Bioculture Journal
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1309 research outputs found
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Mallet Head Series, February 7, 2014
No full textConcert Program for Mallethead Series, February 14,
201
Guerrilla Productivity: Gamification and Design-Related Touch Interfaces
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014In recent years, applications for touch screen devices have experienced tremendous growth and distribution. While some of the most widely-adopted applications offer game-based drawing experiences, tools designed specifically for digital drawing and sketching have experienced only modest popularity. Drawing games (and "gamified" experiences) have the ability to captivate users in ways that productivity-focused applications and tools cannot. This thesis describes a history of touch interfaces for designers, including a more thorough analysis of a few contemporary examples. It then identifies strengths and weaknesses in current drawing applications, core principles to abide by when creating new applications, as well as unfulfilled market opportunities. Ultimately, these findings inform the development of a prototype application that serves to demonstrate how principles of gamification and play might be leveraged for a sort of guerrilla productivity -- that is, user experiences that possess dual-citizenship within the realms of work and play
Complexity of Perspectives: WWII Historical Fiction of the Pacific Front
No full textExamines how Japanese/Japanese-American and Korean/Korean-American juvenile historical fiction portrays the Pacific front of World War II, revealing contrasting perspectives on victimization, aggression, and cultural trauma. Drawing on an analysis of 106 titles, the study highlights how Japanese-centered works focus largely on the suffering caused by atomic bombings and internment, while Korean-centered works emphasize the devastation of Japanese occupation and subsequent geopolitical upheaval. The author argues that these divergent narratives demonstrate the necessity of teaching historical fiction alongside factual context so students can critically evaluate multiple viewpoints, recognize biases, and gain a more balanced understanding of complex historical events
Numerical Modeling of Compliant-Moored System Dynamics with Applications to Marine Energy Converters
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014The development of a numerical model simulating the dynamic response of compliant-moored submerged systems to non-uniform fluid flow is presented. The model is meant to serve as a computational tool with applications to compliant-moored marine energy converters by time-domain representation of the mooring dynamics. The scope of the initial code is restricted to full-submerged moored tidal turbines, though the model can be readily expanded to analyze wave energy converters as well. The system is modeled in a Lagrangian frame treating tidal turbines and structural elements as rigid bodies. Mooring lines are modeled as a series of discrete elastic segments, with parameters and force contributions lumped to point-mass nodes joining each segment. Full-range of motion is achieved using the α-β-γ Euler Angle method. The governing equations of motion of the system are derived computationally through implementation of Lagrange's Equation of Motion. The techniques employed to develop the symbolic expressions for the total kinetic, potential, and damping energies of the system and the forces acting on each element of the system are discussed. The system of differential equations obtained from evaluation of Lagrange's Equation with the developed symbolic expressions is solved numerically using a built-in MATLAB ordinary differential equation solver called ODE15i.m with the user defined initial condition of the system. Several validation tests are presented and their results discussed. Finally, an explanation of future plans for development of the model and application to existing tidal energy systems are presented
Viral Myths and Biopolitical Disruptions Amidst the Emergence of a Novel Coronavirus
No full textSince 2012, a novel coronavirus named Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus,
or MERS-CoV, has infected 491 people and killed 147 in 18 countries— a case fatality
rate of almost 30%—twice as high as the 2003 SARS pandemics. An incomplete understanding
of its epidemiological and ecological nature has left scientists racing against the
clock—but is that all to the story of emerging infectious diseases? This analysis
seeks to investigate the hidden narratives amid the dominant epidemiological discourses—of
human interdependence rather than of biological susceptibility—through the counter-authoritative
framework of “viral myths”. I will explore discourses in obscuring viral nomenclatures,
the biopolitics of insecurity, the commodification of intellectual property rights,
and their respective public health implications, which hurtles us toward an embodiment
of both molecularized and globalized precarity. This heterogeneous collection of “viral
myths” amid the MERS outbreaks serves as a microcosm for past, present, and future
infectious diseases
Uncaring systems and the production of trans* subjectivites: exploring digital spaces of trans* care
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014As documented by trans and queer scholars, trans* people face a fundamental paradox in accessing care (Stone 1992, Butler 2004, Spade 2006). In order to access gender affirming care, trans people are implicated in a care system that is uncaring in its approaches to trans and gender non-conforming people. However, changes in the ways trans bodies and identities are conceptualized in care spaces has resulted in a refiguring of trans care resulting in a shift in the geographies and spaces of trans. The resulting shift in trans care geographies is an uneven one; both geographically but also in the ways different trans bodies experience these care spaces based on age, gender, race and sexuality. In this thesis, I will explore the ways in which trans* people use digital spaces to reform and work through available networks of care. Drawing from digital research on institutional care websites and YouTube videos as well as auto-ethnographic reflection, I critically address the strategies, techniques and methods implicated in trans* care. Following the work of Gray (2009), my aim in examining these digital spaces of bodily and subjective production is to explore the ways trans* people interpret themselves as well as the condition under which trans* people are cared for and about. By threading through past work on care politics and care geographies, my work asks how these videos point to the ways in which the current care system is uncaring for trans* and gender non-conforming people. Finally, my research points to and demands for a more multi-scalar and relational approach to trans* geographies. This approach would connect the multiple sites and processes imbricated in the production of and governing of trans* lives.
Unsent Letters
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014Unsent Letters is an excerpt of an early novel draft. A homeless man witnesses a man falling from a fifteen-story building in New York's financial district. The fact that the victim, Ian Blue, was the subject of a recent fraud investigation and mostly likely facing jail time, leads Detective Finnegan O'Leary to assume he is dealing with a straightforward suicide, but information soon comes to light that indicates otherwise. Money was found under and nearby Blue's body, and Mia Blue, the victim's wife just happened to disappear on the very same day, April Fools' Day, fifteen years earlier. Her body was never found, and the crime, if there was one, never solved. Detective O'Leary, not one to believe in coincidences, sets out to solve what happened to Ian Blue and why, which ultimately leads to the reopening of a seductive fifteen-year-old cold case, and the exposure of long-buried family secrets
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Filipino Indigeneity in the Diaspora
No full textThis paper contributes to the literature of Filipino indigeneity in the diaspora, by examining the participation of Filipino American students on the University of Washington campus from the 2013 Philippine Culture Night, (colloquially referred to as “Filnight” or “PCN”). I will draw upon my own working theory and visually represent a roadmap similar to the Borromean rings, which are designed as three inseparably and interlocked rings. I will introduce my own Borromean-inspired analytical lens to re-conceptualize the three relationships between storytelling (both fiction and nonfiction), visual performances, and the spectator-performer relationship to complicate the narratives on Filipino indigeneity within the performing arts. My research includes both on and off stage perspectives, to capture the experience of performers and spectators, both Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike. I will also draw upon Virgilio Enriquez’ groundbreaking research “Sikolohiyang Pilipino” (Filipino Psychology) to ground my study on Tagalog-based terms and explanations, for a comprehensive understanding of cultural performance. Then, this paper will shift the direction towards critiques on the Indigenization movement as it relates to Sikolohiyang Pilipino. The Indigenization movement began in the spaces of academia as Philippine scholars sought to raise national consciousness and “liberate” Filipinos from the colonial mentality that permeated the educational institutions. The paper will also discuss critiques on the PCN culture that makes indigeneity complex for culturally hybrid students. Overall, I argue that despite the complexities and struggles for indigeneity within the PCN, the 2013 Filnight play accomplished a feat that brought together multiple storylines that are culturally indigenous to the Filipino peoples and historically relevant to multiple ethnic communities through the three interconnected rings: storytelling, visual performance, and a dynamic spectator-performer relationship
Barry Lieberman and Friends, March 23, 2014
No full textConcert Program for Barry Lieberman and Friends, March 23,
201
Mental Rehearsal Increases Liking for Repeatedly Exposed Stimuli
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014In 1968, Robert Zajonc proposed that mere repeated exposure--"a condition making the stimulus accessible to the individual's perception . . . is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of . . . attitude toward it" (p. 1). Influential reviews have concluded that minimal cognitive processing of repeated stimulus exposures, even so little as that involved in brief, visually masked ("subliminal") presentations, produces the most reliable attitude boosts. Wide acceptance of that view may explain why relatively few studies have examined effects of variations in cognitive activity during repeated exposure. The present six experiments assessed effects of repeated exposures that were accompanied by mental rehearsal. The experiments uniformly revealed greater gains in liking for repeated stimuli (including letters, pronounceable non-words, and abstract images) when mental rehearsal was involved than when rehearsal was not involved. These results are not accommodated by the most widely accepted theory (perceptual fluency plus misattribution) of repeated exposure effects