This research examines two pieces composed by me: Drop, for string octet, strobe lights, and electronic sounds (2015), and Decoder, for MIDI drums, holographic projections, and electronic sounds (2017). Both works interrogate a particular manifestation of digital technology: in the case of Drop, strobe lights, and in Decoder, digital screens. This process involves unpacking the character, language, and associations of a particular technology, and exploring how human performance complements, opposes, and negotiates with these elements. My analysis highlights the influence of Post-Digitalism in my work and aims to show how mixed-media performance technologies function metaphorically, and how their influence can be traced from their physical presence on stage to notated gestures in performance.

Whispers from the Ghost House is the concrete manifestation of the mutable nature of childhood memory held within the nebulous forms of home. In all of its many incarnations home exists as a construction out of time and space that absorbs the accumulation of life performed around and within its walls. Home is idealized and sought after, both sanctuary and snare. The iterations of home I created are primarily constructed from repurposed materials with inherent histories; unstable and malleable. Cardboard and paper holds the plastic veneer of various mediums to shape, color, and mar surfaces. The home develops an identity as it absorbs each action and material, gradually becoming an entity as well as a receptacle, to both display and obfuscate the nostalgic and the unattainable. Each hardened home becomes a haunted being in which memories interlace and fade away as they transform into the wild twisted houses of reverie. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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The overarching objective of this research is to recognize the learning styles of engineering and technology students and to propose pedagogical methods for the comprehension of technological concepts in electricity. The topic of electrical resistor-capacitor (RC) circuits has been chosen because it is fundamental to engineering and technology courses. There is substantial evidence to suggest that students find such a concept difficult to grasp. The focus of the research lies in explicating undergraduate students cognitive structures about RC circuits, and proposing a method related to students learning styles of how these cognitive structures may be enhanced. The main thesis argument claims that the transfer of knowledge from familiar RC circuit configurations to unfamiliar RC circuit configurations does not occur easily even if the problem-space is kept identical. The methodology used in this research is a mixed-method approach employing qualitative and quantitative data-gathering and analysis processes. This research concludes that the reasons for lack of transfer of knowledge stem from conceptual and perceptual constraints. Constraints involve: (a) which analogical models are employed in relation to the RC circuit, (b) how the circuit schematic diagram is drawn, and (c) relations between analogy, circuit schematic diagram, voltage-time graphs and verbal jargon used to describe circuit behaviour. The research presents a variety of novel, custom-designed learning aids which are employed within the research methodology to rectify the lack of transfer of knowledge for the RC circuits considered in the study. The design of these learning aids is based on the concept of embodied cognition and mainly makes use of visual and kinaesthetic means to appeal to students who may have different learning styles. The use of such learning aids is proposed as a complementary teaching strategy. The approach taken in this research and its outcomes are significant because they continue to inform the research and educational communities about how human development may be fostered through engineering and technology education (Barak and Hacker, 2011).

This thesis includes the focus of my creative process regarding my MIS degree. Artists that have influenced me along with experiemental art techniques are discussed.

Since childhood, my passion to create has driven me to search for the simplest truths within the world I live in. Throwbacks of pop culture have always decorated my life and their influences are directly reflected in my work. The nightly news, advertisements, pulp magazines, film, and music all play an extremely important role in my work as each influence becomes a layer of spirit and emotion in my mixed media paintings and photography. It’s those ordinary and mundane gifts that I find in each normal day that spill the truth and the essence of my life into my art. Popular culture has always filled my life with vivacity, passion, and a yearning for creativity. Admittedly, I’ve long been an artist that gets lost in the contemporary message of my work. I do after all own it and somewhere in my creative mind the process of creation and the object as art become my unified gospel in a sacred delivery and message. I absorb my surroundings, dissect it, rearrange it, and spit it back out to the world as a reinterpretation of the original, and on occasion transform it into something totally original within itself.

My processes and techniques are driven by the need to explore and to understand my own hesitations and convictions about our world. Initially, I began addressing these needs in my artwork using acrylic paint and sandpaper. This led me to investigate a variety of media including ink, transfers, and oil-based paints, as well as different solvents, cleaners, and varnishes, all to create or remove layers. Through this variety of media, I have come to discover that what matters most to me is the physical process of art-making. Each decision I make is done with regard to the additive elements of the media and what may be revealed through the subtractive processes later. Through my artwork, I continue to explore what I can only describe as the faÇades of the world as I see it. My work is often driven by cynicism and derision, and the media and processes I work with allow me to investigate and understand those aspects of our culture which I perceive with suspicion.

I stand in awe of nature's beauty. The natural forms and colors of my subjects inspire me to create paintings and three-dimensional clay pieces. As I marvel at God's handiwork, my soul is enriched by the pure sight of His canvas. The rich bright colors of the organic shapes compel me to visually interpret what I experience as an expression of who and what I am, and what I want others to see. My intent is to focus on the elements of the subject matter where the color, shape, and form dominate the space.

I prefer to make my work specifically for an exhibition about a place. I'll spend days, sometimes months, exploring this place without preconceptions - walking the roads or trails or fields, falling in love with aspects of the landscape, considering questions the place suggests before I begin to contemplate how to make them into images. The actual making of images helps me to refine thought that is often elusive, contradictory, or enigmatic. Each pinhole photograph, painting, sketchbook, found object, sculpture, or drawing provides its own tools for reflection. Over time, these processes form hundreds of images. Some will begin to call themselves together and somehow suggest a new perspective, a cumulative image that reveals something heretofore unseen about this place, even to me. With these new insights in mind, I begin to cull the images, seeking to draft a sense of place, to part out from complexity a body of work that I hope will allow viewers to contemplate a place through the language of its own images.

Faith and family are the aspects of my life that bring me joy and inspiration. This joy is represented as light and is present both literally and symbolically in all my work. I use light or a flame in my ceramic pieces to represent warmth, love, and spirituality. Images of nature are employed to suggest life. My most recent ceramic work embodies aspects of family and the joy of motherhood. My paintings focus on my family and are centered on the moments or memories that are significant to them. I try to paint the light of their lives.