Magical urbanism:Walter Benjamin and utopian realism in the film Ratcatcher

Deploys Walter Benjamin to discuss fantastical representations of childhood and class in the film Ratcatcher

Alternative Presents and Speculative Futures: Designing fictions through the extrapolation and evasion of product lineages.

The core question addressed by this invited keynote and conference paper is how fictions are designed to negotiate, critique and realise the multiplicity of possible new technological futures. Focusing on methods, processes and strategies the presentation initially describes how things/technologies become products, employing the perspective of domestication to describe the transition from extraordinary to everyday. This development suggests a product history, a traceable lineage that goes back through generations, each one a small iteration of the previous. By modelling this lineage, design fictions can do two things: 1. Project current emerging technological development to create Speculative Futures: hypothetical products of tomorrow. 2. Break free of the lineage to speculate on Alternative Presents. These fictions effectively act as cultural litmus paper, either offering vignettes of how it might be to live with the technology in question or challenging contemporary applications of technology through demonstrable alternatives. The presentation focused on how these two types of fiction are created, how they differ from science fiction, other modes of future thinking and technological critique - more specifically how both methodologies utilise designed artefacts. What informs the development, aesthetics, behaviour, interactions and function of these objects? Once created, how and where do they operate? How can we gauge and understand their impact and meaning? As a consequence of the presentation Auger was invited to run workshops and projects in Basel (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst) and HEAD (Haute école d’art et de design), Geneva and is advising on the design of a new masters programme at the Basel Hochschule

Spartan Daily, April 19, 2004

Volume 122, Issue 49https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9983/thumbnail.jp

Repetition, pattern and the domestic: notes on the relationship between pattern and home-making

Repetition constitutes the very essence of pattern. Repetition is also the basis of our most ordinary actions. Repetitive gestures are usually so integrated in our lives that we tend to take them for granted. It is only when repetition is excessive or absent that we become aware of its importance to us. Not least because of their everyday properties, pattern and repetition are also closely related to the domain of the domestic. On the one hand, patterned artifacts, such as wallpapers, rugs, latticed curtains, and other fabrics seem to operate naturally as signifiers of an idea of domesticity, denoting privacy, comfort and, eventually, also seclusion and confinement. On the other hand, the repetitive rituals of pattern fabrication bear strong resonance with the traditional routines of household maintenance—cleaning, sorting, laundering, and so on. Not only are both dependent on a logic of continuous reiteration, but they also tend to be considered equally mindless and prosaic, as their processes are often rated inferior in comparison to less repetitive forms of production. In “Repetition, Pattern, and the Domestic” I investigate the foundations and implications of the identification between pattern and the home, drawing on material from historical, mythological, and psychological sources. This investigation aims to show how the repetitive mechanisms of pattern-making integrate the very dynamics of inhabitation, being essentially entangled, if sometimes inconspicuously, with the practice of spatial design

A holistic aboriginal framework for individual healing

This paper offers up an holistic Indigenous model of individual healing that utilizes medicine wheel teachings to break down the four aspects (spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental) of individual wellness. Teachings about each direction are presented followed by practice techniques for each aspect of the individual self. It is bookended by an introduction to the historical trauma faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada, and a conclusion that draws implications for healing

Wordsworth\u27s Lyrical Ballads, 1800

Prelude: IN the dense tracts of woodland that stretch south from Esthwaite Water, a young boy pauses amidst a copse of hazel. His chest heaves; his heart races. Brake, bramble, and thorn. Exhaustion and expectation gather in each breath, course through his body and deeper still into his soul. He eyes the trees, fingers the milk-white flowers that hang in clusters, and knows joy. His breathing slows. Leaves murmur in the breeze. His heart fills with kindness. Taking up the crook that lies in the long grass, he swings it wide. Petals fill the air, swirl around him like snow. The hazels give themselves up. Sweat beads his brow as the boy swings the crook again, and again, and again, pulling the branches to earth