Spaces of sensation: The immersive installation and corporal literacy

This paper investigates the primacy of the corporal in understanding immersive environments. Writing from the perspective of an installation artist who takes this conceit as one of the founding principles of her work, which is predicated on developing immersive installations that are designed to be understood primarily through the somatic perceptual systems (e.g. www.sensedigital.co.uk/SG1.htm). the aim of the paper is to explore the notion that such installations can serve to enhance, or heighten corporal literacy. The installation iSensuous Geographies, created with Alistair MacDonald in 2003, is used to exemplify this practice. In this paper the terms ‘literacy’ and ‘literate’ are used in an extended sense, frequently transposing their original meanings (which pertain to the written word) into meanings which refer to those understandings we glean through our senses. Just as in the visual arts the term visually literate is used to refer to the ability to make fine discriminations in the detail, texture and structures of visual phenomena, and in music the term aurally literate refers to a highly refined ability to identify the detail, texture and structure of sound, the term corporal literacy is used to refer to the ability to discriminate equally subtle details of the structurings and textures of corporal sensation that emanate from the somatic perceptual system during interaction with the environment

How do multi-agency working and systems support children and families in accessing children’s centre provision? (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/040)

This project looked at multi-agency working and systems in an inner city Sure Start Children’s Centre and asked how this way of working supported children and families identified as needing family support in accessing the centre provision. The research was focused on issues facing practitioners, for example – what promoted and what blocked multi-agency team working, exploring systems on the ground. The research did not explore individual child or family outcomes. This qualitative study concentrated on one inner city neighbourhood children’s centre, located in an area with high levels of deprivation and an ethnically diverse community. Through a literature search of key texts, government and local policies and guidance, a link is made connecting current children’s centre policies around partnership working with wider regeneration programmes and social service reforms. It suggests that multiple policy aspirations at a national level impact on multi-agency working on the ground. The methodology included a series of one-to-one interviews with a small sample of staff involved in multi-agency working, a senior NHS manager, a Workforce Development Manager and children’s centre managers. In addition, a set of one-to-one interviews was conducted with a small sample of staff involved in multi-agency working in the specific children’s centre including the children’s centre manager leading on multiagency working, a family support worker, a health visitor and a centre based therapist. A cross-section of practitioners, at both strategic and local level, were interviewed. Drawing from their insights, and relating these on the ground experiences to the national programme for children’s centres, the study has tentatively identified some themes and findings related to multi-agency working, and which may have implications for wider practice in supporting children and families obtaining relevant services to meet their needs. The importance of team building, networking and sustaining the team was highlighted. Creating a culture of ‘who knows’, not ‘how high’; having clarity about ‘family support’; and understanding the potential for multi-agency meetings to have a perverse outcome, where other potential routes and options for families were neglected, were among the key findings

The Solent Disturbance & Mitigation Project Phase II – On-site visitor survey results from the Solent region

This report sets out the results of the on-site visitor survey component of the Solent Disturbance and Mitigation project. The work was commissioned by the Solent Forum in response to concerns over the impact of recreational pressure on features of the Solent SPA, SAC and Ramsar Sites. Of particular concern are the cumulative impacts of recreational use arising from potential new housing developments in the Chichester District and South Hampshire. The visitor surveys were conducted during the winter 2009/2010 to assess the level and type of visitor use at selected locations along the Solent coastline. Overall it is likely that the number of visitors interviewed and counted during the survey period was lower than would be normally be expected given the especially cold 2009/2010 winter. With that in mind, there is the potential that the monitoring could provide an underestimate of the absolute number visitors to the region. However, the interviews were designed to elicit generic and site specific details from visitors and although fewer individuals may have been recorded or interviewed because of the weather we can assume that the general winter visitation pattern remained similar and the results very useful in understanding who, where, when and why people use the coast. Counts of people and interviews were conducted at 20 locations around the Solent coastline (including the north shore of the Isle of Wight). A total of 16 hours of surveys were carried out at each location, split equally between weekend (8 hours) and a weekday (8 hours). A total of 784 interviews were conducted, accounting for 1,322 people and 550 dogs. The average group size was 1.7 people. There were differences in visitor numbers between survey locations, with the highest visitor numbers recorded at Emsworth (1088 visitors were recorded using the site over 16 hours) while Lymington (Boldre/Pylewell) was the least busy (33 visitors counted over 16 hours). Visitor numbers per day were typically highest on weekend compared to weekdays. Holiday makers accounted for 6% of the total number of visitors recorded (80 visitors). Visitors were undertook a wide range of activities, with walking (without a dog) and dog walking the two most frequently recorded activities (44% and 42% of interviews). Across all sites and activities, visits were typically short, with 89% lasting less than two hours. The main modes of transport used to reach sites were by car and on foot, with the proportion of people arriving by each mode varying between sites. Across all sites (and taking the data for non-holiday makers only), 51% of interviewees arrived by car and a further 46% arrived on foot. Home postcodes were used to identify the distance between interviewee’s home and the location where interviewed. Half of all visitors arriving on foot lived within 0.7km, while half of all visitors arriving by car lived more than 4km away. Only 9% of foot visitors lived more than 2km away compared to 80% of all car visitors. Linear regressions using housing numbers within different distance bands of a location as a predictor of visitor numbers for each location show a positive relationship between the number of houses within 1km, 3km and 5km and number of visitors entering each survey location. Car park capacity at the access points did not provide a good indication of the frequency of visitors arriving by car to each location. The relationship is more complex, future modelling of visitor rates travelling to locations by car should include potential road related parking (related to length of nearby roads around access points) in addition to official and off road car parking capacity around the access points. 2 Route data were also collected for each interview, with lines drawn directly on maps during the survey. These route data were analysed to determine which activities take place below Mean High Water Mark (MHWM) and how far different groups go out into the intertidal. Across all the interviews, 7% of the mapped routes did not go within 25m of MHWM and were therefore visitors who did not actually make it to the beach (in some locations the survey point was set inland, for example near to parking locations etc.). A further 78% were entirely within the band between 25m above and 25m below MHWM, indicating routes that remained at the top of the beach, on the seawall or similar. It was 14% of the mapped routes that went below 50m from MHWM, and these included a range of activities, for example bait diggers, dog walkers, joggers, cyclists and people out on a family outing. The implications of the results for further modelling and in relation to the disturbance of birds on the European Sites are discussed

A Case for Custom, Composable Composition Operators

Programming languages typically support a fixed set of com- position operators, with fixed semantics. This may impose limits on software designers, in case a desired operator or semantics are not supported by a language, resulting in suboptimal quality characteristics of the designed software system. We demonstrate this using the well-known State design pattern, and propose the use of a composition infrastructure that allows the designer to define custom, composable composition operators. We demonstrate how this approach improves several quality factors of the State design pattern, such as reusability and modularity, while taking a reason- able amount of effort to define the necessary pattern-related code

Applying reflection in object-oriented software design

thesis work performs a series of experiments on applying reflection technique to improve software design. First, a REFLECTIVE V ISITOR pattern was captured to improve the traditional VISITOR pattern. Reflection enables a visitor to perform a run-time dispatch action on itself. The cyclic dependencies between the visitor structure and the element structure are broken, thus both of them can be reused independently. Secondly, a parser framework was developed by applying several patterns. Especially, the REFLECTION pattern is used in the design of dynamically handling a parsing process by separating the system into two levels. The base-level defines the grammar rules. The meta-level handles the complex relationships of these rules. Reflection technique is used to discover grammar rules at run-time and determines the parsing order. Third, a dynamic object model was defined for a virtual machine that can support reflection. We demonstrated Forman's theory by developing a simplified object model based on a single inheritance system with the support of only one metaclass. Finally, an extensible and reusable compiler system (front-end) for the Decaf programming language was designed and implemented

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Our Museum Special Initiative: An Evaluation

Our Museum: Communities and Museums as Active Partners was a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Special Initiative 2012 – 2016. The overall aim was to influence the museum and gallery sector to:* Place community needs, values and active collaboration at the core of museum and gallery work* Involve communities and individuals in decision-making processes* Ensure that museums and galleries play an effective role in developing community skills and the skills of staff in working with communitiesThis was to be done through facilitation of organisational change in specific museums and galleries already committed to active partnership with communities.Our Museum offered a collaborative learning process through which institutions and communities shared experiences and learned from each other as critical friends. Our Museum took place at a difficult and challenging time for both museums and their community partners. Financial austerity led to major cutbacks in public sector expenditure; a search for new business models; growing competition for funding; and organisational uncertainty and staff volatility. At the same time, the debate at the heart of Our Museum widened and intensified: what should the purpose of longestablished cultural institutions be in the 21st century; how do they maintain relevance and resonance in the contemporary world; how can they best serve their communities; can they, and should they, promote cultural democracy

Evocative computing – creating meaningful lasting experiences in connecting with the past

We present an approach – evocative computing – that demonstrates how ‘at hand’ technologies can be ‘picked up’ and used by people to create meaningful and lasting experiences, through connecting and interacting with the past. The approach is instantiated here through a suite of interactive technologies configured for an indoor-outdoor setting that enables groups to explore, discover and research the history and background of a public cemetery. We report on a two-part study where different groups visited the cemetery and interacted with the digital tools and resources. During their activities serendipitous uses of the technology led to connections being made between personal memo-ries and ongoing activities. Furthermore, these experiences were found to be long-lasting; a follow-up study, one year later, showed them to be highly memorable, and in some cases leading participants to take up new directions in their work. We discuss the value of evocative computing for enriching user experiences and engagement with heritage practices

Herding Cats: Improving Law School Teaching

What makes a good law teacher? Is excellence in teaching largely a matter of intellectual brilliance, of superior organization and delivery of material, of friendliness and fairness to one\u27s students? Or does it have more to do with style, with stage presence, with the ability to engage an audience in the act of reflective and spontaneous thinking? While the question of how to define and evaluate teaching necessarily bedevils deans and tenure committees who must make personnel decisions, the focus on defining the competent teacher has obscured from faculty attention the more fundamental question: how can we implement a system to improve faculty performance across the board? It is this question that law schools around the country have not adequately addressed. Three years ago, the faculty of Franklin Pierce Law Center adopted a program to improve our classroom teaching. This article describes and evaluates that program, in which all three authors played a role