Resonating moments. Exploring socio-material connectivity through artistic encounters with people living with dementia

In this article, I introduce insights from new material feminist theories into the understanding of connectivity on the basis of an aesthetic analysis of artistic encounters with people living with dementia. I draw on data from a situated art intervention conducted within the Resonance Project at a residential care home in Northern Norway where researchers, artists, health-care professionals, people living with dementia and family members came together in co-creative music sessions. I analyse two resonating moments from the sessions by way of an abductive process, oscillating between theory, written notes, video recordings and my own embodied experiences in the field. I discuss the ways in which materiality, listening and the group matter when it comes to our ability to connect during the sessions. Based on these findings, I conclude that the notion of socio-material connectivity provides an entrance point for studying different ways of relating to people living with dementia and enquiring into relations that matter

pypillometry: A Python package for pupillometric analyses

The size of the human pupil is controlled by pairs of constrictor and dilator muscles that allow its opening (dilation) and closing (constriction) in response to varying lighting conditions (Mathôt, 2018). Importantly, it has long been known that the pupil also reacts to psychological important stimuli (Hess & Polt, 1960) and has been a firmly established tool for studying “mental effort” in the research kit of psychologists for many decades (Laeng, Sirois, & Gredebäck, 2012). More recently, pupil-size has been linked to the norepinephrinergic (NE) system originating from area locus coeruleus (LC) in the brainstem (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005), a link that has been substantiated experimentally by direct recordings in the brainstem of monkeys (Joshi, Li, Kalwani, & Gold, 2016). This finding of a correlation between NE activity in the brainstem and pupil-dilation has opened the way for researchers investigating the relationship between the LC-NE system and many cognitive functions, such as cognitive control (Gilzenrat, Nieuwenhuis, Jepma, & Cohen, 2010) and mind wandering (Mittner, Hawkins, Boekel, & Forstmann, 2016). Advancing this emerging field requires the decomposition of the pupillometric signal into tonic (baseline) and phasic (response) components that relate to different processing regimes of the LC-NE system

Diffracting Dementia Co-creative Experiments with Agential Realism and Multisensoriality in a Residential Care Home in Northern Norway

Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias (ADD) challenge Western economies, in which biomedical human-centric understandings of ADD as deficit dominates. To imagine lives with ADD differently, we have facilitated and researched co-creative art sessions rooted in feminist posthumanities in residential care homes in Northern Norway. We have experimented with Karen Barad’s diffractive methodology, analysed human–nonhuman entanglements and observed the emergence of new diffraction patterns allowing for ADD to be enacted differently than human loss. We present our findings in the form of a conversation and extrapolate the significance of diffractive methodology for critical dementia studies and beyond

Research Innovation: Advancing Arts-based Research Methods to Make Sense of Micro-moments Framed by Dementia

In this article we discuss how to develop methodological tools to guide social innovation in the arts and health movement. We approach this question by making research within Artful Dementia Research Lab as transparent as possible by 1) describing study designs 2) presenting arts-based datasets, and 3) giving insight into what we define as aesthetic analysis. We outline four premisses of situated art intervention research and what it can add to practice-led research. We close with an invitation to the reader to further discuss how to make arts-based research methods more visible and bringing them to the table of established research standards

Inhibition in the dynamics of selective attention: an integrative model for negative priming

We introduce a computational model of the negative priming (NP) effect that includes perception, memory, attention, decision making, and action. The model is designed to provide a coherent picture across competing theories of NP. The model is formulated in terms of abstract dynamics for the activations of features, their binding into object entities, their semantic categorization as well as related memories and appropriate reactions. The dynamic variables interact in a connectionist network which is shown to be adaptable to a variety of experimental paradigms. We find that selective attention can be modeled by means of inhibitory processes and by a threshold dynamics. From the necessity of quantifying the experimental paradigms, we conclude that the specificity of the experimental paradigm must be taken into account when predicting the nature of the NP effect

Re-conceptualizing the gap as a potential space of becoming: Exploring aesthetic experiences with people living with dementia

Purpose: In this paper we describe how co-creative art practices can involve people living with dementia as active citizens. We build on the Nordic Relational Model of Disability (GAP model) that conceptualizes levels of functioning as a mismatch between individual abilities and requirements from the environment. Design: We explore how reciprocal aesthetic experiences from two residential care homes in Northern Norway can broaden a narrow biomedical understanding of dementia. Arts-based research and sensory ethnography are our methodological frames. We present three field descriptions that open an aesthetic universe through fine art, poetry and applied theatre. Findings: We find in our research that the gap between individual abilities and social requirements can become a space for creativity, in which everyone becomes connected and contributes to shared aesthetic experiences. We argue that broadening our understanding of the gap can result in new ways of relating to and being with each other. Originality: The paper advances aesthetic perspectives in dementia research

Determination of an area and proportions of selected objects in a picture

Diplomová práce popisuje hardwarové opto-elektronické přístroje pro bezdotykové měření ploch. Zaměřuje se na přístroje používané pro opto-elektrickou transformaci snímané scény a na softwarové zpracování digitálních obrazů. Popisuje vybrané metody předzpracování, segmentování a následné dodatečné úpravy těchto obrazů. Zabývá se dále měřením velikosti ploch a rozměrů vybraných objektů v těchto obrazech a přepočtem výsledků z obrazových bodů na jednotky soustavy SI. Popsány jsou také možné chyby měření. Součástí práce je i vývojový diagram programu pro automatické a manuální měření ploch a rozměrů objektů v obraze, který je podrobně okomentován. Hlavním produktem práce je program Merovo, který umožňuje zpracování digitálního obrazu a měření plochy a rozměrů objektů v něm obsažených. Tento program je zde detailně rozebrán a popsán.The master’s thesis describes hardware opto-electronic instruments for contactless measurement of surfaces. It concentrates on instruments used for opto-electrical transformation of a taking scene and software processing of digital pictures. It presents selected methods of pre-processing, segmenting and following final modifications of these pictures. Then it deals with measuring of areas of surfaces and sizes of selected objects in these pictures and conversion of results from pixels to SI system of units. Possible divergences of measuring are described as well. A flow chart of a program for automatic and manual measuring of surfaces and sizes of objects in a picture, which is commented in detail, is a part of the thesis. The main product of this thesis is application Merovo, which provides measuring of an area and proportions of included objects. This application is analysed and described in detail in this thesis.

Heating Solution in the Family House in Beskydy

Bakalářská práce popisuje projekt novostavby rodinného domu v Beskydech. Rozdělena je na dvě hlavní části, a to část pozemního stavitelství obsahující kompletní technickou zprávu s výkresovou dokumentací k provedení stavby, a část prostředí stavby zabývající se tepelně technickou studií a otopným systémem s akumulací, získávajícím teplo kombinovaně z krbové vložky s výměníkem a z elektrického kotle zásobovaného z veřejné sítě a domovní fotovoltaickou elektrárnou. Pozornost je věnována rovněž regulaci, propojení systémů a balancování množství energie z jednotlivých zdrojů. Pro doplnění celé koncepce jsou zde zpracovány také elektrické rozvody a světelně technické řešení stavby.The bachelor’s thesis describes a project of the new family house building in Beskydy. The thesis is divided into two parts, first is building construction part containing complete technical description report and drawings documentation for building realization. The second is building environment part describing thermal technical study and heating system with accumulation function which gets heat from combination of a fireplace insert with heat exchanger and electric boiler supplied from public infrastructure and by the house photovoltaic powerplant. The thesis is also focused on regulation, systems interconnection and balance of the energy from different sources. To have a complete conception image there are also created house electrical wiring schematics and light technical solution.229 - Katedra prostředí staveb a TZBvelmi dobř

Decolonizing Higher Education: Rationales and Implementations from the Subject of Music History

In addition to ongoing territorial and material re-organization of power as a result of 19th-century European colonialism, there has been an increasing focus on decolonializing knowledge practices in higher education. Research communities are discussing what it could mean to decolonize thinking practices, conditions of knowledge creation, and access to higher education. Since the arts are a powerful tool for change, we want to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion by introducing examples of decolonial practices used in the Bachelor program in music performance. By presenting three cases from the subject of music history at two Norwegian universities, we provide insight into why and how we can teach differently, what kind of resistance we meet, and how we can make use of discomfort to decolonize knowledge practices. Our empirical material is composed of our own experiences, student course evaluations, conversations with students and teachers, as well as module descriptions. In the basis of our findings, we propose a strategic canonism to mediate in an increasingly polarized field