Myanmar Warning Board Recognition System

In any country, warning text is described on the signboards or wallpapers to follow by everybody. This paper present Myanmar character recognition from various warning text signboards using block based pixel count and eight-directions chain code. Character recognition is the process of converting a printed or typewritten or handwritten text image file into editable and searchable text file. In this system, the characters on the warning signboard images are recognized using the hybrid eight direction chain code features and 16-blocks based pixel count features. Basically, there are three steps of character recognition such as character segmentation, feature extraction and classification. In segmentation step, horizontal cropping method is used for line segmentation, vertically cropping method and bounding box is used for connected component character segmentation. In the classification step, the performance accuracy is measured by two ways such as KNN (K’s Nearest Neivour) classifier and feature based approach of template matching on 150 warning text signboard images

Whose Responsibility is it Anyway? Accountability and Standpoints for Disaster Risk Reduction in Nepal

Generalisation, universal knowledge claims, and recommendations within disaster studies are problematic because they lead to miscommunication and the misapplication of actionable knowledge. The consequences and impacts thereof are not often considered by experts; forgone as irrelevant to the academic division of labour. There is a disconnect between expert assertions for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and their practical suitability for laypersons. Experts currently assert independently of the context within which protective action measures (PAMs) are to be used, measures unconnected to the people for whom they are developed. This has knock-on effects for DRR: much expert-generated science and policy remains unused, unimplemented, and sometimes misapplied. I use philosophical accounts of assertion and epistemic blame to highlight the epistemic relationship between experts and laypersons. This relationship includes responsibilities and agreements between epistemic agents. Since multilevel DRR knowledge still transfers top-down from experts to laypersons, if experts impair the epistemic relationship, they can be held epistemically blameworthy. To address the pervasiveness of top-down systems, I analyse the epistemic framings and narratives currently shaping DRR, and more specifically PAMs and campaigns. I deconstruct universal perspectives that dominate the epistemic processes of generating, disseminating, and implementing DRR knowledge and specifically for co-seismic landslide PAMs for Nepal. I argue for more inclusive, contextual, and epistemically responsible DRR. Co-production of knowledge should begin from the standpoints of marginalised persons who may have an epistemic advantage due to their socio-politically marginalised positions. Often these epistemic contributions are left out of DRR efforts because marginalised persons are rarely afforded equal, if any, epistemic agency, which results in epistemic gaps and a large pool of relevant knowledge remaining unincorporated and unused in DRR research and policy

Narrative motion on the two-dimensional plane: the “video-ization” of photography and characterization of reality

"Art is not truth. Art is a lie that enables us to recognize truth" Pablo Picasso Time, as known to many, is an indispensable component of photography. Period(s) included in “single” photographs are usually and naturally much shorter than periods documented in video works. Yet, when it comes to combining photos taken at different times on one photographical surface, it becomes possible to see remnants of longer periods of time. Whatever method you use, the many traces left by different moments, lead to the positive notion of timelessness (lack of time dependence) due to the plural presences of time at once. This concept of timelessness sometimes carries the content of the photo to anonymity, the substance becomes multi-layered and hierarchy disappears. This paper focuses on creating photographical narratives within the two-dimensional world. The possibility of working in layers with transparency within the computer environment enables us to overlay succession of moments seized from time on top of each other, in order to create a storyline spread in time that is otherwise not possible to express in a single photograph, unless properly staged. Truth with the capital T is not taken as the departure point in this article; on the contrary, personal delineations of temporary yet experienced smaller realities is suggested

Memory, ethics and dark tourism

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit, “Memory, Ethics and Dark Tourism”, war es zu untersuchen inwiefern ein umstrittenes historisches Erbe wie Anlong Veng, die letzte Hochburg des völkermoerderischen Pol Pot Regimes in Kambodscha, als sehenswerte Dark Tourism Destination verstanden werden kann. Unter anderem war es beabsichtigt zu zeigen, dass nur unter Berücksichtigung der Bedeutung der Stätte für Kambodschaner selbst eine angemessene Einschätzung der touristischen Erfahrung dort erreicht werden kann. Letztlich wurde untersucht inwiefern das Denkmal gleichzeitig auch seine eigentliche Hauptintention, die Förderung des Wiederversöhnungsprozesses in Kambodscha, vorantreibt. Für die Untersuchung wurden interdisziplinäre als auch qualitative Methoden verwendet. Mit Hilfe der Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) wurden fünf Reiseblogeinträge aus dem Internet auf Erfahrungen der internationalen Touristen untersucht. Die qualitativen Forschungsdaten resultierten aus fünf qualitativen Leitfadeninterviews mit Experten in den Bereichen Wiederversöhnung und Erinnerung, aufgenommen in Phnom Penh, Kambodscha. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass moralische Bedenken durchaus gerechtfertigt sind und der Besuch der Stätte von internationalen Touristen als nicht lohnenswert empfunden wird. Unter anderem wurde jedoch herausgefunden, dass das westliche Verständnis von Moral, sowie die Erwartungen bezüglich des Managements solcher Stätten, nicht auf den kambodschanischen Kontext übertragen werden können, sowie dass das historische Erbe Anlong Vengs durchaus einen positiven Einfluss auf den nationalen Wiederversöhnungsprozess haben kann. Die Schlussfolgerung besteht daraus, dass die Bedeutung des Besuchs vom Bewustsein und Interagieren mit der Stätte, während der kulturellen Begegnung, abhängt.The purpose of the present thesis, “Memory, Ethics and Dark Tourism”, was to investigate to what extent a contested heritage site like Anlong Veng, the last stronghold of the genocidal Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, can be experienced as a dark tourist destination worth visiting. It was attempted to show, that a proper assessment of morally questionable sites such as Anlong Veng can only be reached if the meaning of such sites for the affected themselves is taken into consideration. Finally, it was intended to examine how far the site is able to reach its overall objective to foster the reconciliation process in Cambodia in the meantime. The research was conducted by means of interdisciplinary and qualitative methods. With the aid of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) five internet travel weblogs have been analyzed regarding the experiences of international visitors on site. The qualitative research data consisted of five in-depth interviews with experts in the field of reconciliation and remembrance, conducted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The results revealed that moral concerns are justified and also that the site is experienced as not worth visiting by international tourists. However, it was also discovered that Western perceptions of morality and proper heritage management are not applicable to the Cambodian context, as well as that the contested site can be in a metaphorical sense very valuable for Cambodians themselves. The principal conclusion was that the significance and value of visiting such a site depends on the consciousness of the visitor and how he interacts during the cultural encounter

Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Aesthetics, Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media

The Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade and the Society for Aesthetics of Architecture and Visual Arts of Serbia (DEAVUS) are proud to be able to organize the 21st ICA Congress on “Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics: Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media”. We are proud to announce that we received over 500 submissions from 56 countries, which makes this Congress the greatest gathering of aestheticians in this region in the last 40 years. The ICA 2019 Belgrade aims to map out contemporary aesthetics practices in a vivid dialogue of aestheticians, philosophers, art theorists, architecture theorists, culture theorists, media theorists, artists, media entrepreneurs, architects, cultural activists and researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. More precisely, the goal is to map the possible worlds of contemporary aesthetics in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. The idea is to show, interpret and map the unity and diverseness in aesthetic thought, expression, research, and philosophies on our shared planet. Our goal is to promote a dialogue concerning aesthetics in those parts of the world that have not been involved with the work of the International Association for Aesthetics to this day. Global dialogue, understanding and cooperation are what we aim to achieve. That said, the 21st ICA is the first Congress to highlight the aesthetic issues of marginalised regions that have not been fully involved in the work of the IAA. This will be accomplished, among others, via thematic round tables discussing contemporary aesthetics in East Africa and South America. Today, aesthetics is recognized as an important philosophical, theoretical and even scientific discipline that aims at interpreting the complexity of phenomena in our contemporary world. People rather talk about possible worlds or possible aesthetic regimes rather than a unique and consistent philosophical, scientific or theoretical discipline