This thesis explores the use of location-based augmented reality to transform our perception of the built environment. In the artwork, the historic Armory building in the Town of Blacksburg which serves as home to the School of Visual Arts (SOVA) at Virginia Tech is used as a locus of changing functions, social impact, and evolution. In this case, its history is used to creatively visualize the overlooked narrative in familiar spaces through augmented reality (AR) murals. AR is an artistic medium that unveils rich hidden histories, sparks conversation, and promotes deeper connection between people and places. I drew inspiration from contemporary artists such as Brian Peterson, the social narrative of the WPA mural initiative, and Kandinsky's vibrant abstract work. The project utilizes Google's ARCore framework in the Unity game engine as well as Google's Geospatial API with the aim to creatively reveal hidden narratives in places and promote positive social engagements. / Master of Fine Arts / Augmented reality (AR) has increasingly become popular and social media applications like Instagram and Snapchat and more immersive mixed reality headsets like the Meta Quest 3 has allowed people all over the world to connect in unique ways and have shared unreal experiences. AR allows digital visuals to exist and blend with the space around us. For me, this unlocks the potential to create new forms of artworks, to creatively display those unreal or forgotten events that have happened in the past and because it is AR, they can exist right at the space they once occurred. One benefit of this is that it can be applied to any space, landmarks, or obscure places, and can be used to pull people together to engage in new ways. After looking at works from other artists; muralists, painters, AR artists, I created an AR mural artwork to creatively display the hidden narratives of the Armory building in Blacksburg Virginia. I used artistic and technical tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Google's AR technologies and Unity, a 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional game creation software to create the AR murals and lock it to the longitude and latitude of the space around the Armory building. One reason I chose this place as a point of reference is because its function has changed multiple times since its construction in 1936.

Poster / Soc 397a / 2017 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop

Poster / Soc 397a / 2015 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop

The aim of this paper is to study the potential discourse has to alter the way that gentrification transforms neighbourhoods. In order to gather the knowledge necessary to answer that question this study has focused its attention on Crown Heights, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York. It explores how resistance in the form of urban social movements were a factor in the Bedford Union Armory project, where several protests and discourse used over social media had arguably a large role in changing the scope of that project to be more inclusive and attend in a greater way to the needs of the local residents. The second focal point of this paper is to study the discourse used by local newspapers when articles are written about gentrification in Crown Heights. It aims to highlight the difference in the language used by employing a critical discourse analysis where the metaphors and the transitivity used by the authors is studied. The differences between the articles can in some places be regarded as quite stark, where that specific discourse is most likely used to reinforce their own world view.

This work mainly focuses on putting the laborers of the Richmond Armory and the Tredegar Iron Works into the context of Civil War Richmond by focusing on their skills, backgrounds, and loyalties throughout the conflict. It highlights the similarities and differences between the two institutions and the legacies that they left behind in the years following the war. It also sheds light on some of the problems facing the Confederacy during the course of the war and its struggle to procure arms.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T14:49:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana R A Cararo.pdf: 2592961 bytes, checksum: 333a7a523e628bcfb0cede0bd365f0a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-29 / ABSTRACT: The Wintering Armory Quilombola community of Tile was founded in 1868, when the Group of thirteen freed slaves took over the land area of Wintering Armory of tile, located in the municipality of Reserva do Iguaçu, Paraná, left in inheritance to the same, by his former mistress, Balbina Francisca de Siqueira, as testament dating from 1860. Currently the community is composed of about 350 families, which are divided into four nuclei (Guarapuava, pinion, Settlement and Embankment), waiting for the completion of the process of titling their territory, initiated in 2005, Is by the INCRA. Since they had to leave their land in 1975, the community sought to retrieve them, promoting several lawsuits, without, however, succeed. The last alternative fetched then, like so many other Rural Black Communities, fighting to be recognised, respected and kept the areas that traditionally occupy, went to fitness for existing legislation. Article 68 ADCT, included in the Federal Constitution of 1988, after mobilization of the black movement, ensures permanent land titling that are occupying the remaining Quilombo Communities calls. After signing the Decree 4,887/2003, communities such as the Wintering Armory of tile that were no longer in their land, have been given the right to have them in physical form, using the principle of attribution. In this way, this work aims to show the importance the quilombola legislation, principally the Decree 4,887, has for these black rural communities, which for years struggling to get possession of the Earth. / A Comunidade Quilombola Invernada Paiol de Telha foi constituída em 1868, quando o grupo de treze escravos libertos assumiu a área de terra da Invernada Paiol de Telha, localizada atualmente no município de Reserva do Iguaçu, Paraná, deixada em herança para os mesmos, pela sua antiga senhora, Balbina Francisca de Siqueira, conforme testamento datado de 1860. Atualmente a Comunidade é composta por cerca de trezentas e cinquenta famílias, que estão distribuídas em quatro núcleos (Guarapuava, Pinhão, Assentamento e Barranco), a espera da conclusão do processo de titulação do seu Território Quilombola, iniciado em 2005, junto ao INCRA. Desde que tiveram de sair das suas terras em 1975, a Comunidade procurou reavê-las, promovendo diversas ações judiciais, sem, no entanto, obterem êxito. A última alternativa buscada então, a exemplo de tantas outras Comunidades Rurais Negras, que lutam para terem reconhecidas, respeitadas e tituladas as áreas que tradicionalmente ocupam, foi à adequação a Legislação vigente. O Artigo 68 ADCT, incluído na Constituição Federal de 1988, após mobilização do Movimento Negro, garante a titulação definitiva das terras que estejam ocupando as chamadas Comunidades Remanescentes de Quilombo. Após a assinatura do Decreto 4.887/2003, comunidades como a Invernada Paiol de Telha que não estavam mais em suas terras, passaram a ter o direito de tê-las tituladas, utilizando-se do principio da auto atribuição. Deste modo, este trabalho objetiva mostrar a importância que a legislação quilombola, principalmente o Decreto 4.887, tem para essas comunidades rurais negras, que há anos lutam para conseguir a posse da terra.

After the Vietnam War, increased defense funds assigned to the Army National Guard stimulated and supported small communities in Louisiana. Recruits from economically depressed regions lined up to join the Guard because of the competitive pay and the generous education benefits it offered. In the mid-1980s, when a state budgetary shortfall threatened to limit the stream of federal funds and close local armories, communities in Louisiana rallied to keep the doors of their armories open. This paper examines how the readiness efforts of the Louisiana Army National Guard affected the economies of small communities as defense dollars increased following the shift from a draft army to an all-volunteer force and the implementation of Total Force Policy.