Experience and everyday environment: a group reflective strategy

The distinctiveness of this thesis lies in its use of Group and Researcher Reflection. It is a responsive and experiential study, which has two main aims: to explore the phenomenon, experience in the everyday environment, and to develop an appropriate method. The study centres round Group Reflection, which consists of a small group of local residents (in Ushaw Moor, Co Durham), who met regularly over a year, to reflect together. They met to explicate and explore their experience, particularly heightened experience, of their everyday environment, and together to recognise themes, and so reveal, develop and share their understanding. The group collected their themes under three general headings: nature, buildings and people. A report summarising this Group Reflection was produced with the group. The whole of the Group Reflection forms the basis for subsequent Researcher Reflection. This seeks alternative orderings and interpretation of the material explicated, themes and experiences, and considers their relationship to the wider literature on environmental experience. A number of alternative themes, or gatherings, are suggested: looking language, social concept, ordering regimes, person-environment engagement. Then, the concepts experience, place and dwelling are explored in the context of everyday environment, and a number of speculations are made about the possible changing nature of dwelling. The study is inspired by Phenomenology, and therefore seeks to allow the phenomenon to speak of itself: through those who have direct experience of it, and it hopes to take into account the essential entanglement of what is studied with those who study. Finally, it seeks to encourage readers to continue the reflective journey into their own exploration of experience in the everyday environment

Retracing trajectories: the embodied experience of cycling, urban sensescapes and the commute between ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘city’ in Utrecht, NL

This paper looks into the experience of “passing through different territories of the city” (Sennett, 2006, p. 3). Despite their importance for making sense of the city as a whole, these experiences are often not acknowledged in urban planning. This paper compares the everyday, embodied experiences of commuter cyclists with the planners’ perspective on Utrecht. ‘On the ground’ data was collected via ride-alongs with 15 inhabitants of the Leidsche Rijn neighbourhood. Our analysis reveals cycling trajectories composed of diverse sensescapes. It paints a much more complex picture of intra-urban divisions and connections than the planners’ perspective of the ‘new’ Leidsche Rijn neighbourhood separated from the ‘old’ city by major infrastructure lines

Population Based Model of Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) Differentiation during Endoderm Induction

The mechanisms by which human embryonic stem cells (hESC) differentiate to endodermal lineage have not been extensively studied. Mathematical models can aid in the identification of mechanistic information. In this work we use a population-based modeling approach to understand the mechanism of endoderm induction in hESC, performed experimentally with exposure to Activin A and Activin A supplemented with growth factors (basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4)). The differentiating cell population is analyzed daily for cellular growth, cell death, and expression of the endoderm proteins Sox17 and CXCR4. The stochastic model starts with a population of undifferentiated cells, wherefrom it evolves in time by assigning each cell a propensity to proliferate, die and differentiate using certain user defined rules. Twelve alternate mechanisms which might describe the observed dynamics were simulated, and an ensemble parameter estimation was performed on each mechanism. A comparison of the quality of agreement of experimental data with simulations for several competing mechanisms led to the identification of one which adequately describes the observed dynamics under both induction conditions. The results indicate that hESC commitment to endoderm occurs through an intermediate mesendoderm germ layer which further differentiates into mesoderm and endoderm, and that during induction proliferation of the endoderm germ layer is promoted. Furthermore, our model suggests that CXCR4 is expressed in mesendoderm and endoderm, but is not expressed in mesoderm. Comparison between the two induction conditions indicates that supplementing FGF2 and BMP4 to Activin A enhances the kinetics of differentiation than Activin A alone. This mechanistic information can aid in the derivation of functional, mature cells from their progenitors. While applied to initial endoderm commitment of hESC, the model is general enough to be applicable either to a system of adult stem cells or later stages of ESC differentiation

A landscape of design: interaction, interpretation and the development of experimental expressive interfaces

This paper presents the initial research insights of an ongoing research project that focuses upon understanding the role of landscape, its use as a resource for designing interfaces for musical expression, and as a tool for leveraging ethnographic understandings about space, place, design and musical expression. We briefly discuss the emerging research and reasoning behind our approach, the site that we are focusing on, our participatory methodology and conceptual designs. This innovative research is envisaged as something that can engage and interest the conference participants, encourage debate and act as an exploratory platform, which will in turn inform our research, practice and design

Taking into account sensory knowledge: the case of geo-techologies for children with visual impairments

This paper argues for designing geo-technologies supporting non-visual sensory knowledge. Sensory knowledge refers to the implicit and explicit knowledge guiding our uses of our senses to understand the world. To support our argument, we build on an 18 months field-study on geography classes for primary school children with visual impairments. Our findings show (1) a paradox in the use of non-visual sensory knowledge: described as fundamental to the geography curriculum, it is mostly kept out of school; (2) that accessible geo-technologies in the literature mainly focus on substituting vision with another modality, rather than enabling teachers to build on children's experiences; (3) the importance of the hearing sense in learning about space. We then introduce a probe, a wrist-worn device enabling children to record audio cues during field-trips. By giving importance to children's hearing skills, it modified existing practices and actors' opinions on non-visual sensory knowledge. We conclude by reflecting on design implications, and the role of technologies in valuing diverse ways of understanding the world

"No one likes that judgmental look like you are a terrorist." Sensorial encounters with the Muslim Other in Amsterdam

Often framed in the public discourse as Europe's ultimate Other, Muslims have been heftily debated and vastly problematised by politicians, pundits, and public intellectuals as unwanted immigrants, part of a bad diversity, problematic, violent, refusals of modernity, secularism, and freedom. Thinking through the body as a phenomenal lived body, we explore Othering as a set of visual, auditory, olfactory, and haptic encounters. Employing an urban ethnography on everyday lived experiences of young Muslims in Amsterdam, the paper investigates multiple modes through which Othering is sensed, lived, and felt through the body