Spirit

‘Spirit’ is a photo-essay combining a fictional text with a series of documentary images of the concrete outdoor projection screen designed for the roof of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation. The monumentality of the screen was used to explore the capacity video has to move us to agreement, to immerse us and to produce what we understand to be our commonality. This work was underpinned by readings of cinematic space as architectural field, leading to the notion that social life may be figured as cinematic territory. ‘Spirit’ was developed from a conference paper presented at ‘Vicissitudes Histories and Destinies of Psychoanalysis’ (University of London, 2008). The work produced through this research became the catalyst for ‘Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy’, resulting in a further publication and symposium (Site Gallery, 2011). This was followed by an invitation to speak at the symposium ‘British Modern Remade – Style. Design. Glamour. Horror’, organised in conjunction with the exhibition ‘British Modern Remade’ (2012) in Sheffield’s Park Hill Estate, one of Europe’s largest listed modernist buildings. This research project also includes Tegel: Flights of Fancy (2012) and Tegel: Speculations and Propositions (2013), which examined the pending closure of Tegel airport. Here the hexagonal concrete design of the terminal was taken as a case study for artists, curators, and writers for considering new approaches to the problems of urban renewal, regeneration, social organisation, mobility and the legacy of modernist architecture. For this project, Joseph-Lester interviewed Tegel Airport’s architect, Meinhard von Gerkan, co-wrote the publication introduction, selected artists and writers, and contributed a new video work. Other contributors included Dr Peter Abey and Dr Ricarda Vidal, curators Maja Ćirić and Elke Falat; fiction writers Sean Ashton and Norman M. Klein. The publication included a DVD of films selected from ‘Tegel: Flights of Fancy’

Experimental investigation of the impact of optical injection on vital parameters of a gain-switched pulse source

An analysis of optical injection on a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) laser and its impact on pulse parameters that influence the performance of the pulse source in high-speed optical communication systems is presented in this paper. A range of 10 GHz in detuning and 5 dB in injected power has been experimentally identified to attain pulses, from an optically injected gain-switched DFB laser, with durations below 10 ps and pedestal suppression higher than 35 dB. These pulse features are associated with a side mode suppression ratio of about 30 dB and a timing jitter of less than 1 ps. This demonstrates the feasibility of using optical injection in conjunction with appropriate pulse compression schemes for developing an optimized and cost-efficient pulse source, based on a gain-switched DFB laser, for high-speed photonic systems

Simulation of a high-speed demultiplexer based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor devices

In this paper, we present a theoretical model of an all-optical demultiplexer based on two-photon absorption in a specially designed semiconductor micro-cavity for use in an optical time division multiplexed system. We show that it is possible to achieve error-free demultiplexing of a 250 Gbit/s OTDM signal (25 × 10 Gbit/s channels) using a control-to-signal peak pulse power ratios of around 30:1 with a device bandwidth of approximately 30 GHz

Unity of the spirit

Historical series, 9. Sermon delivered at the bieenial assembly of the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Brock Univ, St Catharines, Ontario, 2004. Isa 2:2-4; Acts 1:6-11; Lk 10: 1-12, 17-20

Panentheistic Elements in Wolfhart Pannenberg's Notion of God

In his exposition, Pannenberg dialectically explores the possibility of a redefinition of the notion of God and rejects the anthropomorphic analogies and the Greek understanding of God as nous in order to emphasize the idea of God as Spirit and thus facilitate the intersection between the natural sciences and Christian theology. Thus, based on the Hebrew notion of the spirit as “wind/breath” and using a naturalistic framework, Pannenberg offers an insightful yet panentheistic view of the Spirit of God as a field of force that binds the Three Persons of the Trinity

“River of life, rapids of change”: Understanding HIV vulnerability among Two-Spirit youth who migrate to Toronto

Like most large urban centres in Canada, Toronto is a magnet for two-spirit youth who leave reserve communities and smaller cities and towns seeking safety and a sense of community. The Youth Migration Project was a community-based research project that was formed out of increasing community concern for these youth as well as other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people. Despite increasing HIV incidence among two-spirit youth, little is understood about how their migration experiences might heighten their risk for HIV infection. We interviewed thirteen two-spirit youth to better understand how migrating to a large urban centre like Toronto is linked to heightened HIV vulnerability. We also interviewed an additional eight key informants seeking their insights into the same questions. Two-spirit youth spoke of escaping abusive, oppressive and homophobic home communities, and their dreams of a better life in Toronto. Once they arrived in Toronto, however, the illusion of an accepting and welcoming community was shattered. Racism, poverty, unemployment, unstable housing, inaccessible services, and sexual exploitation were commonly experienced by two-spirit youth. Many coped with their new situations by engaging in survival sex to pay the bills, or by using substances to cope with isolation, loss, and emotional pain. These factors can lead to potentially heightened risk situations for HIV among migrant two-spirit youth. In addition to a series of recommendations intended to meet their immediate service needs, we propose numerous strategies for longer-term change to improve quality of life for migrant two-spirit youth