whether the the bull symbol in its current state should continue to represent Spain as a whole. El Pasado y El Fu-Toro is a 6-piece series of digital posters that address the past and future of the bull symbol in Spain
Audiovisual Decadence: Materiality, Collaborative Practice and Aesthetic Subversion in Early Video Art
No full textThis thesis is an investigation of the legitimization and proliferation of video art in the 1970s. The first chapter situates video art as a part of a larger fabric of experimentation occurring in alternative art spaces, mainly the artist-run space The Kitchen. This chapter includes an analysis of Steina and Woody Vasulka\u27s early work. The second chapter analyzes the process of Nam June Paik through the lens of detournement. The third chapter situates video art in dialogue with performance art, arguing that planned obsolescence of early video materials add a dimension to Joan Jonas\u27 work. This thesis investigates how early video art developed by illuminating the founding thematic undercurrents of artistic agency, divergence from commercial media forms, subversive manipulation and interrogation of gesture through performance
The San Francisco Bay Area’s Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise: Integrating Community Engagement and Equity into Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Planning
Get PDFThis thesis examines the San Francisco Bay Area’s vulnerability to sea-level rise (SLR), highlighting the importance of equity and community engagement in adaptation planning. The study integrates geospatial data and qualitative community input using a GIS Story Map to identify Points of Interest (POIs)—such as schools, hospitals, and public transportation routes—and assess SLR vulnerabilities across social, economic, geographic, and contamination dimensions. Case studies, such as the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan, demonstrate the limitations of large-scale policies in accommodating diverse communities and highlight the effectiveness of community-driven strategies. The thesis also explores innovative approaches to community engagement in educational settings and workplaces, highlighting examples like Japan’s business continuity plans and efforts by local universities to connect research and community input to address local challenges. This research integrates data visualization, mapping, and policy analysis to recommend equitable SLR resilience strategies that protect and strengthen Bay Area communities for the future
Personal Grief in Contemporary Shan Shui
No full textWhere Crimson Tears Fall is an exploration of personal grief. Hinging on Chinese brush painting principles of “shan shui” (natural landscape painting, directly translated to ”mountain water”), I explore how this traditional art form can be expanded in terms of color and composition to articulate the intense psychological and emotional experience of personal loss. While this painting aims to represent the essence of my grief as both a numbed pain and a raw, stinging wound, the visual result is an ominous but hauntingly beautiful scene, as if nature sits with you in empathy
Portrayals of Autism on TV and Impact on Autistic Viewers’ Self Esteem
Get PDFPortrayals of autism on TV are frequently rife with negative portrayals and inaccuracies, but also contain positive portrayals (Jones et al., 2023). These inevitably both promote stigma and educate individuals about autistic individuals, and also serve to directly and/or indirectly impact their well being. The current study aims to explore how combinations of positive and negative TV portrayals of autism impact autistic viewers’ self esteem. Participants will be exposed to clips of fictional autistic characters on TV shows, and their self esteem will be assessed with the Self Esteem IAT. It is expected that participants who view higher ratios of positive to negative clips will experience increases in self esteem, while participants who view higher ratios of negative to positive clips will experience the opposite. Participants who view equal amounts of positive and negative portrayals are also expected to experience a slight decrease in self esteem, but less so than participants that view more negative than positive clips. This study aims to add to the literature by presenting a more life-like and realistic combination of positive and negative clips to participants, rather than either one of those in isolation
Examining Retention Differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic Participants in Clinical Trials
No full textThe purpose of this grant will be to study if the reasons why elderly Latinx participants drop out of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) based clinical trials is similar to why young Latinx adults drop out of clinical trials. Young adult Latinx populations have been found to drop out of studies due to structural inequities. Older Latinx populations (age 55\u3e) who participated in an AD related clinical trial in Southern California within the last 5 years will be studied (N = 499). Two groups will be made and will have an equal number of participants in each group (N = 249). One group will be participants who completed an AD clinical trial and the other group will be participants who did not complete an AD clinical trial. These participants will be asked questions relating to why they completed or withdrew from their study, what researchers did well, and how researchers could improve for future studies. They will also be asked demographic questions and asked to answer the PHQ-9 to evaluate if there is a correlation between depression rates and dropping out or completing studies. We will be using quantitative analysis by coding participant responses to compare various reasonings for dropping out and staying within studies. Assuming our P-value is significant, this will showcase that structural inequities are the main reason why elderly Latinx participants drop out of AD related research studies, which is consistent with our hypothesis. Structural inequities were also the same reason why younger Latinx adults dropped out of their studies. Overall our study highlights the need for researchers to be accommodating and culturally sensitive to minority participants as they are more susceptible to structural inequities that may impede on their study retention
Music Speaks: The Impact of Profanity in Music on Listener Aggression
No full textAs media becomes more prominent in our everyday lives, the battle between freedom of expression and censorship has become a highly polarized subject of debate, especially when considering profanity in music. The current study will assess the impact of profanity in music on listeners\u27 aggressive intentions and the potential moderating effect of acceptance of profanity on this relationship. The study will use a two group (music: profane or non-profane) between-groups experimental design where participants will listen to a series of four song clips. Participants will then complete scale measures of music preference, aggression, and acceptance of profanity. It is hypothesized that listening to profane music will increase aggressive intentions for listeners with a low acceptance of profanity. It is also predicted that listening to profane music will have no effect on aggressive intentions or will decrease aggressive intentions for listeners with a high acceptance of profanity. Identifying the effect of profane music on listener aggression can better inform media legislation to increase artist expression, societal well-being, and representation in music
The Black Spectacle and Oppressive Double Binds: What Rap on Trial Reveals about Race, Exploitation, and Criminalization in the Music Industry
Get PDFIn this paper, I investigate the paradox revealed by the Young Thug trial where certain portrayals of Blackness in rap music are simultaneously praised and punished by white institutions. I propose that the theatrics of the Young Thug trial and other instances of rap lyrics used in criminal trials are emblematic of what I call the Black Spectacle. The Black Spectacle is the role Blackness plays in American entertainment. It has three elements: (1) It entertains white audiences because of Black people’s perceived otherness, (2) it provides white people, particularly white men, with a vehicle through which they can vicariously embody traits that they desire but that would be socially unacceptable to possess themselves and therefore have ascribed to Blackness, and (3) it is used to reinforce anti-Black stereotypes, thereby justifying the systemic subjugation of Black Americans. In my analysis, I trace the genealogy of Black music and demonstrate that all genres of Black American music, from slave work songs to contemporary rap were created to reflect and communicate the evolving social, political, and material conditions of Black people in America. I contend that Black Spectacle works in tandem with other oppressive structures to place Black rappers in an oppressive double bind. This double bind ultimately forces them to act against their own ends, stripping them of their agency. This project underscores the importance of raising national awareness of how Blackness is constructed, exploited, and weaponized in American society
White Horses in the Sky: or The Magical Place Where Topology Meets Poetry
Get PDFWhat do Shakespearean words, doughnuts, cups of tea, and horses in the sky all have in common with a famous theorem? To discover the answer, we take you on a journey in a strange, enchanted land: the land where mathematics meets poetry. Here we explore how a fundamental literary trope, metaphor, and a fundamental result in topology, Brouver\u27s Fixed Point Theorem, touch and illuminate one another. Delving into the symmetry of this transdisciplinary embrace, we find that it reveals, not only the beauty of poetry and mathematics, but that of life itself: the beauty hidden in ordinary things like a doughnut, a cup of tea, horse-shaped clouds on a winter day or the poetically radiant simplicity of a theorem that casts a new light on it all
Development of a Purification Procedure for Plasmodesmata 1
No full textPlasmodesmata are intercellular pores that connect plant cells together, establishing cytoplasmic and endomembrane continuities within the plant. This physical connection facilitates the movement of nutrients and other materials throughout the plant, as well as cell-to-cell communication. The novel protein Plasmodesmata 1 (PD1, 36 kDa) was extracted from the plasmodesmata of Arabidopsis Thaliana, and its sequence was determined, however the structure and function of this protein remain unknown. This research focuses on developing a purification procedure for PD1 to obtain pure protein for future nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structural analysis. PD1 protein was first expressed in e. coli, and bacterial growth was monitored using UV-Vis spectroscopy. A standard Ni-NTA column purification procedure was used to guide the development of a PD1 specific procedure, and several attempts at purification were performed to optimize the conditions for this protein. Successful purification occurred under denaturing conditions using Tris-HCl based buffers at pH 8.0 with all steps run at 4 °C. Next steps include an isotopically labeled expression and purification of PD1 so interrogation of the biomolecular structure of PD1 can be performed