Altered states of consciousness as an adaptive principle for composing electroacoustic music

The aim of this research was to use altered states of consciousness (ASCs) as an adaptive principle for composing electroacoustic music, in which common features of the ASC experience provide a basis for the design of sonic material and inform the structural design of corresponding musical sections. Various cultures throughout history have sought to undergo visionary journeys using hallucinogenic plants and drugs. In many cases these experiences have been used as a basis for the creation of art, literature and music. Informed by a survey of relevant work, this practice-led research develops a compositional process for creating electroacoustic music that is based upon hallucinogenic perceptual states. Though situated within the electroacoustic idiom, the work also draws significantly upon Western psychedelic culture and electronic dance music. The output is a creative portfolio containing a series of musical compositions, software and video. This supporting commentary describes the compositional processes in detail, and it is hoped that it will be of interest to other creative practitioners dedicated to exploring this theme in music and other mediums

Music with Plants: Cultivating Bonds Between Grade-Schoolers and Nature Through Sound Design

Uma necessidade crescente para a consciencialização ambiental requer estratégias sensíveis que nos ajudem a repensar a forma como as interacções transformam o nosso habitat. As cidades modernas enfrentam agora o desaparecimento progressivo dos espaços verdes, do qual resulta a diminuição de oportunidades para as crianças brincarem (Costa & Costa, 2012; Ruggles, 2017). Esta dissertação propõe uma abordagem musical para nutrir os laços entre estudantes do ensino primário e a natureza.Como as plantas e os humanos experiência a vida em tempos muito diferentes, os últimos podem percepcionar as plantas como seres silenciosos e imóveis (Ruggles, 2017; Mancuso & Viola, 2016). A sua capacidade para sentir os elementos circundantes, para os quais não estamos despertos, tornam as plantas aliadas inestimáveis no caminho para uma relação mais consciente com o planeta que partilhamos. Campos de estudo como a ecologia acústica e a bioacústica das plantas começaram recentemente a florescer, inspirando artistas sonoros a explorar o mundo vegetal, combinando ciência e as artes (Patrão, Harvard University: Ex-centric Music Studies Conference, 2018).Na educação, por meio da brincadeira, as plantas poderão ter um papel significativo ao estimularem os sentidos e a ligação entre crianças que habitam os meios urbanos cada vez mais artificiais e o mundo dos seres vivos que as rodeiam (Costa & Costa, 2012).Este trabalho sugere que a música tem o potencial para intermediar estas interacções, proporcionando experiência significantes aos jovens participantes, trazendo para o mesmo espaço tecnologias digitais, música e plantas. Sendo que a música em si poderá ter a capacidade de fortalecer laços entre pessoas e promover e manter coesão de grupo. A música é "a cola social que amplia a cooperação e fortalece os sentimentos de união" (Honing, 2018).A growing need for environmental awareness requires sensitive strategies to help us rethink the way interactions transform our habitat. Modern cities are now faced with the progressive vanishing of green spaces, resulting in fewer opportunities for children to play (Costa & Costa, 2012; Ruggles, 2017). This work proposes a musical approach to nourishing the bonds between elementary-school students and nature. Since plants and humans experience life in very different time frames, humans might mistakenly perceive plants as quiet and motionless living-beings (Ruggles, 2017; Mancuso & Viola, 2016). The ability to sense elements of their surroundings to which we are unaware of, makes plants invaluable allies towards a more conscious relationship with the planet we share. Fields like acoustic ecology and plant bioacoustics have recently started to bloom, inspiring sound artists to discover the vegetal world combining science and the arts (Patrão, Harvard University: Ex-centric Music Studies Conference, 2018).In education, by the means of play, plants might perform a significant role in stimulating the senses and the connection between children inhabiting increasingly artificial cities and the world of living things that surrounds them (Costa & Costa, 2012). This dissertation suggests that music has the potential to intermediate these interactions and provide meaningful experiences to the young participants by bringing to common ground digital technology, music and plants. Being that music itself is thought to have capability to strengthen bonds between people, promote and maintain group cohesion. It is "the social glue that enhances cooperation and strengthens feelings of unity" (Honing, 2018)

Physical sketching tools and techniques for customized sensate surfaces

Sensate surfaces are a promising avenue for enhancing human interaction with digital systems due to their inherent intuitiveness and natural user interface. Recent technological advancements have enabled sensate surfaces to surpass the constraints of conventional touchscreens by integrating them into everyday objects, creating interactive interfaces that can detect various inputs such as touch, pressure, and gestures. This allows for more natural and intuitive control of digital systems. However, prototyping interactive surfaces that are customized to users' requirements using conventional techniques remains technically challenging due to limitations in accommodating complex geometric shapes and varying sizes. Furthermore, it is crucial to consider the context in which customized surfaces are utilized, as relocating them to fabrication labs may lead to the loss of their original design context. Additionally, prototyping high-resolution sensate surfaces presents challenges due to the complex signal processing requirements involved. This thesis investigates the design and fabrication of customized sensate surfaces that meet the diverse requirements of different users and contexts. The research aims to develop novel tools and techniques that overcome the technical limitations of current methods and enable the creation of sensate surfaces that enhance human interaction with digital systems.Sensorische Oberflächen sind aufgrund ihrer inhärenten Intuitivität und natürlichen Benutzeroberfläche ein vielversprechender Ansatz, um die menschliche Interaktionmit digitalen Systemen zu verbessern. Die jüngsten technologischen Fortschritte haben es ermöglicht, dass sensorische Oberflächen die Beschränkungen herkömmlicher Touchscreens überwinden, indem sie in Alltagsgegenstände integriert werden und interaktive Schnittstellen schaffen, die diverse Eingaben wie Berührung, Druck, oder Gesten erkennen können. Dies ermöglicht eine natürlichere und intuitivere Steuerung von digitalen Systemen. Das Prototyping interaktiver Oberflächen, die mit herkömmlichen Techniken an die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer angepasst werden, bleibt jedoch eine technische Herausforderung, da komplexe geometrische Formen und variierende Größen nur begrenzt berücksichtigt werden können. Darüber hinaus ist es von entscheidender Bedeutung, den Kontext, in dem diese individuell angepassten Oberflächen verwendet werden, zu berücksichtigen, da eine Verlagerung in Fabrikations-Laboratorien zum Verlust ihres ursprünglichen Designkontextes führen kann. Zudem stellt das Prototyping hochauflösender sensorischer Oberflächen aufgrund der komplexen Anforderungen an die Signalverarbeitung eine Herausforderung dar. Diese Arbeit erforscht dasDesign und die Fabrikation individuell angepasster sensorischer Oberflächen, die den diversen Anforderungen unterschiedlicher Nutzer und Kontexte gerecht werden. Die Forschung zielt darauf ab, neuartigeWerkzeuge und Techniken zu entwickeln, die die technischen Beschränkungen derzeitigerMethoden überwinden und die Erstellung von sensorischen Oberflächen ermöglichen, die die menschliche Interaktion mit digitalen Systemen verbessern

The Tragedy of the Self:Lectures on Global Hermeneutics

Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines. Exploring the crosscultural spectrum of possible ways of conceiving of the self invites the more existential question of whether any of these possibilities might offer resources for dealing with the tragedies of today’s world, or maybe even saving it from some of them

Aztec Human Sacrifice as Entertainment? The Physio-Psycho-Social Rewards of Aztec Sacrificial Celebrations

Human sacrifice in the sixteenth-century Aztec Empire, as recorded by Spanish chroniclers, was conducted on a large scale and was usually the climactic ritual act culminating elaborate multi-day festivals. Scholars have advanced a wide range of theories explaining the underlying motivations and purposes of these abundant and regulated ritual massacres. Recent scholarship on human sacrifice in ancient Mexico has observed far more complexity, nuance, and fluidity in the nature of these rituals than earlier mono-causal explanations. Several recent examinations have concentrated their analysis on the use of sacred space, architecture, movement, and embodiment in these festivals. As an extension of these efforts, this dissertation uses a phenomenological approach to examine the experience of sacrificial rituals. It explores the sensory-emotive and physiological responses to the celebrations and the violence associated with human sacrifice. Using modern bio-social-psychological theory, this study reveals that the brutal treatment of captive enemy bodies in human sacrificial rituals provided physiological, psychological, and social rewards that turned these spectacular events into a form of enthralling entertainment. Several other recompenses for officiants and other spectator-participants included a sense of security, management of anxiety, and social bonding. In addition, this dissertation reveals that these ceremonies incorporated different shamanic elements that fostered communally experienced altered states of consciousness which further contributed to physiological rewards, the reduction of social anxieties, and an increase in social solidarity. The significance of this research is that it offers additional explanations for the massive scale and longevity of the practice of human sacrifice amongst the ancient Aztec. It also offers other reasons why the lower echelons of society supported these celebrations despite the possibilities that they could be demoted to slave status and become sacrificial victims themselves. This study also presents possible future explorations of ritual violence in other ancient and modern cultures

Mixed Reality Re-assembled: Software Assemblages at the Edge of Control

In certain paradigms from commercial and engineering practice, migrated to media art, Mixed Reality (MR) is often encountered as augments viewed through a screen display. Understood as both informatic and digital, augments are supplementary content that enhance a human experience of 'reality'. My project cultivates a contrasting view of augments as emergent via human and nonhuman processes that entangle digital as well as physical spaces. Through a practice-based approach located in media art, this research contributes an artistic formulation – the software assemblage – supported by a suite of techniques and methods that attempt to re-assemble MR as an expanded practice that occurs both on and off screen. The software assemblages produced in this research, draw upon Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s machinic assemblage, a relational ecology of material elements organized by movement, as well as Karen Barad’s concept of agential realism, where nonhuman matter enacts situated modes of agency. Thinking with Donna Haraway, the software assemblage takes a diffractive approach, exploring patterns of interference in MR spaces. An analysis of selected media art practices operates in tandem with this trajectory, investigating influential work by Golan Levin and collaborators, OpenEndedGroup, Yvonne Rainer, Miya Masaoka, Adam Nash and Stefan Greuter, as well as Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau. Developing a re-figured version of MR, augments become performative as they co-emerge with my body, in media environments that assemble living plants, hardware devices, and computational networks. Augments will be apprehended not only as screen objects, but also as a mode of materiality. Emerging from this research, are techniques and methods that investigate: the performative potential of augments outside of the informatic; the Leap Motion gestural controller as a performative interface; the generation of augmented audio from the bio-electrical signals of plants; and, the extended senses of embodiment that embroil the performer. Here, signals, augments, and bodies are manifest as relational forces that diffract and modulate through the software assemblage. An alternative MR emerges that ripples through physical as well as digital space. And that's when augments exceed the informatic

California Institute of Integral Studies -- Catalog 2012-2013

This is the 2012-2013 catalog of courses, staff and faculty for the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/academiccatalogs/1024/thumbnail.jp

Hybridism: a practice-led investigation

Keele University PhD Thesi

Initialization Requirement in Developing of Mobile Learning 'Molearn' for Biology Students Using Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning is kind of learning activities that involves students’ entire capabilities in exploring and investigating particular objects or phenomenon using critical thinking skills. Recently, information technology tangibly contributes in any education aspects, including the existence of e-learning, a widely spreading learning model in the 21st century education. This study aims at initializing needs of developing mobile learning ‘Molearn’ based on inquiry-based method. By cooperating with Biology teacher community in senior high school, ‘Molearn’ provides IT-based medium in Biology learning process