Senses of memory in dementia care: the transcendent subject

Sensory stimuli are a whole body, mind, time, and space experience.  During the arts therapy encounter memories are recalled through sensory stimulation and scent, sound, texture and taste amongst people with dementia, which can encourage transcendence from the temporal realities of loss. Gerotranscendence (Stephenson 2013) occurs when arts and the unconscious combine.  This article reflects upon sensory arts therapy processes and outcomes in an aged care home, with one case study as a focus. Theories of memory, sensory perception and technologies of care, throw light upon the transcendent subject.  I take Foucault’s views on the contingent subject further to extend the idea of the transcendent subject as one whose preconscious is more prevalent and active than the conscious (Foucault 2003). This transcendence is not ‘madness’ but rather a kind of freedom that is often outside of the immediate politics of institutional care and one in which arts therapy has noticeable agency.Keywords: Arts therapy; aged care; body; memory; senses; transcendence

Determining crystal structures through crowdsourcing and coursework

We show here that computer game players can build high-quality crystal structures. Introduction of a new feature into the computer game Foldit allows players to build and real-space refine structures into electron density maps. To assess the usefulness of this feature, we held a crystallographic model-building competition between trained crystallographers, undergraduate students, Foldit players and automatic model-building algorithms. After removal of disordered residues, a team of Foldit players achieved the most accurate structure. Analysing the target protein of the competition, YPL067C, uncovered a new family of histidine triad proteins apparently involved in the prevention of amyloid toxicity. From this study, we conclude that crystallographers can utilize crowdsourcing to interpret electron density information and to produce structure solutions of the highest quality

At home : a discussion of diaspora and hybridity

The meaning of ‘home’ in the context of migration and displacement is the key theme of this paper. Examples come from people who left South Africa before, during and after the apartheid era and are now living in Australia, and they are all white. Although white South Africans are themselves a product of colonization, they are also the product of privilege, therefore making the diasporic condition a more complex one. It is my intention to interrogate this complexity by looking at items of material culture that travelled with the migrants or were acquired afterwards. In addition, the design, decoration and arrangement of domestic spaces is analysed in terms of creating both a home and an identity that speaks a particular language to those who visit and those who inhabit the space. They have either carried their identities with them in domestic objects such as furniture and cultural items or created hybrid identities partially through specific acquisitions in Australia. The paper relies upon ethnographic research conducted with individuals and families in their homes. Visual and transcribed information will contribute to understandings of the meaning of migrant homes and the relationship of this material culture with national identity.

New craft in a Western Cape design identity

Thesis (MTech (Interior Design))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town,1996This research project has endeavoured to analyse the extent to which craft ideas and techniques are combining with technological skills in order to formulate an identity for Western Cape furniture design. This identity has been shown to be strongly linked to the determinants of style". which include the national striving for a South African zeitgeist. a sense of unified spirit. The problems of eclecticism are discussed in the light of superficial ethnic cooption. The new craft of the Western Cape (and more specifically Cape Town) of South Africa. is represented against the background of the old craft of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain at the turn of the century. Those old methods and ideas influenced the Cape Colony especially when it was under British rule. This dissertation shows that the new craft ideas and methods are synonymous with the new ideology of South Africa. a new craft for a new South Africa. The designers and practical work selected to be part of this research all share a common approach in their positive attitude towards experimenting with new techniques and using available resources to produce quality furniture which is accessible to most consumers. The work of four design groups: Greenspace. Metropolis. Flying Cow and the Montebel70 Smithy are discussed in terms of the objectives of this research which are essentially linked to the unravelling of the determinants of style and their relation to the concept identity in the South Africa which has succeeded the first free and fair general elections of April 1994

Parrēsia : between principles and practices in design

Parrēsia is the practice of truth telling. Adopting a Foucauldian approach, this paper questions two things: (1) the meaning of “principles” in design at a time when democracy has lost its resonant truth; and (2) the correlative meaning of “practices” in design at a time when the world is facing unprecedented social and environmental change. The paper will develop Tony Fry’s thesis of design as politics and apply Michel Foucault’s interrogation of truth telling as a “joust” between the “formal condition” of democracy and the “de facto” condition of “ascendancy.” To exemplify these discussions, the paper will draw upon designs of purpose built mental health units in Australia and New Zealand. The aim of the paper is to discover what prevents the telling of whole truths in design. The terms “telling” and “speaking” will be transferred to “practicing” and “using” in design language. In addition this paper will add the notion of “truth listening” to that of “truth telling” in the unraveling of parrēsia in design.

The psychic life of white : power and space

This paper casts a net across spaces that are designed to be bland and identity-less. It posits that white is more than just a colour in design and that it is appropriated by organizations to spread sameness across public spaces. In this way, the article draws upon Foucauldian theories of power and organizational aesthetics in an effort to show that people become caught up in an institutionalization of space. White spaces become infused with an energy that is also derived from plain surfaces and which then offers up an illusion of spatial order. The article uses examples of the church, the parliament building, the prison, the hospital and the university to discuss ways in which whiteness transcends the limits of temporal colour and enters the psyche as an agent of power in the control of spaces and subjects.