429 research outputs found

    Mapping Critical Practice In A Transdisciplinary Urban Studio

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    Architecture and Planning exist to make positive changes to our environment. Future practitioners in these disciplines will be responsible for how our cities develop and are managed - they will be required to exercise their professional judgement in complex and unpredictable contexts. There is increasing interest in transdisciplinary urbanism, but implementation in academic contexts has to date been relatively limited. This thesis aims to build on these examples, through a detailed account of one academic design studio which operates across architecture and urban planning; in doing so it aims to make the case for transdisciplinary, problem and place-based studio teaching. The study considers how a transdisciplinary studio environment supported students to develop a critical approach to practice through collaborative discourse. It looked at studio methods/practices; what it means to practice ‘critically’ in the context of design; and the role ‘going public’ by sharing ideas in public fora might play in developing critical positions. The study was undertaken in collaboration with nine students, a single cohort undertaking the final year of a hybrid master’s qualification in Architecture with Urban Planning. It adopts socio-material and spatial approaches to follow how the studio environment and the students’ emerging interdisciplinary identities shaped both their individual and their shared work. It mapped how their approach to their practice evolved through observations, interviews, and informal conversations, and through their drawings, models and journals. In carrying out these observations, and their analysis, I have returned to drawing methods common in architecture. This allowed me to explore and record aspects of studio practice which might otherwise be missed and revealed the importance of visual and spatial thinking to my own practice. Observations revealed how material spaces, tools and artefacts acted to structure social relations in the studio, and how these relations shaped individual approaches to critical practice

    Collaborative and Engaged Research to Strengthen Equity and Adaptive Governance in Co-Managed Fisheries

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    Small-scale, co-managed fisheries are found throughout the world and often represent intertwining cultures, societies, communities, economies, institutions, and governments. They face complex issues, derived from ecological and social sources. Solving these issues requires diverse expertise, often developed through engaged methodologies which can facilitate collaborative solution creation between researchers, community members, and others. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the benefits of these engaged methodologies and review how they, when coupled with anticolonial approaches to research, can create more equitable solutions to complex issues. This dissertation focuses on multiple projects within the wild clam fishery in Maine including: (1) the creation of a learning network that could improve communication among individual communities, and (2) the use of boundary objects to develop oceanographic models and support adaptive policy related to restoration efforts. Additionally, this dissertation addresses how colonial ideologies impact these efforts and how recursive, reflective, and collaborative methods may provide one way to destabilize these ideologies. As such, this dissertation is organized into five chapters. First, I introduce sustainability science, knowledge weaving, and the wild clam fishery as a unique case for studying co-managed fisheries facing complex issues. In the second chapter, I describe a comparative case study of four research frameworks related to fisheries science, and how they impact, shape, and support Indigenous sovereignty. Next, I describe the Maine Shellfish Learning Network, an organization developed by my advisors, myself, and other collaborators with the goal of creating new spaces for communication between communities and other related institutions. In the fourth chapter, I describe boundary object projects which influenced community-level adaptive capacities. In the final chapter, I present my conclusions. It is hoped the results from this research will inspire other institutions and industries to engage and reflect on similar choice making

    UniversalitĂ© mineure : Penser l’humanitĂ© aprĂšs l’universalisme occidental

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    The circulation and entanglements of human beings, data, and goods have not necessarily and by themselves generated a universalising consciousness. The "global" and the "universal", in other words, are not the same. The idea of a world-society remains highly contested. Our times are marked by the fragmentation of a double relativistic character: the inevitable critique of Western universalism on the one hand, and resurgent identitarian and neo-nationalistic claims to identity on the other. Sources of an argumentation for a strong universalism brought forward by Western traditions such as Christianity, Marxism, and Liberalism have largely lost their legitimation. All the while, manifold and situated narratives of a common world that re-address the universal are under way of being produced and gain significance. This volume tracks the development and relevance of such cultural and social practices that posit forms of what we call minor universality. It asks: Where and how do contemporary practices open up concrete settings so as to create experiences, reflections and agencies of a shared humanity?European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Gran

    Voicing Kinship with Machines: Diffractive Empathetic Listening to Synthetic Voices in Performance.

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    This thesis contributes to the field of voice studies by analyzing the design and production of synthetic voices in performance. The work explores six case studies, consisting of different performative experiences of the last decade (2010- 2020) that featured synthetic voice design. It focusses on the political and social impact of synthetic voices, starting from yet challenging the concepts of voice in the machine and voice of the machine. The synthetic voices explored are often playing the role of simulated artificial intelligences, therefore this thesis expands its questions towards technology at large. The analysis of the case studies follows new materialist and posthumanist premises, yet it tries to confute the patriarchal and neoliberal approach towards technological development through feminist and de-colonial approaches, developing a taxonomy for synthetic voices in performance. Chapter 1 introduces terms and explains the taxonomy. Chapter 2 looks at familiar representations of fictional AI. Chapter 3 introduces headphone theatre exploring immersive practices. Chapters 4 and 5 engage with chatbots. Chapter 6 goes in depth exploring Human and Artificial Intelligence interaction, whereas chapter 7 moves slightly towards music production and live art. The body of the thesis includes the work of Pipeline Theatre, Rimini Protokoll, Annie Dorsen, Begüm Erciyas, and Holly Herndon. The analysis is informed by posthumanism, feminism, and performance studies, starting from my own practice as sound designer and singer, looking at aesthetics of reproduction, audience engagement, and voice composition. This thesis has been designed to inspire and provoke practitioners and scholars to explore synthetic voices further, question predominant biases of binarism and acknowledge their importance in redefining technology

    Genre in Crisis, Crisis as Genre: Contemporary Disruptions and Constructions in Bodies of Popular Music

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    During the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, musical activities and practices, from creation to consumption to performance, began to cohere around some distinct trends, and an emergent body of music known as “pandemic pop” came into shape. This research project takes the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism as its contextual focal point, analyzing the relationship between genre and crisis. Specifically, this dissertation asks “what can be gleaned from reading the discursive frameworks of genre and crisis through each other?” In order to answer this question, this project interrogates two phenomena – genre-in-crisis and crisis-as-genre – to suggest new understandings of the narrative dimensions of both genre and crisis. This dissertation unfolds over three case studies across three chapters: Chapter One analyzes the controversy surrounding the removal of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart as an instance of genre-in-crisis; Chapter Two studies the above-mentioned formation of “pandemic pop” during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of crisis-as-genre; and Chapter Three folds these phenomena together through an interrogation of “Lose Yo Job,” a 2020 viral remix of a recording of Johnniqua Charles, a Black woman, as she was being detained by law enforcement. These chapters use a combination of textual, musical, and material analysis, and is informed by scholarship on genre theory, Janet Roitman’s framework of crisis as a discursive formation, and my own framework of “format materialism.” Ultimately I argue that reading genre and crisis through each other opens new possibilities for the popular and critical understanding of both of these concepts. Such understanding, I suggest, could be beneficial to scholars of both genre and crisis, offering new approaches to the study of old phenomena.Doctor of Philosoph

    Understanding the role of value in coral reef science

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    This thesis explores the role of value in coral science from the perspective of philosophy of science in practice. More specifically, it looks at the epistemology of different practices and theories in coral science, particularly how they interact with various forms of value, and how these forms of value can be understood. The arguments are organised into five chapters, which all make use of data collected in interviews with coral scientists, as well as ideas from coral science literature. The first presents an examination of ecological baselines, which I show do not simply ‘shift’ as has been supposed, but vary for a variety of reasons. This raises a question I address in the second chapter: when is this variation considered legitimate? The answer depends on the value of different reef states being considered. After showing how coral scientists navigate this in practice, I move on to the next two chapters where I explore areas of coral science where important forms of valuation take place: first, the value frameworks of intrinsic value and ecosystem services; and second, the use of bioacoustic techniques to assess reef health from non-human perspectives. These offer examples of how different forms of value shape coral science and make it relevant to the lifeforms practising and influenced by it. In the final chapter I present a view of coral science as a form of multispecies niche construction, both in the lab and the field. On this view, coral science is aimed at the flourishing of a range of living systems. This offers a better understanding of science-value interactions in socio-ecological contexts, such as when faced with decisions about baselines and interventions designed around these. Understanding how to navigate such situations is likely to become increasingly important as the challenges of surviving as a species continue to mount.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

    METROPOLITAN ENCHANTMENT AND DISENCHANTMENT. METROPOLITAN ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE CONTEMPORARY LIVING MAP CONSTRUCTION

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    We can no longer interpret the contemporary metropolis as we did in the last century. The thought of civil economy regarding the contemporary Metropolis conflicts more or less radically with the merely acquisitive dimension of the behaviour of its citizens. What is needed is therefore a new capacity for imagining the economic-productive future of the city: hybrid social enterprises, economically sustainable, structured and capable of using technologies, could be a solution for producing value and distributing it fairly and inclusively. Metropolitan Urbanity is another issue to establish. Metropolis needs new spaces where inclusion can occur, and where a repository of the imagery can be recreated. What is the ontology behind the technique of metropolitan planning and management, its vision and its symbols? Competitiveness, speed, and meritocracy are political words, not technical ones. Metropolitan Urbanity is the characteristic of a polis that expresses itself in its public places. Today, however, public places are private ones that are destined for public use. The Common Good has always had a space of representation in the city, which was the public space. Today, the Green-Grey Infrastructure is the metropolitan city's monument that communicates a value for future generations and must therefore be recognised and imagined; it is the production of the metropolitan symbolic imagery, the new magic of the city

    Children Tell Landscape-Lore among Perceptions of Place: Relating Ecocultural Digital Stories in a Conscientizing/Decolonizing Exploration

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    We know that when children feel a sense-of-relation within local natural environments, they are more prone to feel concern for them, while nurturing well-being and resilience in themselves and in lands/waters they inhabit. Positive environmental behaviors often follow into adulthood. Our human capacities for creating sustainable solutions in response to growing repercussions of global warming and climate change may grow if more children feel a sense of belonging in the wild natural world. As educators, if we listen to and learn from students’ voices about how they engage in nature, we can create pedagogical experiences directly relevant to their lives. Activities that relate to learners’ lives inspire motivation, curiosity, and furthers understanding. Behaviors supporting environmental stewardship, environmental justice, and participation in citizen science and phenology are more probable when children feel concern for ecological landscapes. Internationally, some educators are free to encourage a sense-of -relation by bringing students into natural places. Yet, there are many educators who are constrained from doing so by strict local, state, and national education policies and accountability measures. Overcoming restrictions requires creative, relevant, and enjoyable learner-centered opportunities. Research shows that virtual nature experiences can provide for beneficial connections with(in) nature for children and adults. It is best to bring children outside. When this is not possible, a sense of wonder may be encouraged in the classroom. Our exploratory collaborative digital landscape-lore project makes this possible. We expand awareness about how we, educators, and children alike, are engaged within the landscapes and waterscapes significant to us. The term landscape-lore articulates the primacy of the places we find meaningful. Our intercultural investigations took place in collaborative public schools in colonized landscapes. New Hampshire and New Zealand, known by their first inhabitants, the Aln8bak and Māori peoples respectively, as N’dakinna (the Dawnland) and Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud) are landscapes that have transformed over millennia, as all places do. The deep relational knowing and caring for these landscapes and waterscapes for millennia has been greatly interrupted by colonization across the globe. Telling stories to following generations is serious storywork; they sustain culture, lands, and waters in reciprocity and deep memory. Landscape-lore and ecocultural multiliteracies, such as singing, oratory, music and dance are responsible rituals that support ancestral Indigenous Environmental Knowing and Wisdom Systems. These cultural frameworks could be vital for encouraging respectful and collaborative sustainability solutions for the entire biosphere. Centered within critical Indigenous methodologies, this relational, qualitative study endeavored to be ecoculturally responsive, respectful, and culturally sustaining. Creating experiential digital landscape lore gave us ways to share the natural world in our own voices. We were situated within a shared sense of holistic belonging in ecocultural places and communities. Exchanging our independent excursions in local land-/ waterscapes by crossing virtual biogeographical borders increased exposure to diverse worldviews and places. As a transdisciplinary process, such a learning experience fosters new emotional connections and critical human-nature systems thinking. Our study incorporates children’s landscape-lore in an ethical and respectful manner. Our main research questions were: 1. How are children engaged with(in) the natural world as described in their digital landscape-lore? 2. What culturally responsive background knowledges are vital for educators preparing to facilitate such a learning project both locally and globally? 3. How might a digital landscape-lore project support goals for connecting children and communities in relational reciprocity within and across diverse landscapes, worldviews, and times? How might landscape-lore create personal relevance, curiosity, and learning? Findings demonstrate that co-researching children each have experiential environmental knowledge that informs their relationships within their ecocultural locations and landscape-lore. Their embodied movements and experiences in nature are also significant. Children’s landscape-lore describe social participation in exploratory adventures among friends, family, beyond-human kin. Interactions with biophysical entities within land- and waterscapes hold diverse worldview meanings for children. Children demonstrated that they are savvy, digital citizens. They educated teachers and classmates about places meaningful to them. Significantly, most landscape-lore, in both N’dakinna/New Hampshire and Aotearoa New Zealand, included social moments with friends and family, and described local animals. This contrasts with many studies demonstrating a preference for distant charismatic wildlife. Children’s experiential landscape lore stories described the local biodiversity in their home environments. Our collaborative experiential landscape-lore supported innovative tech skills and critical multiliteracies directly relevant to the interests and ecocultural lives of learners of all ages
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