Performative ontologies. Sociomaterial approaches to researching adult education and lifelong learning

Sociomaterial approaches to researching education, such as those generated by actornetwork theory and complexity theory, have been growing in significance in recent years, both theoretically and methodologically. Such approaches are based upon a performative ontology rather than the more characteristic representational epistemology that informs much research. In this article, we outline certain aspects of sociomaterial sensibilities in researching education, and some of the uptakes on issues related to the education of adults. We further suggest some possibilities emerging for adult education and lifelong learning researchers from taking up such theories and methodologies. (DIPF/Orig.

Expandable covers of skew modules for emergency buildings

Deployable structures can be a good response to disaster situations, where it is necessary to provide services to a displaced population. They can be compacted into a lightweight and easily transportable package and deployed where needed providing an enclosure for use, quickly and efficiently. In this article, the possibilities of deployable structures of oblique modules are investigated, a subject little studied, but of great interest due to its many possibilities. The geometric conditions of the different modules and the typologies that can be considered are analyzed. The possibility of using the reciprocal links system developed by the authors is also studied in these meshes. Finally, the performance of a pyramidal dome that uses reciprocal linkages at the ends of its bar, is analyzed in an analytical and experimental way. Both the theoretical calculations and the experimental tests allow demonstrating the viability and effectiveness of this structural type.MINECO: BIA2016-79459-

Developmental gene regulatory network architecture across 500 million years of echinoderm evolution

Evolutionary change in morphological features must depend on architectural reorganization of developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs), just as true conservation of morphological features must imply retention of ancestral developmental GRN features. Key elements of the provisional GRN for embryonic endomesoderm development in the sea urchin are here compared with those operating in embryos of a distantly related echinoderm, a starfish. These animals diverged from their common ancestor 520-480 million years ago. Their endomesodermal fate maps are similar, except that sea urchins generate a skeletogenic cell lineage that produces a prominent skeleton lacking entirely in starfish larvae. A relevant set of regulatory genes was isolated from the starfish Asterina miniata, their expression patterns determined, and effects on the other genes of perturbing the expression of each were demonstrated. A three-gene feedback loop that is a fundamental feature of the sea urchin GRN for endoderm specification is found in almost identical form in the starfish: a detailed element of GRN architecture has been retained since the Cambrian Period in both echinoderm lineages. The significance of this retention is highlighted by the observation of numerous specific differences in the GRN connections as well. A regulatory gene used to drive skeletogenesis in the sea urchin is used entirely differently in the starfish, where it responds to endomesodermal inputs that do not affect it in the sea urchin embryo. Evolutionary changes in the GRNs since divergence are limited sharply to certain cis-regulatory elements, whereas others have persisted unaltered

Using Smart Cameras to Localize Self-Assembling Modular Robots

In order to realize the goal of self assembling or self reconfiguring modular robots the constituent modules in the system need to be able to gauge their position and orientation with respect to each other. This paper describes an approach to solving this localization problem by equipping each of the modules in the ensemble with a smart camera system. The paper describes one implementation of this scheme on a modular robotic system and discusses the results of a self assembly experiment

디지털 도시 인프라와 모바일 신체: 코로나19 유행병 시기 QR코드 생산 활동과 공간 구성에 대한 연구

학위논문(박사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 환경대학원 환경계획학과, 2022.2. 전상인.This thesis studies the assemblage of Electronic Entry Register (EER) as digital infrastructure during covid-19 pandemic in the city of Seoul. Electronic Entry Register is a spatial planning and strategy that the South Korean government developed to control the circulation of mobile bodies as a response to the pandemic. This case study adopts an assemblage thinking to reveal how the EER came into being. It particularly highlights the data-producing human actors by adopting a posthumanist approach, to bring them forward as one of the main actors in materialising this assemblage. Examining the development processes of the EER revealed that assembling the ‘circulatory conduit’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1997) depended largely on creating a population of docile bodies (Foucault, 2020) who were willing to, and capable of producing the right kinds of data. For this end, the South Korean government chose to simulate the national population on commercial mobile apps; which leaves the question that perhaps the task of creating a networked population is too often taken-for-granted in the discourse of smart city. Three critical dimensions in the production of digital infrastructure are proposed: the urban screens, the posthuman performances, and the leveraging effects of digital technology. The data-producing mobile bodies became the most critical actor in assembling the EER. Field research conducted at the sites of the EER across the city of Seoul, revealed that the mobile phone numbers intimately entangled to the mobile bodies (Barns, 2020) became the most critical ‘dividual’ (Deleuze, 1992) that indicated the mobile bodies. The illegibility of the QR codes and the invisibility embedded in the processing of digital data alienated the very producers; raising a sense of alienation which accompanied feelings of anxieties, doubts and powerlessness. Findings on their differentiated posthuman bodies and their sense of alienation indicated that they were anything but the homogenous ‘smart citizens’ as often imagined in the smart city discourse. Lastly, the thesis discusses the spatialities entailed in the QR codified urban space in two dimensions: spatial order embedded in the EER and spatial shifts experienced by the citizens. Spatial order embedded in the EER are discussed as ‘fragmented circulation’, ‘data-based public space’, and ‘invisible enclosure’. Spatial shifts encountered by the citizens are discussed as ‘collapsed linearity’, ‘liquid boundaries’, and ‘reproduction of digital speed’. The core element in mobilising this urban assemblage was the data-producing docile bodies moving across the urban space with the smartphones as their prostheses. As Lefebvre (2013) asserts that time-space is produced through practice, these bodies reproduced the digital speed onto the urban landscape. This case study highlights digital mediation in urban space where it emerges through the body-smartphone. It proposes that the study of digitally mediated cities, including smart city discourse, could more productively take the posthuman body a valid unit of analysis.본 연구는 코로나19 유행병에 대한 대응 차원에서 인구의 흐름을 통제하기 위해 한국 정부가 구축한 ‘전자출입명부’의 형성 과정을 도시 아상블라주 (urban assemblage)로서 연구하였다. 특히 포스트휴머니즘 관점을 도입하여 스마트폰을 보철(prosthesis)로서 체화하고 디지털 데이터를 생산하는 행위자에 주목하였다. 정부가 요구하는 데이터를 적시에 생산하는 인구를 창출하는 것이 전자출입명부 개발과정의 핵심임을 밝혔다. 이는 다양한 방식의 대국민 커뮤니케이션을 통해 이루어졌다. 또한 정부는 기업의 모바일 플랫폼에 QR코드 기능을 탑재하여 기업의 ‘온라인 고객’을 국가의 ‘온라인 인구’로 대체하였다. 이 과정은 전 인구가 연결된 네트워크 장(場)을 형성하고, 일상적으로 데이터를 생산하게 하는 것이 얼마나 어려울 수 있는지를 반증하며, 스마트시티 담론에서 온라인 인구 구축에 대한 명확한 전제가 미비함을 지적하게 한다. 또한 디지털 기반시설의 주요 구성 요소로서 도시 스크린 (urban screen), 데이터 생산자, 레버리지 효과를 제시하였다. 이동 중 스마트폰을 작동하여 지식을 생산하는 유순한 신체 (Foucault, 2020)는 전자출입명부를 도시 아상블라주로서 구축하는 핵심 동력이 되었다. 서울 시민을 대상으로 한 전자출입명부 현장연구는 QR코드가 이동하는 몸을 가리키는 가장 중요한 ‘분체(dividual)’ (Deleuze, 1992)로서 작동함을 확인하였다. 인간의 눈으로 판독 불가한 QR코드 패턴이 상징하듯, 디지털 데이터의 비시인성은 생산, 수집, 산출, 활용의 전 과정에서 데이터 생산자들을 소외시켰는데, 이는 불안감과 무력감으로도 표출되었다. 본 연구에서 관찰한 데이터생산자들은 스마트시티 담론에서 ‘스마트 시민(smart citizen)’으로 표상되는 정치적 주체들과는 거리가 있었다. 마지막으로, 논문은 QR코드화된 도시공간의 공간성을 두 가지 측면에서 논의하였다. 전자출입명부에 내재된 공간적 질서에 대한 측면과, 변화된 도시공간 구조변화의 측면이다. 전자출입명부에 내재된 공간적 질서는 ‘파편화된 순환 (fragmented circulation)’, ‘데이터기반 공공 공간(data-based public space)’, ‘비가시적 봉인성 (invisible enclosure)’으로 논의하였다. 변화된 도시 공간성에 대한 경험은 ‘선형성의 붕괴 (collapsed linearity)’, ‘액체적 경계 (liquid boundaries)’, ‘디지털 속도의 재생산 (reproduction of digital speed)’으로 제시하였다. 본 연구는 코로나19 유행병의 방역을 위해 한국 정부가 구축한 전자출입명부를 디지털 기반시설 조성의 사례로 연구하며, 그 개발과정에 있어 디지털 데이터를 생산하는 시민을 창조하는 것이 핵심이었음을 밝혔다. 르페브르(2013)가 실천을 통해 시공간이 생성된다고 하였듯 디지털을 체화한 신체는 디지털 속도를 도시공간에 재현하였는데, 본 사례연구는 이러한 도시공간의 재조직이 신체-스마트폰을 통해 이루어지는 현상을 포착할 수 있었다. 이에 따라 본 연구는 디지털 기기를 보철로서 체화한 포스트휴먼을 도시공간 연구에 있어 유효한 연구 단위로서 제안하며, 디지털 도시를 연구함에 있어 도시계획학적 함의가 적지 않음을 제시한다.Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. QR Codifying Practice during Covid-19 Pandemic in Seoul 3 1.2. Research Objective and Questions 10 Chapter 2. Theoretical Background 11 2.1. Problematic: Spatial Imagination on Digital Cities 11 2.2. Theoretical Framework 12 2.2.1. Urban Assemblage 12 2.2.2. Digital Infrastructure 17 2.2.3. Mobile Dispositif 19 2.2.4. Assembling the Electronic Entry Register 24 Chapter 3. Methodology 32 3.1. Research Design 32 3.2. Assembling / Structuring / Entrapping 34 3.3. Assembled / Altering / Empowering 51 Chapter 4. Developing Digital Urban Infrastructure 67 4.1. Prototyping and Building Ecosystem 67 4.2. Creating Data-Producing Citizens 71 4.3. Networking Population on Commercial Platforms 77 4.4. Core Components of Digital Infrastructure 82 Chapter 5. Data-Producing Mobile Bodies 92 5.1. Mobile Phone Numbers as Identification of Mobile Bodies 92 5.2. Relationship with Digital Data 96 5.3. Differentiated Posthuman Bodies 106 Chapter 6. Digitally Mediated Urban Space 115 6.1. Spatial Order Intrinsic in the EER 116 6.1.1. Fragmented Circulation 116 6.1.2. Data-based Public Space 118 6.1.3. Invisible Enclosure 120 6.2. Spatialities Experienced by Citizens 127 6.2.1. Collapsed Linearity 127 6.2.2. Liquid Boundaries 130 6.2.3. Reproduction of Digital Speed 134 Chapter 7. Conclusion 143 Reference 150 Appendix iv Abstract in Korean xviii박

Bio-inspired design of a kinetic node for adaptable structures

Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute Of Technology, Architecture, İzmir, 2011Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 112-119)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxiii, 119 leavesThe architectural design should no longer consider just in terms of today's demands, but also the life cycle and the further requirements of the built environment. The design process should consider the adaptation to the changing conditions which can be in terms of the building usage, environmental factors or even in the changes ofsociological demands. Rapid change in activities of modern society and building technologies, has led to the need for adaptable spaces. Those spaces can be obtained by the adaptable structures which have potential for using our resources in efficient way and also for responding to the era's needs. This can be achieved with kinetic structural systems and learning adaptable structures from nature.Nature has always inspired humanity by solving the basic needs with minimum material and sustainable solutions. Observation of nature enables architects and engineers familiar with highly developed structures and lead to the creation of new forms. The designs that are produced by learning from nature lead to practical engineering solutions in terms of sustainability. The aim of this research is to propose a joint; kinetic node with multidisciplinary approach. This kinetic node is designed by inspiring from the minimum energy shape configurations and the structural orders in natural structures especially the cell membrane and analyzing the joining details of space truss structural systems and the geometric principles of Bricard linkage mechanism. This new kinetic node gives capability to construct variable static and dynamic structural systems while constructing in different structural orders

Learning in Local Systems and Global Links: The Otigba Computer Hardware Cluster in Nigeria

Conventional wisdom suggests to the fact that poor countries are unlikely to be host to a “high-technology” sector and doing so within the organization of small and medium enterprises. This paper examines an unusual phenomenon of industrial organization in an African setting; the emergence of a cluster of an information technology hardware cluster in a very late industrializing country, Nigeria. The evolution of the Otigba Computer Hardware Village (OCV) in Lagos, Nigeria has proceeded largely without direct support from the state and indeed within a decidedly hostile institutional and arid infrastructural environment. Yet the cluster has thrived, thus far, with institutional support of a local trade and manufacturing association. The study holds important lessons for late industrializing countries entering into a knowledge intensive sector.learning, innovation system, computer hardware, clusters

Meaningful Witnessing in the United States, India & New Zealand: The Possibility Space for Digital Video Within Human Rights, Protest Movements and Activist Practices

This dissertation examines the emergence of digital video practices rooted in human rights, social justice issues and protest movements through a number of select case studies in the United States, India and New Zealand. This project analyzes and critiques the formation of digital video practices through the lens of Manuel DeLanda’s interpretation of assemblage theory. Examining interactions between crucial elements present in a possibility space that aid in the cultivation and assembling of budding forms of digital video, this study considers the implications in the relationships between both material and expressive qualities of these assemblings. The central argument of this thesis asserts that digital video practices centered on human rights, social justice and protest movements require adaptable linkages between supportive structures, creative capacities and digital video technologies in order to produce sustainable and creative digital video practices buttressed by documentary agendas that fuel their dynamic evolution. My research seeks to engage with the complexities of agency and technology and examines their significance in different contexts by providing a constructive outlet for practitioners to share the process behind their methods in order to offer insight into their creative workflow. Digital video technologies are proliferating at a rapid pace, yet very few video practices have formed that suggest linkages to documentary traditions. One can bear witness, yet to traverse video documentation in order to create a rhetorical argument of meaningful witnessing is a complex process that requires more than easy access to mobile video tools connected to the Internet. The case studies analyzed in these three democratic nations support the argument threaded throughout the project; digital video practices have the potential to thrive, albeit in pockets where formal or informal support systems are present and through assemblages where digital video technologies are constantly being adapted and an investment in human capital is paramount to the privileging of digital video tools or online platforms. Case studies that focus on individual practices in New York City and New Zealand reinforce the difficulties practitioners face when attempting to cultivate video practices without supportive structures. Comparatively with other case studies in India and New York, individual practices with long-term organizational support navigate challenges and re-assemble their practices in order to remain sustainable and influential. This study also engages with assemblage theory in the context of documentary history and contemporary digital video practices and reassesses the historic relationship between emerging photographic, film and video tools and the lens based practitioners that harness these apparatuses for documentary purposes. Like assemblings themselves, these creative associations are never smooth at their inception, but require adaptable solutions and adjustable reassemblings in order to maintain the potential for sustainable practices to develop and flourish. This dissertation argues that as digital video practices continue to evolve, they have the potential to redefine creative approaches to documentary media and the opportunity to confront historic traditions of the documentary form

Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Markets: Changing agricultural marketing systems and innovative responses by producer organizations

Though some producer organizations have enabled developing country farmers to exploit new opportunities and/or cope with emerging challenges through developing and/or taking advantage of innovative mechanisms and institutions, there are many farmers who lack sustainable access to inputs and services as well as to remunerative output markets. This paper is intended to generate a better understanding of the conditions which make producer organizations capable vehicles by which farmers, especially small-scale farmers in developing countries, can reach markets in a dynamic and demanding trading environment, and respond to the needs of their clients and members. It aims at identifying lessons on the forms of organizations as well as the innovative mechanisms and institutions that producer organizations can adopt and/or help promote in response to challenges in the changing agricultural marketing systems, in particular, to strengthen the bargaining position of farmers.agricultural marketing systems; producer organizations; innovative rural finance

Programmable Assembly of DNA-Functionalized Liposomes by DNA

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Nano, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn1030093Bionanotechnology involves the use of biomolecules to control both the structure and property of nanomaterials. One of the most studied examples is DNA-directed assembly of inorganic nanoparticles such as gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). However, systematic studies on DNA-linked soft nanoparticles, such as liposomes, are still lacking. We herein report the programmable assembly and systematic characterization of DNA-linked liposomes as a function of liposome size, charge, fluidity, composition, DNA spacer, linker DNA sequence, and salt concentration for direct comparison to DNA-directed assembly of AuNPs. Similar to the assemblies of AuNPs, sharp melting transitions were observed for liposomes where the first derivative of the melting curve full width at half-maximum (fwhm) is equal to or less than 1 °C for all of the tested liposomes, allowing sequence specific DNA detection. We found that parameters such as liposome size, charge, and fluidity have little effect on the DNA melting temperature. Cryo-TEM studies showed that programmable assemblies can be obtained and that the majority of the liposomes maintained a spherical shape in the assembled state. While liposome and AuNP systems are similar in many aspects, there are also important differences that can be explained by their respective physical properties.University of Waterloo || Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council |