Air works: air as material in contemporary installation and performance art in a time of climate emergency

Air is a politically incisive material in the climate emergency. Transcending national and political boundaries, air activates a power dynamic distributed asymmetrically between users (breathers/protesters), carbon contributors (polluters), and those of our elected rank (policymakers). This thesis proposes air as a new aesthetic of the climate crisis. This practice-led research (re)considers the creative potential of the material of air in contemporary art and performance through experimentation with its physical components and affective qualities. Air simultaneously and uniquely embodies lyrical imaginative thinking and physiological experience. The research draws from contemporary artists Latai Taumoepeau, Teresa Margolles, Katie Paterson and Olafur Eliasson, as well as the artist’s own extensive body of work. Developed alongside the dissertation are artworks, or AIR WORKS, that critically interrogate the embodied material reality of the climate crisis and the creative possibilities of feminist perspectives. Across four installation and performance works, the material of air narrates evolutionary pasts, maps the dimensions of the current climate crisis, and imagines possible ongoing climate futures. This dissertation connects air to material feminisms, exemplifying the co-constitutive nature of language and material (Alaimo and Hekman). Air’s invisibility demonstrates material feminisms as it facilitates normal physical, emotional and intellectual functioning as well as eliciting imagination. Critical feminist perspectives underscore the material investigation of air (Star, Dunn, Puig de la Bellacasa, Neimanis) and the climate crisis aesthetic (Yusoff and Gabrys, Wazana, Tompkins, Wynter). Storytelling as feminist practice (Haraway, King, Le Guin) assembles speculative pasts, presents, and futures, and imagines creative feminist alternatives. The AIR WORKS and this dissertation make important contributions to new knowledge by expanding an understanding of air as material through the innovative manipulation of the chemical and biophysical components of air in performance and installation. The AIR WORKS present air as a potent aesthetic of international power relations relating to the climate crisis. This research demonstrates that air creatively invents and shapes feminist climate futures

A Bayesian reanalysis of the Standard versus Accelerated Initiation of Renal-Replacement Therapy in Acute Kidney Injury (STARRT-AKI) trial

Background Timing of initiation of kidney-replacement therapy (KRT) in critically ill patients remains controversial. The Standard versus Accelerated Initiation of Renal-Replacement Therapy in Acute Kidney Injury (STARRT-AKI) trial compared two strategies of KRT initiation (accelerated versus standard) in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury and found neutral results for 90-day all-cause mortality. Probabilistic exploration of the trial endpoints may enable greater understanding of the trial findings. We aimed to perform a reanalysis using a Bayesian framework. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of all 2927 patients randomized in multi-national STARRT-AKI trial, performed at 168 centers in 15 countries. The primary endpoint, 90-day all-cause mortality, was evaluated using hierarchical Bayesian logistic regression. A spectrum of priors includes optimistic, neutral, and pessimistic priors, along with priors informed from earlier clinical trials. Secondary endpoints (KRT-free days and hospital-free days) were assessed using zero–one inflated beta regression. Results The posterior probability of benefit comparing an accelerated versus a standard KRT initiation strategy for the primary endpoint suggested no important difference, regardless of the prior used (absolute difference of 0.13% [95% credible interval [CrI] − 3.30%; 3.40%], − 0.39% [95% CrI − 3.46%; 3.00%], and 0.64% [95% CrI − 2.53%; 3.88%] for neutral, optimistic, and pessimistic priors, respectively). There was a very low probability that the effect size was equal or larger than a consensus-defined minimal clinically important difference. Patients allocated to the accelerated strategy had a lower number of KRT-free days (median absolute difference of − 3.55 days [95% CrI − 6.38; − 0.48]), with a probability that the accelerated strategy was associated with more KRT-free days of 0.008. Hospital-free days were similar between strategies, with the accelerated strategy having a median absolute difference of 0.48 more hospital-free days (95% CrI − 1.87; 2.72) compared with the standard strategy and the probability that the accelerated strategy had more hospital-free days was 0.66. Conclusions In a Bayesian reanalysis of the STARRT-AKI trial, we found very low probability that an accelerated strategy has clinically important benefits compared with the standard strategy. Patients receiving the accelerated strategy probably have fewer days alive and KRT-free. These findings do not support the adoption of an accelerated strategy of KRT initiation