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- Creators: School of Life Sciences
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
The purpose of this study is to analyze the stereotypes surrounding four wind instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets, and saxophones), and the ways in which those stereotypes propagate through various levels of musical professionalism in Western culture. In order to determine what these stereotypes might entail, several thousand social media and blog posts were analyzed, and direct quotations detailing the perceived stereotypical personality profiles for each of the four instruments were collected. From these, the three most commonly mentioned characteristics were isolated for each of the instrument groups as follows: female gender, femininity, and giggliness for flutists, intelligence, studiousness, and demographics (specifically being an Asian male) for clarinetists, quirkiness, eccentricity, and being seen as a misfit for oboists, and overconfidence, attention-seeking behavior, and coolness for saxophonists. From these traits, a survey was drafted which asked participating college-aged musicians various multiple choice, opinion scale, and short-answer questions that gathered how much they agree or disagree with each trait describing the instrument from which it was derived. Their responses were then analyzed to determine how much correlation existed between the researched characteristics and the opinions of modern musicians. From these results, it was determined that 75% of the traits that were isolated for a particular instrument were, in fact, recognized as being true in the survey data, demonstrating that the stereotypes do exist and seem to be widely recognizable across many age groups, locations, and levels of musical skill. Further, 89% of participants admitted that the instrument they play has a certain stereotype associated with it, but only 38% of people identify with that profile. Overall, it was concluded that stereotypes, which are overwhelmingly negative and gendered by nature, are indeed propagated, but musicians do not appear to want to identify with them, and they reflect a more archaic and immature sense that does not correlate to the trends observed in modern, professional music.
ContributorsAllison, Lauren Nicole (Author) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Thesis director) / Ankeny, Casey (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
For my creative project, I began an art press that produces small-run vinyl records and artist's books. Initially, the venture began as a means to circumvent record pressing facilities as a vinyl record-cutting service. By the end of this project, the focus shifted to encompass more visual art products than just vinyl records. The project began with vinyl records because I saw a need in the market; in the past decade, the industry has grown dramatically, but the dozen record pressing plants in the country cannot keep up with the demand. Because record pressing companies prioritize large orders, it is difficult for many small bands and independent record labels to produce work on this medium. This is due to the long lead times, high prices, and large minimum order sizes. I located a man in Germany, who invented a machine that makes high-quality, lathe-cut records. I named the project Blushing Soup, as homage to my father, who passed during my first semester of college. It is through his passing that I was able to secure funds to pursue this venture. I brought on a partner, who was more familiar with art and audio recording than myself. In the summer of 2015, we met with this inventor to learn how to use his machine. By October of 2015, a machine of our own had arrived. In early November, Blushing Soup won a grant from the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. During this time, we released two vinyl records for local bands. For a culminating project, I coordinated a Record Store Day compilation album consisting of six bands featuring. After securing all of the music, the machine started having problems, which forced me to cancel this release. Recognizing the delicacy of the machine, prompted a shift in the aim of Blushing Soup. During this process, I started learning printmaking processes, and I realized that Blushing Soup could function as more than a record cutting service; we could be an art press. In the last few month of this project, I started making artist's books. By the end of April 2016, Blushing Soup will have released vinyl records for two bands, as well as produced four handmade books. This creative project centered around the process of creating art through lathe cutting and printmaking; the objective was not to maximize profits but rather refocus the consumption of art (in a sustainable practice).
ContributorsStringer, Shelby Manning (Author) / Essig, Linda (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Only in the world of acting can an individual be denied a job simply on the basis of their appearance, and in my thesis, I sought to explore alternatives to this through the concept of nontraditional casting and casting against "type", which included the presentation of a full-length production of the musical "Once on this Island" which I attempted to cast based on vocal quality and skill alone rather than taking physical characteristics into account. I researched the history and implementation of nontraditional casting, both in regards to race and other factors such as gender, socio-economic status, and disability. I also considered the legal and intellectual property challenges that nontraditional casting can pose. I concluded from this research that while nontraditional casting is only one solution to the problem, it still has a great deal of potential to create diversity in theater. For my own show, I held the initial auditions via audio recording, though the callback auditions were held in person so that I and my crew could appraise dance and acting ability. Though there were many challenges with our cast after this initial round of auditions, we were able to solidify our cast and continue through the rehearsal process. All things said, the show was very successful. It is my hope that those who were a part of the show, either as part of the production or the audience, are inspired to challenge the concept of typecasting in contemporary theater.
ContributorsBriggs, Timothy James (Author) / Yatso, Toby (Thesis director) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The business models of the music industry are currently experiencing rapid changes. Services such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Pandora offer methods of consuming music unlike any the industry has seen before. Consumers have shifted from wanting products (digital music and CDs) to using streaming services (Spotify, Pandora, etc.). This study analyzes the motivation for these changes and considers why people choose the avenues by which they experience music.
ContributorsDugan, Emma (Co-author) / Foley, Meghan (Co-author) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Thesis director) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
"On Music Videos" is an exploration of music videos, particularly narrative ones. As such, a brief history of the music video and its genres are examined. Ideas about narrative are also discussed through descriptions of what is meant by "story," based on theories from Pixar animators as well as author J.R.R. Tolkien. The connections between how story fits with music videos is then outlined. From this background research one is able to analyze examples of existing narrative music videos, before applying this knowledge and reflecting on the process of creating a narrative music video.
ContributorsNguyen, Melissa M (Author) / Finn, Ed (Thesis director) / Simeone, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A piece of music consisting of a single movement was composed with baroque and classical elements. The piece is written in common time in D minor, and the key, along with the slow tempo, give the piece a somber mood. It is written for a string quartet: violin I, violin II, viola, and cello. The prominence and complexity of each of the four parts is evenly balanced so as not to give the impression that certain parts are more important. The piece is centered around a theme, which each of the parts plays in some form in the piece. This structure was largely inspired by Bach's Art of the Fugue, which introduces a theme (first played unaccompanied and unmodified in Contrapunctus I) and adds different variations in later movements. Like Bach's Art of the Fugue, the theme is passed between the four parts with new modifications in each introduction. After the completion of the theme, the progression was composed without specific inspiration to keep the piece as original as possible. To maintain a baroque style, the parts were composed separately and viewed as independent melodic lines. Ensuring that the lines were harmoniously interdependent was one of the largest challenges in this project. The piece was originally composed by hand on notebook paper, but a majority of the work was done using the professional music writing program Dorico. Dorico was an incredibly useful tool in this process because it easy to learn and allows users to try it free for a month.
ContributorsMunson, Cody (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis director) / Fritz, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
DescriptionReflections of Self is an original score containing three movements composed and transcribed entirely by myself (Cameron Labban) under the guidance of Dr. David Schildkret. The foundation of the movements within the score are based upon stand-alone melodies created since I first began teaching myself how to play the piano.
ContributorsLabban, Cameron Wael (Author) / Schildkret, David (Thesis director) / Evans, Bartlett (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This creative project aimed to combine knowledge, qualifications, and experience in networking and marketing to host a live music event. As a social media industry employee, an avid concertgoer, and a digital marketer, I felt sufficiently able to complete this task. The process included working within the Barrett budget to secure a venue and acts with the option of paid marketing for the event. Once I secured The Graduate Hotel and three acts— bands Study Habit and Moose Titans and DJ/emcee Malcolm Alexndr—it was time to publicize the event. I found a photographer and organized a photo shoot then created social media profiles and a website with these photos. In total, the attendance was roughly 100 people, and the night was a smash success.
Keywords: event planning, social media, music
Keywords: event planning, social media, music
ContributorsGilliam, Taylor Mikel (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / Hultsman, Wendy (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
In everyday life, unfocused attention can be detrimental to life either through driving vehicles, cutting vegetables, and learning new languages. In order to increase sustained attention, Binaural Beats were introduced. Binaural Beats have two different frequency tones which oscillate to produce different effects. Each of these beats operates at different frequencies thus having different sound production: theta, delta, alpha, beta, and gamma. In the experiment beta Binaural Beats with frequencies of 200 and 216 Hertz, Hz (unit of measurement for frequency), were used with a control of 200 Hz flat noise. The experiment utilized the psychomotor vigilance task to measure changes in response times and utilized Affectiva to measure changes in facial musculature. The response times were then analyzed to explain why the Binaural Beats condition had significantly shorter response times compared to the control group throughout the task. In terms of emotional change, some trends were noticed for the Binaural Beats and the control condition; however, none of the trends were significant. Moving forward with the experiment, an increased number of participants can be recorded to strengthen the validity and test different frequencies of Binaural Beats for accuracy.
ContributorsObulasetty, Mohitha (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Wingert, Kimberly (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
My creative project involved the creation of a short, abstract animation set to EDM music. It's meant to mimic the graphics displayed in the background of EDM concerts and was inspired by Beeple and the graphics he designed for EDM artist, Zedd. Under the guidance of my director, Meredith Drum, and with help from my second committee member, Muriel Magenta, I was able to use Audacity to edit the music, Autodesk Maya 2016 to model and animate the animation, the HIDA render farm to render the frames using Maya Software and mentalray, Adobe After Effects CC to assemble and edit the animation, and Adobe Media Encoder to export the end product. The final animation included 20,855 individual frames, totaling to 14 minutes and 28 seconds in length. The project takes the viewer through seven worlds to express the idea of feeling isolated in your home, exploring the world, and then returning home with a new perspective. Each world evokes a different emotion through the interaction of its visual and audio design to allow the viewer to experience the intended storyline without explicit characters or plot detail. Due to the importance of maintaining plot flow, I utilized beautiful, yet difficult, design elements including glass textures, ocean shaders, and paint effects to create drastically different world designs specific to each song. These songs were chosen from a variety of EDM artists and edited to flow together seamlessly through each world and evoke a different emotion. Throughout the thesis process, I gained more skills in animation and editing and greatly improved my ability to use each application. While there is plenty of room to grow, I have improved exponentially as an artist from when I began this project to the moment I completed it.
ContributorsMallik, Ajanta Angie (Author) / Drum, Meredith (Thesis director) / Magenta, Muriel (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05