Sculptures in Concurrency

We give a formalization of Pratt's intuitive sculpting process for higher-dimensional automata (HDA). Based on this, we show that sculptures, Pratt's Chu spaces, and Johansen's ST-structures are in close correspondence. We also develop an algorithm to decide whether a HDA can be sculpted and use this to show that some natural acyclic HDA are not sculptures. We believe that our result shed new light on the intuitions behind sculpting as a method of modeling concurrent behavior, showing the precise reaches of its expressiveness. We also show that there are sculptures whose unfoldings cannot besculpted, and that sculptures are the same as Euclidean cubical complexes. This exposes a close connection between geometric and combinatorial models for concurrency which may be of use for both areas

The musealisation of the artist's house as architectural project

Artist’s houses that are opened to the public as museums shift from a private and everyday to a semi-public and institutional functioning. This transformation of an artist’s house into a house-museum might appear as a mere legal issue or as a matter of making previously secluded rooms and collections accessible to the public. But this musealisation of an artist’s house always involves a set of museological and architectural interventions as well. Not only need the house and its content to be displayed as historical documents through a careful mise-en-scène and through the addition of a sub-text of labels or explanatory panels that disclose the meaning of these historical documents; there is also a need for a logic and clear visitor’s route in a house that was not intended for this. Often this already demands architectural design decisions, but it is mainly in the introduction of the supporting museum functions like the necessary office spaces and an entrance hall with reception desk, cloakroom and bathrooms that the musealisation comes down to an architectural design challenge. The proposed paper wants to discuss the artist’s house museum from an architect’s point of view, on the basis of a selection of artist’s houses that were recently transformed into museums, such as the Atelier-Museum Luc Peire in Knokke (B) or the renovations of the Permeke and Rubens house museums. I want to propose the artist’s house museum as an architectural typology by mapping its various typical architectural and spatial characteristics. The first crucial point of interest here is how the spatial division is articulated between the historic interiors, the exhibition spaces and the museum’s service spaces outside of the visitor’s circuit. A second architectural question is how the museum as an active institution can be given an architectural ‘face’ while respecting and presenting the house and its collections as historical documents; how can both the ‘authentic’ private atmosphere and the contemporary public museum be given shape, and is there a place for authorial design in this mediating exercise

The time for Futurism

This article aims to reflect on the legacy of Italian Futurism in 20th-century art and culture, as well as to discuss over how aesthetics and futuristic ideology permeate the post-modern and globalized scenario of the present days. In seeking to demonstrate how the futuristic experience contributed to the development of a poetics of contemporary art, we intend to launch a look at Futurism as an aesthetic of time, a motion turned into a kind of archetype of future artistic experiences

Artists' ‘embedded reinterpretation’ in museums and sites of heritage

Artists’ ‘embedded reinterpretation’ results in responsive artwork, consciously made and sited in proximity to existing artworks or artefacts, the latter acting as a source. The methodology provides a practice-based means of broad thematic, conceptual, contextual or environmental critique which goes beyond approaches which emphasise purely formal resonances between artefacts. How embedded reinterpretation produces dramatic juxtapositions in space and time is also important as its range of methods have a retrospective and prospective foci. This also holds implications and anticipations for an existing body of cultural history if applied through the practice of interventions in museums. This article concludes with two such curatorial case studies and a prospective project. Artist’s embedded reinterpretation can be considered as a challenge to notions of periodisation, more importantly it develops creative reciprocity and affiliation, to enable imaginative disruption in ordered environments

The affordances of virtual world technologies to empower the visualisation of complex theory concepts in computer science: Enhancing success and experience in higher education

Abstract:This research targeted complex abstract concepts in Computer Science and focused on bringing about the visualisation of such concepts using virtual world technologies. The research proposed the use of virtual world elements to support the understanding and learning of six computer science subjects having difficult theory concepts at the Higher Education level.The researcher decided to choose Higher Education as the platform for this research, due to the significant need to understand and learn complex abstract concepts of Computer Science at this level. The framework of the research is Higher Education within Further Education, which was chosen for its challenging nature with regards to students’ background and the level of additional support required for their success.The Second Life virtual world was selected and utilised to build purposely designed and scripted scenarios to empower the visualisation of complex theory concepts of the selected computer science subjects. These scenarios were embedded, in a predetermined order, within the curriculum delivery of a number of selected Computer Science modules from a Foundation Degree and a BSc (Hons) in Computing Programmes in a FE college in England. The research activities were carried out in two academic years, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, in order to involve more students and obtain additional data to effectively, and more accurately, answer the research questions.The research aimed at identifying the extent to which using virtual world technologies to visualise difficult theory concepts in Computer Science subjects, might enhance students' learning and achievement. The research outcomes provided positive answers to the four research questions, which pursued the extent to which the visualisation of such concepts using Second life virtual world might, 1) facilitate students’ understanding of the complex abstract concepts in their HE Computer Science subjects, 2) increase students’ engagement in their HE Computer Science sessions, 3) enhance affective quality (to include elements such as appeal, enjoyment, interest and appreciation), and 4) improve student’s achievement (i.e. grades) in the targeted modules.In answer to these questions, the research outcomes showed that subject difficulty was reduced by 25% and around three quarters of students acknowledged enhanced learning in the virtual environment. Seventy percent of students acknowledged becoming more engaged in their study sessions that were carried out in virtual worlds, and more than three quarters of students acknowledged enhanced affective quality. Finally, around 85% of the modules covered by the research witnessed improved students’ achievement (i.e. higher grades).The researcher explained potential use, advantages and limitations of employing Second Life in Higher Education in general and HE Computer Science in particular, and provided recommendations to academic institutions that are interested in applying such virtual world technologies to overcome the challenges involved

Explaining differences in environmental governance patterns between Canada, Italy and the United States.

The objective of the paper is to formulate a hypothesis that can help explain the different patterns of environmental governance in three countries: Canada and the United States (both federal states) and Italy (a decentralized unitary state). To that effect, we will make use of what is a robust theory of the assignment of powers in federal and decentralized unitary states on the role of competition as a driving force in shaping these assignments. The differing patterns of environmental governance we wish to explain are that most environmental policies are enacted and implemented by the national government in the United States, by provincial governments in Canada, and by both national and regional governments in Italy.

UNBODY: A Poetry Escape Room in Augmented Reality

The integration of augmented reality (AR) technology into personal computing is happening fast, and augmented workplaces for professionals in areas such as Industry 4.0 or digital health can reasonably be expected to form liminal zones that push the boundary of what currently possible. The application potential in the creative industries, however, is vast and can target broad audiences, so with UNBODY, we set out to push boundaries of a different kind and depart from the graphic-centric worlds of AR to explore textual and aural dimensions of an extended reality, in which words haunt and re-create our physical selves. UNBODY is an AR installation for smart glasses that embeds poetry in the user’s surroundings. The augmented experience turns reality into a medium where holographic texts and film clips spill from dayglow billboards and totems. In this paper, we develop a blueprint for an AR escape room dedicated to the spoken and written word, with its open source code facilitating uptake by others into existing or new AR escape rooms. We outline the user-centered process of designing, building, and evaluating UNBODY. More specifically, we deployed a system usability scale (SUS) and a spatial interaction evaluation (SPINE) in order to validate its wider applicability. In this paper, we also describe the composition and concept of the experience, identifying several components (trigger posters, posters with video overlay, word dropper totem, floating object gallery, and a user trail visualization) as part of our first version before evaluation. UNBODY provides a sense of situational awareness and immersivity from inside an escape room. The recorded average mean for the SUS was 59.7, slightly under the recommended 68 average but still above ‘OK’ in the zone of low marginal acceptable. The findings for the SPINE were moderately positive, with the highest scores for output modalities and navigation support. This indicated that the proposed components and escape room concept work. Based on these results, we improved the experience, adding, among others, an interactive word composer component. We conclude that a poetry escape room is possible, outline our co-creation process, and deliver an open source technical framework as a blueprint for adding enhanced support for the spoken and written word to existing or coming AR escape room experiences. In an outlook, we discuss additional insight on timing, alignment, and the right level of personalization

King Mountain Neighborhood Urban Village environmental impact assessment

Two-hundred-eighty-six acres of land were recently incorporated into Bellingham\u27s urban growth boundary, allowing the land to be developed at higher densities. Alliance Properties has proposed development of a high-density, mixed-use urban village on 135 acres of undeveloped land on King Mountain near James Street. An extension of James Street will continue up to Van Wyck Road. Sixty-eight acres will be used for residential land, 46 acres for open spaces and parks, and 21 acres for roads. In the proposed development area, an urban village center will be constructed. This center will contain residential and commercial uses, from cafes and stores to apartments, townhouses and single family residences