To Occupy, to Inscribe, to Thicken: Spatial Politics and the Right to the Surface

This essay sits in the warm, multiple and frictional space of the urban surface. The surface is a space: not a boundary but an extension, a thickness, an object. The surface object is cumulative and layered: it results from the gradual addition of individual inscriptions, materials, coatings, paint, markings and erasures. Urban spatial production makes surface. It doesn’t just occupy the surface, it produces it: it generates a new space, a new location, a new object. The surface is therefore qualitatively different from private and public spaces. It blurs these urban ownership regimes and embodies collective spatial production and use: a surface commons. Urban ownership regimes and the politics of spatial production are closely related to the question of the right to the city. In thinking about what, and where, the right to the city is, I will suggest in this essay that the right to the city might be (in) the surface

Antiferro and ferromagnetic ordering in PrGe single crystal

The equiatomic PrGe single crystal was grown by Czochralski pulling method. The grown single crystal was found to have CrB-type orthorhombic crystal structure with the space group \textit{Cmcm} (#63). Transport and magnetization data reveal large anisotropy in the electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and magnetization. PrGe was found to exhibit two consecutive magnetic orderings at 44 K and 41.5 K, respectively. The magnetic susceptibility measurement along the three principal directions, in low applied fields, revealed a cusp like behaviour at 44 K while at 41.5 K a ferromagnetic like increase was observed. The hysteritic behaviour in the magnetization measurement at 1.8 K confirmed the ferromagnetic nature of PrGe at low temperatures. The heat capacity data clearly revealed the bulk nature of two magnetic transitions by the presence of two sharp peaks attaining values exceeding 40 J/K$\cdot$mol at the respective temperatures. The absence of Schottky contribution in the magnetic part of heat capacity indicates a quasi-ninefold degenerate J=4 magnetic ground state in this system. The low temperature data of electrical resistivity and the magnetic part of heat capacity show an existence of gap in the spin-wave spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Selling Streetness as Experience. The Role of Street Art Tours in Branding the Creative City

This article looks at the street art tours industry in London, and its function in constructing the geographic, economic and symbolic value of street art. The street art world of the capital has reached a substantial level of institutional endorsement as a proper urban creative practice, through backing such as by local councils and private developers, art galleries and book publishers. This article examines the role of walking tours in holding up street art as a cultural product of the creative city. It argues that London’s street art scene is constructed and legitimated by these tours through the strategic deployment of an authoritative discourse. Street art tours’ routes and locations are then integrated into a longer lineage of endorsements for the cultural field of street art, and interpreted as branding strategies for the creative city. In the conclusion, the role of walking tours in gentrification and urban change is discussed, with a focus on how street art works and murals contribute to performing Shoreditch as a hub of vibrancy and urban creativity

Enter the Surface-Interface: An Exploration of Urban Surfaces as Sites of Spatial Production and Regulation

This article uses the concept of interface to discuss the vertical surfaces of the built environment as interactive locations of spatial production and regulation. I use interface as a verb and a noun to define the capacity of urban surfaces to display the multiple making of urban space and various claims to citizenship, in the form of material surface inscriptions. Using examples from my investigations of surfaces in London, UK, I examine their occupation by inscriptions such as graffiti and street art, to demonstrate how these articulate the interfacing capacity of surfaces. The objective is to develop a discourse around urban surfaces as loci of spatial production and governance, by exploring the theoretical and analytical affordances of the interface. I therefore propose the concept of surface-interface, which I define as a site of spatial production which enables both the regulation and subversion of the image of the city, through a visualization of the power regimes that aim to control it. The essay proposes an activation and enrichment of the space of the surface through a conceptual alignment with that of the interface, to show how urban surfaces act as portals between public and private property, and between regimes of governance and their visual and material contestations. The paper aims to contribute to conversations about spatial articulations of power and citizenship and add to a growing body of research on urban walls and surfaces as key political spaces of contemporary cities

Enter the Surface-Interface: An Exploration of Urban Surfaces as Sites of Spatial Production and Regulation

This article uses the concept of interface to discuss the vertical surfaces of the built environment as interactive locations of spatial production and regulation. I use interface as a verb and a noun to define the capacity of urban surfaces to display the multiple making of urban space and various claims to citizenship, in the form of material surface inscriptions. Using examples from my investigations of surfaces in London, UK, I examine their occupation by inscriptions such as graffiti and street art, to demonstrate how these articulate the interfacing capacity of surfaces. The objective is to develop a discourse around urban surfaces as loci of spatial production and governance, by exploring the theoretical and analytical affordances of the interface. I therefore propose the concept of surface-interface, which I define as a site of spatial production which enables both the regulation and subversion of the image of the city, through a visualization of the power regimes that aim to control it. The essay proposes an activation and enrichment of the space of the surface through a conceptual alignment with that of the interface, to show how urban surfaces act as portals between public and private property, and between regimes of governance and their visual and material contestations. The paper aims to contribute to conversations about spatial articulations of power and citizenship and add to a growing body of research on urban walls and surfaces as key political spaces of contemporary cities

Surgeon point-of-view recording: Using a high-definition head-mounted video camera in the operating room

Objective: To study the utility of a commercially available small, portable ultra-high definition (HD) camera (GoPro Hero 4) for intraoperative recording. Methods: A head mount was used to fix the camera on the operating surgeon′s head. Due care was taken to protect the patient′s identity. The recorded video was subsequently edited and used as a teaching tool. This retrospective, noncomparative study was conducted at three tertiary eye care centers. The surgeries recorded were ptosis correction, ectropion correction, dacryocystorhinostomy, angular dermoid excision, enucleation, blepharoplasty and lid tear repair surgery (one each). The recorded videos were reviewed, edited, and checked for clarity, resolution, and reproducibility. Results: The recorded videos were found to be high quality, which allowed for zooming and visualization of the surgical anatomy clearly. Minimal distortion is a drawback that can be effectively addressed during postproduction. The camera, owing to its lightweight and small size, can be mounted on the surgeon′s head, thus offering a unique surgeon point-of-view. In our experience, the results were of good quality and reproducible. Conclusions: A head-mounted ultra-HD video recording system is a cheap, high quality, and unobtrusive technique to record surgery and can be a useful teaching tool in external facial and ophthalmic plastic surgery