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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
The influence that agent-student interaction has on learning can have significant outcomes in an ITS. Agent-human relationships within ITSs possess elements modeled by teacher-student relationships in the classroom. As a result, student perceptions of pedagogical agents can affect learning outcomes. An efficient environment can depend upon the intention for which the virtual agent is designed. As researchers gain more knowledge on the effect that characteristics outside of language have on learning, agent pedagogies can begin to be developed and perfected. In this research, we investigate the role that the pedagogical agent's gender has in the learning process. Specifically, we examine whether gender of agent interacts with gender of student to influence variables related to affect and motivation in ITSs
ContributorsStone, Melissa Linn (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / Snow, Erica (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The purpose of this research was to create a theoretical lesson plan to teach the French Revolution, and specifically the March on Versailles, to secondary-level (middle and high school) students. This lesson plan incorporates a simulation of the March on Versailles for students to participate in as a supplement to their usual lesson, and as a different and engaging method of learning. For the purposes of this honors thesis, the research and information gathered was split into four individual sections: a pedagogy, a historiography, a series of short biographies, and a script which is accompanied by a short film of the dialogue. These four parts would work together in order for an instructor to easily build either a simple, short, one-class lesson or a multi-lesson project for their students. The parts combine research into educational studies and research on French Revolutionary history in order to encompass all aspects of a lesson. The goal of such research into a potential lesson plan would be to create a history lesson which is more interesting to all students, especially those who struggle to find enjoyment in history. Moving forward, this theoretical lesson would be put into practice with middle or high school students in order to gauge their interest and engagement with the subject before and after a simulation in their class.
ContributorsNun, Taylor Jaylene (Author) / Thompson, Victoria (Thesis director) / Harris, Lauren (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Every color that you see in film is purposely chosen by the filmmakers. The majority of film viewers do not consciously realize the role that color plays in their movie experience. Subconsciously, viewers are deeply affected by the color choices in the film as it changes moods, tones, characters, and more. By examining color in film, filmmakers are able to create better stories, therefore having a greater effect on the audience. By becoming aware of the role of color in film, audience members become better, more involved viewers.
The following project is cut into three major parts: Color Theory in Film, An Analysis of Symbolic Color, and the Technical Applications of Color in Film. Part One gives the necessary background on color theory, light theory, color mixing, color associations, and color palettes needed to understand the rest of the project. Part Two examines color symbolism and color psychology in three films, detailing their importance to the storylines in-depth. Part Three looks at the ways filmmakers employ color during post-production, principal photography, and post-production. By looking at production design, the history of color grading, and the power of lighting and cinematography, one is able to discern the different effects color creates and how that effect is created.
The following project is cut into three major parts: Color Theory in Film, An Analysis of Symbolic Color, and the Technical Applications of Color in Film. Part One gives the necessary background on color theory, light theory, color mixing, color associations, and color palettes needed to understand the rest of the project. Part Two examines color symbolism and color psychology in three films, detailing their importance to the storylines in-depth. Part Three looks at the ways filmmakers employ color during post-production, principal photography, and post-production. By looking at production design, the history of color grading, and the power of lighting and cinematography, one is able to discern the different effects color creates and how that effect is created.
ContributorsMcholland, Megan (Author) / Nascimento, Eliciana (Thesis director) / Klucsarits, Philip (Committee member) / Dean, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The desire for normalcy is constant, regardless of how unattainable one knows it is. As it seems, the harder one tries for a normal life, the harder it becomes to find it. The more life I experience, the more I realize that normalcy is a construct, completely based in generalizable concepts. Normal will vary from person to person, and even within that, life always provides plenty of deviations from the norm. Within those deviations lies trauma. Trauma is difficult to handle, period. It is even more difficult to handle alone. You Can't Cry While Drinking (Coffee) follows a collegiate arts student as she strives for normalcy while dealing with her mother's terminal diagnosis. This piece focus on alienation, mental health, relationships between women, and the damage that ignoring trauma can cause. It views her actions through the lens of comedy, as laughter can convey a vast and accessible range of emotions. Throughout my college career, I have gone through a significant amount of life stressors, beyond the traditional college work load. Instead of becoming overcome with grief from the traumas I have dealt with, I decided to analyze my life from an outside perspective, taking pieces to share with others. In my observations and experience, sharing stories of hardships with others is mutually beneficial. It allows the individual to come to terms with what they have experience while allowing others to not feel alone if they are struggling with their own lives. There is a considerable amount of comfort in the realization that one does not have to go through traumatic experiences alone. This creative project was performed March 2nd through the 5th. The public exposure was a substantial portion of the process, as sharing trauma was integral to the study of this thesis.
ContributorsGalbiati, Tess Angeline (Author) / Scott, Jason (Thesis director) / Eckard, Bonnie (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Language comprehension is an essential skill in many aspects of life, yet some children still struggle with oral comprehension. This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention to improve the listening skills and comprehension of 4 and 5-year olds. This intervention is based on principles of embodied cognition, namely that language comprehension requires a simulation (or imagination) of what the language is about. Thus, children in the intervention condition moved pictures on an iPad to simulate the stories they were hearing. Children in the control condition saw the pictures, but did not move them. To identify the effectiveness of this simulation training, we analyzed scores on a comprehension test, and changes in motor cortex activity while listening. If the intervention increases simulation, then compared to the control, a) children given the intervention should perform better on the comprehension test, and b) those children should show greater activity in their motor cortices while listening. Furthermore, the change in motor cortex activity should statistically mediate the change in comprehension. Our results showed a significant positive correlation (.79) in the EMBRACE group (but not in the control) between the change in mu suppression before and after the intervention and the change in comprehension questions before and after the intervention. This correlation suggests that children can be taught to use their motor cortices while listening, and supports our hypothesis that embodied language theories, such as simulation are useful for enhancing comprehension.
ContributorsMarji, Michelle Lee (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Restrepo, Laida (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
As an artist, I set out to creatively answer three important questions that were discovered in a variety of ways over the course of my academic career. They all had one thing in common, the awareness and wonder around how impactful presence is. But what is presence? Merriam-Webster Dictionary defined presence as, “The state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.” And, “A person or thing that exists or is present in a place but is not seen. (Presence) After a tangible experience with loss, grief, disappointment, and extenuating life circumstances for many cast members involved in this seven-month movement research project, the internal battle for physical, mental, and emotional presence began to be a daily pursuit. The originally produced work, Presence-The Walk, takes a look into the unpopular practice of being still in an ever-moving society, as well as what the process of healing can look like for an individual. Videographer and MFA candidate Lawrence Fung was a large collaborator on the final product of this work. After having to adapt several different versions of the final product due to cast changes, opportunities for public performance, and the COVID-19 pandemic, dancer, mover, and artist Victoria Ward shares her experience and research exploring the constant pursuit of presence and what it looked like to present professional work given an even shorter timeline. Interdisciplinary collaboration with photographers, artists, and spoken word was also a key aspect of this work alongside the research completed by her cast of seven dancers.
ContributorsWard, Victoria Marie (Author) / Conder, Carley (Thesis director) / Meredith, Shauna (Committee member) / Rosenkrans, Angela (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This performance attempts to decolonize possibilities for love through unarcheology, an invented method intended to re-narrate artifacts "dug up" by institutions of oppressive power and utilized in service of particular ideologies. Through unarcheologies of Sirhan Sirhan, the performer's father, and the performer's own body, the performance offers a critical call for us to examine the ways that colonial logics of criminality, threat, and wrongness always already implicate Palestinian bodies and our relations with them.
Rhetorics of criminality have long been written onto Palestinian bodies. From Dareen Tatour's imprisonment by the state of Israel to the U.S. detaining Adham Hassoun indefinitely as a "security threat", these rhetorics lead to material violence against Palestinians on a global scale, as well as on a discursive and interpersonal level. Communicative work which seeks to decolonize the Palestinian body in its various settings is vital to our survival in literal as well as symbolic ways. From a postcolonial perspective, we cannot extricate the individual from the communal, the local, the national, the global nor the universal. A postcolonial understanding of "survival" demands that we reflexively interrogate the Palestinian body in its sociohistorical complexity and on its own terms.
Autoethnography is uniquely situated as a method for postcolonial analyses of Palestinian survival. Chawla and Atay argue, "postcolonialism and autoethnography are inherently self-reflexive practices… that necessitate a centering of both the subject–object within a local and historical context" (4). In this performance, I introduce "unarcheology" as a postcolonial method for learning to love the Palestinian body. Using media and embodied performance, I stage a series of scripts comprised of poetic autoethnographic reflection, repurposed diary entries from an archetypal Palestinian "criminal," and the text of my father's indictment. These scripts, composed through a queer, collage-like method I call "unarcheology," are separated into temporal sections (past, present, and future) and audience members determine the order of their performance, thus demanding direct engagement in the performance's decolonial project. Staged on and around a single pile of dirt, this performance interrogates colonial barriers of criminality preventing the capacity to critically love Palestinians. It documents the survival that Palestinians are forced to embody- its goal, however, is the pursuit of critical, generous, decolonized love.
Rhetorics of criminality have long been written onto Palestinian bodies. From Dareen Tatour's imprisonment by the state of Israel to the U.S. detaining Adham Hassoun indefinitely as a "security threat", these rhetorics lead to material violence against Palestinians on a global scale, as well as on a discursive and interpersonal level. Communicative work which seeks to decolonize the Palestinian body in its various settings is vital to our survival in literal as well as symbolic ways. From a postcolonial perspective, we cannot extricate the individual from the communal, the local, the national, the global nor the universal. A postcolonial understanding of "survival" demands that we reflexively interrogate the Palestinian body in its sociohistorical complexity and on its own terms.
Autoethnography is uniquely situated as a method for postcolonial analyses of Palestinian survival. Chawla and Atay argue, "postcolonialism and autoethnography are inherently self-reflexive practices… that necessitate a centering of both the subject–object within a local and historical context" (4). In this performance, I introduce "unarcheology" as a postcolonial method for learning to love the Palestinian body. Using media and embodied performance, I stage a series of scripts comprised of poetic autoethnographic reflection, repurposed diary entries from an archetypal Palestinian "criminal," and the text of my father's indictment. These scripts, composed through a queer, collage-like method I call "unarcheology," are separated into temporal sections (past, present, and future) and audience members determine the order of their performance, thus demanding direct engagement in the performance's decolonial project. Staged on and around a single pile of dirt, this performance interrogates colonial barriers of criminality preventing the capacity to critically love Palestinians. It documents the survival that Palestinians are forced to embody- its goal, however, is the pursuit of critical, generous, decolonized love.
ContributorsTbakhi, Nissim Dawn (Author) / Linde, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Rohd, Michael (Committee member) / LeMaster, Benjamin (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05