‘Metsän väki - Forest Dwellers’ was my Professional Integration Project (PIP). The project consisted of creating a performance titled ‘Metsän väki’, which was performed on May 9th 2016 in Helsinki, Finland and of writing this thesis. The performance was a collaboration between different artists and it involved music, visual art, dance and performance art. The starting point for creating the performance was my collaboration with sculptor and environmental artist Jenni Tieaho. In addition to traditional instruments, sounding objects were used in creating the music. There were both written and improvised music as well as improvised dance in the performance. The performance took place in a former psychiatric hospital. In the outcomes and conclusion I present my expectations for the performance and describe how those where met. I also examine the role of cross-artistic collaboration in the project. I give examples of my own artistic development as well as my development as a project leader. I also reflect on the relevance of the project to the community. The outcomes are presented through my own reflections and through discussion where I point to literature concerning the differences and similarities between different art forms. The outcomes of the project include audience feedback from the performance. This is presented in the appendices. My conclusion shows that I was also able to create a rich and diverse performance by using simple (low-tech) methods. The performance was inspired by my experiences, interests and background. In my thesis I also show how creating and structuring the ‘Metsän väki’ performance can help me to develop as an artist doing cross-artistic collaboration. / Professional Integration Project

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The thesis is a multimedia document, including a documentary video and audio recordings, that catalogues and unpacks the cross-disciplinary project Score for the Big Bang. On April 13, 2012, thirty-six vocalists sang the sound of the Big Bang in a historic church in downtown Richmond. For this project I worked with an astronomer, composer, choral director and organist to translate the primordial sound into musical notation. This is the universe as voice, through humans, recreating what we have come to understand was present at its birth.

Legally binding targets set by the UK government to reduce carbon emissions by 2050 mean it is imperative that the efficiency of the UK housing stock is improved. Housing currently contributes over 30% of the UK s total carbon emissions and a large proportion of the current stock will still exist in 2050. There is therefore a need to retrofit this existing stock with energy saving measures, as the savings from new builds will not be adequate to meet the stringent carbon reduction targets. Whilst technologies to facilitate energy saving retrofit are available, there has been a low uptake from householders in the UK, in part due to the lack of consideration of user requirements within the design of these technologies. To investigate this issue further, this thesis considers two main questions: How can the design of energy saving measures and the process of retrofit of the existing UK housing stock be improved through the use of user centred design (UCD) and How can UCD methods be applied to the research and development process for energy saving measures in order to improve the outcome? Through the research, it became clear that in order to answer these questions, it would be necessary to work across disciplines and therefore a third Research Question was posed; How can UCD facilitate working across disciplines in the context of an energy research project? The results provide evidence of how UCD can effectively improve the design and development process of energy saving technologies, the process of retrofit and the practice of cross-disciplinary working within a research environment. The research is novel in several ways: firstly, the UCD process has been applied in the area of domestic retrofit, giving new insights into the barriers and opportunities to retrofit; secondly, home improvement has been investigated by viewing the home as a complete, interacting system, using novel methods; thirdly, a set of UCD specifications have been created to inform the design of heat pumps, a specific domestic energy saving technology, and finally, enhancements to the UCD process are made for use within an energy technology project, together with the development of six principles for effective cross-disciplinary working and conceptualisation of the bridge building role which the UCD practitioner fulfills.

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The main purpose of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of genre-based approaches in teaching academic writing. The study was motivated by the researcher's perceptions about university students' difficulty in acquiring the essayist literacy of the academy, and the fact that very little empirical research had been conducted on the effect of genre-based writing interventions. The following questions guided the research: (1) Can genre-based approaches be justified theoretically? (2) How effective are genre-based academic writing interventions? (3) Which is more effective: a narrow-angled or a wide-angled approach? The theoretical framework combines foundational principles of Systemic Functional Grammar, Constructivism and Critical Literacies. A mixed methods design was used, including a survey of writing tasks, genre analysis, discourse analysis, and a quasi-experimental comparison of pre- and posttest essay ratings. The survey of writing tasks indicated that the academic essay was the written genre most frequently required by humanities departments, and that argumentation, discussion, explanation, description and analysis were the text types featuring most prominently in writing prompts. Since the materials of the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies contained the largest number of essay-length tasks, the subject-specific intervention was focused on students of history. The cross-disciplinary group included students with Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Political Sciences, Psychology and Sociology as majors. A genre-based presyllabus, comprising exploration, explicit instruction, joint construction, independent construction and critical reflection, was customized for the subject-specific and cross-disciplinary groups. The syllabus gave prominence to the use of rhetorical modes, logical development of an argument, and engagement with other authors. The statistical analyses of the essay scores show that the narrow-angled and the wide-angled genre-based interventions were effective. Although the size of the improvement on the four dimensions of the scoring instrument was not equal, the overall improvement of the students in each of the groups is statistically significant. Despite the more modest overall improvement of the students in the cross-disciplinary group, their mastery of stance and engagement exceeded that of their subject-specific counterparts. Even though both interventions were effective the subject-specific group performed significantly better than the cross-disciplinary group overall (p = 0.043). Their performance was also more consistent across the four dimensions of the scoring instrument. The results of the opinion survey indicate that students from both groups were generally positive about the effect of the respective interventions on their academic writing abilities. The only significant difference is the subject-specific group's more positive evaluation of the transferability of the skills they acquired. The more pronounced skills transfer was probably facilitated by the subject-specific group's deeper level of engagement with source materials and more opportunities for practising content-based writing. Main limitations of the study include the small sample size and non-parallel presentation of the two interventions. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Unit for Academic Literacy / Unrestricted

In Part I of this thesis, I examine the use of Latin American rituals, ceremonies, and traditional folklore as conceptual and compositional material; studying and re-contextualizing concepts, cultures, and ideologies, and introducing them to foreign audiences. I explore issues such as laptop improvisation, interaction with other performance forces, and the utilization of the social elements of non-western celebrations, as explored in Clestrinye, a work for live and fixed electronics, mixed ensemble, dancers, and painters.

This thesis set out to address the ‘unsuccessful entrance’ experienced by the technique of tufting in the context of fashion design. The conventions of industrial tufting methods are challenged in the field of contemporary couture with a focus on three different aspects: backing, raw material and technique. This traditional carpet making technique, presented through the concept of couture, is aimed to be introduced as a potential novel technique among the other artisan ones inherent to the field. Robot tufting has until now been exclusively employed by the carpet manufacturing industry and only two robot manufacturing companies operate worldwide. It is a research subject with no previous academic or artistic publications. This thesis introduces for the very first time the concept and technique of robot tufting in the field of fashion design for the potential future garment creation. A more profound exploration of tufting in the context of fashion design requires a fusion of fashion and textile design into a one hybrid practice with a cross-disciplinary approach. Alongside challenging the conventions of tufting, the conventions of old disciplinary boundaries are aimed to be challenged.

The world is currently going through the fourth industrial revolution, otherwise called Industry4.0. New technologies are constantly emerging, bringing innovative solutions, but also challenges. Since it is a global event, governments and organizations need to address them and decide how to proceed and adapt. Can industry 4.0 enable a more sustainable future? Certainly, if used correctly. However, most of the time, changes are met with resistance, especially such big ones. In times of uncertainty, people need trust and support. Despite bringing these challenges, industry 4.0 also means opportunities, especially for organizations which have to find new ways to stay competitive and sustainable simultaneously. In organizations, various processes can be improved thanks to industry 4.0. How? Crucial aspects are clear communication and good teamwork. This paper discusses what models of teamwork and communication, leaders can follow to achieve team goals and assure the organization’s success. The presented study case is IKEA, where it was investigated democratizing 3D technologies can enable improvements. This thesis results in the proposal of MatLib, a material sample library, where physical prototyping meets virtual reality. The idea of MiLAb, combining traditional and newest technologies to enable better communication and teamwork, should be only an example of new ways of thinking and tackling upcoming innovations.

Since the invention of the first computer in 1937 by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry the process of computerisation within companies is still increasing. Nowadays, the Enterprise Resource Planning software can be seen as one of the most used software in the world. In the 1990s the price of a stock option could increase just with the public announcement of an ERP implementation within the company. It was generally synonym of rigor, data traceability, and control and best practice integration. However, in 2015 through various case studies, observations and records, we can claim that this kind of software cause a lot of changes such as organizational changes, employee's tasks changes or business practices. This paper will explain the role of Change Management during an ERP implementation project. We will analyse the importance of this management area in this kind of project and we will observe that change management has to be taken into account in order to reach objectives and containing goals. In order to illustrate this idea, we will compare two different companies. First the report of the ERP implementation will be done for the French firm EVERIAL. It summarizes 15 months of personal observations within this project where I worked as Key User implementing SAGE X3 ERP for the Purchase module April 2013 to July 2014. Then the second company is described from a case study. It is a Chinese company with Chinese business culture, which succeed first with a home custom designed ERP implementation. However it failed to implement Western ERP called SAP R3. From both EVERIAL and the Chinese company we will analyse the importance of Change Management during the implementation step. Moreover, an analysis of business culture in this kind of project will be done in order to emphasis the role of change management when Western best practices are implemented in Asian Company with a strong local culture.