Matching Items (36)
Description
ABSTRACT "In the Penal Colony" is a three-act play based on the original short story by Franz Kafka and adapted by ASU MFA playwright Christian Krauspe. Told in flashback-form; a lone female Traveler arrives at a nameless penal colony where she is asked to comment on an old execution device known simply as, "the apparatus." She is pressured by the colonies administration to condone the practice while simultaneously asked to endorse the machine by her guiding officer in hopes of preserving the mystical powers the apparatus seems to possess. The Traveler must make the choice to endorse or condone the machine while she faces her own demons in the process.
ContributorsKrauspe, Christian (Author) / Reyes, Guillermo (Thesis advisor) / Taylor, Philip (Committee member) / Sterling, Pamela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Simultaneously culture heroes and stumbling buffoons, Tricksters bring cultural tools to the people and make the world more habitable. There are common themes in these figures that remain fruitful for the advancement of culture, theory, and critical praxis. This dissertation develops a method for opening a dialogue with Trickster figures. It draws from established literature to present a newly conceived and more flexible Trickster archetype. This archetype is more than a collection of traits; it builds on itself processually to form a method for analysis. The critical Trickster archetype includes the fundamental act of crossing borders; the twin ontologies of ambiguity and liminality; the particular tactics of humor, duplicity, and shape shifting; and the overarching cultural roles of culture hero and stumbling buffoon. Running parallel to each archetypal element, though, are Trickster's overarching critical spirit of Quixotic utopianism and underlying telos of manipulating human relationships. The character 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used to demonstrate the critical Trickster archetype. To be more useful for critical cultural studies, Trickster figures must also be connected to their socio-cultural and historical contexts. Thus, this dissertation offers a second set of analytics, a dialogical method that connects Tricksters to the worlds they make more habitable. This dialogical method, developed from the work of M. M. Bakhtin and others, consists of three analytical tools: utterance, intertextuality, and chronotope. Utterance bounds the text for analysis. Intertextuality connects the utterance, the text, to its context. Chronotope suggests particular spatio-temporal relationships that help reveal the cultural significance of a dialogical performance. Performance artists Andre Stitt, Ann Liv Young, and Steven Leyba are used to demonstrate the method of Trickster dialogics. A concluding discussion of Trickster's unique chronotope reveals its contributions to conceptions of utopia and futurity. This dissertation offers theoretical advancements about the significance and tactics of subversive communication practices. It offers a new and unique method for cultural and performative analyses that can be expanded into different kinds of dialogics. Trickster dialogics can also be used generatively to direct and guide the further development of performative praxis.
ContributorsSalinas, Chema (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, Cheree (Committee member) / Olson, Clark (Committee member) / Ellsworth, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This thesis document encapsulates the findings of my research process in which I studied my self, my artistic process, and the interconnectivity among the various aspects of my life. Those findings are two-fold as they relate to the creation of three original works and my personal transformation through the process. This document encapsulates the three works, swimminginthepsyche, applecede and The 21st Century Adventures of Wonder Woman, chronologically from their performance dates. My personal growth and transformation is expressed throughout the paper and presented in the explanation of the emergent philosophical approach for self-study as creative practice that I followed. This creative-centered framework for embodied transformation weaves spiritual philosophy with my artistic process to sustain a holistic life practice, where the self, seen as an integrated whole, is also a direct reflection of the greater, singular and holistic existence.
ContributorsDeWitt, Inertia Q.E.D (Author) / Mitchell, John D. (Thesis advisor) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / De La Garza, Sarah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The intention for the dance production Story was to develop and explore a collaborative creative process to communicate a specific narrative to an audience. The production took place in the Margaret Gisolo Dance Studio at Arizona State University on November 18, 19, and 20, 2011. The purpose of my thesis work was to investigate how my personal inspiration from classical ballet, balletic movement vocabulary, fantasy narrative (an imaginative fictional story), supportive lighting, set, costumes and expressive sound might merge within a collaborative dance-making process. The final choreography includes creative input from the participating dancers and designers, as well as constructive feedback from my thesis committee. My reflection on the creative process for Story describes the challenges and personal growth I experienced as a result of the project.
ContributorsAllen, Karryn (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Murphey, Claudia (Committee member) / Gharavi, Lance (Committee member) / Piver, Harper (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The goal of this study was to look at touch and dance from different views to gain a better perspective on the benefits of touch, mainly when used in dance and also perhaps in broader contexts. Part of this investigation also looked at the stigmatized view of touch in the American culture and in turn the lack of knowledge about, and comfort with touch in our society. A personal research component involved the creation of a solo reflecting about the question of why I connect with touch so intensely. The bulk of the study involved facilitating touch experiences in two introductory level dance classes for high school students. Daily journal entries were collected from each of the eighty students that focused on their personal experiences with touch in a series of six movement sessions. The study shows that bringing touch to the dance classroom has multiple benefits, including promoting a greater understanding and acceptance of the sense of touch, a positive impact on students' views about dance, and a break down of preconceived notions about the mind and the body.
ContributorsSteinken, Brigitte Rose (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis director) / Amazeen, Eric (Committee member) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Dance (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
In Arizona, people flock the streets of Tombstone in droves, chatting in period costume while gunshots ring down the street. Others in Bisbee walk in the Queen Mine, listening to the tour guide discuss how the miners extracted ore. Still others drive up the precarious road to Jerome, passing through the famed Grand Hotel. As former Arizona mining towns, Tombstone, Jerome and Bisbee have a shared identity as former mining boomtowns, all of which experienced subsequent economic and population decline. Left with the need to reinvent themselves in order to survive, the past takes on a different role in each city. In Jerome, visitors seem content to "kill a day" against the backdrop of the historic town. In Bisbee, time seems stuck in the 1970s, the focus having shifted from the mining to the "hippies" who are considered to have resuscitated the town from near-extinction. Tombstone seem to inspire devotion, rooted in the influence of the 1993 film titled after the town. By memorializing portions of their past, these three towns have carved out new lives for themselves in the twenty-first century. As visitors are informed by the narrative of the "Old West," as shaped by the Western movie and television genre, they in turn impact how the towns present themselves in order to attract tourists. In all these sites, the past is present and like a kaleidoscope, continually recreated into new formations. While the designation of Jerome, Bisbee and Tombstone as "ghost towns" is disputed by individuals in each site, these stories of visitors and residents reveal the intricate ways in which these towns have acquired new life.
ContributorsLemme, Nicole Lee (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Paulesc, Marie Louise (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
For my honors thesis, I decided to do a creative project in the form of an extended comedy act. With this performance, I wanted to make jokes about my identity and experiences in my life while synthesizing the skills I had acquired over my college career. I decided I wanted to do this project because it felt like the best way to combine my passion (comedy) with my major (communication) in the form of a comedic performance study. And while I thought the performance would be the most informative aspect of my project, the workshop process ended up being far more enlightening. Through the workshop process, I was able to better understand the challenges that come with developing a comedic autoethnographic performance, and to discover the true purpose behind the art I was creating.
ContributorsMale, Kathryn Margaret (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Reyes, Guillermo (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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 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.
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
Description
I wrote creative non-fiction to enrich and expand the existing narratives of Mexican immigrant experiences by preserving oral histories and thus, influence a broader cultural understanding. As a first-generation Mexican-American writer, I believe there is a pressing need to explore the stories of my people, particularly those of my father. I also acknowledge the master narratives that work to influence and consequently oppress my own voice as a writer. The master narrative values white experiences and voices in narrative writing while devaluing work from non-white authors. Thus, it became critical for me to reclaim my true voice as a writer and consequently, disrupt this harmful master narrative. Through this project, I reclaimed my voice as a writer, the one that pays homage to my cultural roots by writing my father's stories authentically. I integrated my heritage language Spanish and English in the writing of these stories. As the daughter of immigrants, this is an important way of representing my identity through my writing. Additionally, the importance of this work is greatly exemplified by the unity that springs forth among Mexican immigrants and children of those immigrants when experiences like these are shared and released into the world. At present, the Mexican immigrant community faces social and political discrimination in the form of misrepresentation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and racism. Therefore, there is a palpable need for more accurate representation to combat these issues. Written storytelling provides a valuable glimpse into my father's experience as a Mexican immigrant and is a valuable tool to challenge harmful master narratives.
ContributorsVillezcas, Araceli (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Across group studies, identifying as part of one group over the other is instrumental in determining the traits of an individual’s personality. Furthermore, when someone’s style of dress causes them to fit into a group, their personality is likely to be dictated by what they are wearing and who they are with. Attendees of comic conventions have been part of a growing trend to dress up as their favorite characters from different anime, manga, television shows, books, video games, etc., where they can meet like-minded people who share similar interests and hobbies. When combining changes of affect, and similarities of cultural and group identification, the likelihood to engage in a romantic relationship may become heightened. Using existing measures to examine commitment, sociosexual orientation and relationship satisfaction, 1232 convention attendees responded to measures addressing their current or most recent relationship. The respondents were split into 4 groups, individuals who are currently in a relationship and cosplay, individuals who are currently in a relationship and do not cosplay, individuals who are currently single and cosplay, and individuals who are currently in a relationship and do not cosplay. Results indicated non-significant results in the two groups that are not in relationships, as well as non-cosplaying attendees currently in a relationship, for all the measures, while there were weak, significant results for sociosexual orientation and relationship satisfaction for individuals who are in relationships and also cosplay. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsLeshner, Connor (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Mack, Robert (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12