Star Architecture as Socio-Material Assemblage

Taking inspiration from new materialism and assemblage, the chapter deals with star architects and iconic buildings as socio-material network effects that do not pre-exist action, but are enacted in practice, in the materiality of design crafting and city building. Star architects are here conceptualized as part of broader assemblages of actors and practices ‘making star architecture’ a reality, and the buildings they design are considered not just as unique and iconic objects, but dis-articulated as complex crafts mobilizing skills, technologies, materials, and forms of knowledge not necessarily ascribable to architecture. Overcoming narrow criticism focusing on the symbolic order of icons as unique creations and alienated repetitions of capitalist development, the chapter’s main aim is to widen the scope of critique by bridging culture and economy, symbolism and practicality, making star architecture available to a broad, fragmented arena of (potential) critics, unevenly equipped with critical tools and differentiated experiences

Aerial wetting contact angle measurement using confocal microscopy

A method is presented in which the wetting contact angle of a sessile drop is acquired aerially using confocal techniques to measure the radius and the height of a droplet deposited on a planar surface. The repeatability of this method is typically less than 0.25°, and often less than 0.1°, for droplet diameters less than 1 mm. To evaluate accuracy of this method, an instrument uncertainty budget is developed, which predicts a combined uncertainty of 0.91° for a 1 mm diameter water droplet with a contact angle of 110°. For droplets having diameters less than 1 mm and contact angles between 15° and 160°, these droplets approach spherical shape and their contact angles can be computed analytically with less than 1% error. For larger droplets, gravitational deformation needs to be considered

Global Assemblages, Resilience, and Earth Stewardship in the Anthropocene

In this paper, we argue that the Anthropocene is an epoch characterized not only by the anthropogenic dominance of the Earth\u27s ecosystems but also by new forms of environmental governance and institutions. Echoing the literature in political ecology, we call these new forms of environmental governance “global assemblages”. Socioecological changes associated with global assemblages disproportionately impact poorer nations and communities along the development continuum, or the “Global South”, and others who depend on natural resources for subsistence. Although global assemblages are powerful mechanisms of socioecological change, we show how transnational networks of grassroots organizations are able to resist their negative social and environmental impacts, and thus foster socioecological resilience

Traditional knowledge of the sea in a time of change:the Caiçara of Ilhabela, Brazil

The Caiçara fishing communities of coastal Brazil, specifically on the island of Ilhabela, demonstrate traditional knowledge of the sea. This research project features collaborative engagements undertaken with them, with the aim of sharing their observations, wisdom and concerns. Caiçara live primarily by artisanal small-scale fishing, cultivation of modest crops, and recently, catering to tourists. Their ways of life have remained substantially unchanged hundreds of years, until recently. The pattern of their lives highlights changing ecological conditions, manifesting vulnerability of the ecosystem and traditional fishing practices. Linked intimately to the environment, their ways serve to magnify many of the world’s most pressing concerns about climate change, the need for conservation, the effects of governmental regulation and the devaluing of traditional knowledge. The representation – or misrepresentation – of a people to the wider world crucially shapes their fortunes and promotes or inhibits their ability to effect positive conditions in their environment. In recognition of a long debate in cultural geography about the methods, merits and pitfalls of representation, the necessity remains for some type of portrayal of a people, if for no other reason than to permit them to be politically recognised. This participatory fieldwork transcends disciplinary boundaries through active witnessing.<br/