The builders of Edinburgh's New Town, 1767-1795

I began this research in 1998, having spent the previous eight years researching the life and work of James Craig, the architect responsible for the New Town plan'. This thesis develops that earlier interest by examining the contribution of the builders of the New Town: identifying who these men were and what work they did in the New Town all in the context of the importance of the New Town to Edinburgh's political and economic management in the late 18'' century. This analysis is divided into three sections which consider in turn the builders' administration, work and businesses. At an early stage in the research it became obvious that the main sources of information on the builders resided in archives. Quite simply, there are neither books nor articles that are dedicated to the builders. Consequently, much of this thesis refers to primary archival sources, but this introduction is intended to set the New Town's architectural history into the wider contexts of 18th century Scottish and British architectural and urban history as well as political, social and economic history and, to a lesser extent, the history of ideas.Despite the fact that there has never been a book, or article, published on the New Town's builders, the secondary sources show that the focus on builders, and treating building as the New Town's principle industry, was sensible and followed established studies of local and national histories in Edinburgh, Scotland and Great Britain. These studies showed that Edinburgh's New Town was typical of English civic improvement programmes, but that it was also one of the largest urban improvement schemes to be proposed in Great Britain, and the biggest in North Britain. Furthermore, although the builders of the New Town had not received any scholarly attention, and, had, in fact, been consistently criticised by New Town scholars, there had been studies of tradesmen in England which in some ways validated the methodology and viewpoint of the current study. The detailed archival research on which this is based creates the opportunity to give the New Town's builders more scholarly attention than they had ever had. Although this thesis is not a definitive study of builders it establishes that they were more important to the New Town than has hitherto been acknowledged, and that the term "builders" refers to well trained, and organised professional designers, tradesmen, labourers and investors who kept businesses alive and prospering in what was a very difficult economic period for Edinburgh. The builders were far more sophisticated and complicated than their name suggests. For the first time, the builders' professional history in the New Town will have been discussed in a scholarly way in which builders such as James Nesbit, William Smith, Robert Wright, John Baxter, John Hay, John Young, to name but a few, are seen to have contributed towards the design and completion of the New Town's housing. Builders are classified into groups, and housing into types. Case studies of architects like Robert Adam, James Craig, Sir James Clerk, William Keys, Robert Robinson and David Henderson are joined in case studies of builders like John Brough, Andrew Neal, the Chrystie family, William Morrison and others in which individual developers, family businesses and partnership businesses are studied to show that builders saw themselves as an emerging, unified profession. The Society of Master Builders of Edinburgh symbolised this rise.In this study tradesmen are classified according to their membership of Incorporations of Wrights and Masons, and affiliations to architects, such as a group of tradesmen who worked for the architects John and Robert Adam and James Craig, or the mason John Chrystie. Other tradesmen and builders have also been identified through their links to financial, legal, political and mercantile leaders and families. Builders worked in harmony with these other professions to create property investment and development groups. Land was built upon for profit and political power. Like their influential backers in these development groups, builders established contacts with merchants and industrialists in England, colonies and Europe as well as extending their influence beyond Edinburgh. To pursue this point, this thesis examines the builders' activities throughout Edinburgh, such as along the South Bridge, and also in lowland Scotland's churches, and country houses to show that their influence was not restricted to the New Town but expanded beyond those streets and squares. Once again, analysis of the building industry and its professions allow us to see its dynamic influence on Scottish urban and rural architecture.Gathering information to do these things is difficult. Unlike noble families, builders rarely left large personal archives. But, details about their businesses were commonly available by researching financial and legal archives. Since many of these gave details of building businesses which were in trouble, this was cross-checked in the context of Edinburgh Town Council's administration of the New Town, and its builders. This particular study uses quantitative data which was taken from audits, and accounts as well as considering planning laws. In this respect, the first section follows the scholarship Reed, Murdoch and Rodger have provided Edinburgh historians. The second section argues that the builders established standard construction methods for house building, which complements Ayres' findings in Georgian London, and the third section is a study of the builders' businesses. All three sections set out an argument that the New Town's architectural history is better understood for studying its builders. The fact that most of the data for this thesis is based on archival research was not found by luck but hard work, and sound historical research, method, practice and publications and the advice of professional historians

Women artists and book illustration in Edinburgh 1886-1945

This thesis documents a range of visua1 and textual records of women artists and illustrators in Edinburgh (1886-1945). It considers how women trained and applied skills to illustrate unique and multiple images for Edinburgh's printing and publishing houses. Research by Dr Elizabeth Cumming into the Arts and Crafts Movement 111 Edinburgh, studies by Professor Janice Helland of Professional Women Artists 111 Scotland and work by Professor Sian Reynolds into the cultural industries in Edinburgh, provide fundamental models of enquiry into women's occupations in this period.The following chapters discuss the ways in which women presented images of themselves. They generated images in book form, in design, illustration and the interpretation of texts. Nineteenth century debates about the necessity of roles for women in art, education, religion and politics challenged gendered norms of the political culture. In order to stress the agency o f women illustrators, a s scribes who wrote themselves into their culture, the thesis also marks the currency of changing attitudes about womanhood. Interaction between women as cultural facilitators, campaigners for women's rights and artists as illustrators emerges in a critical phase of Scottish history

Generic data processing & analysis architecture of a personal health system to manage daily interactive sessions in patients with major depression

[EN] The World Health Organization (WHO) considers Major Unipolar Depression as a significant cause of disability worldwide (globally, more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression). This common mental disorder spends many economic and clinical resources and it is sometimes responsible for patient suicides. The work presented in this Master Thesis document describes the design and implementation of a generic Data Processing & Analysis module which has been included within the Personal Health System developed in the Help4Mood Research European Project [FP7 ICT-248765]. The aim of Help4Mood is to develop a computational distributed system to support the treatment of people with Major Depression in the community. It is focused on reducing depressive symptoms, improving functioning, and preventing the recurrence of symptoms in the future. The developed Data Processing & Analysis module is the mechanism responsible of: i) The analysis of the objective and subjective inputs received from the user; ii) The inference of clinical concepts and the production of a set of activities to be suggested by the system during the treatment of depression; iii) The planning of the most appropriate interactive sessions based on the inferred activities; iv) The generation of adequate emotional responses represented in the Help4Mood¿s Virtual Agent to better engages the patient with the use of the system and to facilitate a better adherence to the treatment process; and v) The summarization of the relevant clinical information about the progress of the patient every week. The results of this work suggests that the generic Data Processing & Analysis module is useful for managing flexible and personalised sessions in the treatment of the depression, and it is able to be adapted to other clinical domains. It provides a systematic framework for data collection, processing and analysis which improves the continuous monitoring and treatment of the patients. Additionally, our module improves the communication between patients and clinicians by facilitating the joint reflexion about the evolution and improvements in wellbeing at the different stages of the treatment[ES] La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) considera la Depresión Mayor Unipolar como una causa significativa de discapacidad mundial (más de 350 millones de personas de todas las edades padecen depresión). Esta común enfermedad mental consume muchos recursos económicos y clínicos y en ocasiones es responsable de suicidios de pacientes. El trabajo presentado en esta Tesina de Máster describe el diseño y la implementación de un módulo genérico de Procesado y Análisis de Datos, el cual ha sido incluido en el Sistema Personal de Salud desarrollado en el proyecto de investigación Europeo Help4Mood [FP7 ICT-248765]. El propósito de Help4Mood es el desarrollo de un sistema computacional distribuido que de soporte al tratamiento de personas con Depresión Mayor. Se centra en la reducir los síntomas de la depresión, mejorar el funcionamiento, y en prevenir la futura reaparición de los síntomas. El módulo de Procesado y Análisis de Datos desarrollado es el responsable de: i) El análisis de los datos objetivos y subjetivos recibidos por parte del usuario del sistema; ii) La inferencia de conceptos clínicos y la producción de un conjunto de actividades que serán propuestas por el sistema durante el tratamiento de la depresión; iii) La planificación de la sesión interactiva más apropiada basada en las actividades inferidas; iv) La generación de una respuesta emocional adecuada que el Agente Virtual de Help4Mood muestre para lograr una mayor participación de los usuarios en el uso del sistema y una mejor adherencia al proceso del tratamiento; y v) El resumen de la información clínica relevante sobre el progreso semanal del paciente. Los resultados de este trabajo sugieren que el módulo genérico de Procesado y Análisis de Datos es útil para la gestión flexible y personalizada de sesiones diarias para el tratamiento de la Depresión, además podría ser adaptada a otros dominios clínicos. Este módulo proporciona un marco sistemático para la recopilación, procesamiento y análisis que permite mejorar el control continuo y el tratamiento de los pacientes. Adicionalmente, nuestro módulo mejora la comunicación entre los pacientes y los médicos, facilitando la reflexión conjunta sobre la evolución y las mejoras en el bienestar en las diferentes etapas del tratamiento.Bresó Guardado, A. (2013). Generic data processing & analysis architecture of a personal health system to manage daily interactive sessions in patients with major depression. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/39155Archivo delegad

Activating the role of public participation as a new vision towards urban planning system reform : what can Syria learn from the British experience?

As a cross-national comparative study, this research examines the urban development decision-making process as a form of urban governance, emphasising the progress achieved in public participation within the British and Syrian urban contexts. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), public participation is one of the key attributes of good governance. Therefore this study addresses public participation as an indicator of good governance; a means to ensure better development, and an end to enhancing the capacity building of the society. There is an abundance of theoretical and practical research addressing the topic of public participation in the urban development decision-making process in the UK, which might provide valuable references and lessons for developing countries to benefit from. Since 2011, Syria has been in turmoil and instability due to the ongoing war in the country, resulting in drastic social, economic, and political changes. Before the war and during the first decade of the 21st century, Syria sought to make some social and economic changes under the influence and help of the UNDP. Those change attempts were noted within the 10th Five Year Plan (FYP), where the concepts of ‘civil society’, ‘participation’, and ‘governance’ were introduced. Those changes have affected the urban planning context within the country, where a new approach to decision-making within the land-use planning system was introduced. However, the efficiency of the new approach to achieving better outcomes for development plans was still questionable. This research aims to critically review, evaluate and compare the progress achieved in the field of public participation in the urban development decision-making process (evolution, achievements, and problems) in the British and Syrian contexts by following a cross-national approach. It reviews the evolution of urban planning theories and public participation approaches and their practices. Based on the findings, an analytical framework is adopted to examine and evaluate the level of public participation within the decision-making process, both theoretically and in practice. The research is based on a case study approach. A mixed-method of data collection and analysis is applied in both countries through literature, policy and regulations reviews, and fieldwork in the selected study cases: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and Latakia, Syria. By studying and analysing the possibilities for broader public participation and more effective engagement of members of civil society in the urban development decision-making process, this research attempts to promote potential sustainable outcomes of public participation within their related political, economic, and social contexts. This research found some theoretical similarities between the UK-Scotland and Syria when addressing classic democracy (structure of the state, administrative and geographical division, the structure of state institutions, and the laws and regulations governing). However, the empirical research found that the fundamental differences lie in the practical implementation of the concept of democracy on the ground. Empirical research shows that public participation in the Syrian urban development decision making process is primitive and limited to informing only. Even the methods used to inform the public are ineffective enough and do not achieve the required propagation. Whereas in the case of UK-Scotland, public participation is more developed, and the public is engaged and consulted during the formulation of the decisions. Despite the difference in the level of democracy, the research indicates that Syria could benefit from the British experience. However, achieving this is a political matter that needs a political and societal will that involves restructuring the main forces of society (the state, the market, and the society). Based on the research findings, a series of recommendations have been developed to improve the practice of public participation in the urban development decision-making process and achieve reformatory changes to urban governance in Syria

A poetics of repetition - theory and practice in/of printmaking: what are the methodological, epistemological and practical questions that arise from the a particular aesthetic practice

Why 'A poetics of repetition'? At its most crude, 'poetics' suggests a rule book with fixed protocols. The conventional institutional requirements of the PhD format comply with this part of the definition. However, at its best, a 'poetics' may be understood as performing that which it contains or describes. This is how the different elements that make up the present submission are conceived.The second part of the title identifies this submission within the broader field of printmaking and also emphasizes the main thrust of its contribution to knowledge. It accentuates the input of this project to a critical topology of the discipline through a discussion and development of relevant terms and processes. Above all, the subtitle signals that this PhD is firmly based in practice.The epistemological assumption of an inextricable link between theory and practice is methodologically demonstrated through the format of the submission. It consists of six parts. These interweave the visual documentation on CD of the production and installation of two solo exhibitions at the start and towards the end of the PhD with written sections which relate to the artistic practice.'Printmaking' is understood in the particular sense of my own studio practice in addition to its significance as a discipline in the wider artistic and cultural context. In terms of the former, the theory- practice relationship is exemplified through the emphasis on printmaking in the two solo exhibitions. Moreover, five chapters in Parts Ill and V respectively, including a report on the second exhibition, put printmaking at the centre of the debate.Another strand of the submission engages with issues posed by research in art and design. The question of the interrelationship between theory and practice is highlighted in two chapters of the submission (111.2 and V.2) in addition to a general contextual chapter on this topic (111.1). The concept of 'post- production serves to illuminate the role of time, writing, documentation and interpretation in a research process that is primarily focussed on the production of visual art.A lead -in to the multiple strands of the research is the concept of repetition. At one level, this key word refers to my particular aesthetic programme of the repetition of 'original' hand drawn marks through printmaking and the reproductive nature of prints in general. At another, repetition is understood more broadly in a Deleuzian sense as 'difference' and helps to conceptualise both the format and ethos of the submission