The original reconstructed 1986 Barcelona Pavilion and the reproduction of authentic user experiences

O presente artigo refere-se a um estudo exploratório de revisão bibliográfica que teve como objetivo identificar diferentes acepções sobre os conceitos de criatividade e pensamento criativo, englobando o pensamento de alguns autores que se destacam nessa área de estudo, nomeadamente Ellis Paul Torrance (1976), Fayga Ostower (2013) e M. I. Majmutov (1983). Dentre as citadas abordagens encontramos algumas similaridades e outras diferenças, tendo em vista a posição e a área de estudo de cada um deles. Os estudos de Torrance abordam a criatividade do ponto de vista dos instrumentos, das medidas, dos testes e das avaliações, enfatizando, aspectos relativos às características e à potencialização do pensamento criativo nos indivíduos. A abordagem de Ostower busca identificar a relação entre os conceitos de criatividade e processos criativos em sua relação com a experiência vital dos indivíduos. Os estudos de Majmutov apresentam a criatividade como o ponto mais alto do desenvolvimento cognitivo do indivíduo, destacando o processo de ensino problematizador como um fator primordial no desenvolvimento desse tipo de pensamento.

Introduction The exhibition of an artist’s work is traditionally accepted as representing the final stage of the creative process (Staniszewski). This article asks, however, whether this traditional view can be reassessed so that the curatorial practice of mounting an exhibition becomes, itself, a creative outcome feeding into work that may still be in progress, and that simultaneously operates as a learning and teaching tool. To provide a preliminary examination of the issue, we use a single case study approach, taking an example of practice currently used at an Australian university. In this program, internal and external students work together to develop and deliver an exhibition of their own work in progress. The exhibition space has a professional website (‘CQUniversity Noosa Exhibition Space’), many community members and the local media attend exhibition openings, and the exhibition (which runs for three to four weeks) becomes an outcome students can include in their curriculum vitae. This article reflects on the experiences, challenges, and outcomes that have been gained through this process over the past twelve months. Due to this time frame, the case study is exploratory and its findings are provisional. The case study is an appropriate method to explore a small sample of events (in this case exhibitions) as, following Merriam, it allows the construction of a richer picture of an under-examined phenomenon to be constructed. Although it is clear that this approach will not offer results which can be generalised, it can, nevertheless, assist in opening up a field for investigation and constructing a holistic account of a phenomenon (in this case, the exhibition space as authentic learning experience and productive teaching tool), for, as Merriam states, “much can be learned from a particular case” (51). Jennings adds that even the smallest case study is useful as it includes an “in-depth examination of the subject with which to confirm or contest received generalizations” (14). Donmoyer extends thoughts on this, suggesting that the single case study is extremely useful as the “restricted conception of generalizability … solely in terms of sampling and statistical significance is no longer defensible or functional” (45). Using the available student course feedback, anonymous end-of-term course evaluations, and other available information, this case study account offers an example of what Merriam terms a “narrative description” (51), which seeks to offer readers the opportunity to engage and “learn vicariously from an encounter with the case” (Merriam 51) in question. This may, we propose, be particularly productive for other educators since what is “learn[ed] in a particular case can be transferred to similar situations” (Merriam 51). Breaking Ground exhibition, CQUniversity Noosa Exhibition Space, 2014. Photo by Ulrike Sturm. Background The Graduate Certificate of Creative Industries (Creative Practice) (CQU ‘CB82’) was developed in 2011 to meet the national Australian Quality Framework agency’s Level 8 (Graduate Certificate) standards in terms of what is called in their policies, the “level” of learning. This states that, following the program, graduates from this level of program “will have advanced knowledge and skills for professional or highly skilled work and/or further learning … [and] will apply knowledge and skills to demonstrate autonomy, well-developed judgment, adaptability and responsibility as a practitioner or learner” (AQF). The program was first delivered in 2012 and, since then, has been offered both two and three terms a year, attracting small numbers of students each term, with an average of 8 to 12 students a term. To meet these requirements, such programs are sometimes developed to provide professional and work-integrated learning tasks and learning outcomes for students (Patrick et al., Smith et al.). In this case, professionally relevant and related tasks and outcomes formed the basis for the program, its learning tasks, and its assessment regime. To this end, each student enrolled in this program works on an individual, self-determined (but developed in association with the teaching team and with feedback from peers) creative/professional project that is planned, developed, and delivered across one term of study for full- time students and two terms for part- timers. In order to ensure the AQF-required professional-level outcomes, many projects are designed and/or developed in partnership with professional arts institutions and community bodies. Partnerships mobilised utilised in this way have included those with local, state, and national bodies, including the local arts community, festivals, and educational support programs, as well as private business and community organisations. Student interaction with curation occurs regularly at art schools, where graduate and other student shows are scheduled as a regular events on the calendar of most tertiary art schools (Al-Amri), and the curated exhibition as an outcome has a longstanding tradition in tertiary fine arts education (Webb, Brien, and Burr). Yet in these cases, it is ultimately the creative work on show that is the focus of the learning experience and assessment process, rather than any focus on engagement with the curatorial process itself (Dally et al.). When art schools do involve students in the curatorial process, the focus usually still remains on the students' creative work (Sullivan). Another interaction with curation is when students undertaking a tertiary-level course or program in museum, and/or curatorial practice are engaged in the process of developing, mounting, and/or critiquing curated activities. These programs are, however, very small in number in Australia, where they are only offered at postgraduate level, with the exception of an undergraduate program at the University of Canberra (‘215JA.2’). By adopting “the exhibition” as a component of the learning process rather than its end product, including documentation of students’ work in progress as exhibition pieces, and incorporating it into a more general creative industries focused program, we argue that the curatorial experience can become an interactive learning platform for students ranging from diverse creative disciplines. The Student Experience Students in the program under consideration in this case study come from a wide spectrum of the creative industries, including creative writing, film, multimedia, music, and visual arts. Each term, at least half of the enrolments are distance students. The decision to establish an on-campus exhibition space was an experimental strategy that sought to bring together students from different creative disciplines and diverse locations, and actively involve them in the exhibition development and curatorial process. As well as their individual project work, the students also bring differing levels of prior professional experience to the program, and exhibit a wide range of learning styles and approaches when developing and completing their creative works and exegetical reflections. To cater for the variations listed above, but still meet the program milestones and learning outcomes that must (under the program rules) remain consistent for each student, we employed a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching that included strategies informed by Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, Frames of Mind), which proposed and defined seven intelligences, and repeatedly criticised what he identified as an over-reliance on linguistic and logical indices as identifiers of intelligence. He asserted that these were traditional indicators of high scores on most IQ measures or tests of achievement but were not representative of overall levels of intelligence. Gardner later reinforced that, “unless individuals take a very active role in what it is that they’re studying, unless they learn to ask questions, to do things hands on, to essentially re-create things in their own mind and transform them as is needed, the ideas just disappear” (Edutopia). In alignment with Gardner’s views, we have noted that students enrolled in the program demonstrate strengths in several key intelligence areas, particularly interpersonal, musical, body-kinaesthetic, and spacial/visual intelligences (see Gardner, ‘Multiple Intelligences’, 8–18). To cater for, and further develop, these strengths, and also for the external students who were unable to attend university-based workshop sessions, we developed a range of resources with various approaches to hands-on creative tasks that related to the projects students were completing that term. These resources included the usual scholarly articles, books, and textbooks but were also sourced from the print and online media, guest speaker presentations, and digital sites such as You Tube and TED Talks, and through student input into group discussions. The positive reception of these individual project-relevant resources is evidenced in the class online discussion forums, where consecutive groups of students have consistently reflected on the positive impact these resources have had on their individual creative projects: This has been a difficult week with many issues presenting. As part of our Free Writing exercise in class, we explored ‘brain dumping’ and wrote anything (no matter how ridiculous) down. The great thing I discovered after completing this task was that by allowing myself to not censor my thoughts by compiling a writing masterpiece, I was indeed “free” to express everything. …. … I understand that this may not have been the original intended goal of Free Writing – but it is something I would highly recommend external students to try and see if it works for you (Student 'A', week 5, term 1 2015, Moodle reflection point). I found our discussion about crowdfunding particularly interesting. ... I intend to look at this model for future exhibitions. I thin

IntroductionThis paper explores the different meanings that individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds associate with being authentic. It builds on previous research (Menendez 11) that found quantitative differences in terms of the meanings individuals from Eastern and Western backgrounds tend to associate with being authentic. Using qualitative analysis, it describes in more detail how individuals from these two backgrounds construct their different meanings of authenticity.Authenticity has become an overriding moral principle in contemporary Western societies and has only recently started to be contested (Feldman). From cultural products to individuals’ discourses, authenticity pervades Western culture (Lindholm; Potter; Vannini and Williams). On an individual level, the ideal of authenticity is reflected in the maxim “be true to yourself.” The social value of authenticity has a relatively recent history in the Western world of approximately 200 years (Trilling). It started to develop alongside the notion of individuality during modernity (Taylor, Sources; Trilling). The Romantic movement consolidated its cultural influence (Taylor, Sources). In the 1960s, the Hippy movement revived authenticity as a countercultural discourse, although it has progressively become mainstream through consumer culture and therapeutic discourses (Binkley).Most of the studies in the literature on authenticity as a cultural phenomenon are theoretical, conducted from a philosophical perspective (Ferrara; Guignon; Taylor, Ethics), but few of them are empirical, mostly from sociology (Erickson; Franzese, Thine; Turner, Quest; Vannini, Authenticity). Part of this dearth of empirical research on authenticity is due to the difficulties that researchers encounter in attempting to define what it means to be authentic (Franzese, Authenticity 87). Sociologists study the phenomenological experience of being true to oneself, but are less attentive to the metaphysical notion of being a “true self” (Vannini, Dead 236–37). Trying to preserve this open approach, without judging individuals on how “authentic” they are, is what makes defining authenticity difficult. For this reason, sociologists have defined being authentic in a broad sense as “an individual’s subjective sense that their behaviour, appearance, self, reflects their sense of core being. One’s sense of core being is composed of their values, beliefs, feelings, identities, self-meanings, etc.” (Franzese, Authenticity 87); this is the definition of authenticity that I use here. Besides being scarce, the sociological empirical studies on authenticity have been conducted with individuals from Western backgrounds and, thus, have privileged authenticity as a Western cultural construct. This paper tries to contribute to this field of research by: (1) contributing more empirical investigation and (2) providing cross-cultural comparison between individuals from Eastern and Western backgrounds.The literature on cross-cultural values associates Eastern societies with collective (Hofstede, Hofstede and Mirkov 95–97; 112–17) and material or survival (Inglehart and Welzel 51–57; 61–65) values, while Western societies tend to be linked to the opposite kind of values: individual, post-material or self-expression (WVS). For example, societies that score high in survival values are likely to be African (e.g., Zimbabwe) Middle Eastern (e.g., Morocco and Jordan) or Asian (e.g., Bangladesh) countries, while societies that score high in self-expression values tend to be European (e.g., Sweden) or English speaking (e.g., Australia) countries. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, the case of Japan, for example, which tends to score high in self-expression values despite being an “Eastern” society (WVS). These differences also tend to be reflected among Eastern minorities living in Western countries (Chua and Rubenfeld). Collective values emphasise harmony in relations and prioritise the needs of the group over the individual; on the other hand, individual values emphasise self-expression. Material or survival values accentuate the satisfaction of “basic” needs, in Abraham Maslow’s terms (21), such as physiological or security needs, and imply practising thrift and delaying immediate gratification; by contrast, post-material or self-expression values stress the satisfaction of “higher” needs, such as freedom of speech, equality, or aesthetic needs.The sociologist Ralph Turner (Real) created a theoretical framework to organize individuals’ discourses around authenticity: the “impulsive” and “institutional” categories. One of Turner’s assumptions is particularly important in understanding the differences between these two categories: individuals tend to consider the self as an objective entity that, despite only existing in their minds, feels “real” to them. This can have consequences for the meanings they ascribe to certain internal subjective states, such as cognitions or emotions, which can be interpreted as indicators of their authentic selves (990–91).The institutional and impulsive categories are two different ways of understanding authenticity that present several differences (991–95). Two among them are most relevant to understand the differences that I discuss in this paper. The first one has to do with the individual’s locus of the self, whether the self is conceptualized as located “outside” or “inside” the individual. Impulsive interpretations of authenticity have an internal sense of authenticity as “being,” while institutional conceptualizations have an external sense of authenticity as “becoming.” For “impulsives,” the authentic self is something that must be searched for. Impulsives look within to discover their “true self,” which is often in opposition to society’s roles and its expectations of the individual. On the other hand, for “institutionals” authentic is achieved through external effort (Turner, Quest 155); it is something that individuals achieve through regular practice, often aligned with society’s roles and their expectations of the individual (Turner, Real 992).The second difference has to do with the management of emotions. For an institutional understanding of authenticity, individuals are true to their own authentic selves when they are in full control of their capacities and emotions. By contrast, from an impulsive point of view, individuals are true to themselves when they are spontaneous, accepting and freely expressing their emotions, often by breaking the internal or external controls that society imposes on them (Turner, Real 993).Although individuals can experience both types of authenticity, previous research on this topic (Menendez) has shown that institutional experiences tend to happen more frequently among Easterners, and impulsive experiences tend to occur more frequently among Westerners. In this paper, I show how Easterners and Westerners construct institutional and impulsive meanings of authenticity respectively; what kind of authenticity work individuals from these two backgrounds do when they conceptualize their authentic selves; how they interpret internal subjective states as expressions of who they are; and what stories they tell themselves about who they are.I suggest that these stories, although they may look purely individual, can also be social. Individuals from Western backgrounds tend to interpret impulsive experiences of authenticity as expressing their authentic selves, as they are informed by the individual and post-material values of Western societies. In contrast, individuals from Eastern backgrounds tend to interpret institutional experiences of authenticity as expressing their authentic selves, as they have been socialized in the more collective and material values of Eastern societies.Finally, and before I proceed to the analysis, I would like to acknowledge a limitation of this study. The dichotomies that I use to explain my argument, such as the Western and Eastern or the impulsive and institutional categories, can constitute a limitation for this paper because they cannot reflect nuances. They can be easily contested. For example, the division between Eastern and Western societies is often seen as ideological and Turner’s distinction between institutional and impulsive experiences of authenticity can create artificial separations between the notions of self and society or reason and passion (Solomon 173). However, these concepts have not been used for ideological or simplifying purposes, but to help explain distinguishable cultural orientations towards authenticity in the data.MethodologyI completed 20 interviews (from 50 minutes to 2 hours in length) with 20 students at La Trobe University (Australia), between September 2012 and April 2013. The 20 interviewees (9 females and 11 males), ranged from 18 to 58 years old (the median age was 24 years old). The sample was theoretically designed to cover as many diverse cultural backgrounds as possible. I asked the interviewees questions about: moments they had experienced that felt either authentic and inauthentic, what constitutes a life worth-living, and the impact their cultural backgrounds might have had on their conceptions of their true selves.The 20 interviewees were born in 13 different countries. According to the extensive dataset on cultural values, the World Values Survey (WVS), these 13 countries have different percentages of post-materialists—individuals who choose post-material instead of material values (Inglehart and Welzel 54–56). Table 1 shows the percentages of post-materialists in each of the interviewees’ countries of birth. Table 1: Percentages of post-materialists in the interviewees’ countries of birth Country % of post-materialists WVS Wave United Kingdom 22.8 2005 – 2009 Australia 20.5 2010 – 2014 United States 16.7 2010 – 2014 Israel

Cultural heritage sites play multiple roles in the development of urban tourism. Amongst these roles, the authentic properties of cultural heritage generate a sense of place, are the main source of authentic tourist experience and assume an important role in reaffirming cultural and national identity. This paper provides a contribution to authenticity discourse both theoretically and empirically. The study examines and re-evaluates the main sources of authenticity of tourist experience generated from South African iconic places which serve a dual function, as ‘must-see’ tourist attractions and as places of new post-1994 national African identity building. The focus is the Constitution Hill heritage site in Johannesburg. The research explores how authentic is the individual tourist experience of the site and whether differences exist in the way domestic and international tourists perceive the authenticity of the iconic place as representative of new South African identity. The results show that the majority of tourists perceive the place as authentic and derive an authentic experience from the visit. No statistically significant differences are observed between the experience of domestic versus international tourists’ experience of the site which was measured by four variables of authentic experience, namely, attraction, attention, outcomes and feelings.

Investigates how the Being is understood by individuals about temporality and the connection between authentic human experience and their experience and time. It suggested that Heidegger’s accounts of Being-towards-death coincide with the individual experience of the time course, and human, authentic experience of existence is further influenced by the experience of time. We accounted that the understanding of Death, as an end on the other side of time, contributes to understanding human Being, that we are not a real substance in this world but consists of the authentic experience and our projection to the future, in which choice, value, and anxiety from death make up the authentic experience of our Being and our understanding of Being.

The creative process in psychopathological art

Attitude is everything, and attitude in all societies is cultivated by responding positively or otherwise to ethics- sets of moral standards and principles guiding human operations and interactions. This paper discusses aesthetic attitude, art studio ethics, and responsiveness of art students to ethics and use/maintenance of studio facilities. Using the Fine and Applied Arts Department of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife as a template, the paper draws heavily on pedagogical art criticism and participant observation technique of art historical inquiry to establish the connectedness of aesthetic attitude, aesthetic experience and aesthetic standard, in relation to art training and artistic creativity. The study shows that an appreciable percentage of the students exhibited poor aesthetic attitude, which is traceable to a faulty (or imbalanced) visual aesthetic education provided within the context of Nigerian education curriculum. The study also reveals inadequate studio space, which constrains creativity and creative processes. The paper posits the grounding of visual art students in positive aesthetic attitude, maintenance culture and ethical behaviour to guarantee students’ holistic development as art professionals. It concludes that students’ attitude, with respect to art facilities and studio ethics, is a consequence of individual aesthetic education and experience; hence, it is behavioural. Keywords: Visual Art, Aesthetics, Art Studio, Aesthetic Attitude, Ethics DOI: 10.7176/ADS/101-04 Publication date: August 30 th 2022

Cocoas is (CCO) aims to improve education (learning) and foster creativity in design disciplines, through the use of ICT provided by human-computer based expert systems, while reducing the 'skills gap' when students transfer from the current education system into the 21st Century Skills industry. Creative processes are often hindered by context, predefined boundaries, constraints and 'blind spots' (a term used to describe unexpected, unseen, unknown, unforeseen and/or ignored areas of knowledge and gaps in an individual's understanding and experience of the world around them). The concept of this vision is to support human creative processes by augmenting them with technology, enhancing creativity and tackling the blind spots, for example, head-on. We envision the CCO as an open and flexible area, indoors or outdoors, which can fit or emerge anywhere/anytime/anyhow. It can be a room, a space, a yard, a public space or simply a floor. An oasis can be made from a range of available artifacts (e.g. chairs, tables, walls, dividers, screens, whiteboards, cardboard boxes etc.) or could stay bare, each eventually being populated with actors/users and/or stakeholders. Such a "place" is easily transformed into a CCO the moment interaction and activity (i.e. face-to-face, dialogue, playing, gaming etc.) is started and participants immerse in the interactive creative design process.

Process of communication can be challenging. At first participants must standardize their concepts of things to hold them close enough to others’ concepts, then it’s crucial to use appropriate expressions to verbalize those concepts to ensure the mutual understanding. Therefore, it can be problematic when cognitive constructs are hard to standardize, as in the case of creative process. That’s because communicating about socially constituted objects is much easier than talking about those that are distinctive Data in this study was gathered by qualitative survey with self-completed questionnaire of open-ended questions. It was conducted between students of creativity-related studies right after their creative work on a project. The aim of the study was to evaluate and observe proficiency in talking about one’s ideas and communicate about creative process that led to them. The study has shown that creative process is identified only with its final phase – ideation. This “big idea” is seen as the result of having talent, not as the result of analytical thinking. Over half of the respondents believe that their idea was created by accident.. Respondents don’t see creative process as a common phenomenon, they only refer to it as an inner experience of a certain individual.

Books Are Made Out of Books: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy's Literary Influences

Humans have created since the dawn of civilisation. Generating a design, leaving a mark, producing an artefact, communicating a concept, or changing a tradition, all involve the transformation of an idea into reality. This expression is often an advance on the status quo and contributes something new. At the same time such creations, and the ideas behind them, are inescapably connected to the social and cultural experiences of individuals and communities within which they were created. They also often play a significant part in the development of cultures, traditions, and the economic growth of organisations and nations. They often define these cultures, secure their place in history, and provide a legacy for future generations. An important component of creativity is communication. This presupposes a degree of openness on the part of the communicator and the recipients(s). Such openness indicates a readiness to receive new ideas and new cultural contexts, and also reciprocate by sharing information and searching for new explanations of disparate concepts. Thus the development of human creativity has depended to a large extent on speech, writing, images, reading, observing, and printing. The latter took a major step forward with the development of the printing press. This has greatly facilitated the process of learning and the sharing of information. Increased potential for communication has led to communities being more open and innovative. Multiple channels are now available. Open ways of thinking and working are able to support the generation of new concepts and ideas more readily than closed environments. In addition, the increase in the use of digital environments provides new frameworks, tools, and opportunities for the expression of new ideas and new designs, as well as providing new kinds of interactions and environments within which ideas can be generated, displayed, and explored. The extent to which new technologies may advance the creativity process is discussed. Factors governing creativity and the degree to which they may be augmented and enhanced are analysed. The massive increase in the volume of information being generated and circulated by digital systems is analogous to that brought about by the printing press, and could thus constitute a new technological paradigm. The extent to which this may constitute a paradigm shift on the status quo is analysed. Extracting meaning and knowledge from very large sets of information is a significant challenge often requiring multidisciplinary expertise of the kind provided by teams of mathematicians, statisticians, social scientists, data visualization specialists, and presentation experts.

The chapter presents the oldest Buddhist Pali canon of Theravada tradition (Abidhamma) neither as a philosophy, nor a religion, but as a psychological and ethical system, within which a specific mental faculty called sati serves as a tool of discernment of ethical and unethical motivations and actions. It discusses the shifts in meaning of sati in the Anglophone environment translating it as “mindfulness”—whose concept, stemming from Zen Buddhism, has been popularised in the Western world by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Positive Psychology. Describing an authentic experience with satipaṭṭhāna-vipassanā meditation instructed in Czech by a Theravadian Pali speaker, it demonstrates major incongruence of the seemingly identical concepts if rendered in a different tradition and different language. The Pali encoded, Czech translated, complex functions of sati in unfolding the processual character of personality and its ethical dimension is detailed in the second half of the chapter, questioning its neurobiological substrate and possible utilisation in Western process-oriented psychotherapy. The chapter quotes a few Anglophone Buddhist scholars who also scrutinised the Western concept of “mindfulness”, and mentions some semblances of the Theravadian theses with Western philosophy.

The article reconstructs the process of origin and development of the festival movement in the Urals in the 1930s – 1970s in the music and concert sphere. The history of some of the largest festivals is viewed in the context of the formation of the Soviet festive culture and the goals of the Soviet cultural policy. The authors highlight the main holidays, for which the philharmonic society prepared musical programs - the anniversaries of the October Revolution of 1917 and the formation of the USSR, the birthday of V.I. Lenin. Since the late 1930s, the scope of musical programs has steadily increased. More and more organizations were involved in the creative process - philharmonic societies, theaters, libraries, clubs, art centers, departments of public education. The concert space has expanded from the «palaces of culture» and concert halls of the city to the central squares of the city, open spaces outside the cities and villages. In the 60s, favorable conditions for the development of the music industry were formed. Philharmonic music programs turn into mass celebrations, and then into regional festivals of professional, folk and amateur art. These events covered all audiences - schoolchildren, young people, factory workers and agricultural workers, the intelligentsia. Festivals acquired names, received vivid coverage in periodicals. Sometimes preparations for such celebrations took 1–2 years, and the festivals themselves could “travel” by train or car to regional cities and large villages during the whole jubilee year. By the 70s, the Ural music festivals reached the All-Union level, and also acquired international cultural ties. Special attention is paid to the forms of education, the repertoire of groups, geography and the organization of festivals. These festivals are considered by the authors as an instrument of popularizing and educating the “right” values among the people; they were supposed to activate mass practical activities. Ideas that sounded in musical-verbal and visual form from the stadiums, the stage of theaters during the festivals for a long time will be significant and memorable for a whole generation of people in our country. Therefore, a music festival can be considered not just a form of bringing people to the world musical heritage and educating people, but also an effective way to preserve the cultural memory of a people. The article uses archival materials, including those not previously introduced into scientific circulation, which help to understand the significance of these festivals for the regional culture of the Soviet period.

This research investigates the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the design and development of video games, focusing on creating a platform game called "Egyptian Hero" inspired by ancient Egyptian civilization. By leveraging state-of-the-art generative AI techniques like Midjourney for asset generation, Chat GPT for code generation, and Sin Code for debugging, the researchers successfully transformed the classic "Super Mario" platformer game into a visually stunning and culturally authentic Egyptian-themed experience. AI tools enabled the creation of 2D-pixel art assets capturing Egyptian motifs, symbols, and aesthetics, as well as the generation of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code for the game mechanics. Through an iterative process of generating, debugging, and refining the game components, the research demonstrates the potential of AI to streamline video game development, foster cultural representation in gaming, and enable non-coders to participate in the creative process. The outcomes validate the hypothesis that AI can enhance human work efficiency, particularly in tasks, such as asset creation, code generation, and debugging. This research paves the way for further exploration of AI-human co-creation in gaming design and the democratization of game development through AI-powered tools.Research Objectives: - Exploring and addressing the challenges of using AI in gaming by developing the "Egyptian Hero" platform game, a visually stunning and culturally authentic gaming asset inspired by ancient Egyptian civilization.- Pave the way for AI-human co-creation in the space of Gaming design.- Design more immersive video games that have an Egyptian identity.- Reduce the costs of the asset-making pipeline, a major concern for gaming teams of character designers.

"It's Not The Same Anymore" stands as a poignant queer coming-of-age short film crafted by individuals who share the queer experience, with the intention of resonating deeply with the queer community. The narrative intimately captures the journey of a young queer woman as she navigates the realms of love, heartbreak, and the quest for self-discovery. Amidst a media landscape that frequently falls short in its representation of LGBTQ+ voices and authentic lived experiences, this film aspires to bridge the gap and bring forth a much-needed sense of belonging and recognition. A link to the short film can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/creative-thesis-film/home