The material politics of houses at Çatalhöyük, 7000–6300 BCE

Archaeologists often treat past houses and households as social units—as places of stability within larger political dynamics. Houses are rendered as conservative objects, not places of profound change. This thesis adopts a material political approach to houses, considering the way they were assembled through time as a working-out of social alternatives. By approaching prehistoric houses, not as units but as processes of space-making extending through time, it shows the great extent to which past societies’ politics were navigated and transformed through intimate communities and intimate places. Using fine analysis of the internal stratigraphy of houses, I show how much more variable and consequential domestic communities were at a turning point in human history (the beginning of the Neolithic expansion) where many conventional ‘prime movers’ of more recent histories (nations, armies, corporations, elites of various sorts) simply did not exist to drive change. In so doing, The material politics of houses at Çatalhöyük opens avenues for perceiving the full political weight of small houses and everyday relationships elsewhere and at other times—even in the present. The focus of this thesis is space-making in domestic contexts at the 7th millennium site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. Çatalhöyük spanned two worlds, both geographically and chronologically: one where settled farming life developed, piecemeal and dispersedly, over many millennia following the last glacial maximum within the confines of the Middle East, and one where settled farming life seemed inexorably spread across the world map in a matter of 2,000 years. It thus represents a window into a turning point in the social dynamics of vital technologies and human lifeways writ large. The site itself, pristinely preserved and meticulously excavated, is the result of a unique way of living that packed small mudbrick houses, wall-against-wall with very few gaps, onto an exceptionally dense mound of old dismantled architecture. No ‘temples’, ‘palaces’ or ‘public buildings’ have been discovered to date, and instead all aspects of social life—from grain processing and cooking to art and human burial—were integrated into houses at Çatalhöyük. The thesis asks, what can the houses at Çatalhöyük tell us about the material politics that articulated lives, houses, and practices in the 7th millennium? Houses’ interiors at Çatalhöyük were plastered hundreds of times over the course of their use-lives. This creates unparalleled stratigraphy for investigating change through time inside of them. The backbone of the research presented herein is the creation of high-resolution stratigraphic timelines of changes in 11 Çatalhöyük houses’ interiors, each capturing hundreds of space-making moments that transformed the house’s interior over several decades. These are supplemented by broader investigations of houses’ biographies and contextual analyses of key moments (e.g. construction, burial) in the broader site. From this basis, the thesis investigates four questions: 1. How did people at Çatalhöyük make and reshape domestic space as a part of the work of making communities and meeting life needs? 2. How did their particular way of shaping material space fit into broader political dynamics in the Neolithic town? 3. What changed in the way communities formed and intersected through houses over the course of the 7th millennium? 4. How did politics ‘spill out’ of houses at Çatalhöyük and feed larger-scale changes in the site, region, and in the dynamics of the Neolithic phenomenon more broadly? I establish that each house at Çatalhöyük was a political multiple object—engaged in the work and knowledge of a variety of communities that were more or less stable, rather than relating to a singular stable household with clear-cut social qualities. From this understanding, I illuminate social dynamics that worked through and cross-cut houses in one 66th century neighbourhood. Although every house seems self-sufficient in time-compressed overview, a close stratigraphic reading reveals a surprising frequency of moments where houses were unequipped for vital tasks like cooking, storage or burial of the dead, suggesting that it was not autonomy but rather creative and dynamic dependency that situated houses in lives, and lives in houses. I also trace a tension between ways of politicizing space through knowledge of its depths (the generations of built-up walls, bodies, deposits and other salient details invisibly sealed below people’s feet) and knowledge of its surfaces (displays of plaster and paint, sculpture and persistent boundaries). Finally, the thesis turns to a diachronic examination of community through time at Çatalhöyük, considering the waxing and waning of different political dimensions through the biographies of earlier and later 7th millennium houses. In particular, I show how a political dynamic of friction—where difference was accommodated and elaborated without dividing people or spaces into discrete, bounded units—gave way to one of integrity, where houses and communities were fitted to a more unitary ‘mould’ (something like a household) but also became less flexible and more brittle in the process. I relate this to architecture in other later 7th millennium sites in Turkey, speculatively relating the dynamics of communities in houses and landscapes to the transformed spatial dynamics of the Neolithic at regional scales in this period. This thesis shows how dramatic transformations of human lifeways have been sustained in intimate spaces, through the work of bodies, ovens, plasters and gatherings. This bottom-up, materialist approach to politics and history, focused on the details of communities and knowledge at one site, thus resonates with central concerns in archaeology across larger scales.Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trus

A Spectralist Approach to the Vibrations of the Universe

I have a desire to capture the natural and physical world around me and create specific aural experiences. Subatomic vibrations was created from this motivation, but had a specific purpose - to hear what nothing can. In this piece, I gathered together a soundworld made up of the frequencies of subatomic particles (fermions and bosons). These frequencies were calculated using the Compton-Wavelength Equation (λ = h/mc) where λ is the wavelength, h is the Planck constant, m is the rest mass of the particle, and c is the speed of light. Using the equation c = vλ, where v is the frequency, an equation could be derived that calculates the frequency of a particle using its rest mass ( v = mc2/h). The frequencies were then scaled down many, many octaves to place the pitches in our human aural range. String theory also played its role in this piece. I treated particles as bound strings, allowing each pitch associated with each particle to be thought of as a fundamental pitch, capable of vibrating at all possible harmonics. Physics lets me explore how objects in our natural and physical world create and permeate sound, and from this information, art is made

Diversity of the Brain Dystrophin-Glycoprotein Complex

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common inherited neuromuscular disorder, is characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness. One third of Duchenne patients suffer a moderate to severe, nonprogressive form of mental retardation. Mutations in the DMD gene are thought to be responsible, with the shorter isoforms of dystrophin implicated in its molecular brain pathogenesis. It is becoming clear that region-specific variations in dystrophin isoforms delegate the composition of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex in brain, and hence, the function of the specific membrane assembly. Here we summarize the recent advances in the understanding of brain dystrophin, dystrophin-related proteins and dystrophin-associated proteins

Deficiency in Cardiac Dystrophin Affects the Abundance of the α-/β-Dystroglycan Complex

Although Duchenne muscular dystrophy is primarily categorised as a skeletal muscle disease, deficiency in the membrane cytoskeletal protein dystrophin also affects the heart. The central transsarcolemmal linker between the actin membrane cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix is represented by the dystrophin-associated dystroglycans. Chemical cross-linking analysis revealed no significant differences in the dimeric status of the α-/β-dystroglycan subcomplex in the dystrophic mdx heart as compared to normal cardiac tissue. In analogy to skeletal muscle fibres, heart muscle also exhibited a greatly reduced abundance of both dystroglycans in dystrophin-deficient cells. Immunoblotting demonstrated that the degree of reduction in α-dystroglycan is more pronounced in matured mdx skeletal muscle as contrasted to the mdx heart. The fact that the deficiency in dystrophin triggers a similar pathobiochemical response in both types of muscle suggests that the cardiomyopathic complications observed in x-linked muscular dystrophy might be initiated by the loss of the dystrophin-associated surface glycoprotein complex

Developing professionalism in new IT graduates? Who needs it?

A new graduate may require a period of ‘acclimatisation’ through a process of ‘developing their professionalism’ to fit into their work environment. The e-Skills UK Technology Counts Insights 2010 report suggests that 110,500 new entrants a year are required to fill IT & Telecoms professional job roles, with 20,800 coming from education (predominantly graduate level and higher). However, 43% of recruiters were reporting a lack of suitable candidates for IT & Telecoms posts where growing importance will be placed on relationship management, business process analysis and design, project and programme management. IT & Telecoms professionals are increasingly expected to be multi-skilled, with sophisticated business and interpersonal skills as well as technical competence. As the report also says: ‘UK growth will continue to be primarily in high-value roles with an increasing need for customer and business-oriented skills as well as sophisticated technical competencies.’ The diverse needs and requirements of the IT sector, as specified by various employer groups and professional bodies including BCS, IET, eSkills, the CBI and the SFIA Foundation, are discussed. According to the CBI, ‘62% of entrants to the IT sector need to draw on managerial and professional business skills almost immediately.’ For organisations to succeed, their IT graduate recruits must supplement their IT skills with managerial and professional business skills. Well considered CPD will ensure that recent graduates can enhance their ‘academic’ skills with the necessary work-based skills for the benefit of both themselves and their new employer. The focus of the improvement will balance the student-centred needs for development and the engaging employer’s commercial needs

Brain dystrophin-glycoprotein complex: Persistent expression of beta-dystroglycan, impaired oligomerization of Dp71 and up-regulation of utrophins in animal models of muscular dystrophy

BACKGROUND: Aside from muscle, brain is also a major expression site for dystrophin, the protein whose abnormal expression is responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Cognitive impairments are frequently associated with this genetic disease, we therefore studied the fate of brain and skeletal muscle dystrophins and dystroglycans in dystrophic animal models. RESULTS: All dystrophin-associated glycoproteins investigated were reduced in dystrophic muscle fibres. In Dp427-deficient mdx brain and Dp71-deficient mdx-3cv brain, the expression of α-dystroglycan and laminin was reduced, utrophin isoforms were up-regulated and β-dystroglycan was not affected. Immunofluorescence localization of β-dystroglycan in comparison with glial, endothelial and neuronal cell markers revealed co-localization of von Willebrand factor with β-dystroglycan. Its expression at the endothelial-glial interface was preserved in dystrophin isoform-deficient brain from mdx and mdx-3cv mice. In addition, chemical crosslinking revealed that the Dp71 isoform exists in mdx brain predominantly as a monomer. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests an association of β-dystroglycan with membranes at the vascular-glial interface in the forebrain. In contrast to dystrophic skeletal muscle fibres, dystrophin deficiency does not trigger a reduction of all dystroglycans in the brain, and utrophins may partially compensate for the lack of brain dystrophins. Abnormal oligomerization of the dystrophin isoform Dp71 might be involved in the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying abnormal brain functions

Assessing the impact of a cloud-based learning platform on student motivation and ownership of learning

Has the kuraCloud learning platform increased student motivation and ownership of their learning? Cloud-based educational technologies are used with the expectation that they will assist students to become life-long learners. These technologies give students more control over their learning and this has been shown to motivate them to work harder (Yurco, 2014). This research examines the impact of a recently implemented cloud-based learning platform (kuraCloud) on student motivation and ownership of their learning. All students enrolled in the undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing programme at Wintec will be invited to participate in an online survey. Areas that will be explored to assess motivation include whether students feel more motivated, whether they feel encouraged to seek extra information about topics, and whether their participation is influenced by particular aspects and exercises within the KuraCloud lessons. Areas that will be explored to assess ownership of learning include whether the KuraCloud lessons helped them to learn independently, to problem solve, and to understand the topic content and the lesson concepts. The research has not been completed yet, but the results will be presented at the conference. It is expected that the results will inform future planning to enhance student motivation and ownership of learning using this technology

Assessing the impact of a cloud-based learning platform on student motivation and ownership of learning

Has the KuraCloud learning platform increased student motivation and ownership of their learning? Cloud-based educational technologies are used with the expectation that they will assist students to become life-long learners. These technologies give students more control over their learning and this has been shown to motivate them to work harder (Yurco, 2014). This research examines the impact of a recently implemented cloud-based learning platform (KuraCloud) on student motivation and ownership of their learning. All students enrolled in the undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing programme at Wintec will be invited to participate in an online survey. Areas that will be explored to assess motivation include whether students feel more motivated, whether they feel encouraged to seek extra information about topics, and whether their participation is influenced by particular aspects and exercises within the KuraCloud lessons. Areas that will be explored to assess ownership of learning include whether the KuraCloud lessons helped them to learn independently, to problem-solve, and to understand the topic content and the lesson concepts. The research has not been completed yet, but the results will be presented at the conference. It is expected that the results will inform future planning to enhance student motivation and ownership of learning using this technology