Micro, Meso, and Macro Data Collection and Analysis, as a Method for Speculative and Artistic Exploration

In this work, an attempt is made to explore the emerging computationally-enhanced private and public environments by analyzing their ecological transitions and its implications on practical, aesthetic, and speculative dimensions. The author has decided to methodologically dissect the multiplicity of information that exists on many possible-to-detect scales (micro, meso, macro), and utilize this extraction as a tool for experimentation and redefinition. With the use of custom-made hardware and software utilities (sensor devices, sentiment analysis algorithms, online APIs, and many more), a vast amount of data is collected and used as a multidimensional layered architecture that constantly shifts and transforms. The extracted and analyzed content of the collection becomes the essence of the work that is shaped and refined through digital and physical making – middleware, recursion, mapping – and by utilizing technological objects within the physical space, the creative process is augmented and amplified, exploring not only new practices and novel applications, but rather redefining behavior, thought-process, and context

Will the Public's Health Fall Victim to the Home Foreclosure Epidemic?

Gary Bennett and colleagues discuss the ways in which the dramatic rise in home foreclosures, particularly in the US, may have health consequences

The prevention of psychopathology in African Americans: An epidemiologic perspective

Although improving the mental health status of African Americans is an important goal, it is not clear that this can be accomplished by increasing access to professional services. Many have argued that stressful social conditions are the major cause of mental disorder in blacks and thus, psychopathology can be prevented by eliminating racism, oppression and poor economic conditions. This review argues that while the notion of primary prevention with African Americans should be taken seriously, there is still a need for more and better epidemiologic research. Three bodies of knowledge relevant to black mental health are addressed: 1) the need for an epidemiologic knowledge base for prevention; 2) coping capacity and vulnerability to stress; 3) risk factor identification. Findings from a national survey of adult African Americans are presented as an example of risk factor identification for the purpose of specifying targets for preventive interventions. The paper concludes that before the prevention of psychopathology in black populations can be achieved, a number of measurement, theoretical and policy issues must be addressed. Specific directions for future research are outlined.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44304/1/10597_2004_Article_BF00752393.pd