SIMPEL: Circuit model for photonic spike processing laser neurons

We propose an equivalent circuit model for photonic spike processing laser neurons with an embedded saturable absorber---a simulation model for photonic excitable lasers (SIMPEL). We show that by mapping the laser neuron rate equations into a circuit model, SPICE analysis can be used as an efficient and accurate engine for numerical calculations, capable of generalization to a variety of different laser neuron types found in literature. The development of this model parallels the Hodgkin--Huxley model of neuron biophysics, a circuit framework which brought efficiency, modularity, and generalizability to the study of neural dynamics. We employ the model to study various signal-processing effects such as excitability with excitatory and inhibitory pulses, binary all-or-nothing response, and bistable dynamics.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

VISUALIZATION OF GENETIC ALGORITHM BASED ON 2-D GRAPH TO ACCELERATE THE SEARCHING WITH HUMAN INTERVENTIONS.

The Genetic Algorithm is an area in the field of Artificial Intelligence that is founded on the principles of biological evolution. Visualization techniques help in understanding the searching behaviour of Genetic Algorithm. lt also makes possible the user interactions during the searching process. It is noted that active user intervention increases the acceleration of Genetic Algorithm towards an optimal solution. In proposed research work, the user is aided by a visualization based on the representation of multidimensional Genetic Algorithm data on 2-0 space. The aim of the proposed approach is to study the benefit of using visualization techniques to explorer Genetic Algorithm data based on gene values. The user participates in the search by proposing a new individual. This is difTerent from existing Interactive Genetic Algorithm in which selection and evaluation of solutions is done by the users. A tool termed as VIGA-20 (Visualization of Genetic Algorithm using 2-0 Graph) is implemented to accomplish this goal. This visual tool enables the display of the evolution of gene values from generation to generation to observing and analysing the behaviour of the search space with user interactions. Individuals for the next generation are selected by using the objective function. Hence, a novel humanmachine interaction is developed in the proposed approach. The efficiency of the proposed approach is evaluated by two benchmark functions. The analysis and comparison of VIGA-20 is based on convergence test against the results obtained from the Simple Genetic Algorithm. This comparison is based on the same parameters except for the interactions of the user. The application of proposed approach is the modelling the branching structures by deriving a rule from best solution of VIGA-20. The comparison of results is based on the different user's perceptions, their involvement in the VIGA-20 and the difference of the fitness convergence as compared to Simple Genetic Algorithm

Computational composition strategies in audiovisual laptop performance

We live in a cultural environment in which computer based musical performances have become ubiquitous. Particularly the use of laptops as instruments is a thriving practice in many genres and subcultures. The opportunity to command the most intricate level of control on the smallest of time scales in music composition and computer graphics introduces a number of complexities and dilemmas for the performer working with algorithms. Writing computer code to create audiovisuals offers abundant opportunities for discovering new ways of expression in live performance while simultaneously introducing challenges and presenting the user with difficult choices. There are a host of computational strategies that can be employed in live situations to assist the performer, including artificially intelligent performance agents who operate according to predefined algorithmic rules. This thesis describes four software systems for real time multimodal improvisation and composition in which a number of computational strategies for audiovisual laptop performances is explored and which were used in creation of a portfolio of accompanying audiovisual compositions

Spatial design thinking in the age of multimedia

There are several emerging design methods and design thoughts, such as Evidence-Based design, Universal design, and so on, that have been utilized in spatial design. Further, the space design has been changed in the wake of invention of new materials, building technologies, and users\u27 functional needs. Designers need to collect and reorganize a new spectrum of information in order to conduct design. Designer\u27s thinking power plays an important role in creating space. Base on the research results in the realm of human cognitive faculty, synesthesia may hold the key to understanding a mechanism for thinking, cross-sensory perception and association involved in artistic and spatial creation. In addition, multimedia is the acting edge tool to support design methods and design thinking. Mathematical model can also be used for explain space design generation and design thinking. As a result, Chaos theory and Mandelbrot Set can be used to support new spatial design thinking and design models. Finally, this study examines Prezi, a multimedia-based tool, to integrate design thinking and communication

From immaterial to tangible, the digital photograph as a hybrid piece of art

This text describes some possibilities of expanding the materiality of a digital photograph,using digital fabrication tools. The goal of such expansion would be to widen the perception of photographs as art pieces. The post-digital is being reviewed as the current context for any artistic work, which would be interested in integrating the digital domain into the physical. The main proposition is that embracing the manipulability of digital photography, and adding physicality to it, could enable the development of novel types of hybrid interdisciplinary artworks. These pieces could dissolve further the traditional divisions between artistic mediums. The topic is examined in practice through three personal works of art, created in the period 2015-2017. Experimentation with 3d printing, CNC-millng and mixing digital photography with basic electronics lead to the realisation of the pieces. Additionally, describing and analysing the process of their creation could help outline the role of technology in shaping the final appearance of such a hybrid artwork

Exploring the molecular footprints of natural selection in threespine stickleback

The primordial and prevailing goal of evolutionary biology is to elucidate how biological diversity emerges from the interaction of organisms and environments. Nowadays, we have the technology and analytical power to ask the same question at a much deeper scope and aim to identify the genomic processes underlying the adaptation of species to spatially and temporally changing environments. This has recently led to the emergence of a new research field – evolutionary genomics, which focuses on understanding the genetic basis of adaptive evolutionary change and ultimately establish the molecular links between phenotype, genome, development and ecology. Population genomic investigations embedded in strong ecological frameworks are still sparse but arguably represent the only way to empirically establish those links. My thesis focused on exploring the genomic and phenotypic footprints of natural selection, in threespine stickleback, contributing to further our understanding of the tempo and mode of natural adaptive change

Dataremix: Aesthetic Experiences of Big Data and Data Abstraction

This PhD by published work expands on the contribution to knowledge in two recent large-scale transdisciplinary artistic research projects: ATLAS in silico and INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night and their exhibited and published outputs. The thesis reflects upon this practice-based artistic research that interrogates data abstraction: the digitization, datafication and abstraction of culture and nature, as vast and abstract digital data. The research is situated in digital arts practices that engage a combination of big (scientific) data as artistic material, embodied interaction in virtual environments, and poetic recombination. A transdisciplinary and collaborative artistic practice, x-resonance, provides a framework for the hybrid processes, outcomes, and contributions to knowledge from the research. These are purposefully and productively situated at the objective | subjective interface, have potential to convey multiple meanings simultaneously to a variety of audiences and resist disciplinary definition. In the course of the research, a novel methodology emerges, dataremix, which is employed and iteratively evolved through artistic practice to address the research questions: 1) How can a visceral and poetic experience of data abstraction be created? and 2) How would one go about generating an artistically-informed (scientific) discovery? Several interconnected contributions to knowledge arise through the first research question: creation of representational elements for artistic visualization of big (scientific) data that includes four new forms (genomic calligraphy, algorithmic objects as natural specimens, scalable auditory data signatures, and signal objects); an aesthetic of slowness that contributes an extension to the operative forces in Jevbratt’s inverted sublime of looking down and in to also include looking fast and slow; an extension of Corby’s objective and subjective image consisting of “informational and aesthetic components” to novel virtual environments created from big 3 (scientific) data that extend Davies’ poetic virtual spatiality to poetic objective | subjective generative virtual spaces; and an extension of Seaman’s embodied interactive recombinant poetics through embodied interaction in virtual environments as a recapitulation of scientific (objective) and algorithmic processes through aesthetic (subjective) physical gestures. These contributions holistically combine in the artworks ATLAS in silico and INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night to create visceral poetic experiences of big data abstraction. Contributions to knowledge from the first research question develop artworks that are visceral and poetic experiences of data abstraction, and which manifest the objective | subjective through art. Contributions to knowledge from the second research question occur through the process of the artworks functioning as experimental systems in which experiments using analytical tools from the scientific domain are enacted within the process of creation of the artwork. The results are “returned” into the artwork. These contributions are: elucidating differences in DNA helix bending and curvature along regions of gene sequences specified as either introns or exons, revealing nuanced differences in BLAST results in relation to genomics sequence metadata, and cross-correlation of astronomical data to identify putative variable signals from astronomical objects for further scientific evaluation