“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day” is a manic line of dialogue spoken by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I have chosen that line as the title of my thesis and exhibition. Much of my graduate work has emanated from scenes in Shakespeare’s plays. I make dimensional paintings, prints, and sculptures that leverage a wide variety of media, material, and processes. I have chosen the intense drama of Ophelia’s final appearance on stage to inspire this body of work. The drama and imagery of Shakespeare’s plays has been a profound source of ideas for me. They motivate me to connect with all available resources in an energetic way to create visually captivating pieces of art. My objective is not to illustrate any given scene but to leverage the text for a personal artistic experience. The result is an abstraction that captures the energy of a dramatic moment. The art I produce is an expressive record of my relationship with the literature. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The realistic animation of virtual characters can enhance user experience. Motion-editing methods such as keyframing and motion capture are effective for pre-determined animations but are incapable of real-time generation. Algorithm-based dynamic simulation and machine learning-based motion synthesis are procedural but too complex. This thesis explores an approach known as animation interpolation, which benefits from the strengths of both types of methods. Animation interpolation generates full animation sequences by assembling pre-defined motion primitives or key poses in real-time. <div><br></div><div>The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the naturalness of character animation in three common interpolation methods: linear Euler interpolation, spherical linear quaternion interpolation, and spherical spline quaternion interpolation. Many researchers have studied the mathematical equations, motion curves, and velocity graphs of these algorithms. This thesis focuses on the perceptual evaluation and the implementation of expressive upper body character animation. </div><div><br></div><div>During the experimental studies, 97 participants watched 12 animation clips of a character performing four different upper body motions using three interpolation methods. The motions were based on McNeill’s classification of body gestures (beat gesture, deictic gesture, iconic gesture, and metaphoric gesture). After viewing each clip, the participants rated the naturalness on a 5-point Likert scale. The results showed that animations generated using spherical spline quaternion interpolation were perceived as significantly more natural than those generated from the other two interpolation methods.</div>

Sixteenth century commedia dell’arte actors relied on gaudy costumes, physical humor and improvisation to entertain audiences. the Spieltenor in the modern operatic repertoire has a similar comedic role. Would today’s Spieltenor benefit from consulting the commedia dell’arte’s traditions? to answer this question, I examine the commedia dell’arte’s history, stock characters and performance traditions of early troupes. the Spieltenor is discussed in terms of vocal pedagogy and the fach system. I reference critical studies of the commedia dell’arte, sources on improvisatory acting, articles on theatrical masks and costuming, the commedia dell’arte as depicted by visual artists, commedia dell’arte techniques of movement, stances and postures. in addition, I cite vocal pedagogy articles, operatic repertoire and sources on the fach system. My findings suggest that a valid relationship exists between the commedia dell’arte stock characters and the Spieltenor roles in the operatic repertoire. I present five case studies, pairing five stock characters with five Spieltenor roles. Suggestions are provided to enhance the visual, physical and dramatic elements of each role’s performance. I conclude that linking a commedia dell’arte stock character to any Spieltenor role on the basis of shared traits offers an untapped resource to create distinctive characterizations based on theatrical traditions.

A common practice in crowd animation is the use of human templates. A human template is a 3D character defined by its mesh, skeletal structure, materials, and textures. A crowd simulation is created by repeatedly instantiating a small set of human templates. For each instance, one texture is randomly chosen from the template’s available texture set, and color and shape variety techniques are applied so that multiple instances of the same template appear different (Thalmann & Musse, 2013). When dealing with very large crowds, it is inevitable to end up with instances that are exactly identical to other instances, as the number of different textures and shape modifications is limited. This poses a problem for crowd animation, as the viewers’ perception of identical characters could significantly decrease the believability of the crowd simulation. A variety of factors could affect viewers’ perception of identical characters, including crowd size, distance of the characters from the camera, background, movement, lighting conditions, etc. The study reported in this paper examined the extent to which the type of locomotion of the crowd characters affects the viewer’s ability to perceive identical instances within a medium size crowd (20 characters). The experiment involved 51 participants and compared the time the participants took to recognize two identical characters in three different locomotion scenarios (i.e. standing, walking, and running). Findings show that the type of locomotion did not have a statistically significant effect on the time subjects took to identify identical characters within the crowd. Hence, results suggest that audience perception of identical characters in a medium size crowd is not affected by the type of movement of the characters.

This learner-oriented study investigated the character and Bushou information from first year textbooks, Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 and Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 2, that are used by the participants; participants’ understanding and acquisition of Bushou; and their attitude on bringing in formal Bushou instruction to first year Chinese language courses. The study first classified all the characters that appear in the vocabulary lists in the 20 lessons from a set of first year textbooks that the participants use. Then it identified, organized, and analyzed the Bushou that appear in the characters. After soliciting and understanding students’ perceptions of Bushou and opinions on Bushou teaching and learning, and their acquisition of Bushou knowledge, a suggestion will be made on whether or not Bushou should be taught in class in this particular program. Sixty-eight students in Chinese classes from the elementary and intermediate Chinese classes participated in the study. The study findings revealed that students in both levels have a fragmented understanding of the concept of Bushou and a low level of Bushou knowledge; however, based on the descriptive analyses of the survey on Bushou teaching and learning, students in these two levels consider Bushou knowledge to be helpful for character learning and the majority of the participant want like to receive formal in-class instruction on Bushou. The study results suggest that curriculum developers should consider incorporating formal Bushou instruction into their first year Chinese language program.

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Let ΓM be the fundamental group of a knot or link complement M. The discrete faithful representation of ΓM into PSL2(C) has an associated quaternion algebra. We can extend this notation to other representations, which are encoded by the character variety X(ΓM). The generalization is the canonical quaternion algebra and can be used to find unifying features of irreducible representations, such as the splitting behavior of their associated quaternion algebras. Within this dissertation, we will determine properties of the canonical quaternion algebra for the Whitehead link complement and explore how the algebra can descend to quaternion algebras of the Dehn (d, m)-surgeries thereon. / Mathematics

Acting is a fascinating phenomenon whereby individuals modify their physicality to portray another person and persuade audiences that they are indeed said person. Historically, and with the goal of creating realistic characterizations, acting theorists have debated if actors must begin either from the internalized driving forces of the characters or from external manifestations of the characters’ physical expression. However, regardless of whether actors have to actually feel the emotions of the characters who they portray during a performance, the challenge for the actor remains the same: to produce compelling representations of persons who they themselves are not. This production is physical by its very nature and can therefore lend itself to being gesturally coded, systematized, and modeled. To explore the question of whether character performances can be modeled, I designed and validated a classification scheme of character conceptualizations. I examined if a set of prototypical characters extracted from the literature were conceptually shared amongst a large group of raters, and found that character concepts were indeed shared. In addition, I found that character concepts could be modeled along the two orthogonal personality-trait dimensions of assertiveness and cooperativeness. I then sought to validate this model behaviourally. I designed a novel performance experiment whereby a group of professional actors performed a subset of characters from the model while I recorded their vocal and facial gestures. I found that actors used their vocal and facial gestures contrastively to differentiate between the characters, as well as between their performance-related and non-performance selves. Furthermore, I found that vocal gestures could be predicted by changes in the level of a character’s assertiveness. Complementary to this, I v found that facial gestures could be predicted by changes in the level of a character’s cooperativeness. Finally, I conducted a cross-modal examination of character and emotion performances and found that characters and emotions, as testable or “functional” units of performative behaviour, share a similar dimensional relationship. My data provide validated support for a dimensional behavioural model of character performance and character classification. My research extends previous findings on acting and emotions and provides new evidence for the quantification and predictive modeling of the products and processes of acting as a whole. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / When acting, actors change their outward physicality to portray another person and persuade audiences that they are that person. Regardless of training or method employed by an actor, this production is ultimately physical and can therefore be recorded, analyzed, and modeled. I investigated this using a novel character classification scheme. I found that stock characters taken from Western literature were shared conceptually amongst a large group of raters and could be modeled along the two personality-trait dimensions of assertiveness and cooperativeness. I tested this new model in a performance experiment, measuring the vocal and facial gestures of a group of professional actors. I found that actors used their vocal and facial gestures to differentiate between characters that differed in personality. I discovered that vocal gestures could be predicted by changes in the level of a character’s assertiveness and, complementary to this, that facial gestures could be predicted by changes in the level of a character’s cooperativeness. Finally, I examined character and emotion performances in both the voice and face and found that characters and emotions share a similar dimensional relationship. My research extends previous findings on acting and emotions and provides new evidence for modeling of the products and processes of acting as a whole.

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Thesis advisor: Richard Kearney / The pursuit of living a good and moral life has been a longstanding ideal of philosophy, an ideal that dates back to the writings of Plato, and more specifically, Aristotle. This ideal establishes that a good life as a happy and flourishing life is pursued by developing the right motives and the right character. And in order to live this life, one must, then, develop a virtuous character, i.e., be a virtuous person, who desires the good. Finally, in the pursuit of the good, one must not do so alone; rather, one should pursue the virtuous life with others, i.e., friends, because they enhance our ability to think and to act. This specific position which is taken up by Aristotelian virtue ethics, however, has recently come under scrutiny by certain studies in social psychology. Particularly, the concept of character has been discredited by empirical studies. Furthermore, the classic model of the virtuous person has assumed only persons with able-bodies. As a result of these two criticisms, Aristotelian virtue ethics has been discredited as a fantasy ethics available for only a few to achieve. The principle aim of this dissertation is to develop and defend an account of Aristotelian virtue ethics which is grounded in empirical psychology and enables people with disabilities to flourish as moral exemplars within a society. The value of virtue and character for ethical debate is imperative for human happiness within moral life. Instead of happiness being something an individual strives to acquire or feel, Aristotelian virtue ethicists have argued that true happiness is human flourishing. In other words, in order to be happy, humans should focus not just on what it is good to do, but also, and more importantly, focus on who it is good to be. To live a good life, then, it is necessary that one is a good person, or has a good character. Thus, to acquire virtues such as charity, benevolence, honesty, and generosity and to shun vices such as dishonesty, cruelty, or stinginess, is the task, Aristotelian virtue ethicists have argued, that leads to eudaimonia, i.e., human flourishing. The person who has acquired virtuous character traits, then, is the person who is most happy in life. However, the attempt to understand human happiness as a result of a virtuous character has become vulnerable to criticism from philosophical positions grounded in empirical psychology and disability theory. In light of the charge that virtue ethics is a fantasy ethics, many philosophers argue that Aristotelian virtue ethics should be abandoned because it is an ethics with little or no scientific basis. In my defense of Aristotelian virtue ethics, I first address the objection that Aristotelian virtue ethics is a "fantasy ethics" which has no grounding in empirical psychology, and thus, as a result, should not be used for moral theory. This objection has been put forth by certain "Situationist" philosophers, who cite psychological studies which demonstrate that the idea of a virtue as a "global character trait" is something that humans do not actually, or very rarely, possess. This objection to Aristotelian virtue ethics has dealt a devastating blow. In response to this objection, philosopher Nancy Snow has mounted a defense of Aristotelian virtue ethics which is grounded in empirical psychology. Snow's defense, though superficially appealing, has two intractable problems. I address the failure of her proposal in Chapter One: The Problem of Virtue as Social Intelligence. The first problem Snow faces concerns her use of CAPS as a method for virtue ethics to be used throughout life. I call this problem the longitudinality problem, which argues that Snow's proposal for the constancy of virtue for longer than a period of six weeks is overreaching. The second problem Snow faces concerns her reliance on virtue as social intelligence for the actual achievement of being virtuous in daily living. This problem turns on the empirical criteria for what makes a person capable of virtuous action and I call this problem the exclusivity problem, which excludes people with "Autism" form being virtuous. As an alternative to Snow's account, I begin my defense of Aristotelian virtue ethics by developing the following account of empirical virtue based on a narrative identity which desires and actively pursues the good in life-long striving. This moral desire is encouraged through the shared dialogue of virtuous caregiving, which enables a moral novice to flourish and grow into a moral expert. This pursuit of the good enables everyone to flourish and incorporates insights from disability, embodied cognition and social psychology. To accomplish this task, I begin with an examination of the first of two foundational components of character, i.e., the four processing levels of CAPS theory in Chapter Two: Moral Perception. Although CAPS theory provides a solid beginning for an account of virtue, it is not a sustainable theory throughout life. This theory of social-cognitive moral psychology needs to be supplemented by developmental moral psychology. CAPS theory also assumes the individual's perspective in the dynamic interaction between situation and character. It assumes a person's intentions, and this assumption of intentionality - desires, intentions, and beliefs - assumes a person's embodiment in that situation. In other words, CAPS theory assumes lived embodiment. In this chapter, I turn to the method of phenomenology used by both psychologists and philosophers of embodied cognition to account for the moral "interpretation of the situation" experienced by people with illness or impairment. As a complimentary to CAPS and the second foundational component for character, certain moral psychologists have argued for the narrative development of Event Representations for virtuous character. This development begins with the shared dialogue of the caregiver and dependent asking the dependent to recall events which have just occurred. In this practice, the caregiver's aim is to help the dependent form memories and incorporate those memories into the creation of a narrative identity. In Chapter Three: Representations of Moral Events, I extend the caring relation to this practice of shared dialogue to incorporate certain forms of intellectual disability, such as "Autism" and Alzheimer's disease. To accomplish this, I incorporate the roles of narrative and trust in order to construct the relation of dependency and interdependency as trusting co-authorship rather than reciprocal capability. After establishing the importance of the caregiver in the development of one's narrative identity, I employ the life narrative longitudinal psychological approach to moral development as a structure for the moral event representations and schemas guided by the caregiver. Finally, I argue that the co-authorship of one's life story animates one's moral desire for the good and as a result, leads to the development of interdependent virtues. In Chapter Four: Moral Self-Coherence through Personal Strivings, I examine the importance of personal strivings for a sense of lived self-coherence for character over time. My argument is that our personal strivings are unified by the life story which animates and directs those strivings throughout our lives. Although our personal strivings may be altered or deterred due to life transitions including accident, illness, and "disabling injury," they still retain a sense of unity through our overarching life story. It is this narrative which gives unity to both our psychological intentions and bodily intentions, even when they are experienced as a phenomenally lived dualism due to illness, stroke, or impairment. In order to make my argument, I examine ten case studies from medical patients. I argue that our personal strivings toward the good guide our growth of character from a moral novice to become a moral expert. In Chapter Five: Flourishing Bodies, I develop an empirically grounded model of a virtuous character which begins with interdependent virtues and eventually grows into independent virtues. To do this, I draw on the two foundational components of character: CAPS theory and event representations. From the caring relation and shared dialogue of the caregiver, an individual begins to develop basic moral schemas, tasks, and scripts. This is when the individual is a moral novice. As the novice pursues excellences in these practices, the novice grows into a moral expert according to those virtues and becomes virtuously independent. The moral expert, unlike the moral novice, executes virtuous action with ease. Having acquired skills of virtue and knowledge, the moral expert knows the right thing to do at the right time and does so with the right reasons. MacIntyre, however, acknowledged the limit of ethics and turned to politics to address specific needs for people with disabilities such as care, financial support, educational support, and political proxy. The purpose of the final chapter, The Virtue-Oriented Politics of Interdependence, is to follow MacIntyre's endeavor and to propose a virtue-oriented politics of interdependence as an initial solution. First, I examine the various forms of oppression facing people with disabilities in society. In order to address these forms of oppression for people with disabilities, I argue that a shift in the central component of a political framework is needed. Instead of focusing on distribution or recognition, one should focus on education in the broad sense. In conclusion of my dissertation, The Fragility of Virtue, I provide a perspective of our human condition that is a vulnerable one. In this final section, I discuss the role of our collective vulnerability and the fragility of human goodness with regard to illness and impairment. And that our interdependence is strengthened through the virtue of friendship. I finish with a proposal of the role of sacrifice as a way to reconcile the pursuit of a flourishing life in the face of our own fragility. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.