Using Creative Visual Research Methods to Understand Media Audiences

This article introduces an emerging area of qualitative media «audience» research, in which individuals are asked to produce media or visual material themselves, as a way of exploring their relationship with particular issues or dimensions of media. The process of making a creative visual artefact – as well as the artefact itself (which may be, for example, a video, drawing, collage, or imagined magazine cover) – offers a reflective entry-point into an exploration of individuals» relationships with media culture. This article sets out some of the origins, rationale and philosophy underlying this methodological approach; briefly discusses two example studies (one in which children made videos to consider their relationship with the environment, and one in which young people drew pictures of celebrities as part of an examination of their aspirations and identifications with stars); and finally considers some emerging issues for further development of this method

A study of specific learning difficulties in tertiary education

This study is unique in investigating instances of Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia) among mature students in British institutes of tertiary education. Despite growing awareness of this condition, it is only during the last thirty years that cases of dyslexia among adults have been distinguished from aphasia. Assessments were conducted using a structured questionnaire, psychometric tests, measures of attainment, vocational interest and personality. Test results provided support for the view that dyslexia is characterised by a discrepancy between language skills and intellectual ability accompanied by measurable cognitive differences. Significant differences were found on tests of short term memory, while spelling difficulties were the most enduring form of written language difficulty. Differences found on measures of personality, are thought to reflect an interaction between personality and coping strategies. Most subjects had felt constrained to take Jobs with a low interest level, ie. they had compromised their vocational interests and subsequently achieved lower socio-economic status than their fathers. The investigation into the provision made by British universities revealed that very few have any formal policy for dealing with dyslexic students. Most were unable to state what course support or examination concessions were available. In a study of factors related to modality, dyslexic students took longer to read material and remembered less than other groups. When using multi-modal material dyslexic subjects remembered more but must reconcile improving their recall ability with the expense of spending more time. In a second study of factors thought to influence the marking of scripts It was found that higher marks were not awarded to typewritten scripts free from spelling errors. Changes in format only influenced the focus of the tutors' comments. The conclusions are that dyslexia does not improve spontaneously, the dyslexic child is likely to become a dyslexic adult who will continue to experience difficulties with language skills, especially spelling, while the individuals educational, social and occupational ambitions are likely to be compromised because of their specific learning difficulties

All Parts of the Same Thing: Dispatches from the Creativity Everything Lab

While government and society consider creativity an essential trait for university students, and indeed everybody, disciplinary silos continue to be maintained, and there is little consensus on how to approach its teaching, research, and general cultivation. For universities to transform into places where a diversity of creativities thrives for students, faculty, and the varied constituencies they serve, new and open thinking is mandatory. In this paper, we detail the transdisciplinary roots of our work in the Creativity Everything lab at Ryerson University. As a team of researchers developing projects and experiences that embrace a wide range of creators and creative practices, we are fashioning the lab to facilitate the actions of doing and making in learning and research. Three case studies – our ongoing efforts at supporting learning for students, a research project on platforms for creativity, and the community outreach of the 2019 Creativity Everything FreeSchool – explore how teaching, research, events, and collaborations in multiple media intersect in a multifaceted system for relating to and engaging with creativity. Our studies suggest that creative practice-as-research helps people make connections that fuel curiosity and experimentation. We argue that engaging in multiple perspectives of the “everything” of creativity better equips our students, university, and public to reap its benefits and rewards

Dyons and S-Duality in N=4 Supersymmetric Gauge Theory

We analyze the spectrum of dyons in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(3) spontaneously broken down to U(1)xU(1). The Higgs fields select a natural basis of simple roots. Acting with S-duality on the W-boson states corresponding to simple roots leads to an orbit of BPS dyon states that are magnetically charged with respect to one of the U(1)'s. The corresponding monopole solutions can be obtained by embedding SU(2) monopoles into SU(3) and the S-duality predictions reduce to the SU(2) case. Acting with S-duality on the W-boson corresponding to a non-simple root leads to an infinite set of new S-duality predictions. The simplest of these corresponds to the existence of a harmonic form on the moduli space of SU(3) monopoles that have magnetic charge (1,1) with respect to the two U(1)'s. We argue that the moduli space is given by R^3x(R^1xM)/Z_2, where M is Euclidean Taub-NUT space, and that the latter admits the appropriate normalizable harmonic two form. We briefly discuss the generalizations to other gauge groups.Comment: 13 pages (Harvmac b), discrete identification corrected, reference adde

Overlapping branes in M-theory

We construct new supersymmetric solutions of D = 11 supergravity describing n orthogonally “overlapping” membranes and fivebranes for n = 2,…,8. Overlapping branes arise after separating intersecting branes in a direction transverse to all of the branes. The solutions, which generalize known intersecting brane solutions, preserve at least 2−n of the supersymmetry. Each pairwise overlap involves a membrane overlapping a membrane in a 0-brane, a fivebrane overlapping a fivebrane in a 3-brane or a membrane overlapping a fivebrane in a string. After reducing n overlapping membranes to obtain n overlapping D-2-branes in D = 10, T-duality generates new overlapping D-brane solutions in type IIA and type IIB string theory. Uplifting certain type IIA solutions leads to the D = 11 solutions. Some of the new solutions reduce to dilaton black holes in D = 4. Additionally, we present a D = 10 solution that describes two D-5-branes overlapping in a string. T-duality then generates further D = 10 solutions and uplifting one of the type IIA solutions gives a new D = 11 solution describing two fivebranes overlapping in a string

A supersymmetric black ring

A new supersymmetric black hole solution of five-dimensional supergravity is presented. It has an event horizon of topology S1xS2. This is the first example of a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole of non-spherical topology. The solution is uniquely specified by its electric charge and two independent angular momenta. These conserved charges can be arbitrarily close, but not exactly equal, to those of a supersymmetric black hole of spherical topology.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. v2: Comment about chiral null models remove

A Note on 1/4-BPS States

We study classical solutions of N=4 super Yang-Mills theories that are invariant under 1/4 of the supersymmetry generators. Expressions for the mass and electric charge of the configurations are derived as functions on the monopole moduli space. These functions also provide a method of determining the number of normalisable bosonic zero modes.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

Multi-Domain Walls in Massive Supersymmetric Sigma-Models

Massive maximally-supersymmetric sigma models are shown to exhibit multiple static kink-domain wall solutions that preserve 1/2 of the supersymmetry. The kink moduli space admits a natural Kahler metric. We examine in some detail the case when the target of the sigma model is given by the co-tangent bundle of CP^n equipped with the Calabi metric, and we show that there exist BPS solutions corresponding to n kinks at arbitrary separation. We also describe how 1/4-BPS charged and intersecting domain walls are described in the low-energy dynamics on the kink moduli space. We comment on the similarity of these results to monopole dynamics.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, Latex. Introduction extended with discussion of complex central charge

Non-commutative vs. Commutative Descriptions of D-brane BIons

The U(1) gauge theory on a D3-brane with non-commutative worldvolume is shown to admit BIon-like solutions which saturate a BPS bound on the energy. The mapping of these solutions to ordinary fields is found exactly, namely non-perturbatively in the non-commutativity parameters. The result is precisely an ordinary supersymmetric BIon in the presence of a background B-field. We argue that the result provides evidence in favour of the exact equivalence of the non-commutative and the ordinary descriptions of D-branes.Comment: 1+15 pages, 6 figures; v2: two references added, typos corrected, one unnecessary figure remove