This thesis describes a pilot study for a new cultural anthropology initiative at Team One, a US-based premium and luxury brand advertising agency. In this study, I explore the role and meaning of technology among a population of affluent individuals in Southern California through diaries and ethnographic interviews conducted in their homes. Using schema theory and design anthropology to inform my theoretical approach, I discuss socioeconomic and cultural factors that shape these participants' notions of affluence and influence their presentation of self through an examination of their technology and proudest possessions. I put forward a theory of conspicuous achievement as a way to describe how the affluent use technology to espouse a merit-based model of affluence. Through this model of affluence, participants strive to align themselves to the virtuous middle-class while ascribing moral value to their consumption practices. Lastly, I provide a typology of meaningful technology artifacts in the affluent home that describes the roles of their most used tech devices and how each type supports conspicuous achievement.

Consists of notes to be used when teaching the case study entitled Laying the Foundation at the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

After a brief history of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the case study spotlights foundation research conducted by the organization and the steps it has taken to develop relationships with foundations.

Consists of notes to be used when teaching the case study entitled No Place Like Home: The Industry at a Crossroads.

The case study details the early success of The Industry, free from the shackles of a permanent space, and unfolds the three-year strategic plan to guide the enterprise. Amid plans for continued operations, the executive director of The Industry is presented with the opportunity to hold a residency at a new museum in Los Angeles, one very much in line with the opera company’s contemporary cachet. This study outlines the prospects of the proposed museum residency, but questions at the board level remain about how an organization that has grown up without a home base for productions should react to the chance to forge a relationship with an institution that could bolster—or hinder—its success.