Writing essays by pictures : redrawing the textbook

This opinion piece considers the textbook as an academic genre and wonders whether, as it could be seen to have been developed based on now outmoded concepts and technologies, the textbook is outmoded itself. It is argued that learning resources need to be designed with the different types of knowledge to be learnt in mind. This is demonstrated with the example of Writing Essays by Pictures, a recently published stand-alone resource that aims to facilitate the researching and writing of a basic research based essay for first year undergraduate students

Developing Academic Writing Skills in Art and Design through Blogging

In the creative disciplines of Art and Design, students need to develop the ability to critically assess and put into words what they feel, think and know about their working practices (and by extension their work). The careful development of the transition between knowing instinctively, thinking and writing is well established in the literature (e.g. Schön 1983 and 1987, and Biggs 2004), but only little has been done to integrate this into the Higher Education curriculum using writing as a tool for making the reflection explicit. In order to find out whether exploratory writing in the form of blog posts has the potential to allow Art and Design students to develop their academic practice, a small scale pilot project integrated blogging tasks into introductory modules of four first year undergraduate courses. Student feedback on their experience of blogging, and particularly their perceptions of the value of blogging as exploratory writing, gained through end of module questionnaires is analysed to investigate the potential to use writing to develop their academic practice. Findings indicate that it is the motivation of students that is crucial to allow students to see writing as a thinking process and developmental tool for their practical work, rather than as an unrelated academic outcome.  

Raiding the Superhero Wardrobe: A Review of The Superhero Costume – Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction

The Superhero Costume – Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction, B. Brownie and D. Graydon, Bloomsbury Academic, 192 pages, 2016, 15 b/w images, ISBN: 978-1472595904 This review provides a costume designer’s reading of The Superhero Costume – Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction by Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon (Bloomsbury, 2016). This book explores the superhero costume within comics, films and its translation into real life, and shows how difficult it is to stitch the line between symbolism and practicality, spectacle and realism, and ultimately between fiction and fact. While there remains some unevenness in how the gender of superheroes makes a difference to the costume and there is a lack of a useful conclusion as far as academic books go, this book discusses a lot of issues that could (and should) inform the designs within a superhero’s wardrobe

Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling

A uniquely interdisciplinary look at storytelling in digital, analogue, and hybridised contexts, this book traces different ways stories are experienced in our contemporary mediascape. It uses an engaging range of current examples to explore interactive and immersive narratives. Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling considers exciting new forms of storytelling that are emerging in contemporary popular culture. Here, immersion is being facilitated in a variety of ways and in a multitude of contexts, from 3D cinema to street games, from immersive theatre plays to built environments such as theme parks, as well as in a multitude of digital formats. The book explores diverse modes and practices of immersive storytelling, discussing what is gained and lost in each of these ‘genres’. Building on notions of experience and immersion, it suggests a framework within which we might begin to understand the quality of being immersed. It also explores the practical and ethical aspects of this exciting and evolving terrain. This accessible and lively study will be of great interest to students and researchers of media studies, digital culture, games studies, extended reality, experience design, and storytelling

Genome Sequence of Erythromelalgia-Related Poxvirus Identifies it as an Ectromelia Virus Strain

Erythromelagia is a condition characterized by attacks of burning pain and inflammation in the extremeties. An epidemic form of this syndrome occurs in secondary students in rural China and a virus referred to as erythromelalgia-associated poxvirus (ERPV) was reported to have been recovered from throat swabs in 1987. Studies performed at the time suggested that ERPV belongs to the orthopoxvirus genus and has similarities with ectromelia virus, the causative agent of mousepox. We have determined the complete genome sequence of ERPV and demonstrated that it has 99.8% identity to the Naval strain of ectromelia virus and a slighly lower identity to the Moscow strain. Small DNA deletions in the Naval genome that are absent from ERPV may suggest that the sequenced strain of Naval was not the immediate progenitor of ERPV

A review of tennis racket performance parameters

The application of advanced engineering to tennis racket design has influenced the nature of the sport. As a result, the International Tennis Federation has established rules to limit performance, with the aim of protecting the nature of the game. This paper illustrates how changes to the racket affect the player-racket system. The review integrates engineering and biomechanical issues related to tennis racket performance, covering the biomechanical characteristics of tennis strokes, tennis racket performance, the effect of racket parameters on ball rebound and biomechanical interactions. Racket properties influence the rebound of the ball. Ball rebound speed increases with frame stiffness and as string tension decreases. Reducing inter-string contacting forces increases rebound topspin. Historical trends and predictive modelling indicate swingweights of around 0.030–0.035 kg/m2 are best for high ball speed and accuracy. To fully understand the effect of their design changes, engineers should use impact conditions in their experiments, or models, which reflect those of actual tennis strokes. Sports engineers, therefore, benefit from working closely with biomechanists to ensure realistic impact conditions

Subject-specific computer simulation model for determining elbow loading in one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes

This article was published in the journal Sports Biomechanics [© Taylor and Francis] and the definitive version is available from; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14763141.2011.629306.A subject-specific angle-driven computer model of a tennis player, combined with a forward dynamics, equipment-specific computer model of tennis ball–racket impacts, was developed to determine the effect of ball–racket impacts on loading at the elbow for one-handed backhand groundstrokes. Matching subject-specific computer simulations of a typical topspin/slice one-handed backhand groundstroke performed by an elite tennis player were done with root mean square differences between performance and matching simulations of < 0.5°over a 50 ms period starting from ball impact. Simulation results suggest that for similar ball–racket impact conditions, the difference in elbow loading for a topspin and slice one-handed backhand groundstroke is relatively small. In this study, the relatively small differences in elbow loading may be due to comparable angle–time histories at the wrist and elbow joints with the major kinematic differences occurring at the shoulder. Using a subject-specific angle-driven computer model combined with a forward dynamics, equipment-specific computer model of tennis ball–racket impacts allows peak internal loading, net impulse, and shock due to ball–racket impact to be calculated which would not otherwise be possible without impractical invasive techniques. This study provides a basis for further investigation of the factors that may increase elbow loading during tennis strokes

Embodying regenring: Analysing the Genre Furoshiki using English’s theoretical framework

Really my contribution to this issue is an artefact – a regenring of Fiona English’s Orientations of Genres framework as a furoshiki, a Japanese wrapping cloth. But as I cannot share this with all of you beyond a photograph, the best way of describing it within the constraints of a (printed) journal is as this article, part origin story, part analysis… but really this is the story of how by applying the framework, I started to understand it much better (and how I now propose to change it)! The purpose of this article is to use English’s Orientations of Genres framework to compare the Genre Furoshiki (a Japanese wrapping cloth designed to represent said framework and to serve as a delegate pack for a workshop on using genre in higher education) to the two genres it grew out of – a summary of the framework itself, namely English’s 2015 chapter ‘Using genre as a pedagogical resource’ (which we included in the material disseminated to delegates after the workshop), and the traditional conference tote bag so often used as a receptacle for a delegate pack. As the framework was developed with mainly linguistic genres in mind, it will be critiqued as to its suitability in discussing artefactual genres, and I argue that Gestalt Principles and Jacques Bertin’s visual attributes make a useful extension to the framework itself