Graduate Theses
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Description: Hello, My Other Self is a personal journey of discovery. As a Māori who is seeking cultural kinship, my first integral questions are “ko wai au”, who am I? and “no hea au”, where do I come from? As a Māori designer I look to my whakapapa, reminding me of where I come from, the stories of our people and what makes te ao Māori unique. Māori design and Māori culture are so closely interwoven that it is impossible to consider these two concepts separately. The backbone of my exploration of woven process fuses customary māoritanga holding steadfast to the blessings of Papatūānuku from inception with contemporary form and practice. Creating narratives of whakapapa, through the intangible knowledge of ancestry that I embody in my being, connecting maker, materials and artifact. Pursuing this praxis focuses on deepening an understanding of my culture through engaging the notion and dissecting the meaning of weaving as a design practice from material based exploration, to the woven process, to sustainability, where I, as Māori, am considered the medium. The eternal thread or te aho tapu is the genealogical line, the first and sacred line of weaving that guides me on this journey. Te aho tapu in māoridom is our connection to the past, acknowledging this is personally and culturally important as in our concept of time we cannot separate ourselves from our tūpuna or the generation in front of us.This journey is a reflective exploration of material characteristics, creating cloth, a korowai, a blanket of culture, in te ao Pākehā culture, seeking ways I can culturally embrace and sustain culture in today’s world through Māori forms of design. Intrinsically engaging with harakeke and natural fibres that share similar foundational relationships such as flax, buffalo and sheep wool. The use of these materials enhances the cultural values, asserting sustainability of Māori epistemological notions of practice and meaning into my design. I am weaving my story metaphorically, culturally and physically.Date: 2018
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Description: This thesis essay and accompanying project explore the use of a generative toolkit designed to involve children with disabilities in the design process. A generative toolkit includes an assemblage of visual materials including several pages of word stickers, carefully selected images, basic shapes, coloured paper and a space on which to arrange them. This thesis is part of a larger ongoing study involving collaboration with children to design a play space in the therapy department at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children in Vancouver, BC. Discussed are the modifications to the toolkit and iterative testing, to determine the function and accessibility of the components. The insights of this study come from recognizing the collaboration between two seemingly different disciplines, industrial design and occupational therapy. "Adults often underestimate the ability of a child or youth to meaningfully contribute to decision-making and research. This may lead to the design of objects and environments that reflect more of an adults" view of the world, rather than acknowledging the valuable perspectives that children have to offer. While involving children with disabilities in research activities may present challenges, efforts to empower them and provide a measure of control over their physical world can contribute to their sense of well-being. Input from children with disabilities can contribute valuable insight to inform the design of products and environments that are meaningful and relevant for them. "Building on Sanders and Stappers" (2008) approach to co-design and generative toolkits, this essay offers a listing of practical suggestions for research and design teams who wish to bring the input of children with disabilities into the design process. The findings consider the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Function, Disability and Health framework, the practical and ethical issues involved when researching with children and youth with disabilities. The research can be extended to develop inclusive toolkits for adults with physical and cognitive limitations, and the elderly. The results could contribute to the increased quality of products for independent living, multi-sensory, communication and positioning and mobility equipment. Additional applications include the design of healthcare education programs, services, knowledge transfer materials, and adaptations to the built environment for accessibility. Implications also involve the area of designing for social impact, including international health, where communication may be limited due to physical, cognitive, social and cultural factors. This study, which employs concepts from the sociology of childhood, theory of affordances, person-centered practice, and sensory integration, illustrates that the toolkit is a valuable, creative and visual method with application for children with disabilities in participatory design.Date: 2009
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Description: Our self-identities are shaped by two things—introspection and external influences. Who we are in terms of our personalities, perspectives, and beliefs is largely determined by how we see ourselves and how we see the world. Globalization and technological advancement continue to provide us with unprecedented levels of access to this world. At its advent, globalization enriched us with other cultures and insights not previously available. It provided us with new opportunities in media, trade, and access to information and knowledge. Today there are concerns this may have been at the expense of our cultural diversity, which in turn has affected our sense and uniqueness of self. Whether in the form of mobile lifestyle or through the cultural convergence of mass media and exchange of goods, individuals around the globe are affected by the often overwhelming pace of change in their surrounding social contexts. In consequence, the concept of identity and the need for a sense of self are critical. This study addresses, in part, a concurrent cultural context within which loss of identity and loss of belongingness have occurred. For instance, as a self-identified transcultural person, early explorations of this thesis began within a specific segment of transcultural identities (1) —a cultural group that emerged due to the complex cultural exchanges of globalization leading to such loss of stable identity and belongingness. This phase not only afforded the initial context of this research but also provided an understanding of self as relational to other people and things. Responding to this new understanding, a series of case studies were conducted to explore how design can help shift our perspectives on the way we think about making and the interaction between persons and things. A generative approach provides new insights; in this type of inquiry, knowledge created from one study influences the development of subsequent research activities. The continuity of this responsive and reactive process led to the formation of Making of Narratives, a practice-led design framework delivered through model and practice. It is a conceptual framework in that it offers a context and conditions (scope/structure) for making meaning and sense of our relationship between persons and things. Within this framework, a set of guidelines are suggested to allow variations of models to be built through iterative and reflective practice. Modelling provides a site for narratives to be tangibly visualized, and practice affords space for introspection and co-creation. Together, model and practice constitute this framework as a tool to attain a deeper understanding of self and others; this, in turn, can lead to fostering a sense of belonging (2) and community. It emphasizes the value of gestural engagement—kinesthesia of the hand and body—in the simple making (3) process as a means to discover, impart and transfer embodied sensory-perceptual knowledge. Making of Narratives offers designers an alternative approach for generative design research and knowledge creation. This design research explores the potential of storytelling through material practice, specifically through acts of simple making, as a means to help shift our perspectives and deepen understanding of self and others in the midst of the rapid changes in the current era of globalization. (1) Transcultural identity: People who undergo a social and psychological transformation to create a different sense of self—identity as multiple—through experiencing the interweaving and exchange of human cultures (Nguyen & Benet-Martinez, 2010, p. 4). (2) A sense of belonging: Feeling connected or feeling that one belongs in a social milieu (Vallerand, 1997, p. 300); Feeling personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in a social environment. Failure to have a sense of belonging may lead to feelings of social isolation, alienation, and loneliness. (3) Simple making: The kind of making that is considered rudimentary and basic, such as ordering, sorting, assemblage, stacking, binding, and so forth. Simple making within this research allows for easy approachability for any person whether experienced or inexperienced in the creative practice of making.Date: 2018
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Description: Metaphors are instrumental to facilitate learning, and to the formation and maintenance of new ideas and concepts, especially in design thinking. This paper discusses the relationship of a specific metaphor in the design process, as well as in design outcomes of the collaborative project titled SQWhere. The thesis explores how a town square metaphor functioned as a creative thinking methodology and research tool throughout the design process. This metaphor provided novel ways of looking at the complex phenomena of digital social networks and human agency. Ultimately, this provides a detailed example of how a metaphorical approach to exploring a concept can guide a user-centered design process in Interaction Design. SQWhere, a mobile storytelling application for the urban pedestrian will connect people in real time and real space in environments. The SQWhere application for mobile phones will enable social interactions and information exchange through location-based storytelling— utilizing video, audio, images, and text. SQWhere will make connections happen at the grassroots level creating an environment of peer-to-peer knowledge exchange— storytelling.Date: 2008
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Description: My research focuses on an investigation of how my body reacts to spatial and sensory information and developing visual motifs and metaphors that poetically capture somatic interruptions in my daily life. While subjected to the onset of neurocardiogenic episodes that cause me to have uniquely altered sensory somatic encounters, my body feels like a receiver for a multitude of sensory information from internal and external environments. Sometimes objects, shapes, spaces and sound change instantaneously, and my body is left to respond accordingly, losing parts of vision, sense of touch or ability to hear. I look to these somatic experiences for inspiration in making art. Key research questions have guided my practice, such as What can the fragmentation of spaces that occur in these moments provide my practice? How do I translate somatic experiences, such as a corner of a room disappearing or a wall floating upward through the ceiling, into a visual narrative? How does one remain orientated in such a moment and how can one's (re)orientation be transposed into an art installation? My aim was to make sonic, visual and material gestures about these experiences to better understand them and the relationship between sensory and spatial perception. Much of my inquiry assesses the aesthetic content of the ‘home’ as a way of mapping the manner in which my body and perceptions are ‘organized’ by and within the world. I draw on the work of Gaston Bachelard and Tim Endensor, among others, to not only develop my discussion of architectural spaces and its aesthetics but also as a way of navigating my personal experiences of architectural spaces that enclose the fragility of my body and its reliance on an external environment for orientation.Date: 2018
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Description: It is widely acknowledged that environmental issues are complicated – that the means we use to try and address them are knotted affairs made up of many, many complicated threads. Too often the response to this tangle is avoidance and denial. Arguably, unsustainable human behaviour patterns are a significant barrier to addressing environmental concerns. This thesis details a design research approach considers approaches for behaviour change through interaction design and personal storytelling. The aim throughout has been to uncover new opportunities that could potentially provoke: environmental awareness, motivation towards changed behaviours, citizen agency. Environmental researchers are continuously analysing and describing environmental problems. Dissemination of this information is often seen as the main means to not only prove and demonstrate the issues but also to provide evidence that might change our current unsustainable living patterns. Social Media, documentaries, and news reporting provide a plethora of images, scientific facts and statistics about the issues. These unfortunately are not always effective – rather than motivating people to act - they often provoke responses such as fear, shame and consequent inaction. Acknowledging that objective, rational evidence does not necessarily impact human behavior, this body of work looks to narrative and interactive approaches as a means to invite people to consider environmental problems on a more personalized level. A key goal of my work has been to create means for enhancing and appreciating people’s experiences with nature - to provide outlets for people to share and reconsider their relations with the environment. By engaging people with their own personal stories or memories related to nature, I have sought to explore means to merge people’s collective memory of nature. Digital strategies that are commonly used in digital marketing campaigns aimed towards consumer agendas have been co-opted and revamped for an alternate purpose; to provide means for people to consider and respond with more motivation towards care for the environment. To that end, an open-ended, generative citizen design research tool intended to widen the perception of the use of interactive platforms for pro-environmental research practices was developed.Date: 2018
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Description: In this paper I explore the eidetic image as it relates to the rethinking and imaging of architectural and urban planning concerns. An eidetic image is produced through drawing, painting, modeling, mapping, and/or computer animation from which artists, designers and architects may conduct research into complex spatiality that challenges the passive Cartesian mode of picturing prevalent in both architecture and painting conventions. The term eidetic generally refers to mental imagery, “which are revived versions of [ . . . ] impressions called up by the imagination in the absence of the objects that originally stimulated them...” (Mitchell, Iconology 10). Which is not to say that all eidetic imagery must be recalled from memory. Within the context of this paper, an eidetic image is a visual model constructed by an artist, or designer. In his essay, “Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes” landscape architect James Corner calls on researchers to use this imaging methodology as a means of stimulating discourse, creative invention, and actualizing emergent realities. In his seminal work, “The Image of the City” Kevin Lynch categorizes the contents of the imageable city into five types of architectural components: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks (46). A summary of what those components are and how they function within the urban-landscape will be provided. In addition to Lynch’s five categories, I address the phenomena of pictorial architecture. Pictorial architecture refers to the ubiquitous application of two-dimensional graphic imagery onto three-dimensional architectural structures in the form of retail signage, large-format television screens, and billboards. The thesis of my proposal is that, an artist, designer or architect may use the operational language of Lynch’s five architectural components, and pictorial architecture, within eidetic imagery, as a means of describing the contemporary urban-landscape. To elaborate how architectural components may be deployed in eidetic imagery I will review the works of contemporary artists such as Zaha Hadid, Benjamin Edwards, and Julie Mehretu who specifically deal with the urban-landscape. In addition, I have constructed my own eidetic image, Dream City: Vancouver (2008) and will describe my methodological approach towards urban exploration and image building. In relation to the exploration of cities, the works of The Situationist International and Franz Ackermann will also be discussed.Date: 2008
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Description: Design teams use online digital spaces to communicate when working remotely, varying from email to chat to video collaboration tools. Often, these spaces stifle the team’s creative problem-solving abilities. The opportunity space is explored through two focused explorations: Creativity in 3D virtual spaces, and collaboration and communication in 3D virtual spaces. The first focused exploration between virtual workflows and the creative model described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi revealed a noteworthy difference between the two - the incubation phase. The incubation effect is described as a process of allowing the unconscious mind to process ideas indirectly while an individual participates in an unrelated task. These incubation periods often occur in physical spaces through play and discovery for a creative team before they can achieve a sense of creative flow. However, there is no clear emphasis to include a space in virtual team environments for incubation to occur. 3 Creativity is heavily influenced by our surroundings. Immersive virtual environments create an atmosphere that welcomes play and experimentation, as well as allowing developers to control sensory information given to the user. The flexibility of virtual spaces allows us to create an individual’s ideal creative space. Secondly, complex design problems often require novel ideas generated from the knowledge of more than one area of expertise. George de Mestral, a Swiss electrical engineer, had studied the unique form of cockleburs when he noticed they had gotten stuck in his dog’s fur during a hunting trip. This had led to the invention of the hook and loop fastener. People from different fields tend to interpret information differently due to learned convergent thinking methods, leading to different perspectives. Working in isolation can lead to misinterpretation of information or the problem space, which can misdirect what the team is solving for.Date: 2018
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Description: The goal of this process-based inquiry is to be responsive to the art making process and to what transpires when the work transforms in the different stages and different media. For this purpose, I use cut-out collage figures that are transformed from analogue to digital media, from inanimate to animate work, and from small scale to large and back to small. In addition to the physical transformation, I investigate what this transformation means to the work both conceptually and as content. Through the cycle of disassembly and reconstitution, initial considerations about what constitutes hybridity, multiplicity or non-variability in the material practices of contemporary print media expand into thematic concerns of hybridity, alterity and repetition. These concepts are approached through a variety of texts on pluralism, polysemy, dynamism, hybridization and awkwardness. Starting as hand-pulled prints, the paper collage figures transform into scans, digital prints, stop-motion work and finally video projections. Within this series of metamorphoses, each experimental iteration of the process investigates what qualities, characteristics and possibilities are relinquished by the altered relationship between the work in different stages, and what are repossessed in the final work.Date: 2017
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Description: Nuxalk Nation potlatch performances are multidimensional displays of supernatural mythology done through the use of traditional special effects. This is an untold story which I bring to light by reclaiming the descriptions of the secret society, the Kusiut, as recorded by anthropologist Thomas McIlwraith, and in the discussions on my own art practice. There are similarities between Nuxalk traditional cultural production and western mainstream cultural production that I investigate with my writing and my art making. I use a form of hybridization of traditional special effects and mainstream special effects in the making of contemporary ceremonial art objects that, like the masks and blankets of the Nuxalk Nation, are meant to be performed and come to life. Both forms of special effects shape the socio-political issues of their time. Nuxalk winter dances, which are generally performed and witnessed mainly by First Nations community members, have foundational special effect techniques. I discuss and elaborate on them as a woman actively engaged in reclaiming, revealing and participating in the stories of my own people through art. Nuxalk secret society performers and the magic they created reconstructed realities that could be collectivized and set precedents that while not known to European based cultures, were demanding and technically extremely disciplined. My art practice builds on that discipline from the endless hours learning specific Nuxalk traditional methods to my own engagement in the assertion of matrilineal protocols. In addition I learned extensive special effects for mask from the film industry that include malleable materials to allow performers to emote facial expressions. Through conventional research methods and traditional practices, I have fabricated hybrid works of Nuxalk art that blend ancestral aesthetics with current techniques of the special effects industry. Researching Nuxalk ancestry has provided a lens to explore possible indigenous artistic advancement in my own art while ensuring that the foundational contributions of Nuxalk traditional techniques are acknowledged. Nuxalk potlatch performances and Non-First Nations stagecraft have both mesmerized audience’s for generations. This work expands on those creative lineages weaving them together to hold space for a re-imaging of remnants from those dauntless cultural trailblazers of the Kusiut society.Date: 2016
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Description: The everyday objects that we surround ourselves with are deeply connected to our understanding of the world. These objects have the power to manifest and propagate particular world-views. This makes it particularly important for designers to study artefacts and the engagement we have with them. The meaning we (as introspective and social beings) draw from or affix to our objects is rooted in the socio-cultural perspectives of the world, an understanding that is largely created through actions of storytelling. This thesis explores the act of narrative-building through the process of making. It considers the significance of this in relation to understanding and expressing personal identity through objects. It seeks out ways a designer might use narratives as a means to: understand and make sense of personal experiences; situate oneself in relation in the act of making itself; create new forms and; engage with people around oneself. The research employs a reflective material practice made up of design methods such as research through design, heuristic inquiry, narrative inquiry and participatory workshops with peers in the studio. These were used as ways to actively respond to theories connected to emotional design, product longevity and shared practices of making. Through the act of making, the research explores unfamiliar ways of engaging with objects as a way to consider the multi-faceted relationships that can be found - between groups of people, between people and their everyday objects, people and their construction of identity in relation to their socio-cultural backgrounds. Through sharing the empirical learnings and insightful outcomes of these acts of building narrative and generative making with others, the research proposes a methodological framework that situates the designer within a collaborative-creative practice, driven by a heuristic inquiry.Date: 2020
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Description: It is reasonable to argue that technology is disruptive, psychologically and socially; it can appear to be uncomfortably fast-paced, overbearing, and have unpredictable effects on our day to day behaviours, seemingly linked to anxiety, depression or stress (McFadden, 2019), and more so on socio-cultural values, perception, interdependence, and relational structures (Verbeek, 2005). Still, technology and society continuously co-shape each other. Systematic philosophy professor Hans Achterhuis reasons about the social logic of technology claiming that 'on the one hand, the development of technology is accompanied by a transformation of society, but on the other hand that process is determined by socio-cultural factors' (Achterhuis, 2001, pg. 8). This co-shaping conditions us to passivity due to our disposition to technological optimism while generalizing the aftermath of this shaping as unfavourable, reducing what we believe, think or know about technology to a merely instrumentalist perspective, in which technologies are conceived as a neutral means to help carry out a specific practice, while denying that they frequently transform this practice in radical ways (Smits, 2001). In either case, the spectrum both removes the user from the context and frames them as victims, taking away the agency and responsibility we as individuals have on said outcomes. The project seeks to develop techno-social literacies around our relationships with technology, the ways of being it co-constructs, and the behaviours it affords. Such literacy, as argued for by technology critic James Bridle, is seen as a necessary first step toward addressing a range of contemporary health conditions which are increasingly linked to our use of technology and immersion in media; it connects us to issues such as computational thinking (Bridle, 2019, pg. 4), novelty addiction, convenience culture, sedentary lifestyles, and FOMO, to name a few. By critically looking at how we relate with technology, not as the source but rather the output of fundamental human ethos, the work seeks to reframe issues with technology as social rather than technical. As a result, a generative and ongoing process of restructuring practice and unveiling action turned my interest in empathy, un-wellness*, care, and agency into the concept of technological health as a propositional, exploratory design research approach. To expose the shift in meaning, culture, and value that our current relationship with our devices appears to highlight, my Research looks at intervention structures that could aid in reframing and reimagining our relationship with technology. A Technological Health Clinic is proposed as a means of Research into such relationships, venturing with lifestyle experiments that question the ways we act, resist, and behave, to open up possibilities for restructured agency and self-understanding through the increased perception of our techno-mutualism.Date: 2020