No description available.

<p> There is little doubt that emerging technologies are changing the way we act, interact, create, and consume. Yet despite increased access to these technologies, consumers of technology too seldom interrogate the politics, subjectivities, and limitations of these technologies and their interfaces. Instead, many consumers approach emerging technologies as objective tools to be consumed, and engage in creative processes uncritically. This disquisition, following the work of Hawisher, Selfe, and Selfe, seeks ways to approach the problem of a "rhetoric of technology" that uncritically praises new technologies by drawing on avant-garde art traditions and object-oriented ontology. I argue that, by following the philosophies and practices of glitch, dirty new media, zaum, dada, circuit-bending, and others, we might approach writing technologies with the intention of critically misusing, manipulating, and revealing to ourselves and audiences the materiality of the media and technologies in use.</p><p> In combination with these avant-garde practices and philosophies, I draw from object-oriented ontology to argue that we, as new media composers, never simply write <i>on</i> or <i>through</i> our technologies, but that we write in collaboration <i>with</i> them, for they are active and agential coauthors even (and especially) despite their status as nonhuman. I argue for an model that not only levels the ontological playing field between humans and nonhumans, but also one that embraces irregularities and "glitches" as essential features of systems and the actors within those systems. Finally, I provide examples of how to perform these models and philosophies, which I call <i>object-oriented art.</i></p>

The purpose of this project was to develop computer programs for use in a hybrid system for electronic music synthesis. The system consists of a D17B Minuteman computer and an Arp 2500 synthesizer. The programs enable a user to create control signals with the D17B for use in any Arp patch.Up to 511 distinct voltage events may be specified. A voltage event is defined as a discrete voltage or as a continuous (ramp) voltage during a specified duration period. A discrete voltage remains constant over the duration. A continuous voltage changes linearly over the duration period. A voltage event is defined in the range of 0 to +10 Volts. An event duration is defined in the range of zero to thirty seconds in any increment of one-tenth of a second.The project was achieved in three steps. First, the user inputs data to the D17B memory describing the voltage events. Next, a program is executed to convert the data to a form usable by the computer. Third, a program is executed which outputs two control signals. One control signal outputs the voltage event; it is used with any voltage-controlled device on the Arp. A pulse signal is output for each voltage event; it is used as a gate for an envelope generator.This hybrid system expands the capabilities of the Arp. It may be used in place of the Arp sequencer to create longer sequences of control signals. The programs give the user exact control over the voltage value and duration of each voltage event. / School of Music

Assessment of body fat percentage is desirable to identify health risks associated with obesity. There are few studies that have compared the assessment of body fat between air displacement plethysmography and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, particularly related to age and gender differences. The purpose of this study was to determine if body fat percent estimates differ depending on age and/or gender between air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pod, Life Measurements Instrument, Concord, CA) and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA, General Electric Medical Systems, Lunar Prodigy, Madison, WI). Sixty subjects were studied: 15 men and 15 women, 22-35 years and 15 men and 15 women, 55-80 years. Subjects were excluded if they competed in athletics or high-level exercise training in the last year. Standard calibration and testing procedures were used for both methods. Both methods were administered at least twice to evaluate reliability and were repeated a third time if the first two measures differed by >2%. Differences between methods for age groups and gender were analyzed using ANOVA and reliability comparisons between the body composition methods were evaluated with correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots. Using data for all subjects, DEXA (r = .996) and Bod Pod (r = .985) both showed good reliability. However, in younger females the reliability of the Bod Pod (r = .911) was lower. Sixteen of the 60 subjects required a third trial for the Bod Pod, whereas all repeated DEXA measures were consistent. The deviation between trial 1 and 2 for the DEXA (.6%) was significantly less than that in the Bod Pod (1.5%). Significant interactions between the body composition method and age group were found. Mean body fat percentage in the younger group was higher in the DEXA (24.1 + 1.1%) than the Bod Pod (23.0 + 1.3%) however, in the older group it was found to be lower in the DEXA (33.9 ± 1.1%) than the Bod Pod (37.2 ± 1.3%). Both the DEXA and the Bod Pod were reliable but repeated DEXA measures were more consistent than the Bod Pod measures. Bod Pod estimates of body fat percentage were lower for younger subjects, yet higher for older subjects compared to DEXA measurements. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

The aim of this text is to examine the field of experimental electronic music with a focus on gender constructions and in particular electronic music's relationship to masculinity. What are some of the recurring ideals and group cultures? Can these suggest causes or in some way explain the gender imbalance in the field? Due to the expansiveness of the topic, the following text will be divided in to five sections which focus on some of its aspects. In "Male identification and control" gendered stereotypes are analyzed along with suggestions of how they may shape our relationship to technology. "Militaristic symbolism" examines the history of some tools used to make electronic music and its relation to militarism. "Neutrality" criticizes the idea of technology as neutral and "Defensive learning climates" goes in to analyzing the learning environments of electronic music and related technological fields. "Gendered expectations" focuses on how we are socialized to "perform our gender" and how gendered expectations shape us. “Concluding thoughts” will briefly summarize the previous topics and present ideas about how to work more practically with constructions of gender within experimental electronic music environments. / <p>1 CD</p>

No description available.

This thesis aspires to give voice to Jordynn Jack and L. Greggory Appelbaum’s call for more research in Neurorhetorics. The first chapter reviews the pertinent literature encompassing what is titled, “The Rhetoric of Science,” noting appropriate concepts, arguments, and theories. The second chapter provides an introduction to fundamental ideas in Neuroscience and connects them to possible concepts and concerns within Rhetoric and Composition, raising questions for future consideration.

This is PhD submission is both practical and theoretical. The practical element consists of nine electroacoustic compositions. The dissertation acts as a discursive accompaniment to the compositions, addressing many of the contextual and philosophical issues that have arisen during the compositional process and the perfannance of the works. It charts out discourse surrounding the different genres of electroacoustic music that the works relate to as well as examining models of work in the respective genres (i.e. sonic art, text, sound, acousmatic composition, inusique concrite and soundscape composition), and places them into a broader cultural and historical context. Chapter 2 is concerned with the impact of the advent of, and subsequent rapid development of electroacoustically mediatized sound on society and the individual. It relates a diverse mix of conjectures on disembodied sound from different fields, practices and cultures, including sonic art. Chapter3 explorest he emerging genre of soundscapec omposition. After dealing with the genre's lineage and accompanying discourse by composers of soundscape, it develops a relationship between the practice of soundscape composition and contemporary ethnographic practice and theory on ethnographic methodologies. The final section develops a soundscape compositional process with the practice of thefldneur. Chapter 4 relates the aesthetics of acousmatic music to philosophical, physiological and spiritual notions of the sublime throughout the ages. It concludes that acousmatic music has a distinct role to play in imparting sublime experiences. Chapter 5 documents and comments on those projects, which were undertaken with the following performers/ writers/ collaborators: Alaric Sumner, Alice Oswald and Tony Lopez. These projects demonstrate a number of different collaborative relationships between composer and writer and different configurations of acousmatic music and poetry

No description available.

The potential of different spectroscopic techniques for evaluating potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) quality was investigated. Spectral data in the wavelength range of 400-1750 nm were used to develop quality prediction models. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression was used for predicting the water content in potato samples. Water content was predicted with R2 ≥ 0.938. / A further study was conducted to find the best wavelengths for predicting water content using two methods, PLS and multiple linear regression. Wavelength ranges of 910-1020, 1129-1211, 1363-1403 nm were selected for samples without skin, while 700-900, 930-1050, 1100-1300, 1400-1550 nm were selected for samples with-skin. Weight prediction models were established using the predicted water content. / Visible spectroscopy was used for classifying shriveled and non-shriveled potatoes. The wavelength ranges best suited to such a classification were those of 442-452, 456-466, 641-651, and 684-694 nm, with accuracies as high as 94.28% and as low as 80%.