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The Vampire in Video Games: Narrative Structures, Game Mechanics, and Cultural Significance
Get PDFThis thesis examines how vampires are represented in video games by analyzing narrative structures, game mechanics, and cultural meaning. Using the existing games of Vampyr, V Rising, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, The Sims 4: Vampires, Skyrim: Dawnguard, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Bloodlines 2, the study identifies which design strategies successfully create an engaging and believable vampire experience for the player, as well as determining which development decisions could hurt the experience for players. Using formalism, symbolism, feminist methodology, and player reception theory, this thesis argues that vampire games function best when players confront moral dilemmas, experience consequences for feeding or refusing to feed, and meaningfully embody both the power and burden of vampirism through mechanics and narrative. Findings show that successful vampire games integrate narrative and mechanics to reflect cultural anxieties, themes of identity, ethical conflict, and the fantasy of power. The project concludes by offering a design framework for future developers, emphasizing moral choice, system consequences, and a focus on lore and worldbuilding that emphasize moral choices as core elements of functional vampire game design
Accessible Preservation: Developing a Low-Cost, IIIF-Compliant Workflow for Small Art Collections
Get PDFThis project explores the development of an affordable, standards-based digital collections management system designed for small galleries, independent artists, and emerging institutions. Using the artist’s own studio collection as a case study, the research integrates accessible hardware and open-source technologies, including the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), Artwork Archive, GitHub Pages, and the Internet Archive, to establish a transparent, replicable workflow for cataloguing and publication. The project demonstrates how interoperability, metadata consistency, and open access can be achieved without reliance on costly proprietary systems, such as TMS Collections or PastPerfect.
The workflow includes high-resolution image capture, 3D scanning, data normalization, and automated manifest generation through custom Python scripts. While early experiments with photogrammetry proved impractical within the project’s scope, 3D documentation was achieved using a Revopoint Inspire scanner, with models hosted publicly on Sketchfab. The accompanying metadata was developed through AI-assisted tools, including ChatGPT and Perplexity’s Comet browser assistant, with rigorous human verification to ensure accuracy and ethical integrity.
The final archive, comprising interoperable IIIF manifests, validated metadata, and hosted media assets, demonstrates a sustainable and adaptable framework for digital preservation. It prioritizes accessibility, transparency, and the cultivation of ethical AI practices within digital heritage production, offering a practical contribution to the evolving discourse on democratized museum technologies
The Case for Selective Non-Transparency in AI-Mediated Work: A Workers Rights Framework
Get PDFThis article advances a labor rights argument for selective non-transparency in AI-mediated work, framed through educational labor yet generalizable across the United States. The central claim asserts that blanket requirements to disclose all AI-assisted methods reconfigure managerial power by converting process knowledge into a surveillance substrate, thereby diminishing autonomy, chilling professional judgment, and enabling rapid deskilling. Synthesizing U.S. labor and privacy frameworks—especially interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act regarding electronic monitoring—alongside emerging state initiatives on automated decision systems, the analysis demonstrates how expansive process transparency risks infringing protected concerted activity while normalizing function creep in algorithmic management. Empirical literature on electronic performance monitoring and mental health indicates consistent associations with increased stress, reduced trust, and lower perceived control, outcomes that are antithetical to high-quality professional practice in education and other knowledge sectors. Case studies from teaching, logistics, creative industries, and professional services illustrate that transparency asymmetries matter: workers benefit when transparency applies to employer systems and outcomes, not to every micro-step of worker method. The article proposes an accountability model centered on transparency of outcomes and systems with privacy of process: results-oriented evaluation, periodic audits rather than continuous telemetry, worker participation in AI governance, privacy-preserving assurance, and contractual or statutory limits on process capture. This normative and policy framework preserves public accountability and ethical AI use while safeguarding method discretion, intellectual capital, and human dignity—conditions under which AI functions as augmentation for labor rather than instrumentation of control
Through a Mother\u27s Eyes: The Psychology of Color
Get PDFThis project investigates the intersection of color psychology, maternal experience, and visual perception through a series of five artworks. Using a qualitative methodology, this project draws upon interdisciplinary research such as neuroscience, marketing, art history, and personal experiences as a mother. This work explores how sensory changes during pregnancy and postpartum influence the emotional perception of color, and how this can be represented in art. Inspired by artists that have explored the theme of motherhood such as Mary Cassatt, Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Jenny Saville, and Alice Neel, this project uses an emotionally charged approach to depicting motherhood. Color changing LED lights are used to alter the perception of each painting, symbolizing the shifting, often contradictory emotional states experienced during motherhood. This project challenges the traditional depictions of the maternal figure and offers a contemporary and psychologically complex narrative of motherhood