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In this dissertation, I present the score for the opera Ganymede 5 – Act I and the research paper on Kate Soper’s opera Here be Sirens. Ganymede 5 was first written in the summer of 2019 and premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival on 18 September 2019 by ENAensemble at the Plays and Players Studio Theatre. Following this production, the creative team (myself, the librettist Aleksandar Hut Kono, the director Rose Freeman, and our producers Nicole Renna and Anaïs Naharro-Murphy) met and decided that the opera’s first act was dramaturgically unsalvageable. Working with Aleksandar, Rose, and my composition advisor Andrea Clearfield, I set about rewriting the first act. This new act, with an entirely new libretto, new plot, and a larger orchestra is included here in full score. In the paper, I present three approaches to understanding Kate Soper’s 2014 opera Here be Sirens. In the first chapter, I develop an analytical model using Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage as a scheme to map the evolution of the sirens Polyxo and Peitho. I argue that their evolutionary arcs together form one complete cycle of the mirror stage, where Peitho begins the opera immediately before the mirror stage and finishes well in the middle, while Polyxo starts in the middle of the mirror stage and is ultimately able to exist via sublimation. With this mapping in hand, elements of the musical and dramaturgical unfolding are contextualized, and most importantly, the relationship between speaking and singing is understood. In the second chapter, I look at the diegetic/nondiegetic orientation of the opera’s musical discourse, the narratological registers within which the opera unfolds, and the role eclectic musical styles play in the plot and in the perception and meaning of time. Together, these three windows into the work illuminate a complex, dynamic set of interactions that generate an astonishingly novel but immediately accessible opera. In the third chapter, I present the transcript of an interview I conducted with Kate Soper where we discuss a variety of topics, from the symbolic meaning of spoken language to the practical considerations of using an onstage piano played by the singers. I annotate in footnotes parts of the interview that deal directly with other parts of the analysis, and specifically those parts where Soper’s statements contradict my own analytical conclusions. The last chapter is a brief, rhapsodic consideration of this work as an analyst and composer. It first presents some paths forward for future research using the tools developed and wielded in this analysis. It then moves on to the way my own compositional dispositions framed my analysis and how they are vital to understanding what is included and what is left out of this work. Soper’s compositional voice deserves consideration on a composer-to-composer level, as it challenges some of the prevailing value-systems around contemporary music. To that end, I reconsider my analysis as if it were a composition lesson, looking at what questions – such as those around technique – are not worth asking from a compositional or analytical perspective. / Music Composition / Accompanied by one .pdf score: Ganymedes 5: An Opera in 3 Acts

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This thesis project builds upon one of the really big questions; are we alone in the universe?By research, references and studies I have throughout this project tried to imagine a future that with the help of architectural speculation and imagination is a bit more prepared to answer that question. The project in itself was intended as an exploration of the world of science, science fiction and conspiracies, as well as typology, in order to produce architecture that represented the very notion of the longing for an answer to that question.  I wanted to both design spaces where one would prepare for the journey of leaving earth, as well as speculate on what type of architecture would be required to welcome a potential visitor of our planet. The result is a proposed future extension to Kiruna Airport intended for interplanetary travel, some parts concrete and real, some speculative and suggestive.

Philip K. Dick was a seminal science fiction author with much interest in theological and philosophical questions. This essay is interested in what Dick’s novel Counter-Clock World expresses about two themes: “time and eternity” along with “omniscience”. The purpose is to come closer to an understanding of the theology expressed in the novel, in relation to the theology of Augustine and Eriugene, who are two of the theologians mentioned in the novel. In the analysis a hybrid text-centered method of hermeneutics is used with some regards to the authors point of view, a method inspired by professor of literature Torsten Pettersson.  The result of the analysis shows that the resurrection described in the novel is central in the matter of time perception. Augustine’s presentism is clear. The characters have been part of eternity and God while being dead, which is related to Eriugene’s thought about the close relationship between the created and the uncreated. The contemplative knowledge of God is recurrent. The resurrected have received a part of God’s secret and by extension his omniscience. The head character, the anarch Thomas Peak, is a clear example of this. Moreover, Augustine’s thought of the divine gaze is recurrent.  The essay argues that academic scholars can find inspiration from fiction. Fiction authors have the possibility to explore theological questions in a way that scholars may have a hard time doing. This because there are neither requirements for coherence in fiction nor a need for responsibility in terms of the consequences of the concepts being explored. This is a creativity that can give fuel to a stagnated theology.

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In the last twenty years, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has become very popular. Pratchett's success hinges in part on his use of allusion, in what Tolkien called the "Cauldron of Story," and what Pratchett refers to as "white knowledge." This paper explores the Discworld novels and illustrates Pratchett's use and success of storytelling through a few key directions: folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music. Pratchett has received limited critical review, mostly of a negative nature, while producing a strong literary series, one crafted with both obvious and subtle recognition of his genre's sources. While standing on the shoulders of giants, Pratchett both respects and scrutinizes the myths and stories that construct our reality. Critically, Pratchett's fiction deserves more respect and closer study; this paper attempts to give him his due.