Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
Description
Psychology and dance both shed light on the question: how do our personal, life experiences affect our movement? This document introduces elements from psychology and dance through associative learning, attachment styles, muscle patterning, and partner improvisation as ways of exploring this question. It aims to briefly introduce these theories and explain how they had a role in the research of the creative project. It also documents the inception, creation, and production of Lullabye, a dance work intended to be accessible to an audience with little to no experience viewing concert dance, with the target audience specifically being the writer’s mother. It has three sections, each featuring a different element of dance, storytelling, and individuality. It starts a conversation on how emotions and thoughts related to personal experiences can affect our movement.
ContributorsTello Solano, Carlos (Co-author, Co-author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis director) / Montoya, Yvonne (Committee member) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This study explores the results of an event hosted for undergraduate students in the Arts, Media and Engineering (AME) department at Arizona State University. 18 students were asked to sit and eat lunch with one another and share their opinions on personal and school-related topics. A follow-up survey consisting of eight questions was sent out to gauge how effective this event was in getting students to build stronger relationships with each other. Statistical analysis showed that 89% of students who attended would participate again and consider collaborating with another student at the event in future projects. From these results, a series of future interventions like the one mentioned in this paper could promote stronger relationships among students and add value to the department. A positive response from the students who participated could imply that students might be more inclined to reach out to classmates when in a setting made for that purpose.
ContributorsWheeler, Hannah M (Author) / Tinapple, David (Thesis director) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The Constructivists were a prominent group of Avant Garde artists that began to work in the years preceding the Bolshevik revolution and continued to work prominently until Stalin came to power. As other Avant Garde movements became prevalent throughout Europe, Constructivism became the Modernist movement that encapsulated Russia’s Socialist future. Constructivist artist-workers embraced the idea that objects of art must be useful in the daily life of a Soviet worker as well as representative of the future for which communists were working. As such, they aligned with the new national ideals aesthetically by illustrating national and political goals in a functional way. Constructivists wanted to create objects that would signify and enable future Soviet life through their usefulness and their ideological intensity. This thesis argues that Constructivist objects served a third purpose as productive agents of community.
Each chapter of this thesis closely studies a different object of a different medium to trace relationships between Constructivist objects and Soviet community. El Lissitzky’s PROUN Manifesto illuminates the creation of an artistic community. Alexander Rodchenko’s print Propaganda communicates between a state and its people. Varvara Stepanova’s Sportswear designs facilitate a society of workers. Alexandra Exter’s Marionettes combine common everyday objects and children’s theater. Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International, envisions the ideal Soviet society as place in which socialists could convene. And Liubov Popova’s Painterly Architectonics relates the functional and aesthetic goals of Constructivism from Russia to the international art world. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities, Bruno Latour’s Reassembling the Social, and Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction each provide the framework for discussing the intersections of art objects and community. Anderson explores nationhood through the lens of language and print media, Latour studies how social interaction on an individual basis might rely upon the physical objects around them, whereas Bourdieu addresses hierarchies in distinguishing objects of art in class-based societies by outlining the conflicts between cultural capital and tastemaking in the analysis of objects.
Through the exploration of each Constructivist object, this thesis explores individual, national, and international communities while considering their changing political, social contexts.
Each chapter of this thesis closely studies a different object of a different medium to trace relationships between Constructivist objects and Soviet community. El Lissitzky’s PROUN Manifesto illuminates the creation of an artistic community. Alexander Rodchenko’s print Propaganda communicates between a state and its people. Varvara Stepanova’s Sportswear designs facilitate a society of workers. Alexandra Exter’s Marionettes combine common everyday objects and children’s theater. Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International, envisions the ideal Soviet society as place in which socialists could convene. And Liubov Popova’s Painterly Architectonics relates the functional and aesthetic goals of Constructivism from Russia to the international art world. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities, Bruno Latour’s Reassembling the Social, and Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction each provide the framework for discussing the intersections of art objects and community. Anderson explores nationhood through the lens of language and print media, Latour studies how social interaction on an individual basis might rely upon the physical objects around them, whereas Bourdieu addresses hierarchies in distinguishing objects of art in class-based societies by outlining the conflicts between cultural capital and tastemaking in the analysis of objects.
Through the exploration of each Constructivist object, this thesis explores individual, national, and international communities while considering their changing political, social contexts.
ContributorsBrown, Theodora Circe (Author) / Hoogenboom, Hilde (Thesis director) / Hedberg Olenina, Ana (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The sport of Ultimate, formerly known as Ultimate Frisbee™, spread around the world in the mid-seventies and was considered an alternative sport that embraced a more casual atmosphere than other traditional, competitive sports. Ultimate is now receiving national and international attention as a competitive sport, with broadcasts of games on networks such as ESPN. As it transitions into a mainstream sport while attempting to maintain its alternative roots, it is possible that there are contrasting opinions between those who want to bring it further into the mainstream and those who want to maintain as much as possible of the original, alternative culture. In this work, we surveyed members of the Ultimate community for their perspectives on the unique culture of Ultimate.
Because the Ultimate community considers itself to be progressive, despite its largely Caucasian makeup, one topic of exploration was the political landscape of the Ultimate community. A second unique aspect of ultimate is the system for enforcing rules used by the players on the field, known as the spirit of the game. This system replaces referees and creates an ethical dynamic both during play and within the community that is not found in other sports. The last major topic of study here is the self-perception of the players as athletes. Because Ultimate continues to maintain a reputation as an alternative sport, athletes may perceive themselves differently than in more established sports.
When asked if Ultimate players perceived the Ultimate community as accepting of athletes who are people of color (POC) or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender community (LGBT), the community reported being accepting of all minorities. However, acceptance of POC athletes was rated significantly lower than the acceptance of LGBT athletes. When asked about comradery, the respondents rated comradery higher within the Ultimate community than in other sports. When asked how impartial players were in Ultimate compared to other sports, players with more experience tended to report perceiving themselves as more impartial. All demographics reported being more impartial in Ultimate than in other athletics. When asked about the seriousness of Ultimate, those who had not played another sport considered Ultimate to be more serious than those who had played another sport. In addition, players with more years of Ultimate experience also considered it to be more serious than those with fewer years of experience. Overall, additional studies on Ultimate culture are needed in order to obtain more viewpoints, as there is a lack of research in this field for comparison.
Because the Ultimate community considers itself to be progressive, despite its largely Caucasian makeup, one topic of exploration was the political landscape of the Ultimate community. A second unique aspect of ultimate is the system for enforcing rules used by the players on the field, known as the spirit of the game. This system replaces referees and creates an ethical dynamic both during play and within the community that is not found in other sports. The last major topic of study here is the self-perception of the players as athletes. Because Ultimate continues to maintain a reputation as an alternative sport, athletes may perceive themselves differently than in more established sports.
When asked if Ultimate players perceived the Ultimate community as accepting of athletes who are people of color (POC) or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender community (LGBT), the community reported being accepting of all minorities. However, acceptance of POC athletes was rated significantly lower than the acceptance of LGBT athletes. When asked about comradery, the respondents rated comradery higher within the Ultimate community than in other sports. When asked how impartial players were in Ultimate compared to other sports, players with more experience tended to report perceiving themselves as more impartial. All demographics reported being more impartial in Ultimate than in other athletics. When asked about the seriousness of Ultimate, those who had not played another sport considered Ultimate to be more serious than those who had played another sport. In addition, players with more years of Ultimate experience also considered it to be more serious than those with fewer years of experience. Overall, additional studies on Ultimate culture are needed in order to obtain more viewpoints, as there is a lack of research in this field for comparison.
ContributorsRandall, Sean Edward (Co-author) / Furey, Michael (Co-author) / Mebane, Tyler (Co-author) / Crook, Sharon (Thesis director) / Arrowsmith, Ramon (Committee member) / Simeone, Michael (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The Honors Creative Project evolved drastically from start to finish, despite its origin remaining the same. My core goal in this project was to connect two seemingly mutually exclusive aspects of my life, engineering and dance. After conducting an IRB study and using data from my own personal experiences, I was able to see how dance had in fact made me a better engineer. There were skills that I gained and learned in dance that were directly applicable to engineering, and I believe will be critical to my success as an engineer. As the focal point of the project angled towards myself, I had to look deeply into who I am and how I reached this point. I conducted self-reflections on various aspects of my current life and also on the struggles and hardships I overcame during my years at ASU. From these reflections, I learned a lot about myself and how my personal identity has evolved. This identity evolution became the backbone behind my thesis defense. I took my research and self-reflections and designed a series of artwork that I personally designed and painted myself. I my engineering side to conduct the research and collect the data, and then used my artistic side to present my findings to the public in a way that attracted and audience and caused others to reflect upon their own identities.
ContributorsArizmendi, Romann Fuentes (Author) / Olarte, David (Thesis director) / Welz, Matt (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Abstract
This study investigates the effects of Bharatanatyam dance on stress, mood, and anxiety. I have danced Bharatanatyam since I was 8 years old, it has offered me a way to release stress and anxiety. This study provides empirical data to support the claim that Bharatanatyam has therapeutic effects that release stress and reduce anxiety. This investigation was conducted through self-reports and interviews. A Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scale was used to determine positive and negative effects. The average positive affect during the “dance weeks” (DW) was 46.6 and the average negative affect was 12.2. During the “no dance weeks” (NDW), the average positive effect was 23.7 and the average negative affect was 31. The participant’s interview PANAS results had an average positive effect of 39.8 and an average negative effect of 12.8. Analyzing the self-report journaling highlighted a more prevalent use of positive words during the DW and a more significant use of negative words during the NDW. The Bharatanatyam dancers who were probed to enter post-performance environment for an interview also used positive words to describe Bharatanatyam dancing. In conclusion, practicing Bharatanatyam had an overall positive effect on mood, and can reduce stress and anxiety.
This study investigates the effects of Bharatanatyam dance on stress, mood, and anxiety. I have danced Bharatanatyam since I was 8 years old, it has offered me a way to release stress and anxiety. This study provides empirical data to support the claim that Bharatanatyam has therapeutic effects that release stress and reduce anxiety. This investigation was conducted through self-reports and interviews. A Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scale was used to determine positive and negative effects. The average positive affect during the “dance weeks” (DW) was 46.6 and the average negative affect was 12.2. During the “no dance weeks” (NDW), the average positive effect was 23.7 and the average negative affect was 31. The participant’s interview PANAS results had an average positive effect of 39.8 and an average negative effect of 12.8. Analyzing the self-report journaling highlighted a more prevalent use of positive words during the DW and a more significant use of negative words during the NDW. The Bharatanatyam dancers who were probed to enter post-performance environment for an interview also used positive words to describe Bharatanatyam dancing. In conclusion, practicing Bharatanatyam had an overall positive effect on mood, and can reduce stress and anxiety.
ContributorsKothakapu, Shourya (Co-author, Co-author) / Roses-Thema, Cynthia (Thesis director) / deLusé, Stephanie (Committee member) / Mandala, Sumana (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05