This thesis is concerned with architectural and design practitioners involved in areas outside of their training: specifically, with the way designers embrace a do-it-yourself or DIY ethic to create experimental, ephemeral, collaborative environments not usually considered “architecture” in the professional sense. This happens because they become directly involved with a variety of methods, construction activities, project types and materials normally associated with amateur building. The thesis does not aim to contribute to more comprehensive solutions for architectural production (say, commercial practice), but rather focuses on a particular production opportunity. It attempts to draw forth qualities of process, practice and conceptualisation that are of relevance to architecture and could be the basis of future exploration in architecture. Thesis submitted for the award of Master of Applied Science (Research), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 2008

<p>Examensarbetet består av en skriftlig del och en gestaltande del. </p>

The thesis primarily aims to analyze the situation of DIY culture on the specific case of contemporary DIY photography through a research focused on photography students and alumni at Czech photography programmes. The research consists of fifteen in-depth interviews conducted with the students or alumni providing qualitative data that is analyzed quantitatively using the interviewees' coded answers. The secondary aim is to provide a theoretical background to the topic of DIY photography, exploring the connection between photography and DIY (Do It Yourself) in its historical context, as well as its current standing, as well as to introduce the photography medium's evolution briefly, focusing on the methods that were discovered, or applied, with a certain level of amateurism or through contribution from another field. Later, it explores the concept of DIY in different forms, subcultures, and contexts to draw a conclusion of how photography and DIY relate. The thesis' findings are centred around the struggle photographers feel when it comes to DIY in digital technologies, mainly due to limits in their skills in hands-on processes compared to analogue photography and the overall level of satisfaction with the available technology.

This thesis focuses upon ‘Do-it-Yourself’ (DiY) music practices in Glasgow, a Scottish city with an established reputation for sustaining a prolific grassroots music scene. With special reference to three local music actors – a band, a music collective and a live music promoter – it explores ethnographically the pluralistic nature of music-making and its relation to ethics. Rather than perceiving activities under the DiY rubric as peripheral and haphazard, I argue that they play an intrinsic role in ethical self-formation and that they are striking in their capacity to order the lives of urban individuals. Therefore, I attend to music practice as an ethical practice by underscoring the interrelationship between music and the city as a distinctive form of ethical urban life. In drawing upon the emergent anthropology of ethics and echoing the work of authors such as Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre, I conceive of music-making as a process of intersubjective ethical cultivation, as a way of exercising freedom, and the means by which my informants perpetually sought to exert their right to inhabit the locality. In treating the local as a series of repetitive but ever evolving and intersecting pathways as opposed to a given and fixed geographical entity, I attempt to render the city an inherent ethical modality of social life and, conversely, to scrutinize music practice as a process that localizes subjects. Thus, my ethnographic examination of the ways in which urban space impinges upon music practice and, in turn, is musically constructed and experienced, offers a lens into the ethical resonance of music as a processual nexus for the making of ethical selves and cities. My informants’ desire to inhabit the locality on their own terms was predicated upon the active appropriation and enactment of spaces and norms, rather than oscillating between passivity or subordination and resistance. This highlights the needs to problematize the pervasive notion of ‘agency’ that underpins social-scientific accounts of human freedom and to question the rigidity of the dichotomy between structure and agency. An emphasis on ethical judgement and the pedagogical role of music activity in conferring a DiY êthos and in making oneself a certain kind of person also requires the consideration of the embodied dispositions pertinent to and cultivated through variegated music practices, and how the acquisition of relevant musical skills simultaneously engenders particular ethical potentialities. This construes ethics as Aristotelian poiêsis and an ineluctably skilled practice and further alludes to the intimate relationship between music and the body. In resorting to the body’s capacity to affect and be affected by music and other bodies, my analysis aims to account for the conditioning of sensuous articulations and corporeal registers by sonic vocabularies, and the process of interpenetration between the musical and the visceral that elicits specific ethical propensities. This interface between sound and the affective body, I argue, provides a uniquely ‘musical’ way of thinking about ethics as a relational phenomenon, and also helps to restore a notion of politics on the basis of intersubjective ethical transformation rather than conventional political efficacy in the public realm.

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Introduction: Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) debuted in 2006 within the U.S market as novel tobacco products and have been gaining popularity since. Without enforced regulations, prevalence of awareness and use has significantly increased. The purpose of this study is to explore the evolving landscape of ENDS using the Host, Agent, Vector, Environment (HAVE) model with a focus on manufactured e-liquids and do it yourself (DIY) e-liquids as the Agent. Methods: Content analysis of e-cigarette web forums was conducted to identify popular brick and mortar point of sales (POS) for the purchase of ENDS products. POS were mapped out within a 1-, 2-, and 3- mile radius from three college campuses using Google Maps. An environmental scan was then conducted on randomly selected POS sites (N=17) where observations on e-liquid flavors and characteristics were identified. In addition, a content analysis of web forums was used to qualitatively characterize DIY e-liquids in depth. Results: A total of 602 flavors were profiled in the POS environmental scans and five main flavor categories of e-liquids were identified: 1) Tobacco and Menthol (16.6%); 2) Desserts and Candies (16.6%); 3) Fruits (20.6%); 4) Drinks (10.1%); 5) Other (36.0%). Most flavored e-liquids were sold in stand-alone vials (91.0%). When sold with manufactured products, flavored e-liquids were sold in E-Hookahs (10.6%) compared to E-Cigarettes (4.7%). Most (96.8%) flavored e-liquids were available with and without nicotine. Based on content analysis of e-cigarette web forums, the words with the highest frequency in the DIY transcripts were: “flavor”, “mixing”, “liquid”, “calculators”, and “nicotine”. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that for both manufactured and DIY e-liquids, flavors are a distinguishing and primary characteristic. Given these findings, increased surveillance efforts to monitor ENDS and e-liquids are necessary to inform regulatory science.

This independent study has the intention of bringing forward increased knowledge about  methods that may be used by an artist, music producer or songwriter in order to reach out with their own music independently without a record company being involved. Through artistic research, four musical pieces have been produced of which two consequently were released on different digital music streaming platforms. The study includes on one hand the process of creating the music, and on the other hand the entrepreneurship regarding the music release, i.e. the digital distribution and even subjects regarding publishing rights and marketing. The result of the study is presented as actual sound recordings and also in an analysis of how the music was received by the listeners on the different digital platforms. The conclusion of this study shows that the fastest and easiest way of obtaining many stream listenings (for example on Spotify) was to succeed in getting the music included on Spotifys own playlists. More followers of a playlist means more listeners. The more streams the song gets the more lists it can get included on. In conclusion the discussion contains the skills needed in order to release music and secure royalties for the artistic effort. / Detta självständiga arbete syftar till att bidra till ökad kunskap om metoder för att som artist, musikproducent och låtskrivare publicera och nå ut med sin musik på egen hand, utan att vara signad till ett skivbolag. Genom konstnärligt utforskande har fyra verk komponerats och producerats och denna musik har sedan släpps digitalt på olika musikstreamingplattformar. Arbetet innehåller både en del om det konstnärliga skapandet och en del om entreprenörskapet i publiceringen av musiken, alltså om den digitala distributionen av musiken men även om rättigheter och marknadsföring. Resultatet av arbetet redovisas dels klingande, i bilagd ljudinspelning, och dels i en analys av hur musiken togs emot på de olika digitala plattformarna. Det visade sig att det snabbaste och lättaste sättet att få många lyssningar på t.ex. Spotify var att få låten placerad på deras egna spellistor. Ju fler följare en spellista har desto fler lyssningar får låten. Ju fler lyssningar låten får desto fler listor hamnar låten på, till exempel i form av användares Discovery Weekly-listor. Avslutningsvis diskuteras flera av de färdigheter som behövs för att på egen hand kunna släppa sin musik och få in intäkter för den.

The main Target is to compare commercial device for eye tracking analysis with a device made by DIY (Do it yourself) in the chosen environment. The work includes basic analysis methods Eye tracking. It offers a list of devices suitable for comparison, or marginally list of alternatives. A significant part of the thesis deals with construction of DIY tracker. The comparison is made on the basis of experimental measurements of commercial device and DIY device. The result is that in the selected conditions we can DIY device used because it is comparable with the commercial product. One of the sub-chapters is devoted also to question of the application DIY. In the last part was used the DIY device to analyse on realistic object. Specifically outdoor - print ads of Zubr brewery with evaluation.

The following thesis will explore and evaluate the lighting design behind Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge produced by the UMass Amherst Department of Theater as part of their 2017-2018 season. It will cover the entire lighting design process from reading the script to producing the world on stage. It will reflect early conversations, the collaboration process, design goals and executions, and the successes and failures reflecting on our art.

This work explores upcycling with a focus on unconventional materials and craft techniques/DIY. Today, countless designers are working with upcycling, yet there are many directions of it that have not been explored. The motive behind this work lies in the importance of finding and presenting sustainable ways of working with fashion. However, the main focus is on the aesthetics, meetings between materials, shape, techniques and contexts. It was important to add something new to the field of upcycling. Hence, a focus has been on finding and working with materials and techniques that have not been used for upcycling in a fashion context before. All different kinds of materials are considered and they are all treated equally, whether it was plastic trash or crystals, textiles or non-textiles. Potential is seen in everything. Another thing that differs this work from others in the area, is that the whole collection is made without using any machines. The focus is on the handicraft. Similar to materials, techniques are not seen as something that is intended for a specific purpose. The motto is that anything can be made out of everything. Through careful craftsmanship and detailing and with a focus on decorative materials, context crossing and meetings between material and technique, the hope is that this collection will present a new and fresh take on upcycling.