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The thesis An Extraordinary Encounter with Chekhov strives to examine the process and phases involved in the design of the set for Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. This play was produced in the Spring of 2007, at the University of New Orleans. This production was chosen by the graduate committee, as the final work to complete my Master of Fine Arts degree in set design. I seek to examine the nature of the creative process for the set design through a series of encounters, from the initial encounter with the play to the various encounters with the director and other collaborators. These various encounters will include the, research and preparation to the final creation of the set design examined in detail. Copies of all the research, renderings, photos, draftings and any supporting materials that were relevant to the creative process will accompany the text of the thesis.

In fact, as far as I know, linguists and philosophers of language have never really looked at the universal language. Instead, they frame a “universal language” that is based on the premise of the majoritarian languages. One approach, traditional linguistics, often goes from signs (lexical signs), phonology, and syntax and is based on phonocentric framing, i.e., sound is the basis of their theoretical frames. The other approach, cognitive linguistics, is based on spatiality and embodied figures in mental space. Cognitive linguists (Leonard Talmy, for example) believe that the objects of spoken languages or signed languages are mainly created from natural perception and mental spaces. However, natural perception and mental spaces are in turn shaped, formed, and modified by sensorimotor perception and the movement of thought. Would it not be better to derive from them directly so that we can gain an understanding of how a language is created from the human body? We could also gain an understanding of the relationship between perception, thought, and the utterable of languages. The ontological benefit is that signed languages are closer to "raw" thought, perception, and the universal language than spoken languages. Sign language poetry, for example, is close to the universal language. Therefore, as opposed to spoken languages, signed languages are based on the movement of thinking outside the body. We can thus reveal the pure language or the universal language. The essay question: Is the “mobile” part of sign languages (åtbördsspråket) and gestures (åtbörder) appropriate as a model for constructing a general definition of all languages? I apply Gilles Deleuze's philosophy, especially his pure semiotics, perception, and the theory of movement, to construct this universal language.

The aim of this thesis is to study Viking Eggeling’s artwork Diagonal Symphony together with Eggeling’s own art theoretical writings. This method of reading Eggeling’s art theoretical writings with the aim to try and create a deeper understanding of his art and especially Diagonal Symphony is a new approach in Eggeling’s art historical discourse. The thesis starts with a description of how the field of art history has understood Eggeling and his art primarily through art historical research aimed at Hans Richter. I then argue that the method of understanding Eggeling’s art through his own art historical writings is a way to create an independent understanding about Eggeling’s art away from it’s explanatory relation with Richter. To understand and to analyze the relation between Eggeling’s art and art theoretical writings the thesis theoretical viewpoint are a system theoretical one with a special focus on cybernetics and the terms feedback and control. The thesis then establish that Eggeling, in his art and art theoretical writings, tried to compose his own method for creating the form figures we can see appearing in Diagonal Symphony and that this method of creating form was a way for Eggeling to control his creativity and to build up a structured system of forms. The study then concludes with the statement that Eggeling worked with the movie and the scrolls Diagonal Symphony as artistic material formations of a system of forms called Diagonal Symphony and that the system of forms called Diagonal Symphony is the result of Eggeling’s systematic method to generate form in a structured and organised way.

This paper discusses a high level language translator. If we divide translators of programming languages in two types: those working for two specific languages and universal translators that can be used for translation between different programming languages, the solution that will be presented in this work can be classified as both, specific language oriented and an universal translator. For the purpose of the research it was limited to translate only from Java to C++, but it can easily be extended to translate between any other high level languages. For simplifying the process of translation the project uses an intermediate step. All programs in the input language are first compiled to an abstract XML language and then to the desired output language. That way it is not necessary to translate directly from one programming language to another which is a very tricky and difficult task and could make the solution difficult to be maintained and extended. Hence the translator can also be used to translate from any high level language to XML. That gives another advantage to our solution: an XML representation of a computer program is valuable information by itself. We describe the design and implementation of the solution, demonstrate how it works and also give information on how it can be extended to work for any other programming language. / This paper discusses a high level language translator. If we divide translators of programming languages in two types: those working for two specific languages and universal translators that can be used for translation between different programming languages, the solution that will be presented in this work can be classified as both, specific language oriented and an universal translator. For the purpose of the research it was limited to translate only from Java to C++, but it can easily be extended to translate between any other high level languages. For simplifying the process of translation the project uses an intermediate step. All programs in the input language are first compiled to an abstract XML language and then to the desired output language. That way it is not necessary to translate directly from one programming language to another which is a very tricky and difficult task and could make the solution difficult to be maintained and extended. Hence the translator can also be used to translate from any high level language to XML. That gives another advantage to our solution: an XML representation of a computer program is valuable information by itself. We describe the design and implementation of the solution, demonstrate how it works and also give information on how it can be extended to work for any other programming language.

This dissertation follows an interdisciplinary approach that weaves practice and theory in the disciplines of visual communication, semiotics, cultural studies, linguistics, and new media art. The research methodology is practice-based located within a historical and contemporary context that allows for artistic experimentation and new knowledge to be generated through reflected creative practice This research proposes a context within which society can develop a transcultural means of communication with the objective of gaining completely unambiguous forms of understanding. This research explores the possibility of an open source scaffold for pictorial language that fosters self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. The dissertation explores research strategies and visual practice in relationship to a proposed global use of a common system of visual semantic decoding that would allow for visual synthesis by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is proposed that a shared collective knowledge of signs, symbols, and pictographs, supported by the advancement of future communication and information systems, can lead to a visual communication system that will be universally accepted. There is a historic, on-going and collective consensus on the need for a universal language in the near-future posthuman condition. In answer to this need, this dissertation contextualises and goes on to explore a realised case study of a practice-based solution for a universal pictorial communication system. The system may at times seem ambitious and abstract, however, it aims to include all cultures of the world, seeking to establish a direction that identifies and locates cultural similarities over cultural difference. This practice-based enquiry proposes a direction that should maintain coherence, logic, and veracity in order to develop a pictographic communication system that is a valid representation of the human experience in a posthuman condition.