This paper is intended to serve as a supporting document for the exhibition This Site Is Under Construction that was held at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, University of Waterloo, April 17th – May 14th, 2010. The work explores the ways in which we constitute and mediate our specific place in a space that is constantly changing. It is concerned with notions surrounding how we make and perceive images now in our computerized visual culture and the ways in which we can mark a subjective painting aesthetic and visual vocabulary. The painting installation, “This Site Is Under Construction”, investigates the effects of new media and digitization on experiential perception, and the nature of making and re-configuring images. The title alludes not only to the on-line, virtual space of the computer, but also to the physical spaces of building and urban development sites. The subjects for the paintings are spaces in flux – specific locales of construction and building sites that are in-between states of development – placing emphasis on the mechanized devices that fabricate the new structures. The paintings themselves reveal seemingly spontaneous and optically warped immersive spaces; alternative architectural environments which subvert interpretations of two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms of visual presentation and recognition. The work aims to contrast outward appearance and illusionistic staging as it relates to both the picture and its support.

This practicum paper looks at the work of contemporary artists: Char Davies, Jen Southern, Wolfgang Laib, Pierre Huyghe and Max Neuhaus. From examining the artists ideas on perception many links and ideas are drawn out. From this examination the author plays with the idea of perception and the training of the senses. Sound becomes an important element. In the end the author designs a strike walk. The strike walk is focused on the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

This practicum paper looks at the work of contemporary artists: Char Davies, Jen Southern, Wolfgang Laib, Pierre Huyghe and Max Neuhaus. From examining the artists ideas on perception many links and ideas are drawn out. From this examination the author plays with the idea of perception and the training of the senses. Sound becomes an important element. In the end the author designs a strike walk. The strike walk is focused on the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

Our study has explored how university students at the Technical University of Mombasa, TUM, in Kenya consume news. The aim of the research has been to get a snapshot picture of what the consumption look like in a time and context when the development of Internet Communication Technology, ICT, has increased rapidly in a short period of time. Our empiric data has been collected through three different methods. First we approached the area of the Technical University of Mombasa with an ethnographic method. Then we went on with an in-depth interview with one of our key informants before handing out a survey to collect quantitative data to analyse. Through theoretical framework rooted in the theories of Digital divide and New media we interpreted our data to be able to answer our research questions. The results show that the use of the smartphone is widely spread in order to consume news among students of TUM. Money is still a big obstacle for the majority of the students in our population in how they can access news through technical devices. The gap between those who can afford and those who fight with financial issues is still large. Our study confirms that the gap in the digital divide is still big but we could read signs telling us that the gap maybe is about to shrink.

This study examines the dynamics of critical Internet culture after the medium opened to a broader audience in the mid 1990s. The core of the research consists of four case studies of non-profit networks: the Amsterdam community provider, The Digital City (DDS); the early years of the nettime mailinglist community; a history of the European new media arts network Syndicate; and an analysis of the streaming media network Xchange. The research describes the search for sustainable community network models in a climate of hyper growth and increased tensions and conflict concerning moderation and ownership of online communities.

I posit that contemporary fears about the effect electronic media has on us and our children is anything but new. Therefore, reminiscing about the "good ole days" and wanting to go back would not actually solve the problem. However, looking back to a time when there was also anxiety about electronic media and the shifting field of public and private may reveal new possibilities for relating to and with these media. Rather than flatly blame media as an apparently new cause of harm, it is essential to reveal media's historical and political conditions, only in this way can we better assess its possibilities and limits. I argue that the figure of the mother in Poltergeist (1982) and Stranger Things (2016-) can be read as both a metaphor and model for media. The mother exhibits, what I call, active-passivity, which means that she does not amputate herself from her media use and its implications, but rather provides oversight and intervenes when necessary. I draw upon the work of media scholar Marshall McLuhan in order to read the figure of the mother as a cool medium that demonstrates and invites a high level of involvement. The figure of the mother's method of media use is affirmed by the film and offered as not only a mode of media use but also a mode of politicization. In our present moment, we are constantly technologically extended into the world with our networked media. I contend that Stranger Things returns to the 1980s to reveal that even while using cool media, what is important is how one uses that media. I utilize the work of Svetlana Boym in my argument that not only can we learn something from media that is nostalgic, but we can learn something about our relationship with media through nostalgia.

This dissertation seeks to address the pivotal ecological and technological realities of the twenty-first century, currently giving rise to new patterns of existence and new paradigms of human inquiry. This study will ask how technological innovation and environmental urgency have altered the ways in which human beings think, and thus perceive the world around them, changing human behavior, or non-behavior, and calling forth new imperatives for the arts, and namely for the Theatre. Most significantly, the dissertation attempts to traverse the shadow-lands, between our ecologies and our technologies, exploring those essential points of convergence in the borderlands where Eco-Theatre and New Media must find a precious balance. As digital media and new technologies continue to transcend previously conceived barriers, so do new opportunities present themselves. New forms emerge, bridging cultures, facilitating connections of thought beyond national geographic boundaries. Rising to the challenge, seeking a global, even playing ground in a liminal age of shifting, invisible borders, this dissertation addresses the current need for re-envisioning of our positionality as artists, and as citizens of the world. In conclusion, the dissertation points toward a methodology of interdisciplinary creative collaboration, of global community-based social practice art, of theatre ecology, and of active new media strategies to address the needs of this decisive age.

The video game as a medium is young compared to film or literature. As such there is less research available on the subject, particularly in the area of video game criticism related to sexualization and gender issues that underscore stereotypical portrayals of women, ethnicity, and overall gender roles. What research there is regarding video games primarily uses still images or short gameplay segments as data sources. Given the long form narrative that many video games employ to engage players, such data sources do not give a full picture of the video game's content. The purpose of this project is to create a tool that can be used by academics and industry professionals to collect data on various aspects of video game content easily and reliably. Inspired by the objectivity and unambiguous construction of the Bechdel-Wallace test, the Prototype Stark Gaming Metric (pSGM) has been constructed following the same principles. The pSGM is an instrument of various categories informed by previous media research. These categories are then coded to reflect a video game's content that is "typical" and "atypical" (as defined by previous research). Once coded, the metric produces a single numeric value representing what amount of a video game's content is "typical" or "atypical." The metric was applied to two contemporary video games to both assess the usefulness of the metric's coding itself and reveal any major issues with the method, coding system, and coding categories.

Digital games have been used in the international development industry for over a decade, yet they have received little scholarly attention. This dissertation uses the Half the Sky Movement’s (HTSM) digital games as a case study to understand the production and use of games for development purposes. In doing so, it analyzes the games both as texts that extend the discourse of development, and as material objects with important political economic implications. Specifically, it looks at how the narratives embedded in these games disrupt or reinforce dominant narratives already at play in the development industry, and it considers how the private/public relationships created through the production of the games shape game content and impact both the gaming and development industries. The study uses critical qualitative methods, including textual analysis and in-depth interviews, and a political economic approach to complete this work.

abstract: For the past few decades, feminist researchers have worked tirelessly to recover the history of American women’s sewing – both the artifacts made and the processes, practices, and identities linked to the objects produced. With the transition to the digital age, women are still sewing, but they are inventing, making, and distributing sewn objects using platforms and pathways online to share knowledge, showcase their handicrafts, and sell their wares. This dissertation examines contemporary sewing and asks how digital practices are extending and transforming the history of women’s sewing in America. I place my findings against the backdrop of women’s history by recounting how and why women sewed in previous eras. This dissertation demonstrates how past sewing practices are being repeated, remixed, and reimagined as women meet to sew, socialize, and collaborate on the web. The overall approach to this project is ethnographic in nature, in that I collected data by participating alongside my female subjects in the online settings they frequent to read about, write about, and discuss sewing, including blogs, email, and various social media sites. From these interactions, I provide case studies that illuminate my findings on how women share sewing knowledge and products in digital spaces. Specifically, I look at how women are using digital tools to learn and teach sewing, to sew for activist purposes, and to pursue entrepreneurship. My findings show that sewing continues to be a highly social activity for women, although collaboration and socializing often happen from geographically distanced locations and are enabled by online communication. Seamstresses wanting to provide sewing instruction are able to archive their knowledge electronically and disperse it widely, and those learning to sew can access this knowledge by navigating paths through a plethora of digital resources. Activists are able to recruit more widely when seeking participants for their causes and can send handmade goods to people in need around the globe. Although gender biases continue to plague working women, the internet provides new opportunities for female entrepreneurship and allows women to profit from their sewing skills. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016