Towards critical medical practice : nursing practice and an EMR system

A focus on critique as a form of theory within critical management studies (CMS) and critical information systems research (CISR) leads to concerns about the impact of critique on the transformation of practice and about the active role of practitioners. The emphasis on theory also prevents insight into the heterogeneous nature of critical practices. This paper develops a posthumanist approach to critique. A case is analysed where an electronic medical record (EMR) information system is introduced in a hospital. The focus is on tracing the effect of this system on the work of nurses. It is shown how the system entails the marginalisation and reduction of the professional expertise and knowledge of nurses. Where critical theories are able to identify, analyse and evaluate the forms and extent of this marginalisation, the focus in this article is on the ways in which the nurses enact a reality that is different from the one prescribed by the EMR. The differential enactment of reality is achieved through a heterogeneous assemblage that consists of various agents such as nurses, computer workstations, paper and meetings. The practice of the nurses is defined here as a material form of critique. It is not the traditional form of critique which articulates and evaluates the embedded ideologies, but one which enacts a reality that could be seen as emancipatory. It is concluded that the focus on the heterogeneous nature of critical practices creates the conditions for a more sustained form of critique

Manifolds, patterns and transitions in a creative life

Using sculpture and drawing as my primary methods of investigation, this research explores ways of shifting the emphasis of my creative visual arts practice from object to process whilst still maintaining a primacy of material outcomes. My motivation was to locate ways of developing a sustained practice shaped as much by new works, as by a creative flow between works. I imagined a practice where a logic of structure within discrete forms and a logic of the broader practice might be developed as mutually informed processes. Using basic structural components of multiple wooden curves and linear modes of deployment – in both sculptures and drawings – I have identified both emergence theory and the image of rhizomic growth (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) as theoretically integral to this imagining of a creative practice, both in terms of critiquing and developing works. Whilst I adopt a formalist approach for this exegesis, the emergence and rhizome models allow it to work as a critique of movement, of becoming and changing, rather than merely a formalism of static structure. In these models, therefore, I have identified a formal approach that can be applied not only to objects, but to practice over time. The thorough reading and application of these ontological models (emergence and rhizome) to visual arts practice, in terms of processes, objects and changes, is the primary contribution of this thesis. The works that form the major component of the research develop, reflect and embody these notions of movement and change

Not Flying as Anticipatory Critique

In this commentary I contribute to discussions about the possibilities for postcarbon conferencing by drawing on my own experience of deciding not to fly. In this piece I explain how my epistemological position of reflexive critique cultivated within my home discipline of anthropology became compromised in the face of an increasing awareness and understanding of climate change. Reflexivity here operated not as a liberatory form but as a mode of thinking that stifled and closed down possibilities for acting in a climatologically engaged way. I describe how I came to rethink my own academic practice through a shift from epistemological reflexivity to material reflexivity and how this opened up the possibility of not flying as a legitimate mode of academic critique. In conclusion I describe some of the conceptual and intellectual openings that such a practice of critique is capable of generating, with a view to expanding the terrain of the possible to include transgressions that might eventually need to become the norm in a climate-changing world

Theology and Ideology Critique

In modern philosophy, the concept of ideology has been a problem for the relationship of theology to politics. Especially in its Marxist usage, “ideology” refers to a specific effect that theology has in modern society so as to conceal or hide the material facticity that shapes human life and practical activity. This is one of the many reasons why theology, even in its political form, has not taken up “ideology” as a matter inherent to its critical form. The absence of theoretical attention to ideology in theology itself has led to the deficit of immanent critique, especially in political theology. However, theology and ideology are showing up together in an area where one is least likely to expect it: radical critical theory. Critical theory has repeatedly taken up theology and ideology critique together, so as to use the emancipatory potential of theology to address major political questions amidst our acute awareness of social crisis and political impasse. My dissertation analyzes key theological and philosophical interlocutors (e.g., Slavoj Zizek, Johann Baptist Metz, Paul Tillich, Marcella Althaus-Reid, Theodor Adorno, etc) that represent major trajectories in these two discourses – modern political theology and contemporary political philosophy – in order to promote the role of immanent critique in political theology. This is important because it clarifies the function of ideology critique (and critique in general) in Christian political theology. It also foregrounds how contemporary theories of ideology are mediating the relation of theology to politics, a matter of increased importance given the recent “turn to religion” in contemporary politics and culture? Can political theology still provide norms for establishing a just, egalitarian, and solidaristic social order after critical theory? This dissertations sketches a critical theology that retrieves critique as an intrinsic theological concept in political theology; this redefines theology away providing norms and towards the practice of critique, but does so without depreciating its thoroughly political nature

Soul models: rationalization and the art of subjectivity.

In the exchange between theory and practice, art is appropriated as a creative mode of enquiry, a differential form of knowledge and experience in the processes of rationalization. As a differential in knowledge, art is explored as the practice of composition making differences out of established rationales - the discrete disciplines that find stability in economic, pedagogic and scientific discourse. As a differential in experience, art may contain the potential to destabilize social, historical and political constitutions of sense, working as an interference pattern in the production and reproduction of rational subjects. The academic distillation of the artist's know how into the 'art of subjectivity', draws both the subjects and objects of knowledge into this critical space of composition, a dynamic space of contestation in which the artist acquires the capacity to become an agent of cultural change. As a cultural and critical formation, the 'art of subjectivity' reactivates the art historical tradition of institutional critique. Re-evaluated through the critical and philosophical components of the doctoral research, the material rendition of institutional critique is configured as a series of artistic engagements with the procedural and regulatory codes of practice that comprise the info-structure of instrumental reason. Through a gradual synthesis of process and product, the 'art of subjectivity' begins to merge with the arts (techniques) of rationalization, drawing upon rather than resisting the bureaucratic, informational, scientific-technical and semiotic energies of political economy

The effects of argumentation on student motivation in mathematics

As a future educator, I am going to need to motivate my students to learn mathematics and be engaged deeply with the material. Because mathematics is a required subject for students, mathematics teachers must employ various strategies to motivate their students. Something that has motivated me in past mathematics courses has been the chance to form arguments and defend them in class. Argumentation in mathematics classrooms has been included in the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice as Practice Standard 3: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). I would like to use argumentation extensively in my future classroom, because I enjoyed it as a student and it helped me learn and engage with mathematical concepts. However, I do not know if it will be a motivator for my students like it was for me, and I would like to see evidence before I use it extensively in my future classroom. The purpose of this research is to inform my future practice by studying the effects of argumentation, specifically the implementation of the Common Core Standard for Mathematical Practice, related to constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), on student motivation in secondary mathematics classrooms. I also hope that I can draw attention to this topic so that those who are interested can help contribute to the literature concerning a substantive connection between the two ideas of argumentation and motivation. To focus my research, I have developed the following research question: Does meeting Common Core Standard for Mathematical Practice 3, “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others,” affect student motivation in mathematics classrooms

The pre-material: Potentials of the infrastructural as applied form

This thesis will develop the concept of the pre-material as a structure constitutive of meaning and furthermore investigate its potential within the material and immaterial relations of society. The ‘critique of infrastructure’ (Marina Vishmidt, 2016) as a theoretical concept that tackles the relationality of material and social conditions will serve as the framework within which the pre-material will be situated. Subsequently, an introduction to the theoretical concepts that I will draw upon in the course of my argumentative structure will be followed by an application of the subject matter. Thus, chapter 1 will use examples to articulate the pre-material, while exploring the image as a concept that is representative as well as constitutive of meaning. These characteristics will be illustrated through theories and practical examples within the realm of photography. Ultimately, I will introduce the pre-material as form, that is, as both activity and category. The second chapter will introduce the work of the photographers, activists, historians and educators Jo Spence (1934-1992) and Terry Dennett (1938-2018) as an example of applied infrastructural, or pre-material practice. I focus on them due to their targeting of ideological conventions as constructs within which they actively intervene in order to change socially coded meaning and secondly. Another reason for their relevance is the nature of their practice which equates material products and the activities that stand behind them. Furthermore, I will lay out an elaboration of archival material, through which I will illustrate the different fields of action within their work. The last chapter consists of an introduction to my own practice and an artistic realisation of the pre-material as form. I developed this form in tandem with my theoretical research, which passes through different systems creative of meaning, in order to articulate the pre-material as a self-sufficient producer of meaning. Through my practice I will furthermore articulate my findings regarding the nature of the pre-material as (a) active as opposed to representative and (b) a relation between material conditions and ideological projections deriving from them

Venus rising, Furies raging: bodies redressed in contemporary visual art

The research centres on the power of the female body in activist feminist art as a medium for women's experience. The survey of visual representations of women's bodies in historical art and contemporary feminist practice, together with investigation of the enduring debates within feminism about the signification of bodies, led to a conviction that imaging of the body remains a central issue for creative practice. More specifically, the research problematises the residual 'essentialism' attributed to women through representations of their bodies whereby (stated simply and in the context of feminist theory and practice), women are assumed to share unique, unchanging and, hence, 'essential' attributes. Furthermore, this spectre of essentialism, and the debate about this concept during the second wave of feminism, presents, I argue, ongoing implications for the contemporary politics of representation in an activist practice and for the methodology of creative practice research. The resulting extended analysis of feminist theory and art practice has led to the adoption of parafeminism as articulated by Amelia Jones (2006, 2008, 2009) and extended by Laura Castagnini (2013, 2015a, 2015b) to enlist parodic humour to invigorate representations of the body amid the shifting appropriations of feminism and femininity in contemporary culture. Parafeminism, in its dual orientation of avowal and critique of past feminist art, enables scrutiny of some lingering ambiguities in aspects of second wave feminist art. In the exegesis, this is traced to the 1970s, when feminists contested the historical signification of 'nature' in patriarchal imaging of women's bodies and the resulting critique (within feminism) of 'essentialism'. Artists adopted a range of approaches to the body to address or circumvent this critique. Issues stemming from the debates and practices remain, I argue, unresolved for contemporary artists and are readdressed in the parafeminist works created for exhibition. 'Woman as nature' and the 'nature of woman' are therefore posed as axes of a lingering contradiction that is experimentally redressed in the works in which (female) bodies are represented in a range of media, forms and spaces, and using diverse methods, notably the second-wave techniques of collage and femmage. My research on the debates about essentialism debates propelled me to adopt a strategic form of essentialism as an element of parafeminist parody, whereby the spectacle and politics of the woman/nature nexus are critically embraced, rather than evaded, as a necessary tactic to convey the subjective experiences of women, while recognising that no universal experience exists. In Venus Rising, Furies Raging: Bodies Redressed, figures from classical mythology (Venus and the Furies) are counterpointed with contemporary popular culture figures and images of women, and the evocative power of meaning in materials is explored in femmage-based installations. The works celebrate, pay homage to and playfully parody second-wave feminist art and the surrounding debates about its perceived essentialism, while affirming the female body as a motif and site of resistance in contemporary activist practice. Selected works by contemporary artists are examined and situated as parafeminist precedents for their comparable use of motifs, methods and materials. The parafeminist remit is expanded through examination of Castagnini's claims for the potency of parody of feminist art, derived from Linda Hutcheon's (2000, 2002) notion of postmodern parody as 'critical distance', and Griselda Pollock's (2007) notion of time and the archive in the 'virtual feminist museum'. Examination of the contextualising literature and visual practice contributes to the formulation of a set of guiding principles for the practice, summarised as the aims to: connect with and celebrate the achievements of earlier feminist practices, while engaging creatively with the history of the debate about essentialism; contest the connection between the body and nature (or what is 'natural') in visual representation; recollect, restore and revision images of women's bodies; apply humorous and parodic critique of appropriated imagery; embody meaning in materials and evoke sensual and aesthetic pleasure in looking for women looking at art about women. Through the application of these principles, the political potential and material effects of images of the female body are enacted in the works created. An Interconnective model of Creative Practice Research (CPR) is presented in the exegesis as a framework for the expansion of contemporary feminist practice. The Interconnective model develops and extends CPR, which combines engagement in theoretical debate with informed application of contemporary and historical artistic practices. The project therefore interconnectively extends activist art practice through a process of engagement with, and critique of, parafeminism. The research contributes substantial documentation of prevalent strategies in feminist art over a lengthy period to identify issues concerning representations of the body, and in particular the problem of essentialism in relation to imaging of bodies. This documentation, in the form of a Data Repository, is appended to the exegesis (Appendix 1). My critical appraisal of the debates relating to essentialism provide new knowledge about the history of these discourses and how they influenced the course of contemporary feminist art practices. This knowledge, and my analysis of the concept of the virtual feminist archive, comprise a significant critique of the theory of parafeminism and the claims of an impasse in feminist art made by Jones (2006, p. 14; 2008 p. 9) (Chapters One and Two). Informed by this critique of parafeminist theory, I reflect on the work of a group of artists – Pipilotti Rist, Kate Davis, Deborah Kelly and Sally Smart – who present specific precedents to my adoption of parafeminist parody in the creative practice (Chapter Three). I contribute new analytic perspectives on the works of Rist, Davis, Kelly and Smart, which illuminate how their representations of bodies are reinvigorated by the use of diverse materials and methods, inspired by earlier activist feminist practices. Utilising such diverse media, particularly collage and femmage, I apply a strategically essentialist approach to portraying the body to intervene constructively in contemporary cultural discourses. This approach eludes the impasse of 'bad girl' feminist art and offers a potentially pleasurable experience for a range of audiences (Chapters Two and Three). The decision to work with the classical figures of Venus and the Furies, and my investigation of their representations in historical (patriarchal), popular cultural and contemporary feminist art expands knowledge of these mythical bodies as motifs and bearers of meaning. Iterations of Venus and the Furies in a parafeminist framework widen the range of their meaning and relevance for contemporary feminist practice (Chapters Three, Four and Five). As parafeminist practice critically attends to historical and contemporary feminist practices, it is facilitated by the Interconnective methodology that I have devised for this project. Interconnective creative practice research represents an innovation upon Connective methodology, especially in its elevation of the role of a set of guiding principles for formulating a cohesive research practice. While Jones's theory of parafeminism is critically appraised, its dual aims of critique and celebration of earlier feminist art are upheld in the creative practice, which adopts a limited, strategic, parodic and, hence, critically-allusive 'essentialism' to affirm the centrality of the body as a motif of women's subjectivities and experiences

Paint: It is pre-occupation with space

Painting and space are two terms often spoken of concurrently in the critique of painting. Some of the ways that painting has investigated space on and off the picture plane is by developing a pictorial language that manipulates surface, form and matter. Over time investigations into what painting can be has developed a visual language that is able to dip in and out of paintings tradition while persistent investigations into space within painting has allowed individual practice to branch into three-dimensions and perhaps further. This enquiry begins with the Pre-Renaissance. This is an era within painting’s history that is heavily laden with Religious iconography and the beginnings of Western Perspectival painting. Yet some of the paintings of this era are still able to engage a viewer physically, mentally and emotionally even now, centuries later. Lucio Fontana’s claim that a spatial artwork is not reliant on form uncovers the notion that a spatial artwork should move freely through time and space. A focus on painting in its expanded field reveals how the manipulation of painting’s spatial constructs is instrumental in the pursuit of a “truly spatial” artwork. Painting’s expansion may have broadened its material and aesthetic possibilities, but at its core, painting has worked within its foundation as a practice that works with the tension between spatial reality and spatial illusion. Exploring this tension reveals how working within a system of contradictions can open a dialogue with the body that elicits affect and an artwork’s spatial possibilities. The accompanying creative work to this enquiry engages with the notion that painting inherently engages with space. By working within a dialogue of pictorial and material tensions

In the Beginning...Was the Act!: Zizek, Marx, and the Question of Form

In almost all commentary on the work Slavoj iek the question of his relationship to the thought of Karl Marx is either ignored or indirectly addressed in terms of his relationship to contemporary thinkers. This is best exemplified in discussions of what is ieks most significant contribution to todays growing swell of left-wing political theory: the critique of ideology. Against those who find its root elsewhere and who consequently offer various critiques of the positions iek takes, understanding the root of ideology to be the material practice of commodity exchange enables one to see the overall coherence of his work. After differentiating ieks position from many of his contemporaries and arguing that ieks parallax view can be best understood as a development of Marxs commodity fetishism the author goes on to use this as a means to get at the idea of form as it appears in Marx and iek. On this basis the last half of the study takes up contemporary history and theory on the formation of psychoanalytic associations and radical party politics to substantiate the claim that while both owe their existence to capitalism, capitalism could owe to them its destruction