Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

This project consists of 2 electronic/instrumental musical albums, each with 4 songs, aimed at becoming a source of solo therapy for those affected by mental illnesses. The calm album contains calm and relaxing music to combat anxiety and the HAPPY album contains happy and uplifting music to combat depression. While the musical elements stabilize the listener’s mental state, their own internal dialogue and meditation work to heal the listener’s mental illness.

Music can be an incredibly powerful tool, and in an age where technology allows us to connect with those that don’t live near us, finding ways to use music to encourage that bonding can be incredibly beneficial. Particularly, in a global pandemic such as COVID-19, finding ways to connect with others remotely is more important than ever. In this study, I will be looking at how one artist in particular, Tessa Violet, manages to continue to not only grow her community, but also encourage her community to bond with each other. She achieves this by finding various ways, unique to her and her branding, that allows her community to connect with each other. By using her platform to give scavenger hunts to her fanbase, promoting and fostering community growth through various platforms, and livestreaming in ways unique to her style, she is able to connect her audience with each other. By engaging and observing these various actions on her part, I am able to see and experience this community bonding myself. I also look at ways this might be able to expanded to other artists and their communities as well. The hope is that the internet and social media can be just another form of music encouraging people to connect with one another.

This thesis paper examines the challenges and opportunities that are present for nonprofit organizations seeking to engage in social media marketing. By analyzing the rise of social media as a prevalent tool for business-consumer outreach the paper proposes a dialogic approach to social media for nonprofits to effectively engage with their audiences, develop relationships with them, and mobilize them towards a common mission.

In this creative thesis project I use digital “scrolleytelling” (an interactive scroll-based storytelling) to investigate diversity & inclusion at big tech companies. I wanted to know why diversity numbers were flatlining at Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, and took a data journalism approach to explore the relationship between what corporations were saying versus what they were doing. Finally, I critiqued diversity and inclusion by giving examples of how the current way we are addressing D&I is not fixing the problem.

Within the pediatric hospitalization experience, fear and anxiety are two emotions commonly felt by children of all ages. Hospitalized children can greatly benefit from interventions designed to help them cope with these emotions throughout their medical experiences. This study draws on each of our clinical experiences as volunteers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and uses a qualitative analysis of three semi-structured interviews with currently employed Child Life Specialists to understand and analyze the use of medical play, a form of play intervention with a medical theme or medical equipment. We explore the goals and benefits of medical play for hospitalized pediatric patients, the process of using medical play as an intervention, including the activity design process, the assessments and adjustments made throughout the child’s hospitalization, and the considerations and limitations to implementing medical play activities. Ultimately, we found that the element of fun that defines play can be channeled into medical play activities implemented by skilled Child Life Specialists, who are experts in their field, in clinical settings to promote several different and beneficial goals, including pediatric patient coping.

Within the pediatric hospitalization experience, fear and anxiety are two emotions commonly felt by children of all ages. Hospitalized children can greatly benefit from interventions designed to help them cope with these emotions throughout their medical experiences. This study draws on each of our clinical experiences as volunteers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and uses a qualitative analysis of three semi-structured interviews with currently employed Child Life Specialists to understand and analyze the use of medical play, a form of play intervention with a medical theme or medical equipment. We explore the goals and benefits of medical play for hospitalized pediatric patients, the process of using medical play as an intervention, including the activity design process, the assessments and adjustments made throughout the child’s hospitalization, and the considerations and limitations to implementing medical play activities. Ultimately, we found that the element of fun that defines play can be channeled into medical play activities implemented by skilled Child Life Specialists, who are experts in their field, in clinical settings to promote several different and beneficial goals, including pediatric patient coping.

Through this creative project, I analyzed how COVID-19 has affected the theatre industry. I created a mini-documentary following ASU’s production of Runaways, which was performed without an audience. The final product was a combination of pre-filmed and self-taped scenes. I documented how students were still able to learn and cultivate their skills during a time where most things are virtual. In addition, I analyzed how the shift to filmed theatre has changed the definition of live theatre, including increased accessibility. I also explored the importance of theatre through analyzing the themes of musical theatre performances such as Rent and Runaways. During a time where people cannot gather, artists are still finding a way to create and tell stories.

Physical appearance is an important communication tool that involves the way people define themselves and others around them. Clothing is a major component of physical appearance. When people can understand how different clothing styles flatter their specific body shapes, they can use clothing as a means to manipulate their physical appearances. In this way, people can choose deliberate clothing to send out purposeful visual messages that align with their goals and interests. Understanding how clothing affects visual appearance can be a very complicated task (Ilnitsky, 2018; Nix-Rice, 2014). There should be a simple and way for people to pick clothes that will specifically look good on their body. The purpose of this current study is to introduce a new method of online shopping that collects users’ body dimensions and shows them clothing that will flatter their particular body shape. The following study proposes a prototype design for such a shopping experience.

In my creative project I created a video essay examining the mechanical differences found in the games, Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadow's Die Twice from developer, FromSoftware. I analyze these mechanical changes and their potential impact on players mindsets and playstyles. I pull from my own experience as well as Katherine Isbister, and the wider internet discourse on game design.