Neural Imaginings: experiential and enactive approaches to contemporary psychologies, philosophies, and visual art as imagined navigations of the mind

Neural Imaginings is a Masters of Fine Arts project that culminated in this research paper, which accompanied the Post-Graduate Show held in December 2014 at Sydney College of the Arts Gallery, University of Sydney, Australia. The cluster of large ceramic sculptures presented a network – Mind Labyrinth (visceral ingress) – on which sat various conical objects – Mind Flowerings. A wall-mounted sculpture accompanied the installation, titled Cosmic Dance of the Dendrite. This paper asked, Why does art move us? This trans-disciplinary paper and my creative process-led practice examine the contemporary role of the art object, first-person perspective as the reality of the Virtual, and the dialogic functioning that occurs during an art encounter. An art encounter is an engagement of audiences aimed at invoking an individual’s bodily sense experience and concomitant emotions and thoughts. Artists may harness these somato-sensory communications to activate a viewer’s awareness of their own self-agency and dialogic encounter with sculpture, that are self-evident in a viewer’s visual, tactile, somatic and/or kinaesthetic responses. The art work employed aesthetic means to activate sensorial engagement from a viewer’s art encounter, to enact perceptual responses as part of a self-authenticating, meaning‐making process. Neural Imaginings is both a presentation of, and a metaphor for, individual agency – in sculpting oneself into existence, within one’s own mental space. This paper draws on the work of contemporary theorists from art, science and philosophy, striking at the core process of consciousness. A trans‐disciplinary approach pivoted around a neuro‐physiological paradigm, including the following theorists: American philosopher Alva Noë; American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio; New Zealand art theorist Gregory Minissale; and professors on Gilles Deleuze theory, Brian Massumi and Peter Gaffney. Symbiotically, the paper’s explanation and art themes oscillated between intrapersonal and disciplinary narratives in art and science, in the pursuit of current approaches of trans‐disciplinary confluence about the functions of the mind. This paper references artworks by contemporary artists from Australia, including Julie Rrap, Stelarc, Bill Henson, Helen Pynor and Jill Orr. Contemporary international artists included: from Taiwan, Hsu Yunghsu; New York, Marc Leuthold, and Mexico, Gabriel Oroszco

Island Rivers

Anthropologists have written a great deal about the coastal adaptations and seafaring traditions of Pacific Islanders, but have had much less to say about the significance of rivers for Pacific island culture, livelihood and identity. The authors of this collection seek to fill that gap in the ethnographic record by drawing attention to the deep historical attachments of island communities to rivers, and the ways in which those attachments are changing in response to various forms of economic development and social change. In addition to making a unique contribution to Pacific island ethnography, the authors of this volume speak to a global set of issues of immense importance to a world in which water scarcity, conflict, pollution and the degradation of riparian environments afflict growing numbers of people. Several authors take a political ecology approach to their topic, but the emphasis here is less on hydro-politics than on the cultural meaning of rivers to the communities we describe. How has the cultural significance of rivers shifted as a result of colonisation, development and nation-building? How do people whose identities are fundamentally rooted in their relationship to a particular river renegotiate that relationship when the river is dammed to generate hydro-power or polluted by mining activities? How do blockages in the flow of rivers and underground springs interrupt the intergenerational transmission of local ecological knowledge and hence the ability of local communities to construct collective identities rooted in a sense of place

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Assessing, Planning and Managing Urban Rivers in the context of Greater London

PhDUrban rivers present complex management challenges due to the combined natural and anthropocentric factors affecting developed catchments. Planning urban river rehabilitation strategies and measures in parallel with green infrastructure initiatives requires the combined expertise of multi-disciplinary partnerships, encompassing river science and landscape engineering plus community engagement, to deliver integrated and sustainable outcomes. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the assessment and management of urban rivers, focusing specifically upon the planning of integrated restoration projects for River Thames tributaries within Greater London. Comparisons of restored and unrestored sites on London tributary rivers at the reachand catchment-scale explore the versatility of the Urban River Survey method for assessing and communicating contrasts in the bio-physical condition and engineering:habitat associations of heavily modified rivers. A trial of the Ecosystem Services Assessment method for urban river restorations indicates the strengths and limitations of this approach and areas of research need. Urban river governance investigations and a review of changes in restoration practices over time confirm a decreasing emphasis on channel control and progressively lighter engineering, plus a greater social focus with urban river management becoming increasingly driven by awareness of the symbiosis between rivers and local communities. In some London boroughs partner organisations are developing new links through sustainable development objectives, but connections are geographically inconsistent and typically dependent upon key advocates. Findings indicate that integrated planning can facilitate interdisciplinary processes through the identification of cross-cutting themes (e.g. climate change) and open knowledge exchange when delivered with appropriate levels of detail. While some disciplinary boundaries are necessary (to define project scope and for task management), socio-ecological benefits may be achieved when these are flexible, permeable and managed responsively in relation to simple overarching goals; and by allowing time for different kinds of knowledge to merge and stimulate new creative and integrated interpretations

The unseen in between: Unpacking, designing, and evaluating sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts

We live in a time of compounding ecological and social change. Given its uncertain and urgent nature, contemporary forms of governance are experiencing tension between controlling the present and nurturing collective capacities to enact transformative change. Amidst a wave of interest in transitions and transformations in-the-making, labs in real-world contexts have entered the discussion. Labs have emerged as appealing, novel and highly complex entities that situate and localize engagement around complex sustainability challenges. Labs carry a systemic view of change; they comprise alternative and experimental approaches; they carry a normative assumption that research has plural roles; and they hold an explicit learning orientation that infuses knowledge with action. Given the unfolding of labs in the real world, my involvement in their design, and ongoing interests in treating both meanings and processes of sustainability, this thesis is organized around a curiosity. Its overarching aim is to investigate how sustainability-oriented labs could be unpacked, designed and evaluated in the context of sustainability transitions and transformations. Underlaboured by a critical realist philosophy of science, this thesis investigates sustainability-oriented labs by way of a qualitative-dominant, case-based research strategy. It does this across three overlapping research phases, culminating in four appended papers.In research phase one, we adopt a systematic review of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts, exploring and classifying a global sample of labs according to their engagement with sustainability. In paper I, we identify and unpack 53 sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. Through a mixed-methods analysis, we explore the distribution and diversity of these labs, discerning the research communities which conceptualize labs and the dimensions of their practice. In Paper III, we present an empirically grounded typology, arriving at six different types of sustainability-oriented labs: 1) Fix and control, 2) (Re-)Design and optimize, 3) Make and relate, 4) Educate and engage, 5) Empower and govern and 6) Explore and shape.In research phase two, paper II presents a qualitative case-based inquiry into Challenge Lab (C-Lab), a challenge-driven learning environment. Paper II conceptualizes challenge framing as embedded within an open-ended learning process, both on a level of practice and space. Experiences related to framing in C-Lab shed light on how students situate themselves and see their role within existing challenges, how they navigate limits to knowledge in complex systems, and how they self-assess their own sense of comfort and progress. In addition, we introduce three dilemmas that are not owned by teachers or students but emerge, as contradiction, within the learning space. In research phase three, paper IV presents a multi-case comparison of evaluation practices in various sustainability transition initiatives. We conceptualize and compare the role of evaluation as a tool that can enhance the transformative capacity of sustainability-oriented labs and its broader family of transition experiments. This thesis and its appended papers provide practical-experiential, empirical-conceptual and methodological contributions on the topic of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. In addition, it contains a layered account of an undisciplinary doctoral journey. I do this by (1) reflecting upon each research phase, (2) providing transparent accounts of positionality in relation to my research, (3) conceptualizing and reflecting upon undisciplinarity as a process of becoming, and (4) providing a mobile autoethnographic account of staying on the ground as part of a broader commitment to interrogate knowledge practices. Moving forward, I find myself motivated by three convictions: (1) transformations are needed, and labs are invitations in between dualisms, (2) invitations hold the possibility of flipping big assumptions and ethical practices, and (3) transformations presuppose fundamental change from within both research and education knowledge systems. They hinge upon the questioning of what both are, who they are for, and what they might need to become. In conclusion, they compel us to think big, start small, and act now

The asymptotes - A field guide: Exploration of a hydro-logic process towards a multimodal creative nonfiction

To think hydro-logically is to acknowledge that we are all bodies of water. We carry nutrients and toxins; leak and absorb; seek confluence. Each of us, we carry stories of other bodies of water. Our permeable bodies are inextricably caught up in the currents of other bodies, and therefore are never fully able to control the elements that course through us. Taking a cue from feminist new materialism, this thesis seeks to fill the gap between discourse and practice by exploring how the figuration of the hydro-logic can shift from a conceptual way of thinking into a way of creative doing. The shift is specifically examined through the practice of experimental book-writing, enacted as a highly reflective and reflexive form of research. Interweaving theory, practice and poesis, this thesis investigates an emerging site of how a book performs research, while simultaneously contributing to the wider scholarship situated around practice-based design research. This involves locating possible methodologies and creative modes of documentation and reflection, as well as identifying, analysing and evaluating key qualities and implications of the hydro-logic process. This quest unfolds in several fluidified phases, becoming more purposeful as it builds towards a creation of a multimodal creative nonfiction book titled, The Asymptotes. Each phase of the journey is informed by the hydro-logic – from literature research, gathering of materials through oral storytelling, and experimental writing, to the production of the artefact and its interpersonal evaluation. Reciprocally, the understanding of the hydro-logic is continually developed in response to the empirical, theoretical and reflective findings. Throughout such hydro-logical process, experimental writing becomes both a method of research inquiry and a research artefact, whose final form as a multimodal book embodies the traces, intensities, and qualities of the process. This study proposes a design approach that resists the linearity of traditional research methods and academic obsession with categorisation. To practice hydro-logically is to embody the multi-layered and living nature of a creative practice, with critical attention to the eroding, transporting, depositing, and cross-fertilisation of various forms of knowledge. The key findings from this research are used to offer an emerging approach for the hydro-logical process, as well as to engender productive methods for mapping-in-movement to navigate through induced uncertainties. In so doing, this work demonstrates how a fluidly leaking, absorbing, and seething form of research can be performed whilst keeping sight of the academic and creative research focus

Integrative geospatial modeling: combining local and indigenous knowledge with geospatial applications for adaptive governance of invasive species and ecosystem services

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Summer.With an unprecedented rate of global change, diverse anthropogenic disturbances present growing challenges for coupled social-ecological systems. Biological invasions are one such disturbance known to cause negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and an array of other natural processes and human activities. Maps facilitated by advanced geospatial applications play a major role in resource management and conservation planning. However, local and indigenous knowledge are overwhelmingly left out of these conversations, despite the wealth of observational data held by resource-dependent communities and the potential negative impacts biological invasions have on local livelihoods. My integrative geospatial modeling research applied adaptive governance mechanisms of knowledge integration and co-production processes in concert with species distribution modeling tools to explore the potential threat of invasive plants to community-defined ecosystem services. Knowledge integration at the landscape scale in Alaska provided an important opportunity for re-framing risk assessment mapping to include Native Alaskan community concerns, and revealed the growing potential threat posed by invasive aquatic Elodea spp. to Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and whitefish (Coregonus nelsonii) subsistence under current and future climate conditions. Knowledge integration and co-production at the local scale in northeastern Ethiopia facilitated shared learning between pastoral communities and researchers, leading to the discovery of invasive rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora), which was previously unknown to my research team or a number of government and aid organizations working in the region, thus providing a potentially robust early detection and monitoring approach for an invasive plant that holds acute negative impacts on a number of endemic ecosystem service-providing trees. This work revealed knowledge integration and co-production processes and species distribution modeling tools to be complimentary, with invasive species acting as a useful boundary-spanning issue for bringing together diverse knowledge sources. Moreover, bridging and boundary-spanning organizations and individuals enhanced this rapid appraisal process by providing access to local and indigenous communities and fostered a level of built-in trust and legitimacy with them. Challenges to this work still remain, including effectively working at broad spatial and governance scales, sustaining iterative processes that involve communities in validating and critiquing model outputs, and addressing underlying power disparities between stakeholder groups. Top-down, discipline-specific approaches fail to adequately address the complexity of ecosystems or the needs of resource-dependent communities. My work lends evidence to the power of integrative geospatial modeling as a flexible transdisciplinary methodology for addressing conservation efforts in rural regions with mounting anthropogenic pressures at different spatial and governance scales

Transnational writing program administration: mobility, entanglement, work.

This dissertation advances the global turn in writing studies by examining academic mobilities through an ethnographic study of transnational writing program administrative (TWPA) work outside of the United States. The literature review reads global writing studies scholarship through a critical-transnational lens to locate the gap for new knowledge in TWPA work. Influenced by Dorothy Smith’s Institutional Ethnography, this dissertation grounds the findings of its interview-based study in the terms of everyday lived experiences by internationally mobile scholars currently doing WPA work in order to construct more nuanced narratives of navigation and sensemaking. Participants discussed the consequences and limitations of us/them or local/global binaries, traced commitments and policies across time and space, then accounted for and described the labor required to resist stable notions of difference. The study contributes terms and anecdotes for depicting TWPA sensemaking work as shifting, ever-changing, partial, layered, and complex. The core findings are theorizations of mobility and transnationality through discursive work, relative mobility, scaling practices, and co-constituted space

Scholarship in abundance: Influence, engagement, and attention in scholarly networks

In an era of knowledge abundance, scholars have the capacity to distribute and share ideas and artifacts via digital networks, yet networked scholarly engagement often remains unrecognized within institutional spheres of influence. The purpose of this dissertation study is to explore the meanings constructed and enacted within the networked practices of 13 scholars actively engaged in both institutional and networked participatory scholarship. Using ethnographic methods including participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, the study investigates networks as sites of scholarship, with the intent of furthering institutional academia’s understanding of networked practices. The three papers that make up the dissertation each articulate a specific thread of intersection between institutional and networked scholarship: the first focuses on what counts as academic influence within networked circles, the second on networks’ terms of value and reward, and the third on the relationships between attention, care, and vulnerability in scholarly networks. Together, the papers conclude that networked scholarly practices of engagement align broadly with those of academia, yet enable and demand scholars’ individual cultivation of influence, visibility, and audiences. Thus networked scholarship rewards connection, collaboration, and curation between individuals rather than roles or institutions, fostering cross-disciplinary and public engagement and a bridging of the personal/professional divide. The study contributes to knowledge by situating networked scholarly practices within the scholarly tradition, while articulating the terms on which knowledge abundance and networked practices open up new spheres of opportunity and vulnerability for scholars