Making Exhibitions, Brokering Meaning: Designing new connections across communities of practice

New media museum exhibits often see designers representing the research of expert content providers. Despite perceptions that such exhibits provide museum visitors with a greater depth and range of experience, differences in knowledge and practice between designers and content providers can see content development become an unruly, competitive process in which audience experience, digital mediation, visualisation techniques and meaning become contested territory. Drawing on Etienne Wenger’s theory of “communities of practice”, this paper argues that designers’ advocacy for audiences and distance from exhibition content well positions them to broker interdisciplinary goal setting so that exhibitions observe the representational objectives of content providers and meet the needs and preferences of museum visitors. A wide range of design literature already discusses the pragmatic benefits and ethical importance of user-centered design, while the literature on co-design suggests that designed outcomes are more successful if the design process considers the interests of all stakeholders. These discussions can be compelling, but the inherent challenges in engaging others’ perspectives and knowledge in the design process are less acknowledged, Wenger’s ideas on the social dynamics of group enterprise offering designers valuable insights into the actuality of negotiating designed outcomes with non-designer stakeholders. The paper has two main aspects. The first outlines the theory of communities of practice, focusing on the brokering of knowledge and practice between disciplines. This discussion frames an analysis of the design process for two museum exhibitions. Representing an original application of Wenger’s ideas, the discussion recognises the unique role of the designed artifact in brokering information visualization processes, transcending the actions and intentions of individual stakeholders. While accepting there are successful examples of interdisciplinary exchange in various areas of design, the interpretation of examples via Wenger contributes useful principles to the theorisation of co-design with non-designer stakeholders. Keywords: Information visualization; New media museum exhibits; Multidisciplinary projects; Communities of Practice; Brokering; User-centered design; Co-Design; Etienne Wenger</p

Csontkút / Bille domb újrafelfedezése

A Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Balassa Bálint Múzeumában a Közösségi Régészeti Program két éve indult el. Intézményünkkel a ’90-es évek óta jó és szoros kapcsolatban álló önkéntesekkel működünk együtt. Nem csupán a leletek felkutatásából, hanem a múzeum körüli egyéb munkákból is kiveszik részüket, szívükön viselik az intézmény sorsát. A „fantasztikus négyes” csodaszép leletekkel örvendeztet meg minket hónapról hónapra. Az egyik ilyen volt egy máig mozgatható karú Árpád-kori mérleg, amelyet 2019-ben Mózes Tamás önkéntesünk hozott be Esztergom határából, Csontkútról (MRT 5. 8/26. lelőhely)

The potential for the production and use of biomass-based energy sources in Hungary

Directive 2009/28/EC established a common framework for the use, production and promotion of energy from renewable sources. Subsequently, each European Union Member State was required to prepare a national Renewable Energy Action Plan (REAP) which specifies the share of energy from renewable sources to be consumed in transport, as well as in the production of electricity and heating, in 2020. The Hungarian REAP was published in December 2010. In order to identify what further steps are required to meet the targets set by the REAP, in this article we review the current situation and the potential in Hungary for the production and use of biomass, biogas and biofuel. We conclude that the annual quantity of required biomass is already available and it should be possible to meet the demand for solid biomass for direct combustion without the need for significant areas dedicated to energy crops. The establishment of biogas power plants is determined both by electricity generation and by waste management considerations. Targeted financial support and new regulations are required to promote the injection of upgraded biogas into the natural gas grid. Hungary has great potential to produce first generation biofuels, particularly ethanol, not only for domestic needs but also for export

Design for Multiplicity: Diving into the transdisciplinary nature of design processes

The contributions in this issue, selected from the ones presented at the DFGN.R 2023, a two-day event hosted at the METU Design Factory in Ankara, Turkey, and organized by the Design Factory Global Network, represent a broad cross-section encompassing various fields such as phenomenology, social theory, psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and art, resonating with the principles of 21st Century learning and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, supporting the changing expectations of academics in producing alternative research outcomes in collaborative, practice-based research. These contributions offer valuable insights into how designers and innovators navigate the ever-expanding landscape of challenges and opportunities in multiple fields, elevating pedagogy and enhancing the art and science of learning, thinking, and doing

Continuous theta-burst stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex inhibits improvement on a working memory task

Abstract Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) may be more effective for modulating cortical excitability compared to standard repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. However, the impact of intermittent (iTBS) and continuous TBS (cTBS) on working memory (WM) is poorly studied. The aim of our study was to compare the effects of iTBS and cTBS on WM over the left and right DLPFC. iTBS, cTBS or sham stimulation was administered over the right and left hemisphere of fifty-one healthy human subjects. WM was assessed before and after TBS using the 1-back, 2-back, and 3-back tasks. We found classical practice effects in the iTBS and the sham group: WM performance improved following stimulation as measured by the discriminability index. However, this effect could not be observed in the cTBS group. We did not find any hemisphere-dependent effects, suggesting that the practice effect is not lateralized, and TBS affects WM performance in a comparable manner if administered either over the left or the right hemisphere. We propose that our findings represent a useful addition to the literature of TBS-induced effects on WM. Moreover, these results indicate the possibility of clarifying processes underlying WM performance changes by using non-invasive brain stimulation