7 research outputs found

    On the Evolution of the Heavenly Spheres: An Enactive Approach to Cosmography

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    The ability to view the world from multiple perspectives is essential for tackling complex, interconnected challenges. Yet conventional academic structures are designed to produce knowledge through ever-increasing specialization and compartmentalization. This fragmentation is often reinforced by tacit dualistic assumptions that prioritize linear thinking and abstract ways of knowing. Though the need for integrated approaches has been widely acknowledged, effective techniques for transcending disciplinary boundaries remain elusive. This thesis describes a practical strategy that uses immersive visualizations to cultivate transdisciplinary perspectives. It develops an enactive approach to cosmography, contending that processes of visualizing and interpreting the cosmos iteratively shape ‘views’ of the ‘world.’ The archetypal trope of the heavenly sphere is examined to demonstrate the significance of its interpretations in this history of ideas. Action research and mixed methods are employed to elucidate the theoretical considerations, cultural relevance, and practical consequences of this approach. The study begins with an investigation into the recurring appearance of the heavenly sphere across time, in which its embodied origins, metaphorical influence, and material embodiments are considered. Particular attention is given to how cosmographic tools and techniques have facilitated imaginary ‘flights’ through the heavens, from the ecstatic bird’s eye view of the shaman to the ‘Archimedean point’ of modern science. It then examines how these cosmographic practices have shaped cosmological beliefs and paradigmatic assumptions. Next, the practical utility of this approach is demonstrated through the development of cosmographic hermeneutics, a technique using visual heuristics to interpret cosmic models from transdisciplinary world views. Finally, the performative practice of cosmotroping is described, in which cosmographic hermeneutics are applied to re-imagine the ancient dream of the transcendent ‘cosmic journey’ within immersive vision theaters. This study concludes that the re-emergence of the heavenly sphere within the contemporary Digital Universe Atlas provides a leverage point for illuminating the complexity of knowledge production processes. It is claimed that this research has produced a practical strategy for demonstrating that the ultimate Archimedean point is the ability to recognize the limits of our own knowledge, a crucial first step in cultivating much-needed multi-perspectival and paradoxical spherical thinking

    Storyscape, a new medium of media

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    A storyscape is the new medium of storytelling. It originates in the model of transmedia storytelling defined by Henry Jenkins (2006a) in Convergence Culture and applied to The Matrix franchise. The storyscape medium is conceptualized from the author/designer perspective as four gestalts that create a whole from stand-alone parts. The four gestalts are mythopoeia, character, canon, and genre. This approach frames the authoring of this story-centric model in opposition to the design approaches of world-building or storyworlds. The four gestalts also provide an academic approach that unites theory and practice with a unified design vocabulary and an orientation toward the creation of a cultural and creative product that is defined as the storyscape medium. Storyscapes, such as The Star Wars franchise or the Marvel Universe, consume the lion’s share of our cultural capital (Johnson 2014). Therefore, the development of a consistent vocabulary, a design approach, and an understanding of how they create meaning and define worldviews is critical to our understanding and practice of a new medium (Dena 2009). Starting with the frame of storytelling as a practice and previous aesthetic models such as The Poetics, this research charts the evolution of the storyscape medium across topics of academic transmedia approaches, principles, affordances, and the connecting or conceptualizing principles that act as gestalts.Ph.D

    Bunker—TV, TV—Bunker: Heterotope Mechanismen am Beispiel von Schutzbauwerken und (Fernseh-)Serien

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    Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich anhand eines kurios anmutenden, aber auf einer Metaebene fruchtbaren Vergleichs von Schutzbauwerken und Fernsehserien historischen und aktuellen Mechanismen menschlichen Denkens und Handelns. Als theoretische Basis dieser Abhandlung fungiert die Heterotopie – ein Konzept des französischen Philosophen Michel Foucault. Die Heterotopie ist ein inflationĂ€r gebrauchtes, oft nur oberflĂ€chlich betrachtetes Theorem. Das Konzept wird hier nun mit Blick auf das Gesamtwerk Foucaults en dĂ©tail untersucht sowie um korrelierende AnsĂ€tze (AugĂ©, Lefebvre, Soja ...) ergĂ€nzt. Aus dieser Betrachtung lĂ€sst sich ein ĂŒber Foucault hinausgehender, analytisch nutzbarer Katalog ableiten. VerkĂŒrzt wird die Heterotopie folgendermaßen bestimmt: Neben der Definition der Heterotopie als Raum des Anderen, als (gesellschaftskritischer) Gegenraum kann sie dem wie auch immer bestimmten Normalraum unterstellt sein. Die Heterotopie ist möglicherweise eine bauliche Manifestation schwarz-weißen Denkens, von Ausgrenzung und sichtbarer Unsichtbarkeit, sie wird zur Realisation wie auch immer definierter Ideale oder Stereotypen. Die Heterotopie ist allerdings auch als ein (hybrides) Dazwischen denkbar, welches sich als katalytischer Raum, im dialektischen Sinne als Ort der Synthese Ă€ußert. Es könnte als Niemandsland oder als Phase (im Leben) charakterisiert werden. Analog zum letzten Beispiel lĂ€sst sich die Heterotopie als progressiv-seriell beschreiben. Ihre stagnierend bis variierende SerialitĂ€t kann sich im Betreten identischer RĂ€ume Ă€ußern – mal als verlĂ€sslich oder ermĂŒdend empfunden. Nicht nur die einem entsprechenden Raum entgegengebrachten Konnotationen sind vielfĂ€ltig bis ambivalent, die Heterotopie ist neben real-rĂ€umlicher auch virtueller Fasson: Betonmauer finden bisweilen eine Entsprechung im einfachen Harmoniefernsehen. Einander heterotop gegenĂŒberstehenden RĂ€umen wird etwa mit der Figur Walter White in der komplexen Fernsehserie "Breaking Bad" entsprochen – ist er doch hin und her gerissen zwischen seiner biederen, aber geliebten Familie einerseits und der abstoßend gewalttĂ€tigen, aber extrovertierende Potentiale bergenden Drogenproduktion andererseits. Die sogenannte Leihkörperschaft bzw. die Immersion lassen sich zur Beschreibung verschiedener Heterotopie-Erfahrungen nutzen. Dieses Eintauchen/Betreten wird hier als RezeptionsphĂ€nomen zwischen sensomotorischer Illusion und inhaltlich-narrativem Sog, zw. Fixierung des Körpers und Einbezug desselbigen definiert. Die beiden Untersuchungsfelder werden jeweils fĂŒr sich historisch und theoretisch umrissen. Zum noch jungen Feld serieller Theorie/der Definition narrativer Typen (im TV bzw. dem QualitĂ€tsfernsehen) wird ein einfĂŒhrender Überblick geboten. Die praktischen Arbeiten setzen sich Ă€sthetisch, narrativ und inhaltlich mit der Heterotopie auseinander: In "Habitat" und "Habitat 2" werden serielle Konzepte audiovisuell (u. a. als Fulldome-Version) erprobt. Dabei wird insbesondere das Heterotope im Konzept "Autor" untersucht – der Autor als distinkte und gleichsam konfliktbehaftete, in zahlreiche Subjekte zerlegte Figur. "Habitat 3" ist ein Publikationskonzept, welches mit etablierten (heterotopen) Strukturen des Sammelbands bricht und zugleich die heterotopen Facetten des fiktionalen Fernsehens simuliert. Band I beinhaltet sowohl den theoretischen Teil der Promotion als auch die ErlĂ€uterung der praktischen Arbeiten. Band II ermöglicht einen Einblick in die konzeptionellen Prozesse hinter den drei kĂŒnstlerischen Projekten

    Communicating the Unspeakable: Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere

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    Psychedelics can enable a broad and paradoxical spectrum of linguistic phenomena from the unspeakability of mystical experience to the eloquence of the songs of the shaman or curandera. Interior dialogues with the Other, whether framed as the voice of the Logos, an alien download, or communion with ancestors and spirits, are relatively common. Sentient visual languages are encountered, their forms unrelated to the representation of speech in natural language writing systems. This thesis constructs a theoretical model of linguistic phenomena encountered in the psychedelic sphere for the field of altered states of consciousness research (ASCR). The model is developed from a neurophenomenological perspective, especially the work of Francisco Varela, and Michael Winkelman’s work in shamanistic ASC, which in turn builds on the biogenetic structuralism of Charles Laughlin, John McManus, and Eugene d’Aquili. Neurophenomenology relates the physical and functional organization of the brain to the subjective reports of lived experience in altered states as mutually informative, without reducing consciousness to one or the other. Consciousness is seen as a dynamic multistate process of the recursive interaction of biology and culture, thereby navigating the traditional dichotomies of objective/subjective, body/mind, and inner/outer realities that problematically characterize much of the discourse in consciousness studies. The theoretical work of Renaissance scholar Stephen Farmer on the evolution of syncretic and correlative systems and their relation to neurobiological structures provides a further framework for the exegesis of the descriptions of linguistic phenomena in first-person texts of long-term psychedelic selfexploration. Since the classification of most psychedelics as Schedule I drugs, legal research came to a halt; self-experimentation as research did not. Scientists such as Timothy Leary and John Lilly became outlaw scientists, a social aspect of the “unspeakability” of these experiences. Academic ASCR has largely side-stepped examination of the extensive literature of psychedelic selfexploration. This thesis examines aspects of both form and content from these works, focusing on those that treat linguistic phenomena, and asking what these linguistic experiences can tell us about how the psychedelic landscape is constructed, how it can be navigated, interpreted, and communicated within its own experiential field, and communicated about to make the data accessible to inter-subjective comparison and validation. The methodological core of this practice-based research is a technoetic practice as defined by artist and theoretician Roy Ascott: the exploration of consciousness through interactive, artistic, and psychoactive technologies. The iterative process of psychedelic self-exploration and creation of interactive software defines my own technoetic practice and is the means by which I examine my states of consciousness employing the multidimensional visual language Glide

    Galactica, a Digital Planetarium for Immersive Virtual Reality Settings

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    The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space

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    This collection examines the overlap between religious and scientific approaches to understanding and exploring outer space, a topic that merits continued academic study. It is the hope of the editors that these works will bring new insights and suggest new directions for investigation in this burgeoning field. Too often, religion and science are seen as diametrically opposed areas of human endeavor when, in reality, many scientists are influenced by religious ideas and many religious communities are inspired by scientific ideas. Religious activity has long been an aspect of humanity and will likely continue to accompany humans, even if or when we begin to settle outer space. We anticipate that this collection will be of use to future researchers studying the intersection of religious and scientific concepts of outer space. We would like to give our thanks to the authors whose works are included here and to note that circumstances during the very challenging year of 2020 have made it difficult for everyone who expressed interest in participating in this project. We also would like to thank our son, Luke Swanson, who was so very patient while his parents’ attention was focused on “the heavens”
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