Tracing/training rebellion - object work in Meyerhold's biomechanics

[First paragraph] Lying in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts in Moscow (RGALI) is a nine-page document entitled Programme of Biomechanics, Meyerhold Workshop (1922). Though modest in size, it is an unashamedly ambitious programme, which sought to redefine acting in a post-revolutionary context and to place performer training in Russia on a par with science. ‘The task of the biomechanical laboratory is to work out through experimentation a biomechanical system of acting and of actor’s training’ (Hoover 1974: 314), the document claims, setting out a dedicated model of Practice as Research, seventy years before the term became common place in the UK

Surfaces, depths and hypercubes: Meyerholdian scenography and the fourth dimension

An appreciation of Meyerhold’s engagement with theatrical space is fundamental to understanding his directorial and pedagogic practice. This article begins by establishing Meyerhold’s theoretical and practical engagement with theatre as a fundamentally scenographic process, arguing for a reconceptualisation of the director as ‘director-scenographer’. Focusing on the construction of depth and surface in Meyerholdian theatre, the article goes on to identify trends in the director’s approach to space, with an emphasis on the de-naturalisation of depth on stage. This denaturalisation is seen as taking three forms: the rejection of depth as a prerequisite in theatrical space, the acknowledgement of the two-dimensional surface as surface, and the restructuring of depth space into a series of restricted planes. The combination of these trends indicates a consistent and systematic process of experimentation in Meyerhold’s work. In addition, this emphasis on depth and surface, and the interaction between the two, also highlights the contextualisation of Meyerhold’s practice within the visual, philosophical and scientific culture of the early twentieth century, echoing the innovations in n-dimensional geometry and particularly, the model of the fourth spatial dimension seen in the work of Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky

The entropy budgets of UK peatlands – are some peatlands near equilibrium?

The energy budget of an ecosystem must obey the 2nd law of thermodynamics even if it is an open system. Several studies have sought to use a consideration of entropy budgets to understand ecosystem energy budgets and more specifically evaporation. It has been assumed that ecosystems are far-from-equilibrium systems and as such would always seek to maximise their entropy production. Although the approach has been used to consider the behaviour of environments there are no studies that have tested the approach or its implications: maximum entropy production (MEP) is a prediction of the far-from-equilibrium assumption that could be tested. The simplest way for an ecosystem to maximise entropy production is to maximise water loss through evaporation. To test whether a system is acting to maximise entropy production this study chose to consider how the energy budget of a peatland system responded to changes in incoming energy, specifically how a change in net radiation was transferred to changes in latent heat flux (E/Rn). An ecosystem maximising its entropy production would transfer the majority of change in net radiation to change in latent heat flux. Previously using this approach we have been able to show that for nine UK peatlands the average proportion of a change in net radiation that was transferred to change in latent heat flux varied from 24 to 63%. That is for some sites where the majority of change in input was transferred to latent heat while at another site where the majority was transferred to sensible heat flux. We now show that the sites significantly divided between two groups those with[U+F044][U+F06C]E/[U+F044]Rn > 0.4 and those with E/Rn < 0.3. To understand what this results means we have now considered the entropy budget of each site to test whether high values E/Rn are actually reflected in greater entropy production and how these approaches relate to the Bowen ratio

Iron oxidation in Escherichia coli bacterioferritin ferroxidase centre, a site designed to react rapidly with H2O2 but slowly with O2

Both O2 and H2O2 can oxidize iron at the ferroxidase center (FC) of Escherichia coli bacterioferritin (EcBfr) but mechanistic details of the two reactions need clarification. UV/Vis, EPR, and Mössbauer spectroscopies have been used to follow the reactions when apo‐EcBfr, pre‐loaded anaerobically with Fe2+, was exposed to O2 or H2O2. We show that O2 binds di‐Fe2+ FC reversibly, two Fe2+ ions are oxidized in concert and a H2O2 molecule is formed and released to the solution. This peroxide molecule further oxidizes another di‐Fe2+ FC, at a rate circa 1000 faster than O2, ensuring an overall 1:4 stoichiometry of iron oxidation by O2. Initially formed Fe3+ can further react with H2O2 (producing protein bound radicals) but relaxes within seconds to an H2O2‐unreactive di‐Fe3+ form. The data obtained suggest that the primary role of EcBfr in vivo may be to detoxify H2O2 rather than sequester iron

Reflection Across AI-based Music Composition

Reflection is fundamental to creative practice. However, the plurality of ways in which people reflect when using AI Generated Content (AIGC) is underexplored. This paper takes AI-based music composition as a case study to explore how artist-researcher composers reflected when integrating AIGC into their music composition process. The AI tools explored range from Markov Chains for music generation to Variational Auto-Encoders for modifying timbre. We used a novel method where our composers would pause and reflect back on screenshots of their composing after every hour, using this documentation to write first-person accounts showcasing their subjective viewpoints on their experience. We triangulate the first-person accounts with interviews and questionnaire measures to contribute descriptions on how the composers reflected. For example, we found that many composers reflect on future directions in which to take their music whilst curating AIGC. Our findings contribute to supporting future explorations on reflection in creative HCI contexts