Olivia DiSanto’s abstract: Contemporary research on color theory and visual perception often overlooks the extent to which psychological, linguistic, and cultural factors impact individual color related perceptual experiences. Well established theories confirm that exposure to children’s picture books during childhood significantly influences one’s psychological development and perceptual experiences throughout adulthood. I explore how our understanding of color and its inclusion in most children’s books uniquely impact our lives, understanding that color perception is not a universal phenomena and that picture books are cultural artifacts in their own right. Working with grounded theory and arts-based research methods I conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of color from multiple perspectives including psychological, neurological/neuroaesthetic, anthropological, educational, children’s literature, and studio art literature and practices. This research is folded back into my own artistic practice. I painted a series of color swatch inventories inspired by palettes of select children’s picture books then a series of gouache illustrations of an original picture book with text that experiments with color relationships. I reflect the impact of this research on my own psychological perceptions and artistic practices.

Although I have significant experience writing speculative fiction, especially fantasy, working on Eventualities has been my first foray into sci-fi. With the exception of a few extensive projects in my teens, as well as the beginning of a novel written in my Advanced Fiction class, most of my writing to date has been short-form fiction. I considered crafting a single, longer piece for my thesis, but ultimately decided that a short story collection would be the best medium to express the themes I was interested in—capitalism, mass surveillance, and mental and bodily autonomy. These are some of the many thematic concerns that commonly appear in the genre of science fiction, which I learned after a great deal of research. Much of the research I did took place during my Honors College Summer Research Fellowship, a four-week period of study dedicated to examining the state of the field of sci-fi. I spent this time reading novels, short stories, news stories, and pieces of literary criticism while crafting an extensive annotated bibliography, which can be found at the end of this collection. It includes works of science fiction, works about writing, works about the themes my stories are focused on, and works about the state of America and the world. I would not have been able to write Eventualities without the knowledge I gained from this experience. Perhaps the most important thing my research showed me is that social critiques are endemic to sci-fi. When formulating the concepts and plots for my stories, I had to think about issues that mattered to me and consider how they could become more out of control than they already are, especially through technological advancement. I spent a lot of time pondering these issues, as well as scenarios in which they might manifest, before I finally came up with the ideas for my four stories.

Ester, a young domestic servant working to support her family in the highlands of Utuado, Puerto Rico, navigates sexism, classism and a turbulent home life. As she becomes torn between family and identity, she faces what her life looks like in the wake of Hurricane San Felipe When I first began writing El Puente, it had always been with the intention that the story would be a work of historical fiction. I knew that the thesis would be centered around San Felipe Segundo, the worst ever hurricane to ever pass over Puerto Rico until 2017, when Hurricane Maria devastated the island socially, economically and physically. After 2017, after seeing Maria’s effect on the Puerto Rican populace, on my family members still on the island, and the new wave of the diaspora that the storm spurred, the story felt timelier than ever. In 1928, the effects of San Felipe Segundo were not all that different. I first began the lengthy process of world building, which required a few weeks of historical research, specifically about daily life and the effects of the storm.

Coral reefs are foundational ecosystems that become highly stressed by occurrences such as destructive fishing practices or climate change. In the Philippines, coral reefs protect the islands from storms, while also providing food security and tourist revenue. Understanding the socioeconomic causes of destructive fishing practices and its consequences is essential to finding a way to communicate and mitigate man-made coral reef destruction. This thesis explores the development of visual cues and quantification through mapping and classification as a method of communicating the severity of coral reef destruction. Mapping coral reef change is challenging, but recent satellite data contains high enough resolution to perform the task using remote sensing. We use Sentinel-2 satellite data and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) to develop maps of coral reef changes in the Philippines within a two year span using the Sen2Coral software plugin. Supervised classification within SNAP is used to quantify percent changes in coral cover. We identify a possible shift in the coral-algae ecosystem state of Boracay as a response to the popular tourist destination being closed to visitors in 2018. Changes in coral cover are also seen off the coast of Jomalig Island in Quezon. With the use of freely available data and software, others can follow the steps of this research to analyze and communicate coral health in their own area.