MASTER`S THESES

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[4 KB]	The Screen as Boundary Object in the Realm of Imagination (2009) Ph.D. Dissertation by Hyun-Jean Lee Expected defense: May 2009 PDF file will be available soon.
[4 KB]	Emboding Comics: Reinventing Comics and Animation for a Digital Performance. (2009) Ph.D. Dissertation by Ozge Samanci Expected defense: August 2009 PDF file will be available soon.
[4 KB]	Intentionality and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hermeneutic Circle: Expressive Intentional System and Design (2009) Ph.D. Dissertation by Jichen Zhu Expected defense: August 2009 PDF file will be available soon.
[4 KB]	Strip Mall Ethnography (2009) Master`s project by Adam Rice Strip Mall Ethnography explores the dynamic creation of urban space with a focus on strip malls. The extremely subjective nature of the project and its labeling as ethnography lends an ironic tension to the work. As a whole, Strip Mall Ethnography seeks to document one person's perspective within Atlanta strip malls and to provoke critical investigation of the tools we use to represent and engage urban spaces and so-called objective data online.
[4 KB]	Representations of the City in Video Games (2009) Master`s project by Bobby Schweizer In 1960, urban studies author Kevin Lynch recognized that “moving elements in a city, and in particular the people and their activities, are as important as the stationary physical parts.” Three-dimensional video game cities are neither static environments nor stationary views; rather, they are experienced through movement, action, and play. Our experiences of new places are not developed at a glance. Instead, they are cultivated through use over time. This research strives to characterize the means by which video game players experience and understand the space of the game city during the course of play. This work utilizes games that take place in constructed versions of New York City as a case study. By focusing on the ways players navigate spaces, we can understand how they construct spatial awareness and how this space is transformed into a meaningful place of play. In order to come to this understanding, this study asks a series of questions: How are these spaces arranged? How does the player move through the space and how does the game teach spatial navigation? What actions are performed in the space and how is gameplay adapted for the city? How does the creation of narrative environments contribute to a player’s identification with the space? These questions are examined within a framework of urban, cultural, and game studies. I examine techniques that are employed by video game city designers to help players navigate space and make it meaningful. Additionally, this research poses areas for future expansion and experimentation with game cities.
[4 KB]	The Identity Share Project (2009) Master`s project by Daniel Upton While many social communities exist on the web, they generally consist solely of networks of friends, family, and co-workers. Those that do offer the ability to learn about or meet other people are either dating sites or forums based around a single interest. The Identity Share Project approaches the social network from a new angle, facilitating the sharing of identities with others outside of standard networks while not limiting the connections between strangers to a matched subset. Design Document
[4 KB]	Shiftbrowse (2009) Master`s project by Abhishek Gupta ShiftBrowse is a unique browser geared towards multi-tasking, that visualizes the smaller representations of all opened web pages called Shifters, in a hierarchical, intelligent tree map, instead of conventional tabs that are placed linearly on the tab-bar and used in almost all contemporary browsers including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. It also introduces the concept of a ShiftList - a current page centric tabbed navigation list, showing all parents and either siblings or children of the page depending on the existence of its children. This enables using tabs for quickly navigating to web pages that may be most relevant.
[8 MB]	Geographies of the Underworld: Chthonic Embodiment in Virtual Worlds (2008) Master`s thesis by Kathryn Fletcher Underworlds exist as “real� but imaginary places, whose landscapes, denizens and conventions are created and sustained through community consensus and history as well as invention by individuals. As spiritual spaces, they stand in contrast to the material world, but connect to it through interfaces, including the biological (such as shamen, or practitioners in ecstatic states) and the topographic (such as an explicit relationship with caves). Underworlds are virtual environments that predate digital technology. With this in mind, it should not be surprising that the underworld manifests in digital virtual environments as well. It emerges sporadically at a superficial level, influencing art direction, story and setting, but the more prevalent – and interesting – presence lies at a deeper level, where chthonic poetics operate at the core of world-based video games, particularly MMOs (massive multiplayer online games).
[4 KB]	Conflict Engine: Privileging Drama in Drama Management (2008) Master`s project by Micah Horvat Aristotle and Freytag identify conflict as a motivator of plot progression. The plot curve they describe refers to dramatic tension, an abstract quality correlated with conflict, or crises. It is difficult to imagine authorship or interpretation of dramatic narrative without an understanding of conflict. Existing interactive storytelling systems focus on simulating complex models of semiotics, physical spaces, and the mind, but do not consider conflict as a computational primitive. Conflict Engine represents conflict as a collection of conflict objects in a story world, tracks these objects through a plot progression, and compares them to a conflict curve representing the fluctuation of conflict through a plot, in order to render interactive drama.
[35 MB]	Fast Pitch Comics (2008) Master`s project by Gray Gunter My motivation for this project comes from this deep love of sequential art and a belief in the medium`s value in communication and storytelling. From personal experience I know how complex and arduous it can be for an individual to create a comic book, regardless of the work`s scale. Similarly, I have observed how difficult it can be for unpublished comic book creators to find collaborators on a project to share the burden of its production. For those who overcome these obstacles and create a complete work of sequential art there is still the considerable problem of publishing their work and having it be read by the public.
[4 KB]	Mechanics of Cooperative Social Environments in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay Games (2008) Master`s thesis by Christopher Langston This project proposes a framework of game mechanics under which players of competitive online games can develop complex social structures that directly impact the evolution of communities within the game space. While many AAA titles support both cooperative and competitive play, few have attempted to integrate these two aspects of play into a single experience. Instead, games operate competitively and cooperatively in parallel, maintaining a fairly strict distinction between the two modes of play. The mechanical framework presented here attempts to bridge the gap between competition and cooperation by providing an appealing play experience through construction of complex social structures. These structures are built and sustained through conflict between players, as well as cooperation between groups of varying size. By making it mechanically appealing to create complex social structures, the game world becomes a habitat within which real-world hierarchies and political structures can be adapted to exist as player-driven entities.
[7 MB]	Tagging for TV (2007) Master`s project by Angelique Lausier In recent years, television has developed from a limited set of shows constrained by a fixed time slot into a veritable viewer`s choice of channels, shows, and times. In addition, we have seen the rise of the complex episodic series that encourages replay. This increased complexity, however, has not been met with a more sophisticated solution for navigating shows. The Internet, however, has grown into a media-rich, customizable experience for users who have become familiar with the concept of tagging items with keywords to foster the organization of a network. Broadcast has begun to merge with broadband in many forms, but viewers still have little to help them navigate through a show. Tagging for TV brings tagging from the Internet to television as a social, viewer-generated means of organizing data.
[3 MB]	Murmur (2007) Master`s project by Aimee Rydarowski Today, increasingly varied modes of data representation, coupled with accessible technological resources have democratized the field of information visualization and opened computing to new user groups
[4 KB]	Virtual IKEA: Principles of Integrating Dynamic 2D Content in a 3D Virtual Environment (2007) Master`s project by Paul Amsbary IKEA.com, with a database of thousands of furniture items and customization options, is a rich environment in which to explore the interaction framework of a complex ecommerce experience. This project is a web-based application in which consumers are present in a real-time 3D environment. The project explores the design implications and intersections between rich media 2D and real-time 3D interactive environments. The design research examines how the choices in 3D virtual spaces are reflected and visualized in the 2D components of the application and how a user transitions between a 2D navigation structure integrated with or adjacent to, a 3D virtual environment. Virtual IKEA examines the assignment of directional value to navigation movement in the environment and the relationship of those assignments in different spaces of the application. Project explores a broad range of examples, including experiments in interactive television, console video games, websites, and emerging 3D platforms.
[2 MB]	Place and Digital Media (2006) Master`s thesis by Daniel Klainbaum As interactors we often allude to a sense of presence, of "being there" when experiencing interactive artifacts. Digital technologies can create a sense of presence within a synthetic environment, that of being in a technologically mediated space. As a result, ideas of space and place are fundamental to the use of digital media. Related metaphors pervade our language and use of technology; we explore virtual worlds, surf online, and chat in rooms.
[3 MB]	Generating Comics Narrative to Summarize Wearable Computer Data (2006) Master`s project by Jason Alderman As people record their entire lives to disk, they need ways of summarizing and making sense of all of this data. Comics (and visual language) are a largely untapped medium for summarization, as they are already subtractive and abstract by nature (the brain fills in the blanks and the details), and they provide a way to present a series of everyday events as a memorable narrative that is easily skimmed. This research builds upon the work of Microsoft, FX Palo Alto Labs, ATR Labs, and others to further ground the procedural generation in the comics theory of Scott McCloud, et al.
[6 MB]	Digital Storytelling Supporting Digital Literacy in Grades 4-12 (2005) Master`s thesis by Tom Banaszewski Digital storytelling, the practice of combining personal narrative with multimedia to produce a short autobiographical movie, continues to expand its creative uses in classrooms around the world. However, teaching the actual "story process" within digital storytelling presents several challenges for teachers as it demands a combination of creative writing, basic film conventions, visual and media literacy, as well as the technical facility with the technology. Digital storytelling presents a unique opportunity for students to acquire much more than new technology skills. It enables them to represent their voices in a manner rarely addressed by state and district curriculum while practicing the digital literacy skills that will be important to their 21st century futures.
[7 MB]	Interaction Design Principles for Interactive Television (2005) Master`s thesis by Karyn Lu Interactive television (iTV) is an umbrella term used to cover the convergence of television with digital media technologies such as computers, personal video recorders, game consoles, and mobile devices, enabling user interactivity. Increasingly, viewers are moving away from a "lean back" model of viewing to a more active "lean forward" one. When fully realized on a widespread scale in the United States, our current experience of watching television will be dramatically transformed. Because iTV is a new medium in its own right, however, standards for iTV programming and interaction in the United States remain undefined.
[5 MB]	Affective Dynamics in Responsive Media Spaces (2004) Master`s thesis by Wolfgang Reitberger In this thesis computer-mediated human interaction and human computer interaction in responsive spaces are discussed. Can such spaces be designed to create an affective response from the players? What are the design heuristics for a space that allows for the establishment of affective dynamics? I research the user experience of players of existing spaces built by the Topological Media Lab. In addition to that I review other relevant experimental interfaces, e.g. works by Myron Krueger and my own earlier piece Riviera in order to analyze their affective dynamics.
[1 MB]	Revealing Code: What Can Language Teach Software? (2004) Master`s thesis by Steven Hodges In the last twenty years, computer code has emerged from obscure beginnings to occupy a rather prominent place in our culture. We can see evidence of code`s cultural presence in our everyday conversation, in the way we interact with computers and networks, and in many current advertisements. Code also occupies an important place in the study of new media; some in that field have gone so far as to call code "the language of our time." My thesis aims to comprehend the dimensions of this important relationship.
[16 MB]	Miniature Gardens & Magic Crayons: Games, Spaces, & Worlds (2003) Master`s thesis by Chaim Gingold Discusses the structure, construction, and aesthetics of game worlds, branching possible worlds, point of view in games, and the design of Comic Book Dollhouse.
[3 MB]	Breaking Educational Paradigms (2002) Master`s thesis by David Durovy Design began with the first conscious decision of creation. While design adds utility, aesthetic value, and functionality to an object, mechanical, chemical, and material properties also function in the outcome. When examined as a finished product, the object is more than good looks, pretty colors, and smooth surfaces as a result of design. The object becomes usable and salable because of forces working beyond just the design - a greater cultural context fuels product perception. Advanced industrial design products succeed because of the marriage of the many disciplines involved in their creation.
[5 MB]	Computers, Communication, Collabration and Cognition (2002) Master`s thesis by Aditya Johri Every technological system is situated within a complex environment that determines how that technology is used. This thesis investigates one such system - The Global Classroom Project. The Global Classroom Project integrates online and traditional classes to provide students form Russia and US an opportunity to engage in cross-cultural digital communication.
[18 MB]	Bringing Community to the Holodeck (2001) Master`s thesis by David Mallon Building expressive narrative forms in digital media is a relatively new undertaking. Theories of discourse concerning digital narrative forms are also new, and they are evolving almost as fast as the media they hope to describe. As part of this evolution, this document surfaces some of the theoretical and practical implications for narrative forms in highly multi-user digital environments. Three current theoretical perspectives: Janet Murray`s theories of interactive narrative, Espen Aarseth`s concept of the cybertext, and Brenda Laurel`s research in mediated, interactive theatre, provide foundation for an analysis of the computer game EverQuest. EverQuest is most popular current example of a new genre of digital entertainment known as the Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG).
[15 MB]	Videogames of Opressed (2001) Master`s thesis by Gonzalo Frasca This thesis examines the potential of video games as a medium for fostering critical thinking and discussion about social and personal problems. This analysis focuses on simulation as a representational form, which unlike others such as narrative, creates models that not only display the characteristics of the source system, but also reproduce its behavior by means of a set of rules. Therefore, video games have the potential to represent reality not as a collection of images or texts, but as a dynamic system that can evolve and change.
[10 MB]	Collabrative Educational Strategies (2000) Master`s thesis by Christina Hess The CoWeb is a flexible, web-based teaching tool that allows students and instructors to communicate online and requires very little computer skills. My thesis investigates the degree to which the accessibility and flexibility of the CoWeb contribute to creating unique, course-based user communities in which participants are encouraged to learn through interaction with peers.
[8 MB]	Leveraging User Content in E-Commerce to Gain and Maintain Market Dominance (2000) Master`s thesis by Shelia Mahon As competition for loyal customers increases in electronic commerce, site owners are paying increasing attention to the use of user-generated content within e-commerce Web sites. While research has indicated that incorporating user content into a site can have a positive effect on the site`s overall success, we have little information about how or why this is the case. This thesis considers the interplay between user-generated content and the other factors contributing to the success of an e-commerce web site, including branding and Internet culture.
[8 MB]	The Potential Impact of the Internet Kiosk on Electronic Commerce (2000) Master`s thesis by Junko Sakaguchi-Inoue The U.S. Internet population is approaching half of the overall U.S. population. In only six years, the Web has diffused into our society and created a new digital paradigm. In terms of electronic commerce (EC), online sales to consumers are growing rapidly. "Doing business online" is now a necessity for business. Although online sales were estimated to be over $20 billion in 1999, the population of real online purchasers represents only 8% of the overall U.S. population. Some experts point out that the growth of EC might stall as catalog shopping did unless shopping environments and marketing strategies are improved. Development of new strategies to entice more of the population into EC is a must for the growth of EC.
[6 MB]	Applying New Media Theories to Understanding the Design of New Media Applications (2000) Master`s thesis by Kate Sutton This thesis examines the concept of agency; a mixture of opportunity and choice in interactivity, usability, and values (security/trust/privacy). This analysis focuses on a particular type of site (personal financial portals), the context in which these sites have developed the role of agency in design theories used to drive the development of the genre, and the user`s experiences using these sites. Portal sites, specifically those providing access to financial/personal data, are one genre of web application where the concept of agency is of particular interest.