Squaring the Circle Wilfred’s Lumia and his Rejection of ‘Colour Music’

This chapter will explore Thomas Wilfred’s relation to music in his self-defined art form of ‘lumia’, and compare him to contemporaries including the abstract animator Mary Ellen Bute (1906–83) and Oskar Fischinger (1900–67), as these two artists were the most successful and visible proponents of visual music in mid-twentieth-century America. They went on to influence a number of significant successors in the field, not least the pioneers of early computerized animation, James and John Whitney. Fischinger also influenced the young John Cage, whilst Wilfred had some impact on Jackson Pollock and was exhibited alongside him at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

VIQID: a no-reference bit stream-based visual quality impairment detector

In order to ensure adequate quality towards the end users at all time, video service providers are getting more interested in monitoring their video streams. Objective video quality metrics provide a means of measuring (audio)visual quality in an automated manner. Unfortunately, most of the current existing metrics cannot be used for real-time monitoring due to their dependencies on the original video sequence. In this paper we present a new objective video quality metric which classifies packet loss as visible or invisible based on information extracted solely from the captured encoded H.264/AVC video bit stream. Our results show that the visibility of packet loss can be predicted with a high accuracy, without the need for deep packet inspection. This enables service providers to monitor quality in real-time

Natural media workshop

This workshop will examine what our current imaging and sensing technologies do to our perception. We will examine, using practical examples, the potential to develop more 'Natural Media’ and technologies by broadening the focus of attention to the whole visual, auditory, tactile and sensual field. The aim is to re-incorporate peripheral awareness into our experience using these multiple sense inputs

FilmFling '19: Pecker & Finn Drude

Sunday 10th March - Tullie House Cinema: To start the final evening of this year’s event - the truly original country art rockers Pecker will be dipping into their eclectic songbook for a live set. Pecker have been busy of late and will be debuting a bunch of new scribblings, covering a diverse range of subjects, including; songs about planets, a rockabilly riff about a man who thinks he’s Elvis and a punk paean to the inventor of the Karaoke machine. Pecker are: Jim Davis (guitar & vocals), Nick Dodds (guitar & vocals), Katie Gentry (violin, flute & vocals), Jen Graham (organ & vocals), Jon Lambert (drums) and Pete McNichol (bass). The band will be accompanied by live moving images created especially for the Fling by the film-maker Finn Drude

D-Foam Phenomenology: Dark Energy, the Velocity of Light and a Possible D-Void

In a D-brane model of space-time foam, there are contributions to the dark energy that depend on the D-brane velocities and on the density of D-particle defects. The latter may also reduce the speeds of photons linearly with their energies, establishing a phenomenological connection with astrophysical probes of the universality of the velocity of light. Specifically, the cosmological dark energy density measured at the present epoch may be linked to the apparent retardation of energetic photons propagating from nearby AGNs. However, this nascent field of `D-foam phenomenology' may be complicated by a dependence of the D-particle density on the cosmological epoch. A reduced density of D-particles at redshifts z ~ 1 - a `D-void' - would increase the dark energy while suppressing the vacuum refractive index, and thereby might reconcile the AGN measurements with the relatively small retardation seen for the energetic photons propagating from GRB 090510, as measured by the Fermi satellite.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Life in lockdown:a qualitative study exploring the experience of living through the initial COVID-19 lockdown in the UK and its impact on diet, physical activity and mental health.

Background In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK imposed a national lockdown prompting change to daily routines. Among behaviours impacted by the lockdown, diet and physical activity may be particularly important due to their association with mental health and physical health. The aim of this study was to explore people’s experiences of how lockdown impacted their physical activity, dietary behaviours and mental health, with a view to informing public health promotion. Methods This phenomenological qualitative study used semi-structured telephone interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted, guided by the Framework Approach. Results Forty participants (28 female) completed an interview (mean duration: 36 min) between May and July 2020. The overarching themes identified were (i) Disruption (loss of routines, social interaction and cues to physical activity) and (ii) Adaptation (structuring the day, accessing the outdoor environment, finding new ways for social support). The disruption to daily routines altered people’s cues for physical activity and eating; some participants spoke of comfort eating and increased alcohol intake in the early days of lockdown, and how they consciously tried to change these when restrictions lasted longer than first anticipated. Others spoke of adapting to the restrictions using food preparation and meals to provide both routine and social time for families. Disruptions from the closure of workplaces resulted in flexible working times for some, allowing for physical activity to be built into the day. In later stages of restrictions, physical activity became an opportunity for social interaction and several participants reported intending to continue to replace sedentary means of socialising (e.g., meeting in cafes) with more active, outdoor activities (e.g., walking) once restrictions were lifted. Staying active and building activity into the day was seen as important to support physical and mental health during the challenging times of the pandemic. Conclusions Whilst many participants found the UK lockdown challenging, adaptations to cope with the restrictions presented some positive changes related to physical activity and diet behaviours. Helping people sustain their new healthier activities since restrictions have lifted is a challenge but presents an opportunity for public health promotion

Online social media tells a story of Anaselina, Paraselina, and Selivinga (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae), rare Australian pygmy grasshoppers

Knowledge on the pygmy grasshoppers of Australia is, despite the numerous endemics being described from this unique continent, still scarce. Of interest is the Vingselina genus group, including genera Anaselina Storozhenko, 2019, Paraselina Storozhenko, 2019, Selivinga Storozhenko, 2019 and Vingselina Sjostedt, 1921. The systematic position of this group, currently assigned to Batrachideinae (Bufonidini), is probably not correct. In this study new records are presented of Anaselina minor (Sjostedt, 1921), Paraselina brunneri (Bolivar, 1887), P trituberculata (Sjastedt, 1932), and Selivinga tribulata Storozhenko, 2019, all except A. minor the first records of the species since their original descriptions. The first photographs of living specimens of A. minor, P. brunneri, P. trituberculata and S. tribulata are provided and their habitats described. All the records were compiled by citizen scientists who use online social media, such as iNaturalist. Lastly, P. multifora (Rehn, 1952) syn. nov. represents a junior synonym of P. brunneri

Man with a movie camera/Dimensions of dialogue: Pecker

Special event: Three-piece band, Pecker, play a specially commissioned accompaniment to Dziga Vertov's legendary filmed wanderings around Moscow and Odessa in 1929. A master of the Russian avant-garde, Vertov presented a fascinating insight not only into Russian life during the first decade of communism but also into the development of early cinematic techniques. The main feature will be preceded by Dimensions of Dialogue, a short film by Jan Svankmajer and followed by a O&A with the band. [Clwyd Theatr brochure text