Framework for the implementation of urban big screens in the public space

In the last decade, big urban screens have appeared in town squares and on building facades across the UK. The use of these screens brings new potentials and challenges for city regulators, artists, architects, urban designers, producers, broadcasters and advertisers. Dynamic moving images form new architectural material, affecting our perception and the experience of the space around us. A new form of urban space is emerging that is fundamentally different from what we have known, and it seems that we are ill-equipped to deal with and analyse it. We are just beginning to understand the opportunities for public information, art and community engagement. Most of screens at present serve mainly commercial purposes, they do not broadcast information aimed at sharing community content nor do they support public social interactions. We need to see more negotiation between commercial, public and cultural interests. The SCREAM project addresses these new challenges by looking at the physical urban spaces and the potential spaces created by the new technologies

Spectacular pehnomena and limits to rationality in genetic and cultural evolution

In studies of both animal and human behaviour, game theory is used as a tool for understanding strategies that appear in interactions between individuals. Game theory focuses on adaptive behaviour, which can be attained only at evolutionary equilibrium. Here we suggest that behaviour appearing during interactions is often outside the scope of such analysis. In many types of interaction, conflicts of interest exist between players, fueling the evolution of manipulative strategies. Such strategies evolve out of equilibrium, commonly appearing as spectacular morphology or behaviour with obscure meaning, to which other players may react in non-adaptive, irrational way approach, and outline the conditions in which evolutionary equilibria cannot be maintained. Evidence from studies of biological interactions seems to support the view that behaviour is often not at equilibrium. This also appears to be the case for many human cultural traits, which have spread rapidly despite the fact that they have a negative influence on reproduction

Chinese and North American Culture: a New Perspective in Linguistics Studies

We explored the two cultures in the two countries. There has been discussed on Chinese culture and North American culture. Chinese language, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, business etiquette, religion, politics, and history have global influence, while its traditions and festivals are also celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world. The culture of North America refers to the arts and other manifestations of human activities and achievements from the continent of North America. The American way of life or simply the American way is the unique lifestyle of the people of the United States of America. It refers to a nationalist ethos that adheres to the principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

New culture-oriented economic development trajectories: the case study of four Dutch cities

Culture is a key ingredient of post-industrial, information-intensive economic activity. Culture-oriented economic development (COED) is emerging as a dominant paradigm, integrating the symbolic and creative elements into any aspect of the urban economy, pursuing distinction, innovativeness, and a higher level of interaction between localised individual and collective knowledge and globalising markets. This article presents a dynamic analysis of the effects of culture on the economic development trajectories of European cities. It may contribute to shed more light on the relevance of cultural industries for spatial development, addressing issues such as: cultural endowment, identity and urban competitiveness; dispersed vs. concentration; cultural participation and social inclusion. The analysis uses data collected within the ESPON project 1.3.3 and other information of qualitative and quantitative nature collected by EURICUR in occasion of a study of a sample of European cities . In this paper we present the investigation conducted in the three largest Dutch cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, which are part of the city-region of the Randstand, and the fifth largest Dutch city, Eindhoven, one the most important economic and educational centres in the Netherlands.Cultural industry, urban economy, creativity, sustainable development, The Netherlands

Spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in dance performance

In this paper we present a study of spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in live dance performance. A multidisciplinary team comprising a choreographer, neuroscientists and qualitative researchers investigated the effects of different sound scores on dance spectators. What would be the impact of auditory stimulation on kinesthetic experience and/or aesthetic appreciation of the dance? What would be the effect of removing music altogether, so that spectators watched dance while hearing only the performers’ breathing and footfalls? We investigated audience experience through qualitative research, using post-performance focus groups, while a separately conducted functional brain imaging (fMRI) study measured the synchrony in brain activity across spectators when they watched dance with sound or breathing only. When audiences watched dance accompanied by music the fMRI data revealed evidence of greater intersubject synchronisation in a brain region consistent with complex auditory processing. The audience research found that some spectators derived pleasure from finding convergences between two complex stimuli (dance and music). The removal of music and the resulting audibility of the performers’ breathing had a significant impact on spectators’ aesthetic experience. The fMRI analysis showed increased synchronisation among observers, suggesting greater influence of the body when interpreting the dance stimuli. The audience research found evidence of similar corporeally focused experience. The paper discusses possible connections between the findings of our different approaches, and considers the implications of this study for interdisciplinary research collaborations between arts and sciences

Dance Improvisational Cognition

Research into group creativity with its dynamic, interpersonal, and multi-perspective character poses many challenges, among others, how to collect data and capture its shared nature. In this paper, we discuss the creative process of an ensemble in dance improvisation as an example of vivid and collaborative creative practice. To identify aspects of improvisational dance cognition, we designed and applied a video-stimulated recall approach to capturing the multiple perspectives of the shared creative process. We tested the method during an improvisational session with dancers, showing how the recordings of dancers’ thought narratives and internal states might be used for studying group creativity. Finally, we presented an audiovisual installation Between Minds and Bodies that aimed to recreate the dancers’ experience and offered immersion into the creative process by accessing individual dancer’s thought processes in the improvised performance while watching the dance improvisation

Salford postgraduate annual research conference (SPARC) 2012 proceedings

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2012 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC). They reflect the breadth and diversity of research interests showcased at the conference, at which over 130 researchers from Salford, the North West and other UK universities presented their work. 21 papers are collated here from the humanities, arts, social sciences, health, engineering, environment and life sciences, built environment and business