Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The dissertation explores Seongsu-dong's hot-place syndrome or the retail gentrification phenomenon in relation to the global urban phenomenon of Brooklyn syndrome, focusing on its retail gentrification aesthetic and its social and cultural meanings. In doing so, the dissertation questions the tendencies within Korean journalism that explain the concept of hipster to explain the hot-place phenomenon as well as studies of gentrification that employ Bourdieu's theory of taste and distinction to comprehend retail gentrification cases. As an alternative, I attempt to rethink retail space design from the realm of taste to the dimension of cultural production, analyzing Seongsu-dong's hot-place aesthetic using Bourdieu's theoretical framework of the field of cultural production. Both archival and empirical data are utilized to examine the topic. The analysis begins by applying the field theory to the hot-place phenomenon, thus deriving the social and cultural meanings of Seongsu-dong's retail space aesthetic in the relationship and interaction between the designers of the retail spaces and their products. The focus then moves to the relationship and interaction between hot-places and the captured and filtered images of the hot-places reproduced in virtual space, deriving the meaning of the hot-place aesthetic under the influence of digital media in present-day hybrid reality. Finally, by analyzing the media representation of the global Brooklyn phenomenon, the dissertation will address the transnational meaning of Seongsu-dong's retail aesthetic.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Arts and Sciences: Philosophy

This dissertation has several key components. First, I argue that the dispositional model of aesthetic properties is the most viable form of aesthetic realism. I explain that it is able to effectively balance the subjective and objective characteristics of aesthetic properties. I go on to argue that the most naturalistically viable form of dispositionalism is perceptual objectivism. Next, I synthesize the work of Frank Sibley and Jerrold Levinson and develop a fuller account of perceptual objectivism. In chapter 2, I argue that perceptual objectivism has two crucial features: (1) a dispositional realist model of aesthetic properties (which I call the perceptual model) and (2) the descriptive analysis of aesthetic properties. The descriptive analysis of aesthetic properties is the most controversial—and the most important—part of perceptual objectivism. Because of this, the bulk of the dissertation is devoted to defending the descriptive account from a philosophical and an empirical perspective. It is fairly unusual to treat aesthetic properties as fundamentally descriptive; indeed, it is why perceptual objectivism might be considered a revisionist theory of aesthetic properties. A key component of this view is something I call the separability thesis. The thesis contends that evaluative reactions to aesthetic properties can be separated from the objective, perceptual content of an aesthetic experience thereby leaving us with the non-evaluative core of the aesthetic property. As I outline in chapter 5, garishness is a good case study. The descriptive content creates the boundary of the concept. Many would agree that garishness is an unpleasant feature of an object. A garish carpet, for example, might cause one to experience genuine aesthetic displeasure. This displeasure, however, does not constitute the property. A `garish' object is characterized by bright, clashing colors. The fact that we can consistently apply and understand `garish' sugges (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2015, Computer Science (Engineering and Technology)

The usability of smartphone software presents unique challenges as compared to desktop software. Both aesthetics and functionality play an important role in mobile interface design. In this paper, we examined the usability of the iOS Touch ID feature with different user prompts. We compared three different types of user prompt designs for the touch ID feature, including a user prompt with no guidance (NG), a user prompt with aesthetic-first guidance design (AF), and a user prompt with functionality-first guidance design (FF). An experiment with 30 participants showed an improvement for 90% of them when using the FF prompt for the fingerprint inputs, as compared to when using the AF prompt. Additionally, the fingerprint inputs were improved for all participants using the FF prompt as compared to the NG prompt. We concluded that user prompt designs do have a material impact on the usability of mobile software, and that functionality rather than aesthetics should be the primary consideration in user prompt design.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Arts and Sciences: Philosophy

In this dissertation, I examine how ethical and aesthetic considerations interact and should interact. This, I believe, can usefully be tackled contextually, i.e., on a case-bycase basis. I attempt to demonstrate the worthwhileness of this approach by using it to throw light on the value and disvalue of beautification and adornment, and on the interaction of ethics and aesthetics in disturbing art. Upshots that emerge from my discussion will be that social background conditions often influence the meanings, in addition to the actual and likely consequences, of aesthetic practices; different aesthetic domains afford different types of interactions between ethics and aesthetics; and it is, pace some philosophers of art, valuable to examine diachronic and indirect interactions between ethics and aesthetics.

Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2024, Media Arts and Studies

Aesthetic trends have been rising in popularity amongst Gen Z young women online, promoting different personas and self-categorization consisting of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, color palettes, music taste, and personality. These trends are fleeting, and tend to manifest on social media platforms, namely Instagram and TikTok. Though there is some sincerity and fun behind these trends, there is also an underlying tie to consumerism, which women have been historically targeted by. This project presents outlooks of undergraduate young women and an expert in the field to explore the affects these trends may have on sense of self, as well as consumption habits. The general consensus to the popularity of aesthetic trends is an attribution to influencer culture and the need to fit in. Following discussions about this phenomenon, interviewees reflected on its unsustainable and unrealistic nature, and suggested that women should be seen as multifaceted. They encouraged the need to take inspiration from trending aesthetics while maintaining a sense of self and uniqueness.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, American Culture Studies

This dissertation utilizes the videographic essay method to visually analyze the queer aesthetic that distinguishes certain American film and television programs in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The salient features of the queer aesthetic, which includes strategies ranging from lighthearted farcical camp to intense graphic violence, emerged as a critical response to homophobic depictions in mainstream Hollywood horror films of the 1980s and early 1990s and as an aesthetic expression of social protests by queer activists of the time. The empowerment of proudly claiming queer identity led to the development of the independent New Queer Cinema movement. I examine the visual techniques utilized in this politicized film movement to illustrate how queer filmmakers incorporated visual tropes from the horror film genre to convey the terror of the AIDS epidemic as well as ongoing political repression and violent homophobia. To illuminate the notable features of the aesthetic that coalesced in New Queer Cinema films, I analyze the films of gay filmmaker Gregg Araki, who is known for combining stylized camp and violence with tropes of the horror genre. This study shows how queer filmmakers subsequently began to incorporate the queer aesthetic into contemporary horror films and television productions. I closely examine Ryan Murphy's application of the queer aesthetic in his television series American Horror Story following the queering of the horror tropes in the New Queer Cinema films. Mobilizing moving images and sound in analyses makes it possible to demonstrate aesthetic choices in ways that are not possible in a traditional written dissertation, even one featuring still images. By using videographic essays, the dissertation concretely illustrates the evolution of the queer aesthetic and how it has merged in some instances with horror genre conventions. This dissertation also illuminates the increasingly nuanced depiction of queer identities wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 0, Psychology - Experimental

Adkins and Norman (2016) measured participant aesthetic preference of snowflakes as a function of snowflake complexity. Their findings suggested a linear relationship between complexity and aesthetic preference, contrary to some previous literature (Berlyne, 1968). However, the study did not include snowflakes with real inner details intact to compare results between silhouette and real snowflakes. We replicated their study and included a second set of stimuli consisting of the original snowflake photographs from which the silhouettes were generated, as well as several individual difference measures. The results indicate that when inner detail is included with the snowflakes, aesthetic preference forms a curvilinear, inverted U shaped relationship with complexity. Additionally, linear regression analyses suggest a significant positive association between Need for Cognition and complexity in both silhouette and inner detail conditions. These results show that the relationship between snowflake complexity and aesthetic preference is contingent upon unexplored factors. In a second study, participants were shown the snowflake stimuli sequentially, making judgments of subjective complexity, interestingness, and pleasingness for each snowflake. The results indicated that inner detail snowflakes were perceived as significantly more complex than silhouette snowflakes. Quadratic regression analyses found a significant curvilinear relationship between objective and subjective complexity ratings in both snowflake conditions. While objective complexity retained some effect in the inner detail condition, the results suggest a need for a more generalizable technique for measuring the complexity of snowflakes.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

Regardless of an increasing interest in the field of aesthetic theories in architecture, most of these studies are dealing with conceptual theories of aesthetic. Thus, less attention has been paid to the formal aesthetic theories of architecture. Historically, there are two major trends in formal aesthetic theories: objectivity and subjectivity. However, none of these two theories can successfully explain the paradox in the results of empirical studies in the field of aesthetic in the last few decades. A third theory has been introduced by Pierre Bourdieu which could explain the contradictory results. Bourdieu introduces the concept of “habitus,” which could shape the individual's and groups' preferences. This theory argues that aesthetic preferences are neither inherited in the object (objective), nor a matter of personal preferences (subjective), but it is a sociological phenomenon. Inspired by the work of Bourdieu, Garry Stevens, conducted an in-depth analysis on the role played by architectural schools in (re)producing habitus. Stevens uses the term “architectural habitus,” in reference to the role of habitus in the field of architecture. Stevens argues that the “architectural habitus,” (re)produced and celebrated by architectural schools, is to have a distinct architectural style. However, Steven's analysis relies on secondary data, and therefore contributes to the development of a new study using primary data. Therefore, this research looked at the University of Cincinnati (UC)'s architecture school as an example to examine the “architectural habitus” of distinct architectural taste using primary data. This research studied the aesthetic preferences of two groups of individuals: those who have extensive academic training in architecture, and thus, acquired “architectural habitus,” and those who did not. The former is represented by Higher-level (HL) in the Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BSA) program, and the latter is represented by Bachelor of Business (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2015, Curriculum and Instruction

The concept of artistry in teaching is not new, however, the importance of reevaluating artistry in teaching may be of value in light of a societal focus on the anaesthetic features of positivism under the auspices of standardization and accountability. The purpose of this study was to discover the connections between teaching as artistic expression and learning as aesthetic experience from the perspective of current in-service teachers. Through interviews, observations, and artifacts such as teacher reflections and photographs, a preliminary understanding of artistic teachers' lived experiences was gained and the essence of these artistic teachers encounters with phenomenon was drawn out to create models of the art of teaching to better understand teachers' philosophical orientations. The guiding questions for this study included: In what ways did teachers conceive teaching as artistic expression? In what ways did teachers conceive learning as aesthetic experience? In what ways did teachers conceive the connections between teaching as artistic expression and learning as aesthetic experience?

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2014, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

As Maurice Merleau-Ponty pointed out, a work of art allows us to explore our sense for meaning in the world. It not only allows us to translate our perceptions, but it allows our perceptions to speak to us through what he called a “respiration in being” (Merleau-Ponty, 1964). In this process of respiration, artists and artful public administrators alike are inspired by what they see, and expire that which is seen (Merleau-Ponty, 1964). This research suggests that what Merleau-Ponty described is an element of the aesthetic experience that enables a person to explore the world and what it means to be in it. After Dwight Waldo argued that all ways of knowing are value laden in the field of public administration, he left the field without a prescribed way to know, and this is a problem, given that public administrators are often required to act while in a crisis. If public administrators lack a form of inquiry to understand the world, then how are they to act? This dissertation asks whether administrators, in fact, base their administrative discretion on aesthetic judgment and what they find pleasing or displeasing, their taste (Kant, 2001), to discern what to do and which type of understanding to employ (Arendt, 1992; Hummel, 2006; Stivers, 2011). Through a set of phenomenological interviews the dissertation attempts to access, or pull on the understanding(s) of artists, artful administrators, and hybrids, to better understand administrative discretion by examining the aesthetic experience more deeply and hopefully contribute to how we think about the role of the expert in public administration.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Philosophy (Arts and Sciences)

This is a critical examination of several theories concerning the relationship between moral content and aesthetic value. It concentrates on the questions of how, if, and when the moral content may affect the aesthetic value of an artwork. The arguments are narrowly tailored by focusing the assessments on four theories—radical autonomism, radical moralism, moderate autonomism, and moderate moralism. The assessments and critiques are based on the work of philosopher Noel Carroll, and those who stand in opposition to his position of moderate moralism. Moderate moralism is not without philosophical gaps when scrutinized; nonetheless, it offers great insight into the intimate relationship between morality and the conferral of value upon artworks.

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Music Composition

Beyond its integral function in children's media, music has the potential to enhance the emotional literacy of young viewers. While many studies have explored the benefits of incorporating music in educational programming, its role in promoting emotional literacy within contemporary children's television and streaming shows has not been extensively examined. This document addresses this gap by analyzing the musical approaches in three children's television shows: Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! (1996 - 2004), PBS's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (2012 - present), and YouTube Kids' Doggyland (2022 - present). Using Patrik Juslin's BRECVEMA framework – which stands for brainstem reflex, rhythmic entrainment, evaluative conditioning, contagion, visual imagery, episodic memory, musical expectancy, and aesthetic judgement – to explain the causality of emotions, this analysis reveals compositional considerations contributing to the shows' literacy-enhancing effects. Furthermore, this document examines how music in these shows promotes speech prosody and supports emotional self-regulation. The findings offer valuable insights for children's media composers by employing evidence-based strategies to improve young viewers' emotional literacy through music. Future research should explore empirical studies considering BRECVEMA mechanisms in children's media.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

This dissertation considers the relations between time, narrative, and autism. Chapter 0 introduces a kinship model of autism and describes “aesthetic kinship,” the phenomenon of autistic readers recognizing fictional characters as autistic. Chapter 1 describes the eponymous theory of kakokairos, unpacking the contours of neurodivergent temporalities through analysis of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 and Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life. Chapter 2 describes the theory and method of “time maps,” the graphs which are produced by graphing a narrative's fabula against its syuzhet. Chapter 3 is a preliminary analysis of fifteen interviews with autistic adults about their experiences of time in narratives.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

This critical study is an inquiry into the role of form as text and instrument and how form can be read. I approach form as independent in and of itself and as being embedded within the whole structure (social, historical, political) of its framing contexts. My theoretical framework is rooted in the Frankfurt School tradition and, in particular, Alexander Kluge and his co-theorist Oskar Negt, Theodor Adorno, Siegfried Kracauer, and Miriam Hansen's critical concepts. I combine Kracauer's theories of self-alienation and philosophy of history with Kluge's principle of montage/network, his thinking in Geschichte und Eigensinn, and the idea of “the poetic power of theory.” These theories ground my close analyses of the films in which decontextualized reading of the texts is a central thread. The main argument of this thesis is that form and structure can be instrumentalized to influence spectatorial experience, shape public memory, and reconstruct historical knowledge. I examine four films: Michael Haneke's Benny's Video (1992) and The White Ribbon (2009); Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants (1987); and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989). By attending to light, blood, corpse as intensified concretion and abstraction in the context of “after Auschwitz,” these films, I argue, aided by form and formalization, allow space for dialectical critiques and critical counter-histories.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Environmental Studies

The contemporary age suffers from a state of cynicism and inertia in light of climate change and seemingly inescapable global capitalism. This project departs from the theory and creative work of William Morris, a 19th century artist, designer, and revolutionary socialist, in conceiving of a socialist aestheticism—an aestheticism that acknowledges the creative labor behind art-making and the imaginative limitations of creating "true art" under capitalism. This is done through an analysis of Morris's involvement with the socialist periodical "The Commonweal" and his subseqeunt creative, utopian project the Kelmscott Press. The value of utopianism and creative labor is then applied to the state of contemporary art and the climate change crisis. Finally, there is a reflection on "Realized Utopias," an art exhibition I created on the subjects of this discussion through a creative praxis process.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

My dissertation deals with the philosophical meaning of cultural identity of modern Chinese artists and filmmakers. This study aims to explore the internal relationship between the self and the other in visual cultures through a philosophical lens and demonstrate how cultural identity refashions and brings new vitality to the continuing cultural interactions in both the temporal and spatial dimensions. This study looks into early twentieth-century Chinese visual culture as a specific example to examine: (1) its connection to contemporary Chinese culture by analyzing experimentality in three Chinese films diachronically, and (2) the relationship to the Western avant-garde ideas in the early twentieth century synchronically. First, I aim to find out the reason behind the Chinese contemporary intellectuals' interest in narrating the cultural figures of the early twentieth-century China, as well as the philosophical functions of the cultural images in contemporary Chinese Sinophone films. I contend that the historical figures and images of the early twentieth-century China reflected in the contemporary Sinophone films shed light on understanding the spirit of the self as an aesthetic ideal and generate a space to retrieve and signify cultural identity, deepening the meaning of the self as well as illuminating the tension between the self and the other in the diachronic frame of culture. Second, I draw a visual and philosophical comparison between the artworks of the Storm Society artists and the contemporaneous Western avant-garde in the early twentieth century, through a synchronic approach. The Storm Society plays an essential role and represents a turning point of cultural identity in modern Chinese art but is regrettably underrepresented in scholarly discourse. My research fills this lacuna by a philosophical analysis of cross-cultural connections between the modern Chinese artworks and Western avant-garde. Focusing on the artworks of Pang Xunqin and other related a (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Organizational Behavior

Interorganizational project structures, typified in the construction industry, are highly equivocal and interdependent contexts that require coordination amid pervasive conflict. Although organizations are typically considered the unit of analysis in interorganizational coordination, it is the individual organizational representatives who are responsible for the ‘on the ground' coordinative efforts. In a two-year-long ethnography of an interorganizational construction project, I explored how individual organizational representatives used artifacts and their associated sensate experience to manage conflict and resolve felt tension in order to coordinate. The theorized process model I developed shows how the most productive interactions among organizational representatives involved creating an artifactual experience, comprising interaction with an artifact that evoked a meaningful aesthetic experience. In project team meetings, organizational representatives would use artifacts such as building plans, models, and prototypes to create an artifactual interaction comprising four interactive dimensions of revealing, engaging with, commentating on, and proximally positioning to the artifact. In so doing, the bodily senses of the organizational representatives were engaged in an aesthetic experience. Through the synchrony in attention and shared aesthetic experience, project team members experienced increases in collective energy that cut through the felt tension that would emerge in team meetings. Rather than resolving interorganizational conflicts, the collective energy helped project team members to co-construct a salient line of discourse for the team, which took the form of a decision or provisional agreement that became the next concrete step in a path forward. My findings on experience-as-coordination-mechanism suggest that embodied forms of knowledge such as felt tension, aesthetic experience, and collective energy are important for understanding interorganizational (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Theatre

While the past decade has seen a rapid increase in media visibility for transgender celebrities, it has not necessarily led to greater inclusion of transgender people within the United States' major performing arts institutions. The resulting increased awareness among the general public has reinforced the prevailing cultural narrative that the transgender community is a newly emerging population. The theatre has contributed to this perception, framing trans narratives as novel and “trending,” which perpetuates what ethnographer Andre Calvacante calls the ideology of transgender impossibility. This dissertation challenges the theatre industry's ideology of transgender impossibility by tracing the artistic and political origins of contemporary transgender performance and by illuminating the ways in which such an ideology obscures the history and distinct aesthetics of trans artists. Using interviews and what LGBTQ theatre historian Sean F. Edgecomb terms lateral historiography, this project locates transgender performance and aesthetic practices within communities practicing queer solo performance, the theatrical jazz aesthetic, and spoken word poetry. Building upon these varied queer legacies, transgender performers have developed a particular set of aesthetic practices and dramaturgical strategies based in embodied experience, queer time/transtemporality, disidentification, and community-building. The exploration of trans aesthetics here examines performance strategies which trouble the actor-spectator relationship through the lenses of Rebecca Schneider's explicit body performance, Jack Halberstam's transgender gaze, and accountable audience participation. The project closes with an illustration of how the ideology of transgender impossibility—as a function of the cis white gaze—operates within theatrical spaces, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization and delegitimization of trans aesthetics, histories, voices, and experiences.

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The notion of transformable facades suggests an unconventional design thinking in which both the building exterior's configuration and functionality changes interchangeably between varied real-time environmental conditions. As ideas such as energy efficient design, performance driven design, and sustainable design progressively influence more architects, adaptive kinetic building facade systems prove to be an ideal tool to actualize these environment oriented design objectives. Furthermore, an intelligent multifunctional building facade system also provides building users improved indoor comfort level and contributes to sculpting a visually attractive dynamic building facade. For decades, modern technologies have played a major role in contemporary upscaling climate change. Sleek contemporary urban glass office high-rises pose subtle yet growing risks to the urban environment and worsen the urban habitat. However, evolving technologies can also become an effective tool to combat environmental challenges. This research attempts to find innovative kinetic facade design solutions which contribute to mitigating urban glass office high-rises' negative environmental effects. Then, the design proposals will be evaluated in terms of indoor lighting performance and the building facade's visual impact on the immediate surrounding context. Overall, this thesis explores retrofitting an existing office high-rise with modular kinetic facade systems and speculates the possibility of embedding kinetic components into future office high-rise designs. In P1, the research methodology starts with precedent case studies where the study concentrates on extracting applicable kinetic concepts and components from each precedent. In P2, experimental modular kinetic facade systems are generated with overarching design goals, which aim to block undesirable sunlight while continuing to admit sufficient daylight and create visually dynamic building facades. The proposed modular kinetic f (open full item for complete abstract)

MFIS, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Afrofuturism is a cultural and aesthetic movement within the African Diaspora that draws on the present and historical experiences of Black people and reimagines a future filtered through a Black cultural lens. There has been a growing number of fashion creatives and enthusiasts throughout the African Diaspora who are adopting this aesthetic in order to celebrate Black culture and identity. However, the role of Africa in Afrofuturism continues to be debated as many believe the term to be inherently centered on Black American experiences and cultures and not necessarily on the African experience. The purpose of this research is to explore the connection between Afrofuturism, fashion, and cultural identity in the African Diaspora. A qualitative approach using interviews and an arts-based creative online collage exercise was used to uncover the role and signification of cultural identity in the Afrofuturistic expressions of West Africans in Africa, West Africans living in America (Diasporic Africans) and African Americans. Because fashion has been likened to a form of symbolic language, this study also aims to uncover the “codes” involved in each group's communication of their cultural identities. Through the data gathered, a 3- look capsule collection was created to represent a visual summary of the views of each group on Afrofuturistic fashion expressions.