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After-shows: Performance memories in (and out of) translation
Get PDFWhat happens to live shows when they are over? After-shows started from a desire to collect intimate performance histories and re-present them, publicly: to examine what live performance events become, or might become, after they have formally ended, with particular attention to the personal histories associated with them. How to touch the absence of something that was once there and attempt to understand something about it, to inhabit a version of it, to interpret it, to make something else with those interpretations?
An interdisciplinary inquiry into methods and implications of researching, collecting, re-representing, reperforming, creating with, and (arguably) translating personal histories and memories connected to past live performances, After-shows encompasses: 1) oral history interviews with 16 performers and former performers, centered on memories of once-live shows; 2) performance research sessions with nine performers trained in different forms (circus, dance, music), experimenting with reinterpreting and creating off of fragments of memories collected in phase 1; 3) an event re-presenting variations of those reperformed memories, open to the public; and 4) a series of post-event spectator interviews with eleven attendees of that evening, held between four and ten months after they attended, and focused on the ways they remembered the event.
Throughout these processes, this hermeneutically inclined research-(re)creation project examined how the question of untranslatability — or "the energy of the untranslatables" as per philologist Barbara Cassin — might be applied both as a dramaturgical motor and/or as a research lens in considering the re-representations of performance memories.
Written both in and about the aftermath of a live performance event, this thesis echoes its on-site research-creation counterpart in considering untranslatability within representations of performance memories, drawing on oral history and research-creation methodologies, and looking across multiple interdisciplines including translation studies, memory studies, and performance historiography.
Keywords: performance historiography, research-creation, translation of/and/as performance, intersemiotic translation, memory studies, oral history, spectator studies, interdisciplinary dramaturgy, untranslatable memor
The Applicability of a Machine Learning Methodology to Generate TMY Weather Files
Get PDFTo effectively decarbonize buildings accurate energy models must be created to predict building energy performance. Typical meteorological year (TMY) weather files represent long-term weather conditions and are used in energy modelling to help evaluate energy performance. This thesis explores generating TMY files using machine learning to improve accuracy, which can significantly influence energy simulation results. The current TMY generation approach relies on expert judgment, often overlooking seasonal, climate and application-based variations.
Manuscript #1 introduces a machine learning methodology using feature importance to determine the relevant generation parameters used in the Sandia method to enhance the current TMY generation approach. The proposed methodology is applied to a medium office building in Montreal. The results reveal an improved representativeness of the long-term average building energy demand for the TMY generated using the proposed methodology.
Manuscript #2 aims to (1) assess the applicability of the methodology across Canadian climates; (2) investigate the feasibility of using standardized climate zone-based weighting factors to reduce the computational time associated with extracting location-based weighting factors to facilitate wider adoption of the proposed methodology. The methodology is applied to 18 cities across six Canadian climate zones and generates two weather files for each location. TMYSTATION uses location-based weighting factors while TMYCZ uses climate zone-based weighting factors. The CV(RMSE) and NMBE indicate the proposed weather files outperform the conventional weather files in predicting the long-term energy performance of buildings. Although the TMYSTATION files performed marginally better, the convenience of standardized climate zone-based weighting factors can enhance the methodology’s adaptability
Pro-Choice is Pro-Life: Framing Abortion Social Movements in Brazil
Get PDFLatin America grapples with stark inequality and stringent abortion policies, with only five out of thirty-three countries permitting elective abortions. Brazil faces challenges due to its conservative climate and stark economic inequalities, hindering the pro-choice movement since the 1970s. Despite historic activism and a brief window for legal reform in 2012 and 2018, progress remains elusive. Criminalizing abortion in Brazil has not deterred people from seeking to terminate their pregnancy, but rather jeopardizes their lives. Brazil's reproductive healthcare reveals systemic issues: a misogynistic approach, limited contraceptive choices, and commercialized childbirth. Maternal mortality, particularly affecting marginalized groups, persists, challenging the notion that anti-abortion legislation protects women and gender minorities. This research aims to explore the apparent stagnation of the pro-choice movement in Brazil. Focusing on political opportunity structure theory, the study seeks to understand the strengths and constraints within the movement. Why hasn't the pro-choice movement succeeded in legalizing elective abortions, and how can it improve? The research delves into civil society networks, feminist activists' strategies, and potential collaborations among activists and organizations. It will critically assess the impact of Brazil's healthcare system inequalities on reproductive rights, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the challenges faced by the pro-choice movement is crucial in the current context, as neighboring countries (Argentina and Colombia) recently legalized abortion following the pro-choice social movement dubbed “The Green Wave” (La Marea Verde). Furthermore, Brazil experienced a shift in political leadership and is facing mounting pressure from health practitioners, thus requiring a closer examination of pro-choice mobilizations. The study aims to contribute valuable insights that may inform strategies not only for Brazil but also for pro-choice movements globally, where the fight for reproductive rights remains a persistent and urgent issue
Generative artificial intelligence for distributed learning to enhance smart grid communication
Get PDFMachine learning models are the backbone of smart grid optimization, but their effectiveness hinges on access to vast amounts of training data. However, smart grids face critical communication bottlenecks due to the ever-increasing volume of data from distributed sensors. This paper introduces a novel approach leveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), specifically a type of pre-trained Foundation Model (FM) architecture suitable for time series data due to its efficiency and privacy-preserving properties. These GenAI models are distributed to agents, or data holders, empowering them to fine-tune the foundation model with their local datasets. By fine-tuning the foundation model, the updated model can produce synthetic data that mirrors real-world grid conditions. The server aggregates fine-tuned model from all agents and then generates synthetic data which considers all data collected in the grid. This synthetic data can be used to train global machine learning models for specific tasks like anomaly detection and energy optimization. Then, the trained task models are distributed to agents in the grid to leverage them. The paper highlights the advantages of GenAI for smart grid communication, including reduced communication burden, enhanced privacy through anonymized data transmission, and improved efficiency and scalability. By enabling a distributed and intelligent communication architecture, GenAI introduces a novel way for a more secure, efficient, and sustainable energy future
Developing an Ontology for Concrete Surface Defects to Enhance Inspection, Diagnosis and Repair Information Modeling
Get PDFFacility maintenance requires thorough inspections throughout a facility’s lifecycle to ensure structural integrity and longevity. A significant challenge lies in managing the semantic relationships between various inspection data across different lifecycle phases and effectively representing inspection results. While numerous studies have focused on identifying, analyzing, repairing, and preventing defects, organizing and integrating this information systematically for future use remains unaddressed. This paper introduces the Ontology for Concrete Surface Defects (OCSD), a unified knowledge model that enables stakeholders to access information systematically. OCSD aims to enhance future asset management systems by providing comprehensive knowledge about concrete surface defects, encompassing inspection, diagnosis, 3R (Repair, Rehabilitation, and Replacement), and defect concepts. Although the integration with Building Information Modeling (BIM) standards like the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is not undertaken in this study, OCSD provides a foundational framework that can facilitate such mappings in subsequent studies or applications. The methodology includes reviewing existing literature to define relevant concepts, outlining steps for developing OCSD, creating its basic components, and evaluating its effectiveness. The semantic representation of OCSD was assessed through a survey, confirming its ability to clarify concepts and relationships in this field
The effect of retail shelf position on private-label brand evaluations
Get PDFPurpose – This research examines the effects of physical proximity (close vs. distant) of retailers’ private label brands (PLBs) relative to national brands (NBs) and brand display orientation (horizontal [brands occupy the same shelf] vs. vertical [brands occupy different shelves]) on consumers’ PLB quality perceptions and PLB evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments involving real brands in different product categories tested the hypotheses.
Findings – A PLB positioned close (vs. distant) to a NB is evaluated more favorably and this effect is mediated by increased PLB quality perceptions, but only in a horizontal brand display. In a vertical brand display, a PLB positioned close (vs. distant) to a NB is evaluated less favorably and this effect is mediated by decreased PLB quality perceptions.
Practical implications – The findings suggest that to enhance consumers’ PLB quality perceptions and evaluations, PLBs be positioned next to (rather than on separate shelves) and close to (rather than distant from) NBs in the same product category.
Originality – Although the literature suggests that the best shelf position for PLBs is close to NBs, there is a lack of empirical research on the effects of relative shelf positioning on consumers’ quality perceptions and subsequent PLB evaluations. This research finds that both physical proximity and brand display orientation play an important role
Better Practices in the Classroom: A Teaching Guidebook for Sustainable, Inclusive, and Equitable Learning from a Gender and Sexuality Studies Framework
Get PDFBetter Practices in the Classroom draws on research in gender and sexuality studies, education, and related fields to examine pressing issues facing the contemporary postsecondary classroom. Topics include gender inclusive language in the classrooms, grappling with racial violence in education, decolonial approaches to education, accessibility and disability justice in the classroom, and more
Leaps in Media Access & Reuse: Copyright Codes of Best Practice
Get PDFAcademic librarians and media scholars face increasing pressures to preserve, provide access to, and reuse media technology. Simultaneously, technological advances add complexities to assessing the applicability of fair dealing to unauthorized scholarly uses of copyright-protected content. To address these challenges, concerned members of these two communities have joined forces to create the Media Access and Copyright (MAC) Working Group. This paper provides an overview of MAC’s structure and achievements as well as its current research project, the development of two codes of best practices aimed at supporting informed decision making in the application of fair dealing by scholars and practitioners.
Awarded best paper by practitioner author at the 2024 Canadian Association for Information Science conferenc
Archipelagos of Narratives: (Re)constructing National and Diasporic Identities in Filipino Art, From Martial Law to the Present
Get PDFAs an archipelagic nation numbering over 7,000 islands, the Philippines is home to a vast number of cultures and peoples. This diversity means that one’s identity hinged on region, language, or locale, despite the kinship these peoples have historically shared. Spanish and American colonization have only interfered in the Philippines’ heterogenous cultural landscape, which has resulted in a Westernized sense of self fractured from its precolonial and indigenous roots. The Philippines’ exposure to the global market, with foreign powers entering and overseas labourers departing, has rendered it a hotbed of cultural influences that also invites conflict and further dispersion of the country’s sense of identity. As a nation whose cultural identity has been hegemonized by Western society, Filipinx abroad and island-side struggle to piece together elements of what it means to be ‘Filipino’.
Through personal, social, and cultural excavation, Filipinx artists articulate national and diasporic qualities of Filipino identity that subvert the essentialist, colonial narratives historically imposed upon by Western powers. Anchored between martial law (1970s) and the present, I cite the works of Roberto Villanueva, Cian Dayrit, and Club Ate, who use their relationships to place in their work to critique grand narratives to unearth the stories, mythologies, and cultural practices eclipsed by history
Redrawing the End of the World: Children's Animation as Informal Environmental Education
Get PDFThis thesis examines the potential for environmental animated media to be used as an informal educational tool for children. Through an examination of key animated works and their cultural contexts, I analyze the shifting ideologies within children's environmental media and investigate how animated films contribute to shaping children's perceptions of environmental issues and their agency in addressing them. Through studying the animation, production history and didactic storytelling techniques of Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1991), Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992), WALL-E (2008) and The Lorax (2012), I explore how animated media has historically failed to create meaningful environmental discourse. In analyzing the spatial and non-didactic storytelling of the 2019 film, Weathering With You (2019), I argue that the film's non-didactic and vernacular (familiar, of the people) storytelling provides space for the exploration of alternative environmental education, through map-based and site-specific learning