Visual perception: digital imagination and sensitive experience of the social world

With every historical epoch comes a different way of thinking, a different way of seeing, capable of identifying the fundamental elements of a change of paradigm. Any discussion of ‘paradigm’ in relation to the contemporary world must include the development of the digital realm and its technological apparatus, which transform vision and influence how we perceive the world. Central to this development has been the emergence of myriad new forms of communication and a culture of sharing life, which characterize the process of seeing.Technology opens up new horizons in terms of how we expose our presence in the world: via digital photography and video, in every instant of everyday life we are in a position to expose our social world, the fragments of our existence. This cultural effect is not merely a consequence of ways of structuring existence, but also constitutes a change in the way we think about our relationship with the world. Every cultural and technical change brings together a variation of thought and perception, and this represents a basis on which to understand and interrogate the continual mutation of our social imaginary and the process of building, producing and transforming the Real

A REPRODUTIBILIDADE TECNOLÓGICA DA IMAGEM

A imagem é uma das características sensíveis da "climatologia" contemporânea, forma típica de visualização do mundo e do conhecimento ontológico através do olhar. Atualmente, os nossos olhos são confrontados com a crescente presença de novas tecnologias e a transfiguração da imagem pela passagem do analógico para o digital. Isto afeta fortemente a cultura, a comunicação, oimaginário coletivo e a vida quotidiana, com um forte impacto sobre a maneira de pensar e representar visualmente o mundo social. Nossa intenção é colocar em perspectiva a evolução e o papel da imagem digital e a influência dos diversos dispositivos tecnológicos. Uma interrogação ao mesmo tempo epistemológica, culturológica e metodológica através de uma mudança de paradigma que se insere em uma dinâmica de pensamento visual para mostrar a força, a relevância e a implicação do olho, do olhar e da percepção no desvelamento do mundo social. &nbsp

Ambiências climatológicas urbanas: pensar a cidade pós-moderna

Aplicaremos a hipótese kuhniana da revolução científica à cidade. Mostraremos assim que é preciso ficarmos atentos à constante evolução das formas e maneiras de experienciar os espaços citadinos. A cidade já não pode ser pensada numa óptica rudimentar, de ordem funcionalista, típica do modernismo. Antes pelo contrário, pretendemos, à semelhança dos pós-modernistas, exprimir as oscilações do clima urbano e das ambiências quotidianas. A noção de climatologia afigura-se, de forma similar à dos meteorologistas, como sendo necessária para determinar o clima do presente nos lugares da paisagem urbana

A constelação sensível do imaginário das ambiências urbanas

O artigo traz uma reflexão sobre como pensar a cidade contemporânea e seus espaços: seus fragmentos significativos e sensíveis. Para tanto, investiga-se “como” a cidade é e se apresenta, e de que maneira posicionamos nosso olhar em uma estratégia de ontologia do presente. O “como” acompanha o pensamento e a observação em profundidade, trata-se de um situacionismo metodológico que se opõe ao pensamento a priori. Desde uma perspectiva da ontologia da atualidade, a análise nos permite dizer o que se experimenta no aqui e agora da existência. Enfim, o imaginário das ambiências urbanas pode ser tido como um efeito de percepção da cidade, que não pode ser separada do real, pois dela fazem parte efeitos, partes e atmosferas

El poder de las imágenes como simbolismo de las estructuras del imaginario sociopolítico

¿La expresión visual puede concebirse como un medio de protesta? ¿En qué consiste la dimensión política de la imagen? El surgimiento de las actuales revueltas muestra la eficacia de los signos y mensajes visuales en su poder de circulación, en tanto símbolos que utilizan soportes específicos (muros, monumentos, edificios patrimoniales) para hacer tangibles las demandas de los grupos sociales. En la actualidad, los mensajes visuales reflejan un vitalismo societal, la escritura y los grafitis en los muros de nuestras metrópolis cuestionan la relación entre el espacio público y la ciudadanía; la intervención estética sobre la ciudad es forma expresiva de interpelación política. Los mensajes visuales de protesta son narraciones que contribuyen al relato social sobre el patrimonio, expresado a través de un imaginario de índole identitario donde confluye lo emocional y lo sensible

Human brain distinctiveness based on EEG spectral coherence connectivity

The use of EEG biometrics, for the purpose of automatic people recognition, has received increasing attention in the recent years. Most of current analysis rely on the extraction of features characterizing the activity of single brain regions, like power-spectrum estimates, thus neglecting possible temporal dependencies between the generated EEG signals. However, important physiological information can be extracted from the way different brain regions are functionally coupled. In this study, we propose a novel approach that fuses spectral coherencebased connectivity between different brain regions as a possibly viable biometric feature. The proposed approach is tested on a large dataset of subjects (N=108) during eyes-closed (EC) and eyes-open (EO) resting state conditions. The obtained recognition performances show that using brain connectivity leads to higher distinctiveness with respect to power-spectrum measurements, in both the experimental conditions. Notably, a 100% recognition accuracy is obtained in EC and EO when integrating functional connectivity between regions in the frontal lobe, while a lower 97.41% is obtained in EC (96.26% in EO) when fusing power spectrum information from centro-parietal regions. Taken together, these results suggest that functional connectivity patterns represent effective features for improving EEG-based biometric systems.Comment: Key words: EEG, Resting state, Biometrics, Spectral coherence, Match score fusio

L’immaginario e gli oggetti. Per una sociologia della superficie

Imaginary and Objects. For a Sociology of Surface. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between objects and imaginary. Objects are investigated as the skin of the imaginary. In this way, objects allow us to define the figure of a specific era. Furthermore, starting from a sensory relationship with objects, we fulfill our existence precisely from their use. In this context we believe that a sociology of surface is the epistemological tool to investigate the complexrelationship between humankind and objects

Plants Used In Artisanal Fisheries On The Western Mediterranean Coasts Of Italy

Background Artisanal fisheries in the Mediterranean, especially in Italy, have been poorly investigated. There is a long history of fishing in this region, and it remains an important economic activity in many localities. Our research entails both a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and 58 field interviews with practitioners on plants used in fishing activities along the Western Mediterranean Italian coastal regions. The aims were to record traditional knowledge on plants used in fishery in these regions and to define selection criteria for plant species used in artisanal fisheries, considering ecology and intrinsic properties of plants, and to discuss the pattern of diffusion of shared uses in these areas. Methods Information was gathered both from a general review of ethnobotanical literature and from original data. A total of 58 semi-structured interviews were carried out in Liguria, Latium, Campania and Sicily (Italy). Information on plant uses related to fisheries were collected and analyzed through a chi-square residual analysis and the correspondence analysis in relation to habitat, life form and chorology. Results A total of 60 plants were discussed as being utilized in the fisheries of the Western Italian Mediterranean coastal regions, with 141 different uses mentioned. Of these 141 different uses, 32 are shared among different localities. A multivariate statistical analysis was performed on the entire dataset, resulting in details about specific selection criteria for the different usage categories (plants have different uses that can be classified into 11 main categories). In some uses, species are selected for their features (e.g., woody), or habitat (e.g., riverine), etc. The majority of uses were found to be obsolete (42%) and interviews show that traditional fishery knowledge is in decline. There are several reasons for this, such as climatic change, costs, reduction of fish stocks, etc. Conclusions Our research correlates functional characteristics of the plants used in artisanal fishery and habitats, and discusses the distribution of these uses. This research is the first comprehensive outline of plant role in artisanal fisheries and traditional fishery knowledge in the Mediterranean, specifically in Italy