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The focus of this research aims to target feelings, tendencies, and perceptions of community belonging in order to highlight current challenges in negotiating urban social relationships. The mixed-methods empirical study deployed attempted to identify the multiple and intersecting perspectives contributing to the conceived representations of community in each city. Applying theoretical constructs taken from studies on social cohesion, intersectionality, and metamodernism, this thesis looks to multidimensionality in forming a new theoretical model for achieving cohesive community and social belonging; the purpose of which is to uncover how planning can be conceived as a solution to ethnoracial division and lack of community and social belonging. As individuals, respondents found that meeting on the same premises, taking the perspectives of others into account, and actively acknowledging the presence of unity in difference were all conceived as constructive measures to take. Developing approaches to incorporating these desiderata into planning strategy therefore becomes a logical implication of my research.

The discourse surrounding art in the early 21st century seeks to explain our artistic practices in terms of a radically distinct set of conventions, which many have dubbed ‘metamodern.’ Metamodernism abides neither by modernist aspirations of linear progress, nor by the cynical distrust of narratives familiar to postmodernism. Instead it appears to be based on an entirely different set of premises, relating to betweenness, oscillation, and metaxis, generating art with a dual capacity for irony and sincerity. While metamodernism seeks to break the mold of the conventions that preceded it, it also avoids delimitation and prescription, and this traps it in an impossibility. To truly supplant the postmodern, the metamodern state of betweenness must be equally definite and formally circumscribed. In this project, I argue that metamodernism can be defined as an aesthetic of liminality – a state of thresholds and transitions – and that such a definition opens new avenues for understanding its core axioms. The second goal of the project is to reflect on where the metamodern state of transition might lead, and what future forms it promises. The project relies on literary theory, chiefly that of Northrop Frye, on analysis of the discourse surrounding contemporary aesthetics, as well as on occasional forays into philosophy, anthropology and sociology. The project concludes that metamodernism’s core tenets are best understood as existentialist in nature, abiding by the tradition of existentialist writers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and others. Identifying an existential underpinning to metamodern art is also to uncover an ethical substrate to what otherwise appears to be a freeform aestheticism. The ties between existentialism and metamodernism provide a case study for a broader look at the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, which might be pursued in future work. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / There is a growing consensus among scholars that early 21st century art can no longer be explained in terms of familiar aesthetic conventions. The term ‘metamodernism’ is catching on as a description of our new era. Metamodernism is understood as an oscillation between two modalities – modernism and postmodernism – generating art that is more idealistic and romantic than what we have seen in previous decades, while retaining its capacity to be ironizing and self-aware. However, the discourse surrounding metamodernism has been tentative, provisional, and difficult to circumscribe. In avoiding any overarching claims or settled positions, metamodernism risks remaining only a radicalisation of previous conventions rather than a genuine evolution. The goal of this project is to come to grips with the core tenets of metamodernism, to present them more clearly and distinctly, and to suggest what the scholarship surrounding metamodernism might need to move beyond its current constraints.

The digital age has pushed people closer together than ever before. A device that fits in the palm of your hand allows instantaneous communication with billions of other human beings. People share everyday experiences, passing thoughts, personal photos, sometimes privately, often publicly. Distances between people and places feel reduced. Never has it been so easy to be so emotionally close to so many people. But as digital experiences become routine, our collective perceptions of closeness and distance shift. As virtual communities become larger, so does our awareness of the actual distance between things. Even though humans can be genuinely close to one another on the internet, fragments of meaning, tone, and physicality are often lost in distance. Over-dependence on digital connection can erode local communities and generate apathy towards the real systems we depend on for survival. This project aims to investigate strategies designers and architects may employ to regenerate and recontextualize local communities in the digital age. Research suggests that contemporary cities benefit from a softening of the barrier between public and private spaces. Porous and permeable boundaries between interior and exterior realms can allow dialogues to open and communities to grow, resulting in more enriched urban societies.

In recent years, a new poetry genre has emerged, currently known as Instapoetry, and its chief practitioners are often young females (Pâquet 2019). Instapoetry has many characteristics influenced by the nature of the Instagram platform on which it is published, such as its brevity and its inclusion of visual effects with the text. However, its resemblance and links to older forms of modernist and post-modernist poetry are undeniable; such as its use of symbolism, expressionism, its move away from tradition, and its sense of activism. The “retrofitting” (Chasar 2020) of modernist poetic themes and formats for a digital medium opens up new possibilities for new ways of thinking. I suggest that this new format which can be seen as restrictive, allows for an opening and for new modes of subjectivity. Instapoetry engages feelings and ideas through an inclusive approach and that is essentially what gives it its potential as an activist and educational facility. Through its penchant for activism, Instapoetry engages in a metamodernist global consciousness shift, which Luke Turner defines as a move away beyond postmodernism and an “emergence of a palpable collective desire for change” (Turner 2015).  Female Instapoets often employ nature motifs in their Instapoetry, however, the nature motif is portrayed as something that connects, contrary to the restrictive sense often applied by patriarchal systems. In order to break away from a simplistic reading of Instapoetry as a poetic genre completely closed in by algorithms and word limits and to show the openings that this poetic genre allows, I suggest a new name “Digital Media Ecofeminist Poetry.” I attempt a qualitative methodology, through close reading of various Instapoems by female Instapoets, to demonstrate their nuanced use of form, language, and visuality and I examine the ways in which the digital medium influences this new form of poetry.

Masaaki Yuasa's 2014 series Ping Pong: The Animation approaches the ideas of play, competition, and victory in unique ways, especially when compared to other series in the sports anime genre. Through the protagonist Smile, Yuasa encourages viewers to engage with play in a childlike, empathetic and naïve way, as opposed to focusing on victory. By analyzing the series using De Koven's ways to approach play, scholars and fans can better understand the variety of ways in which the characters approach play, and how each of them eventually learns to play well. Analyzing this series through the perspective of metamodernism as defined by Robin Van Dan Akker and Thomas Vermeulen helps viewers to understand how Yuasa approaches the cynical nature of sports and competition while ultimately deciding to focus on and encourage the sincere and optimistic approach to competition and play. He uses the conventions of the sports anime genre and the broader conventions of anime to make the series accessible, while also subverting traditional expectations. Susan Napier's work on analyzing anime will give context to the study and research done on this series as a piece of the anime medium. Some of Yuasa's other works are also briefly analyzed in order to show his consistent themes and subverting of conventions across other anime genres.

It seems clear to me that humanity currently stands at a major crossroad where “the old truths have lost their validity and new ones are yet to emerge”, to quote late sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. It seems also clear that these “new truths” has to be formulated quickly if we do not want to end up on the wrong fork of the road... During recent years, these two insights has driven my desire to understand where we are now, how we ended up here and how we might move forward. Whereas I began in the field of architecture, my curiosity has led me to look into a wide array of subjects ranging from economy to thermodynamics and sociology in order to comprehend the bigger picture. In this thesis however, I have limited myself to the architectural realm again and I have done so through a close reading of a figure I found along the way: Christopher Wolfgang Alexander. During the course of the project, I have read his four-volume, magnum opus “The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe ” (2003-2004) where he summarizes over thirtyfive years of scientific and architectural research and practice into a “grand unified theory of architecture”. His views on many issues (social to scientific) align a lot with with mine so the goal of this project has been to let his theoretical framework guide my own creative process in order to be able to evaluate the result – does his work present some “new truths” to help us move forward or is it just another blind alley?

The Apple TV+ sports comedy Ted Lasso has been a hit among fans, who flock to the show and its positive messages. The show offers a refreshing tone, one that promotes positivity and optimism even when faced with the reality of a cynical world. By using the analytical perspective of metamodernism to understand its popularity, scholars and fans alike can gain a deeper understanding of core message of the show, which mimics the oscillation between the cynical and the sincere. Fundamental scholars in the emerging study of metamodernism, such as Robin Van Den Akker, Timotheus Vermeulen, and Alison Gibbons will be examined further in this paper to define metamodernism and see how it can be used to gain deeper meaning from Ted Lasso. Metamodernism will then be used to further examine how masculinity operates within the show. Scholars Robert Hanke, Lynn C. Spangler, and Amanda D. Lotz will be used to establish the scholarship that already surrounds the subject of men in television. Ted Lasso showcases competing notions of masculinity in a balance that will be called the "metamodern masculine" in this paper. This masculinity mimics the traits seen within metamodernism and represents a progressive masculinity, one that balances the hegemonic and new masculinities discussed by the scholars. The themes of the show, when examined using metamodernism, point to a hopeful future, falling in line with a pattern of emerging media and speaking to a need for hope among audiences and society.

Creativity is not a hierarchical, but an intertextual, rhizomic process, pulling from a vast array of interests, experiences, and influences. These feed into each other, to inform and motivate artists as creating persons in an ongoing process we call the creative act. Anytime an artist sets out to make something, they are experiencing a dynamic yet concentrated moment of energy in the chaotic cloud of creativity. To demonstrate this, I explore several ideas that inform my piece, Codex Symphonia, including musical influences, but also visual art, film, literature, philosophy, social theory, and politics. In this document, I show that the act of creating a musical work is a deeply personal process that relies heavily on the experiences and vast network of influences on the composer. With this document I look to the contextual structure(s) that point to the possibilities that a work might exist. That is to say that the composition Codex Symphonia is a specific result of an extensive network of ideas and influences not coming from a single origin—it is, in fact all of them together at the same time in a metamodernist act of reconciliation.