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- Title
- Designosaurs: Technological Evolution and De-Extinction Through an Advancing Medium.
- Creator
-
Vanzyl, Sean, Kovach, Keith, Adams, JoAnne, Burrell, Jason, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This thesis is an examination of my imperative need to understand dinosaurs and their role in science and art, acting as prehistoric symbols for science and imagination. Like our understanding of dinosaurs, my body of work is evolving simultaneously with the technology of our time. Through the synthesis of artistic language with science and technology, I create dynamic experiences allowing a viewer to witness an extinct living being in its entirety, an otherwise lost experience. By utilizing...
Show moreThis thesis is an examination of my imperative need to understand dinosaurs and their role in science and art, acting as prehistoric symbols for science and imagination. Like our understanding of dinosaurs, my body of work is evolving simultaneously with the technology of our time. Through the synthesis of artistic language with science and technology, I create dynamic experiences allowing a viewer to witness an extinct living being in its entirety, an otherwise lost experience. By utilizing digital modeling, animation techniques, and interactive video games, my work speaks to the power and diversity of digital media's role in visualizing artifacts in our society and culture.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007549, ucf:52596
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007549
- Title
- On Digital Doctrine: The Mediatization of Religious Culture.
- Creator
-
Yebba, Celina, Jones, Natasha, Wheeler, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Media is a constant feature in our modern lives, transforming and influencing society and culture. This study examined how increased participation in digital media has changed the nature of religious representation, culture, and practice. Data was collected from both secular websites and religious media spaces where people post information about religion. This discussion is a necessary step in determining how media has not only become embedded in religious culture but has influenced the...
Show moreMedia is a constant feature in our modern lives, transforming and influencing society and culture. This study examined how increased participation in digital media has changed the nature of religious representation, culture, and practice. Data was collected from both secular websites and religious media spaces where people post information about religion. This discussion is a necessary step in determining how media has not only become embedded in religious culture but has influenced the transformation of American religious culture.The first part of this analysis concentrated on uncovering rhetorical strategies in religious digital spaces. I assumed that organizational identification would be a common approach used on the Mormon.org member profiles. The data collected verified this assumption. The second part of this analysis compared collaboratively produced articles in wiki-spaces that described Roman Catholicism and Mormonism. The goal of this part of the analysis was to determine how faith organizations are represented in digital spaces that are situated outside church authority.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006824, ucf:51780
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006824
- Title
- Power to the People: Responsible Facilitation in Co-Creative Story-Making.
- Creator
-
Hill, Amanda, Weaver, Earl, Wood, Vandy, Kovac, Kim, Snyder, Tara, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Power to the People: Responsible Facilitation in Co-Creative Story-Making describes and applies a tool for recording and analyzing the co-productive creation process of digital storytelling (DST) workshops to be used by project facilitators for the purposes of reflection and for developing an ethics of responsibly in story-making practices. It provides a method for analyzing digital storytelling practices that focuses on the rhetorical, dialogic, co-productive, creative story-making space...
Show morePower to the People: Responsible Facilitation in Co-Creative Story-Making describes and applies a tool for recording and analyzing the co-productive creation process of digital storytelling (DST) workshops to be used by project facilitators for the purposes of reflection and for developing an ethics of responsibly in story-making practices. It provides a method for analyzing digital storytelling practices that focuses on the rhetorical, dialogic, co-productive, creative story-making space rather than the finished stories or the technologies. Looking through a new media lens, this dissertation aligns the DST genre and practice in relation to alternative media broadly, and tactical media specifically, to understand DST as a resource for storytellers. This dissertation situates DST as a co-creative media process created among participants, individual storytellers, facilitators, institutions, and the audience, and discusses the inter-relationships within the workshop setting as well as in those found in the dissemination of the final digital stories. The author discusses the relationships among the storytellers and the facilitators, the other workshop participants, and the viewing audience, examining this final relationship in terms of face-to-face and digital interactions. This dissertation provides a reflexive look at the responsibility of the facilitator in co-creative digital storytelling endeavors and makes use of diverse international case studies in addition to an analysis of the author's own facilitated project, (")Exploring Our Information Diets,(") as examples. The author argues that co-creative storymaking facilitators should interpret their roles within the collaborative creation process to ensure that responsible facilitation practices based in (")witnessing(") guide the storytelling process, and create an environment that treats participants as subjects with the ability to respond to the world.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007572, ucf:52568
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007572
- Title
- POLITICAL SPACES AND REMEDIATED PLACES: REARTICULATING THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE WRITING CENTER.
- Creator
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Carpenter, Russell, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Writing center directors (WCDs) often situate their programs in physical and virtual spaces without fully studying the pedagogical and political implications of their decisions. Without intense study, writing centers risk building programs within spaces that undermine their missions and philosophies. In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre argues that "From the analytic standpoint, the spatial practice of a society is revealed through the deciphering of its space" (38). The study of space...
Show moreWriting center directors (WCDs) often situate their programs in physical and virtual spaces without fully studying the pedagogical and political implications of their decisions. Without intense study, writing centers risk building programs within spaces that undermine their missions and philosophies. In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre argues that "From the analytic standpoint, the spatial practice of a society is revealed through the deciphering of its space" (38). The study of space also reveals important political and financial priorities within the institution. Furthermore, the positioning of buildings and the spatial layout of a campus display the institution's priorities and attitudes toward writing center work. Theorizing the Online Writing Lab (OWL) through the lens of cultural and political geographies, it becomes apparent that the physical spaces of many writing centers are not as sustainable as WCDs might like, and in many ways, they are marginalized within the larger institution. This dissertation prompts a rearticulation of place and space in the writing center. In this dissertation, I argue that in an attempt to rethink current practices, the virtual space of the writing center should perpetuate, extend, and improve the social practices employed in our physical spaces. I draw from mapping exercises to inform my critique in an attempt to advance our understanding of writing center physical and virtual spaces. The changing geographical and cultural landscape of the institution demands that writing centers pay close attention to spatial implications as they employ technology to create dynamic virtual resources and more sustainable spaces. I rearticulate writing center spaces through cognitive and digital mapping, urban planning, and architectural theories. I make several contributions through this work: theoretical, to rearticulate the physical and virtual space of writing center work; political, to understand the constructions of the writing center's pedagogical spaces; and pedagogical, to understand best practices for creating virtual spaces that enhance learning, unlike those we have seen before or have had available in the writing center.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002776, ucf:48092
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002776
- Title
- OUTSIDE THE FRAME: TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGY OF TEXTS AND TECHNOLOGY.
- Creator
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Crisafi, Anthony, Grajeda, Anthony, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The subject of my dissertation is how phenomenology can be used as a tool for understanding the intersection between texts and technology. What I am suggesting here is that, specifically in connection with the focus of our program in Texts and Technology, there are very significant questions concerning how digital communications technology extends our humanity, and more importantly what kind of epistemological and ontological questions are raised because of this. There needs to be a coherent...
Show moreThe subject of my dissertation is how phenomenology can be used as a tool for understanding the intersection between texts and technology. What I am suggesting here is that, specifically in connection with the focus of our program in Texts and Technology, there are very significant questions concerning how digital communications technology extends our humanity, and more importantly what kind of epistemological and ontological questions are raised because of this. There needs to be a coherent theory for Texts and Technology that will help us to understand this shift, and I feel that this should be the main focus for the program itself. In this dissertation I present an analysis of the different phenomenological aspects of the study of Texts and Technology. For phenomenologists such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, technology, in all of its forms, is the way in which human consciousness is embodied. Through the creation and manipulation of technology, humanity extends itself into the physical world. Therefore, I feel we must try to understand this extension as more than merely a reflection of materialist practices, because first and foremost we are discussing how the human mind uses technology to further its advancement. I will detail some of the theoretical arguments both for and against the study of technology as a function of human consciousness. I will focus on certain issues, such as problems of archiving and copyright, as central to the field. I will further argue how from a phenomenological standpoint we are in the presence of a phenomenological shift from the primacy of print towards a more hybrid system of representing human communications.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002181, ucf:47885
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002181
- Title
- Financial Forest.
- Creator
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Carlson, Karen, Moshell, Michael, Lindgren, Robb, Underberg-Goode, Natalie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Regular savings behavior is critical for low-income Americans to achieve financial mobility. New technology tools are being used to improve personal awareness and attention to financial goals. This thesis reviews mobile learning (mLearning) research and leading commercial personal finance smartphone apps, both of which inform the design of Financial Forest, a savings app. Participants in the 4-week Financial Forest savings study are found to have a statistically significant improved...
Show moreRegular savings behavior is critical for low-income Americans to achieve financial mobility. New technology tools are being used to improve personal awareness and attention to financial goals. This thesis reviews mobile learning (mLearning) research and leading commercial personal finance smartphone apps, both of which inform the design of Financial Forest, a savings app. Participants in the 4-week Financial Forest savings study are found to have a statistically significant improved perception of the difficulty of building an emergency fund.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005143, ucf:50682
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005143
- Title
- Dining with the Cyborgs: Disembodied Consumption and the Rhetoric of Food Media in the Digital Age.
- Creator
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Cotto, Maggie, Brenckle, Martha, Mauer, Barry, Scott, Blake, Matejowsky, Ty, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This project explores digital media productions based specifically on food and cooking in order to demonstrate that new communication technologies are increasingly incorporating all five of the bodily senses. In doing so, they contribute significantly to the emergence of new ideological apparatuses appropriate for a global community. These apparatuses (-) including the formation of a posthumanist subject, the use of technology to support embodied cognition, and the establishment of...
Show moreThis project explores digital media productions based specifically on food and cooking in order to demonstrate that new communication technologies are increasingly incorporating all five of the bodily senses. In doing so, they contribute significantly to the emergence of new ideological apparatuses appropriate for a global community. These apparatuses (-) including the formation of a posthumanist subject, the use of technology to support embodied cognition, and the establishment of entertainment as an ideological institution (-) have become the harbingers of a rhetorical evolution. Based on the work of Gregory Ulmer, along with Jacques Derrida, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and Cary Wolfe, this evolution expands the work of Plato and Aristotle by overcoming the privileging of mind over body and abstract reasoning over concrete physical experience.As such hierarchies become turned on their heads, a renewed emphasis on materiality and embodiment demands virtual products that stimulate the body. As such, a phenomenon I have named disembodied consumption takes place whereby users' chemical senses can be incited through participation with digital technologies. Through the stimulation of these physical senses, and in turn the connected emotions, today's digital citizens are practicing the rhetorical method referred to by Ulmer as conduction.By examining sites, blogs, and postings that include references to food and flavor, I reveal examples of conduction and show how this method is necessary for the development of well-being, and the defeat of compassion fatigue in digital society.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006089, ucf:50948
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006089
- Title
- The Visual Divide: Islam vs. The West, Image Peception in Cross-Cultural Contexts.
- Creator
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Akil, Hatem, Mauer, Barry, Scott, John, Gleyzon, Francois-Xavier, Janz, Bruce, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Do two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we're always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socio-ideological frames that can only be...
Show moreDo two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we're always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socio-ideological frames that can only be liberated through an active and critical relationship with the image. The image itself, albeit ubiquitous, is never unimplicated - at once violated and violating; with both its creator and its perceiver self-positioned as its ultimate subject.I follow a trace of the image within the context of a supposed Islam versus the West dichotomy; its construction, instrumentalization, betrayals, and incriminations. This trace sometimes forks into multiple paths, and at times loops unto itself, but eventually moves towards a traversal of a visual divide. I apply the trace as my methodology in the sense suggested by Derrida, but also as a technology for finding my way into and out of an epistemological labyrinth.The Visual Divide comprises five chapters: Chapter One presents some of the major themes of this work while attempting a theoretical account of image perception within philosophical and cross-cultural settings. I use this account to understand and undermine contemporary rhetoric (as in the works of Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis) that seems intent on theorizing a supposed cultural and historical dichotomies between Islam and the West.In Chapter Two, I account for slogan chants heard at Tahrir Square during the January 25 Egyptian revolution as tools to discovering a mix of technology, language and revolution that could be characterized as hybrid, plural and present at the center of which lies the human body as subject to public peril. Chapter Three analyzes a state of visual divide where photographic evidence is posited against ethnographic reality as found in postcards of nude and semi-nude Algerian Muslim women in the 19th century. I connect this state to a chain of visual oppositions that place Western superiority as its subject and which continues to our present day with the Abu Ghraib photographs and the Mohammed cartoons, etc. Chapter Four deploys the image of Mohamed al-Durra, a 3rd grader who was shot dead, on video, at a crossroads in Gaza, and the ensuing attempts to reinterpret, recreate, falsify and litigate the meaning of the video images of his death in order to propagate certain political doxa. I relate the violence against the image, by the image, and despite the image, to a state of pure war that is steeped in visuality, and which transforms the act of seeing into an act of targeting.In Chapter Five, I integrate the concept of visuality with that of the human body under peril in order to identify conditions that lead to comparative suffering or a division that views humanity as something other than unitary and of equal value. I connect the figures of der Muselmann, Shylock, Othello, the suicide bomber, and others to subvert a narrative that claims that one's suffering is deeper than another's, or that life could be valued differently depending on the place of your birth, the color of your skin, or the thickness of your accent.Finally, in the Epilogue: Tabbouleh Deterritorialized, I look at the interconnected states of perception and remembering within diasporic contexts. Cultural identity (invoked by an encounter with tabbouleh on a restaurant menu in Orlando) is both questioned and transformed and becomes the subject of perception and negotiation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0004084, ucf:49144
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004084
- Title
- Placing birds on a dynamic evolutionary map: Using digital tools to update the evolutionary metaphor of the "tree of life".
- Creator
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Stephens, Sonia, Dombrowski, Paul, Applen, John, Murphy, Patrick, Lindgren, Robb, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation describes and presents a new type of interactive visualization for communicating about evolutionary biology, the dynamic evolutionary map. This web-based tool utilizes a novel map-based metaphor to visualize evolution, rather than the traditional (")tree of life.(") The dissertation begins with an analysis of the conceptual affordances of the traditional tree of life as the dominant metaphor for evolution. Next, theories from digital media, visualization, and cognitive...
Show moreThis dissertation describes and presents a new type of interactive visualization for communicating about evolutionary biology, the dynamic evolutionary map. This web-based tool utilizes a novel map-based metaphor to visualize evolution, rather than the traditional (")tree of life.(") The dissertation begins with an analysis of the conceptual affordances of the traditional tree of life as the dominant metaphor for evolution. Next, theories from digital media, visualization, and cognitive science research are synthesized to support the assertion that digital media tools can extend the types of visual metaphors we use in science communication in order to overcome conceptual limitations of traditional metaphors. These theories are then applied to a specific problem of science communication, resulting in the dynamic evolutionary map.Metaphor is a crucial part of scientific communication, and metaphor-based scientific visualizations, models, and analogies play a profound role in shaping our ideas about the world around us. Users of the dynamic evolutionary map interact with evolution in two ways: by observing the diversification of bird orders over time and by examining the evidence for avian evolution at several places in evolutionary history. By combining these two types of interaction with a non-traditional map metaphor, evolution is framed in a novel way that supplements traditional metaphors for communicating about evolution. This reframing in turn suggests new conceptual affordances to users who are learning about evolution. Empirical testing of the dynamic evolutionary map by biology novices suggests that this approach is successful in communicating evolution differently than in existing tree-based visualization methods. Results of evaluation of the map by biology experts suggest possibilities for future enhancement and testing of this visualization that would help refine these successes. This dissertation represents an important step forward in the synthesis of scientific, design, and metaphor theory, as applied to a specific problem of science communication. The dynamic evolutionary map demonstrates that these theories can be used to guide the construction of a visualization for communicating a scientific concept in a way that is both novel and grounded in theory. There are several potential applications in the fields of informal science education, formal education, and evolutionary biology for the visualization created in this dissertation. Moreover, the approach suggested in this dissertation can potentially be extended into other areas of science and science communication. By placing birds onto the dynamic evolutionary map, this dissertation points to a way forward for visualizing science communication in the future.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004639, ucf:49898
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004639
- Title
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOOP-BASED CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY MOTION PICTURES AND THEIR APPLICATION IN EARLY DIGITAL CINEMA.
- Creator
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Scoma, David, Scott, Blake, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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For centuries, repetition in one form or another has been seen as a significant element in the artistic palette. In numerous formats of expression, duplication and looping became a significant tool utilized by artisans in a multitude of creative formats. Yet within the realm of film, the Griffith and Eisenstein models of cinematic editing techniques (as the most popular-- and near-monolithic--narrative aesthetic criteria) effectively disregarded most other approaches, including looping....
Show moreFor centuries, repetition in one form or another has been seen as a significant element in the artistic palette. In numerous formats of expression, duplication and looping became a significant tool utilized by artisans in a multitude of creative formats. Yet within the realm of film, the Griffith and Eisenstein models of cinematic editing techniques (as the most popular-- and near-monolithic--narrative aesthetic criteria) effectively disregarded most other approaches, including looping. Despite the evidence for the consistent use of repetition and looping in multiple ways throughout the course of cinematic history, some theorists and practitioners maintain that the influx of the technique within digital cinema in recent years represents a sudden breakthrough, one that has arrived simply because technology has currently advanced to a point where their utilization within digital formats now makes sense both technologically and aesthetically. This situation points to a cyclical problem. Students of film and video frequently are not taught aesthetical or editorial options other than standard industry procedures. Those who are interested in varying techniques are therefore put in the position of having to learn alternative practices on their own. When they do look beyond visual norms to try applying different approaches in their projects, they risk going against the views of their instructors who are only interested in implementations of the standard methods which have been in the forefront for so long. Yet the loop's importance and prevalence as a digital language tool will only likely grow with the evolution of digital cinema. With this is mind, the dissertation addresses the following questions: To what extent can various forms of repetitive visuals be found throughout film history, and are not simply technical manifestations that have merely emerged within digital cinema? How might current educational practices in the realm of film and video work to inform students of techniques outside of the common narrative means? Finally, what other sources or strategies might be available to enlighten students and practitioners exploring both the history surrounding--and possible applications of--techniques based upon early cinema practices such as the loop?
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002464, ucf:47720
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002464
- Title
- Digital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology.
- Creator
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Miller, Jennifer, Vie, Stephanie, Scott, Blake, Flammia, Madelyn, St. Amant, Kirk, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Digital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology develops and applies two new tools for understanding, measuring, and recursively adjusting small to medium-size social media-based philanthropic campaigns to better foster participation and engagement(-)in other words, democratic digital citizenship. First, a theoretical model is offered broadening current binary conceptions of success and failure or impact...
Show moreDigital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology develops and applies two new tools for understanding, measuring, and recursively adjusting small to medium-size social media-based philanthropic campaigns to better foster participation and engagement(-)in other words, democratic digital citizenship. First, a theoretical model is offered broadening current binary conceptions of success and failure or impact of campaigns, situating specific participant actions in social media on a spectrum. Then, from that model, a new methodology is provided to measure participation and engagement generated by campaign posts. Recommendations are also offered for recursively adjusting campaign posts to better foster democratic digital citizenship. These tools were developed from data generated by #TheFaceOffChallenge, a research project representative of a typical small to medium-size cause-based campaign. #TheFaceOffChallenge also serves as a sample for analysis illustrating how to use these tools. While explicating these tools, this dissertation explores a broad range of topics related to better understanding democratic digital citizenship: online philanthropy, awareness, and digital activism; viral and memetic transmission; tensions between consumption and creation of ideas, content, and knowledge; public(s), counterpublics, and counter-efforts; literacies and access for engagement and participation in algorithmic environments; and visual communication and semiotics.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007227, ucf:52214
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007227
- Title
- DIGITAL INTERACTIVE GAMES FOR ASSESSMENT: A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A DIGITAL GAME AS A MEASURE OF STUDENTS' UNDERSTANDING OF BOOLEAN LOGIC.
- Creator
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Haji Mohammad Ali Sabbagh, Shabnam, Moshell, Jack, Underberg, Natalie, Lindgren, Robb, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Digital games have been used mostly for entertainment but recently researchers have started to use digital games in other areas such as education and training. Researchers have shown that digital games can provide a compelling, creative, and collaborative environment for learning. However, the popularity of computers and the Internet brings this question to mind: Are the assessment methods falling behind and remaining traditional? Will the traditional methods of learning and knowledge...
Show moreDigital games have been used mostly for entertainment but recently researchers have started to use digital games in other areas such as education and training. Researchers have shown that digital games can provide a compelling, creative, and collaborative environment for learning. However, the popularity of computers and the Internet brings this question to mind: Are the assessment methods falling behind and remaining traditional? Will the traditional methods of learning and knowledge assessment be sufficient for this new generation who are starving for new technology?This study investigates the effectiveness of using a digital interactive game as an assessments method (-) in this case a mini-game that was designed to assess the student's knowledge on basic Boolean logic. The study reports on the performance differences of the students who participated in this study and correlations between the performance of these students in a digital interactive game, written tests and their in-class performance to examine the effectiveness of using a digital game as a new knowledge assessment method.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005343, ucf:50494
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005343
- Title
- A PROTOTYPE FOR NARRATIVE-BASED INTERACTIVITY IN THEME PARKS.
- Creator
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Kischuk, Kirsten, McDaniel, Rudy, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this thesis is to look at the potential for interactive devices to enhance the story of future theme park attractions. The most common interactive theme park rides are about game-based interaction, competition, and scoring, rather than about story, character, and plot. Research into cognitive science, interactivity, narrative, immersion, user interface, theming and other fields of study illuminated some potentially useful guidelines for creating compelling experiences for park...
Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to look at the potential for interactive devices to enhance the story of future theme park attractions. The most common interactive theme park rides are about game-based interaction, competition, and scoring, rather than about story, character, and plot. Research into cognitive science, interactivity, narrative, immersion, user interface, theming and other fields of study illuminated some potentially useful guidelines for creating compelling experiences for park guests. In order to test some of these ideas, an interactive device was constructed and tested with study subjects. Each study subject watched a video recording of an existing theme park ride while using the device, and then filled out a survey concerning their experience. The results revealed how subjects view character-driven interactive devices, how a device should be blended into a ride sequence, how subjects think interactivity and responsiveness should be structured in regards to themselves and the ride, and begins to hint at their motivations for using interactive devices.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002493, ucf:47689
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002493
- Title
- Whatever Happened to Blackwater RD.?: A Visual Documentary Concerning Achievement in the Face of Failure.
- Creator
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Stephenson, Michael, Stoeckl, Ula, Sandler, Barry, Shults, Katherine, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Whatever happened to Blackwater RD.? is a feature length documentary thesis film created and cultivated by Michael E. Stephenson to fulfill the requirements of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema while attending the University of Central Florida. Whatever happened to Blackwater RD.? has met these criteria of the School of Visual Arts and Design, in the College of Arts and Humanities, by being a feature length digital film with a budget no larger than $50,000. This...
Show moreWhatever happened to Blackwater RD.? is a feature length documentary thesis film created and cultivated by Michael E. Stephenson to fulfill the requirements of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema while attending the University of Central Florida. Whatever happened to Blackwater RD.? has met these criteria of the School of Visual Arts and Design, in the College of Arts and Humanities, by being a feature length digital film with a budget no larger than $50,000. This film is the efforts of the filmmaker to trace the failure of his original narrative thesis film Blackwater RD., attempting to discover where everything went wrong while trying to recover from such a crushing defeat. Assembled from behind the scene videos and interviews, this film represents a collected effort to discover a way to make digital cinema from multiple sources, ranging from digital cameras to smartphones, while still crafting a singular vision. Digital cinema allows for films to be made in a collage-like effort to explore how narrative can be manipulated and how a director may steer it, even in the documentary field. Through the exploration of his own failings the filmmaker has discovered perhaps the most important lesson of both academia and film: failure is always an option. To fail is a life worthy experience that one should learn from and utilize in accomplishing future tasks.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007104, ucf:51950
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007104
- Title
- PERCEPTIONS OF REALITY.
- Creator
-
Dombrowski, Matthew, Hall, Scott, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
My thesis explores the relationship between the human psyche and the perception of reality through the use of computer generated media. In a society in which we are bombarded with multimedia technology, we must look inside our selves for a true understanding of our past and memories. Rather than it acting as an escape from reality, my art becomes an opening for truth in reality.
- Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002103, ucf:52847
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002103
- Title
- Arrangement of Google Search Results and Imperial Ideology: Searching for Benghazi, Libya.
- Creator
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Stewart, Jacob, Pigg, Stacey, Rounsaville, Angela, Walls, Douglas, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This project responds to an ongoing discussion in scholarship that identifies and analyzes the ideological functions of computer interfaces. In 1994, Cynthia Selfe and Richard Selfe claimed that interfaces are maps of cultural information and are therefore ideological (485). For Selfe and Selfe and other scholars, these interfaces carried a colonial ideology that resulted in Western dominance over other cultures. Since this early scholarship, our perspectives on interface have shifted with...
Show moreThis project responds to an ongoing discussion in scholarship that identifies and analyzes the ideological functions of computer interfaces. In 1994, Cynthia Selfe and Richard Selfe claimed that interfaces are maps of cultural information and are therefore ideological (485). For Selfe and Selfe and other scholars, these interfaces carried a colonial ideology that resulted in Western dominance over other cultures. Since this early scholarship, our perspectives on interface have shifted with changing technology; interfaces can no longer be treated as having persistent and predictable characteristics like texts. I argue that interfaces are interactions among dynamic information that is constantly being updated online. One of the most prominent ways users interact with information online is through the use of search engines such as Google. Interfaces like Google assist users in navigating dynamic cultural information. How this information is arranged in a Google search event has a profound impact on what meaning we make surrounding the search term.In this project, I argue that colonial ideologies are upheld in several Google search events for the term (")Benghazi, Libya.(") I claim that networked connection during Google search events leads to the creation and sustainment of a colonial ideology through patterns of arrangement. Finally, I offer a methodology for understanding how ideologies are created when search events occur. This methodology searches for patterns in connected information in order to understand how they create an ideological lens.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005267, ucf:50559
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005267
- Title
- PREDICTING THE PERFORMANCE OF INTERPRETING INSTRUCTION BASED ON DIGITAL PROPENSITY INDEX SCORE IN TEXT AND GRAPHIC FORMATS.
- Creator
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Norman, David, Hirumi, Atsusi, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Practitioners have proposed that Digital Natives prefer graphics while Digital Immigrants prefer text. While Instructional Design has been extensively studied and researched, the impact of the graphical emphasis in instructional designs as it relates to digital propensity has not been widely explored. Specifically, this study examined the performance of students when presented with text-only and graphic-only instructional formats. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between...
Show morePractitioners have proposed that Digital Natives prefer graphics while Digital Immigrants prefer text. While Instructional Design has been extensively studied and researched, the impact of the graphical emphasis in instructional designs as it relates to digital propensity has not been widely explored. Specifically, this study examined the performance of students when presented with text-only and graphic-only instructional formats. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between Digital Propensity Index scores of individuals and their performance when interpreting online instruction. A sample of students from the population of a large metropolitan university received the Digital Propensity Index questionnaire, which is a measure of an individual's time spent interacting with digital media. Each student was randomly assigned varying formats of a computer-based instructional unit via a public survey. The instructional unit consisted of the DPI questionnaire and six tasks related to the Central Florida commuter rail system. Participants were asked to answer the DPI questionnaire on a website by clicking on a link in an emailed invitation. Following the DPI questionnaire, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group One saw three instructional tasks shown in text and shuffled in random order. Each task was displayed on its own webpage. By submitting an answer to the task, the group progressed through the website to the next task. Group Two saw graphic tasks first, again, shuffled in random order. After the first three tasks, the groups swapped instructional formats to view the opposing group's initial questions. Participants were timed on how many seconds they spent reviewing each task. Each task had an assessment question to evaluate the learning outcomes of the instructional unit. Finally, the DPI score of the participant was matched with the time spent viewing each presentation format. The findings indicate that DPI score had a statistically significant prediction of time spent navigating each type of instruction. Though the link between DPI score and time spent navigating instruction was statistically significant, the actual measurable time difference between navigating text and graphic formats was only a fraction of a second for each increment in DPI score. Limitations and potential future research related to the study are discussed as well.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002234, ucf:47896
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002234
- Title
- Nam June Paik and Avant-Garde as Pedagogy: Promoting Student Engagement and Interdisciplinary Thinking in the Undergraduate Humanities Classroom.
- Creator
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Mazzarotto, Marcia, Mauer, Barry, Applen, John, Rounsaville, Angela, Taylor, Robert, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation demonstrates how avant-garde methods can be employed as pedagogical methods in the undergraduate Humanities classroom to promote student engagement and interdisciplinary thinking. The study first addresses pedagogy and avant-garde art within their historical contexts as separate, but related disciplines. Subsequently the study fuses pedagogy and avant-garde art and provides examples of in-class activities and out-of-class assignments that illustrate the ways in which avant...
Show moreThis dissertation demonstrates how avant-garde methods can be employed as pedagogical methods in the undergraduate Humanities classroom to promote student engagement and interdisciplinary thinking. The study first addresses pedagogy and avant-garde art within their historical contexts as separate, but related disciplines. Subsequently the study fuses pedagogy and avant-garde art and provides examples of in-class activities and out-of-class assignments that illustrate the ways in which avant-garde methods function as practical teaching and learning methods. Further, the study presents artist Nam June Paik, whose work exemplifies the theoretical and practical underpinnings of avant-garde art as pedagogy. The dissertation champions the pedagogy of John Dewey, who called for a progressive educational system. It also argues for Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and the Jesuits' Ignatian pedagogical paradigm, both of which serve as necessary complements in achieving Dewey's goal of an experiential educational environment. Dewey believed education should co-exist with life and should not be treated as a preparation for it, and thus his theories on aesthetics, in particular, argued that art is not severed from life, an idea shared by four avant-garde movements discussed in this study: Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, and Fluxus. Each of these movements sought to change the political and cultural environment, while maintaining that art and life are on equal ground. These pedagogies, aided by avant-garde methods, encourage and challenge students to engage with and think critically about the world around them.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006623, ucf:51282
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006623
- Title
- Examining the Role of Music Streaming Motives, Social Identification, and Technological Engagement in Digital Music Streaming Service Use.
- Creator
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Bolduc, Heidi, Kinnally, William, Neuberger, Lindsay, Rubenking, Bridget, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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According to the Nielsen Music 360 Research Report, 67% of all music consumers in the United States used digital music streaming services to listen, discover, and share music online in 2014 (The Nielsen Company, 2014). As such, communications scholars and music industry professionals are beginning to recognize the importance of understanding the factors that influence digital music listener behavior. Therefore, this study proposes an expanded theory of planned behavior model (TPB) by...
Show moreAccording to the Nielsen Music 360 Research Report, 67% of all music consumers in the United States used digital music streaming services to listen, discover, and share music online in 2014 (The Nielsen Company, 2014). As such, communications scholars and music industry professionals are beginning to recognize the importance of understanding the factors that influence digital music listener behavior. Therefore, this study proposes an expanded theory of planned behavior model (TPB) by incorporating music streaming motives, social identification, and technological engagement into the original TPB model framework in an effort to gain a better understanding of people's intentions to use digital music streaming services as well as the amount of time spent listening to them. Results suggest that both the original TPB and expanded TPB models can be successfully applied within the context of digital music streaming service use. Specifically, attitudes as well as convenience emerged as positive contributors to intention to use digital music streaming services, while entertainment along with social identification, technological engagement, and behavioral intention emerged as positive contributors to streaming behavior. Additionally, information seeking and pass time emerged as negative contributors to these two behavioral outcomes. However, adding these additional components only improved the overall ability of the expanded model to predict streaming behavior. Both models also explained a larger percentage of intention to use digital music streaming services as compared to total time spent listening. As a result, this study implies the practical importance of understanding the fundamental differences between what drives listener intentions to use digital music streaming services as compared to what drives the actual amount of time listeners spend using digital music streaming services.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006266, ucf:51037
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006266
- Title
- Curating culture through social media in the 21st century: Orlando as a case study for arts participation and engagement among millennials.
- Creator
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Givoglu, Wendy, Applen, JD, McDaniel, Rudy, Vie, Stephanie, Krick, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The American non-profit arts sector is faced with challenges including shifting audience demographics, competition for patrons due to evolving new media and entertainment technologies, changes in donors, and the discontinuation of federal and state funding sources. Savvy arts organizations are rebooting for long-term sustainability and relevancy to their communities, while some organizations adhere to unchanged practices and modes of operation. Amidst the 21st century digital landscape, arts...
Show moreThe American non-profit arts sector is faced with challenges including shifting audience demographics, competition for patrons due to evolving new media and entertainment technologies, changes in donors, and the discontinuation of federal and state funding sources. Savvy arts organizations are rebooting for long-term sustainability and relevancy to their communities, while some organizations adhere to unchanged practices and modes of operation. Amidst the 21st century digital landscape, arts engagement that yields personal and community impact and sustainability for the future is indeed attainable. Characteristics of participatory culture and democratization rooted in emerging digital entertainment and social media communications technology, coupled with the power of the millennial generation, the first generation with access to digital technologies since birth, are two forces that can be non-profit arts organizations' biggest resources and are inherently a part of the arts. Using a mixed method approach, this project examines discourse surrounding arts engagement, focusing on the millennial generation, social media as a catalyst for potent arts participation, and Central Florida as a region demonstrating significant innovations and opportunities for growth in the arts. A survey was completed by Central Florida millennials, and with permission from Americans for the Arts, select questions replicated their 2016 National Arts Engagement survey, situating Central Florida alongside National data. Qualitatively, interviews were conducted with six executive directors of Central Florida non-profit arts organizations. Grounded theory practices yielded a synthesis of perspectives and strategic action plan for arts organizations to consider. Resulting recommendations for organizations seeking to further arts engagement with millennials via social media include: incorporating transmedia storytelling elements, considering how the arts convene and create around causes, programming with consideration of the life cycles and interests of millennials, considering diversity and cultural equity in the arts, and creating experiences that define engagement in the digital and physical worlds.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007460, ucf:52675
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007460