Understanding the efficient parallelisation of Cellular Automata on CPU and GPGPU hardware

Cellular automata, represented by a discrete set of elements are ideal candidates for parallelisation, particularly on graphics cards using GPGPU technology. This paper shows that the speedups of 50 times over CPU are possible but that the hardware is only partially responsible and the memory model is vital to exploiting the additional computational power of the GPU

An investigation of the efficient implementation of Cellular Automata on multi-core CPU and GPU hardware

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing Vol. 77 (2015), DOI: 10.1016/j.jpdc.2014.10.011Cellular automata (CA) have proven to be excellent tools for the simulation of a wide variety of phenomena in the natural world. They are ideal candidates for acceleration with modern general purpose-graphical processing units (GPU/GPGPU) hardware that consists of large numbers of small, tightly-coupled processors. In this study the potential for speeding up CA execution using multi-core CPUs and GPUs is investigated and the scalability of doing so with respect to standard CA parameters such as lattice and neighbourhood sizes, number of states and generations is determined. Additionally the impact of ‘Activity’ (the number of ‘alive’ cells) within a given CA simulation is investigated in terms of both varying the random initial distribution levels of ‘alive’ cells, and via the use of novel state transition rules; where a change in the dynamics of these rules (i.e. the number of states) allows for the investigation of the variable complexity within.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Aura in the post-digital: a diffraction of the curatorial archive

study questions the role of aura, authenticity and the artefact in exhibitions in the postdigital context and aims to explore this subject by a diffraction of curatorial strategies from the past. The research explores how curation can influence our understanding of the auratic in the post-digital by using methodologies of anamnesis (a ‘working through’ of elements from the curatorial archive) and diffraction (Haraway/ Barad) to rework curatorial strategies from a past exhibition. The research takes as starting point ‘Les Immatériaux’, curated by Thierry Chaput and Jean- François Lyotard at the Pompidou Centre in 1985. This exhibition was, in part, a curatorial exploration of the relationship between the artefact and its technological reproduction (Benjamin’s auratic object and Steyerl’s ‘poor image’). The aim is to explore whether an anamnesis and diffraction of strategies from this exhibition might offer insight into contemporary notions of the relationship between aura and the artwork in the post-digital, by putting them in conjunction, superimposed and diffracted through one another. This involves curating ‘diffraction apparatuses’ which revisited and reworked curatorial strategies from ‘Les Immatériaux’, including three iterations of a physical exhibition, an online glossary and a virtual reality walk-round of the exhibition. The research investigates the affordances of a diffractive curatorial frame, rather than an interpretative one and theorises a diffractive curatorial approach through practice. It adds to curatorial discourse which has not significantly engaged with diffraction as a practice-based methodology. The study offers insights into the impact of technology (accelerated by a global pandemic) on curatorial thinking and notions of the auratic now. It also explores how the now prevalent virtual reality walk-throughs of exhibitions affect our experience of aura and the production of ‘exhibitionary knowledge’. By drawing together Benjamin’s later conception of aura and Barad’s diffractive approach, ultimately it makes a claim for aura as intra-action and the exhibition as an auratic medium, in its performative superposition of artworks and subjects

Advanced Instrumentation and Methodology Related to Cryoultramicrotomy: A Review

This review is concerned with the considerable progress in the field of cryo-ultramicrotomy (cryofixation, cryosectioning, investigation and analysis of cryosections) during recent years. This progress includes both more efficient instrumentation and methodology. The article is mainly directed to the investigation and analysis of frozen-hydrated sections in the low dose cryo-transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and cryo-energy filtered TEM (EFTEM). A general survey is followed by an evaluation of the different relevant procedures. Both cryo-ultramicrotomy for macromolecular cytochemistry (Tokuyasu technique) and cryo-ultramicrotomy for element analysis are only shortly mentioned without discussion of the chemical and analytical approach. Because of lack of first hand experience, cryo-sectioning for X-ray microanalysis in the frozen-hydrated state according to Hall and Gupta is not included into this review. The methods and instruments required for ultrathin sectioning at low temperatures are described and discussed in detail. This concerns the preceding cryofixation, the cryosectioning itself with special emphasis to the required stability and precision of the cryo-ultramicrotome, the characteristics of the knives, the charging phenomena due to sectioning and the subsequent TEM investigation including EFTEM with electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) and the available accessories for digital low dose registration of signals

Intelligent cities? Disentangling the symbolic and material effects of technopole planning practices in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

Cyberjaya was heralded in the mid-1990s as the Multimedia Super Corridor's (MSG) flagship 'intelligent city' and designed to prepare Malaysia and its citizens for a giant leap forward into an imagined new 'information age'. The urban mega-project constituted a state led response to the much hyped 'Siliconisation of Asia' and was planned to fast-track national development through investment in information and communications technologies (ICTs). The thesis seeks to examine how the discursive architectures of the 'information society' were mobilised, by whom, and with what material consequences as technopole planning practices were inscribed on the Malaysian landscape. Ten years on from the excessive high-tech utopianism and urban boosterism that accompanied the city's launch, the thesis promotes qualitative methodologies to examine the critical human geographies of the MSG. Specifically, empirical analysis addresses the uneven socio-spatial consequences and 'splintering urbanisms' manifesting in Malaysia's emerging spaces of neoliberal modernity. Research methodologies included in-depth interviews with political and business elites in Malaysia, participant observation with residents and workers in Cyberjaya, and a critical discourse analysis of the MSG policy and promotional materials. To this end, the thesis seeks to disentangle the symbolic and material effects of technopole planning practices in Cyberjaya

Eros, women and technology

Eros, Women, and Technology seeks to address the potential of a vibrant position for the body and a vital role for women in technoculture. The important job of imagining and re-imagining the potential of technologies to bring benefits, costs, and concomitant effects requires a plurality of approaches. Using a highly interdisciplinary methodology, I focus on an original project of research-creation undertaken between 1998 and 2011, featuring video interviews with thirteen contemporary artists and designers. Participants' personal stories were gathered using my radical method of nude narrative enquiry, and analysed using affinity mapping to identify important questions regarding erotic experience, expression and imagination, body image, pregnancy and mothering, and relationships between mothers and daughters. Themes of the erotic body and technology in education, family life, creative practices, and intellectual and professional pursuits, uncover a range of technological contents and discontents. Through an examination of the history of women's education, a positive chronology of their historical achievements is reported. Theoretical grounding is established through the Chora as conceptual locus for the female body in creative and technological practices. Related thinking of second- and third-wave feminists Balsamo, Battersby, Braidotti, Butler, Grosz, Irigaray, and Young addresses issues of female bodies, maternity, relationships, and the place of women in technoculture. The role of the camera as a favoured technological tool is examined through the work of photographic pioneers Julia Margaret Cameron, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, and Francesca Woodman, and parallels are drawn through my videographic artworks. Arendt, Blixen, Cavarero, and Kristeva provide theoretical framing for narrative in contemporary art and design projects using mobile technologies to locate and disseminate compelling personal and community stories. Insights are offered into the lives of creative women research participants who reinvigorate ways of thinking, making, and Being in technoculture. Concluding concepts, ideas, recommendations, and strategies are offered to inspire wider consideration. Original research expands from the narratives and professional practices of intellectuals, artists, and designers to build a better understanding of women's individual efforts, and collective work, on the frontlines of eroticism, creative making, and technological change