New Models of Intellectual Exchange: CAN, EVENTS, HOLO

This folio covers the inception and design, development, testing and curation of three interlinked platforms for intellectual exchange (both digital and analogue). It reflects on their role as an emerging and evolving form of knowledge generation and dissemination in the context of an increasingly digital society, and the opportunities and challenges this offers. Designed and led by Filip Visnjic, these projects aim to generate and shape new opportunities, emerging discourse, information exchange and knowledge in (but not limited to) the intersections of technology with the fields of art, media and digital design; to archive these and set up frameworks to critically examine and assess their cultural impact though the design of platforms suitable for, responsive to and innovation in their central digital and art based subject area. These platforms are: CAN, a blog which evolved into a rapid-publication online journal; a series of conferences, workshops, exhibitions and events; and HOLO, a more stable publication which develops on the work and themes generated by the other two. These platforms have been devised to interact, but operate at different speeds, scales and levels of stability, generating many forms of information exchange and gradually refining and reflecting on the knowledge generated, sifting, critiquing and selectively stabilising the ‘churn’ of digital information. Based on McLuhan’s proposition that art anticipates and can be said to predict changes to wider culture, these much-acclaimed initiatives thus seek to make new connections between technology and existing art and digital practices and thus enable developments in the field. As expert practitioner, inventor, designer, editor and contributor, Visnjic is instigating, shaping and testing new forms of and platforms for discourse generation. While enabling, framing and disseminating both medium and message, this work critically reflects on the possibilities and problems of all information exchange, and simultaneously offers new models in response

Creative Applications Network (CreativeApplications.Net, CAN) Website and related platforms

CreativeApplications.Net (CAN) is a web-based project that includes a blog, digital applications, live events and a print magazine. It was launched by Visnjic in October 2008, with the primary aim of creating a current, open source, online sharing and collective ‘scenius’ aimed at developing the intersection of art, technology and design. The project is driven by a number of research questions: What are the implications for open source, online sharing and collective ‘scenius’ on the future of art, technology and the culture of design? How are contemporary digital technologies and computation tools part of design production and development? How may digital media be used to develop projects, people, events and organisations? How may print media and events be used to compliment on-line collaboration and exchange? CAN’s online presence, amounting to over 20,000 users, allows it to drive the conversation in the art/design/digital technology arena. It is ranked 1169 of most influential sites by Technorati and used very often as a source by other respected technology blogs such as Wired US, Wired UK, The Creators Project, Gizmodo, Engadget and many others. The Resonate Festival organised by Visnjic each year since 2012 to complement CAN’s online presence attracted 1,000 participants in 2012 and 1,600 in 2013, and its print journal HOLO will go into circulation in October 2013. Since 2010, Visnjic has been regularly interviewed or invited to speak about the project at academic institutions and technology festivals and events

HOLO Presentation at OFFF Festival 2016

For the last 10 years our central objective has been to facilitate a productive scenius that nurtures creative intersections, exchanges and networks between practitioners in art, media, design and technology. From online and offline publications to live events, our initiatives have become incubators for a multitude of computational tools, people and organisations, events and people and continue to provide an open platform for dialogue, feedback and response in diverse media. Filip Visnjic and Alexander Scholz share an insight into their latest projects, events and initiative. More than a decade ago, OFFF was born as a festival. Today, OFFF is a way of understanding creativity. A way of life. Evolving and transforming

Only the Brave: Product Innovation, Service Business Model Innovation, and Their Impact on Performance

Recent empirical findings concerning the performance effects of service business model innovation (servitization) and its interplay with product innovation are mixed. Using the lenses of the demand-based view on value creation and complementarity, the performance impact of two key service business models is examined: the product-oriented model and the customer-oriented model, implemented jointly with product innovation. Results indicate that the interplay between service business model innovation and product innovation results in long-term performance benefits coupled with a degree of short-term performance sacrifice. Service business model innovation in isolation from product innovation results in short-term profit gains but long-term knowledge loss and, thus, market performance decline. Our study suggests that firms need to look beyond the evidence on short-term effects in order to achieve superior performance in the long run.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpim.1225

Discovery of underground argon with low level of radioactive 39Ar and possible applications to WIMP dark matter detectors

We report on the first measurement of 39Ar in argon from underground natural gas reservoirs. The gas stored in the US National Helium Reserve was found to contain a low level of 39Ar. The ratio of 39Ar to stable argon was found to be <=4x10-17 (84% C.L.), less than 5% the value in atmospheric argon (39Ar/Ar=8x10-16). The total quantity of argon currently stored in the National Helium Reserve is estimated at 1000 tons. 39Ar represents one of the most important backgrounds in argon detectors for WIMP dark matter searches. The findings reported demonstrate the possibility of constructing large multi-ton argon detectors with low radioactivity suitable for WIMP dark matter searches.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Comparison of structure, regeneration and dead wood in virgin forest remnant and managed forest on Grmecˇ Mountain in Western Bosnia

This paper compares the forest structure, regeneration and distribution of dead wood in a virgin forest remnant and a close-to-nature managed beech–conifer mixture situated on Grmecˇ Mountain inWestern Bosnia. The investigations were carried out in a 1 ha permanent sample plot and 35 circular plots (20m radius) in the virgin forest and in 17 circular plots (25m radius) in managed forests. The number of trees in the managed forest was significantly ( p ¼ 0.05) higher than that in virgin forest and the distribution of the number of trees per diameter classes had a decreasing trend, but with a different shape in the virgin forest compared to the managed stands. In the lower diameter classes, the stock volume recorded in virgin forest was half of that in the managed forest, whilst for higher diameter classes the cumulated volume of the growing stock was almost double in virgin forest. The young crops had a significantly lower presence in the virgin forest and a larger volume of dead wood was identified in the virgin forest than in managed stands. The study results are important in assessing the consequences of close-to-nature management on the forest structure and regeneration when compared to the condition in virgin forests

Detection of the Power Spectrum of Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

We report the first detection of the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background through a measurement of the four-point correlation function in the temperature maps made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We verify our detection by calculating the levels of potential contaminants and performing a number of null tests. The resulting convergence power spectrum at 2-degree angular scales measures the amplitude of matter density fluctuations on comoving length scales of around 100 Mpc at redshifts around 0.5 to 3. The measured amplitude of the signal agrees with Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmology predictions. Since the amplitude of the convergence power spectrum scales as the square of the amplitude of the density fluctuations, the 4-sigma detection of the lensing signal measures the amplitude of density fluctuations to 12%.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, replaced title and author list with version accepted by Physical Review Letters. Likelihood code can be downloaded from http://bccp.lbl.gov/~sudeep/ACTLensLike.htm

Deriving the mass of particles from Extended Theories of Gravity in LHC era

We derive a geometrical approach to produce the mass of particles that could be suitably tested at LHC. Starting from a 5D unification scheme, we show that all the known interactions could be suitably deduced as an induced symmetry breaking of the non-unitary GL(4)-group of diffeomorphisms. The deformations inducing such a breaking act as vector bosons that, depending on the gravitational mass states, can assume the role of interaction bosons like gluons, electroweak bosons or photon. The further gravitational degrees of freedom, emerging from the reduction mechanism in 4D, eliminate the hierarchy problem since generate a cut-off comparable with electroweak one at TeV scales. In this "economic" scheme, gravity should induce the other interactions in a non-perturbative way.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figur

Exploring the journey to services

Firms are increasingly providing services to complement their product offerings. The vast majority of studies on the service journey, also known as servitization or service transition, examine the challenges and enablers of the process of change through cases studies. Investigations that provide an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the steps involved in the service journey are much rarer. Such a detailed understanding is required in order to appreciate fully how firms can leverage the enablers while overcoming the challenges of servitization. This study investigates what does a service journey look like? It analyzes in some detail the actual service journeys undertaken by three firms in the well-being, engineering and learning sectors. The paper offers four contributions. First, in the change literature, there are two dominant theories: The punctuated equilibrium model and the continuous change model. This study demonstrates that servitization follows a continuous change rather than a punctuated equilibrium. It shows that such continuous change is neither logical nor structured but much more emergent and intuitive in nature. Second, the study provides empirical evidence to support a contingency view of the dominance and sequencing of the different process models of change across the change journey. Third, this research shows the pace of service development and when the coexistence of basic, intermediate and complex services occurs. Finally, it contributes to the literature in the service field by presenting three actual service journeys and the associated seven stages of the service strategy model that organizations should consider when managing their service journeys