A geopoetic exploration of the Matinha vacant land, Lisbon

Our purpose in this communication is to present an exploration of the Matinha vacant land in Lisbon. Initially a sonic exploration, this endeavour would turn to the figure of the natural cyborg, an almost silent formation that thrives in the site, in the form of vegetal-technological hybrids.N/

Tomographic image processing using Julia and GPU

Image processing is an essential work component for material science researchers, and there’s a constant quest for novel ways to explore it. One of the areas this can be done is in computerized tomography (CT) processing. CT images are an efficient and commonly used method to characterize materials. The resulting images can be combined and processed by a GPU. Work on CT image processing has been done previously, however the appearance of novel programming languages allows for further improvement. Julia programming language has the advantage of being both fast and user-friendly and poses an interesting resource for the image processing area. In this dissertation, the development and evaluation of an application written in Julia capable of processing CT images is described. Additionally, an analysis of the potential this programming language has on the image processing field was performed. It was possible to conclude that Julia contributes as an useful tool for material science researchers, and that the solution developed can aid developing their work.O processamento de imagens constitui um elemento base no trabalho desenvolvido por investigadores de engenharia de materiais. Isto resulta numa procura contínua de novas maneiras de explorar este tema. Uma das áreas de processamento de imagem em que se pode fazê-lo é no processamento de tomografia computadorizada (TC). As imagens de TC são meios eficazes e comumente utilizados para caracterizar materiais. As imagens resultantes podem ser posteriormente combinadas e processadas por uma GPU. No passado já foram desenvolvidos projetos no âmbito de processamento de imagens TC, contudo o aparecimento de linguagens de programação mais recentes abrem espaço para novos testes e desenvolvimentos. A linguagem de programação Julia, em particular, apresenta a vantagem de ser simultaneamente rápida e de ter uma sintaxe de fácil compreensão, pelo que pode constituir um recurso útil para a área de processamento de imagem. Nesta dissertação é descrito, o desenvolvimento e avaliação de um programa de computador escrito em Julia capaz de processar imagens de TC. Adicionalmente, é feita uma análise do potencial desta linguagem de programação no campo de processamento de imagem. Foi possível concluir que Julia contibui como uma ferramenta útil para investigadores de de engenharia de materiais, e que a solução desenvolvida pode auxiliar a desenvolver o seu trabalho no futuro

Finite-Size-Scaling at the Jamming Transition: Corrections to Scaling and the Correlation Length Critical Exponent

We carry out a finite size scaling analysis of the jamming transition in frictionless bi-disperse soft core disks in two dimensions. We consider two different jamming protocols: (i) quench from random initial positions, and (ii) quasistatic shearing. By considering the fraction of jammed states as a function of packing fraction for systems with different numbers of particles, we determine the spatial correlation length critical exponent $\nu\approx 1$, and show that corrections to scaling are crucial for analyzing the data. We show that earlier numerical results yielding $\nu<1$ are due to the improper neglect of these corrections.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures -- slightly revised version as accepted for Phys. Rev. E Rapid Communication

An Approach to the Soundscapes of Urban Vacant Lands in Lisbon

In this paper, we will present preliminary results of our ongoing study on the soundscapes of vacant lands in Lisbon Eastern Zone (LEZ). Our methodology comprised two stages. Firstly, all the vacant lands of Lisbon municipality were identified and georeferenced using remote sensing methods and high-resolution aerial photography. In the second stage, a field survey with the purpose of characterising the morphology, vegetation, and animal and human occupation of the vacant lands was conducted, along with field recordings of their soundscapes. The results of our study include the classification of vacant lands and of their soundscapes. We argue that listening to the sounds of urban vacant lands defies traditional notions of the urban soundscape as dominated by anthrophonies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Politics of Rationality - A Critique

In this thesis, I challenge the validity of a pervasive conception of political action and decision-making that grounds both on the so-called “public use of reason”. The latter, underpinned by a notion of “pure” reason inherited from the Enlightenment and largely sustained by liberal theory, not only promotes a reductionist view of human rationality, but also implicitly leads us to disregard a critical aspect in contemporary politics: the political role of the emotions. The opportunity to exploit the emotions in order to pervert the democratic process follows from that disregard. Reading it in light of Schmitt and Agamben’s ideas on the state of exception, I examine the pervasiveness of emotional dynamics in contemporary western politics, illuminating phenomena such as democratic propaganda, the ongoing “war on terror”, and the persistent threat of global economic collapse. I subsequently posit that the rationalistic hubris of the politics of (limited) rationality opens the door for irrational politics, ultimately enabling the creation of a permanent state of exception through the manipulation of misguided emotional inclinations. In order to address this problem, I argue for an abandonment of the sterile reason-emotion dichotomy implicitly preserved by the current debate on the cognitive status of emotions. Instead, I propose an expanded model of human rationality, which incorporates emotion into processes such as decision-making, motivation, and action – thus arriving at the notion of emotional rationality. This enables me to consider the commonly overlooked possibility to educate emotions, and advance a conception of emotional education that relates them with the Aristotelian notion of phronesis. I conclude by arguing that a heightened political awareness of emotions and a conscious effort to educate them are necessary steps towards avoiding the undesirable political fate entailed by our present situation