Mapping immaterial flows : how consumption invisibilizes labor : the satellite and shipping container

The kiosk system went down and everyone missed their flight. I had this experience recently at Chicago O’Hare International airport when I was flying to Austin. It affirmed the importance of understanding networks and how their working (or in this case, the lack thereof) immobilizes goods and people. Usually, when you check in for a flight, there is a kiosk, a station where you can print out your ticket, bag tags, and receipt. This automation of airline customers and their luggage is routine and due to its speed, allows a lot more people to obtain services. A standard of speed and ease of access is therefore coupled and expected. When this automation is no longer available, people lose their shit or more elegantly stated, the artifice of entitlement becomes gruesomely apparent. I understand everyone has a place to go and we won’t get their soon enough. However, the system is down and the airline workers are doing their best. Of course, once the network is back in place, the kiosks will resume operation and yes, they will arrange a later flight. But in a global economy where networked spaces are equated solely to make money at an expedient pace, how do we get people to understand other ways to respond to a malfunction? The common assumption is that systems are supposed to be perfect and a glitch or a malfunction is an exception, however it is quite the reverse. What if networks weren’t based on dualism? The binary being either: an all digital internet of everything kind of space or a cyberpunk infused reversion to the analog. Instead, what should be thought of and put into place is a multiplicity of network configurations such as A to Z, alif to bari yay, 1 to a 1000, uno to millón. This is what I propose in my research and arts practice: how do we build multiplicity and equity in systems? Networks are not arbitrarily put into place, they have funders, users, buyers, beneficiaries, and losers involved. Therefore, they are porous flows, exchanges, and axioms, always open to change. My research lies in between histories of media, technology, and globalization. I investigate these themes through performance, sculptural installations, reading groups, and workshops that focus on the role of technology. Specifically, my practice is focused on objects that are produced from global circuits and their embedded codes, encompassing both the technological and sociological. I investigate the history of objects such as the satellites and shipping containers and make immaterial streams tangible. The specific objects of the satellite and shipping container carry information that frames notion of historic and present day globalization facilitated by technology. The sections of this text are not necessary meant to be read sequentially, there are organized like nodes. In the first node, I will examine the role of satellites in my projects, Satellites and TELL A STAR. Satellites project examines Our World, the first global transmission (1967) through a sculptural installation, video and website. This project critiques the notion of techno-utopianism, a idea that technology will resolve all inequalities plaguing humanity. Then, I will review TELL A STAR, a 3-channel installation, where I divert the history of the first American satellite, Telstar (1962) through the lens of Afrofuturism, archival research and fluidity of identity. In the second node, I will review my project, Con-tain-er, its installation and performative elements and the role of “flows” within global shipping networks. Near the ending node, the role of networks, “junk,” and the use of workshops will be examined as part of my arts practice. Demanding the creation of more inclusive and divergent networks is central to imagining fluidity. It is within reach, we need to imagine it.Studio Ar

THE BENEFITS OF WATER IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM TO WOMEN: A LITERATURE REVIEW

A review of the available literature shows that in developing countries the role of women in the water sector is often limited to collecting and managing water at the household level. Water improvement programs are found to provide women with enormous direct benefits in the form of reduced time and effort (women's workload) required to complete water related activities, reduced adverse health impacts associated with traditional water sources, and improved socio-economic status. Also, such programs are found to provide women with a number of indirect benefits.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Functional Hodrick Prescott Filter

We propose a functional version of the Hodrick-Prescott filter for functional data which take values in an infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space. We further characterize the associated optimal smoothing parameter when the associated linear operator is compact and the underlying distribution of the data is Gaussian

On the reconstruction of convex sets from random normal measurements

We study the problem of reconstructing a convex body using only a finite number of measurements of outer normal vectors. More precisely, we suppose that the normal vectors are measured at independent random locations uniformly distributed along the boundary of our convex set. Given a desired Hausdorff error eta, we provide an upper bounds on the number of probes that one has to perform in order to obtain an eta-approximation of this convex set with high probability. Our result rely on the stability theory related to Minkowski's theorem

Hardy inequalities in globally twisted waveguides

We establish various Hardy-type inequalities for the Dirichlet Laplacian in perturbed periodically twisted tubes of non-circular cross-sections. We also state conjectures about the existence of such inequalities in more general regimes, which we support by heuristic and numerical arguments.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Stochastic Qubits

A new concept of qubits is given by considering entanglement of ordinary quibits with quantum measuring devices (micro-detectors). They are called stochastic qubits since they are generalized coherent states used in the stochastic (phase space) quantum theory. Entanglement is realized through the coupling of angular momenta $l$ and $\sigma$, where the micro-detector has $l=0,1$ and the qubit spin is $\sigma=1/2$. In both cases, the stochastic qubit has total spin $J=1/2$ and is entangled only when $l=1$. In this case, Stochastic Bell states have been defined and teleportation has been studied. They resemble conventional ones. When the micro-detecors have only two states, Stochastic qudits have rather been used. Here, Stochastic Bell states have also been defined and teleportation is possible for special states only. In the last step of this teleportation, Bob will have to transform the qubit only, or the micro-detector only, to recover Alice state.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author because of Projection measurement tacit usage (while generalized one should have been used

Neural mechanisms of response-preparation and inhibition in bilingual and monolingual children: Lateralized Readiness Potentials (LRPs) during a nonverbal Stroop task

Inhibitory control is a core executive function (EF) skill, thought to involve cognitive 'interference suppression' and motor 'response inhibition' sub-processes. A few studies have shown that early bilingualism shapes interference suppression but not response inhibition skills, however current behavioral measures do not fully allow us to disentangle these subcomponents. Lateralized Readiness Potentials (LRPs) are centroparietal event-related potentials (ERPs) that track motor response-preparations between stimulus-presentation and behavioral responses. We examine LRPs elicited during successful inhibitory control on a nonverbal Stroop task, in 6-8 year-old bilingual (n = 44) and monolingual (n = 48) children from comparable socio-economic backgrounds. Relative to monolinguals, bilinguals showed longer and stronger incorrect-response preparations, and a more mature pattern of correct-response preparation (shorter peak-latencies), underlying correct responses on Stroop-interference trials. Neural markers of response-inhibition were comparable between groups and no behavioral differences were found between-groups on the Stroop task. Results suggest group differences in underlying mechanisms of centroparietal motor-response preparation mechanisms in this age group, contrary to what has been shown using behavioral tasks previously. We discuss neural results in the context of speed-accuracy trade-offs. This is the first study to examine neural markers of motor-responses in bilingual children.Published versio