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Devon Elayne Murphy: Matter That Matters: A Study of Cherokee Baskets and the Museums that Display Them (Under the direction of Carol Magee) This research considers the classificatory difficulties Cherokee baskets from the twentieth century present in museum spaces. Native art objects have historically been exhibited in one-dimensional displays. Focusing on two baskets, one from a non-Native museum, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in Raleigh, NC, and one from a Native museum, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC, the multiple histories of these objects are uncovered. These multiple narratives speak to the creative autonomy and modern lives of their makers, Sallie Locust and Betty Lossiah, who engaged in multiple markets to sell their works. These baskets’ materials and trajectories reveal complex information structures; this points to a need for institutions to critically reexamine information sources like catalogs and donor information as influences on museum exhibitions. I provide recommendations for museums to recognize different knowledge practices and to emphasize the multidimensionality of Cherokee, and by extension, Native art objects.

This paper presents an institutional ethnography analysis of the information worlds of art museum curators and registrars to determine what information sources were used by art museum staff in specific work tasks. This study was conducted in four art museums in North Carolina; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC, the Nasher Art Museum in Durham, NC, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC. Six curators and four registrars took part in the study, which consisted of interviews and information horizon maps. The results demonstrate a wide use of both digital and print sources used in work tasks, with an emphasis on utilizing document surrogates in lieu of the physical art object. However, difficulties in accessing information about art objects in other collections was widely reported, making planning exhibitions and conducting research more time-intensive. Further study into museum websites and catalogs is encouraged.

A qualitative analysis of a rotary traveling wave-type ultrasonic motor (USM) used to supply feedback forces in force-feel systems is carried out. Prior to simulation, the subsystems and contact mechanics needed to define the motor's equations of motion are discussed along with the pitfalls of modeling a USM. A mathematical model is assembled and simulated in MATLAB Simulink. Accompanying the dynamic model, a new reduced model is presented from which predictions of USM performance can be made without a complicated dynamic model. Outputs from the reduced model are compared with those of the dynamic model to show the differences in the transient solution, agreement in the steady state solution, and above all that it is an efficient tool for approximating a motor's steady state response as a function of varying the motor parameters. In addition, the reduced model provides the means of exploring the USMs response to additive loading, loads acting in the direction of motor motion, where only resistive loads, those opposite to the motor rotation, had been considered previously. Fundamental differences between force-feel systems comprising standard DC brushless motors as the feedback actuators and the proposed system using the USM are explained by referencing the USM contact mechanics. Outputs from USM model simulations are explored, and methods by which the motor can be implemented in the force-feel system are derived and proven through simulation. The results show that USMs, while capable of providing feedback forces in feel systems, are far from ideal for the task. The speed and position of the motor can be controlled through varying stator excitation parameters, but the transient motor output torque cannot; it is solely a function of the motor load, whether additive or resistive. Master of Science