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Why "igolf"? I love golfing, especially enjoying the gigantic space of the golf course. More importantly, this is the place where I dream and get inspiration for my art. I imagine filling my own global golf course with monumental golf sculptures in the future. This motivation and enthusiasm has modified my direction in creating sculpture. I named my final MFA exhibition "igolf". The idea of the name comes from modern terms we find in popular devices, such as the iPhone, iPod, and the iMac that reflect our technological world. In addition, the sound for "i" shares the same sound of the Chinese Mandarin word for "love." The content of my art represents a dialogue of love similar to the dialogue between men and women who are in love. I have discovered that human beings share many common conversations in daily life, which contain either positive or negative meaning. These conversations might contain hope, excitement, humor, despair, sadness and so on. I decided to use dialogues such as "Can we Start over Again?", "Love is Blind" or "You are my Last Hope!" as the titles of my sculptures. These dialogues help build a mutual understanding between my works and my audiences. When the audiences look at my works and the titles, hopefully they will be reminded of their memorable experiences, whether it be good or bad, with their loved ones. Choosing golf as my subject matter in creating sculptures was inspired by Murakami Takashi, the famous Japanese artist, and Zaha Hadid, an outstanding architect. They are well acknowledged by their incredible works, which symbolize the luxurious life. Therefore, the famous brand Louis Vuitton invited both artists to design for their brand. Events such as these made me realized the potential trend for commercial art. In addition, my 15 year experience as a graphic designer has also helped generate many ideas that relate to golf and its associated products. The practical principles of graphic design have been applied in my "igolf" exhibition. I will proceed to explain the creative process behind each of the works in the exhibition.

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For the past decade, I've been developing a body of work based on the concept of time, in all of its various forms. My medium varies, but my work maintains its steady, overarching philosophies and core aesthetics. The ideas of entropy, growth, decay, evolution, arrested development, fragmented memories, and fugue states; all are considered through a personal filter that borders upon the dark and macabre.

This series of work explores the nature of the bed as object and metaphor. The bed is an object where an action, such as thinking and laying awake takes place. In a metaphorical sense, the bed in my work represents moods and emotions that are psychologically tied to the bed. In this body of work I explore the relationship between the person and the bed. The bed represents not only an intimate space, but also a hiding place of retreat and self-imposed alienation. This series pulls from personal experience, influences such as Alison Brady and Sophie Callie, and select films that focus on the problems, issues, and decisions of the human condition. In my work I bring together formal qualities and conceptual content to create juxtaposition between beauty and mood. I am interested in visual poetry and formalism in photographs. Throughout all the photographic work I have created, I focus on using existing light and composing an image intuitively.

In today´s fast changing global environment, organizations from both private and public sectors are under an increased pressure to continuously change and adapt in order to survive and provide meaningful services and products to their users. Innovation has therefore become an on-going effort that is not only a matter of R&D and product development departments, but rather a responsibility of all employees. To think how products, services, processes, methods and business models can be constantly improved or replaced by new ones is becoming a core competence needed across organization. While many organizations in Sweden have already developed a capability to innovate incrementally through continuous improvements, they often struggle to innovate radically by engaging the talent, knowledge and skills of all employees. In this thesis we thus look at how organizations could enable employees to strengthen their ability to innovate and move from incremental towards more radical innovation. Insights from the practice of contemporary dance groups were used for inspiration, exploring how dancers work in their creative processes and what enables them to move from ideas towards developing a new performance. Since there is very limited literature about the connection between contemporary dance practice and organizational innovation, we tried to build our own framework based on empirical data. In the first study, 20 semi-structures interviews with choreographers from different countries were performed and a model with key phases, tools and enablers of innovation process from choreographic perspective developed. The model was then compared with innovation management theory and empirical data from the industry to identify similarities and differences between the innovation concepts and practice in dance and business.  In the second study the model was tested in practice through participatory action research with 27 participants from different companies and public sector. The study explored how principles and methods from contemporary dance and choreography could be applied to enable innovation in organizational context and what are the effects and limitations of using knowledge from contemporary dance to enable innovation in organizations. The main contribution of the research presented in this thesis is the conceptual framework about innovation process, tools and enablers from a choreographic perspective and a proposed practical method for applying it in organizational context which was developed as a part of the research. Several examples of how practitioners from business and public sector experienced dance-based methods and then translated them into their own working environment to support innovation are presented. / Dagens snabbföränderliga och globala miljö sätter både privata och offentliga organisationer under ökad press att ständigt förändra och anpassa sig för att kunna överleva och erbjuda meningsfulla tjänster och produkter till sina användare. Innovation är därför en pågående insats som inte bara är en fråga för FoU och produktutvecklingsavdelningar, utan är istället ett ansvar för alla anställda. Att tänka på hur produkter, tjänster, processer, metoder och affärsmodeller kan bli bättre eller ersättas med nya, blir en kärnkompetens som behövs i hela organisationen. Samtidigt som många organisationer i Sverige redan utvecklat en förmåga att förnya sig stegvis genom ständiga förbättringar, kämpar de ofta med så kallad radikal innovation där talang, kunskap och kompetens från alla anställda involveras. I den här avhandlingen utforskas hur organisationer kan göra det möjligt för anställda att stärka sin innovationsförmåga, från att vara inkrementellt till att bli mer i enlighet med radikal innovation. Insikter från samtida dansgrupper har använts för inspiration. Vi har studerat hur dansare arbetar i kreativa processer och vad som gör det möjligt för dem att gå från idéer till att utveckla ny föreställning. Eftersom det finns mycket lite litteratur kring sambandet mellan praxis inom samtida dans och innovation i organisationer, har vi sökt att bygga en egen modell utifrån empiriska data. I den första studien genomfördes 20 stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer med koreografer från olika länder. Utifrån detta utvecklas en modell som innehåller viktiga faser, verktyg och möjliggörare i innovationsprocessen från ett koreografiskt perspektiv. Modellen har sedan jämförts med innovationsledningsteori och empiriska data från industrin för att identifiera likheter och skillnader när det gäller innovationskoncept och praxis, mellan samtida dans och näringslivet. I den andra studien testades modellen i praktiken genom deltagarbaserad forskning med 27 representanter från olika företag och den offentliga sektorn. Studien undersökte hur principer och metoder från samtida dans och koreografi kan tillämpas för att möjliggöra innovation i organisatoriska sammanhang och vilka effekter och begränsningar som finns när det gäller att använda kunskap från samtida dans för att möjliggöra innovation i organisationer. Det viktigaste bidraget till forskning som presenteras i denna avhandling är den konceptuella modellen av innovationsprocessen, verktyg och möjliggörare från ett koreografiskt perspektiv samt förslag på praktisk metod för att tillämpa den i organisatoriska sammanhang som har utvecklats som en del av forskningen. Flera exempel presenteras på hur verksamma i näringslivet och offentlig sektor upplevt dansbaserade metoder och sedan översatt dem till sin egen arbetsmiljö för att stödja innovation.

This research study examined perceptions of contemporary effects of colonialism among education professionals in Ghana, and the extent to which education professionals express awareness of colonialism in Ghanaian school systems and contemporary Ghanaian society. An overview of literature in Critical Race Theory, Social Justice Education Theory, Oppression Theory and Post-Colonial Theory provided the theoretical foundation that was used to guide this study. Five factors emerged from this literature review as a framework for analysis of study data. These five factors included discourse, cultural imperialism, linguistic hegemony, racism and internalized racism, and oppression. The study participants included education policy makers, administrators, counselors, teachers, and teacher educators in the educational system of Ghana. A set of thirty-two individual interviews and six focus groups comprised of twenty-seven participants were conducted in which educators described their perspectives of Ghanaian society and Ghanaian educational systems in their own words in response to a predetermined set of twelve questions. A document analysis established a baseline of data regarding the curriculum of Ghanaian schools as presented in curriculum guides, textbooks, and policy statements, handbooks and reports that describe the educational systems in Ghana today. Ghanaian educators expressed the most awareness of colonial legacies related to cultural imperialism, linguistic hegemony, internalized oppression and discourse. The findings suggest that educational professionals in Ghana demonstrate limited awareness of colonial legacies of racism and internalized racism, sexism, classism, ethnoreligious oppression and neocolonialism.

<p> Many factors shape the identity of the Evangelical church, some to its benefit, and others to its detriment. This thesis examines the relationship between materialism and Christianity through the framework of Jane Jacobs' work on the existence of two incompatible systems in public and communal life, the commerce and guardian systems. The principles of materialism and Christocentric ecclesiology are shown to belong to these different systems. Joining the missional discussion, this project therefore seeks to correct the influence of materialism on the church's identity by calling the church to a more Christocentric identity. Particular attention is paid to what a materialistic identity and a Christocentric ecclesiology mean for evangelism, church growth, and leadership. Following that discussion, the importance of three theological principles-transformation, incarnation, and service of others-are outlined.</p> / Thesis / Master of Divinity (M.Div)

The concept of the author has changed over time, along with the forms of media that have been used to circulate texts. In my dissertation, I examine assumptions about writers with roots on the African continent by looking at representations of their status and function as authors as they appear in fiction and in the public sphere. I explore the changes in both the academy's and the public's perceptions of literature in French, and examine how these perceptions are related to current understandings of migration, transnationalism, and "legitimate" cultural production. The generation of writers working after independence from European colonialism in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s re-appropriated language and forms, resisting political and cultural domination. Decades later, can it be said that francophone writers today are as much a part of the literary landscape in French as any other author? I study the writings and self-presentation of five prominent authors writing in French today: Calixthe Beyala (Cameroon), Fatou Diome (Senegal), Bessora (Gabon/Switzerland), Alain Mabanckou (Congo), and Léonora Miano (Cameroon). Through their public performances as well as in their published work, these five writers adapt the repertoire for the writer labeled as "African" or "immigrant" in their own ways. They may play into or play up some of these prescribed roles, but in so doing they highlight the apparatus that structures the publishing industry, including the problematic vestiges of colonialism that remain in place there. Recent theories of the posture de l'écrivain (posturing of the writer) have not yet been fully applied to writers outside the Franco-French, Parisian-centered literary field. I examine the implications of considering the performance of the authorial persona when applied to works by French-speaking authors with origins outside this hyper-centralized industry. My corpus includes their written works, their presence in both traditional and digital media, and their appearances in person at literary events. Focusing on their self-presentation in written and embodied performances enables a more complete grasp of specific ways the literary field is configured for francophone writers, and the differences that remain: in the roles imposed upon them, and in their own authorial aesthetic.

In this dissertation, I argue that infrastructural development, with its technological promises but widening geographic disparities and social and environmental consequences, informs both the narrative content and aesthetic forms of modernist and contemporary Anglophone fiction. Despite its prevalent material forms—roads, rails, pipes, and wires—infrastructure poses particular formal and narrative problems, often receding into the background as mere setting. To address how literary fiction theorizes the experience of infrastructure requires reading “infrastructurally”: that is, paying attention to the seemingly mundane interactions between characters and their built environments. The writers central to this project—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Mohsin Hamid—take up the representational challenges posed by infrastructure by bringing transit networks, sanitation systems, and electrical grids and the histories of their development and use into the foreground. These writers call attention to the political dimensions of built environments, revealing the ways infrastructures produce, reinforce, and perpetuate racial and socioeconomic fault lines. They also attempt to formalize the material relations of power inscribed by and within infrastructure; the novel itself becomes an imaginary counterpart to the technologies of infrastructure, a form that shapes and constrains what types of social action and affiliation are possible.