In response to theoretical inquiries into the decline in the production of utopian literature, this dissertation argues that the decline or, rather, the "postmodern" loss of faith in utopian literature and utopian thinking results from the neo-liberal globalization of capitalism and its material and discursive/ideological appropriation of global space. To demonstrate this thesis, the dissertation examines the invariably dystopic imaginative geographies in the fiction of J. G. Ballard. By analyzing the historical-geographical discursive context of Ballard's imaginative geographies, the dissertation attempts to locate and recover those absent spaces that might have served as probable sites of Utopia. / The first part of this dissertation examines Ballard's "Concentration City," "Report on an Unidentified Space Station," "The Enormous Space," "The Overloaded Man," and the novel High-Rise. This section concludes generally that the imaginative geographies inscribed within those texts are closed, insular, homogeneous, pathological and exclusionary social spaces that are antithetical to a Postmodern Utopia whose socio-cultural inclusiveness would be predicated upon a "politics of difference." / The second half of the dissertation examines Ballard's later works, such as Rushing to Paradise (1994), Cocaine Nights (1996), and Super-Cannes (2001). By discursively analyzing the similar yet more ideologically transparent imaginative geographies in these recent works, the dissertation concludes that it is not exclusively the material and ideological conquest of social space by global capital that poses the greatest threat to Ballard's "utopian" socio-spatial imaginary. Rather, it is also the postcolonial threat of the dislocations and mass immigrations of the Indigenous Other precipitated by globalization. It is the emergence of the de-territorialized Other that impels Ballard's imaginative geographies to recoil inwardly into "Privatopias," "white enclaves" and "imperial ghettos" demarcated by neocolonial pathological geographies of exclusion.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop an instructional method utilizing event perception to affect the graphic abilities of young children.Event perception has been described by E. J. Gibson as the detection of invariant properties over a temporalspatial sequence of stimulation. This involves attending to aspects of permanence in an object's size, shape, ratios, proportions or other distinguishing characteristics over continuous transformations in time and space. The detection of these invariant properties facilitates the constant identification of visual phenomena as well as unifying sequential information. The instructional strategy in this study employed event perception training as a means to aid children in their development of drawing skills.The sample was comprised of fifty-seven third grade students in three intact classes in a private New York City elementary school. One group received perceptual training in the detection of invariant properties of moving objects undergoing transformation in time and space; a second group received traditional drawing instruction in composition and drawing techniques, while the third group received no treatment and served as a control section. Students in all three groups were pre- and post-tested using the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP) and the Event Perception Drawing Test (EPDT). The DTVP consisted of five sub-tests designed to test and measure a specific type of perceptual ability. These abilities were operationally defined as: eye-hand coordination, figure ground perception, constancy of shape, position in space and spatial relationships.The EPDT was used to assess ability to perceive and draw invariant properties in visual information undergoing apparent transformation in time and space. The test task involved the sequenced illustration of a narrated event and was completed in five consecutive drawings. The pre and post-test drawings of the subjects in all three groups were subjected to a critique by three independent judges using a test scale designed for the study. The scale consisted of six criterion items associated with the perception of an event; size transformation, shape transformation, spatial transformation, kinetic occlusion, movement and causality.Data gathered during this investigation was subjected to analysis of covariance techniques and, when significant ratios were obtained, t-tests were conducted. The confidence level for testing the null hypotheses was set at an alpha of .05. Review of the data led to the following conclusions:(A) Subjects receiving drawing instruction which included the observation and recognition of physical invariants in moving, temporarily occluded objects achieved significantly higher drawing scores than subjects in the Traditional Drawing and Control Groups. The resulting data indicated that the treatment incorporating event perception training was more successful than drawing instruction in composition and materials.(B) Group performance on the Developmental Test of Visual Perception remained unchanged. The effect of the experimental treatments was inconclusive in this instance.While this investigation made no attempt to assess the aesthetic effects of event perception treatment, it does point out that data acquired through visual perceptual activity may serve as a resource for creative work. More research is required to examine the aesthetic effects of event perception training in general perceptual development. The findings suggest, however, that the inclusion of event perception tasks may stimulate perceptual inquiry, and can thereby aid children in developing the necessary drawing skills to represent changes occurring over time and space. The results of this study also seem to confirm that a source of visual information for art is dependent upon an observer's ability to engage in perceptual inquiry.

In this studio based visual arts project I am exploring through representational painting and compositing, perceptions, conjunctions and disjunctions in space and time in the urban environment. My approach situates the stranger as the phenomenological self, the perceptual being, at the centre of the research who explores the spatio-psychology of the city in the light of contradictory philosophies that move between seeing the city as a place of social malaise to seeing it as a malleable space for each individual within it.

This thesis represents a work of basic research into dimensions of time and space, referred to as temporality, in the condition Alzheimer's dementia. In this theoretical, text-based study, temporality was explored as a dual exposition, in ordinary functioning and in impaired functioning. As expected, the influence of time and space, was found to enter each experience and was observable in every facet of human endeavour and behaviour. Significantly, however, fundamental new interpretations were developed regarding the role of temporality in human life and functioning. Temporality was identified as an essential, common component of both cognitive functions and cohesive identity construction in a unified view of body and mind. As an illustration and clarification of this concept of temporality as a subjective, psychological clock, an innovative framework, the Personal Space-Time model was developed.

In this studio based visual arts project I am exploring through representational painting and compositing, perceptions, conjunctions and disjunctions in space and time in the urban environment. My approach situates the stranger as the phenomenological self, the perceptual being, at the centre of the research who explores the spatio-psychology of the city in the light of contradictory philosophies that move between seeing the city as a place of social malaise to seeing it as a malleable space for each individual within it.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1999. / Adviser: Alexander Vilenkin. Submitted to the Dept. of Physics. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-122). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (PhD--Anthropology)--University of Washington, 2008. / Title from PDF cover page (viewed on 4 February 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-236).

Thesis (M.V.A.)--University of Sydney, 2007. / Title from title screen (viewed 26 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the Sydney College of the Arts. Includes a list of illustrations: leaves 5-6. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 69-71.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-132). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.