On the role of artistic freedoms in protecting fundamental human rights

This was a paper written to be spoken at the Human Rights Conference 2020: Lawyers without Borders Student Division Aberdeen University, March 2020. It was accompanied by 15 Power point slides, which cannot be reproduced in the hard copy paper for reasons of copyright. The paper responds to the question, 'Do artistic freedoms contribute to the protection of fundamental Human Rights'. With examples and with reference to cultural policy research discourse, I argue that the freedoms of 'art' are intimately connected to human rights, and that where human rights are contextualised by 'culture' (and cultural rights) we begin to understand the significance of the 'human' in human rights

Monitoring Peatland Damage and Restoration Using Testate Amoebae as Indicator Organisms

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/862 on 22.03.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis has examined the response of testate amoebae communities to restoration at three peatland sites in the UK. It builds upon the use of testate amoebae analysis as a palaeoenvironmental tool by exploring the hypothesis that testate amoebae respond to hydrological conditions in restored mires. Previous research has found that testate amoebae act as good proxies for hydrological condition of intact mires and past conditions but little has been done on their reaction to conditions at damaged sites in the UK. The research aimed to further the understanding of testate amoebae ecology including seasonal variability of communities, a poorly understood area. The secondary aim was to assess the potential for using testate amoebae as biological indicators of peatland damage and restoration. These aims were achieved through studies at three sites covering a range of damage commonly affecting UK sites. The experiments entailed repeated monitoring of a ditch blocking experiment at Coom Rigg Moss which has been affected by peripheral forestry drains, a study of forest removal treatments at Flanders Moss and a study of rewetted cutover surfaces at Fenn's and Whixall Mosses. The results were analysed using a variety of statistical and multivariate methods. Data on water table and moisture conditions were also analysed and the results of the two were compared. The results showed that testate amoebae communities responded to hydrological conditions but depth to water table was not always the primary factor affecting community composition. The results of the research indicate that testate amoebae analysis does have potential as a tool for monitoring peatland restoration but further research is necessary to fully understand the factors affecting distributions

Art, public authorship and the possibility of re-democratization

The subject of this study is a large public art project by German artist Jochen Gerz, which was part of the urban regeneration program The Phoenix Initiative in Coventry City, 1999-2004. The study presents a short historical backdrop to Gerz’s work by way of defining ‘public authorship’ of which the Coventry project is one example. It extends the literature on contemporary countermonument by assessing Gerz’s artistic strategy in using a monument to exploring the conditions of public culture and possible shape of a cultural public sphere in the contemporary city. The public art project lasted over five years and was a mechanism by which the political issues at stake in the public life of Coventry, particularly the socio-historic conflicts that are constitutive of its civic identity, were articulated. The study argues that public authorship succeeded in identifying some crucial coordinates in the political constitution of public culture in Coventry, but in the face of competing civic rhetoric and new urban policy initiatives, the project remains an open inquiry. This study concludes by identifying some critical lines of inquiry for future studies in art’s critical role in the public sphere

A geographical study of the New Zealand textile manufacturing industry, with particular reference to the Wellington region

This thesis is a study of the New Zealand textile manufacturing industry and its components. It investigates the nature of location patterns, the changes within the components of the industry and the changes in industrial organisation which have occurred since 1950. The location of factories engaged in manufacturing textiles is detailed, shifts in components of the industry are analysed and early location factors in the industry are discussed. It is argued that technological advances in various facets of the industry have been influential in determining the present day location of the factories in the industry. The impact of technology and its requirements within the industry are examined specifically in terms of process product and organisational adjustments. The resulting developments, particularly the form of intra- and inter- industry linkages are outlined. In addition the form of industry intra-urban linkages are explored with particular reference to the Wellington Region

Production of impact melt in craters on Venus, Earth, and the moon

Impact craters imaged by Magellan clearly show large amounts of flow-like ejecta whose morphology suggests that the flows comprise low-viscosity material. It was suggested that this material may be either turbidity flows or very fine-grained ejecta, flows of ejecta plus magma, or impact melts. The last of these hypotheses is considered. If these flows are composed of impact melts, there is much more melt relative to the crater volume than is observed on the moon. The ANEOS equation of state program was used for dunite to estimate the shock pressures required for melting, with initial conditions appropriate for Venus, Earth, and the moon. A simple model was then developed, based on the Z-model for excavation flow and on crater scaling relations that allow to estimate the ratio of melt ejecta to total ejecta as a function of crater size on the three bodies

Impacts and atmospheric erosion on the early Earth

It was suggested that heating and/or vaporization of accreting carbonaceous-chondrite-type planetestimals could result in the release of their volatile components. Modeling of this process strongly suggests that substantial atmospheres/hydrospheres could develop this way. During most of the accretionary process, impact velocities generally differed from the escape velocity of the growing proto-planet because most of the collisions were between bodies in nearly matching orbits. Toward the end of accretion, however, collisions were rarer but more energetic, involving large planetestimals and higher impact velocities. Such impacts result in a net loss of atmosphere from a planet, and the cumulative effect impacts during the period of heavy bombardment might have dramatically depleted the original atmospheres. Models developed to study atmospheric erosion by impacts on Mars and the interaction of the vapor plume produced by KT impactor on Earth are applied to the case of the evolution of Earth's atmosphere

Jetting and the origin of tektites

The scientific consensus is that tektites were produced by impacts on the Earth, but the exact mechanism by impacts might form tektites is still unclear. The most widely cited mechanism is jetting, which results from the extremely high pressures generated at the intersection of two bodies whose surfaces converge obliquely at high speed. Theory of jetting for thin plates is extended to the case of the impact of the sphere onto a half-space. The calculations are done for the impact of a silicate sphere onto a silicate target for impact speeds of 15, 20, and 25 km/sec, spanning the range of reasonable impact speeds for asteroids. The angle of impact is varied from 0 to 75 deg. The mass jetted, the jet velocity, projectile fraction in the jet, azimuthal distribution of the jet, and the phase of the jetted material are calculated as functions of time. The total mass jetted and the overall mass-averages of jet velocity, etc. are also calculated

Book review: culture, economy and politics: the case of New Labour by David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett

In Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour, David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett focus on the emergence of cultural policy as a key concern under the Labour party between 1997 and 2010. Drawing particularly upon interviews with key figures, this is a valuable, even-handed book that is recommended reading for any course exploring UK culture and politics post-Thatcher, writes Jonathan Vickery