An Unnatural history

An Unnatural History is an installation that inhabits the space between the continuously shifting realms of science, pseudoscience and science fiction. This project documents the (fictional) discovery of a taxonomy of marine life containing and cooperating with the elements from the periodic table. As science and technology progress, we are constantly faced with redefining, reinterpreting and reconfiguring what we thought we knew about the world around us and previous scientific facts are revealed to have been constructed beliefs. Using multiple modes of representation, An Unnatural History draws attention to the real, the imagined and what it means to visualize biological life and phenomena that are often invisible to us at first glance. You are invited to join the Institute of Aquatic Research, as together we make unbelievable discoveries deep within the oceans, collect empirical data and struggle to organize, classify and determine the meaning of our findings and our place within this system. It is my hope that this experience cracks the hard shell of certainty and if only for a moment, suspends you in a state of wonder and disbelief. The power of imagination should not be ignored. It is what gave life to this idea that lay dormant with possibility and power

Future tense: scandalous thinking during the conjunctural crisis

This brief essay considers the impact of the current conjunctural crisis on ideas about, and access to the ‘future’. It explores ways in which cultural critics and scholars might learn to think ‘scandalously’ in order to imagine and build a more equitable and humane world

The Evolution of Trade and Labor Laws in China

This thesis investigates the long-term evolution of legislation that contributed to the shift of China from a command economy to an economic powerhouse in the capitalist world economy. Few have discussed whether the concept of neoliberalization, defined as the process of adapting fiscal conservative and expert oriented policies, explains the longer-term trend of Chinese development. Therefore, this thesis sets out to make a determination whether China is evolving towards or away from the neoliberal model. To answer this question, this thesis analyzes two areas of legislation crucial in a free market: China’s trade and labor laws since the 1970s. More precisely, this research explores, through the lens of legislation, whether a trend of convergence between Western, exemplified by the United States, and Chinese political economies exists, and how the trend itself has changed over time and why. Using interview data based on 15 interviews from foreign entrepreneurs who work in Shanghai or Suzhou, this thesis uses the entrepreneurs’ perception of Chinese trade and labor to seek out reoccurring themes. Based on the information gathered from the literature on the Chinese development of wage and labor laws and the qualitative data in the interviews, this thesis found surprising similarities in Chinese and US policies, effects of those policies that were complementary, and a clear neoliberal direction in the 1980s-1990s in the United States and China. This thesis concludes, based on the policies implemented during the 2000s and 2010s, that this neoliberal direction shifts in both countries, and a different kind of model is taking shape in both China and the US that diverges from neoliberalism

Law and order in fifteenth-century England : with particular reference to the Paston family

The Pastons were a family of landed gentry living in Norfolk in the fifteenth century. During the years 1422-1470 they rose socially to the highest echelons of their rank, acquiring land and status as they rose. In order to understand the significance of this upward mobility it is necessary to examine the background of the period. Through a discussion of the legal machinery and social structure in the fifteenth century it becomes clear that the Pastons' rise was even more momentous because of the family profession. Involvement with the law was only just beginning to be regarded as acceptable. As the family rose in prominence in Norfolk society we see them adopting the behaviour and prejudices common to the more ancient landed gentry and the nobility. This is evidenced in their self-righteous indignation over persecution by the gangs which terrorized the countryside, and especially in their anger over the unacceptable marriage alliance of one of their daughters. By the time of the latter event, 1467, the Pastons were firmly established as leaders in Norfolk society. But they paid the price of their status almost daily. In 1459 John I inherited large tracts of land from Sir John Fastolf in a will written and signed two days before his death. So great were Paston's powers in this will that bitter animosity arose among the other executors. They and others attempted repeatedly to remove his powers and disseise him. Throughout the 1460's the Paston family's entire concern was to retain their inheritance. The fifteenth century is equated with and has been studied largely because of the skirmishes and battles which occupied the second half of the century. However, this study demonstrates that there was much more to the period than the 'Wars of the Roses'. Using the letters and papers of this stereotype landed-gentry family as the primary source, the succeeding pages attempt to illustrate law and order, not as exercised by a manipulative, dictatorial central administration, but used on the local level to combat disorder on a very narrow scale

The beguiling: glamour in/as platformed cultural production

Arguing that questions of power expressed through aesthetic form are too often left out of current approaches to digital culture, this article revives the modernist aesthetic category of glamour in order to analyze contemporary forms of platformed cultural production. Through a case study of popular feminism, the article traces the ways in which glamour, defined as a beguiling affective force linked to promotional capitalist logics, suffuses digital content, metrics, and platforms. From the formal aesthetic codes of the ubiquitous beauty and lifestyle Instagram feeds that perpetuate the beguiling promise of popular feminism, to the enticing simplicity of online metrics and scores that promise transformative social connection and approbation, to the political economic drive for total information awareness and concomitant disciplining, predicting and optimizing of consumer-citizens, the article argues that the ambivalent aesthetic of glamour provides an apt descriptor and compelling heuristic for digital cultural production today

Practical Linked Data: Learning How to Create and Use Linked Data in the Real World

Want to learn more about linked data? This session is intended for anyone interested in learning more about linked data, whether they are new to the subject or more advanced. We will begin by describing what linked data is. We then discuss our specific project and how we created linked data using the MCTC zine collection, the Anchor Archive Zine Thesaurus, the Open Metadata Registry and Open Refine. After that, we talk about what our group might do next, what we learned from the project, and show some other examples of projects that use linked data

Assessment of suitable referral, effectiveness and long-term outcomes of standard vs intensive pain management programmes for people with chronic pain

Background: Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability, often requiring multidisciplinary management. 2021 NICE guidance has questioned the quality of the evidence surrounding the efficacy of pain management programmes (PMPs), with only minor benefit demonstrated in psychological and physical outcomes. There is need for further high-quality evidence for the efficacy of PMPs for a range of chronic pain conditions and to identify barriers to successful management of chronic pain. Objective: This service evaluation utilised routinely collected outcome data of 508 PMP attendees to investigate change in pain- and patient-related outcomes across two distinct PMPs; a standard and an intensive PMP, and establish their longer-term efficacy and appropriateness for patients with differing degrees of need. Results: More people with chronic widespread pain, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis were referred to the intensive PMP (reflecting greater disability and distress in these conditions). Those referred to the intensive PMP demonstrated greater distress (such as more severe depression and anxiety), lower pain acceptance and poorer physical function. Improvements were observed in all outcomes across both PMPs (including physical function, pain catastrophising and pain acceptance). Depression and disability demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in the intensive PMP, and pain severity showed clinically meaningful improvement in both PMPs. However, depression severity, disability, pain severity, and pain interference significantly deteriorated at 6-month follow-up for those on the intensive PMP, with pain severity increasing to a clinically meaningful degree (by more than 10%), though these outcomes remained better than at baseline. Conclusion: This evaluation identified that people with chronic pain most at risk of deterioration in physical and psychological wellbeing after completing a PMP require early identification to mitigate such deterioration. Established and emerging PMPs need to be tailored to the needs of this group, particularly at follow-up to reduce risks of pain severity increasing, alongside establishing/reinforcing safeguards against deterioration post-PMP

Exercise, APOE, and Working Memory: MEG and Behavioral Evidence for Benefit of Exercise in Epsilon4 Carriers

Performance on the Sternberg working memory task, and MEG cortical response on a variation of the Sternberg task were examined in middle-aged carriers and non-carriers of the APOE ε4 allele. Physical activity was also assessed to examine whether exercise level modifies the relationship between APOE genotype and neurocognitive function. Regression revealed that high physical activity was associated with faster RT in the six- and eight-letter conditions of the Sternberg in ε4 carriers, but not in the non-carriers after controlling for age, gender, and education (N = 54). Furthermore, the MEG analysis revealed that sedentary ε4 carriers exhibited lower right temporal lobe activation on matching probe trials relative to high-active ε4 carriers, while physical activity did not distinguish non-carriers (N = 23). The M170 peak was identified as a potential marker for pre-clinical decline as ε4 carriers exhibited longer M170 latency, and highly physically active participants exhibited greater M170 amplitude to matching probe trials

'To live and die [for] Dixie': Irish civilians and the Confederate States of America

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become 'refugees' and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often 'collaborated' with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism