Masters Theses

Permanent link for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10292/5
The Masters Theses collection contains digital copies of AUT University masters theses deposited with the Library since 2002 and made available open access. From 2007 onwards, all theses for masters degrees awarded are required to be deposited in Tuwhera Open Theses & Dissertations unless subject to an embargo.

For theses submitted prior to 2007, open access was not mandatory, so only those theses for which the author has given consent are available in Tuwhera Open Theses & Dissertations. Where consent for open access has not been provided, the thesis is usually recorded in the AUT Library catalogue where the full text, if available, may be accessed with an AUT password. Other people should request an Interlibrary Loan through their library.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 2976
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    Let’s Make Hyperpop: The Internet Can Make Anyone a Star
    (Auckland University of Technology, ) Chea, William
    The evolution of the internet into Web 2.0, alongside the introduction of high speed internet via broadband forever changed the world as we knew it. With Web 2.0 and its utility allowing for the widespread popularisation of user-generated content and user participation through social media, and mobile apps; the internet became commonplace in our everyday life and paved the way for the disruption of many industries and sectors. One such sector is the world of art, where artists are now creating art with a disposition based on the consciousness of the internet’s utility and its effects on culture and society. Art that is created as a result of this internet consciousness is referred to as “post-internet” art and can manifest itself in many ways. One of the more recent manifestations of post-internet art is the music genre known as “hyperpop”, a style of music consisting of a combination of aesthetic choices that have culminated as a result of the affordances provided by the internet to give artists the opportunity to disrupt, and satirise the mainstream pop music industry which predates and exists alongside the internet. This exegesis explores the relationship between hyperpop and its background as a post-internet form of art through practice-based research based on the creation of my own hyperpop artifact. It examines the conventions needed for the production of a hyperpop single release and finds that these conventions operating as post-internet components offer the ability for unlimited creative freedom by offering anyone the capability to produce musical content for global distribution and online consumption.
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    A Local Place for Hauora: An Enmeshed Architecture within the Interconnections of Everyday Life
    (Auckland University of Technology, ) Yu, Hajung
    This design research, A Local Place for Hauora, explores health and wellbeing through the lens of “enmeshed architecture”. The design proposal responds to the intensification of Avondale—a suburb in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland—including the uncertain future of a racecourse that, in this proposal, is partially reimagined as an urban ngahere (forest). Two outcomes are proposed, occupying both the permanent and temporal. The first proposition is a building in the town centre; edged by the ngahere it brings together a diverse programme of community garden and plant nursery, spaces for kai (cooking and sharing) and raranga (weaving) alongside a barbershop, health clinics and bike workshop. Developing ‘pocket’ and ‘edge’ spaces and blurring the thresholds between different types of health, the building provides opportunity for community wellbeing and social exchanges alongside medical health treatment. To further the tactic of slipping healthcare into the everyday, the second proposition is of three mobile interventions; the bike, boat and bus. These travelling waka are intended to distribute social, ecological, clinical and civic health outwards into other local spaces in wider West Auckland through various modes and scales. This architectural proposition was landed in the thesis through the investigation of the question, “How can we enhance the opportunities that lie in an ‘enmeshed spatiality’ of health through connecting with the ecologies of the local environment?” The project is uniquely Avondale, intentionally seeking out the neighbourhood’s own ‘ways of health’. Borrowing a method from muf architecture/ art to understand place by first ‘valuing what is there’, the principles of regenerating the local are carried out through the tools of mapping and photomontage. These methods are used to seek out the existing initiatives in Avondale and nurture them as possibilities for what health and wellbeing can look like as part of daily life. Together, these methodologies work to reveal the tightly woven interlocks of practices that reach out to social, cultural and biophysical ecologies. Encompassing the research, the term “enmeshed architecture” is attended through the concept of mauritanga, the co-creation of knowledge as hybrid research collectives and agency in the social-local. By navigating the ways in which we exist in and action the world, this term is explored in a relational sense, critiquing the divisive western binaries of animate/inanimate planetary entities, local/professional expertise and patient/doctor relationships in the urban environment. This describes an expanded grasp on enmeshment developed through the course of this thesis, ranging from the ontological, epistemological and spatial.
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    All the Pretty Stars
    (Auckland University of Technology, ) Wollerman, Georgina
    The thesis comprises a creative element entitled All the Pretty Stars (ATPS) and an exegetical element entitled Writing a Millennial Novel. The creative element of the thesis, ATPS, is a millennial novel. The novel explores a fictional police investigation into an extreme fundamentalist Christian sect called Serenity Cove, which results from accusations made by one of the protagonists, Elijah Fortitude, of forced marriage and physical abuse within the community. Set from 2010 to 2011, the novel jumps between the perspectives of those in the police special task force running the investigation and those living in the community. Several chapters, however, dip into memories of key characters at various stages through their lives to support and give context to the story. The novel takes the reader on a journey through the investigation, allowing them to piece together what has happened. This is a fictional work. However, the story will be informed by research from a number of references as detailed in the reading list I have developed. Each chapter is primarily told from the perspective of a character, sometimes switching between two characters who are interacting within the same scene. I intentionally chose to tell the story from the perspective of multiple characters so the reader would not be too biased by the views and opinions of one character in particular. This allows the story to speak for itself. The exegetical element of the thesis is called Writing a Millennial Novel. In my exegesis, I discuss my motivations behind writing a millennial novel and my hopes for how it might help others to feel more understood and less alone. I also discuss the importance of place and time and how that has influenced me as I wrote ATPS.
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    Expanded Animation and Memory
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2023) Rezaei Salarnia, Zahra
    The research discusses the embodiment of my childhood memories through expanded animation’s materiality, temporality, and space. It seeks alternative approaches for the production and representation of animation, to provoke multisensory perception of my subjective recollections. The project’s heuristic methods synthesise theoretical, practical, and embodied knowledge via reflective practices. The theories of memory, time, drawing, animation, and multisensory perception, and the artistic practices of William Kentridge, Yuri Norstein, and Emy Kravitz guided the production of a multi-channel hybrid installation, No. 28. Made of hand-drawn animations, No. 28 materialises the nature of my memories in charcoal drawings, the animation’s rhythm, and the installation space, provoking atmospheric and sensory experiences.
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    Exploring Social Media Influencer-Follower Relationships and Its Impacts on Content Creation
    Huynh, Anna
    With the continuous growth of social media and the rise of social media influencers,there is an increased need to understand their behaviours, more specifically, an understanding of the influencer-follower relation from the influencers’ perspective. Horton and Wohl’s (1956) original concept on social relationships, parasocial relationship, has been used in numerous studies to review the influencer-follower relationship; however, due to the unilateral direction it entails, these studies have only focused on the follower’s behaviours and perspectives. Most of these studies have not accounted for the reciprocal engagement that social media influencers and their followers have within the online platforms. Due to this, Lou (2022) has created a concept called Trans-parasocial relationship to acknowledge this gap. This study uses a general inductive approach to explore how influencers perceive their relationship with their followers and how that relationship could impact the content created. Semi structured interviews were conducted with seven micro-influencers who have 10,000 to 100,000 followers (Campbell & Farrell, 2020) and were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings suggest the environment (online and offline), self-identity of an influencer, and online engagement impacts how the micro-influencers’ perceive their relationship. That perception they have on themselves and on their relationship with their followers create self-influenced content and follower-influenced content. Externally, there is also brand-influenced content, although the relationships formed do no directly create brand-influenced content, it has an indirect impact as influencers still choose the type of brand they endorse based on what they prefer (self-influence) and what their followers would want to see (follower-influence). The results from this study fills in gaps within academic literature on influencer-follower relations and support the trans-parasocial relationship concept by confirming the key traits from the influencer’s perspective. Managerially, this study provides marketers and small businesses insights on how to use influencer marketing to promote their businesses. By understanding how an influencer feels and behaves, will provide opportunities to enhance influencer-brand relationships for successful implementation of influencer marketing.
Theses are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
  • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
  • Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
  • You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the thesis.