Vertical knowledge: exploring the potential of vertical dance as a scenographic strategy in the performance of site

This work was published in a book funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UIDB/04041/2020 (Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lost in Translation? compromises and assumptions in lighting programming syntaxes

This paper introduces the programming styles commonly found in performance lighting practice and discusses the impact that digital programming practice has on the creative visualisation and realisation of the lighting designers work. Facilitating creativity in digital programming practice, which demands a logical and numerical structure to its input language, is a challenge that has only relatively recently been taken up by manufacturers. In the profession lighting designers and programmers are often two separate people, each with a particular skill set. The designer will sit with the programmer and together they translate the creative intention into numbers and code that then seeks to render the design through lighting systems. This paper investigates the impact of this need for the translation of the creative idea into the language of lighting control, what is lost, what may be compromised. It seeks to suggest what may be gained by further development of creative and graphical user interfaces in lighting control. Through a discussion of philosophical notions such as Borgmann’s ‘technological device’ and Dasgupta’s assertions regarding the nature of the relationship between craft and engineering, the challenges facing lighting designers and programmers are presented and the mechanisms of performance lighting laid bare

How Discrimination Plummets LGBTQ+ Well-Being

Unfortunately, there are huge problems surrounding LGBTQ+ rights for students, such as religious fear, bullying, and children not feeling safe in their school’s bathrooms. Not only on an in-school scale but on a political scale also affects children’s lives behind the scenes. Laws like the don’t say gay bill makes it harder for students to learn acceptance and to be taught that everyone is valued. On top of the don’t say gay bill, there is already very little help offered for students in this community. This topic is crucial for many reasons. Those reasons, including the amount of LGBTQ+ individuals there are, the fact that they are more at risk, the lack of LGBTQ+ education, and bullying, are just a few reasons. When schools do not value and support LGBTQ+ students, that causes hostile environments. When schools allow or excuse hostile environments, that can affect them mentally and their student performance

Looking up while looking down: mobile technologies as an essential interface to the geography of our city

This paper examines the relationships between mobile technologies and a city environment. A mediated approach to architecture and planning will be discussed, with a particular focus on how these technologies can complement and enhance the movement of people in the city. With a wealth of information and opportunities for engagement now at our fingertips through the use of mobile internet enabled devices, we are presented with the ability to add an exciting new layer to the geography of our cities

Read or follow? Designing with mobile technologies and digital space

Book description: Imaging the City brings together the work of designers, artists, dancers and media specialists to investigate how we perceive the city, how we imagine it, how we experience it and how we might better design it. Steve Hawley, Edward M. Clift and Kevin O’Brien provocatively open up the field of urban analysis and thought to the perspectives of creative professionals from non-urban disciplines. With contributors from across the globe, Imaging the City offers insight for engaging with - and forecasting the future of - our cities

Seeing Anew: the role of lighting in creation of place in site-generic/specific performance

This paper explores the role of lighting in creating place and the challenges and opportunities introduced by site based performance. Located somewhere between site-generic and site-specific performance, as defined by artist-researchers Wrights and Sites (cited in Wilkie, 2002), Vision by Clare Norburn is a concert drama touring churches in the UK. Each venue requires some re-staging to account for different pathways, entrances and exits available, but is also re-lit for each space. As lighting designer for this work, I will discuss my reasoning and intentions behind the on-going re-lights and how this work explores lighting as a scenographic device that invites new encounters with place. Through a practice that invites dialogue with and response to the existing architecture, history and social conventions of the venues, I propose a parallel between approaches to site-specific dance that invites the audience to see a place anew. In considering lighting as another body, mindful that "each living body is space and has its space; it produces itself in space and also it produces that space' (Lefebvre 1991:170) discussions of transaction support an approach that explores dialogue between architecture and light in the creation of event and place. Rachel Sara notes the way that an approach to architecture that foregrounds the intersection between event and place, "begins to imply a commonality with dance, as an activity that is concerned with constructing event and place" (Sara in Hunter, 2015:64). A proposal of a site-specific approach to lighting for performances of Vision therefore seeks to employ a practice routed in phenomenology and highlighting encounters with place through event. Rachel Sara’s research identifies an ocular-centric approach in architecture, that can also be found in lighting and suggests that "an over-emphasis on the eye denies the rest of the body" (Sara in Hunter 2015:64-65). This paper begins to explore the potentials of employing a site-specific dance informed approach to lighting as a methodology for reintroducing the body in lighting practice, and agrees with Rachel Hann’s assertion that “Place is always multi-sensorial and phenomenological by definition” (Hann, 2019:20). I consider what is at stake when we slip into an ocular-centric construction of space and what relationships might be forged through encouraging dialogues between light, architecture, and movement in the construction of place and event

Choice making in Rett syndrome: a descriptive study using video data

Purpose: To describe the choice-making abilities of girls and women with Rett syndrome. Method: Females with Rett syndrome registered with the Australian Rett Syndrome Database with a pathogenic MECP2 mutation were included in this study. Video clips showing choice making in 64 females at a median age of 11.6 years (range 2.3–35.6 years) were analysed. Video clips were coded for the location and nature of the choice-making interaction, and the actions of the communication partner and female with Rett syndrome. Results: The majority (82.8%, 53/64) of females made a choice, most using eye gaze. Just under half (24/53) used one modality to communicate their choice, 52.8% used two modalities and one used three modalities. Of those who made a choice, 50% did so within 8 s. The length of time to make a choice did not appear to vary with age. During choice making, 57.8% (37/64) of communication partners used language and gestures, 39.1% (25/64) used only language and two used language, gestures and symbols within the interaction. Conclusions: The provision of adequate time allowing for a response and observation for the use of multiple modalities could promote effective choice making in females with Rett syndrome

INfluence of Successful Periodontal Intervention in Renal Disease (INSPIRED):study protocol for a randomised controlled pilot clinical trial

Abstract Background Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) exhibit increased morbidity and mortality which is associated with an increased systemic inflammatory burden. Identifying and managing comorbid diseases that contribute to this load may inform novel care pathways that could have a beneficial impact on the morbidity/mortality associated with CKD. Periodontitis, a highly prevalent, chronic inflammatory disease affecting the supporting structures of teeth, is associated with an increased systemic inflammatory and oxidative stress burden and the successful treatment of periodontitis has been shown to reduce both. This pilot study aims to gather data to inform a definitive study into the impact of successful periodontal treatment on the cardio-renal health of patients with CKD. Methods/design This pilot study will employ a randomised, controlled, parallel-group design. Sixty adult patients, with CKD with a high risk of progression and with periodontitis, from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, will be randomised to receive either immediate, intensive periodontal treatment (n = 30) or treatment at a delay of 12 months (n = 30). Patients will be excluded if they have reached end-stage renal disease or have received specialist periodontal treatment in the previous year. Periodontal treatment will be delivered under local anaesthetic, on an outpatient basis, over several visits by a qualified dental hygienist at the Birmingham Dental Hospital, UK. Patients in the delayed-treatment arm will continue to receive the standard community level of periodontal care for a period of 12 months followed by the intensive periodontal treatment. Randomization will occur using a centralised telephone randomisation service, following baseline assessments. The assessor of periodontal health will be blinded to the patients’ treatment allocation. Patients in either arm will be followed up at 3-monthly intervals for 18 months. Aside from the pilot outcomes to inform the practicalities of a larger trial later, data on cardio-renal function, periodontal health and patient-reported outcomes will be collected at each time point. Discussion This pilot randomised controlled trial will investigate the viability of undertaking a larger-scale study investigating the effect of treating periodontitis and maintaining periodontal health on cardio-renal outcomes in patients with CKD. Trial registration National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (UKCRN ID: 18458), ID: ISRCTN10227738 . Registered retrospectively to both registers on 23 April 2015