This thesis is an exploration of the historical, societal, and individual as well as material factors that contribute to the constructing of space, and in particular, sacred space. With the idea that the making of sacred space is simultaneously a material construct and a construct of the mind, both postures were considered and studied throughout the research and design process of the thesis. / Master of Architecture

Architecture that embodies contradiction has the opportunity to be a separation while creating new avenues. Separations help by distinguishing the two dualities. This thesis is an exploration on Architecture's response within complexity and contradiction. Within my project, the driving parameter is the program: A monastery for the Dominican order within an urban context of Washington DC. The architecture has two primary responsibilities, one is to preserve the sanctity of a restricted way of living and the other to engage with its profane surrounding. The two most important questions are: how does a monastery represent itself to a city; and how does a city represent itself from within a monastery. / Master of Architecture / Architecture that embodies contradiction has the opportunity to be a separation while creating new avenues. Separations help by distinguishing the two dualities. This thesis is an exploration on Architecture's response within complexity and contradiction. Within my project, the driving parameter is the program: A monastery for the Dominican order within an urban context of Washington DC. The architecture has two primary responsibilities, one is to preserve the sanctity of a restricted way of living and the other to engage with its profane surrounding. The two most important questions are: how does a monastery represent itself to a city; and how does a city represent itself from within a monastery.

Religion developed out of myths. Myths developed independently in different places of the world. It seems that people have the wish to explain themselves what they perceive. Our psychological setting make us journey within ourselves to develop us. This building tries to support this process with its layout and design. / Master of Architecture

The architectural practice has long held several ideas about how a building should present itself relative to its structure. With modern building technologies and building codes, the structure of a building and the facade can often be very different. Modernist architects theoretically felt very strongly about the importance of material honesty in a buildings, as the 20th Century moved on, many architects moved towards buildings that used materials to create forms and atmospheres that were less dependent on the structural materials and forms of these buildings. The following thesis explores these ideas about material and structure through three separate examples of buildings with a similar size, site, and program. The project is a theme and variation, with the theme being the building type, and the variation being the philosophy of the relation between structure and material. Researching drawings in Edward R. Ford's book The Details of Modern Architecture, along with specific details of Peter Zumthor's Therme Vals help to inform my personal thought process when it comes to detailing the buildings I have designed. The designs propose three small chapels on a Catholic college campus in Northeast Washington, DC. / Master of Architecture / The following thesis is an exploration of ideas about how a building’s structure relates to its outward appearance. With modern building technology and building codes, the appearance and structure of a building are often very different. Architects have taken many different approaches to reconciling these differences. My thesis explores how different architects I admire approach this disconnect, and I use what I have learned from these various approaches to design three similar buildings - all chapels on a college campus in Washington, DC - with varying approaches.

The present thesis contains a. partial critical edition; corresponding partial translation; and a discussion of the Catupithatantra (CP), a hitherto almost completely unstudied Buddhist scripture. The text was written most likely in the latter half of the 9th century in East India, it is one of the earliest samples of what later became known as the corpus of yoginitantras, and it was highly influential on the Indian subcontinent up to the 12th century. It teaches the cult of a group of goddesses headed by Jnanadakini, although the pantheon was later reshaped to include several minor deities and a. chief male god, Yogambara. The GP is written in the most idiosyncratic. register in the history of the Sanskrit language; parts of it arc virtually meaningless without the help of a commentary. I therefore edited the text along ,with the corresponding passages from the Nibandha, a commentary by a. tenth-century Eastern exegete, Bhavabhatta. The thesis consists of two volumes. The first volume consists of five chapters. After a short prologue in which I summarize my findings (1), I give an introductory study (2) in which I discuss my approach and methodology (2.1), the scanty previous scholarship on this text (2 .2), the title; structure, and taxonomical position of the scripture (2.3); thereafter I give a brief outline of contents and advance a hypothesis concerning the target audience (2.4): the next sect ion discusses the date of the text by listing its earliest attestations (2.5); in the penultimate sub-chapter I discuss the stylistic, iconographic, doctrinal/ritual; and linguistic peculiarities of the text (2 .6); the study concludes with a discussion of sites where the study of the text and worship of its pantheon arc attested (2.7). The third chapter is a survey of the literature of the CP (3). Since almost none of this material has been published, particular emphasis is given to the presentation of manuscripts. I have grouped the CP literature into scriptural works (3 .1), exegetical works (3.2), initiation manuals (3.3), and satellite texts (3 .4). After some concluding remarks (4) I give in the fifth chapter an annotated translation of about half of the CP. The chapters falling outside this selection arc presented in synopses. (5 .1-16) The appendix volume contains a critical edition of the chapters I have translated in chapter 5. For the edition 1 have used three palm-leaf and two paper manuscripts for the CP and three palm-leaf manuscripts for the commentary. With the exception of the best manuscript of the commentary, which comes from Vikramasila in Bihar; all codices were produced in Nepal. The appendix volume closes with a bibliography.

Psalm 23 is a sacred work in four movements, written for women's chorus (SSAA), a tenor solo and a chamber ensemble consisting of flute, oboe, trumpet, percussion, timpani, and string quartet. It is designed to be performed as a portion of a church service or in concert. The text, Psalm 23 from the Bible is sung in Chinese, and the verses of the Psalm are arranged as follows: Movement 1, Verse 1, General musical characteristics: pastoral; Movement 2, Verses 2-3, General musical characteristics: peaceful; Movement 3, Verses 4-5, General musical characteristics: agitated; Movement 4, Verse 6, General musical characteristics: majestic. The form, tonal structure and harmony of each movement are influenced by the characteristics of an original synthetic scale.

Songs of Praise is a setting of four passages from the Psalms for soprano and chamber orchestra. The text is taken from Psalms 96, 114, 55, and 116 of the New American Standard Version, with each psalm scored as a separate movement. The duration of the work is approximately seventeen and one-half minutes. The instrumentation includes soprano, oboe, strings, and a percussion section of four players incorporating fourteen different instruments. The musical language employed is largely tonal, consisting generally of shifting tonal emphases achieved by exploiting the pitch relationships of traditional tonality. The movements are contrasting in character, according to the text, but generally of the same style. The vocal line predominates throughout spanning two octaves and a minor third from an A below middle C to a high C above the treble clef.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The purpose of the Roman Argei ceremony, during which the Vestal Virgins harvested made and paraded rush puppets only to throw them into the Tiber, is widely debated. Modern historians supply three main reasons for the purpose of the Argei: an agrarian act, a scapegoat, and finally as an offering averting deceased spirits or Lares. I suggest that the ceremony also related to war and the spectacle of displaying war casualties. I compare the ancient Near East and Rome and connect the element of war and husbandry and claim that the Argei paralleled the sacred marriage. in addition to an agricultural and purification rite, these rituals may have served as sympathetic magic for pre- and inter-war periods. As of yet, no author has proposed the Argei as a ceremony related to war. By looking at the Argei holistically I open the door for a new direction of inquiry on the Argei ceremony, fertility cults in the Near East and in Rome, and on the execution of war criminals.The Argei and new year’s sacred marriage both occurred during the initiation of campaign and spring planting and harvest season. Both in the ancient Near East and in Rome, animal victims were sacrificed and displayed through impaling, crucifixion, and hanging for fertility and in war. for both Rome and the Near East war casualties were displayed on sacred trees. Through the Near East cultures a strong correlation existed between impaling, hanging, and crucifixion in war and Sacred Tree fertility worship. By examining Roman tree worship, military rituals, and agricultural ceremonies a similar correlation becomes apparent. on the same day of the Argei, Mars was married to the anthropomorphized new year and within the month became a scapegoat expelled from the city. Additionally, on the first day of the Argei boys became soldiers.

La problématique de ce travail consiste à s’interroger sur la définition de la peinture de guerre et sur son devenir après la guerre, sur l’histoire de la peinture de guerre en Iran, sur l’interprétation de la guerre par les artistes, sur les éventuelles commandes. Comment cette peinture a-t-elle commencé en Iran ? Quel est le point de vue des peintres iraniens sur la guerre et sur les peintures de guerre ? Ont-ils critiqué la guerre dans leurs peintures ? Y a-t-il des foyers pour la création de ce type d'œuvres en Iran qui ont commandé aux peintres et si oui à quel but ? Ce travail comporte quatre parties, sans compter l’introduction et la conclusion. La première partie est un regard sociologique sur la révolution islamique et sur la guerre Iran-Irak. Les raisons pour las quelles cette guerre est devenue un phénomène social, ainsi que les raisons par lesquelles les artistes iraniens ont employés cette guerre dans leurs œuvres. Ayant un regard sur la peinture contemporaine de l’Iran, l’axe principal de cette présente thèse est la présentation des onze peintres connus comme les peintres de la guerre, et l’analyse 112 œuvres représentant la guerre et ses significations. Enfin, la troisième partie concerne l’analyser les peintures par l’aspect esthétique et sociologique. / The definition of war painting and its future after the war, the history of war painting in Iran, the interpretation of the war by the artists are considered the complications of this work. How did war painting start in Iran ? What is the point of view of Iranian painters on the war and war painting? Have they criticized the war in their paintings ? When it comes to creation of such works in Iran, who ordered the painters and if so to what purpose? Are these works exhibited in museums, galleries, foreign countries or elsewhere yet ? This work consists of three parts, besides introduction and conclusion. The first part is a sociological perspective on the war in Iran. The main focus of the present thesis is the presentation of painters known as the war / Sacred Defense painters, and analysis of their work by the war and its meanings. In this section, we presented eleven painters and analyzed 112 paintings, from which some works are from four women painters. Finally, we presented the artistic centers producing the art of sacred defense. And we studied the topics in the works, the symbols used, and the styles discussed. we studied the sociological works representing the sacred defense and its support for artists with the social and political movements, the influence of the painting of the sacred defense and social issues, sacred defense painting "art for art" or "art for the people", etc.