Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [94]-96) and index.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Frederick Burrack / The purpose of this research is to discover influences that guide practice habits of collegiate instrumental music students, explore student self-discovery of practice needs, and create strategies that can be used to improve the quality of students’ individual music practice. To best address these intentions, three unique yet sequential studies were implemented. The Discovery study focused on the uncovering prior experiences that shaped students’ practice habits before entering college to get an idea of how current practice habits were formed. The Video Self-Confrontation study had participants watch a video recording of a practice sessions to address possible gaps between their perception and the reality of their practice habits. The video self-confrontation prompted discussion about possibilities for enhanced practice skills. The Intervention study expanded upon information from previous studies to develop and administer personalized interventions designed to address weaknesses and identify effect on participants’ practice habits. Independent practice, the time after instruction when a student works toward mastery of skills or concepts, is widely recognized as a critical component of improvement in the performance music. These studies aim to help bridge the gap between practice theories and optimal experiences. These studies explored elements related to practice behavior. Because each person had unique experiences and diverse ways to describe their experiences, a methodology for each study was required that allowed for structured data collection and organization. As such, the constructivist paradigm supported these studies.

This research investigates how new manufacturing concepts can be developed by individual practitioners and small manufacturing companies facilitated by an increased diffusion of digital fabrication tools and knowledge resources. Within this innovation scenario the study is particularly focused on exploring the early stages of research and development, rather than phases concerning product testing and marketing. This thesis provides data from a practice-based study with a technical focus on the development of fabrication concepts based on an underutilised fabrication concept known as Reconfigurable Pin Tooling (RPT). This manufacturing idea has also been described as ‘universal’ or ‘ideal’ tooling and has attracted interest from a number of researchers and inventors since the mid nineteen century (Munro and Walczyk, 2007). Although presenting potential advantages compared with conventional production systems, the concept has only been used in very few practical and commercial applications. Developments in digital technologies are now providing the technical foundations for developing new RPT systems and applications. The practice element of this study features two strands of enquiry. One concerns the development of an RPT system for the production of glass bowls within the researchers' own creative practice. The other practice strand was guided by interaction with a local furniture company, MARK Product, and focussed on the development of an RPT system for shaping upholstery foam. In combination, the two practice elements served to investigate tools, factors, and approaches that are involved when independent practitioners engage in innovation in the context of digital fabrication. Results from both investigations provide new insights into the independent innovation in this field. Original knowledge contributions from this research include the development of two novel RPT applications with a number of new technical solutions also having been established as a result of this study. Equally, the exploration of the glass RPT concept led to the productions of original artistic output, which is presented as evidence for the creative potential of this RPT concept. Furthermore, the study resulted in the development of a new approach for recording research data in rich II media format via an IOS database template. Conceptual knowledge contributions concern concepts and aspects that are relevant to independent innovators operating in the context of digital fabrication, building on the work of Smith and Von Hipple (2005; 2005). Reflections of this study in relation to S-curve theory (Christensen, 1997; Foster, 1986) are also included. The insights from this research have resulted in a concluding argument which proposes that an innovation toolset, which is combined by several facilitating aspects, can be seen as enabling individual practitioners to shift from operating within an individual innovation sphere to a position where they are able to make a valuable contribution in sectors beyond their own practice.

Telemetrics: Drawing Translations began with charcoal drawings on paper, which were then converted into digital information, and finally re-rendered by three-dimensional software. This series of translations allow for a close exploration of the drawing's topography that is similar to the viewpoint of an exploratory rover. The imagery from this digital landscape was collected, exported, and translated into the mediums of print, painting, and video. This body of work was developed in reference to the telemetric systems that are currently in use to explore the cosmos. Space telescopes convert a physical stimulus (light) into electrical signals, or raw data. In order to be analyzed and understood, that information must be converted into a file that can be read over multiple representational platforms, both numerically and visually. Interpreting these data requires translation, which occurs at several levels as the astronomers prepare the data for interpretation. The resultant images, especially those presented to the public, have gone through several stages of adjustment for both informative and aesthetic reasons. In Telemetrics: Drawing Translations, the drawings function as the phenomena of the universe, all of that which can only be understood through telemetric analysis. The drawing's primacy in this system is established through its physicality, level of resolve, and the amount of interpretable information it contains. The derivatives of the drawings mirror the entropic nature of translating information across formats. Tone, contrast and an emphasis on the physical manipulation of material in the drawings formally reference the Rocky Mountain School paintings of the American West. The paintings of Thomas Moran, Albert Biertstadt, Thomas Hill and others allowed viewers to experience the sublime through an environment that was distant and imagined. It is in a similar way that telemetric systems allow us to experience otherwise untouchable places, even if the representations of these far off places is exaggerated or inaccurate.

My paintings rely on discovery-- excavating into the surface to find the painting beneath. I work in an actual space that dimensionally inhabits the picture plane. The process begins with acrylic paint applied in thick layers, creating a sedimentation of color that is later unearthed. The painting emerges as I carve, gouge and dig away dry paint to reveal and investigate a world in paint alone. The process allows for a journey through the depth of the paint, subtracting and adding to the supports until the painting is ultimately resolved. I see the layers of paint revealing their own history, some layers becoming more significant than others. Thousands of paint chips are made in the creation of each painting, which become remnants of the process. Embedding these discarded chips into my next painting allows for a sense of shared history. Some of my process is predetermined, mapping out color layered substrates and other aspects of the painting arrive through an element of surprise, thought the process itself. I want the viewer to see the painting in multiple ways - in the way our memory allows us to experience the same place again in a slightly different way. The imagery comes from fragments of memories that I have collected throughout my life. Most of the memories are related to experiences that I have had in nature and with the people around me. I grew up spending my summers at my family's cottage on the Alleghany River in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Everyday I would stare at the hills with my cousins and play across the river on various large rocks. We began to create a language about our landscape that we spent so much time discovering, naming our special places, growing up thinking hills were mountains. The series of landscapes come from my desire to be in a space of awe. When I was studying abroad I took a trip to Crete Greece. Arriving in the night made me feel anxious about a place unknown to me. My hotel was disappointing and far from the downtown, I suddenly wanted nothing to do with where I was. Frustrated by my predicament, I went to bed. In the morning I stepped outside to find that I was on the beach with mountains in the distance. I was in shock; I had never felt such relief in a reaction to a place.

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For us, the practice of art is extremely important because it provides us with a method for interrogating everyday life - a chance to break with what has been normalized through the routinization of life so as to ask ourselves: is this the best we can do? From here, everything becomes the subject of critical reflection whether the institution, the food you eat, your working relations, or your sexuality. So for example, we ask: how are we organized by Art School, the infrastructure, professionalism, academic standards, curriculum, etc. and in what ways does this determine our ability to imagine and act upon more egalitarian ways of being? In an attempt to answer such a call we are seeking to develop a set of tactics that may help expand a sense of ecology - that notion of interconnectivity that seems so difficult to comprehend yet crucial to the survival of the human life on earth - as well as expand a sense of art in which art is not merely representational but an integral part of how better worlds can be inhabited.

Drawing from interdisciplinary sources my work is focused on site-specificity, process, and how we orient ourselves within our landscape. Often searching to locate myself, I look to the potential of environments as conduits for performance and sculptural interventions. The outcome of my research varies from performance and installation, to sound, video, and drawing. Enticed by the relationship between the body and its surroundings, I utilize marks, light, movement, and ritual. Absurdity and fantasy often enter the work, through my unseen labor and created personas, creating a dialog between our symbolic and animal selves.

The MFA thesis of Matt Janechek sets out to examine his design workflow in the context of transportation design. This work is loosely interpreted to include to the process of exploration, problem solving, deconstruction, repetition, routine and failure.