Interpretation at the controller's edge: designing graphical user interfaces for the digital publication of the excavations at Gabii (Italy)

This paper discusses the authors’ approach to designing an interface for the Gabii Project’s digital volumes that attempts to fuse elements of traditional synthetic publications and site reports with rich digital datasets. Archaeology, and classical archaeology in particular, has long engaged with questions of the formation and lived experience of towns and cities. Such studies might draw on evidence of local topography, the arrangement of the built environment, and the placement of architectural details, monuments and inscriptions (e.g. Johnson and Millett 2012). Fundamental to the continued development of these studies is the growing body of evidence emerging from new excavations. Digital techniques for recording evidence “on the ground,” notably SFM (structure from motion aka close range photogrammetry) for the creation of detailed 3D models and for scene-level modeling in 3D have advanced rapidly in recent years. These parallel developments have opened the door for approaches to the study of the creation and experience of urban space driven by a combination of scene-level reconstruction models (van Roode et al. 2012, Paliou et al. 2011, Paliou 2013) explicitly combined with detailed SFM or scanning based 3D models representing stratigraphic evidence. It is essential to understand the subtle but crucial impact of the design of the user interface on the interpretation of these models. In this paper we focus on the impact of design choices for the user interface, and make connections between design choices and the broader discourse in archaeological theory surrounding the practice of the creation and consumption of archaeological knowledge. As a case in point we take the prototype interface being developed within the Gabii Project for the publication of the Tincu House. In discussing our own evolving practices in engagement with the archaeological record created at Gabii, we highlight some of the challenges of undertaking theoretically-situated user interface design, and their implications for the publication and study of archaeological materials

Truth is mighty & will eventually prevail Political Correctness, Neo-Confederates, and Robert E. Lee

Jefferson Davis sent Robert E. Lee an unusual note after the battle of Gettysburg. The dispatch did not contain any presidential recommendations or requests, only a clipped article from the Charleston Mercury criticizing Lee and his subordinates for failure in Pennsylvania. Why Davis sent this article is impossible to say, and Lee apparently was not interested in the president’s motivations. The General dismissed newspaper criticism of himself as “harmless,” but the Mercury’s condemnation of the army disturbed him. He considered the charges harmful to the cause, for his officers and soldiers were beyond reproach. Defeat, Lee insisted, was his responsibility alone. “No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me,” he wrote, “nor should it be censured for the unreasonable expectations of the public. I am alone to blame, in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess & valour. [excerpt

Indigenous Rights and Intellectual Property Law: A Comparison of the United States and Australia

Quantum Physics has many concepts that are hard to conceive. The main goal with this project is to explain and demonstrate some of these. To achieve this, a setup has been built where a beam is split into two paths, which then subsequently coincide on a mutual screen. If we choose to deny ourselves the possibility of determining which path the wave takes, the paths are said to be indistinguishable. In this case the waves from the two dierent paths will interfere, which will be seen as a periodic interference pattern on the screen. If we instead choose to do a measurement in such a way that we know which path the wave took, the paths are distinguishable. As this occurs, the interference pattern will disappear. There is also a third possibility. The third possibility is to leave the opportunity of measuring, but not actually doing it. This alternative gives the same result as if the path was actually determined, the interference pattern will disappear. In this setup the wavefront is split into two by a thin metal wire. On each side is a polarisation lter with perpendicular polarisation with respect to one another. These lters help us to distinguish the two possible paths. By placing a third polariser between the wire and the screen, parallel to one of the earlier polarisers, it can be seen which path the light has taken, making the paths distinguishable. If the third polariser is instead rotated at a 45o-angle letting through equal parts of both paths, the passing light will have a mutual direction of polarisation. This will once again make the light indistinguishable and the interference pattern will reappear.Kvantfysiken har många svårbegripliga koncept. Målet med detta projekt är att förklara och demonstrera vissa av dessa. För att uppnå detta har en uppställning byggts där en ljusstråle delas upp och får utbredas längs två olika vägar. Vägen kan kodas på de respektive vägarna med hjälp av polarisationslter. Därefter låter man ljuset som tog de två vägarna sammanfalla på en gemensam skärm. Om vi väljer att avsäga oss möjligheten att avgöra vilken väg ljuset tar, sägs ljuset som tog respektive väg icke-särskiljbart. I detta fall kommer vågorna från de två olika banorna interferera, vilket syns som ett mönster på skärmen. Däremot om vi väljer att mäta vilken bana vågen tar är banorna särskiljbara. När vi gör detta val försvinner interferensm önstret. Det nns även ett tredje alternativ. Det alternativet är att skapa en möjlighet att mäta, men inte utnyttja den. Detta fall ger samma resultat som att faktiskt mäta, det vill säga interferens- 3 mönstret försvinner. I vår uppställning delas vågfronten upp i två delar med hjälp av en metalltr åd. På vardera sida om tråden sitter polariseringslter med vinkelr äta polarisationsriktningar i förhållande till varandra. Med hjälp av dessa kan vägarna särskiljas. Genom att sätta ett tredje polarisations- lter mellan metalltråden och skärmen parallellt med ett av ltren kan man bestämma vilken väg ljuset tagit, vilket gör banorna särskiljbara. Om vi däremot sätter det tredje ltret i 45o-vinkel mot de vinkelräta polarisatorerna så att ljuset från de båda vägarna återigen får samma polarisationsrikting, går det inte längre att avgöra vilken väg ljuset tagit. Alltså är vägarna nu icke-särskiljbara och interferensmönstret på skärmen återuppstår.

Dualism’s legacies: dance and difference in London in the 21st century

Drawing on my experiences in dance, and developing on from research amongst a small number of other London based artists, I explore how the legacies of dualism might be seen as informing different artists’ negotiations of both the shared physical/temporal location of London in the ‘noughties’ and conceptually, that space which Thomas Csordas (1994) has suggested as the ‘terrain on which opposed terms meet’. While addressing how the artists’ explorations emanate from different cultural positions, the paper also suggests what some London based artists may share across difference

Embodied engagement in arts research

The focus of this paper is to argue the case for embodied ways of knowing in arts research. Recognition of embodied ways of knowing and embodied research has been relatively recent. For too long, arts research had been marginalized in academia, particularly performing arts, due in part to the somatophobia of Western academic cultures. While grounded in dance research myself, I argue that embodied engagement is crucial for performing arts and arts research in general. It is through rigorous and reflective practice that theoretical knowledges and lived experiences can be embodied, made meaningful, and thus contribute to the generation of new understandings. I contend that such embodied knowledge is then available to artists and researchers for subsequent expression and aesthetic communication via a wide range of mediums and interdisciplinary practices. I discuss embodied ways of knowing and suggest some guidelines for undertaking embodied research. I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of performing arts in expressing individual human embodied experience in an increasingly virtual, self-destructive and global world

The territorial redefinition of the Vineyard Landscape in the sherry wine region (Spain)

The wine sector is a sector that lives and breathes its history and identity; and where developmental alternatives are sought in order to be able to compete in the market. Vineyard areas are sold as rural paradises, where leisure, gastronomy, the landscape, and open-air activities all provide quality tourist experiences. The case of the Sherry Wine Region (Spain) illustrates local restructuring processes, changes in local-global planning, and the socioeconomic impacts of the globalization of food. The symbiosis between the specific, the global, and the historical discourses gives rise to reflections on this region’s territorial redefinition; and highlights its architectural heritage, its landscape, and the gastronomic experiences on offer. Diversification is regenerating the local economy, and wine, and wine tourism, are both the focus of a new territorial policy strategy designed to face the challenges of globalization, and common bonds for partnerships between the public and the private sectors.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain CSO2015-6640

Theoretical Approaches and Key Concepts in Medical Anthropology

The theoretical views and ideas offered in the following pages – which are quite long in order to offer a through explanation of the vast and diverse medical and anthropological literature we have available – regard specific concepts and paradigms that will be useful in order to create a solid framework for the ethnographic material we have gathered