Matching Items (54)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

133823-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
This project consists of five short stories in varying genres, all leaning towards the fantastic. "Wood Devils" (Honorable Mention in the 2018 Swarthout Awards in Writing) attempts to explore the absurdity and pain in long-running family conflicts, as well as the sense of isolation that comes from living in hard-to-reach

This project consists of five short stories in varying genres, all leaning towards the fantastic. "Wood Devils" (Honorable Mention in the 2018 Swarthout Awards in Writing) attempts to explore the absurdity and pain in long-running family conflicts, as well as the sense of isolation that comes from living in hard-to-reach places. "The Green Man's Daughter" investigates the boundary between the fantastical and the everyday by using the Other as a viewpoint, and underscores the importance of speaking out in a confusing and sometimes frightening world. "Maleficis ex Machina" attempts to look at community violence, mishandled technology, and intergenerational conflict by taking the collision between the fantastic and suburban to an even greater degree than the previous piece. "Probation" sits at a crossroads between bureaucracy and corporatization, and looks at the benefits of finding a middle ground between Heaven and Hell. "For a Crown" dramatizes the only partially-successful attempt in history at stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London, and Charles II's inexplicable pardoning of the thief. Although the stories do not intersect (shared names and an abundance of cats notwithstanding), they all focus on the barrier between the mundane and the extraordinary. Just how porous that boundary may be is, as always, uncertain.
ContributorsTasker, Luke Thomas (Author) / Horan, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Pickhart, Kalani (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Theory Jam is a series of online, education videos that teach music theory in a fun, engaging way. Our project is a response to the growing need for successful online education content. It incorporates strategies for creating effective educational video content and engages with contemporary debates in the field of

Theory Jam is a series of online, education videos that teach music theory in a fun, engaging way. Our project is a response to the growing need for successful online education content. It incorporates strategies for creating effective educational video content and engages with contemporary debates in the field of music theory surrounding the purpose of a music theory education.
ContributorsCannatelli, Joshua Bryce (Co-author) / Daval, Charles Joseph (Co-author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
135261-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
In a cross memoir and essay format, I examine what connection barriers veterans face when communicating with civilians. I interviewed veterans after adapting an interview schedule and model release form. Additionally, I researched creative nonfiction, guided autobiography, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. I chose to focus mainly on soldiers returning from

In a cross memoir and essay format, I examine what connection barriers veterans face when communicating with civilians. I interviewed veterans after adapting an interview schedule and model release form. Additionally, I researched creative nonfiction, guided autobiography, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. I chose to focus mainly on soldiers returning from recent conflicts. Once I collected my interviews, I synthesized the stories I heard with personal memoir. The thesis focuses on three parts: coming home, communication barriers, and connection. Weaving in both my personal reflection and the voices of the soldiers I interviewed, I evaluate possible ways veterans and civilians fail to connect. I address the discrepancy between the apparent warm reception of soldiers and the feelings of disconnection soldiers express by noting the ways in which both the solider and the civilian struggle to communicate. Looking at reintegration struggles, I briefly note the transition difficulty post deployment soldiers face. From the responses I received, I reflect on how empty gestures, perceived ignorance, and an outsider effect contribute to communication barriers between soldiers and veterans. While I address how ignorance can be broken down into misunderstanding military jargon, detaching from war, hearing euphemisms, and having expectations, I also consider the ways in which situation and vagueness surrounding the war contribute to communication barriers surrounding perceived ignorance. From my reflection of communication barriers, I offer tools for soldiers and veterans making connections. I recommend that both soldiers and civilians stay informed about the military engagements as best they can, deconstruct expectations and generalizations, use empathy and active listening, and start being direct. Knowing the nuanced complexity of war and communication, I weave in my own reflections in contribution to the larger conversation.
ContributorsFletcher, Jessica Marie (Author) / Wells, Cornelia (Thesis director) / deLusé, Stephanie (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
21st Century Breakdown: The Influence of Social Media on New Bands in the 21st Century is a creative project that explores the development of social media in its relation to music and how, over time, it has impacted the music industry. More specifically, the documentary explains the significance of social

21st Century Breakdown: The Influence of Social Media on New Bands in the 21st Century is a creative project that explores the development of social media in its relation to music and how, over time, it has impacted the music industry. More specifically, the documentary explains the significance of social media to new bands at this moment in time (2017), which is seen through the development of local Phoenix band The Breaking Pattern. The documentary follows The Breaking Pattern for a year from the release of their debut album to the early stages of their second album. The documentary reveals that social media is essential to new bands, allows smaller bands to stay competitive in the industry and allows artists to present a certain identity, genuine or cultivated, to the public. Keywords: social media, identity, music, internet, documentary
ContributorsBosselman, Haley Erin (Author) / Jacoby, Jim (Thesis director) / Russell, Dennis (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
133549-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The two stories and five vignettes contained within These Days reflect the disparate experiences of people struggling to find fulfillment in modern life, searching for connection and intimacy in a digital age. The stories reflect a broad range of experiences, a 20-something experiencing the futility of love, to a retired

The two stories and five vignettes contained within These Days reflect the disparate experiences of people struggling to find fulfillment in modern life, searching for connection and intimacy in a digital age. The stories reflect a broad range of experiences, a 20-something experiencing the futility of love, to a retired professor who can do nothing to stop his mind deteriorating from dementia. The five vignettes are impressionistic sketches that in the same way capture the malaise and frustration of modernity. These stories capture such topics as infidelity, toxic marriages and abusive relationships, and apathy. These stories explore an unfulfillment and disillusionment with modern life, the disconnect between observation and experience, and the inability to connect or communicate meaningfully with anyone. The stories are objective in tone and narrow in scope, reflecting diverse but fleeting experiences, as people try and often fail to find meaning or contentment.
ContributorsAbernethy, Christopher C. (Author) / Ison, Tara (Thesis director) / Alvarez, Maria (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
133448-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Students who study abroad often imagine their ideal life before arrival, but many do not intuit that in their desires lie future hardships. Successful Practices for Avoiding Culture Shock and Assimilating into Japanese Culture, a creative project, incorporates step-by-step tips, author anecdotes, real-life survey experiences, and literary references to hel

Students who study abroad often imagine their ideal life before arrival, but many do not intuit that in their desires lie future hardships. Successful Practices for Avoiding Culture Shock and Assimilating into Japanese Culture, a creative project, incorporates step-by-step tips, author anecdotes, real-life survey experiences, and literary references to help students adjust to the mental stresses that come with studying and living within a foreign culture. Three parts divide the brochure and promote self-empowerment and success. Topics include but are not limited to the importance of establishing goals in connection to study abroad, securing funds and scholarships, surviving international travel, building on failure, overcoming language learning plateaus, avoiding danger, perceiving beyond what is visible in the host culture, and reverse culture shock. By following the steps proposed in this brochure, students will be able to outsmart the negative aspects of culture shock. Although this brochure aims to be of use to anyone aspiring to study abroad, it primarily targets students who wish to study in Japan. For additional preparation, students will scrutinize Japan-America intercultural situations via activities and trace where instances of culture shock may arise. Perceptive students will realize that the homogenous nation emphasizes a group mentality, and that the individualistic and ethnocentric programming most Americans undergo serves no place in the collectivistic culture. A student will succeed not by imagining himself or herself as a visitor, but as someone who truly has a role in the society. If students do not impose their American disposition, but instead adopt characteristics that harmonize with a Japanese temperament, they will heighten their senses as a listener and observer, and thus find belonging in the culture.
ContributorsPhillips, Kayla Susanne (Author) / Wilson, Bradley (Thesis director) / Suhara, Eiji (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
133507-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The common human experiences depicted in classical paintings from art history are becoming less relatable due to the increasing influence and presence of technology in our day to day lives. This project contains two parts. The first part is a remixing of 3 classical works of art so that they

The common human experiences depicted in classical paintings from art history are becoming less relatable due to the increasing influence and presence of technology in our day to day lives. This project contains two parts. The first part is a remixing of 3 classical works of art so that they include the presence of technology and communicate the possible evolution of human experiences as technology will be incorporated into them. The three remixed paintings are as follows: Eduoard Manet's Olympia, which showcases the human experience of relationships and gender dynamics; Edgar Degas' Dancers, which showcases the human experience of creation and learning; and Raphael's Madonna del Granduca, which showcases the human experiences of child-rearing, maternity, and childhood. The second part of the project utilizes the ekphrastic process, ekphrasis being the process of using the written word to give voice and explanation to a piece of visual art. In this part of the project, three short science-fiction stories were written, one in response to each of the classical paintings and its respective remix. The stories focus on themes of how technology will integrate itself into the common human experiences of parenting, entertainment, and intimate relationships, and the problems and solutions that may arise as a result. The stories are intended to be read alongside the paintings, however they can also be read separately without the context of the paintings from which they were drawn. Likewise, the paintings can be viewed separately from the short stories. The work is complimentary and builds on itself.
ContributorsFrancois, Nathan Peter (Author) / Finn, Edward (Thesis director) / Meissinger, Ellen (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
133104-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The Alien Play, as posted here, is a placeholder name for this working draft of a full-length stage play that functions as part-science-fiction adventure, part-spiritual-parable. As the process of playwriting is a complex array of research, outlining, drafting, revising and editing, the play is preceded by a craft essay detailing

The Alien Play, as posted here, is a placeholder name for this working draft of a full-length stage play that functions as part-science-fiction adventure, part-spiritual-parable. As the process of playwriting is a complex array of research, outlining, drafting, revising and editing, the play is preceded by a craft essay detailing the playwright's inspiration, research, and narrative design. In order to complete this project, the playwright conducted research in the field of religious studies, focusing specifically on the phenomena of paranormal experiences through the lenses of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, asking questions such as: How and why do new religions arise? In what ways (narrative, content, structure, etc.) do these new religions reflect the spiritualist mythologies or religious institutions of the past? What do these similarities or differences say about the social, economic, or political atmospheres that give rise to such movements?

More specifically, this play works within the cross-section of religion/spirituality, mental illness, and UFO and other extra-terrestrial related anomalies to ask such questions as: What does it mean to be Human? What does it mean to be "alien" or Other? How do we internally and externally construct a binary between Humanness and Otherness, between Self and Other? How do we construct reality? In what ways does this anthropomorphize our conceptions of the Human or the Other? In what ways, specifically, may this affect our understanding or manifestation of mental illness, in ourself and others?

The play you see here is a final draft for the thesis, but is still in development elsewhere. Here is a brief log line (i.e. a short description of the general plot and conflict of a script) for the piece: Four sisters from a broken home must deal with the sudden discovery of their late father's communication with an extra-terrestrial race bearing a message of Love-and-Peace. When they, too, begin to communicate with the E.T.'s, they must juggle issues of mental illness, memory, and trauma all while outrunning a shadow government that will stop at nothing to uncover their secret.
ContributorsFields, Savannah (Author) / Sterling, Pamela (Thesis director) / Reyes, Guillermo (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
134112-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
In my experience as a reader, depictions of depression or suicidal ideation in fiction are most often conveyed through social realism or otherwise realistically grounded writing. This makes sense given the subject matter, as one would intuitively think to depict mental or emotional trauma in a very sobering way, but

In my experience as a reader, depictions of depression or suicidal ideation in fiction are most often conveyed through social realism or otherwise realistically grounded writing. This makes sense given the subject matter, as one would intuitively think to depict mental or emotional trauma in a very sobering way, but I felt that one could merge the topic with a more absurdist, magical realist-inspired style while staying reverent to the emotional experience. I also find that stories that approach their subtext too seriously can stray very easily into plain didacticism, as opposed to a work that tries to entertain first. I concluded that conveying the experience of isolation and depression through metaphor would be the most emotionally rewarding or enlightening experience for the reader. The central premise of the story is, to me, a metaphor; a young man isolated from society, and haunted by past experiences, who comes to be literally haunted by ghosts with similar experiences. From that starting point I wanted to explore the perspectives of several of the ghosts in a multiple-protagonist format, structuring the present-day storyline around the flashbacks of three of the ghosts. I wanted each of the ghosts' backstories to present a kind of variation on the larger cultural "depression narrative", with some of them perhaps being more recognizable cultural symbols (such as Kryz in the role of the traumatized former soldier), but all being shown in specific, idiosyncratic ways. The content of each ghost's storyline came, again, from thinking of ways to metaphorically represent their particular emotional issues; Sarah, for example, literally has no shadow in a world of people with shadows, while Kryz's job on a film set full of artifice may mirror the artificiality that he sees in everyday interaction. These flashbacks making up the bulk of the narrative puts the ostensible lead character, Officer, in a backseat-narrator position a la Nick in The Great Gatsby, with the ghosts' experiences also working to inform his emotional status. I feel that the form of a work of fiction should reflect the nature of its content in some way, and given that my subject matter is mental illness, it made sense to me to arrange the various stories in a fragmented fashion, taking inspiration from authors like Thomas Pynchon and Irvine Welsh, as well as the non-fiction book A Brief Introduction to Madness. Finally, I wanted to convey a sense of absurdity in the events of the story, again taking influence from these authors. In my experience and observation, depression and mania are often responses to a world that makes little sense, from people unable to cope with the reality around them. I feel this goes hand-in-hand with an absurdist view of the world, and hopefully the unrealistic details of these stories, and the way character treat them as normal, should convey a sense of bafflement for the reader.
ContributorsWaller, Evan James (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Suk, Mina (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
133972-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
"The Art of Humans Being" is a feature length screenplay in the same vein as an original Pixar animated script. The story takes place in New York City, and focuses on our heroine, 13-year-old high school senior and certifiable genius, Lu, and our hero, 17-year-old high school senior of average

"The Art of Humans Being" is a feature length screenplay in the same vein as an original Pixar animated script. The story takes place in New York City, and focuses on our heroine, 13-year-old high school senior and certifiable genius, Lu, and our hero, 17-year-old high school senior of average smarts, Finn. We are first introduced to these characters as they struggle with fitting in both at school and in their lives at home. Lu and Finn feel a disconnect with their families, but both share a common appreciation for art and the escape it provides. Though her entire family is involved in artistic and creative pursuits, Lu has never painted a day in her life but dreams of one day being a great artist. Finn, on the other hand, has inherited his deceased mother’s immense talent with a paintbrush, but is hesitant to live in her shadow. Upon seeing their desire to paint, their high school art teacher—Miss Ro—encourages Finn and Lu to enter the world-renowned art competition Palette Parfaite, created by the famous French artist Madame Inès. In order to enter this art competition, contestants must dive inside a painting. As such, Lu and Finn are forced to literally enter the art world. Once inside the painting, they are introduced to colorful characters, stunning landscapes, and an entire studio of art materials that can only be described as every artists’ dream. However, the more time they spend inside the painting, the sooner Lu and Finn realize that this dreamlike world is not quite what it seems. "The Art of Humans Being" seeks to explore the world of art through the following questions: What happens to the forgotten art that has been discarded after being deemed “not good enough” to be finished? What happens to human beings who are treated the same? And finally, what happens when we accept people for who they are and what they create, even if they have flaws; even if they’re still works in progress?
ContributorsGraves, Cassidy Aadland (Author) / Bernstein, Gregory (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05