Straddling the intersection

Music technology straddles the intersection between art and science and presents those who choose to work within its sphere with many practical challenges as well as creative possibilities. The paper focuses on four main areas: secondary education, higher education, practice and research and finally collaboration. The paper emphasises the importance of collaboration in tackling the challenges of interdisciplinarity and in influencing future technological developments

Boston University Messiaen Project, October 12 and 13, 2007

This is the concert program of the Boston University Messiaen Project international conference on Friday, October 12, and Saturday, October 13, 2007, at the College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. The conference featured lectures by Yves Balmer, Karin Heller, Stephen Butler Murray, Martin Lee, Andrew Shenton, Mark DeVoto, Wai Ling Cheong, Luke Berryman, Thomas Peattie, Peter Bannister, Vincent Benitez, Robert Sholl, Alexandre Abdoulvaev, Robert Fallon, Adam Gustafson, Douglas Shadle, Stephen Schloesser, Alexander Rehding, Sander van Maas, Ryan W. Dohoney, and David Cannata. Works performed on the concert on Saturday, October 13, 2007 in the Concert Hall were "Fantasie pour violon et piano by Olivier Messiaen, "Un reflet dans le vent" by O. Messiaen, "Ondine" by Claude Debussy, "Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses" by C. Debussy, "Brouillards" by C. Debussy, "Feuilles mortes" by C. Debussy, "La colombe" by O. Messiaen, "Deux romances de Paul Bourget" by C. Debussy, "Deux morceaux de soir" by C. Debussy, and "Poèmes pour Mi" by O. Messiaen. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health

Based on a literature review and interviews with digital learning experts, explores how digital games can foster skills and knowledge for better academic performance and health. Makes recommendations for government research, partnerships, and media

Approaching Transhumanism: On How Human Beings Transform in the 21st Century

The following article is to introduce the reader into a cultural and intellectual movement whose aim is to identify the need for improvement in human life in the sphere of physicality as well as mentality with the aid of modern technologies – transhumanism. With the dramatic change in the perception of technology, transhumanist welcome the opportunity to improve cognitive skills, help to perpetuate human happiness, or increase longevity. Although the opponents of the transhumanist thought dismiss it as “the world’s most dangerous idea,” the adversaries advocate that the alternation of human form is both practical and reasonable. With the use of modern technology, enthusiasts of transhumanism try to prove that the human body needs to be re-invented in order to transcend the natural limitations. In my work I will try to tackle the problem of human body being currently subject to gradual transition from Homo Sapiens to Robo Sapiens, the process of ‘becoming’ a cyborg. By incorporating bodily augmentation, contemporary artists such as Stelarc or Neil Harbisson cast a light on the change of physical form, as well as the definition of being human. Evoking much controversy, transhumanism brings a completely new dimension to the understanding of the current human condition

Envisioning Cyborg Hybridity Through Performance Art: A Case Study of Stelarc and His Exploration of Humanity in the Digital Age

In this paper I argue that artistic representation has historically been and continues to be a valuable medium for envisioning new bodily forms and for raising important questions regarding changes in what it means to be human in an era of rapid technological advancement. I make this claim using Stelarc, an eccentric Australian performance artist, as a case study. Stelarc’s artistic exploration of the modern-day cyborg enacts and represents philosophical and ontological concepts such as identity, hybridity, and embodiment that are subject to change in the digital age. In order to arrive at this claim, Chapter 1 will trace the cyborg back to its use in 20th century Dada art. I do this to demonstrate how artists have historically depicted shifts in human subjectivities along with their changing technological landscapes. In Chapter 2, I define more precisely what the “cyborg” means for the 21st century and outline a selection of cyborg narratives pertaining to futurist lines of thought. Here I introduce Donna Haraway’s conception of the cyborg but return to it more extensively in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 examines the scientific and philosophical context of Stelarc, beginning with a discussion of the Extended Mind Hypothesis as a neurological background or frame of reference for his art. It continues with a close look at Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto as a philosophical foundation that Stelarc engages with in his performance pieces. Chapter 4 gives a thorough background on Stelarc and the central themes he explores throughout his work. Chapter 5 closely analyzes two of his pieces, Prosthetic Head and Ear on Arm, in order to explore how his art both enacts and moves beyond Haraway’s cyborg as he questions and blurs notions of embodiment, awareness, prosthesis, and ‘natural.’ Chapter 6 summarizes my argument and concludes with remarks about the importance of Stelarc, our relationship to technology, and the new technological implications of what it means to be human

Cyberspace and the Cyberdildo: Dislocations in Cenicienta en Chueca

Cenicienta en Chueca (Cinderella in Chueca) is a collection of short stories by Argentine exile María Felicitas Jaime, published by Spanish gay/lesbian press Odisea in 2003, that represent the neocolonial relations between the Americas, Spain, and the European Union in a globalized age. The stories foreground communication technologies—including type, e-mail, chats, and dialects—in order to highlight the discursive nature of sexuality and to reveal the social, ethnic, racial, nationalistic, economic, gendered tensions underlying linguistic exchange. This article focuses on the neocolonial relations between Spain and Latin America in three stories from this collection— Chateo (Chat), Ejecutivas (Women Executives), and Cenicienta en Chueca

Top Ten Reasons Sen. Gillibrand’s Bill is the Wrong Solution to Military Sexual Assault

Over the years Congress has made plenty of efforts to “improve” the military justice system for a variety of reasons, but few matters have generated more offerings than did the Pentagon’s report this past spring of an estimated 26,000 victims of “unwanted sexual contacts” in the armed forces. Some initiatives to address this very critical problem, like the bipartisan effort of Senators Barbara Boxer and Lindsey Graham, look promising; others, not so much. However, none are as misguided as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s proposal. Indeed, it is hard to think of a proposal that could be more wrong for the military, and especially for the victims of sexual assaults. Sen. Gillibrand wants to remove commanders from the military justice process and replace them with a new, 600-person bureaucracy which would have lawyers as the “deciders” in disciplinary matters involving sexual assault and other serious cases. Her proposal is based on a popular narrative that is filled with false impressions such as the notion that the majority of the estimated 26,000 victims are women (actually, 53% are men); that military personnel do not “trust” their commanders (polls show they do); that the handful of foreign militaries who have removed their commanders have shown progress in combatting sexual assault (they have not); and that prosecutor-centric systems like the one Sen. Gillibrand wants to impose on the military are more successful than the military’s in suppressing sexual assault (the evidence shows they are less so). Most troubling is the fundamental lack of a real understanding in Sen. Gillibrand’s proposal as to what solves problems in the armed forces. It is axiomatic in the military that everything important is commander-led. This is particularly true with respect to the matters of morale and discipline that are so central to the warfighting capabilities for which commanders – not lawyers – are ultimately responsible and accountable. Lawyers, even those thoroughly expert in the law and indisputably well-intentioned as those serving in the armed forces, simply do not, and could not, have the broader insights and experience that commanders acquire through years of leadership, and by bearing the grave burden of sending young Americans in harms’ way to do the Nation’s business. Commanders are uniquely and irreplaceably equipped to exercise disciplinary authority in what the Supreme Court recognizes as the military’s “separate society.” This essay argues that combatting sexual assault through the military justice system is just too important to be anything other than commander-led, and offers ten reasons why Sen. Gillibrand’s proposal will hurt not only the military’s readiness and warfighting capability, but also sexual assault victims. In addition, it describes legislative initiatives that should be examined, but are not being considered by anyone in Congress

The future of laboratory medicine - A 2014 perspective.

Predicting the future is a difficult task. Not surprisingly, there are many examples and assumptions that have proved to be wrong. This review surveys the many predictions, beginning in 1887, about the future of laboratory medicine and its sub-specialties such as clinical chemistry and molecular pathology. It provides a commentary on the accuracy of the predictions and offers opinions on emerging technologies, economic factors and social developments that may play a role in shaping the future of laboratory medicine

The End Signs! Are We Getting the Message?

The problem addressed in this dissertation has three dimensions: imminent global catastrophe, the elitist tyranny responsible for it, and Christian detachment from both. The purpose of this dissertation is not to solve the problem in any of those three dimensions. The aim is threefold—to deconstructively demonstrate the reality of the problem; to expose its historical roots in philosophy, science, and theology; and to offer a case-study example of how it the problem may be clearly viewed and understood for the purposes of 21st century Christian life. The case study is not simple or easy, but neither is the problem it addresses. Semiotics—theory of signs—is the philosophical frame of reference, as pioneered by American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). James H. Fetzer provides intensional realism as a Peircean semiotic philosophy of science. Christian realism based on Peirce’s theory of signs is a key theme, drawn from Leonard Sweet’s Christianity. The constructive example that finishes the dissertation it represents an individual’s apologetic Christian realism as a single-case study example, including philosophical and scientific foundations. At the same time, it also represents a viable de-secularized immanent frame and social imaginary for individual as well as relational Christian being and presence in 21st century reality.35 35 Sweet, So Beautiful and Leonard Sweet, Giving Blood: A Fresh Paradigm for Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), Kindle; James H. Fetzer, Scientific Knowledge: Causation, Explanation, and Corroboration, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 69 (Dordrecht, NL: Springer Netherlands, 1981); James H. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds Are Not Machines, Studies in Cognitive Systems vol. 25 (Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001); .Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009); the works of Charles Sanders Peirce (see APPENDICES: Abbreviations, Citing Charles Sanders Peirce). Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries; Taylor, A Secular Age; Taylor, “Buffered and Porous Selves.