Bodyscreening

This research is a somatic inquiry into the relationship between body and screen, in the context of Sherry Turkle (1999; 2008; 2011) and Katja Kolcio’s (2005) argument. Through a discussion of somatic practice and concepts of attention and awareness (Hanna, T.,1995; Watson, G., 2017; Kaparo, R., 2012), this research argues for approaches with the screen that foster greater agency. Turkle (1999; 2008; 2011) and Kolcio (2005) argue that the mobile and networked nature of the screen in society has impacted on human development through practices of interaction. They suggest that this development has created a culture of screen use that favours simulation and pervasive connectivity, altering the way we understand others, our environment and ourselves. They argue that this has fundamentally reduced choice and agency as will be outlined in thesis discussion. Through an interdisciplinary exploration, working from a methodology that focuses on a practice led approach drawing on somatic process; this research acts as a discussion around the agency of the body in relation to screen practice. Practice has driven the inquiry in a way that highlights the complexity of the subtle processes of engagement in both the act of screening by self and others and in the body screened. This interest in the practice of screening and being screened lies within the context of a contemporary culture that thrives on such behavior as an aspect of daily life. In the creation of a series of works surrounding screen encounter, concerns have been foregrounded. These concerns exist within the phenomena of screen practice as; how might we navigate screen encounter in light of ubiquity and how might the centrality of the body in the act of screening be explored. Within this thesis creative work is discussed and where relevant, the reader is signposted to online documentation (http://www.bodyscreening.agency). In parallel to practice within the writing, a series of inflections exist across the thesis [in different font] to provide registers from [studio practice] and [musings] from lived experience, which should be considered an attempt to contribute a broader narrative of screen engagement. In the outcomes of this research through critical debate drawing on somatic process and its particular capacity to foster attitudes of embodied attentiveness; this thesis argues for a greater awareness of the body in the act of screening and being screened that is fundamental in both retaining the imaginative potential behind image generation and questioning the purposes and intentions of future screen development

Galactic extinction and Abell clusters

In this paper, we present the results of comparing the angular distribution of Abell clusters with Galactic HI measurements. For most subsamples of clusters considered, their positions on the sky appear to be anti-correlated with respect to the distribution of HI column densities. The statistical significance of these observed anti-correlations is a function of both richness and distance class, with the more distant and/or richest systems having the highest significance (~3 sigma). The lower richness, nearby clusters appear to be randomly distributed compared to the observed Galactic HI column density.Comment: 5 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript file. Figures included. Accepted by MNRA

The Interplay of Cluster and Galaxy Evolution

We review here the interplay of cluster and galaxy evolution. As a case study, we consider the Butcher-Oemler effect and propose that it is the result of the changing rate of cluster merger events in a hierarchical universe. This case study highlights the need for new catalogs of clusters and groups that possess quantified morphologies. We present such a sample here, namely the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) C4 Catalog, which has been objectively-selected from the SDSS spectroscopic galaxy sample. We outline here the C4 algorithm and present first results based on the SDSS Early Data Release, including an X-ray luminosity-velocity dispersion (L_x-sigma) scaling relationship (as a function of cluster morphology), and the density-SFR relation of galaxies within C4 clusters (Gomez et al. 2003). We also discuss the merger of Coma and the NGC4839 group, and its effect on the galaxy populations in these systems. We finish with a brief discussion of a new sample of Hdelta-selected galaxies (i.e., k+a, post--starburst galaxies) obtained from the SDSS spectroscopic survey.Comment: Invited review at the JENAM 2002 Workshop on "Galaxy Evolution in Groups and Clusters", Porto, Sep 5-7 2002, eds. Lobo, Serote-Roos and Biviano, Kluwer in pres

Testing Emergent Gravity on Galaxy Cluster Scales

Verlinde's theory of Emergent Gravity (EG) describes gravity as an emergent phenomenon rather than a fundamental force. Applying this reasoning in de Sitter space leads to gravity behaving differently on galaxy and galaxy cluster scales; this excess gravity might offer an alternative to dark matter. Here we test these ideas using the data from the Coma cluster and from 58 stacked galaxy clusters. The X-ray surface brightness measurements of the clusters at $0.1 < z < 1.2$ along with the weak lensing data are used to test the theory. We find that the simultaneous EG fits of the X-ray and weak lensing datasets are significantly worse than those provided by General Relativity (with cold dark matter). For the Coma cluster, the predictions from Emergent Gravity and General Relativity agree in the range of 250 - 700 kpc, while at around 1 Mpc scales, EG total mass predictions are larger by a factor of 2. For the cluster stack the predictions are only in good agreement at around the 1 - 2 Mpc scales, while for $r \gtrsim 10$ Mpc EG is in strong tension with the data. According to the Bayesian information criterion analysis, GR is preferred in all tested datasets; however, we also discuss possible modifications of EG that greatly relax the tension with the data.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication on JCA