La porosità dei muri. Su alcune analogie tra Walter Benjamin e Maurice Merleau-Ponty

L’idea di “porosità”, che Benjamin propone in Immagini di città, bene esprime il rapporto non di opposizione ma di co-appartenenza tra categorie spaziali e temporali, sempre pensate in relazione al soggetto che le vive: fuori e dentro, esteriorità e interiorità, privato-pubblico, passato-presente-futuro. Tale co-appartenenza si realizza nel passage, luogo di elezione del flâneur, figura ambivalente della Parigi ottocentesca. Egli compie il passaggio dall’immersione, estetica, nel mondo di sogno del passage, al risveglio, in quanto recupero del passato “negato”. A questo riguardo, non sono poche le analogie con Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a partire dall’utilizzo stesso del termine “porosità” in quanto immagine di una dialettica rivisitata, che esalta le ambivalenze della dimensione “estetica” o “precategoriale”. L’esercizio di uno sguardo nuovo diviene necessario perché si possa, realizzando potenzialità inespresse del passato, recuperare la profondità del presente e aprire al futuro.The idea of "porosity", proposed by Walter Benjamin in Images of cities, well expresses the concept of co-belonging, instead of being opposite, of spatial and temporal categories, always in relation with the subject experiencing them; in and out, exteriority and interiority, private-public, past-present-future. This co-belonging finds its realization in the passage, the chosen place of the flâneur, ambivalent figure of the nineteenth-century Paris. He moves from the aesthetical immersion in the dream world of the passage to the awakening, as a retaking of a "denied" past. There are several analogies with Maurice Merleau-Ponty, starting from the term "porosity" itself, as image of a revisited dialectic that magnifies the ambivalences of the "aesthetical" or "pre-categorical" dimension. Looking with new eyes becomes essential to bring back the depth of the present and to open to the future, fulfilling potentialities not expressed in the past

Mémoire et inscription : temporalité et spatialité de l’architecture selon Paul Ricoeur

El trabajo de la memoria es, ante todo, un trabajo de inscripción. Este acto reiterado, al mismo tiempo individual, compartido y colectivo, responde a condiciones formales espacio-temporales: «las mutaciones que afectan a la espacialidad y la temporalidad propias de la memoria viva». Las reflexiones de Paul Ricoeur en La memoria, la historia, el olvido, sobre la memoria-inscripción nos conducen, de hecho, al descubrimiento, al entrelazamiento entre el tiempo y el espacio: la dialéctica de la subjetividad-objetividad del espacio: «Es, juntos, que el aquí y el allá del espacio vivido por la memoria se encuentran encuadrados en un sistema de lugares y de fechas en los que está eliminada la referencia al aquí y al ahora absoluto de la experiencia viva.Le travail de la mémoire est d’abord un travail d’inscription. Cet acte réitéré, en même temps individuel, partagé et collectif, répond à des conditions formelles spatiotemporelles: «les mutations affectant la spatialité et la temporalité propres à la mémoire vivante». Les réflexions conduites par Paul Ricoeur dans La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli, autour de la mémoire-inscription nous mènent donc à la découverte de l’entrelacement du temps et de l’espace: la dialectique de la subjectivité-objectivité du temps n’est pas pensable qu’en rapport à la dialectique de la subjectivité-objectivité de l’espace: «c’est ensemble que l’ici et le là-bas de l’espace vécu de la mémoire se retrouvent encadrés dans un système de places et de dates d’où est éliminée la référence à l’ici et au maintenant absolu de l’expérience vive».Peer Reviewe

Spazio architettonico e soggetto estetico

Come ripensare il rapporto tra costruire e abitare dopo Heidegger? Se le sue riflessioni sono ancora fondamentali per una estetica dell’architettura, è necessario interrogarsi su questioni tralasciate dal filosofo tedesco: in primis sull’esperienza estetica (sensibile e affettiva) intesa come rapporto tra il soggetto, homo aestheticus, e lo spazio architettonico; e sulla valenza etica di tale esperienza. La fenomenologia francese e quella tedesca offrono non pochi spunti. Il primo filosofo di riferimento è Merleau-Ponty, con la sua concezione di «campo» di esperienza: il soggetto è radicato nello spazio e l’esperienza è originariamente sinestesica e cinestesica; l’immagine del «chiasma» ben esprime l’intreccio di relazioni tra vedere ed essere-visto, tra interno ed esterno. Inoltre, come il filosofo francese afferma nei suoi scritti di pedagogia, è all’interno di tale orizzonte pre-intellettivo che avviene l’incontro con l’altro, che nasce la dimensione dell’intersoggettività. Henri Maldiney approfondisce tale discorso, mostrando come l’arte, e in special modo l’architettura, contribuisca a formare lo spazio, a sollecitare una esperienza estetica in chi si trova anche solo occasionalmente ad essere fruitore ed abitante. Secondo Maldiney l’architettura esprime il ritmo dell’esistenza, che deve essere intesa come un continuo formarsi del soggetto, estatico, aperto nei confronti del mondo e dell’altro. A differenza delle arti figurative, l’architettura richiede una fruizione che supera la tradizionale concezione dello «sguardo contemplativo», poiché il soggetto è immerso nello spazio di esperienza. Il concetto estetico di «atmosfera» elaborato da Gernot Böhme, fenomenologo tedesco, ha recentemente destato l’interesse degli architetti, di chi si occupa di esperienza estetica non da un punto di vista teorico ma da un punto di vista pratico. L’architetto in quanto designer forma degli «spazi atmosferici» in cui il soggetto prova determinate emozioni; l’emozione viene «irradiata» dallo spazio. Secondo Bohme, molto attento alla prassi, alla dimensione del lavoro, importante diviene l’uso della luce, così come dei materiali. In sintesi, l’architettura si offre dunque al soggetto come una «promessa», come una possibilità di esperienza che richiede una condivisione e che rende possibile il processo formativo del soggetto. Si tratta di una modalità di fruizione inaugurale, primigenia, irriducibile. Ed è all’interno di tale esperienza che può nascere un pensiero dialogico.Peer Reviewe

L'uomo ridotto a una sola posizione. Fame e asservimento ne Le neveu de Rameau di Diderot

Le neveu de Rameau is a novel that provided many stimuli to philosophers. The dialogue between the two main characters â the philosopher and the servant, the buffoon of the rich and powerful â inspired the Hegelian reflections on the dialectic between servant and master. Le neveu de Rameau is a remarkable representation of the relationships of dependence and negation between those who have power and who is affected by it. The servant is represented as a hungry man, with a knot in his stomach and his mouth open and awaiting; he assumes strained postures which show his subaltern position regarding the master. These bodily figures and behavioral schemes have a relevant ethical and social meaning within the novel: they express the reduction of the complex human unity to a mere condition of need.Â&nbsp

Introduction

This issue of Itinera aims to address the connections between architecture and the performing arts in its various aspects and from multiple points of view. The growing emphasis on the performative character of artistic practices, namely, their ability to involve spectators directly and pervasively (Dixon 2007), imbues the relationship between architecture, the performing arts, and the spectator’s experience. The sharing of the scenic space by spectators and performers is essential for the co-production of a common energy which operates as a “transforming force” and thereby opens up the shared experience of discovering oneself and the other as a union of the body and the mind (Fischer-Lichte 2004).This issue of Itinera aims to address the connections between architecture and the performing arts in its various aspects and from multiple points of view. The growing emphasis on the performative character of artistic practices, namely, their ability to involve spectators directly and pervasively (Dixon 2007), imbues the relationship between architecture, the performing arts, and the spectator’s experience. The sharing of the scenic space by spectators and performers is essential for the co-production of a common energy which operates as a “transforming force” and thereby opens up the shared experience of discovering oneself and the other as a union of the body and the mind (Fischer-Lichte 2004)

FlowSort-GDSS:a novel group multi-criteria decision support system for sorting problems with application to FMEA

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a well-known approach for correlating the failure modes of a system to their effects, with the objective of assessing their criticality. The criticality of a failure mode is traditionally established by its risk priority number (RPN), which is the product of the scores assigned to the three risk factors, which are likeness of occurrence, the chance of being undetected and the severity of the effects. Taking a simple "unweighted" product has major shortcomings. One of them is to provide just a number, which does not sort failures modes into priority classes. Moreover, to make the decision more robust, the FMEA is better tackled by multiple decision-makers. Unfortunately, the literature lacks group decision support systems (GDSS) for sorting failures in the field of the FMEA. In this paper, a novel multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method named FlowSort-GDSS is proposed to sort the failure modes into priority classes by involving multiple decision-makers. The essence of this method lies in the pair-wise comparison between the failure modes and the reference profiles established by the decision-makers on the risk factors. Finally a case study is presented to illustrate the advantages of this new robust method in sorting failures

Modelling production cost with the effects of learning and forgetting

Defining a dynamic model for calculating production cost is a challenging goal that requires a good fitting ability with real data over time. A novel cost curve is proposed here with the aim of incorporating both the learning and the forgetting phenomenon during both the production phases and the reworking operations. A single-product cost model is thus obtained, and a procedure for fitting the curve with real data is also introduced. Finally, this proposal is validated on a benchmark dataset in terms of mean square error

Quick, accurate, smart: 3D computer vision technology helps assessing confined animals' behaviour

<p>(a) Visual representation of the alignment of two sequences using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). The DTW stretches the sequences in time by matching the same point with several points of the compared time series. (b) The Needleman Wunsh (NW) algorithm substitutes the temporal stretch with gap elements (red circles in the table) inserting blank spaces instead of forcefully matching point. The alignment is achieved by arranging the two sequences in this table, the first sequence row-wise (T) and the second column-wise (S). The figure shows a score table for two hypothetical sub-sequences (i, j) and the alignment scores (numbers in cells) for each pair of elements forming the sequence (letters in head row and head column). Arrows show the warping path between the two series and consequently the final alignment. The optimal alignment score is in the bottom-right cell of the table.</p

Antiplasmodial Effects of a few Selected Natural Flavonoids and their Modulation of Artemisinin Activity

The direct antiplasmodial effects of five structurally-related flavonoids, namely quercetin, rutin, eriodictyol, eriodictyolchalcone and catechin, were analyzed in vitro on P. falciparum. Notably, all these flavonoids, with the only exception of rutin, caused relevant inhibition of P. falciparum growth when given at 1 mM concentration. In addition, they were found to affect greatly the potent antiplasmodial activity of artemisinin, leading to significant additive and even synergistic effects. In particular, quercetin induced a pronounced synergistic effect. The observed synergisms might be conveniently exploited to design new and/or more effective combination therapies

Quick, accurate, smart: 3D computer vision technology helps assessing confined animals' behaviour

Mankind directly controls the environment and lifestyles of several domestic species for purposes ranging from production and research to conservation and companionship. These environments and lifestyles may not offer these animals the best quality of life. Behaviour is a direct reflection of how the animal is coping with its environment. Behavioural indicators are thus among the preferred parameters to assess welfare. However, behavioural recording (usually from video) can be very time consuming and the accuracy and reliability of the output rely on the experience and background of the observers. The outburst of new video technology and computer image processing gives the basis for promising solutions. In this pilot study, we present a new prototype software able to automatically infer the behaviour of dogs housed in kennels from 3D visual data and through structured machine learning frameworks. Depth information acquired through 3D features, body part detection and training are the key elements that allow the machine to recognise postures, trajectories inside the kennel and patterns of movement that can be later labelled at convenience. The main innovation of the software is its ability to automatically cluster frequently observed temporal patterns of movement without any pre-set ethogram. Conversely, when common patterns are defined through training, a deviation from normal behaviour in time or between individuals could be assessed. The software accuracy in correctly detecting the dogs' behaviour was checked through a validation process. An automatic behaviour recognition system, independent from human subjectivity, could add scientific knowledge on animals' quality of life in confinement as well as saving time and resources. This 3D framework was designed to be invariant to the dog's shape and size and could be extended to farm, laboratory and zoo quadrupeds in artificial housing. The computer vision technique applied to this software is innovative in non-human animal behaviour science. Further improvements and validation are needed, and future applications and limitations are discussed.</p