Bostonia. Volume 15

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Independence Day 1866

The grand national holiday was a quiet one in Adams County in 1866. Gettysburg was a ghost town. No fireworks. No parades. No mass celebrations. In the woods around the county, small knots of citizens gathered for picnics. Escaping the hot, dusty streets of the towns was obviously a boon for anyone who, as the Adams Sentinel put it, “embraced the opportunity of rusticating for the day.” [excerpt

Invisible design: exploring insights and ideas through ambiguous film scenarios

Invisible Design is a technique for generating insights and ideas with workshop participants in the early stages of concept development. It involves the creation of ambiguous films in which characters discuss a technology that is not directly shown. The technique builds on previous work in HCI on scenarios, persona, theatre, film and ambiguity. The Invisible Design approach is illustrated with three examples from unrelated projects; Biometric Daemon, Panini and Smart Money. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of data from a series of workshops where these Invisible Designs were discussed. The analysis outlines responses to the films in terms of; existing problems, concerns with imagined technologies and design speculation. It is argued that Invisible Design can help to create a space for critical and creative dialogue during participatory concept development

Materiality, Beauty, and Space: The Eastern Traditions as a Ressourcement for Pentecostal Worship and the Arts

Excerpt: Pentecostals have reason to feel some affinity with the more Eastern traditions.... Since liturgical worship is a central and highly developed aspect of Orthodox Church life and practice, this paper will focus specifically on the elements of materiality, beauty, and space in the tradition and worship life of the Eastern churches. To begin with, using the writings of Maximus the Confessor (d.662), a compendium of the early Eastern tradition and a foundational bridge into the full development of Byzantine theology, I will briefly sketch out some cosmological and soteriological accents which provide a context for the church’s views on materiality, beauty, and space. I will then move on to trace the refinement of these perspectives and enfranchisement into the dogmatic tradition. After a sampling of resulting Orthodox vision and practice with respect to our three foci, I will suggest some possible ways the witness of the Eastern churches might serve as a confirming and enriching resource for the further development of Pentecostal worship and the arts in the Spirit

Comment

One of the new additions to Hamilton College Library’s Communal Societies Collection noted in the last issue of ACSQ was John Evans’ Sequel to the Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World ... . In response to my comments about this work, Jerry Grant of the Shaker Museum and Library wrote: “I have in hand a copy of John Evans, A Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World ... Twelfth Edition, 1811, in which Evans clarifies some of the questions you have about the publication of extracts of the Shakers’ Testimony of Christ’s Second Appearing ...