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Link to website project: http://cacoope6.wix.com/tolerancemuseum The East Valley Jewish Community Center is working to build a Holocaust & Tolerance Museum adjacent to their community center campus in Chandler. As a sophomore in college I was introduced to the EVJCC and this project when I saw two Holocaust survivors who lived

Link to website project: http://cacoope6.wix.com/tolerancemuseum The East Valley Jewish Community Center is working to build a Holocaust & Tolerance Museum adjacent to their community center campus in Chandler. As a sophomore in college I was introduced to the EVJCC and this project when I saw two Holocaust survivors who lived through Sobibor death camp speak at an EVJCC event. After that, I looked for more information online, only to find none. A series of conversations with Steve Tepper of the EVJCC later, we decided on a project - a website that would be easy for him to maintain after I passed it over when my thesis was complete. I spent a little over a year gathering materials for this project and familiarizing myself with the people and projects involved. In addition to my own original materials, I used a collection of materials I was given access to by Steve Tepper, including filmed interviews with survivors, a documentary, news stories and more. I attended events, took my own photos, talked with Holocaust survivors and learned more about the museum itself, which will be a museum not only to commemorate the Holocaust but genocide and persecution around the globe. When it came time to make the website, I chose Wix as the medium because it was something I could make to the EVJCC's standards and specifications with my own original touches and flair, and something they could easily take over and update after I pass it along. The final product is a beginning website to help them get started with their online presence as a museum.
Created2016-05
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Link to documentary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxFCDFfMBwpoNVdybDZOaGhaUWc/view?usp=sharing For my thesis project, I decided to do a documentary on Special Olympic Athletes in Arizona. These individuals have always inspired me because they have faced many challenges and yet they still go through life with a smile on their face. I believe they all deserve

Link to documentary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxFCDFfMBwpoNVdybDZOaGhaUWc/view?usp=sharing For my thesis project, I decided to do a documentary on Special Olympic Athletes in Arizona. These individuals have always inspired me because they have faced many challenges and yet they still go through life with a smile on their face. I believe they all deserve recognition for what they have accomplished during the games and outside of them. I wanted to give them this recognition. In my documentary, I interviewed five athletes, three of which are siblings. The first athlete I interviewed was Jesse McGirl, who is a star track and field athlete. In his part of the video, I talk about his strategy as well as his involvement in the games. I also talk about him being a Global Messenger and how he travels the world in order to spread the message of the Special Olympics. The next athlete was David Fromh, who started competing in the games in 1978. In his section, I talk to him about his relationships with his coaches and teammates as well as the strategy he uses while running. He is one of the most positive athletes out there, and I really emphasize on his positivity. The last set of interviews I did was with the Meagan, Emily, and Quincy Jones, three siblings who all suffer from intellectual disabilities. David and Gena Jones adopted them when they were young and their story is a true inspiration. The family is the main focus of my documentary, so they have three parts: Early Life, Special Olympics, and Future. The Early Life focuses on how David and Gena raised their kids and their high school life. The Special Olympics section focuses on their success at the games and the Future section is about the siblings' interests outside of the games. Along with my athlete stories, I have an introduction and conclusion as well as a brief history section describing the founding of the Special Olympics. I had a great time making this project, and I am very fortunate to be able to tell such inspirational stories.
Created2015-12
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"Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?" \u2014 Albert Camus Making a decision between committing suicide or continuing about the monotony of a life void of meaning can be surprisingly difficult to make when all human logic entices us to do the former. In fact, doing the

"Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?" \u2014 Albert Camus Making a decision between committing suicide or continuing about the monotony of a life void of meaning can be surprisingly difficult to make when all human logic entices us to do the former. In fact, doing the latter seems definitively humanely impossible. In my art series "The Absurd Man", I visually analyze a variety of human reactions to absurdism, drawing from absurdist texts as well as personal experiences to force upon the viewer, recognition of the discomforting reality of human frailty.
ContributorsTa, Trang Thuy (Author) / Pessler, Anthony (Thesis director) / Obuck, John (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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DescriptionA collection of chronological, interconnected short stories following the lives and changes of a family throughout the 20th century, connected through the generations by unifying objects carried in from story to story.
ContributorsGilboa, Inbal (Author) / Bell, Matt (Thesis director) / Soares, Rebecca (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Liminal Space is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game designed to facilitate performative, personalized, and critical exploration of identity, value and truth dissensus; contemporary social, technological, political, and environmental issues; and modes of relating to socio-technical change, instability, and uncertainty. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games emerge from a 40-year history as an entertainment medium,

Liminal Space is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game designed to facilitate performative, personalized, and critical exploration of identity, value and truth dissensus; contemporary social, technological, political, and environmental issues; and modes of relating to socio-technical change, instability, and uncertainty. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games emerge from a 40-year history as an entertainment medium, but in recent decades have displayed the ability to personally speak to more "serious" issues. Mechanically, they combine elements of classroom or public-engagement, pedagogic, roleplaying exercises with benefits or participatory scenario construction, allowing players to immerse themselves in bespoke situations reflecting their personal interests, anxieties, and pedagogic aims and to reflexively and critically engage with contested truths or social disruptions in a safe space. Formal studies of roleplaying games are sparse, and I, the author, hope that Liminal Space can draw more study to a unique communication, entertainments, and performance medium and to the unique communities that surround it.
Created2018-05
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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
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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
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This work presents a client with a unique business problem with the creation of a user friendly check-in system and more specifically an application that would replace the current manual system that is in place. Two possibilities were analyzed and considered in order to reduce reliance on paper tracking. Initially

This work presents a client with a unique business problem with the creation of a user friendly check-in system and more specifically an application that would replace the current manual system that is in place. Two possibilities were analyzed and considered in order to reduce reliance on paper tracking. Initially a mobile application was considered where only users who have the QR code can access through PhoneGap with a barcode scanner. The second possibility was taking the initial plan and expanding it into a fully responsive website with strict user access control that could go from desktop, to laptop, to tablet, and to phones. This would allow users to access the application from something other than a mobile device.
ContributorsLebratti, Thalia Karesse (Author) / Ahmad, Altaf (Thesis director) / Mazzola, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
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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

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
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Over the course of my undergraduate experience, I have grown significantly as an artist - developing an assortment of strengths in a variety of cinematic disciplines ranging from screenwriting and producing to post-production and cinematography. All the while, I have been giving back to the Sun Devil community by serving

Over the course of my undergraduate experience, I have grown significantly as an artist - developing an assortment of strengths in a variety of cinematic disciplines ranging from screenwriting and producing to post-production and cinematography. All the while, I have been giving back to the Sun Devil community by serving in a number of leadership positions around campus which exposed me to a plethora of communities differ from my own. The combination of these experiences allows me to continuously explore new passions in synergy with my art. Two of these standing as the concept of live performance and the work of William Shakespeare. Through this exploration of artistic synergy, I have experimented with integrating the works of the Bard of Avon into the realm of cinema. From the beginning of 2105, I have been drafting a feature-length screenplay which serves as a quasi-prequel to Shakespeare's The Tempest. Under the title of A Kingdom or a Cure, it tells the story of the revolutionary war-hero Miguel Prosperiti as he struggles to save his daughter form a mysterious disease which has baffled the best medical minds while the country he has rebuilt comes crumbling down in post-apocalyptic Italy. Deposed and left to die at the hands of his brother, Miguel must defend his child from the evil witch Sycorax who attempts to kill the pair in order to feed off of their suffering and prolong her own life. Serving to fill the requirements for the Film and Media Production Capstone, A Kingdom or a Cure reimagines the world of Shakespeare's play and creates a new context for the words and actions of its leading characters. Such stands as the foundation of what I have created for what I have created as my applied project - a stylistic re-imagining of William Shakespeare's The Tempest which draws from multiple interpretations of the narrative to be performed as a piece within a larger theatrical presentation staged with only the classical techniques which stand contemporary to the Bard of Avon. The remainder of this document shall lie in six primary sections. The first two establish the project and detail its evolution over the course of the thesis process. Next stands as the production log which chronicles my journey over the Classical and Poetic Drama course as well as the rehearsal process for Mythfest and the Chaucer Festival. Fourth shall consist of a bibliography of all the texts which I have worked with over the course of this thesis experience. Fifth rests A Kingdom or a Cure - the screenplay which inspired me to embark on the grand journey which this thesis has taken me. Sixth shall assume the form of the PowerPoint Presentation which I presented at my thesis defense which contains a collection of images which have provided me with artistic inspiration throughout the thesis process. In conjunction with one another, these pieces serve as the written elements of my applied project.
ContributorsArcaro, Michael Anthony (Author) / Giner, Oscar (Thesis director) / Eckard, Bonnie (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05