This thesis and its accompanying project are concerned with the use of digital technology in the representation of material culture. The thesis aims to find ways of using such technology that are appropriate to our present needs and to its potential. The computer is a technology which we understand, interact with and relate to through metaphor. I propose that many of the metaphors through which we understand it invoke the idea of an enclosed space. The use of such a trope might seem suitable when using computers for representing museum collections, or material culture in general, since it invokes the enclosed space of the museum. I examine how this idea of enclosure is manifested in computer developments such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence. I also look at how these developments are congruent with perspectival modes of visual representation privileged in the modern era. I argue that such metaphors and forms of representation, whether manifested in visual arts, the museum, or computer applications are problematic, bound up as they are with modern western ideas of mastery and transcendence, which are presently being subjected to critiques from various quarters. Throughout the modern era there have been forms of representation which have contested the dominant visual mode of modernity. These include the art of the Baroque in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and, in this century, the work of the Surrealists. In contrast to the rational, orthogonal space of modernity, both these deal with complex and fragmented representations of spaces and time. Such developments have been discussed as forms of representation appropriate to contemporary concerns about knowledge They also have a corollary in computing developments, such as multimedia and hypermedia, Yet, I argue, those working in multimedia have in the main failed to exploit the potential of such developments to enable new ways of representing knowledge. I propose looking to both the Baroque and Surrealism to find possible models and strategies for use in multimedia in the representation of material culture. In relation to this I describe practical work done in conjunction with this thesis which uses these models as the basis of a piece of multimedia software for the representation of material culture.

Exploration of the changes modern digital technology has had on the act of engaging with music in the early 21st century.

Digital technology in higher education is constantly evolving. Understanding the effects of digital technology is important for higher education institutions in order to make good investments of digital technology. Previous research has focused on learning, teaching or the organization and the relation between one of these aspects and digital technology, thereby missing a broader understanding of how materiality in digital technology affects higher education. In this study themed interviews were conducted at a veterinary education to collect data regarding the use of a multi touch medical display table in the organization. The findings show that materiality of digital technology affects all aspects of higher education if it is facilitated by the organization. The findings also show that the organization is vital to the incorporation of digital technology in teaching as well as learning and that already existing materiality in the HE organization needs to be analyzed to understand the potential effects of new digital technology

This thesis has two purposes: to examine the film and television ‘little man’ comedies of the British comic Charlie Drake in order to rescue him from the neglect that has masked his work, and to recover psycho-analysis as a viable critical methodological tool for understanding comedy. This thesis tests the applicability of psycho-analytic cultural theory to British Television and film comedy by using Drake’s work as a case history; given the scope of the thesis I also draw upon his work on dreams, the Oedipus complex, and castration anxiety as Freud’s work on jokes, humour and the comic was part of a triad of books that explores the trivial in the psychopathology of everyday life. The thesis adopts a psycho-analytic position because the ‘little man’ character(s) played by Drake render them amenable to a Freudian analysis. Much of the research material included in the thesis pertaining to Drake’s private life supports the argument that Drake’s ‘little man’ comedies and the ‘little man’ character he created are psycho-biographical. Similarly, audience research reports provide evidence that men’s appreciation of Drake’s comedies was different to women’s which explains why the psycho-sociological reception of his ‘little man’ character's popular appeal was predetermined.

Magister Scientiae Dentium - MSc(Dent) / Background: Plaster study models are routinely used in an Orthodontic practice. With the recent introduction of digital models, an alternative is now available, whereby three dimensional images of models can be analyzed on a computer. Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the measurements taken on digital models created from scanning the impression, digital models created from scanning the plaster model, and measurements done on the plaster models. The objectives were: Measurement differences between those taken directly on plaster models compared with measurements on digital models created from scanned impressions and digital models created from scanned plaster models. Methods: The study sample was selected from the patient records of one Orthodontist. They consisted of 26 pre-treatment records of patients that were coming for orthodontic treatment. Alginate impressions were taken of the maxillary and the mandibular arches. Each impression was scanned using a 3Shape R700™ scanner. Ortho Analyzer software from 3Shape was used to take the measurements on the digital study models. Within 24 hours plaster study models were cast from the impressions, and were scanned using a 3Shape R700™ scanner. On the plaster models the measurements were done with a MAX-CAL electronic digital calliper. The mesiodistal width as well as intermolar and intercanine width for both the maxillary and mandibular models were recorded.Results and discussion: Box plots used to compare the variability in each of the three measurement methods, suggest that measurements are less variable for Plaster. Plaster measurements for tooth widths were significantly higher (mean 7.79) compared to a mean of 7.74 for Digital Plaster and 7.69 for Digital impression. A mixed model analysis showed no significant difference among methods for arch width. Conclusions: Digital models offer a highly accurate alternative to the plaster models with a high degree of accuracy. The differences between the measurements recorded from the plaster and digital models are likely to be clinically acceptable.

This dissertation argues for integrating contemplation into pedagogical decisions regarding digital technologies in US higher education. Digital technology permeates contemporary US higher education. Despite the ever-increasing presence of digital technology, various higher education stakeholders give inadequate attention to matters of pedagogy. The uncritical adoption or dismissal of digital technology at any scale can substantially influence higher education teaching-learning environments. Contemplative approaches to digital technology and pedagogy provide the potential to positively shape the trajectory of higher education technopedagogy. Scant research exists regarding the influence of contemplation on technopedagogy. Therefore, this dissertation combines a critical empirical analysis of the use of digital technology in contemporary US higher education with practical interventions to demonstrate the value of contemplative technopedagogy. A science and technology studies (STS) toolkit is used to investigate four research sites at three interconnected levels of analysis – national, institutional, experimental teaching-learning environments. National level analysis focuses on discourse (1993-2016) within The Chronicle of Higher Education to understand the development of conceptions regarding digital technology and pedagogy in contemporary US higher education and uses inductive methods to create new knowledge, discourse, and practices by proposing the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework. Institutional level analysis involves ethnographic case study research to examine the sociocultural dynamics significant to the development and dissemination of a particular technopedagogical ideology at Virginia Tech's Faculty Development Institute that championed the educational promise of digital technology without sufficient consideration of pedagogy. Experimental teaching-learning environments level analysis presents two practice-oriented case studies of academic librarian as technopedagogical innovator. Each involves collaboration with actors across campus(es) and a novel application of the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework to exemplify the roles that librarians can play to stimulate contemplative approaches to technopedagogy amidst a changing landscape in US higher education. Taken together, the manuscripts in this dissertation explore how technopedagogical ideologies are created, contested, and disseminated within and beyond communities in US higher education. Findings from this multi-site analysis of technopedagogy demonstrate how a contemplative approach to digital technology can more effectively and holistically augment teaching and learning in US higher education. / Ph. D. / Digital technology is an increasingly common feature in college and university classrooms across the United States. Despite the ever-increasing presence of digital technology in higher education, too little attention is given to matters of pedagogy. Immediate acceptance or rejection of digital technology can seriously influence teaching and learning within higher education. Contemplation, or being attentive to a topic by thinking thoroughly about it, provides the potential to positively shape the future of higher education technopedagogy, or decisions about teaching with digital technology. Little is known about the influence of contemplation on technopedagogy. Therefore, this dissertation first analyzes the use of digital technology in contemporary US higher education. It then provides examples from four research sites to demonstrate the value of contemplative technopedagogy. The four research sites are studied at three interconnected levels – national, institutional, and experimental teaching-learning environments. At the national level, the conversation about digital technology and pedagogy (1993-2016) within The Chronicle of Higher Education was analyzed to understand the practice of technopedagogy in US higher education. Data from that analysis led to the development of the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework with the goal of helping people, centers, and institutes across higher education to improve teaching with digital technology. At the institutional level, the history of Virginia Tech’s Faculty Development Institute (FDI) was analyzed to learn how technopedagogy was conveyed across campus for over 20 years. Due to various internal and external pressures, FDI created technology-focused faculty development programs with little attention to pedagogy. At the experimental teaching-learning environments level, two collaborative case studies applied the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework to demonstrate how contemplation can be incorporated into teaching-learning environments in US higher education that use technopedagogy. Taken together, the manuscripts of this dissertation argue for a contemplative approach to technopedagogy in US higher education. The Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework is offered as a tool to improve teaching and learning with digital technology. Findings from this multi-site analysis of technopedagogy demonstrate how a contemplative approach to digital technology can improve teaching-learning environments in US higher education.

This thesis investigates the relevance of gatekeeping in the process of contemporary news creation and circulation in Saudi Arabia, using largely qualitative data obtained from the observation of two newspapers and a Twitter microblogger, and from personal interviews with thirteen participants. The researcher conducted participant observation in the newsrooms of the print and online editions of a traditional newspaper, Alriyadh, and of an electronic newspaper, Sabq. He also conducted participant observation of the work of a microblogger, Essam Al Zamil, as well as interviewing Saudi editors-in-chief, journalists, webmasters, bloggers and microbloggers. The central finding of the study is the identification of an important component of contemporary news gatekeeping in Saudi Arabia, viz. post-production gatekeeping. The research illustrates the importance of this element to the field of digital journalism and considers its present and future effects, not only in Saudi Arabia but also internationally. Eight aspects of post-production gatekeeping are identified throughout this study as applying to the process of contemporary media production. These are: editing material after publication, deleting posts and news items, blocking, cyber-attacks, pressure on microbloggers to cease blogging, the effects of arrest, pursuing posters via their IP addresses and dumping hashtags through Twitter. The research also identifies four other significant aspects of gatekeeping in the process of contemporary news creation and circulation in Saudi Arabia, which are: social gatekeeping and women’s issues; patriarchal gatekeeping; religious gatekeeping; and hard-copy versus soft-copy gatekeeping.

This work seeks to consider film acting as an integrated element of cinematic expression, a core aspect of film performance but one which gains additional meaning and commentary via combination and integration with the more traditionally considered aspects of filmmaking. Although ‘performance’ is a widely written and talked about aspect of cinema studies, a clear understanding of acting and performance, their relationship to one another and to the mechanism of filmmaking has until now been absent. When in recent years ‘film performance’ has been offered as an academic focus, the cynosure of the analysis has been the actions of the actor and a language to describe them, rather than the skills employed in relation to the specifically technical demands of the medium. What then do we gain when we consider in detail the organic relationship between those technical demands and the actor’s decisions? This foundational question is addressed here in a number of ways. A range of texts are accessed that purport to consider the discipline ranging between academic analysis and practitioner skills. This combination of approaches enables a rounded consideration of the work of the film actor absent from any one exploration of the field. To fully consider cinematic expression, the skills specific to the technical aspects of filmmaking must also be examined. Within these fields research exists which offers a wider integration of the technical and the aesthetic. However, the specific focus of the texts in question also prevents extended consideration of the integrated nature of the chosen code. To augment the initial research, in-depth analysis of a chosen film is presented to reveal the ways in which integration of raw material and post-production can produce a final realisation of ‘performance’. When acting is positioned as a part of cinematic expression the interrelationships of technical choices and their aesthetic application can be fully examined. By no longer positioning the actor as “doing nothing very well” we can begin to assess the ways in which adaptation and accommodation of the technical needs of cinema feed into the decisions and actions of the actor as they attempt to deliver their character in terms of the requirements of script and director. Defining acting and thus performance enables us to consider their place within a unified film product, one that demonstrates a distinct and essential skill set, a craft as central to filmmaking as cinematography, sound, and editing.

This research is focused on the interrelationship between three themes: the identity of contemporary jazz, the relation between contemporary jazz and popular music, and thirdly, jazz and national identity. Using this triangulation, I examine the constructed nature of musical practice, interrogating the notion that the distinctions between music, whether it is genre specific or geographically determined, are natural and innate. Linking theory to practice, I examine how the areas of my research described above, feed into my role as a professional, contemporary jazz drummer. The restricting effect of defining the role of the contemporary jazz musician in rigid, genre-centred definitions is questioned through examining jazz’s relationship with popular music and the music’s’ standing in the hi-art vs. popular culture debate. This area is practically explored in the performance projects through the juxtaposition of both popular repertoire and technical approaches to popular styles with contemporary jazz performance conventions. The notion of jazz and national identity is examined through reflecting on the personal experiences of my role as an arranger and performer operating in Norway and the UK. Specifically, this research will seek to enhance our understanding of the roles the drummer has to play in negotiating the codes and rules used in this area of creative music making. My research is based on a practice-led methodology pursued through two sets of comparative performance projects that have evolved over the last three and a half years. This work utilizes the process of creating the music, live performances and recordings as case studies for comparison and analysis. The content of each performance project provides a platform for me to engage with the specific areas outlined in the thesis and I use practice as a means of raising and exploring questions and explaining codes and conventions.

Trust is recognised as the construct that makes societies function; not only this but it is understood to be the element that makes them successful, wealthier, healthier and wiser. A problem of the trust construct is that, despite its perceived importance on facilitating modern life, it remains a subject that lacks consensus on its definition. Within literature, when the construct of trust is applied to the Web context, there is further confusion as the construct being referred to as trust in actual fact referring to the construct of confidence. This confusion led to the research in understanding trust and confidence in Web behaviour. In addition to researching the literature, the diary-study interview method was used to investigate into how the constructs of trust and confidence function on the Web. The diary study was designed to act as an observational research method, and in doing so would identify the what and how participants used the Web, with the follow-up interviews extracting the why. When taking the core-concept understanding of trust (as developed within this thesis), it shows there to be a disparity between trust and its applicability to the Web. The study further supports this view, and from this emerges the key finding that Web interactions are facilitated and driven by confidence – not trust. Confidence is the construct that drives the Web; what impacts and influences the behaviour of its users. Secondly, and more crucially, confidence is a construct that cannot be created on the Web per se. It is shaped by an individuals' worldview (optimistic / pessimistic), their disposition to risk, their cultural tendencies, their personalities, all of which are factors that are influenced by, and built up on, real-world experiences. Put simply, confidence is created through real-world experiences and it is the real-world atti-tude of an individual that is carried over to govern the nature of their Web interactions.