Unspoken Word

I have been thinking about ways in which the spoken word has been used in sound poetry and sound art as well as in pop, experimental and electronic music. I have also been trawling through some old work and remembering how I have experimented with the sound of speech in the past. I thought it might be interesting to compile four pieces I made around ten years ago into a little downloadable collection, a ‘mini-album’, if you like. They are all rather rudimentary and rough experiments with digital sound editing and collage, and it’s interesting, while perhaps not unsurprising, how throughout they play within the time-honoured avant concrete conventions of the aesthetics of repetition and the logic of fragmentation

Suspending vulture effigies from roosts to reduce bird strikes

I observed very few vultures over the airfield after deploying the effigies, and vultures were completely absent most days. Hanging vulture effigies seemed to be effective in pushing the vultures farther away by denying them their observation point looking over the Coastal Plain near the airfield. This meant that their forage center point had been relocated far enough from the airfield that few individuals extended their range as far as the airport

The effect of noise correlations on randomized benchmarking

Among the most popular and well studied quantum characterization, verification and validation techniques is randomized benchmarking (RB), an important statistical tool used to characterize the performance of physical logic operations useful in quantum information processing. In this work we provide a detailed mathematical treatment of the effect of temporal noise correlations on the outcomes of RB protocols. We provide a fully analytic framework capturing the accumulation of error in RB expressed in terms of a three-dimensional random walk in "Pauli space." Using this framework we derive the probability density function describing RB outcomes (averaged over noise) for both Markovian and correlated errors, which we show is generally described by a gamma distribution with shape and scale parameters depending on the correlation structure. Long temporal correlations impart large nonvanishing variance and skew in the distribution towards high-fidelity outcomes -- consistent with existing experimental data -- highlighting potential finite-sampling pitfalls and the divergence of the mean RB outcome from worst-case errors in the presence of noise correlations. We use the Filter-transfer function formalism to reveal the underlying reason for these differences in terms of effective coherent averaging of correlated errors in certain random sequences. We conclude by commenting on the impact of these calculations on the utility of single-metric approaches to quantum characterization, verification, and validation.Comment: Updated and expanded to include full derivation. Related papers available from http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~mbiercuk/Publications.htm

Engaging Youth as Influencers in Leadership Event Planning

Contemporary youth development requires a new approach to involving youth in more active, engaging, and influential leadership roles. Teens and youth program professionals recognize the need young leaders have for more mentorship and accountability from adults to grow into their leadership potential. This paper specifically addresses how youth development professionals can engage student leadership teams in co-designing experiences for teens through the role of influencers. In this role, young leaders radiate their influence both laterally among their peers and vertically among adult leaders, developing stronger networks and gaining valuable experience. This paper draws observations from two state-level programs, the Missouri FFA Leadership Camp and the Missouri 4-H Youth Civic Leaders Summit, as examples of effective and productive practice. The authors provide recommendations on how adult practitioners can gain buy-in from other adult coordinators, incorporate youth as influencers in leadership event planning, and foster positive youth development in the process

Whose Needs Does Service Serve? Complicating the Citizen Soldier Narrative

The growth of conscript militaries was integral to the creation of civil rights in European nation-states, which established militaries as a key site of claims-making. However, the United States military has diverged from these models, and most cases of inclusion or integration of social groups are not directly connected with claims-making. What has influenced the U.S. military’s responsiveness to pressures, both internal and external, and how has this changed over time? I employ a comparative historical approach to three cases—African-Americans, women, and non-heterosexuals—to unpack the U.S. military as a state institution and a site of claims-making. By incorporating elements unique to American institutions into existing models of militaries, I find that the U.S. military has become increasingly vulnerable to domestic political, international political, internal economic, and internal and external cultural pressures since the World War period. Despite its enormous economic and physical strength, the U.S. military is more responsive now than ever before to internal and external demands

Locating Nests of Birds in Grasslands From a Mobile Tower Blind

Locating nests of grassland passerines can be difficult, labor intensive, and disruptive to birds and vegetation. We developed a mobile tower blind for observing adult bird behavior and used it to locate nests in a western Montana grassland. We compared nest-search efficiency of behavioral observations from the tower versus the ground. Nests of savannah sparrow (Passerculus samhvichensis) were found in a higher proportion of territories searched from the tower (13/16 = 82%) than from the ground (4113 = 3 1%). Average search time for each nest found was lower from the tower (44 min) than from the ground (127 min). Both were lower than when we used drags made of rope or cable and chain (411 min). but nests were found earlier in the nesting cycle when we used drags. Adult birds were agitated and reluctant to approach and reveal their nests whenever an unconcealed observer was present in or near their territory. In contrast, normal behavior resumed within a few minutes after an observer entered the tower, even when the tower blind was within 10m of the nest. Observing behavioral cues from a tower blind provides substantial advantages for locating nests of savannah sparrows and probably other grassland birds. but effectiveness of the approach likely varies among species and habitats

Andrew Melville, sacred chronology and world history: the Carmina Danielis 9 and the Antichristus

The accepted view of the ecclesiastical reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622) as the dynamic leader of the Presbyterian movement in Jacobean Scotland has been severely eroded in recent years, with particular criticism of the actual importance of his contribution to the Kirk and to Scottish higher education. While this reductionism has been necessary, it has resulted in an inversion of the overwhelmingly positive traditional image of Melville, and does not give us a rounded assessment of his life and works. This article attempts to partially redress this balance by looking at a neglected aspect of Melville's Latin writings, which showcase his talents as a humanist intellectual and biblical commentator. It focuses on two long poems that are both commentaries and paraphrases of Daniel and Revelation: the Carmina Danielis and the Antichristus. Through these poems, we see how Melville engaged with two problems exercising reformed theologians across Europe: the dating of key biblical events and the historicised meaning of prophecies within these texts. We also find evidence that Melville read widely among both contemporary and ancient commentators on both these issues

ICFAR Ideas and Aperitifs, Cate Elwes and Steven Ball

'Ideas and Aperitifs' were regular evening salons for UAL fine art staff. They offer insights into the research processes and activities of key members of UAL research staff

Assessing Two-Mode Semantic Network Story Representations Using a False Memory Paradigm

This paper describes a novel method of representing semantic networks of stories (and other text) as a two-mode graph. This method has some advantages over traditional one-mode semantic networks, but has the potential drawback (shared with n-gram text networks) that it contains paths that are not present in the text. An empirical study was devised using a false memory paradigm to determine whether these induced paths are remembered as being true of a set of stories. Results indicate that participants report false memories consistent with the induced paths. Implications for further research and two-mode semantic representations are discussed