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I remember as a young child being fascinated with all forms of transportation: from the Walt Disney World monorails and shuttle buses, to Busy Boats, my favorite library picture book, to my first train ride, a 20-mile one-way trip on Amtrak that became the subject of my second-grade book fair masterpiece, The Great Day. Now, quite a number of years later, that fascination remains, manifesting itself in different ways, like getting excited when I get stopped by a passing train at a railroad crossing or riding the city bus to campus every day. Being an avid newspaper reader, I followed the long public process in the winter and spring of 2006–2007 as the Port Authority of Allegheny County, the public transit entity in Pittsburgh, identified ways to reduce costs to meet a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. Being a designer, one of the things that struck me was the Port Authority’s use of visuals to communicate what routes they proposed for elimination. These diagrams, one of which is shown in Figure 1, left something to be desired. It didn’t seem to communicate a clear message amidst all the visual clutter. I spent a few weeks trying out different variations and revisions of the diagram for a class in mapping and diagramming and thought that this area of design—user experience and complex information systems for transit—would be perfect for further study. In my preliminary review of current literature, I found studies of specific design improvements, such as a new bus map system in London (Horne, Roberts & Rose, 1986), historical reviews of iconic documents such as the London Underground diagram (Garland, 1994) and surveys of current practices by organizations such as the American Public Transportation Association (2007), an industry trade group, and the Transportation Research Board (1999). However, this research focused primarily on the document or artifact in question and only tangentially on rider information needs from an abstract perspective while ignoring the user experience. This essay will present the results of my observations and thoughts about the user experience of riders in public transportation systems. I will begin by defining a public transportation system and describing its various components and integration into the city’s transportation infrastructure. In the second section, I’ll describe users of these transit systems—the riders—and offer a series of categories and characteristics we can use to understand why they use public transportation. I’ll discuss how these riders use a public transportation system in section three, by offering a five-part model for a trip. Finally, in section four, I will analyze various aspects of the physical, printed artifacts transit systems distribute to the public to communicate what services they provide.

The purpose of this research is to examine the use of a mock-up review process in interior design projects to better understand the implications of using such a process within the standard professional practice model. The research consisted of interviewing design professionals who utilize mock-ups as part of their standard of practice. These interviews were centered around two groups - those working in shipbuilding, where mock-ups have a long history, and those working in land-based projects, where mock-up use is rare. Analysis of the interviews indicated a positive relationship between mock-up use and collaboration, innovation, and problem solving. The interviews also brought to light concerns on behalf of all the professionals surveyed about the current practice model in land-based building design and construction projects within the United States. The positive relationships shown in the thesis support further research to explore how mock-ups can be best utilized in interior design.

I am an interdisciplinary artist, educator and writer from Southern California. My practice explores the ways in which images, text and even something as complex as human identity are all made up of fragmented parts that work together to establish visual narrative. Working across multiple media, I create artworks that are lyrical and chaotic and place them in highly aestheticized conditions. My work depicts universal themes of love, loss and resilience over social and political oppression. Additionally, my work questions ideas of social and personal validity, agency and the visually queer.

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This thesis examines my fears of death and dying. Through my studio art practice, which includes observational representation, ceremonial and ritualistic performance, and installation, I seek to confront my own difficulty in accepting death's emotional weight. My motivation stems from my attachment to my mother's mortality and her relationship with dying animals. In researching cultural customs relating to death, I was inspired to explore non-archival materials and ritualistic processes reflecting my understanding of our bodies' temporal nature. This includes swaddling, etching, using materials such as branches, animal bones, copper, shells, and pine needles, and encasing materials in wax. My points of interest are occurrences of death and decay. These interactions help me find acceptance and comfort during moments of uncertainty. Scale variations in my work are intentional and directly correlate my emotional response to my experiences with nature. From small, intimate works to larger, monumental ones, I explore the authority that size achieves when exaggerated and paired with images. These gestures of curiosity and compassion aim to emphasize my innate care and the ability to restore dignity surrounding the experience of loss and dying. Centered around the ubiquity of grieving and healing, my creative process and work products express the crucial value of accepting my own impermanence through emotional vulnerability. Creating this body of work helped me realize and appreciate alternative understandings and associations with death; and by exhibiting the work, I am inviting the viewer into my life and practice with the hope it creates a brief opportunity for them to reflect and reconsider their relationship with death.

This thesis reflects my research and studio practice into how memory is gathered, interpreted, and affects the present. I discuss my historical and contemporary artistic influences, my history, and my visual narratives. I construct layered drawings using charcoal and soft pastel to interpret how we understand our inherently flawed memory. Memory can be clear and easy to understand but simultaneously distorted and convoluted. When recalling a memory, I purposely keep my initial drawn gestures visible to show the pentimenti or shift in marks. The materials, processes, and subject matter in this body of work encourages viewers to navigate the drawn narratives and reflect on the elusive ways memories manifest.

This thesis is an exploration of the reciprocal relationship between my identity and my work as an artist. As someone who identifies as queer and from a young age felt unloved and unwelcome, my work provides space for validation and empowerment. I utilize elements of fantasy and symbolism to explore the ever-expanding possibilities of allegory and queer figuration. Through my usage of portraiture and personal symbolism as well as my reinterpretations of Christian religious motifs, Greek mythology, and Mannerist art, I transform existing narratives to depict a multitude of characters that my work allows me to embody. In opening myself up, I express and question my understanding of "love" as it applies to a sense of communion through art and the idea of utopia while also making the necessary room for empathy and queer visibility. To this end, I reference my life experiences, thoughts, feelings, and artistic process in order to invite an intimate understanding of myself and my work.

I create experimental films and installations that challenge the belief system I inherited from well-intended people who believed they furnished me with the "right" answers, behaviors, and expectations for a good and proper life. Applying the theory of cognitive dissonance as a philosophical framework to this formative and enforced messaging helps me appreciate why it is so difficult to accept new information incongruent with one's previously held beliefs. Through parallel efforts of self-reflection, research, and creative practice, I have begun to reexamine my upbringing and the ensuing insecurities, contradictions, and feelings of hypocrisy they engendered. My work aspires to transform my fears, anxieties, and mistakes into meaningful digital and tangible visual expressions; informed by and in response to, reflective work by contemporary artists and my personal reflexive experiences with relationships, death, and grief. Fueled by the practice of forgiveness, both of myself and others, I believe the creative process is helping me become a more compassionate person who is willing to reconsider, release, and accept my past and welcome new internal and external perspectives. Likewise, I hope presenting my artwork allows viewers to consider my struggle; and whether, and why, we may have common or divergent life experiences and perspectives.