My work explores the intersection among the healing properties of textiles, color, and herbs. Through scent, sight, and touch, the combination of the three gives added functionality to the cloth by drawing on nostalgic feelings of care and comfort. The cloth nurtures the body, mind, and spirit. I infuse this ability into the textiles by using herbs and spices to dye my yarn. I then weave this into a large, thick, warm cloth that has pockets stuffed with dried herbs and spices. This creates a blanketing cloth that is comforting, healing, and protecting.

After 6 months of collecting stories and conducting interviews about menstruation, I wrote and devised a one-act play all about these diverse, comedic, political, heartwarming, and unifying stories. All of them are based on true stories and should shock and motivate the audience for change. It was 2 days shy of opening as a full production in Spring 2020 before the university shut down due to COVID-19, and after some revisions after a year of personal and societal contemplations of justice, it will finally have a staged reading this spring.

Pierre Loti incorporates Christian subtexts throughout his 1886 novel Pêcheur d’Islande. The symbolic representation of Christian figures and imagery helps both to reflect and foreshadow plot points as well as the events and emotions experienced by the characters. This subtext allows for an understanding of the characters’ suffering by comparing them and plot points to Christian figures and biblical events, adding another layer of meaning to their characterizations. Loti also argues for larger ideas through his imagery, such as the ethicality of the draft. The overall effect of this style allows the reader to connect more deeply with the characters and plot, in addition to creating broader ideas and perspectives on events in the novel and their applications in the real world.

In my research, I aim to critique the motives of artists’ use of landscape as a medium during the 1960’s Land Art Movement. Examining several works through an ecosemiotic lens, we see that Land Art can signify the relationship a modern human has to the Earth. While often inevitably symptomatic of the Western ideology from which it was born, many works of Land Art mimic Animistic monuments and practices. The question is whether the work is successful in its attempt to reestablish human attention and connection to the natural world, or if it is an expression of empty spirituality. In a time of increasing environmental crisis, it is important to examine whether a human mark on the land is disruptive or replenishing.

When walking around campus, students are bombarded with information at every turn. There are multiple signs for clubs, flyers on public health, and screens with event information. It is easy for infographics on a wall to be discarded due to poor design. To make sense of this abundance of information, students typically focus on the clearest or most appealing information sources. When not properly thought through, information designs may become busy and confusing. The solution is to focus on the user and tailoring the design to fit those users. By looking at key details in the design, readability and interest can be expanded to offer a clearer and more recognizable final product. Color, typography, and composition are all important considerations when going through the design process. In this project, we wanted to see how each detail of the design affected the user response. Multiple information designs were made, with each either succeeding or failing in each of the three design principles. By allowing users to provide feedback, we were able to prove the importance of the principles and their role in well thought out design. This primary
research is encouraging in support of this idea. However, more research and a larger sample size that is more representative of the general population will be necessary for the future to further decide the effectiveness of the design principles.

A pioneer of American interior decoration, Elsie de Wolfe (1859 - 1950) embodied modernity: cultural, intellectual, and professional. From her earliest days in the theatre to her later career as a professional tastemaker, socialite, and decorator, de Wolfe was a radical figure in her society. This paper will argue that de Wolfe’s successes were made possible by performances of her identity. She created an aestheticized world around herself that was beguiling to others, transportable, and available for purchase. De Wolfe established many of the principles of 20th-century American interior design practice, and her legacy echoes into the present. Using the lens of Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” (Against Interpretation, 1966), this paper proposes a revisionist and expansive
reading of de Wolfe’s radical legacy.

The Devil’s Trill sonata is renowned for both its intense difficulty and infamous legend. The composer, Giuseppe Tartini, dreamt one night that the devil was sitting at the end of his bed, playing a beautifully elaborate sonata. Tartini composed the Devil’s Trill as an attempt to recall the music. There are many factors in Giuseppe Tartini’s life that may have influenced this significant dream, including religious pressure and familial tension. Tartini composed this sonata with deliberate intent to sound beautiful and virtuosic. The concept of the devil being depicted with sympathy, instead of as a symbol of evil, was an artistic concept of the Enlightenment. This paper explores how social, religious, and artistic elements of the time influenced Tartini’s inspiration for creating the Devil’s Trill.

It is unknown how long it takes a plastic bag to decompose. It could take anywhere from a decade to a thousand years. Plastic bags photodegrade, which means they need sunlight in order to break down. However, most modern landfills are covered, blocking sunlight, so plastic bags in landfills may never photodegrade at all. This is why recycling plastic bags is so important. Through my research on recycling at Kent State University, I discovered that not only is there a lack of a system for recycling plastic bags, but that
the current labels on trash cans direct people to throw away plastic bags. My goal is to implement a system for recycling plastic bags at Kent State University. Through my visual and secondary research, I have created a plan for an informational advertising campaign, titled KSU Bags to Benches, that will raise awareness for
plastic bag recycling on campus as well as implement a system for recycling plastic bags on campus, therefore, reducing waste. To implement plastic bag recycling on campus, my goal is to have Kent State University work with Trex; a company that works with communities and universities to collect plastic bags and will donate a high-performance composite bench to the school.

Academic makerspaces, such as Kent State’s Design Innovation Hub, are increasingly becoming popular as the world embraces technological innovation. As the world prioritizes teamwork, universities are embracing cross disciplinary collaboration between students of different majors and interests. Thirty universities, including Kent State University, and their academic makerspace programs have been thoroughly researched. Each academic makerspace program has been placed into one of three categories: College-Based, Multi-Unit, and Stand Alone. Based upon these makerspaces and the university's goal for the makerspace, the metrics that make a makerspace strategy successful will be determined.