A data-driven approach towards a realistic and generic crowd simulation framework

Jacob Sinclair studied and developed a data-driven approach towards a realistic and generic crowd simulation framework. He found that by using virtual reality and questionnaires, we can gather all types of real world data. He also found that an AI framework developed using all types of data can produce similar results to the real world. This AI framework has the potential to be used to improve areas such as emergency management and response, traffic control, building design, video games, etc

The Auteur Affect: "Forces of Encounter" between Shakespeare and Kurosawa in The Bad Sleep Well

ArticleThis is the final version of the article. Available from Johns Hopkins University Press via the DOI in this record.Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well is only loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, yet its themes of cruelty, revenge, social madness and singular emotional intensity are as quintessentially Shakespearean, as they are fiercely Kurosawan. Continuing the theme of this special issue on the auteur, this article examines how an author, or auteur, especially one as well defined and debated as Shakespeare or Kurosawa, can be said to generate authorial affect(s). Taking Colin MacCabe’s ‘Revenge of the Author’ as a starting point, the article moves towards a theory of authorship that is polyvalent rather than fixed, and like the text or film itself, is ‘continuously determined’ in meaning, deferring neither to the author/auteur nor reader/viewer exclusively. The Bad Sleep Well bears the marks of its authors, yet cannot be fully determined by them. The auteur, I suggest, is not dead, nor purely exalted or fetishized, but rather haunts the film, (theme, style, autobiography) conveying a myriad of ‘transindividual codes’ to be felt or sensed by the viewer. An examination through the philosophical tenets of affect theory, then, considers the idea that an absent auteur is part of a network of affects that generate sensation, and, meaning. Affect theory considers how a given exterior reality is charged by the energy of minute shifts in movement, perception, or imagination. Often this is hypothesised through the relations between a subject and an event, or an object. Enlisting this phenomenological approach, with particular focus on film form, the article demonstrates the infinite potential of authorial affect reverberating through the post-war landscape of Kurosawa’s Hamlet-inflected Tokyo

First impression : the study of entry in architecture

Entrance as an element of architecture has had an important role in the design process from the very beginning of the architecture. Its role varies according to culture and the belief of people. The characteristics of entrances are as diversified as are architectural style and historic periods. Architectural styles continue to change. New forms and technologies add to the growth of styles. All these contribute to the eclectic of design ideas. The specifics of an entrance can arise from, be complementary to or in contradiction of a style. They always serve as a mediator between interior and exterior spaces. The entrance can be meaningfully related to a building\u27s design or it may be an abstraction about a new style, or it may reference an earlier architectural style. The purpose of this study is to provide architects with a means to evaluate and analyze entrances for particular designs. Entrance can serve as a standard for the entire building, a beginning to integrate meaning with use in building elements. The study intends to demonstrate how entrances best function as a combination of aspects of history, architecture, and psychology. An entrance functions on many levels at once. A skilled architect needs to be aware of the complexity of the entrance resulting from its meaning meeting its function. For example, a high arched entrance may serve to enhance the experience of entering the building while at the same time provide a large public entry space. At a sociocultural level it can also make a statement about history either by reiterating a previous historical style, or, just as significantly, denying all prior historic models. This study begins by tracing the role of entry through periods of history in different cultures. The entries of the present time are organized under building type categories. Illustrations will be offered of each period along with an explanation of each. In addition to precedent and building types, entries can be explained through shape, form, size, color, and texture. The analysis of aesthetic criteria can then be clarified. Examples of entrances with this type of categorized will be offered. The relationship of users to meaning of entry will be examined. This includes aspects of form, usage, and decoration as they effect users. Combining these provides a means of categorizing entry under different cultures and background. The important transition between interior and exterior space may be accentuated quite differently in different parts of the world. In the orient, it is common to remove one\u27s shoes upon entering an interior space. It is important to respect the entry as the moment of transition, the interior space is protected from contamination by the outside world. In the west, entry can have meanings of similar significance, although of very different orientations, or it can simply be a hole in a wall. The appreciation of the value of entries is important. Designers should organize them to make people aware of the values in functional and aesthetic domains. Then the sense of place can be created and supported. Many criteria effect the design of entrance, and it is hard to predict the meaning that users will assign or comprehend, but we must do better in knowing the outcome of the design and how it will satisfied the people who use it. This study is to help the ideas of purposeful design of building elements and architecture

The Politics and Philosophy of Wyndham Lewis's Representations of the Body

The Politics and Philosophy of Wyndham Lewis's Representations of the Body examines the significance of representations of the body in the written work, both theoretical and fictional, of Wyndham Lewis. The central question of the thesis is: how does the body function as a ground for identity in Lewis's work? This question is addressed by looking at five thematic areas of Lewis's work, each of which forms the basis of a chapter: reality, mind-body dualism, gender, race, and the crowd. The work of Slavoj Zizek is used to argue that Lewis's theoretical work is characterised by an antipathy towards 'the passion for the Real' and a desire to maintain a belief-sustained sense of 'reality'. As a result, the body has an ambivalent status: it is both an emblem of the 'reality' of the personality and a threat to it, representing its unavoidable 'thingness', its 'Real', as it were. This ambivalence is best expressed in Lewis's fiction, where the weaknesses and inconsistencies of his theories are dramatised and exposed. Lewis's ambivalence towards the body results in a split between his theory and his rhetoric, a split that is particularly noticeable in his work on gender and race, in which initially racist and sexist language is undercut by his theoretical discomfort with the biological grounds of such rhetoric. This ambivalence characterises Lewis's often controversial politics, which cannot be understood without it being taken into account. The thesis concludes that Wyndham Lewis had a fundamentally ambivalent attitude toward the body: it fails to provide a solid ground for identity, and yet it refuses to melt completely into air. This persistence of the body makes it a crucial sticking point, and Lewis produces compelling and contradictory images of it which attest to its implacable significance in his work

Political trajectories in the painting of P. Wyndham Lewis

This thesis presents an analysis of the political dimension to the paintings of Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957).Through an exegesis of the discreet and latent "voices" in Lewis's paintings the ideological parameters of his thought world are disclosed. These imperatives are examined for their display of political predispositions, for values and attitudes, which reveal a loading towards specific socio-cultural standards. In so far as these standards can be identified with historically relevant political programmes they become manifestos for political actions. Or, at the very least, they can be seen to exist as critical and prescriptive social insights. Importantly, the focus of this examination and interpretation remains the visual image and its related texts. A key aspect of both the methodology and argument within this thesis, insists that the visual image is the bearer of meaning in both its subject matter and technique. Values are communicated not only in reference to the thing displayed, but, in the manner of the display. Hence, an analysis of the intellectual and formal strategies employed by Lewis in his painting becomes a central concern of the thesis. Finally, the thesis rounds on the actual nature of Lewis's politics as revealed in his approach to art. While it is accepted that the mediation from the political to the painted throws up many and substantial barriers, the thesis insists that a political reading of Lewis's creative work is not only appropriate but necessary. In offering just such a reading the author hopes to transcend the boundaries between the disciplines of Art History and Sociology

Towards a theory of planning aesthetics : application to university commons, Newark

A theory of planning aesthetics will be developed and discussed in relation to a portion of the university area of Newark consisting of N.J.I.T., Rutgers, Essex County College, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The site is just east of the campuses and contains the Newark Museum and the Newark Library. The aesthetics of order will be covered at a community scale (the urban context) which will then be detailed as a study of the fractile portion of that entity (the building entity) relative to open spaces which give both entities character. Important in this work is three-dimensional perception, as opposed to traditional two-dimensional planning analysis. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania provide examples of criteria used elsewhere that may guide design in Newark\u27s rebuilding. Order and randomness are the actors in aesthetics. Order is used in the classical tradition of the mathematical approach to proportioning and gridding systems. This merges into the randomness of chaos where alongside order there may be an appearance of confusion. Herein, the two are treated not as opposites but as two sides of the same coin. The criteria for using aesthetics in this way are developed in the thesis. These objectives are to establish an aesthetic purpose, an aesthetic character and a positive physical identity in the re-development of Newark. There is an energetic vitality and tremendous potential for the city of Newark to reach great heights in aesthetic planning. The urban context available to Newark with its variety of developments, construction, building styles, and ample unused land contributes to the rise of planning aesthetics via scale, proportions, linkage, and space analysis

Multi-agent geo-simulation of crowds and control forces in conflict situations : models, application and analysis

Peu de modèles et de simulations qui décrivent les comportements de foule en situations de conflit impliquant des forces de l’ordre et des armes non-létales (NLW) existent. Ce mémoire présente des modèles d’agents de la foule et des forces de l’ordre ainsi que des NLWs dans des situations de conflit. Des groupes ainsi que leurs interactions et actions collectives sont explicitement modélisés, ce qui repousse les approches de simulation de foule existantes. Les agents sont caractérisés par des profils d’appréciation de l’agressivité et ils peuvent changer leurs comportements en relation avec la Théorie de l’identité sociale. Un logiciel a été développé et les modèles ont été calibrés avec des scénarios réalistes. Il a démontré la faisabilité technique de modèles sociaux aussi complexes pour des foules de centaines d’agents, en plus de générer des données pour évaluer l’efficacité des techniques d’intervention.Few models and simulations that describe crowd behaviour in conflict situations involving control forces and non-lethal weapons (NLW) exist. This thesis presents models for crowd agents, control forces, and NLWs in crowd control situations. Groups as well as their interactions and collective actions are explicitly modelled, which pushes further currently existing crowd simulation approaches. Agents are characterized by appreciation of aggressiveness profiles and they can change their behaviours in relation with the Social Identity theory. A software application was developed and the models were calibrated with realistic scenarios. It demonstrated the technical feasibility of such complex social models for crowds of hundreds of agents, as well generating data to assess the efficiency of intervention techniques

The religious dimensions of T.S. Eliot's early life, poetry, and thought

This thesis is a contribution to the arqument that T. S. Eliot's life, poetry, and thought form a continuous,  consistent, and coherent whole. Toward this end, it explores the religious dimensions of Eliot's early readings in philosophy, anthropology, Christian mysticism, and Christian theology.The first chapter discusses Eliot's acquaintance with the work of T. E. Hulme, Irving Babbitt, and Charles  Maurras-- showing sources in their political and literary conservatism for Eliot's religious conservatism. The  following chapter, concentrating upon the impact of J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough demonstrates the ways in  which Eliot used his early anthropological readings to articulate his spiritual concerns. The next chapter  explores Henri Bergson's continuing influence upon Eliot--despite the latter's occasionally dismissive attitude toward the former--emphasizing the ways in which Bergsonism catered to Eliot's predisposition towards  mysticism. Similarly,  chapter four emphasizes the pervasive conceptual influence of F. H. Bradley who, as the  subject of Eliot's Harvard dissertation, not surprisingly appears in the language by which Eliot later articulates  his religious and poetic beliefs. Chapter five discusses Eliot's readings in mysticism during his final years at  Harvard. Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism proves a particularly active and enduring influence. The final chapter  explores the impact upon Eliot of his early reading of various Anglican divines--including, among others Lancelot Andrewes, John Donne, and Hugh Latimer.The conclusion reached is that a large part of the pattern in the carpet of Eliot's mature poetry and thought is  woven from the religious elements in his early reading. In short, Eliot's end is very much apparent in his  beginning