The effect of electronically mediated sound on group musical interaction: A case study of the practice and development of the Automatic Writing Circle

The interaction between musicians has been one of the traditional strengths of music: it stretches to include an audience and ritual participants but has its origins in group activity, the interpersonal responses of one musician to another. This thesis examines the way that electronic media have transformed the interactions between musicians, particularly in the context of live performance. A central theme is the way in which mediatisation creates new splits within previously integrated musical situations and also merges differences usually defined by physical boundaries. The theories of Gregory Bateson on schizophrenia and Irving Goffman on Situationism are brought together to create a new understanding of the term "schizophonia". This rehabilitated concept is proposed as the key to a creative exploration of new situations and discontinuities which make up group performance in a mediatised environment. In practical terms the exploration of new musical situations is documented in the following projects: the material created for the group "Automatic Writing Circle" during its evolution over a period of six years (compositions, software, instruments), development of the Ouija Board and accompanying software, composition of the piece Lipsync and the earlier piece I slept by numbers for flute and live electronics

The study of territoriality in distributed workplaces

In this session, I will present how I came to consider territoriality in telework studies and how this can lead to major changes in the way we study organizations

Machine therapy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. [137]-146).Machine Therapy is a new practice combining art, design, psychoanalysis, and engineering work in ways that access and reveal the vital, though often unnoticed, relevance of people's interactions and relationships with machines. Machine Therapy will be illustrated through the construction of several systems including re-appropriated domestic devices such as Blendie, wearble apparatuses such as ScreamBody, and body-signal-based companion machines - Umo, Amo, and Omo - that function through visceral interactions including breathing and non-verbal sounds. These systems will be used to explore themes of human-machine relations in terms of visceral, cathartic, and reflexive expressions and communications. This work incorporates elements from my technical research in digital signal processing, machine learning, mechanical engineering, and sensor design. Combining these areas of research and practice, I have been able to help manifest new objects and relationships that are unique in some aspects while maintaining quotidian familiarity in other aspects. These apparatuses enable unusual explorations of what we interact with when we interact with machines. I hypothesize that the answer will turn out to be much more than the machine itself, and will include our sense of self, agency in the interpersonal and political world, and our shared psychological, emotional, cultural, and perceptual approaches to the world. The importance of the parapractic elements and also the therapeutic properties of the Machine Therapy machines will be evaluated in studies of participants' interactive engagements with the machines as well as their affective responses to the machines.Kelly Dobson.Ph.D

The Impacts of Macro-Political Structures on the Influence of Municipalities, Traditional Land Users, and Indigenous Governance Structures in EIA Processes

Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are recognized as a vital planning tool in insuring the sustainable development of resource dependent communities. However, critics point out that the lack of efficiency and efficacy in the process impedes EIAs full potential. One dynamic often criticized for hindering this potential is politics, while there is a consensus that EIAs are inherently political how politics impacts the process is still poorly understood. Part of this is attributed to the limited EIA literature studying the root of politics: power. This thesis will study power and politics in EIA by using an analytical framework based on Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory to examine the impacts of macro political structures on stakeholder dynamics. By conducting an in-depth comparative case study on two EIAs for mining projects, one in Northern Saskatchewan and one in Northern Norway, this thesis identifies that indigenous peoples in the Northern Saskatchewan case had more influence on the EIA process than their Norwegian counterparts, while the local level government in the Norwegian case had more opportunities to influence the EIA process than the local governments in Northern Saskatchewan. The study finds that these differences can largely be attributed to differences in the macro political structures, such as indigenous rights and the authority of different levels of governance, in each country

Spatial Transformations

This book examines a variety of subjective spatial experiences and knowledge production practices in order to shed new light on the specifics of contemporary socio-spatial change, driven as it is by inter alia, digitalization, transnationalization and migration. Considering the ways in which emerging spatial phenomena are conditioned by an increasing interconnectedness, this book asks how spaces are changing as a result of mediatization, increased mobility, globalization and social dislocation. With attention to questions surrounding the negotiation and (visual) communication of space, it explores the arrangements, spatialities and materialities that underpin the processes of spatial refiguration by which these changes come about. Bringing together the work of leading scholars from across diverse range disciplines to address questions of socio-spatial transformation, this volume will appeal to sociologists and geographers, as well as scholars and practitioners of urban planning and architecture

White Paper 5: Brain, Mind & Behaviour

© CSICThe study of the brain will tell us what makes us humans and how our social behavior generates. Increasing our understanding of how the brain functions and interacts with the ecosystem to interpret the world will not only help to find effective means to treat and/or cure neurological and psychiatric disorders but will also change our vision on questions pertaining to philosophy and humanities and transform other fields such as economy and law. Neurosciences research at the CSIC is already valuable and should be intensified mainly focused on the eight major challenges described in this volume

Challenge 2: From genes & circuits to behavior

Understanding the brain from genes and circuits to behavior is a major scientific challenge. The large repertoire of cell activities supporting behavior stems from an equally diverse range of specialized cell types, from neuron to glia. To untangle mechanisms underlying brain function, elementary processes should be dissected, from the complex machinery of signaling pathways at the level of single cells and synapses, to the intricate phenomena leading to orchestrated ensemble activity and the establishment of engrams driving memory-guided behaviors. In this chapter we identify the main key tasks required to address some of the open questions in the field, and discuss on the main issues and strategies

Fielding Design, Design Fielding:Learning, Leading & Organising in New Territories

A framing question; What does (meaningful) collaboration look like in action? led to the search for and identification of a polycontext, a site where advanced collaborative activity is intelligible. This research aims to explore how the epistemic foundations of learning and design theory can adapt to collaborative approaches to organizing, learning and leadership as the macro-economic transition of digital transformation proceeds. Through embedded ethnographic engagement within a learning organization facilitating group-oriented, design-led collaborative learning experiences, a case study investigates multiple sites within a global organizational network whose distinctive methodology and culture provides a setting emblematic of frontier digital economic activity. The organization’s activity generates environments which notionally act as boundary sites where negotiation of epistemic difference is necessitated, consequently distinctive forms of expertise in brokerage and perspective-taking arise to support dynamic coordination, presenting a distinct take on group-oriented learning. Comprising interacting investigation of communities of facilitators and learning designers tasked to equip learners with distinctive forms of integrative expertise, with the objective of forming individuals adept at rapid orientation to contingent circumstances achieved by collaborative organizing. In parallel, investigating narratives of an organization’s formation led to grounded theory about how collaborative activity is enabled by shared reframing practices. Consequently, the organization anticipates and reshapes the field it operates within, the research discusses scalar effects of learning communities on industry work practices. The inquiry interrogates design-led learning and expertise formation apt for transformative activity within and beyond the digital economy. Exploring how methodological innovations within collaborative learning organizations are enacted and scaled, primary perspectives on design-led, group-oriented learning are evaluated alongside relevant secondary theoretic perspectives on collaborative organizing, learning and leading. The study synthesizes contributions that point to expansions of existing learning paradigms and anticipates how collaborative learning by design intervenes with the schematic assumptions at work in individuals, communities and fields. Observational insight, systematic analysis and theoretical evaluation are applied to problematize assumptions underlying social theory to anticipate generational expansions to the design methods field which responds to inadequacies in planning and organizing approaches applied by design. The research attempts to habituate understanding from outside design methods to better equip an explanatory understanding of contemporary design-led learning and expertise formation occurring in modern professional structures, especially in the creative industries. Together, the research investigates how learners navigate challenges of organizing, learning and leading into unseen territories