Ingenious, eloquent and persuasive? Towards a critique of architecture as communication

The cultural role of architecture is viewed here in terms of the extent to which architecture participates in communicative processes. The rationale for this perspective is traced broadly through the lineage of Pragmatism culminating in the work of Rorty, which offers ‘social hope’; communication is ultimately directed toward human solidarity. In this context the achievement of modernist architecture is at best ambivalent. The utopian quest for transparency and solidity in architectural form represented a turn against the scenographic dimension of urban design, the very dimension in which the narrative, the symbolic and the connotative are most readily expressed. Postmodern architecture, proponents of which often profess explicitly critical and communicative ambitions, fares no better. The deconstructive, double coded and contradictory tendencies in such work may support its criticality but often result in isolated statements as likely to confuse and frustrate its users as facilitate productive relations. The question arises, therefore, of how we are to make sense of the various strands of twentieth and early twenty-first century architecture. This paper is speculative. It reviews a selection of research projects carried out by members of a postgraduate research group in the Lincoln School of Architecture in 2010. Six propositions concerning the relationship between architecture and communication were presented to the group in November 2009. Each project developed a critical response to one or more of these, with the intention of engaging in debate ultimately about the cultural role of architecture. In true Rortian style, the conclusions concern the trajectory of the conversation, the voices present and absent, and the contingency of theory, rather than any definitive agreement on any of the propositions, which are actually provocations

Transhumanism and Society: The Social Debate Over Human Enhancement

This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists\u27 call to bypass human nature and conservationists\u27 argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies. Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the social and ethical implications of technological advancements

Mapping the absence : A theological critique of posthumanist influences in marketing and consumer research

In this study, we critically examine the ongoing adoption of various posthumanist influences into the fields of marketing and consumer research from a theological perspective. By conducting a theological-historical assessment, we propose that it is not posthuman notions of human/technology relations, nor their broader context in the emerging non-representational paradigms, that mark radically new disruptions in the continuing restructuring of the disciplines of marketing and consumer research. Instead, we argue that what is taking place is an implicit adherence to a contemporary form of age-old Christian dogma. As a radical conjecture, we thus propose that an identification of certain similarities between Christian dogma and the grounds for various posthumanist frameworks suggest that posthuman thought may well herald the global dissemination of a far more elusive, authoritarian, and hegemonic system than that which posthumanists typically claim to have abandoned. Consequently, we elaborate on implications to developments in marketing thought.Peer reviewe

There Was Already Quite a Crowd : Gilles Deleuze on Action, Multiplicity, and Sociality

This dissertation argues for an interpretation of Gilles Deleuze\u27s theory of the mind and of action which, by means of the concept of a social group agent, can serve as the basis for a novel political theory. Drawing on recent scholarship on Deleuze which emphasizes the significance of Immanuel Kant\u27s influence on his work, the first chapter argues that Deleuze\u27s Difference and Repetition presents a theory of the mind which is largely in line with Kant\u27s project, but which presents a more dynamic and developmental picture of the mind. Deleuze presents the mind as the product of the interaction of three synthetic faculties, habit, memory, and thought, and argues that they can function both in concert, taking the same object and producing empirical representation, or dynamically and serially, permitting learning when encountering new phenomena. The second chapter argues that Deleuze has a unique theory of action, drawing from Spinoza, Kant, and Nietzsche, which distinguishes action from habitual behavior by means of the presence of a rule constructed by the agent through thought. The third chapter argues that, given this theory of the mind and of action, along with Deleuze\u27s argument that a multiplicity must have both material and virtual parts, social groups of a sufficient level of organization, such as commercial corporations, are metaphysically individual agents. Finally, the fourth chapter argues that if large social groups, such as nations, are also individual agents, Deleuze\u27s distinction between action and habit lines up with H. L. A. Hart\u27s distinction between social practices and social rules and explains why latter exert normative force on the members of a social group. Finally, these concepts are applied to Deleuze\u27s own social philosophy, in Anti-Oedipus, to shed light on Deleuze\u27s concepts of social machines and social inscription

What Caused the Big Bang?

This book critically explores answers to the big question, What produced our universe around fifteen billion years ago in a Big Bang? It critiques contemporary atheistic cosmologies, including Steady State, Oscillationism, Big Fizz, Big Divide, and Big Accident, that affirm the eternity and self-sufficiency of the universe without God. This study defends and revises Process Theology and arguments for God's existence from the universe's life-supporting order and contingent existence

The urban milieu and the genesis of creativity in cultural activities: an introductory framework for the analysis of urban creative dynamics

The increasing interest on the role of cultural activities in territorial development and the related notion of “Creative City” have brought the relation between urban space and creative activities to the centre of academic and policy-making agendas. This paper aims to understand how the urban milieu plays an essential role in the embeddedness of sustainable creative dynamics based on cultural activities. We discuss the notion of creativity, focusing on cultural activities and then we analyse the role of urban milieu in the development of specific creative dynamics which enhance the sustainable production and consumption of cultural activities. Some concluding notes are drawn, in the perspective of assisting policy strategies to encourage sustainable territorial development dynamics based on these activities.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In Theory, There\u27s Hope: Queer Co-(m)motions of Science and Subjectivity

Given the state of the planet at present —specifically, the linked global ecological and economic crises that conjure dark imaginings and nihilistic actualities of increasing resource depletion, poisonings, and wide-scale sufferings and extinctions—I ask What might we hope now? What points of intervention offer possibility for transformation? At best, the response can only be partial. The approach this thesis takes initiates from specific pre-discursive assumptions. The first understands current conditions as having been produced, and continuing to be so, through practices that enact and sustain neoliberal relations. Secondly, these practices are expressive of a subjectivity tied to a Cartesian worldview, which, therefore, needs to be interrupted at its foundational roots. Thirdly, the scaffolding that supports this subjectivity draws on Newtonian science and neo-Darwinian narratives deemed to be natural law and, therefore, ontological, immutable reality. Contrary to modernist thinking, I premise that these two strains, subjectivity and science, are neither autonomous nor ontological, but that they are materially and contingently integral. Finally, this thesis presumes that different and life-affirming trajectories are, in fact, desired. An integral framing of science and subjectivity provides a productive method of feminist science studies analysis and theorization. Observing the capitalist Western social imaginary through this lens reveals its philosophical and scientific infrastructures to be outdated and crumbling. Observing how emerging scientific narratives in quantum physics and systems-biology intersect with marginalized theories in process-philosophy and subjectivity reveals a life-affirming imaginary of difference, one that arrests nihilism and sets ethical trajectories in motion. Certain, though not all, percepts of feminist new materialism engage twentieth and twenty-first century sciences successfully to show that ethicality matters. Though many questions remain, this points auspiciously towards the possibility for a transformed politics of justice

Towards an Existential Pluralism: the Philosophy of Etienne Souriau

Various academics have, over the last five years, challenged practices of criticism in Australian cultural studies. Paul Carter, Ross Gibson and Stephen Muecke have all offered transgressive and dynamic practices, engaging with speculative and experimental ways of thinking. But how can such speculation be supported and contextualised in critical debate? Muecke in particular draws from a background of Continental philosophy in constructing his critical practice. He is influenced by the work of Bruno Latour and Etienne Souriau. The latter is a largely forgotten French philosopher, untranslated in English. He offers a theory of existential pluralism, suggesting the multiplicity of modes of existence and exploring the nature of relation between them. Developing an understanding of his philosophy can help contextualise Muecke’s work, and potentially contribute to this critical movement more generally

Camera Creatures: Rhetorics of Light and Emerging Media

Camera Creatures addresses the new media landscape in which cameras, in most situations, outnumber pens. The dissertation argues that despite the accessibility and power of imagemaking devices, there persists in the humanities and social sciences a hesitation to engage the possibilities for composing with optical media. A number of factors contributing to this trend are addressed, including the preference for image analysis over imagemaking practices, persistent assumptions of the camera\u27s mechanical objectivity, and a tendency to teach visual invention as collage. As a counter-measure, a proposal is made for investment in the mediation of light, or \u27photonic rhetorics.\u27 To explore these effects in visual communication and the possibility of bringing them into practice, three emerging camera technologies are examined. The first, the photo app, focuses on the controversy surrounding embedded journalists who use social networks and the Hipstamatic camera phone application to relay stories of U.S. Marines deployed in Afghanistan. The chapter argues that the filters and shooting styles of these mobile apps encourage fluencies in the persuasive effects of light. The second camera technology, the video clip, addresses the long take as the predominant technique of everyday video-making. Film theory, video sharing trends, and circadian science contribute to a discussion of the rhythms of long-take shooting and its capability to expose both visual habits and the contingencies capable of disrupting them. The third site turns to video game \u27shooters\u27 and the virtual camera\u27s construction of \u27surrogate vision,\u27 which the author argues is a critical tool for understanding the future of mediated interactivity in both physical and digital landscapes. The dissertation concludes with a pedagogical section devoted to conscientious cheating. Alongside theories of deliberate practice, \u27cheating\u27 is repurposed for education, offering new ways of testing the \u27rules\u27 of optical composition while discovering opportunities to intervene in light\u27s constant mediation of perception