The Imminent Object: concepts of entropy in relation to material, scale and duration

The Imminent Object is a visual art research project located within the disciplines of sculpture and installation practice in relation to concepts of entropy within a theoretical matrix that foregrounds ideas of declassification and indecipherability. Throughout the project sculptural materials dissolve, erode and liquidate, sag, shift and collapse in their physical form as well as in their optical appreciation. The Imminent Object — manifest as a series of time-based material interventions and/or scaled-down models — attempts to search out forms of sculptural practice/s that challenge the conventional sculptural idea of the temporally and spatially fixed static object. The project proposes form as simultaneously object and process. Through the literal and metaphoric employment of the second law of thermodynamics, methods of classification such as object/process, scale or temporality are open to transgression and fragmentation, facilitating an avenue for new understandings regarding the nature of these classifications. The Imminent Object proposes a series of core platforms for disclosure that shuttle between a theoretical framework and creative art practice: entropy in relation to temporality and material process; temporality and scale in regard to the model/miniature; how materials may be seen to perform; and finally how spectators perform. These platforms all locate themselves in relation to the problem of materiality and scale where duration is implicated as a component of both (as an expansion and compression of engagement in the viewing subject)

The origin and speciation of orchids

SummaryOrchids constitute one of the most spectacular radiations of flowering plants. However, their origin, spread across the globe, and hotspots of speciation remain uncertain due to the lack of an up-to-date phylogeographic analysis.We present a new Orchidaceae phylogeny based on combined high-throughput and Sanger sequencing data, covering all five subfamilies, 17/22 tribes, 40/49 subtribes, 285/736 genera, and c. 7% (1921) of the 29 524 accepted species, and use it to infer geographic range evolution, diversity, and speciation patterns by adding curated geographical distributions from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants.The orchids' most recent common ancestor is inferred to have lived in Late Cretaceous Laurasia. The modern range of Apostasioideae, which comprises two genera with 16 species from India to northern Australia, is interpreted as relictual, similar to that of numerous other groups that went extinct at higher latitudes following the global climate cooling during the Oligocene. Despite their ancient origin, modern orchid species diversity mainly originated over the last 5 Ma, with the highest speciation rates in Panama and Costa Rica.These results alter our understanding of the geographic origin of orchids, previously proposed as Australian, and pinpoint Central America as a region of recent, explosive speciation

Orchid research newsletter no. 40.

This newsletter is published twice a year and provides details of recent orchid literature, changes in orchid nomenclature and news from the orchid world (including upcoming conferences, book reviews and tributes

Orchid research newsletter no. 47

This newsletter is published twice a year and provides details of recent orchid literature, changes in orchid nomenclature and news from the orchid world (including upcoming conferences, book reviews and tributes)

Orchid research newsletter no. 46

This newsletter is published twice a year and provides details of recent orchid literature, changes in orchid nomenclature and news from the orchid world (including upcoming conferences, book reviews and tributes)

Orchids in a changing climate

Las orquídeas gozan de una historia registrada larga y distinguida, que puede ser rastreada a los antiguos griegos. Durante dos milenios o más, nuestro conocimiento relativo a las orquídeas se ha mantenido superficial, básicamente debido a que los centros de conocimientos se encontraban en regiones templadas con una pobre flora de orquídeas. Al inicio del Renacimiento, el conocimiento aumentó en forma más rápida. Hace casi medio siglo, el profesor William Stearn delineó este progreso en su conferencia que constituye un hito, presentada en la Tercera Conferencia Mundial de Orquídeas en Londres. Sin embargo, el conocimiento se ha desplazado en forma vertiginosa desde ese momento, y ha identificado cinco desarrollos principales que han dado sustento a estos nuevos discernimientos – clonación de orquídeas, potencia de computación, análisis de ADN, la orquídea fósil y técnicas de conservación – que ha generado impactos principales en la ciencia de las orquídeas, horticultura, y conservación. La disponibilidad de nuevas tecnologías y descubrimientos han generado avances sin precedentes en muchos aspectos relativos a las orquídeas, desde nuestra comprensión relativa a los orígenes de orquídeas al manejo de las amenazas para su supervivencia futura. El mundo se ha vuelto crecientemente consciente de temas como el cambio climático que con gran probabilidad van a tener un efecto dramático sobre las orquídeas del mundo. Orchids have a long and distinguished recorded history, traceable back to the ancient Greeks. For two millennia or more, our knowledge of orchids remained sketchy, mainly because the main centers of learning were in temperate regions with poor orchid floras. Beginning with the Renaissance, knowledge increased more rapidly. Almost half a century ago, Professor William Stearn outlined this progress in his landmark lecture at the Third World Orchid Conference in London. However, knowledge has moved rapidly since then. In this lecture, I would like to update Stearn’s story. The availability of new technologies has produced unprecedented advances in many aspects of orchids from our understanding of the origins of orchids to dealing with threats to their future survival. The world has become increasingly aware of issues such as climate change that are likely to have a dramatic effect on the world’s orchids. I have identified five developments that have underpinned these new insights since Stearn’s lecture was delivered: • Cloning orchids; • Computing power; • DNA analysis; • The fossil orchid; • Conservation techniques.