Action at a Distance

The mediality of transmission and the materiality of communication result today more than ever in "acting at a distance" - an action whose agency lies in a medium. This book provides an overview into this crucial phenomenon, thereby introducing urgent questions of human interaction, the binding and breaking of time and space, and the entanglement of the material and the immaterial. Three vivid inquiries deal with histories and theories of mediality and materiality

Appearing Out of Nowhere: The Emergence of Spacetime in Quantum Gravity

Quantum gravity is understood as a theory that, in some sense, unifies general relativity (GR) and quantum theory, and is supposed to replace GR at extremely small distances (high-energies). It may be that quantum gravity represents the breakdown of spacetime geometry described by GR. The relationship between quantum gravity and spacetime has been deemed "emergence", and the aim of this thesis is to investigate and explicate this relation. After finding traditional philosophical accounts of emergence to be inappropriate, I develop a new conception of emergence by considering physical case studies including condensed matter physics, hydrodynamics, critical phenomena and quantum field theory understood as effective field theory. This new conception of emergence is independent of reduction and derivation. Instead, a low-energy theory is understood as emergent from a high-energy theory if it is novel and autonomous compared to the high-energy theory, and the low-energy physics is dependent (in a particular, minimal sense) on the high-energy physics (this dependence is revealed by the techniques of effective field theory and the renormalisation group). These ideas are important in exploring the relationship between quantum gravity and GR, where GR is understood as an effective, low-energy theory of quantum gravity. Without experimental data or a theory of quantum gravity, we rely on principles and techniques from other areas of physics to guide the way. As well as considering the idea of emergence appropriate to treating GR as an effective field theory, I investigate the emergence of spacetime (and other aspects of GR) in several concrete approaches to quantum gravity, including examples of the condensed matter approaches, the "discrete approaches" (causal set theory, causal dynamical triangulations, quantum causal histories and quantum graphity) and loop quantum gravity.Comment: PhD thesis submitted to the University of Sydne

Hypnagogia: The nature and function of the hypnagogic state

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.An analysis of the hypnagogic state (hypnagogia) leads to the conclusion that, far from being a simple phase of sleep, this state or process is a central phenomenon characterized by a constellation of psychological features which emerge as a function of the hypnagogic subject's loosening of ego boundaries (LEB) and are correlated with activities of subcortical structures. This analysis both facilitates the relating of hypnagogia to other states/ processes of the human organism, such as hypnosis, meditation, dreams, psi, schizophrenia, and creativity, and helps shed light on their nature. Further, hypnagogia is viewed as a circadian phenomenon. related to the basic restactivity cycle wherein it represents the cycle's dream component. As such it encompasses a variety of types of dream, the nocturnal or REM kind being only one of them. It, thus, constitutes the exemplification of a basic and pervading phenomenon herein termed Oneirosis, i.e. the need and readiness to have dreams and dreamlike experiences, such as hallucinations and quasi-hallucinations, throughout the 24 hour cycle independently of sleep and wakefulness. It is further proposed, on neurophysiological, developmental and psychological grounds, that this phenomenon is evolutionally older than sleep and wakefulness, that it has a hypometabolic and anxiety-reducing function, and that, by dint of its character of LEB, it enables the individual to slacken his ego strictness and become more tolerant as well as providing him with opportunities for more holistic experiences and continually renewed psychological orientations. Moreover, due to its unique character of riding between wakefulness and sleep, hypnagogia points to new evolutional possibilities, namely, to the establishment of a new psychological state serving collectively the functions of wakefulness, sleep, and dreaming.This work is funded by the Social Science Research Council (No. 79/20805/PSY

Key Art

Diese Arbeit untersucht Werbematerialien für Hollywood Filme (Plakate, Trailer, Websites) und etabliert das Konzept Key Art als spezifisches Genre kultureller Texte. Key Art basiert auf einer markttauglichen Idee zu einem Film, die entsprechend vorherrschender Produktions- und Konsumationsweisen visuell realisiert wird. Demzufolge vereint Key Art Dynamiken des individuellen Filmes, der Filmindustrie und des Publikums, das als bedeutende, treibende Kraft bezeichnet werden kann. Key Art zeichnet sich durch eine starke industry identity und einen hohen Wiedererkennungseffekt aus. Sowohl visuell als auch narrativ bedient sich Key Art Hypertexturen, um einerseits überhaupt als Key Art wahrgenommen zu werden, bzw. um einzelne Key Art Texte einem Film zuzuordnen, und so den zu vermarketenden Film als eigenes Produkt, aber auch innerhalb der bereits existierenden Filmwelt entsprechend zu verorten. Das dargestellte INFER Modell beschreibt die Genrestruktur von Key Art. Key Art transportiert kulturell dominante Bedeutungen und Praktiken. Bezugehmend auf das Modell Circuit of Culture beleuchtet die Arbeit integrale Aspekte der wesentlichen kulturellen Momente: Produktion, Konsumation, Identität, Regulation, und Repräsentation. Weiters wird Key Art mit Raymond Williams Gefühlsstruktur in Zusammenhang gebracht. Während Williams 'mobile privatisation' der Gesellschaft beobachtet hat, etabliert die Arbeit eine neue Gefühlsstruktur, 'private mobilisation', welche auf der Bereitschaft des Individuums, aktiv an Kollaborationen und Netzwerken teilzunehmen, die vor allem im und durch das Internet passieren, basiert - auch Web 2.0. genannt. Demenstprechend kann Key Art 2.0. verstanden werden, das sich diese neue, gelebte Alltagskultur zu Nutze macht und unter anterem auch wortwörtlich lived experience im Sinne von Raymond Williams miteinbezieht.This paper explores promotional material (posters, trailers, websites) for Hollywood movies to establish the concept of Key Art as distinctive body of cultural texts. Key Art is based on a sellable idea about a movie that is visually realized via integrating various media forms according to prevalent modes of production and consumption, therefore interweaving dynamics of the movie, of the industry and of audiences, the latter being an evergrowing forming power. Key Art employs a visual and narrative discourse that seeks to brand the respective movie by hypertextures to link the individual Key Art texts and position them in a larger cinematical context. The INFER model proposed renders the generic structure of Key Art, stressing the tasks of informing, engaging/entertaining and reminding audiences. Key Art is a vehicle for circulating dominant cultural meanings and practices. Along the model of the Circuit of Culture, integral aspects of the moments of production, consumption, identity, regulation and representation are highlighted. Taking up Raymond Williams' conception of structure of feeling, Key Art can be seen as one node, in which a structure of feeling manifests. While Williams observed a mobile privatisation of society, the paper argues for a new structure of feeling, private mobilisation, that informs our western society today and is based on individuals enjoying to actively take part in a collaborative effort, facilitated by internet-based technology, also known as web 2.0. The paper therefore finally introduces Key Art 2.0, which embraces this contemporary everyday culture, drawings on Williams idea of lived experience

Writing, Medium, Machine: Modern Technographies

Writing, Medium, Machine: Modern Technographies is a collection of thirteen essays by leading scholars which explores the mutual determination of forms of writing and forms of technology in modern literature. The essays unfold from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives the proposition that literature is not less but more mechanical than other forms of writing: a transfigurative ideal machine. The collection breaks new ground archaeologically, unearthing representations in literature and film of a whole range of decisive technologies from the stereopticon through census-and slot-machines to the stock ticker, and from the Telex to the manipulation of genetic code and the screens which increasingly mediate our access to the world and to each other. It also contributes significantly to critical and cultural theory by investigating key concepts which articulate the relation between writing and technology: number, measure, encoding, encryption, the archive, the interface. Technography is not just a modern matter, a feature of texts that happen to arise in a world full of machinery and pay attention to that machinery in various ways. But the mediation of other machines has beyond doubt assisted literature to imagine and start to become the ideal machine it is always aspiring to be. Contributors: Ruth Abbott, John Attridge, Kasia Boddy, Mark Byron, Beci Carver, Steven Connor, Esther Leslie, Robbie Moore, Julian Murphet, James Purdon, Sean Pryor, Paul Sheehan, Kristen Treen

Hunger and Public Action

This book analyses the role of public action in solving the problem of hunger in the modern world. The study is divided into four parts. The first, making extensive use of the concepts of entitlements and capabilities explores the interaction of nutritional, economic, social, and political elements and their influence on hunger and deprivation. The problem of famine prevention is the main focus of the second part, with special attention given to Africa and India. The third part is devoted to the issue of fighting chronic undernourishment and the lessons to be learnt from the policies of China, India, and some other countries. The last part draws together the main themes and concerns of the earlier chapters, and provides an integrated view of the role of public action in eliminating hunger. The study suggests that there is indeed some space for public action in solving the problem of hunger and deprivation. In the case of famine prevention, social security could provide early warning systems and employment provision plans. To fight endemic deprivation, the authors suggest, among other things, that basic health care, elementary education, and food programmes should be looked at

The new aestheticism

The rise of literary theory spawned the rise of anti-aestheticism, so that even for cultural theorists, discussions concerning aesthetics were often carried out in a critical shorthand that failed to engage with the particularity of the work of art, much less the specificities of aesthetic experience. This book introduces the notion of a new aestheticism - 'new' insofar as it identifies a turn taken by a number of important contemporary thinkers towards the idea that focussing on the specifically aesthetic impact of a work of art or literature has the potential to open radically different ways of thinking about identity, politics and culture. The appearance of a new aestheticism at a moment that is often termed 'post-theoretical' is a direct index of the extent to which, as 'theory' now enters a more reflective phase, there is an increased willingness among critics and philosophers to consider the ways in which literary and cultural theory often overlooked key aspects of its reliance on philosophical aesthetics. With its impressive array of contributors, The new aestheticism will be of particular interest to students and scholars of literature, philosophy and cultural studies