ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 21 - 30 of 70
Description
This thesis explores the ways two contemporary artists engage the archive to challenge ideas calcified through visual culture. Steven Yazzie and Lorna Simpson respond to constructions of history through art making strategies and practices. Yazzie's photogravure Tsosido Sweep Dancer (2009) presents a carefully constructed image of a ceremony drawing on symbols of Indianness to provoke a critical dialogue that questions the role of the American Indian stereotype in the United States imaginary. Simpson's Counting (1991) is a multilayered work that juxtaposes text and image to address the capriciousness of memory, power and other issues found at the intersection of race and gender. These photography-based works draw on the histories of ethnographic and criminal photography to deconstruct the same knowledge that photography helped to construct. Throughout the thesis I examine the relationship of the photographic archive to colonial histories by considering whose history is represented through photography. These thoughtful and challenging artworks contribute to a growing body of work that proposes new narratives drawing on embodied knowledge and experience to create a counter-archive.
ContributorsWaitoller, Lekha Hileman (Author) / Malagamba-Ansótegui, Amelia (Thesis advisor) / Lineberry, Heather S (Committee member) / Mesch, Ulrike C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The craft of improvisation at the organ has survived a long period of dormancy and is experiencing a strong resurgence in the twenty-first century. This project seeks to establish a precedence for the value of notated music as a resource in learning improvisation, and then, through music analysis, provide examples of how that process can develop. The result of the ideas presented here is a pathway whereby any disciplined organist can learn to imitate composed music, assimilate the musical ideas, and innovate through the act of spontaneous improvisation.
ContributorsHoward, Devon (Author) / Marshall, Kimberly (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation theorizes nineteenth-century public performance of spiritual media as being inherent to the production of autobiography itself. Too often, dominant social discourses are cast as being singular cultural phenomena, but analyzing the rhetorical strategies of women attempting to access public spheres reveals fractures in what would otherwise appear to be a monolithic patriarchal discourse. These women's resistant performances reap the benefits of a fractured discourse to reveal a multiplicity of alternative discourses that can be accessed and leveraged to gain social power. By examining the phenomena of four nineteenth- century Spiritualists' mediumship from a rhetorical perspective, this study considers how female spirit mediums used their autobiographies to operate as discursive spaces mediating between private and public spheres; how female mediums constructed themselves in the public sphere as women and as spiritual authorities; how they negotiated entry into volatile and unpredictable publics; how they conceived of the vulnerability of the female body in the public sphere; and how they coped with complications inherent to Victorian era constructions of feminine corporeality. In conclusion, this dissertation offers a highly situated performative theory of subaltern publicity.
ContributorsLowry, Elizabeth (Author) / Daly Goggin, Maureen (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Miller, Keith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Measuring the success of a transportation project as it is envisioned in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and is detailed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not part of any current planning process, for a post construction analysis may have political consequences for the project participants, would incur additional costs, and may be difficult to define in terms of scope. With local, state and federal budgets shrinking, funding sources are demanding that the performance of a project be evaluated and project stakeholders be held accountable. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) developed a framework that allows transportation agencies to customize their reporting so that a project's performance can be measured. In the case of the Red Mountain Freeway, the selected performance measure allows for comparing the population forecasts, the traffic volumes, and the project costs defined in the final EIS to actual population growth, actual average annual daily traffic (ADT), and actual project costs obtained from census data, the City of Mesa, and contractor bids, respectively. The results show that population projections for both Maricopa County and the City of Mesa are within less than half a percent of the actual annual population growth. The traffic analysis proved more difficult due to inconsistencies within the EIS documents, variations in the local arterials used to produce traffic volume, and in the projection time-spans. The comparison for the total increase in traffic volume generated a difference of 11.34 percent and 89.30 percent. An adjusted traffic volume equal to all local arterials and US 60 resulted in a difference of 40 percent between the projected and actual ADT values. As for the project cost comparison, not only were the costs within the individual documents inconsistent, but they were underestimated by as much as 75 percent. Evaluating the goals as described in an EIS document using the performance measure guidelines provided by the TRB may provide the tool that can help promote conflict resolution for political issues that arise, streamline the planning process, and measure the performance of the transportation system, so that lessons learned can be applied to future projects.
ContributorsKizior, Angelika (Author) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Kuby, Michael (Committee member) / Wentz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Government performance and accountability have grown to be predominant areas within public administration literature over the last forty years. The research presented in this dissertation examines the relationship between citizen satisfaction and local government performance. Citizen review of service delivery provides vital feedback that facilitates better resource management within local government. Using data from a single jurisdiction, two aspects of citizen satisfaction are reviewed. This includes citizen review of overall city performance, and citizen satisfaction with individual service delivery. Logit regression analysis is used to test several factors that affect citizen evaluation of service delivery in local government, while ordinary least squares regression is used to test the relationship between personal factors and citizen evaluation of specific local services. The results generated four major findings that contribute to the scholarly body of knowledge and local government knowledge application. First, citizens who are predisposed to supporting the local jurisdiction are more likely to rate service delivery high. Second, customer service is important. Third, those who experience government services similarly will collectively react similarly to the service experience. Finally, the length of residency has an impact on satisfaction levels with specific services. Implications for the literature as well as for practice are discussed.
ContributorsMcNamara, Catherine (Author) / Alozie, Nicholas O (Thesis advisor) / Cayer, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Characterization and analysis of long term field aged photovoltaic modules and encapsulant materials
Description
Photovoltaic (PV) module degradation is a well-known issue, however understanding the mechanistic pathways in which modules degrade is still a major task for the PV industry. In order to study the mechanisms responsible for PV module degradation, the effects of these degradation mechanisms must be quantitatively measured to determine the severity of each degradation mode. In this thesis multiple modules from three climate zones (Arizona, California and Colorado) were investigated for a single module glass/polymer construction (Siemens M55) to determine the degree to which they had degraded, and the main factors that contributed to that degradation. To explain the loss in power, various nondestructive and destructive techniques were used to indicate possible causes of loss in performance. This is a two-part thesis. Part 1 presents non-destructive test results and analysis and Part 2 presents destructive test results and analysis.
ContributorsChicca, Matthew (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Highly active in the fields of viola performance, composition, recording, and pedagogy, Lionel Tertis is known as one of the first and most influential career violists. Established in 1980, the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Festival was founded in his honor and occurs triennially at the Isle of Man. While addressing facets of the professional violist with workshops, lectures, and masterclasses, this event provides a venue for competitive performers, acting as a platform for new viola repertoire.
Each competitor must prepare an extensive set of viola repertoire, among which is a compulsory piece for unaccompanied viola by an English composer. These commissioned works require the virtuosity and expression available within a contemporary musical language; this additionally challenges competitors to provide an artistic interpretation relatively untouched by tradition or common practice.
Although these pieces are written specifically for the competition, the commissioned works have the capacity to reach beyond the competition sphere and are highly programmable in most recital and solo performance settings. These pieces provide the contemporary violist with a greater selection of repertoire that displays idiomatic and expressive strengths of the viola.
My project commemorates the contributions of Lionel Tertis to the advancement of viola repertoire and performance with the study of works written a century post his prolific career. The secondary intent is to provide biographical information about each composer and to explore how these highly programmable works enrich the violist and their repertoire, ultimately bringing recognition to these new works for solo viola. Through biographical research, musical analysis, interviews and the recording process, I will provide a performer's analysis and supplemental recordings for three of these works: Darkness Draws In by David Matthews, Sonatine I by Roger Steptoe and Through a Limbeck by John Woolrich.
Each competitor must prepare an extensive set of viola repertoire, among which is a compulsory piece for unaccompanied viola by an English composer. These commissioned works require the virtuosity and expression available within a contemporary musical language; this additionally challenges competitors to provide an artistic interpretation relatively untouched by tradition or common practice.
Although these pieces are written specifically for the competition, the commissioned works have the capacity to reach beyond the competition sphere and are highly programmable in most recital and solo performance settings. These pieces provide the contemporary violist with a greater selection of repertoire that displays idiomatic and expressive strengths of the viola.
My project commemorates the contributions of Lionel Tertis to the advancement of viola repertoire and performance with the study of works written a century post his prolific career. The secondary intent is to provide biographical information about each composer and to explore how these highly programmable works enrich the violist and their repertoire, ultimately bringing recognition to these new works for solo viola. Through biographical research, musical analysis, interviews and the recording process, I will provide a performer's analysis and supplemental recordings for three of these works: Darkness Draws In by David Matthews, Sonatine I by Roger Steptoe and Through a Limbeck by John Woolrich.
ContributorsWuenschel, Allyson Kay (Author) / Buck, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Although music is regarded as a universal language, it is rare to find musicians of different ages, ability levels, and backgrounds interacting with each other in collaborative performances. There is a dearth of mixed-ability-level wind band and string orchestra repertoire, and the few pieces that exist fail to celebrate the talents of the youngest and least-experienced performers. Composers writing music for school-age ensembles have also been excluded from the collaborative process, rarely communicating with the young musicians for whom they are writing.
This project introduced twenty-nine compositions into the wind band and string orchestra repertoire via a collaboration that engaged multiple constituencies. Students of wind and string instruments from Phoenix’s El Sistema-inspired Harmony Project and the Tijuana-based Niños de La Guadalupana Villa Del Campo worked together with students at Arizona State University and composers from Canada, Finland, and across the United States to learn and record concertos for novice-level soloists with intermediate-level accompaniment ensembles.
This project was influenced by the intergenerational ensembles common in Finnish music institutes. The author provides a document which includes a survey of the existing concerto repertoire for wind bands and previous intergenerational and multicultural studies in the field of music. The author then presents each of the mixed-ability concertos created and recorded in this project and offers biographical information on the composers. Finally, the author reflects upon qualitative surveys completed by the project’s participants.
Most the new concertos are available to the public. This music can be useful in the development and implementation of similar collaborations of musicians of all ages and abilities.
This project introduced twenty-nine compositions into the wind band and string orchestra repertoire via a collaboration that engaged multiple constituencies. Students of wind and string instruments from Phoenix’s El Sistema-inspired Harmony Project and the Tijuana-based Niños de La Guadalupana Villa Del Campo worked together with students at Arizona State University and composers from Canada, Finland, and across the United States to learn and record concertos for novice-level soloists with intermediate-level accompaniment ensembles.
This project was influenced by the intergenerational ensembles common in Finnish music institutes. The author provides a document which includes a survey of the existing concerto repertoire for wind bands and previous intergenerational and multicultural studies in the field of music. The author then presents each of the mixed-ability concertos created and recorded in this project and offers biographical information on the composers. Finally, the author reflects upon qualitative surveys completed by the project’s participants.
Most the new concertos are available to the public. This music can be useful in the development and implementation of similar collaborations of musicians of all ages and abilities.
ContributorsBrooks, Melanie Jane (Author) / Hill, Gary W. (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason K (Thesis advisor) / Belgrave, Melita (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Despite the growth of technology in music composition and performance, professional clarinetists maintain that air microphones are superior to piezoelectric pickups. Pickups offer increased mobility, isolation, and reduced feedback, but air microphones are used simply for the perceived sound quality. In this study a ported barrel pickup and a contact transducer pickup placed at various intervals on the clarinet were sampled and compared to a reference recording to determine how the sound differed for each method. In addition, the history of wind instrument pickups, the acoustics of the clarinet, and the basics of piezoelectricity were discussed to help examine the results. The pickups were examined in three ways: overall level in decibels, frequency cutoff, and overtone displacement. Through these results it was determined that the most accurate methods of clarinet pickup are the ported barrel pickup, contact transducers closer to the vibration of the reed such as the ligature or barrel surface, or a transducer placed at the end of the bell. These findings were consistent with the discussions regarding history, clarinet acoustics, and piezoelectricity. This study also produced a reference for the sounds associated with different pickup methods, as well as possible improvements for clarinet pickup design.
ContributorsEnglert, Patrick William (Author) / Spring, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua T (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
As one of the composers living in an era filled with innovations, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) has been relatively ignored by scholars and pianists to date. He is an unusual composer with multiple characteristics: solitary but expressive, talented but indolent. His compositional style never lacked critics—especially with respect to his persistent preference of miniatures. Nonetheless, his piano works embody the breathtaking beauty of the composer’s independent musical ideas and colorful musical language. Compared with the flourishing, dazzling, and nationalized music from other composers living in the same era, these light, flowing musical pieces from Lyadov have irreplaceable value.
Through the study of these small-scale piano works, one finds important connections with the music of other renowned composers (e.g. Chopin and Scriabin), and the employment of traditional aspects such as Russian folk tones and fairy tales. Stylistically, Lyadov was a representative of 19th-century Romanticism; however, his compositional style changed during his late period (after 1900), presenting a unique use of dissonance.
The scholarly research on Lyadov’s piano works remains limited. Most of the related resources can be found only in the Russian music literature. No in-depth study or dissertation on the complete piano works of Lyadov could be located, and therefore my research paper is intended to provide useful information to piano performers and teachers, hopefully encouraging more study and performance of Lyadov’s piano works. Despite their lyrical melodies and deep emotion, these works are thus far relatively unpopular and unknown, with only a few played occasionally as encore pieces.
Through the study of these small-scale piano works, one finds important connections with the music of other renowned composers (e.g. Chopin and Scriabin), and the employment of traditional aspects such as Russian folk tones and fairy tales. Stylistically, Lyadov was a representative of 19th-century Romanticism; however, his compositional style changed during his late period (after 1900), presenting a unique use of dissonance.
The scholarly research on Lyadov’s piano works remains limited. Most of the related resources can be found only in the Russian music literature. No in-depth study or dissertation on the complete piano works of Lyadov could be located, and therefore my research paper is intended to provide useful information to piano performers and teachers, hopefully encouraging more study and performance of Lyadov’s piano works. Despite their lyrical melodies and deep emotion, these works are thus far relatively unpopular and unknown, with only a few played occasionally as encore pieces.
ContributorsZhang, Xiaoyu (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Creviston, Hannah (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Meir, Baruch (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018