Envisioning creative space

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-100).This thesis proposes a framework to articulate certain criteria in creative spatial productions such as architecture. I discuss that a conformist and unquestioning adaptation to conventional space conceptions limits enhancement of spatial sensibility, and consequently creativity. I connect such adaptations to linear progress of continuous and one directional accumulation. Specifically, I call attention to a non-linear progress that surpasses the limitations of these mental constructs and brings in creativity. My discussions are formed around how this non-linear progress might be conceived and sustained in dynamic systems of fragments. The thesis connects this inquiry to the historical and contemporary critique of positivism in the classical sciences, mainly due to the relation of origins of space conceptions to sciences.by Mine Oz̈kar.S.M

Against Theory: With Apologies to Feyerabend

This essay explores the fixation the field of information systems has with “theory” and my frustration with this focus, examining where this theory focus came from, why it has been so widely adopted, and how it has led to dysfunction. It also offers some recommended action items that the field can take to redirect its efforts in order to become more relevant, resilient, and resourceful. These actions include, broadening the aperture of what legitimate IS research should include, imploring journal editors to change the way “applied” research is handled, bringing back books as an accepted and valued publication outlet, and moving the field in the direction of engagement

Anarchism and the archaeology of anarchic societies: Resistance to centralization in the Coast Salish Region of the Pacific Northwest Coast

Throughout human history, people have lived in societies without formalized government. We argue that the theory of anarchism presents a productive framework for analyzing decentralized societies. Anarchism encompasses a broad array of interrelated principles for organizing societies without the centralization of authority. Moreover, its theory of history emphasizes an ongoing and active resistance to concentrations of power. We present an anarchist analysis of the development of social power, authority, and status within the Coast Salish region of the Northwest Coast. Coast Salish peoples exhibited complex displays of chiefly authority and class stratification but without centralized political organization. Ethnographically, their sociopolitical formation is unique in allowing a majority of "high- class" people and a minority of commoners and slaves, or what Wayne Suttles described as an "inverted-pear" society. We present the development of this sociopolitical structure through an analysis of cranial deformation from burial data and assess it in relation to periods of warfare. We determine that many aspects of Coast Salish culture include practices that resist concentrations of power. Our central point is that anarchism is useful for understanding decentralized (or anarchic) networks-those that allow for complex intergroup relations while staving off the establishment of centralized political authority.Peer reviewe

Popperian Falsificationism in IS: Major Confusions and Harmful Influences

The current relationship between Popper’s philosophy of science and Information Systems (IS) is complex and often confused. On the one hand, many influential members of the IS community claim that much IS research follows Popper’s falsificationism. On the other hand, many assumptions underlying Popper’s falsificationism, including the nature of theories as exceptionless laws rejected by a singular unsupportive observation are inappropriate and misleading. Moreover, Popper also rejected all inductive inferences and inductive methods as unscientific which, alas, has led some influential IS scholars to dismiss inductive inferences in major IS methodologies. Such Popperian advice is harmful as virtually all statistical or qualitative IS research relies on inductive inferences – and there is nothing wrong with that. Finally, we offer a solution for how to deal with the scientific significance of the problem of induction. This solution is inductive fallibilism. This means recognizing that theories, rather than always being held as true or false simply, often contain varying inductive supportive and unsupportive evidence

The myth of martial law: the dynamics of crisis management and fragmented human rights boom in Argentina

This dissertation examines social movements in Argentina; in particular the differential impact the organization of Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo has in advancing human rights. The paradox with this social movement is that while it contributed to human rights awareness and induced legal changes, it was simultaneously able to materialize authoritarian practices. To this end, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo utilized human rights as a banner to legitimize their engagement in social struggle. However, what is concealed is that the organization uses human rights for their own economic advancement. To synthesize, the goal is to examine how human rights works as a type of hegemonic power for social movements, while they may at times advance human rights, they may simultaneously betray perspectives of social justice and equity. This dissertation inquiries into fragmentation in social movements struggle to materialize human rights. This dissertation also examines the concept of martial law. The objective here is to demonstrate how the widespread use of the term is problematic because the content of martial law is subject to historical juncture and prevailing power systems. The point is that rather than martial law having a clear category, it is rather nebulous. Notwithstanding the brutal force that may be unleashed by invoking martial law, it will also be demonstrated that its power is not absolute, but rather shaped by other social forces as well. This suggests that under martial law, it is important to account for how other social forces position their respective agendas. One of the social forces that mediate martial law is social movements. What will be examined is the way that social movements oscillate between elements of martial law as consciousness and praxis; and yet paradoxically, their ability to materialize fragments of human rights. Similarly, although martial law has been the dominant state paradigm in Argentina, under the Kirchner administration, there appears to be a shift in state power to a human rights agenda. Accordingly, this dissertation will examine the extent to which the Kirchner administration vacillates between fragments of martial law and human rights discourse and practice

The Character of Political Philosophy

This thesis constitutes an inquiry into the nature or character of political philosophy. The work is in many ways Oakeshottian, and takes its structure principally from Experience and its Modes. Making use of the notion of the modes of practice, science and history the thesis examines the ways in which it is thought that political philosophy might relate to these modes. It is maintained that there is no justification for the attempt to found a prescriptive political philosophy by attaching philosophical writing to one of these modes. This case is pursued by an exegesis of the work of Kuhn, Feyerabend, Rorty and MacIntyre, among others. There is also an account of Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia, and it is maintained that this work is, whilst being in some minimal sense "political", (that is concerned with political concepts), also meaningfully philosophical. The thesis will also maintain that the apparent change in Oakeshott's philosophical position from Experience and its Modes to his later work, the desire of political philosophers to engage in prescription, and the hostility of commentators to the work of Nozick all seems to hinge on what view we should take of the relationship of "art" to the world. I will show what is implied in becoming phlegmatic about the social consequences of our intellectual world and its products. We might thus go beyond Oakeshott, beyond prescription, and beyond any fear we might have of the consequences of the work of writers such as Nozick

Wikipedia and theories of knowledge in encyclopaedism

Algunas tecnologías parecen cambiar de manera inevitable las sociedades en las que son usadas. Las tecnologías de la información hacen esto de forma muy interesante. La imprenta es una de estas tecnologías. Al difundirse por Europa el uso de la imprenta la facilidad y utilidad de la lectura creció de tal manera que empezaron a surgir problemas. Había un exceso de información de entre la cual a menudo era difícil extraer la información pertinente para un momento dado. No resultaba fácil transformar rápidamente esta información excesiva en conocimiento realmente útil. Una de las posibles soluciones a este problema, fue la enciclopedia. La versión de Diderot y d'Alembert fue un reflejo de la Ilustración Europea. Wikipedia es la enciclopedia más usada hoy día, además de ser una de las páginas web más frecuentadas. Forma parte de la naturaleza de las enciclopedias el organizar y preparar información para su uso, son empleadas como fuentes rápidas y fiables de conocimiento. Al estudiar el desarrollo y la estructura de Wikipedia, comparándola con otras influyentes enciclopedias a partir de la Ilustración, se pretende descubrir las distintas maneras en las que el conocimiento es usado y comprendido en la actualidad por el público general.Departamento de Filosofía (Filosofía, Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Teoría e Historia de la Educación, Filosofía Moral, Estética y Teoría de las Artes

Architecture and the creation of worlds

This thesis is an enquiry by creative practice into the academic and aesthetic (avant-garde) practice of architecture. It explores the notion of the virtual as pure potentiality following an event, and defines architecture as the site of such potentiality. (Alain Badiou names event as the moment /encounter which initiates a radical break from a given situation /state of affairs. There are four types of event: artistic, political, scientific and amorous).The thesis follows two parallel strands of enquiry. One, into the material production of the architectural object and topological space, this is titled the actual; and the other, an investigation into the philosophical and antagonistic nature of the virtual, this is titled the virtual. The actual deals with the literature review, methodology, context of study and proposal for (the site of) actual engagement with theory, including a design element (House of the Chinese Mantis); while the virtual explores (through a series of five international and interdisciplinary conference papers) the philosophical problems of emergence. The 'context of study' in the actual centres around the move from the fetish of commodities to seduction and concludes with eroticism, while the body of work in the virtual concentrates on the notions of sovereignty, becoming, and concrete subjectivity.Following the technological practices of the avant-garde between hypersurface theory and catalytic formations in architecture, the thesis rejects the claims of virtual space as the digital space of computer -based design, and of emergence as mimetic and /or algorithm based design. It argues that the virtual is the intangible space of creative unfolding following Bergson and Deleuze, but resists the claim in Deleuze that event is a chance occurring. Also, it resists the claim in Baudrillard that seduction and /or enchanted simulation are event and abandons them to focus on the amorous (one of the four events in Badiou). This creates an inflection in the enquiry, moving the thesis towards Plato and the Renaissance, and a contemporary resurrection in architecture, of the tragic, as concrete manifestation of the amorous encounter.The method of inquiry is structured after the nomadic logic of the War Machine in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, and of the revolutionary nature of fidelity to the scientific event in Badiou, which argues that new knowledge is created by 'revolutions' and from the anomalies and collaborations which arise as a result of such 'detours'; it is a strategy justified by the science historians Feyerabend, Kuhn and Lakatos.The thesis takes the form of two books (the actual and the virtual), and concludes that the avant-garde practice of architecture, with its infinite potentialities is distinct from the bureaucratic or State apparatus of building, and that the commonplace appropriation of the avant-garde by the State, as seen in the institutional recourse to parametrics, appears unproductive and uncreative with regard to knowledge

Museum, design, organisation: an exploration of spatialities and a project in modelling museum design activity

There were three stages in the process of narrowing and focussing the project. Initially the aim was nothing less than a 'paradigm shift' - to reframe the Praxis of Science as 'Design' using the museum as a microcosmic context  in which the complexity of the condition of modernity/ postmodernity was amply reflected. This over-ambitious scheme narrowed at first to one of exploring the interdisciplinary problem of the multidimensionality of design. In this, incommensurability and theories of space have to be accommodated in a workable model, and the forms and transformations of the model have then to be 'proved' in a praxiological exposition. Finally, it has become clear that much of the detailed creative work implied in the previous formulation of the project is, to be realistic, of a  postdoctoral nature. Therefore, the Ph.D. problem has been focussed even further.The focus is on the development of a multidimensional expression of museum design in the form of a theoretical model and an appraisal of its implications for general theory in organization and design. This involves (1)  Background theory - a survey of concepts and theories in modelling, (2) Focal theory - a critique of existing notions of organization and Praxis in museums and in Design, (3) Model theory - the development and presentation of a  more adequate scheme, and (4) Contribution - the evaluation of its potential as a generalization.Background TheoryIn the first part of the programme it has been necessary to ask a specific question about Philosophy - does any  specific paradigm offer an adequate conceptual scheme and 'language' in which to work? And if not, what do  so-called post-Philosophical approaches - radical pragmatism, ironism - have to offer in terms of a workable  strategy, perhaps one that is recognizably `designerly' in approach.In addition the definition and clarification of a wide range of incommensurable notions of 'space' has had to be undertaken to be clear that the complexity with which design, in the generic sense, engages has a particular character which is quite distinct from that of disciplines such as Science, History, and Politics which are  traditionally inclined towards epochal paradigmatic solidarity and towards contingent epistemological coherence.  The designer is, arguably, more of a chameleon than is the scientist or the historian or the politician, more so even than are the novelist and the ethnographer whom Rorty cites as latterly more crucial figures.' This 'quixotic' aspect of the designer's position is crucial to any argument about personal integrity and social value: this enigmatic  journeyman and traveller follows a lonely path guided by emotional (instinctual) as much as by intellectual and practical imperatives.Focal TheoryThe second part of the programme has involved two operations: (1) a  critical investigation, in some detail, of the discourses of organization, design and museography/museology; and (2) an opening up of the intervals between them, that is, an exploration their three interfaces - organization- design; design-museum; and museum-organization. Model Theory By proposing a visible constellation of spatial concepts and exposing the tensions which characterize their  performativity, the second part of the programme is drawn towards the final part of the programme. In this the  adequacy of the proposed model is evaluated in terms of the specific context of the museum as an organizational  type - a creative-administrative nexus - and in terms of its potential value as a generalization. This latter point has  involved consideration of the possible `museal' quality of organization in general and a reappraisal of the values of  design above and beyond the institutionalized, professionally delineated and administered discipline of Design  practice.ContributionThe conclusions emphasize the difficulty of boundary crossing enterprizes such as this project. A considerable effort has gone into deferring the synthetic instinct that all theory tends, sooner or later, to exemplify. However, not just for the sake of form, I make clear some specific and critical points in relation to the 'new' space established by this investigation of museum-design-organization. The museum design discipline has good reason to expound a communication-led collaborative philosophy and to have the strength to develop its discourse in more  sophisticated intellectual circles.In general there is a central message that emerges from the museum-design-organization complex which in one sense bolsters the ironist/new pragmatist stance in engaged theory but also reminds us that to be engaged one  must develop skills and capacities that are independent of the logics of language, that are irrational and yet  invaluable.And in future the interdisciplinary (as distinct from the multidisciplinary) platform must speak its name and be  generous. If one is met with incomprehension, resistance, threat response, or out and out hostility one has failed to understand the nature of design. One does not wait to be invited in, neither does one go straight for the jugular.  One makes a home, a communal place, a common ground. One finds the hearth and kindles in it a new flame, a  new light. One arranges a meeting of minds prepared to enchant with and to be enchanted by new visions and  new stories. And one helps each soul along its journey with no more than a gentle nudge in a promising direction  in the certain knowledge that the whole process will need to be repeated tomorrow and that this will remain the  case for each tomorrow