identifier: Severn, Stephen  (2022) Still Life with… Arrangements of Vibrant Things.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Still Life, Photography, Vibrant Things, Assemblage, Arrangement, Research-Queeration.

abstract:
Still Life with… investigates an ontology of vibrant things; a conceptual framework that recognizes all matter as active and fluid non-hierarchical elements in relation and orientated to an open futurity. I am positioning the objects in a still life, and the still life itself, as vibrant things. My work seeks to engage with a vibrancy that, despite its not always being perceived, can be found in our relation with things, and between things: in arrangements comprising multiplicities of active and vital participants — human, non-human, object, place, affect, event — interacting in relation.

I am situating a theoretical framework for vibrant things in Bill Brown’s “thing theory” and Jane Bennett’s “vibrant matter,” while aligning Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology with research-creation to form a methodological framework for working with vibrant things: what I am calling a “research-queeration” methodology. To experience the vibrancy and animacy of the world involves an orientation to things' thingness — the ability of objects to act, produce effects, and to form fluid relations. To orientate oneself to vibrant things opens up possibility, potentiality, and different ways of being in the world. I aim to see what this renewed form of engagement can reveal about an ontology of vibrant things, about how art can participate in this shift as a special mode of relation to matter, materiality, and things.

My practice-based research endeavours to register arrangements of vibrant things as generative fluxes that are orientated to an open-ended futurity. Objects, assemblages, place, and time are investigated through photography, assemblage, video, prose, and installation. This exegesis examines how making comes to matter in a relation of theory, methodology, and the writing and practice of artists who engage with an energetic materiality. The combination of an art practice together with philosophical and theoretical inquiry forms an interdisciplinarity of media and an interdisciplinarity of thinking and making: an arrangement of objects, materials, artworks, and media together with philosophy, theory, literature, and art — an arrangement of vibrant things.


identifier: Talwar, Vicky  (2022) Inward Identities.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Inward Identities

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
Through a cultural viewpoint on a hyphenated identity, I examine ways of displaying relationships between spaces. My studio and material-based research reveal my personal experience as a Hindu Canadian. I produce paintings, mixed media, and installation artworks using materiality, artist techniques, and experimental processes. As I address themes of cultural hybridity, movement, displacement, and memory, I develop new ways of representing the social institutions, achievements, spiritual symbols, and traditions that epitomize South Asian and Canadian cultures.

I express a conflict of feelings through colour and materiality to create an environment that will encourage healing. By looking at how mandalas are discussed and used in Eastern and Western practices, my investigations include intersecting ideas about the mandala in Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist cultures. I examine how the materiality of salt can be used to accentuate spirituality and convey a sense of displacement within my cultural experiences.

An autoethnographic research approach is used to address hybrid cultural identity as a language, as well as to communicate the aesthetics of material, in combination with spiritual and meditative practices. As I highlight the space between what is tangible and what is a distant memory, I integrate two diametrically opposed cultures to embrace the contrasts of my identities.


identifier: Zhang, Frank Jing  (2022) Negotiating Seamlessness in Gallery Spaces: Imagining Conflict as a Possibility in Social Participation.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Airbrush, history, interactive art, Relation Aesthetics, Antagonism, Radical Democracy, participatory Art, Conflict, failure, negotiation, Galleries.

abstract:
Seamlessness in traditional airbrush aesthetics reflects a desire to pursue technical excellence and perfection. The digital revolution has pushed airbrush practice from a popular art form to a niche discipline. Today, airbrushing survives in customization and subculture aesthetics. The retreat of airbrushing from the mainstream, poses questions of how to extend this art form into contemporary art practice: an important consideration given its potential to redefine the social and cultural meaning of seamlessness in our current digital age.
My research examines the meaning of seamlessness in our contemporary, social and technological contexts. By shifting traditional airbrush practice into an interactive and installation-based platform, I use participatory strategies to investigate the social implications of relational art forms to challenge the notion of seamlessness as an idealized pursuit of perfection. Inspired by the debate between Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of relational art and Claire Bishop’s critique of Bourriaud’s micro-utopian concept of relational aesthetics, this paper investigates how participatory and interactive art functions within gallery spaces to gain a deeper understanding of Chantal Mouffe’s concept of radical democracy.
Using art galleries as an arena to engage theory and praxis, my thesis project employs a research-creation method with a participatory approach that intends to trigger conflicts and negotiations in the domain of galleries. It investigates the blurred boundaries between consensus and conflict, controllability and unpredictability, inclusion and exclusion. Lastly, through theorizing and redefining the meaning of seamlessness from an aesthetic concept towards social agency, this research questions the inclusivity of art institutions and their role in relation to social and cultural production.


identifier: Freeman, Na'ama  (2022) On Walking: rhythm, repetition, movement.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: walking; walking art; outdoor art; place-based practice

abstract: On Walking: rhythm, repetition, movement (March 16-27, 2022) is an exhibition which includes three emerging artists and one collective whose works evolve through a practice of walking. Together, they explore personal and geopolitical readings of space, using walking as a method to measure oneself against a place and interrogate the different ways we can foster expansive connections, create a sense of belonging and examine the imprints that we leave behind as we pass through our surroundings. Artists Naomi Boyd, Anita Cazzola, Abedar Kamgari and the Roving Designers Collective use activities of remembering, tracing, and gathering to propose new ways of seeing and interacting with the world. Through walking, their works layer everyday encounters and interactions to uncover patterns of movement and investigate the porosity of urban spaces. Boyd, Cazzola, and Kamgari expand on these ideas and walk to interrogate their own subjectivities and relationships to land, as settlers and guests in the place now known as Canada. The walking prompts by the Roving Designers Collective invite audiences to actively participate and transform our individual and collective relationships to place through moments of acute awareness and creative reflection.


identifier: Gladstone, Julie  (2022) Four Corners, Four Angels, Ten Stones, Ten Veils.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Sephardic Diaspora, Textiles, Jewish Mysticism, feminist, decolonize methodologies, dreamwork, healing, Tikkun Olam, Rituals

abstract:
In the form of a series of letters written to my daughter, my ancestors, rivers in Toronto and in my ancestral village, this work draws on the Jewish literary forms of Midrash and Talmudic discourse in which the mundane and the sacred intertwine. This text weaves together personal, domestic, and historical narratives with dreams, spirit journeys, creation stories, poetry, a story I wrote when I was 8 years old, metaphysical time travel, Jewish mysticism, and a series of interdisciplinary artworks.
Using textiles, embroidery patterns and knitting as text, these pieces tell stories about birth, death, exile, diaspora, motherhood, and the creation of personal rituals to recover from ancestral trauma, colonial violence, patriarchal narratives, and disembodiment.
The Sephardi women in the Ottoman empire from whom I descend on my matrilineal line, offer a model for resistance, innovation, and resilience in the face of adversity and oppression from within their own diasporic patriarchal communities. From within the confines of the domestic sphere and despite restrictions which barred them from learning to read, learning sacred language and accessing the public realms, these women invented rituals, original prayer compositions, developed folk healing methods and expressed themselves through singing Judeo-Spanish folk songs and the creation of textiles and embroidery.
Inspired by their example, my research claims agency to re-interpret and adapt Jewish ritual, tapping into its hidden mystical, embodied, and shamanic roots, to address contemporary questions and personal narratives that need healing.
The domestic and cyclical methodology and critical framework of my work emerged out of the restrictions I experienced as a new mother during the COVID 19 pandemic working primarily in fragments of time while my daughter was napping. The construction of embroidered and knit garments were inspired by a methodology called “Wandering Textiles,” a term coined by scholar Mikal Held, to describe the process used by Sephardi women in which they created ceremonial textiles by repurposing and stitching together remnants of domestic fabrics such as pillows, bedspreads, and clothing.
This research makes use of the concept of Tikkun Olam, which translates from Hebrew as “to repair the world” as the basis for a research methodology rooted in healing ancestral trauma through creative practice. Through the interdisciplinary combination of knitting, embroidery, walking, relationship building with rivers, singing, dreaming, performance and video editing, this work images into being metaphysical time travel in which tikkun (healing) across multiple time frames and spaces is possible, while considering what kind of stories are worth transmitting to the next generation.


identifier: avery celeste creed, avery / a. c. c  (2022) playful impressions.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: playful impressions

abstract:
The goal of this exhibition was to set up an engaging atmosphere that lent itself to the artist’s desire to find and cultivate relationships that occur between community and the game of mahjong. Researching play theory, immigration studies, and contemporary art practices, while also collaborating with Saskatoon-based artist Xiao Han, this thesis investigates play and community. How can play serve as a vehicle for community, how does community enable play, and what can this activate in public spaces such as art galleries?

Keywords: Play, Community, Mahjong, Culture, Engagement, Participation, COVID-19, Immigration Studies, Accessibility


identifier: Nishu, Abhishek  (2022) E-Toronto: Building a Digital Society.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: E-Toronto: Building a Digital Society

subject: Human centred design, data control, open data, data privacy, data- driven participation, future of cities, smart cities, design thinking, data engagement, speculative design, user experience, interface design.

abstract:
With the rise of smart city projects around the world, we begin to question “What is a Smart City”? With many smart city initiatives being led by tech giants with corporate agendas, projects often fail to launch. With a focus on big data-driven strategies, these initiatives take on more of a technocratic approach. As a result, these projects often look at citizens as sensors and fail to prioritize the value that people bring to the process of urban development. With data proving to play a key role in the process of decision making, researchers question who has the right to data? And with citizens playing a pivotal role in the process of data collection, how can its value also be shared with those who generate it?

Through a speculative and critical design approach, this paper explores the question, “What if the citizens of Toronto could begin to control and engage with their data?” Beyond addressing major issues around data privacy, how could the city encourage data-driven participation under open data initiatives? By imagining E-Toronto, a smart city initiative that is citizen-centric, this thesis explores how data can become public infrastructure to support urban development and create new and more contextual experiences for citizens.


identifier: Nedelcheva, Kalina  (2022) Pluriversal Fragments in Exhibition Structures: Radical Perception & Mental Mapping.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: exhibition structure, experimental mapping, art encounter, interpretive frameworks, phenomenology, decolonial intersubjectivity

abstract: Meaning of artworks in galleries is often determined by the exhibition anatomy and the interpretive curatorial frameworks which guide visitors. This thesis looked into the radical possibilities of sidestepping such frameworks and harnessing the phenomenology of the art encounter to achieving a deeper connection to the work and others. Using Lacanian psychoanalysis, this thesis approached the exhibition as a language-like structure and employed the Imaginary-Symbolic-Real to quantify the intersubjective art encounter in Iman Issa’s Book of Facts. In the absence of didactic text, the viewer approached artworks as floating signifiers and “anchor” meaning through personal memories, experiences, and culture. Sameer Farooq’s A Heap of Random Sweepings and Homi Bhabha’s Third Space were channeled to probe how this intersubjectivity can expand beyond the Western space to invite cultural hybridity. This thesis proposed Dynamic Thought Articulation, an experimental mapping exercise, for understanding elusive intersubjective art encounters and engaging in collective meaning-building.


identifier: Vasiljevic, Natasha  (2022) When Tito Went on Vacation (re-imagining nostalgia).  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: Contemporary nostalgia sits at the intersection of imagination and memories. Not only is it a tool of redefining identities, but it is a powerful agent of social unification and cultural integration. In my thesis exhibition works I construct a visual interpretation of the concept and the experience of nostalgia through the abstract forms and movements of monument-like, large mobile sculptures made of coloured and mirrored acrylic. Through my imagined pen-pal conversations with the late Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito, my research and exhibition posit that memories of places, people, events, and sensibilities can be translated effectively into abstract objects that are at once evocative and representational.


identifier: Buckingham, Kristjan  (2022) Tentacular: The Agency of Speculative Fiction in Experiential Reality.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

format: text video video video video video video

subject: Augmented Reality, Speculative Fiction, Nonlinear Storytelling, Experiential, Media, Agency

abstract: The development and evolution of media technology has led to the expansion of human communicative possibilities. In facilitating the distribution of ideas, further technological innovations are made possible, resulting in a sort of symbiotic or even parasitic dynamic between communication media and those who create and depend upon it. Emerging media, such as Augmented Reality, are able to introduce virtual elements into physical environments, complicating the way in which reality may be perceived, understood, and experienced in relation to the world. Speculative Fiction is a useful way to consider the implications of such developments, and to bring these conversations outside of academic spaces through imaginative representations of existence and potential versions of reality. This project offers a “tentacular” approach to storytelling in the form of a nonlinear, atemporal, and multisensory Experiential Reality narrative, which animates an assemblage of ideas in a fictional context. This framework focuses on the potential of Speculative Fiction to effect change beyond the narrative space, reaching out into other parallel realities by provoking meaningful consideration of technological advancements and their influence on the world; how the world is understood; and by whom it is experienced.


identifier: Corbay, Leslie  (2022) Forced Migration: Ghosts of Familial Memory.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract:
In Forced Migration: Ghosts of Familial Memory, I create a haunted archive through
performance and recorded conversations with my mother and grandfather. Our conversations
focus on my ancestors’ forced migration to Canada as children in the late Nineteenth and early
Twentieth centuries. Beginning in 1618, the United Kingdom shipped as many as 150,000
children to the colonies; I create a haunted archive of sound recordings to tell stories of my
ancestors’ migrations – Joseph Hart, Louisa Hart, and Eleanor Copeland – while tracing the
impact of these stories through my own embodied and performative response. Performances are
recorded using video and still photography, and my mother and grandfather’s stories are
accentuated through collected sound. This haunted archive contends with the official adoption
records of my ancestors’ migration by highlighting the storytelling voices of my mother and
grandfather. My archive lives in a website which pairs performance documentation with audio
recordings. I use queer and hauntological theory to reflect on my experience as a haunted
archivist in the creation of a sound and performative archive.


identifier: Johns, Melissa  (2022) Here I Stand, Still Guarded.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Here I Stand, Still Guarded

format: video text

abstract:
This research project explores Indigenous dispossession and cultural hybridity through an
immersive and evocative mode, using digital facsimiles of material biography as vessels of
meaning. Under the mixed frameworks of Indigenous theory, hauntology, diasporic theory,
autoethnography, and material culture theory, family possessions are assessed as cultural
artifacts, highlighting the lived experiences of French-Canadians and Kanien:ke’ha:ka diaspora in
temporal and geographical overlap. Key objectives for this research project are the virtual
translation of physical belongings as a means of storytelling and experimental archival,
challenging official narratives of Canadian culture.

Keywords: Canadian identity, Indigenous Diaspora, Virtual Reality, Storytelling, Memory and
Environment, Material Biography, Experimental Archival, Hauntology.


identifier: McIntyre, Mary Katherine  (2022) Walking Near Water: my relations with (through) land.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Craft practice, thinking through making, extended mind, storytelling, autobiographical research, Indigenous epistemology, Indigenous ontology, Indigenous research methodology

abstract:
I am a metalsmith; an artist whose practice is grounded in materials and making, and on the generational connections of my Scots/English-Canadian family to the Tkaranto waterfront and the Wonscotonach1 and Cobechenonk2 watersheds.

I am re-thinking my relations with these lands, using a research-creation methodology that walks between two rows: one of craft knowledge founded on European traditions of design and making, and one influenced by Indigenous ways of knowing that are rooted in this place.

Each row reveres reciprocal knowledge-sharing that is embedded in materiality and community – cultures of making and visiting. With that in mind, I have re-framed autobiographical narratives of remembrance in works that combine metalsmithing techniques with materials gathered from local sites meaningful to me and my family. Through these works, I imagine new associations between the rows and reconfigured relationships with the land and water where I live with many others, human and non-human.


identifier: Stewart, Mairead  (2022) We Are Connected: Collaborative Audio Archiving In Toronto’s Queer Activist Community.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Activism/ Collaboration/ Audio/ Archives/ Community Support/ 2SLGBTQ+/ Art Practice/ Community Engagement/ Connection/ Website Development/ Accessibility/ Queer Community/ Grassroots/ Counter-Archiving

abstract: This project challenges the marginalization and misrepresentation of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in traditional archives and research endeavours by empowering queer Toronto arts-based activists to archive their own stories and experiences. This was achieved through co-creation workshops with queer artist/activists with the goal of creating an audio archive inspired by themes and topics collectively chosen by the participants. These counter-archiving practices are particularly powerful in the queer community because they build a sense of shared identity and history, fostering pride and strength in participants and community members.


identifier: Sebastianis, Lea Rose  (2022) Sacred Spit.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Sacred Spit

subject: SACRED SPIT, grotesque, body, degradation, Bakhtin, porous, criticism and curatorial practice, experimental

abstract:
SACRED SPIT is a curatorial thesis exhibition that explores the grotesque. Specifically, the act of
degradation. It aims to lower all that is high, moral, and abstract to the material level. The holy
descends to the bodily realm, and it renders our tactile intertwined forms as blessed. The
grotesque’s ability to mutate, shift, and destabilize ‘boundaries’ between self/other, us/them,
you/me, earth/body, and brain/spirit holds a powerful re-structuring of established order.
SACRED SPIT positions three artist’s works in dialogue: Karice Mitchell, Noelle Perdue, and
Lauren Pirie to investigate the potentialities of the boundless body in intrinsic unity with human,
animal, and natural worlds.


identifier: Martin, Gregory  (2022) Envisioning Autonomy.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Envisioning Autonomy

format: text image video video

subject: autonomy, autonomous vehicles, autonomous driving, communication design, intersection design, autonomous ethics, AV, self-driving, self-driving car

abstract:
Autonomous driving is within reach. Machine vision and artificial intelligence are now mature enough to make driverless vehicle technology inevitable, but significant legal, ethical and design challenges remain.

Autonomous vehicles will offer precision, speed, and reduced reaction times, but these changes impact how pedestrians, cyclists, those using public transit and those with mobility issues navigate urban spaces.

Can the systems that will control networks of autonomous vehicles be designed to mitigate the safety imbalances that exist today for anyone trying to get across a city without a car?

What impacts will a network of vehicles that communicate invisibly and instantaneously have on the way we provide visual cues and signage to other road users?

When autonomous cars are inevitably tasked with choosing one life over another in serious accidents, are systems in place to evaluate bias in the algorithms used to make these decisions?

This project comprises discursive design objects intended to spur critical engagement with the legal and ethical ramifications of autonomous driving. By positing these issues in visually digestible form, the project aims to empower the public to better understand the implications of autonomous driving technology before its implementation.


identifier: Roy Chakraborty, Krishnokoli  (2022) Craft Stories: an augmented reality animated interactive documentary on craft artists from South Asia.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject:
Discursive Design, Packaging Design, Design Intervention, Consumer awareness, Patron Consumer, AR embedded, QR code, Multi Media, Storytelling, History, Culture, Tradition
Craft, handicraft, Craft culture, Craft eco-system, Artisan, Folk form, Phad, Pabuji Ki Phad, Blue Pottery, Ajrakh Printed Textile, Lac Jewellery, Bandhani, Animated Documentary, South Asia, Indian Crafts, Pakistani Crafts, Colonialism, Caste & Sub Caste

abstract:
The project envisions, designs, and develops four augmented reality animated documentaries embedded on the packaging of four different craft articles from Sindh. On being scanned by a mobile device, a framed space on the surface of the packaging displays animated contents narrating the historical and cultural details of the craft articles and the mastery of the artisans and their social situations, to the consumers. This will help the consumer appreciate their purchases better and, eventually, grow into patrons. The project prototype hopes to develop a positive impact on the handicrafts market and enhance the influence and appreciation of artisans.

The products to be packaged in this specific case are traditional Blue Potteries, Tie Dyed & Ajrakh Printed Textiles and Lac Jewelleries. The visual aesthetic of the animated documentary, and most specifically, its core narrative style, is derived from a regional folk-form of audio-visual storytelling called Phad. While Phad traditionally tells the story of local deities and heroes, it is used as a visual and aesthetic medium to tell the stories of four craft-artisans practicing four different craft-forms (viz. Blue Pottery, Ajrakh Printing, Lac Bangle Making and Tie Dyeing) from Sindh.

This animated content documents the craft, the work, and the life of each craftsperson in the form of an innovative design intervention aimed towards influencing the consumer awareness about the historical and cultural significance associated with these craft-practices and their practitioners. It also critiques the culture of appropriation and lack of appreciations as perpetrated by the big brands and corporations towards the handicraft industry of South Asia overall. The discursive nature of the project may help improve the social status of the artisans, revive the craft-ecosystems and make it relevant again for the contemporary market and thereby ensure a long term future for the crafts and their sustainable ways.

This specific design prototype can be extrapolated to create different packaging
paradigms for different handicrafts, across the South Asian subcontinent.


identifier: Zhang, Jessy  (2022) Wonder Vision-A Hybrid Way-finding System to assist people with Visual Impairment.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: We use multi-sensory information to find our ways around environments. Among these, vision plays a crucial part in way-finding tasks, such as perceiving landmarks and layouts. People with impaired vision may find it difficult to move around in unfamiliar environments because they are unable to use their eyesight to capture critical information. Limiting vision can affect how people interact with their environment, especially for navigation. Individuals with varying degrees of vision will require a different level of way-finding aids. Blind people rely heavily on white canes, whereas low-vision patients could choose from magnifiers for amplifying signs, or even GPS mobile applications to acquire knowledge before their arrival. The purpose of this study is to investigate the in-situ challenges of way-finding for persons with visual impairments. With the methodologies of Research through Design (RTD) and User-centered Design (UCD), I conducted online user research and created a series of iterative prototypes towards a final one: Wonder Vision. It is a hybrid way-finding system that combines Augmented Reality (AR) and Voice User Interface (VUI) to assist people with visual impairments. The descriptive evaluation method suggests Wonder Vision as a possible solution for helping people with visual impairments to find their way toward their goals.


identifier: Parvin, Parnian  (2022) Are We Home Yet: Imagining Persian Carpet as a Movable Home.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: Are We Home Yet: Imagining Persian Carpet as a movable home is an interactive installation that aims to embody the interconnection between body, memories, identity, and home. Through this thesis project, I portray the struggles of myself, as an Iranian immigrant, to preserve my identity and to make a new home for myself after having left the previous, by regularly revisiting my memories of it. In search of developing a sense of belonging to my new home by seeking a displacement for the one that I lost, I converse with the carpets that I have lived on. Persian carpets have prolonged importance in Iranian households as suppliers of warmth, respect, and tranquility, and the tactile bond that is established with the people living on them is exquisite. I explore the possibility of ever finding a new place that I can call home, by exploring the probability of introducing the Persian carpet as a symbol for home, a movable home, benefiting from its many unique characteristics.


identifier: Lai, Yi liang-jin/Bernice  (2022) Dreaming when you are Awake: A Detective Journey in Mixed Reality Storytelling.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Animation, 3D modeling, Character design, storytelling, Lucid Dreaming, Nature, Mixed Media, drawing and painting, immersive experience, distraction, narrative

abstract: The hustle and bustle of cities are boosting people's mental health problems. Many people lack a reliable method for altering their mental state and lowering anxiety and depression. Using entertainment as a distraction might be a good idea, like reading and watching movies. However, the majority of the storytelling is not sufficiently engrossing in traditional 2D experiences such as phones and television are insufficiently immersive. My thesis project combines Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to produce a 360-degree VR animation of a dreaming tour as well as an Augmented Reality detective board with slide images and animation. This project makes people travel into a fictional realm by using fantasy as escapism. They may be able to escape reality and relax by walking around a wonderful atmosphere in VR video. I am working on a 360 Virtual Reality video and an Augmented Reality interactive board, which is divided into two parts: the first is an Augmented reality storytelling detective board, which will tell the story of a man who created the fantasy land. The audience may learn about the project's background story through pictures and 2D animation; the second portion delves into the 3D virtual reality animation, which immerses viewers in a fantasy world. It depicts dreamy scenes in order to help viewers de-stress and dream while awake.


identifier: King, Isaac  (2022) Inbetweening Beings: An Ecology of Relational Animation.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Animation, Installation, Anthropocene, Ecology, Relations, Nature, Inbetweening

abstract: My research uses animation to examine ecology in the Anthropocene, through an immersive installation. Experimenting with the formal process of frame-by-frame filmmaking, installation, and the materiality of landscape, I observe, reflect, and project an array of related living systems, asking where and how humans fit in. Referencing specific ecologies and locations, the assemblage relates human and more- than-human life through moving increments. Using illusion and analogy, I invite reflection, complication, and implication. My installation of relational animation focuses on urban and human-disturbed landscapes, suggesting a distinctly anthropogenic “nature” – jumbled, entangled, polluted, and resilient.


identifier: Nair, Parvathy  (2022) home sick, Notes on diasporic melancholia.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: diasporic melancholia, hybridity, archive, mother, decolonial, home

abstract:
The primary focus of my research is to investigate and explore melancholia in diaspora using decolonial methods and a return to ancestral knowledge and practices. Through objects and memories that are both intimate and estranged, I wish to consider the effects of assimilation and fragmentation that migrant experiences hold. Using interdisciplinary artistic practices that mix realities and center performative film, oil paintings, installations, embroidery, digital collage, poetry and short stories, my work is a play on expectations and translations of racialized and migrant bodies. I aim to empower racialized bodies through ritual while celebrating symbols of beauty like the brown skin and the black braid that have been undermined by colonialism, wielding ancestral knowledges as a way of offering, of healing, and of sharing. My work makes note of oppressive structures and attempts to undo colonial damage by creating decolonized safe spaces of healing while privileging the examination of diaspora through multiple, diverse, and intersubjective lenses.
My thesis exhibition is a space that blatantly celebrates the differences in media and interdisciplinarity to “disrupt” the white cube through decoration while evoking a sense of feeling “at home” to honor the mother, the motherland, the mother tongue and rituals lost to the onslaught of overwhelming eurocentrism and patriarchal colonialism.


identifier: Liaqat, Anam  (2022) Unstill Life.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Unstill Life

subject: Still Life, Evocative Objects, Objecthood, Stillness, Expanded Painting

abstract: This interdisciplinary project aims to reimagine the position of still life in the context of contemporary art. Derived from my memories and relationships with objects that represent my cultural background, this studio-based research traces my interest in visual perception. By intersecting analogue and digital media of art making, this project challenges the notion of stillness and expands on the idea of still life painting. Drawing from ideas of evocative objects, objecthood, stillness and expanded painting, this project opens dimensions of how still life is represented and experienced in contemporary diasporic art.


identifier: An, Grace  (2022) Masks of Folly: Portrait of the Idiot.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Masks of Folly: Portrait of the Idiot

subject: Idiot, carnivalesque, multitude, polyphony, masks, folk

abstract: Masks of Folly: Portrait of the Idiot is an MFA thesis exhibit by Grace An that creates a portrait of the Idiot or, fool. The Idiot is an exception, one who interrupts and blurs boundaries in the refusal of rationality. Using folly and profanation to ask questions. The mask as a concealment of intellect, ironically unmasks. Drawing from the concepts of Mikhail Bakhtin, the exhibit functions as polyphonic utterances by way of the multitude. Multi-voicedness and the cyclical nature of the carnivalized folk, removes the concept of the individual. The site of the Idiot, the carnival, is a space where power structures are temporarily suspended. Offering the character of the Idiot as an unfinalizable being.


identifier: Pollice, Anna  (2022) Wefting the Warp.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Wefting the Warp

subject: body, difference, becoming, movement, weaving

abstract: This research-creation is about difference-becoming-movement, the potentia of difference, and the generative and productive quality of becoming. Drawing from material feminism, relational movement and research-creation, difference-becoming-movement is explored through a simple weaving technique on a modified frame loom that created relational movements. Referencing the work of cultural theorists and material feminists Rosi Braidotti and philosophers of affect Erin Manning, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Wefting the Warp aims to materialize the rejection of binary oppositions in favour of movements that create new and unpredictable shapes and forms. The multi-directional loom I use moves past the rectilinear frame as one way to relate to the loom and the woven work. The woven textiles express multiple relations that I come to sense as movements that are akin to an improvised dance with the loom. This “dance” is materialized between me and the loom and between the warp and weft yarns. Inspired by material feminist perspectives of sexual difference, irreducible difference in this thesis is not something to be neutralized but rather acknowledged and activated. Difference is recognized through movements that produce woven textiles “off the grid,” thus, seeking new corporeal forms with no starting point, no endpoint, and certainly no definitive centre.


identifier: Han, Xiao  (2022) MIXING RICE-A Support paper for an MFA thesis exhibition.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Community Engagement, Socially Engaged Art, Curatorial practice, Chinese-Canadian artist, Chinese-Canadian restaurant, Chinese Canadian History, Saskatoon, Riversdale Business Improvement District, Artist Collective, Kyuubi Culture, COVID-19, anti Asian Hate.

abstract:
MIXING RICE is an Artist in Community project was undertaken in the Riversdale Business Improvement District Saskatoon from October 2021 to March 2022 with the curatorial objective to link local Asian and artist communities in Saskatoon through a visual art exhibition. By partnering local artists with Chinese-Canadian restaurant owners based in the Riversdale neighborhood in Saskatoon, this project aimed to introduce Chinese-Canadian restaurant culture to a broader public by immersing both restaurant patrons and interested arts viewers in a physical and visual feast of Chinese culinary excellency. Furthermore, this project aimed to increase visibility for the Asian communities in Saskatoon. The project took the form of a physical exhibition presented in the selected Chinese restaurants in Saskatoon, in addition to an online website that documented the exhibition to disseminate the work more broadly.
This support paper examines my research process that led to my exhibition centered onAsian cuisine. I reflect upon the community engagement generated through the exhibition with local artists, restaurant owners, and the audiences. Additionally, the paper is my vehicle to scrutinize how community-based curatorial practice can open dialogue through exhibitions and establish frameworks for future decolonial practices in the curatorial field.


identifier: guan, jie  (2022) Extending the Metaverse: Exploring Generative Objects with Extended Reality Environments and Adaptive Context Awareness.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Metaverse, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Internet of Things, Generative Art, Context Awareness, Research Through Design, Speculative Design

abstract: The metaverse, with the internet, virtual and augmented reality, and other domains for an immersive environment, has been considered mainstream in recent years. However, the current metaverse platforms have a gap in the physical space, leading to reduced engagement in these applications. This thesis project explores an extended metaverse framework with generative content and the design of a seamless interface to increase the connection between the metaverse and the physical environment and create coherence and efficiency between them. The extended metaverse agent helps prevent this from happening by improving the interaction, embodiment, and agency that dynamically engage humans in mixed reality (MR) environments. This thesis project will design and prototype MR objects and environments with the research through design (RTD) and speculative design methodology, whereby future applications are imagined, assuming plausibility of smart glasses being commonplace to help users visualize the coherence of virtual and physical spaces in simultaneity. To summarize, this thesis project provides an extended metaverse framework and agent that generates from physical contexts to describe the coherence of virtual and physical environments.


identifier: Mwenda, Patricia  (2022) ‘She is not alone!’ Afrofuturist Wearable Devices for Speculative PTSD Treatment in Kenya.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Wearable Technology, Domestic Abuse, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Afrofuturism, Kenyan Culture, Speculative Design

abstract: This research explores speculative wearable technology to reimagine Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) treatment for female-identifying domestic abuse survivors in Kenya. The speculative wearable devices are envisioned to aid in continuous monitoring of PTSD associated with domestic abuse as well as aid in self-directed PTSD treatment. The development of the wearable devices employs mixed methodologies that combines Health Design Thinking, Design for Wearability, Speculative Design, and Modular Design to imagine the form, functions, wearability, and design of the wearable prototypes. Drawing design inspiration from Kenyan culture situated within Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism frameworks, aims to convey symbolism of empowerment for female-identifying domestic abuse survivors and in a much larger context highlight the importance of raising awareness of domestic abuse in Kenya.


identifier: Lynde, Dorian  (0022) To Hold a Heartbeat: A Materialist Investigation of Animation.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

format: text text

subject: Art, Animation, Labour, Feminism

abstract: The earliest patents for the cel technique of animation, issued to Earl Hurd and John Randolph Bray in 1914, describes a division of labour between the animator and his helper, whereby the artist uses an unskilled assistant to perform the task of tracing and painting. This method standardized and industrialized animation, paving the way for massive labour inequity, and helping to define animation’s hierarchy of creative authority. This delineation between skilled and unskilled labour led to the segregation of animation studios by gender, where women became responsible for most of the unskilled work and were precluded from creative areas of the studios. This thesis explores labour in the animation industry through the analysis, manipulation, alteration, and reproduction of the archival production materials that comprise an animated film. Using a methodological approach situated within research-creation, the body of work is composed of palimpsestic collages and paintings that explore the language and materiality of animation. I argue that a materialist approach to animation allows the viewer a more holistic understanding of a film’s historiographic and sociopolitical implications: to expose its underlying power structure, an animation may be viewed not as a totality, but from its individual frames or ‘cels.’ Drawing from a theoretical framework underpinned by new materialism and theorists such as Hannah Frank and Esther Leslie, this work attempts to harness the vocabulary of animated visual culture and recontextualize it, questioning authorship, originality, notions of collective meaning, high versus low art, art and alienation, and the reproduction of the image.


identifier: Almeida, Joaquim  (2022) O E(X)U atrás da(s) Máscara(s) / The E(X)U Behind the Mask(s).  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Exu, Orixá, Candomblé, Capoeira, crossroads, resistance, colonial oppression, linear time, masks.

abstract:
Exu is an Orixá, a God within the Candomblé religion, the deity closest to humans. Guardian of crossroads, he is the messenger that unites realms. Exu is foundational to Capoeira, his presence is often related to the legend of Besouro de Mangangá.
“Exu killed a bird yesterday with a rock he threw today”, says the ancient proverb. Exu crosses metaphysical boundaries and plays with the concept of time and space. His written name contains crossroads. Exu lifts bridges within our different selves.
Inspired by the proverb above, this research-art work aims to confront the linear concept of time with and through the mask(s) of E(X)U. It seeks to empower Brazilians, resist colonial oppression, and question imperial impositions of time and space.
The research-creation methodology is inspired by traditional Brazilian raft-making and sailing philosophies. Masks, poetry, performance, and video are the artistic planks bound together at a crossroads to create this work.


identifier: Reyes, Hortensia  (2022) More than Knots and Cords.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: More than Knots and Cords

format: text video video video

subject: alpaca, textile, knot, Khipu,

abstract:
More than Knots and Cords is an exhibition supported by this thesis paper, that explores the possible friction that could generate incorporating a traditional artisanal material, which is made following ancestral production techniques and has a historical past, into an industrialized environment in a contemporary installation. This possible friction could be caused by the fact that materials and the environment where they will be installed come from different cultures and represent different spaces and times: past and present, traditional and contemporary. This could extend to even how materials are made, craft or art.

Through autoethnographic research, the materiality of Peruvian alpaca fibre and the history of ancient Peruvian textiles, this thesis explores alternative views of the past to confront the official history told from a western perspective. The distorted facts in which the official history is based create confusion in the search of an identity and a better understanding of a society. Through literature review on recent theoretical frameworks like new materialism, active matter, and systems view of life, a convergence is found with traditional views of the world like the Andean cosmovision, a confluence in the way they perceive materiality, sustainability, and ethical respect of the environment. This is seen as a convergence between old and new, traditional and contemporary.

The concept of knot is introduced, which could represent tension or conflict, pact or agreement. In the exploration described above, some knots are untied, while new knots are created in an ongoing process.

The exhibition presents the khipu, a pre-Hispanic artifact made of knots and cords, as a symbol of resistance, a metaphor for the decolonizing effort. The exhibition also includes an educational component to explain the Andean cosmovision to the broad public and to show labour during the creation process, which includes experimentation with some pre-Hispanic techniques rescued by archeologists.


identifier: Akomea-Agyin, Clinton  (2022) Pill Assist: Using Principles of Design to Improve Medication Adherence among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Ghana.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: HIV/AIDS, people living with HIV/AIDS(PLWHA), electronics, prototyping, pillbox design, medication storage, discrete, Digital Futures

abstract: People's lives are made easier through design and technology, whether it is a smartphone or a device that assists visually impaired people. This research explores new approaches to pillbox design for people taking medication. Pillboxes are meant to support patients with serious illnesses like HIV/AIDS for which regular medication-taking is necessary. Using electronics, experiments were conducted on different designs, forms, and structures of traditional pillboxes. This research uses a qualitative research and prototyping strategy to investigate the potential of good design on technological advancements to improve low medication adherence rates due to stigma for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Ghana, while also making medicine-taking a more private experience. The Pill Assist prototype is a wearable device that takes a traditional wallet design and transforms it into a dual-purpose medication storage and reminder system. This device assists people with pill-taking in a timely manner while keeping their status private.  Pill Assist introduces new ways in which wearable design can be integrated into pill-taking and as a lifestyle solution. Findings from this study are an initial step toward applying good design principles and technology to develop solutions that cater to all stigma-related diseases.


identifier: Schmid, Steven  (2022) mix-mish_mash_short_stories_masculinity_hip-hop_bahamianness- 20220510_v10.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Hip-Hop, Bahamian, Masculinity, Sampling, Feminism

abstract:
On a hot, humid and blindly sunny day in The Bahamas, I sit with my nephew under the shade of my mother’s porch to talk about our experiences in becoming men. Having not spoken to him in years, I play a draft of my self produced mixtape titled mix-mix-mish_mash_short_stories_masculinity_hip-hop_bahamian-ness-20220510_v10

Exploring Hip-Hop production and assemblage as de-colonial practices, this mixtape cuts, pastes, rearranges, reconfigures, interweaves and assembles academic literature, personal anecdotes, poetry, letters, tweets, WhatsApp messages and song lyrics together to explore my ever evolving relationship with masculinity through Hip-Hop and Hood Feminisms.

As a companion to the exhibition, Mish -Mash: The Makeshift Party, this mix also expands on the details and themes within my image making and artistic practice. These moments highlight the ways in which visual, sonic, moral and ethical contradictions intersect within Hip-Hop and Bahamian culture to create unique and sophisticated spaces for self and communal empowerment.


identifier: Swaby, Gio  (2022) Seeing You Through Her and Me: Explorations of Blackness and Womanhood.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Blackness, womanhood, feminism, womanism, textile art, fibre art, portraiture, portrait, Black women, The Bahamas, Bahamian

abstract: My research centers on an exploration of Blackness and Womanhood through textile- based portraiture. Working through the lens of Black feminist thought, I have investigated restorative modes of resistance and constructed a supportive framework by which to utilize them. This work is an inquiry into the portrait as a tool of resistance and is motivated by the desire to represent Black women in a way that is nuanced, multilayered and honest. My research asks the question of how Black women can  navigate vulnerability in such a way that agency and power is maintained.  At its core, this research is rooted in love and itself is an expression of love. It is a celebration of Blackness and creates space for Black people, especially Black women and girls, to be represented with honour and reverence. The tangible works created throughout this process come after the work of visiting, sharing and cultivating connection between myself and the people that have graciously participated in the process.


identifier: Chaudhry, Vridhhi  (2022) Unlearning an uninvited sensory language.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: Unlearning an Uninvited Sensory Language is a healing journey where I unlearn my trauma memories, by revisiting them and undoing them. Like an uninvited guest, trauma made itself home in my body, except I learned to live with this guest. When trauma happens, we emphasize the damage because we despise it but what we forget to acknowledge is how our bodies learn to bloom in all that gloom. And eventually, I learned to grow with it. Words and language lack the capacity to describe the heaviness and intensity of my trauma. As I draw upon my lived memories and transfer them into masks and paper dolls, I translate the sensory language of trauma and unlearn this uninvited sensory language. This research and making encompass the parameters of what it is to heal as a survivor and victim of sexualized violence and experiencing the death of loved ones. Unlearning an uninvited sensory language is an exhibition, and master’s research paper, that is shaped by auto-ethnographic praxis, arts-based research, and performative art.


identifier: Yuan, Grace  (2022) MR-Medicine: Improving Telemedicine Video Consultation with Mixed Reality and User Experience Design.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Telemedicine, User Experience Design, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Healthcare, Patient Experience, Electronic Medical Record System

abstract:
MR-Medicine is a research project exploring how Mixed Reality and User Experience Design can be used to improve patient experience in Telemedicine. It focuses on three main problems identified in the existing telemedicine platforms: 1) unintegrated electronic medical record system, 2) lack of strong presence, and 3) the hierarchical physician-patient relationship. It uses dermatology as a case study to explore possible design solutions for remote healthcare consultation.
MR-Medicine was developed with the Research Through Design methodology and examined with the Descriptive Design Evaluation methods. By creating and evaluating three types of prototypes for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and desktop applications as proofs of concept, the research study suggests findings that may contribute to telemedicine consultation applications' development and how patients and physicians may better interact in the future.


identifier: Lewis, Nanyamka S  (2022) An Insufficient Record//Exploring the photo-ethics of preserving of Black Vancouver.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Black Canadian, Black Vancouver

abstract: An   Insufficient   Record:   The   Photo   Ethics   of    preserving Black  Vancouver theorizes the afterlife of     the    City    of     Vancouver    photographic    archive,  concerning  the  history  of   insufficient  representation of  Black Vancouverites and their lives  in  public  space.  A  conduit  for  dialogical  and  collaborative  collecting  methodologies,  the  proposed  exhibit  intervenes  with  the  archive,  outlining  a  curatorial  approach  that  identifies,  contextualizes,  and  makes  accessible  reflections  of   the  multiplicity  of   Blackness  in  Vancouver.  Re-presenting   and   re-positioning   17   gelatin   mugshots acquired from the City of  Vancouver archive, An  Insufficient  Record  malleablizes  the  varying  vital  relationship  between  the  image  and  its  object  of   representation,  assessing  the  photographic constructions of  race, the politics of   human  rights,  identity  formations,  national  narratives,   and   cultural   memory.   Juxtaposed   within a new and speculatively valuable resource, the  mugshots  are  presented  with  50  portraits  of   Black  and  African  self-identifying  people,  taken with clear subject autonomy. The archival images  are  assembled  from  official  municipal    holdings,  provincial  holdings,  public  arts  and  culture  organizations,  and  special  collections.  Challenging   the   insufficient   depository   of    knowledge    contributing    to    the    historical    trajectory   of    restricting   representations   of    Blackness to caricature, ethnographic object, or criminal, the proposed exhibit takes on a kind of  cultural translation, examining the possibilities and  structural  limitations  of   transforming  penal  spectatorship  to  a  participatory  re-shaping and reading of  the carceral images. An  Insufficient  Record  exposes  the  strategic  erasure  of   nuanced  Black  representation,  which   enables   the   City   of    Vancouver’s   insufficient  fonds  to  exist  without  question  or  complication.  Speculating  the  role  of   curation  and  documentation  in  supporting  collective   movements   beyond   the   public   archive,   the   proposed   exhibit   visualizes   and   reinforces   Black   personal,   political,   and  social  presence.  The  curatorial  space-making   gesture   imagines   a   system   of    photographic presentation and organization that  engages  Black  Vancouver  communities  in  the  re-representation  of   their  histories,  and   responds   to   demands   to   participate   in   national   discourses   of    belonging   to   Canada’s   past   and   present,   readdressing   historiographical    challenges    and    their    impact on archival record.


identifier: Uyanze, Candide  (2022) Digitized Diasporic Memory: Leveraging User-Generated and Open Tools for Collective Audio Storytelling.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: African Diaspora, Archives, Audio, Communication, Digital Media, Open access, Open-source, Participatory Design, Sound, Storytelling, Decentralized Networks, Collective Memory, Memory Studies, Dialogue, Diaspora, Culture & Heritage, Relational Databases

abstract:
“Digitized Diasporic Memory” explores the relationship, intersections, connections, and divergencies of experiences between Black diasporic people. With an understanding of diaspora as networked, rhizomatic, and tentacled, the project seeks to create a space for connection, in an environment where connection is not easily accessed or sustained across these communities of people. The thesis draws heavily from the idea of personal networked thinking and expands into collective thinking, or what Anne-Laure Le Cunff describes as mind-to-mind networks, wherein several individuals connect their ideas.

The following document details the conception of open-source and open-access technologies which illustrate how our individual pasts weave in and out of each other. The first is a proof of concept for a relational database of crowd-sourced audio memories, and the second is a web application that maps and visualizes the connections between the submitted stories. The document also details the thesis study in which the technologies are put to the test by people of African descent residing on Turtle Island. “Digitized Diasporic Memory” is part database, part conversational archive, part open-access library, part collective memory bank, part digitized memory, and part chain of memories which bring to the fore the possible connections between Black diasporic experiences and narratives. It addresses the need for intra-diasporic validation, belonging, understanding across differences, and knowledge-sharing.


identifier: Duggal, Simran  (2022) Posture Check – Creative Technological Approaches.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

format: text video

subject: Wearable technology, wearable devices, posture, sensing methods, real-time feedback, notifications systems, visualisation

abstract: “Posture Check: Creative Technological Approaches" explores new ways of giving individuals real-time visual feedback on changes in their posture to help them become more aware of their stance. This research follows to create various optical outputs transmitted by a sensor integrated with the wearable device that can regularly analyse an individual’s sitting posture and assist them in improving their sitting habits. The physical prototype is a posture awareness device that detects seating positions. When a person’s posture deteriorates, the device shares the data wirelessly to a nearby computer or phone and provides real-time feedback through digital visualisation prototypes, these visualisations present different methods of notifying people about their changing posture in an unobtrusive way. The prototype result is created through an iterative design and prototyping process, with a final version being examined for its influence on posture.


identifier: Culbert, Emily  (2022) Quilts, Snapdragons, and Spoons.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Quilts, Snapdragons, and Spoons

abstract: This thesis examines and shares my experiences during my time at OCAD, as I search for comfort and grounding through self-reflective awareness of objects and my physical surroundings. In the past few years, I have found in increasingly difficult to balance my mental health between coming to terms with adulthood, the looming threat of environmental collapse, the pressures of hyper-connectivity via the internet, and most recently, the isolation of COVID-19. The purpose of this research paper is to add my contribution to the archive of experience surrounding art and wellness and relay the methods and processes of self-soothing and grounding that I have discovered in my journey. I return to childhood memories and anecdotes that have defined my relationship to tangible materials like food, craft, furniture, collectables, and toys. Through research and studio investigations, this thesis conveys the importance of interaction with the physical world, promoting the adoption of daily tactile processes and self-reflection. Using artmaking as an analytic tool, I consider the relationships behind each object and the stories that have continued to influence the way I exist in the world today. I consider the past, my present, and how I might take steps towards the future.


identifier: McKerlie, Maxwell  (2022) Tiptoe of The Patchwork Pierrot: A Search for Belonging in Nowhere Land.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: My studio-based research plays with the concepts of disguise, the trickster archetype, sweet kitsch, and sentimentality to explore and reclaim male femininity. These topics are explored through a performance piece which contrasts the visual aesthetics of a Pierrot character I designed within a supermodern, non-place setting. This paper argues that the ethos behind sweet kitsch and sentimentality becomes significant when contrasted with the concept of non-places, chromophobia, and network sociality, all hallmarks of supermodernity. If supermodernity is concerned with efficiency and uniformity, and rejects expression and personal connectivity, then sweet kitsch is the remedy to the isolation and disconnect it creates. The purpose of this paper is to explore what it means to create a sense of belonging and to give oneself permission to exist in a space which is indifferent to interpersonal connection, and how the act of performing a Pierrot character within an environment which is hostile to interpersonal connection can generate meaningful connection within one’s life through sentimentality.


identifier: Liv, Jenn  (2022) The Collapsed Space.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: The Collapsed Space

format: text image image image image image image image image video

subject: chinese diaspora, VR, virtual reality, space and place,  deep mapping, listening to images, illustration

abstract: ‘The Collapsed Space’ is an open-ended and multidisciplinary research-creation piece exploring the complexities of diasporic identity through investigating my own personal lived experiences of being a Chinese Canadian American. Through virtual reality (VR) development as research-creation, this arts-based research uses auto-ethnographic practices to document generational narratives and personal memories into a VR experience, primarily through a process known as deep mapping used from the digital humanities. This thesis engages with the diasporic identity using methods including digital storytelling, deep mapping, expanding upon 2D images into 3D and 4D, and documenting responses and reflections on the research creation process through self-reflexive blog posts including feedback from my family members. Using the immersive power of virtual reality, this thesis seeks to also explore the ways in which the embodied experience can be used as a form of digital storytelling.


identifier: Blakey, Alicia  (2022) Neuro Space: The distance between our psyche and the computer.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Neuro Data, Neural, Brain Computer Interface, Personal Space, Neuro Negative, Neuro Positive, Neuro Health, Neuronal, Data Visualisation, Science & Art Based Research, Multimodal interaction.

abstract: Neuro data (ND) is the compilation and use of data drawn directly from the brain, which we can measure using Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) with Electroencephalography (EEG). This thesis demonstrates the need for producing documentation on neuro data and the BCI using discursive methods to reveal issues that occur below the surface of public discussion, articulating how computer integration effects brain function. There are public gaps in the mental health sector addressing our neuro-digital health.  Since 2018 there have been a large amount of papers and journals questioning technology’s relation to decreased brain health. In the four years from 2018 to 2022 there has been more literature produced than from 1950-2017. Yet, as of December 2021 there is still no dedicated section for technological addiction in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychiatry. This research takes up the call for an interdisciplinary audience to look at their neuro data and brain to computer interaction.


title: Digitized Diasporic Memory: Leveraging User-Generated and Open Tools for Collective Audio Storytelling


identifier: Reyto, Catherine  (2022) Drawing Light in the Cave: Embodied Spatial Drawing in Virtual Reality with Agency and Presence.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: drawing, gesture, creator, agency, presence, immersion, embodiment, visual perception, gesture, sketching, cross-contour, perspective, virtual world, 3D geometry, form, space

abstract:
This thesis project began as an exploration of the ways in which Virtual Reality (VR) could revolutionize drawing.  What I learned through this research journey was that drawing could also revolutionize how we see, and therefore, what we can do, in VR.
I will begin by establishing a contextual background about the vision that some artists and theorists have had about the potential of VR over the past three decades.  These individuals hoped to see VR become a tool that could help us learn to see and do things differently than the conventions of our everyday reality.  Throughout this background context, I will form links to how three themes in VR: agency, presence, and embodiment, are all linked to drawing.  With a focus on creative works made in VR, I will summarize the challenges to embodiment that I observed through my design research.  I will present the pivotal insight in my research: that the root of these challenges lies in the use of linear perspective, a drawing method that evolved into a coordinate system that now underpins computer graphics systems.  I will propose that an alternative method of drawing in perspective is made possible through VR; one that is based on the perceptual qualities of how we naturally see.  In addition, I will show how VR also offers the possibility of drawing in an embodied way through techniques of spatial gesture drawing.  Lastly, I will present two methods for applying these concepts for creatives working with 3D geometry in VR. While these methods will help creators today, I hope that this research can contribute to the innovation of VR software and tools.


identifier: Shah, Achal  (2022) DeepFakes in India : From words for the lies to the faces for the lies.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: Social media has shifted the narrative of our public discourse. There is an acceleration in the way we consume and spread information. India, saw a major setback when people chose to believe the news that was shared on Whatsapp, which led to lynchings. Looking at the timeline of deepfakes, their growth, and their application, it is highly speculated that within the near future deepfakes can be used for the same purpose of spreading false information. The thesis explores the connection between fake news and deepfakes in the Indian context, which will illustrate the need for greater digital literacy to prevent the continued acceleration of false information. The practical output is a prototype of a realistic and convincing deepfake that is exhibited to create discourse and advocate for greater digital literacy.


identifier: Yuan, Jamie  (2022) Alienation To-do： Using critical design to explore issues of alienation and involution for contemporary digital laborers in China.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: critical design, speculative design, mobile app, alienation, involution, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis

abstract:
This thesis project explores the overwork and involution of Chinese digital laborers
by quantifying these laborers’ level of alienation and take actions to reduce it using
critical design methods on a mobile app. Involution in China stands for the
unnecessary competition, which does not lead to productivity and improved
innovation in the workplace. Nowadays, young employees working in big cities in
China are suffering from the issue of overwork and involution. They not only
withstand expended working time and heavy workload but also experience
meaninglessness in work, as well as intense and useless competition from other
employees. As suggested by analyzing some working characteristics of Chinese
digital laborers, the situation may be manifestation of negative effects of capitalism
and labor exploitation, and the alienation of employees would be a core concept in
this issue and contributes to finding possible solutions.
The outcome of the thesis project is a critical app while adopting critical design as the
main design methodology: Alienation To-do. The app is an office and selfmanagement app that can enable users to manage time and tasks at work and quantify
the level of alienation of users by analyzing users’ data uploaded. Additionally, a
report reminds users of their level of alienation and gives advice on how to ease the
situation. Moreover, users will be encouraged to take suitable actions and record what
they do. Thus, their levels of alienation will be influenced. This thesis project aims to
clarify what an employee could do to get rid of alienation invite users to reflect on the real world.


identifier: Ge, Renee  (2022) Sensing Texture: Exploring Senses and Affect Through East Asian Art and Fashion.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

subject: Affect, Touch, Texture, Textile, Fashion, East Asian Art/Artist

abstract: Sensing Texture explores touch and affect through textures of East Asian textile art and fashion designs. This exhibition aims to provide a sensory experience where the viewer explores textile-making techniques and unique themes under East Asian cultural influences. Focusing on East Asian cultures and the ongoing experiment of fusing techniques and themes from both past and present, the exhibition proposes a re-introduction of contemporary East Asian art, which differs from the stereotype familiar to the western world. The exhibition features a group of young artists from China and Japan whose works include paintings, art installations, and fashion designs that evoke affect and the sense of touch of the viewer while highlighting textures of the textile. Through these works, the artists not only have exposed their inner worlds to the viewer, but also have showed the inheritance and innovation of East Asian culture. As an online exhibition, Sensing Texture challenges and redefines the kind of multisensory art-viewing experience provided by conventional physical exhibitions. The exhibition achieves sensory stimulation with an indirect tactile experience through images and sounds in a way that the viewer is encouraged to feel the texture and the touch of the artwork without physically touching it.


identifier: Rodic, Milosh  (2022) Our Bodies are Supernal in thier Bionic Dynamism.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

format: text text text

abstract:
My research explores recurring automatic processes used throughout time that develops conceptual and physical aptitude in the performer. During my research I define automatism as a process formulated as ACG Automatic Corporeal Gesture in a Flash where I work to make art from an inspirational sensation in my body. The main way that I have been doing this is through automatic mark making and then working to define images as they appear on the
substrate that emerge from this activity. ACG is a kind of automatism that I use in various ways through process to make Art without fear. It is a performance process that uses
perception and action intrepidly while in an apparatus to maintain corporeal balance, integrity, and momentum during the event. Practicing ACG changes the way qualities in material are affected over time which changes the way meaning is made from it. The change in qualities that
happens during performances between people and the material involved are always particular to each event


identifier: Boucher, Maria-Margaretta Cabana  (2022) that old home of mine.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: that old home of mine

abstract: My research centers an exploration of Métis identity and Michif ways of knowing through a practice-based method of inquiry into beadwork and beaded objects. This thesis document is written in the form of letters written to my daughter and is organized around the idea of building a Michif-self archive by stitching together narrative writing, letters, poems, family histories, and short stories. While reflecting on the many relationships that have held me with care and grounded me within my understanding of my own Michif identity. At its core this research is about love, cultural knowledge transfer, and the practice of remembering and re-remembering past, current, and future ancestors. This document centers my relationship with my daughter as I explore the role of motherhood in relation to Métis culture.


identifier: Cooper, Jay  (2022) A Future-Forward Examination of the Viability of Worker Cooperatives Within the Digital Games Industry.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: In this thesis I explore the subject of cooperative labour and its potential broad adoption within the digital games industry in light of recent unionization efforts. I begin with historical and environmental scans to examine the trends surrounding the practices of digital game development and publishing, followed by a review of the literature on worker cooperatives as an alternative to the traditional hierarchical organization prevalent within the digital games industry, and finally apply the Three Horizons model as a foresight method to ascertain what impact the broader adoption of this model might have upon the digital games industry. Through this study, I present the indie games movement as a site of industry disruption, and its recent experiments with worker cooperatives as an indicator towards emerging future game development practices, highlighting points of synergy between indie game development and worker cooperative principles. I conclude with the suggestion that this structure affords the opportunity to develop games collaboratively between independent studios towards their own ends beyond profit and shift towards a more equitable, creative and collaborative game development ecosystem.


identifier: Kamgari, Abedar  (2022) Carrying Distance.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

title: Carrying Distance

subject: Distance, diaspora, father and child, carrying, inheritances, borderlands, performance, doorways, thresholds, borders, intergenerational, body archives.

abstract: Carrying Distance is a body of research in the form of visual artworks, performances, and writing that takes up the idea of distance as a poetic framework for approaching contexts and conditions of displacement and diaspora. I generate embodied knowledge through movement by performing live, collaborating with my family, and engaging in tactile and laborious making processes such as ceramics and natural dyes. The project is comprised of an exhibition of two curtains and two live performances, with a door and one of the curtains respectively. The hands-on making of the two curtains activates body memory and a meditative place for reflecting on diasporic entanglements. I position curtains as symbolic manifestations of sites where multiple distances converge, gesturing to borders shaped by geographies, cultures, languages, gender, and time. My door shape shifts into a diasporic in-between space: a threshold, a borderland, and a crossroads. Insisting on staying in this liminal doorway—as opposed to moving to a known destination beyond—represents a commitment to carrying embodied traces of many lives, making room for contradictions and unbelonging, and seeing what can be made of them. With Carrying Distance, I ruminate on what it means to inherit diasporic families and colonial ruins.


identifier: Brunton, Susan  (2022) Triaxial Bias Plaited Basketry Theory, Structure and Technique.  Masters thesis, OCAD University.

abstract: My thesis presents an ancient form of weaving knowledge known as triaxial bias plaited basketry. Informed by forty- plus years of studio practice my research investigates this advanced technique that uses three elements, woven at sixty degrees from each other, in a closed hexagonal structure. The technique presently is not widely known or practised; triaxial bias plaited basketry is in danger of extinction. My research asks: How can triaxial bias plaited basketry be preserved, and what approaches can be taken to help understand the complexity of its construction and pattern for future weavers? Drawing together written and visual resources, I first compile a body of historical knowledge, then apply an inductive mathematical theory of Making with Rigour: MathWeave to conduct an evidence-based approach toward research-creation methods. Key design elements of colour and weave techniques are fundamental to weaving, yet a critical gap in the knowledge of triaxial bias plaited basketry was made evident in the initial research. Responding to this knowledge gap, a practice-based research method was undertaken to document the creation of 52 experimental baskets, proposing new knowledge of colour placement pattern control and weave techniques. This research provides applied math and colour theory with advanced weaving knowledge, encouraging current and future basket makers to participate in triaxial bias plaited basketry, working toward the preservation of this technology.


title: Forward and reverse genetic approaches to investigate cellulose biosynthesis in Physcomitrium patens

subject:
Physcomitrium patens
Cellulose biosynthesis inhibitor (CBI)
BioID
Auxin
Combinatorial biosynthesis

abstract:
Cellulose biosynthesis is a common feature of land plants and involves multimeric complexes composed of cellulose synthase A (CESA) proteins and other structural proteins. The exact stoichiometry of CESA proteins and interactions among proteins within cellulose synthase complex (CSC) is not well understood. Therefore, cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors (CBIs) are useful tools in decoding fundamental aspects of cellulose biosynthesis. Here, I characterize the CBI indaziflam, with a unique mode of action for resistance management, which prevents plant growth by inhibiting cellulose biosynthesis.
Arabidopsis thaliana indaziflam resistant mutants were identified through forward genetic screening. Since indaziflam is also active in moss Physcomitrium patens, a forward genetic approach to screen indaziflam resistance was applied on P. patens, and positional cloning combined with next-generation sequencing revealed two point mutations in CULLIN1 (CUL1) and AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID INDUCED (Aux/IAA) which both are involved in auxin signaling pathways. The mutants were also cross-resistant to synthetic auxin 2,4-D. It is predicted that indaziflam affects plant growth and development and impacted the production and remodeling of plant cell wall directly or indirectly.
Moreover, to gain insight into the nature of the protein composition of CSCs, I employed a strategy called Biotin identification (BioID), aimed at identifying proximate and vicinal proteins in vivo associated with CESAs in P. patens. I generated multiple BioID-CESA translational fusions by homologous recombination to identify biotinylated proximate proteins. Due to limitations, including but not limited to different behaviors of fused proteins tagged at the C- or N-terminus, decreased expression level, longer incubation time with biotin, higher incubation temperature, and large size BirA* tag, I was not able to identify any interacting proteins.
Another finding of this thesis is that P. patens can be used to produce known natural products that are difficult to obtain by chemical synthesis. An in vivo combinatorial biosynthesis approach was pursued in P. patens to obtain rare cannabinoids with beneficial biological activity. The outcome was to produce rare cannabinoids and some pathway intermediates. This idea's other significant result is designing different drug-candidate-producing moss strains, especially within the chemical class of cannabinoids.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Intelligent integration of prosumers with battery energy storage in smart distribution systems using optimal design and a transactive energy framework

subject:
Energy resources
Solar energy
Electric vehicles
Battery
Energy storage

abstract:
A legacy electric power distribution system is characterized by a unidirectional power flow from centralized power plants to customers. The role of these customers has been known for many years as power consumers and not power producers. In smart distribution systems, because of the widespread use of distributed energy resources such as roof-top solar photovoltaics and home battery energy storage in residential subdivisions, the role of many of the residential customers has changed to be power producers and consumers; therefore, they are combined in the term prosumers. Moreover, the integration of prosumers owning plug-in electric vehicles into the residential sector may bring several operational challenges to the electric power distribution systems such as distribution transformer overload, which may accelerate the distribution transformer’s aging leading to premature replacement, in addition to an increase in the energy loss and service voltage deviations, leading to additional costs to the utility. Furthermore, these challenges threaten the continuity of the power supply to residential customers. Many studied have introduced several strategies to mitigate these negative impacts. Therefore, this thesis presents novel strategies to mitigate the impact of integrating these distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicles. Previous work has identified the secondary distribution system, which is the part of the distribution system starting from the distribution transformers and ending at the customers’ smart meters, as the weakest part of the overall distribution system that would be significantly affected by the change of the residential customer’s role in modern grids. The work presented in this thesis addresses this problem by considering the secondary distribution systems at two different stages. In the first stage, namely the design stage, the focus is on the design of the secondary distribution systems when considering a new residential subdivision. The proposed strategy in this work aims to consider the distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicle charging demand, installed at the prosumers’ premises, at the design stage by identifying the sizing of the secondary distribution system components (e.g., distribution transformer, and secondary line conductors).
In the second stage, namely the operational stage, the focus is on the secondary distribution systems that are already in service and which have been designed without taking into consideration the presence of the distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicle charging demand. Two strategies for this operational stage are proposed in this work. The first strategy (i.e., an operational stage without distributed energy resources) aims to mitigate the impact of these distributed energy resources by finding the optimal size, location and number of roof-top solar photovoltaics to be connected to improve the system performance and facilitates the integration of the and plug-in electric vehicle. The second strategy (i.e., an operational stage with distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicles) is based on the following two approaches. The first approach intends to intelligently design a community battery energy storage system (distributed battery energy storage system) to mitigate the impact of these distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicle charging demand while the second approach uses a novel concept of transactive energy market that aims to achieve both the customers’ and electric utilities’ objectives. The results presented in this thesis show the applicability of the proposed strategies to integrate the distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicle charging demand in secondary distribution systems at the two different stages (design and operational stages).
In the design stage, the results reveal that the proposed optimal design approach is able to integrate the distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicle charging demand without any violations of voltage or a distribution transformer’s aging constraints. In the operational stage, applying the first strategy (optimal size, location and number of prosumers) leads to an improvement in the service voltage at the customers by 4% and a reduction in the secondary distribution system’s annual energy loss by 50%. In addition, applying the second strategy with the first approach (optimal design of the community battery energy storage system) results in improving the service voltage at the customers by 4.5% and reducing the energy loss by 50%. Moreover, applying the second strategy with the second approach (transactive energy market), which is implemented on the overall distribution systems, improves the service voltage by 2.9%, and mitigates the voltage unbalance.


title: Apprehension of Resistive Characteristics of Plasma Ionized Hybrid Nano Fibrous Silicon

subject:
Thin-film resistivity
Laser ablation
Nanofibrous thin-film
Nanoparticle/nanofiber generation

abstract:
Literature review done for the study identified number of challenges with the conventional way of manufacturing nano patterned surfaces. Also, it indicated immense potential of nano structured surface as a sensing surface for numerous applications. Without using any complex and expensive conventional nano manufacturing method, synthesis of Hybrid Nano fibrous Silicon structure (HNfSi) was made possible by identifying useful laser and scanning parameters in this study.
To employ such structure for various sensing applications as well as new generation batteries and capacitors, understanding of its resistive behavior was quite necessary. In this study, HNfSis bulk resistance and thickness based resistivity with variation in different laser and scanning parameters was studied successfully. Methods like 4-point resistivity measurement and parallel plate electrode configuration was employed to understand resistive behavior of HNfSi. In addition, considering immense surface area available with such structure and its benefits identified with literature review, ImageJ analysis was done to comprehend change in topological constituents and its dimensions with the variation in specified parameters. To understand such change in resistive behavior, various surface and material characterization methods like, SEM (Scanning electron microscope), Raman spectroscopy, light spectroscopy and EDX (Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) was employed. Overall, with this study, important laser parameters to generate HNfSi was identified successfully and their respective resistive characteristics were understood using mentioned methods.


title: Influence of dietary interventions on the immune system: an investigation of the impact of omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fermentable materials and high energy diets

subject:
Dietary interventions
Inflammation
Omega-3 fatty acids
β2-1 fructan
High energy diets

abstract:
Dietary interventions vary in ability to influence immune activity. Separate investigations were conducted to determine the immune impact of omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fermentable materials (DFM) and high energy (HE) diets. Omega-3 fatty acid impact on bovine immunity was examined by comparing effects of fish oil and microalgae dietary supplements in the context of different feed management systems (pasture versus confinement). Cattle consuming microalgae had higher antibody production and cattle in the pasture system had higher anti-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and total antibody responses on all diets. Overall, effects of omega-3 supplements on bovine immunity were influenced by feed management system with heightened impact on antibody production observed with a pasture system.
A double-blind placebo-controlled, randomized crossover clinical trial involving 30 healthy adults was conducted to examine impacts of β2-1 fructans on immunity. Subjects consumed an oligofructose-enriched inulin or maltodextrin supplement for a 28-day period (5 g, 3× daily with meals). β2-1 fructan supplementation significantly increased serum endotoxin and IL-4 concentrations, circulating percentages of CD282+/TLR2+ myeloid Dendritic cells (mDC) and ex vivo responsiveness to a Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) agonist, while serum IL-10 concentrations decreased.
A rat trial was designed to examine effects of a HE diet supplemented with varied DFM (7% wheat bran, oat bran, resistant starch type II, or fructooligosaccharide (FOS)) on obesity-associated biomarkers in male Sprague-Dawley rats. After 2 weeks of HE diet consumption, rats were segregated into obese-prone and obese-resistant phenotypes and shifted to DFM-supplemented HE diets for an additional 11-12 weeks. Obese-prone rats had higher serum insulin and leptin concentrations than obese-resistant rats. FOS-fed rats had decreased splenic percentages of B cells, natural killer cells, T lymphocytes, memory T cells and cytotoxic T cells compared to rats on the control diet. High-energy diets had differential impacts on systemic and mucosal cytokines in both phenotypes; however, DFM had relatively less influence on cytokine and adipokine profiles associated with diet-induced obesity. Taken together, dietary interventions are capable of subtly influencing varied immune outcomes in animal models and in human subjects, however the interpretation of these dietary influences may be context-dependent.


title: Development of active trailer steering systems for pickup truck-trailer combinations

contributor:
El-Gindy, Moustafa
Ren, Jing

subject:
Articulated vehicles
Active trailer steering systems
LQR
Robust control
H-infinity

abstract: Lateral dynamics of articulated vehicles continue to remain a subject of concern in the design of safety systems. Vehicle-trailer combinations tend to exhibit low lateral stability and poor maneuverability, especially under high-speed maneuvers, which lead to unstable motion modes such as jackknifing, trailer sway and rollover. Active safety systems such as Active Trailer Steering (ATS) have been widely studied to address these issues and ensure the safety of combination vehicles. Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is a popular control technique to design ATS systems. Although this technique has demonstrated consistent results, this controller is not effective in the presence of parametric uncertainties. Therefore, a robust control strategy is proposed to improve the overall dynamic performance of the system. This research focuses on designing an ATS system for pickup truck and tandem-axle trailer combinations using the LQR and robust H-infinity (H1) control techniques. Numerical simulations are carried out using TruckSim and MATLAB/Simulink software packages, and the results are analyzed under high-speed performance measures.


title: The associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour and anxiety in post-secondary students

subject:
Anxiety
Aerobic physical activity
Muscular strength
Exercise
Post-secondary

abstract:
Introduction: The prevalence of anxiety is high in post-secondary students and most do not meet recommended physical activity levels. It is hypothesized that low levels of physical activity may be associated with anxiety in post-secondary students.
Purpose: To determine whether physical activity and sedentary behaviour are associated with symptoms of anxiety in post-secondary students.
Methods: Systematic review of the literature and cross-sectional study of undergraduate students in two Faculties at University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Results: The systematic review provides inconclusive evidence for the association between physical activity, sedentary behaviour and anxiety. The cross-sectional study suggests that muscular strengthening is associated with anxiety in the Faculty of Health Sciences and that aerobic physical activity is associated with anxiety in the Faculty of Education. No association was found between sedentary behaviour and anxiety.
Conclusion: Physical activity is associated with anxiety in post-secondary students. More research is required to understand causal relationships of this association.


title: Machine learning classification techniques for non-intrusive load monitoring

subject:
Machine learning
Non-intrusive load monitoring
Co-testing

abstract:
Non-intrusive load monitoring is the concept of determining the operational loads using
single-point sensing. The features contained within the electrical load’s signal are used to identify
a unique signature which is used by a machine learning classifier to automate the load
identification process. In this thesis, existing machine learning classification techniques are
reviewed within the context of the non-intrusive load monitoring application. A non-intrusive load
monitoring algorithm is developed in this to extract the prominent hidden features contained within
the electrical load’s signal which helps identify the operation of different appliances from a single
point of an electrical circuit. Decision tree and Naïve Bayes classifiers are used as the machine
learning classification technique to automate the load classification process. The co-testing of
machine learning classifiers was introduced in this work to improve the classification accuracy of
previously seen methods when applying the one-against-the-rest testing approach. When the
proposed NILM algorithm was applied to a real test system, a classification accuracy of 99.61%
for decision tree and 99.38% for Naïve Bayes was obtained. When compared to previous methods
in literature utilizing one-against-the-rest testing approach, a classification accuracy of 76.31% for
decision tree and 67.44% for Naïve Bayes was obtained. The results demonstrate the effectiveness
of the proposed non-intrusive load monitoring approach through the notable significant increase
in the observed classification accuracies.


title: Simulation of voltage source converter based shunt active filter in EMTP‐RV

subject:
Shunt active filter (SAF)
Voltage source converter (VSC)
Instantaneous p-q control theory

abstract:
The deterioration in power quality due to the increase in non linear loads has sparked a new interest
in the filtering techniques used in transmission and distribution systems. Unlike passive filters, active
filters are adaptable to rapidly changing source impedance and provide the necessary harmonic
compensation for varying non-linear loads.
This thesis models a Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based shunt active filter (SAF) to filter
harmonics due to large non linear loads. SAF compensates the harmonics by injecting a compensating
current which is equal in magnitude but opposite in phase to the disturbance in the system.
The power circuit of this SAF consists of a three-phase VSC and the switching signals for this
converter is generated by hysteresis based current modulation method. The controller uses the
sinusoidal current control strategy of the generalized instantaneous p-q control theory to calculate
the reference compensating current.
Proposed SAF is simulated using EMTP-RV simulation package under steady state and dynamic
conditions and its effectiveness in mitigating harmonics is tested. The stability and response
of the SAF is also tested satisfactorily under transient load and severe AC / DC fault conditions.


title: Exploring the health of university undergraduate students in relation to housing accommodations

subject: Health Housing Respiratory Gastrointestinal Dermatological

abstract:
This thesis examines the links between type of housing and health of university undergraduate students (n=213) at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (University of Ontario Institute of Technology). Housing was classified into three categories of housing accommodations: at home with their families, on-campus residences, and off-campus housing.
A self-administered health questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this research. The research objectives include: 1) to assess the environmental and personal lifestyle exposures of University of Ontario Institute of Technology undergraduate students, in relation to the three different types of housing accommodations; 2) to assess the general health of University of Ontario Institute of Technology undergraduate students, with a focus on respiratory, gastrointestinal, and dermatological health; and 3) to examine predictors of related health outcomes.
Guided by the Population Health Framework, the health questionnaire collected data related to the students’ physical environments, social environments, genetic endowment, individual and behavioral responses, health and function, and health care.
Results indicate that most participants live at home with their families. Students living at home reported higher stress levels compared to those living in an on-campus residence building. The prevalence of the studied symptoms are as follows: fair or poor self-rated health (10.8%), respiratory related illness (35.7%), nausea and vomiting (37.6%), and skin irritations (42.3%). Results suggest there are no significant differences in health based on type of housing accommodation.