Thank you very much for the most interesting updates that you are sharing
with us! I follow the updates and discussions with lots of interest (even
when I enjoy reading them without emailing back).
This last post made me think that you or your colleagues may be interested
in a conference we are hosting in two weeks in London. I am sending you
some information further down in case you happen to be around and are
interested to attend. Please note the venue has limited capacity, so you
will need to email us to book a place.
Thank you very much again for your time,
Kind regards,
Anastasia
--
*Conference Links:*
www.uel.ac.uk/Events/2017/March/Between-data-and-senses
Follow us at:
https://twitter.com/DataAndSenses
www.facebook.com/pg/Dataandsenses-2017-1560095494005332
--
*International Conference 'Between Data and Senses; Architecture,
Neuroscience and the Digital Worlds'.*
23-24 March 2017, London. Venue: Arup, 8 Fitzroy Str, W1T 4BQ
Organised by the University of East London (UEL), supported by RIBA, ARUP
and the Museum of Architecture
*Data + Senses*
The cross-over between the digital and the physical is being increasingly
addressed in design disciplines, architecture, arts and urban
studies. Artists and designers increasingly make use of hard data to
interpret the world and/or create meaningful and sensuous environments or
design objects. Architects attempt to measure neurophysiological data to
understand better the human experience in spaces. Designers script
parametric processes to translate data into responsive, meaningful and/or
aesthetically intriguing installations. Scientists and architects/ artists/
designers collaborate to visualise data in new and creative ways so as to
trigger and reveal further connections, interpretations and readings.
Practices such as the above attempt to break down the dichotomy between
data and the sensuous (or else the digital and the physical). They
translate elusive, ephemeral and intangible aspects of a place into solid
data. In other instances the solid data are interpreted and represented in
a way so as to be perceived by the different senses and/or experienced in a
different manner.
In this context, methods and conceptual frameworks of different disciplines
need to engage in a dialogue; and through these cross-disciplinary
practices, new strategies and processes emerge.
This publication aims to present collaborative projects, where methods from
more than one discipline are involved. This publication also addresses how
collaborators from different disciplines can work together to deal with
current design and social issues.
*Key themes*
Architecture and Neuroscience/ Neurophysiology
How does the mapping of the brain activity help designers gain a better
understanding of human experience in different spaces? Could the mapping of
the human experience in certain environments (through new technologies and
methods) inform the design of a place? Could the use of EEG
(Electroencephalography), eye-tracking and other neurological or
physiological data inform our understanding of human experience? Could
physiological data be used in parallel to other methods – such as
observation and interviews – to assess human comfort or levels of stress in
different environments?
Keeling, Roesch and Clements-Croome's study, for example, examines how the
use of wearable sensors for the assessment of multisensory comfort. The
measurements of skin conductivity and heart rate of the participants are
analysed in relationship to the temperature, light level, sound and other
parameters of the physical environment, in an attempt to assess the above
correlations. The study of Brorson Fich et al examines the relationship
between the 'openess' of a space and the level of stress. The study uses a
virtual simulation of different types of spaces and monitors the
participants' levels of the immune regulatory stress hormone cortisol
while they perform certain tasks. The study of Junkner and Nollen analyses
the human experience in gardens of different typologies, based on the
participants' gaze. Through the monitoring of the gaze, with a portable
eye-tracking device, the researchers attempt to gain a better understanding
of the relationship between movement, experience, and the layout of an
outdoors landscape.
Digital and Physical: Data and Experience
Recent research projects map and use different types of data to analyse,
understand and represent the dynamics of urban space. Data such as hash-tag
keywords, locations with geotagged photos, demographics, are being
represented through visualisations which allow for a better understanding,
are more appealing and immersive, allow for interpretations and reveal
connections that would otherwise remain uncovered.
Etcoff and Liu's project, for example, analyses the 'mood of the city'
through a linguistic analysis of a large number of data; of twitted words
associated with different types of mood. The patterns observed reveal
places and times - moments of the day, of the week, or of the year - where
a certain range of emotions appears to peak. Ahmadpour and Heath's work
examines how the use of digital GPS navigation systems impacts upon the
user's experience and understanding of the city – as well as the subsequent
impact of that for urban design. Ahmadpour and Heath compare how GPS users
and physical map users experience and remember the same environment.
Castellanos reflects upon the political and social implications of the
creation, use, selection and analysis of certain types of (big) data. He
questions what is and 'what isn't computed?', and how 'incomputable' data
are dealt with. He expresses his concern that significant information,
which – however – is hard to compute, quantify or understand, is left out
and is not visualised or studied. In this study, it is pointed out that
certain topics of social relevance – politics, economic flows, poverty –
whose analysis relies on narrative, images, stories, incur the risk
of obsolescence – due to the non-quantifiable nature of the associated
information.
*The conference is organised by the University of East London (UEL) and led
by Dr Anastasia Karandinou. The conference is supported by ARUP, RIBA and
the Museum of Architecture.*
*The members of the conference scientific committee are: Prof Hassan
Abdalla, Dr Aghlab Al-Attili, Alan Chandler, Prof Cherif Amor, Dr Satish
Basavapatna Kumaraswamy, Barbara Bochnak, Dr Julien Castet, Nefeli
Chatzimina, Prof Ruth Conroy Dalton, Dr Heba Elsharkawy, Prof Ozlem
Erkarslan, Prof David Fortin, Ruairi Glynn, Dr Vangelis Lympouridis, Dr Kat
Martindale, Prof Rosa Mentosa, Prof Panos Parthenios, Dr Kerstin Sailer,
Maria Segantini, Dr Sally Shahzad, Dr Bridget Snaith, Dr Renee Tobe, Prof
Duncan Turner, Dr Louise Turner.*
*The keynote speakers are: Prof Richard Coyne, Prof Deborah Hauptmann, Prof
Constantinos Daskalakis and Prof Jan Wiener.*
*Keynote Speakers:*
Deborah Hauptmann is Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture
at Iowa State University, USA. Previous to this she was the Director of the
Delft School of Design, an internationally recognized platform for research
and advanced education.
Hauptmann's research draws on a trans-disciplinary approach to
architecture, which includes disciplines such as philosophy, cultural &
media studies, the social sciences and the neurosciences. Her co-edited
volume, *Cognitive Architecture: From Biopolitics to Noopolitics:
**Architecture
and Mind in the Age of Information and Communication* (010 Publishers:
Rotterdam, 2010), is an example of this approach. Other publications
include: - 'Northern Line', co-authored with A. Radman, in *Deleuze and
Architecture*, 2013; Forward to *Writing and Seeing Architecture*: *Christian
de Portzamparc and Philippe Sollers*, 2008; *The Body in Architecture *(ed.)
2006. Hauptmann is a Bergson scholar, she is the English co-translator of
his 1889 Latin thesis *Quid Aristoteles de Loco Senserit* / On Aristotle's
Conception of Place.
ABSTRACT:
Noo-Architecture: between culture and brain
The philosopher Henri Bergson, in *Matter and Memory *(1896) notes that
philosophy traditionally works through dualist accounts: idealism-realism,
internalism-externalism, etecetera; which inevitably equate to the
classical mind-body problem. Bergson argues that the intersection of mind
and matter is to be found in memory. Through his notion of durée he
constructs a double movement between representation and experience. Deleuze
refers to this as a 'double progression' in which duration, when applied to
things, or rather 'duration in things' forces the question of space to be
fundamentally reassessed: 'space itself will need to be based in things, in
relations between things and between durations.'
When thinking *between data and the senses *it is important to resist the
tendency to imagine the digital as immaterial and the physical as material
and that the cross-over between the two situates us in a dance, a *pas de
deux* *between* body-sense and image-data; or, perhaps more logically,
between body-image and sense-data. Translations created to break down the
dichotomies between the two in order to either thicken our experience or
expand our knowledge. In addressing transdisciplinary thinking this I will
offer a brief account of another double movement in Bergson, that is
between translation and rotation. The underpinnings of this account will be
located in 19th century empirical psychology.
In *Cognitive Architecture,* we argued that if we are to intellectually and
fully engage in matters of our contemporary world - populated as it is by
technologies of information and communication, as well as the internet
techno-bred minds of this generation – fields located in the so called soft
sciences: whether cognitive or aesthetic philosophy, cultural, spatial,
social or political theory, would need to expand their traditional reliance
on thinking environment, ethos, politics & relations of power in terms of
biological models (*bios*) to neurological models or system (*nous*). This
developed from the belief that that the world of culture and cultural
artifacts, whether material or immaterial, reconfigures brain. Culture
being the matter that makes up the human sociocultural environment – music,
architecture, art, design, media, and language, as well as political,
social, and cultural institutions. Within a neuroscience perspective it is
can be seen much more straightforwardly: environment-induced neural
activation contours brain development in a manner that is essentially
consistent with human-made environment. In this account, time has become
the horizon on which the contours of perception, experience, memory, and
sensation are traced. Time-technologies as social machines reconstitute
sensibilia through affective and intellectual processes, that is, *between
data and senses. *
Prof Richard Coyne
Richard Coyne is the Dean of Postgraduate Research in the College of
Humanities and Social Science, at the University of Edinburgh, where, until
2011, he was the Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Environment.
Richard Coyne researches and teaches in information technology in practice,
computer-aided design in architecture, the philosophy of information
technology, digital media, and design theory. He inaugurated the MSc in
Design and Digital Media, in which he also teaches. Richard is Academic
Director of the MSc in Design and Digital Media, and Programme Director of
the MSc by Research in Digital Media and Culture. Richard's research is
conducted within the Digital Media Design research group. He collaborates
with John Lee, Martin Parker and a team of about 10 PhD students and
research associates. Richard Coyne is author of several books on the
implications of information technology and design with MIT Press and
Routledge. His research has been supported by AHRC, EPSRC and SCRAN.
Coyne's research demonstrates the value of a broad interdisciplinary
framework for examining the relationship between computing, design, and
contemporary cultural theories. He is currently investigating the way we
configure spaces through the use of pervasive mobile devices, such as
smartphones, iPods and GPS. He is developing this theme through the sonic
metaphor of tuning and phenomenological concepts of mood. Coyne recently
completed a book for the Routledge *Thinkers for Architects* series
entitled *Derrida for Architects*, and is co-investigator on a major funded
project on mobility and aging entitled *Mobility, Mood and Place.* Coyne is
a member of the ARQ editorial board and was a member of the AHRC review
panel Visual Arts and Media. Richard Coyne is animated by the cultural,
social and spatial implications of computers and pervasive digital media.
He enjoys architecture, writing, blogging, designing, philosophy, coding
and media mashups.
Prof Jan Wiener
Jan Wiener is a Professor in the Psychology Department at Bournemouth
University. Prior to coming to Bournemouth in 2009, he held principle
investigator and post doc positions at the Cognitive Science Centre at
Freiburg University (Germany), at CNRS in Paris (France), at Max Planck
Institute in Tübingen (Germany) and at the Cognitive Neuroscience
Department in Tübingen (Germany). He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive
Neuroscience in 2004 from the University of Tübingen (Germany). Jan
Wiener's research focuses primarily on navigation and wayfinding behaviour.
Successful navigation is a fundamental behavioural problem that involves
multiple cognitive components and complex information processing. In order
to address these issues he makes use of different methods such as
behavioural navigation experiments, virtual reality techniques,
eye-tracking, and cognitive modelling. Recent research has focused on the
relation of gaze and wayfinding behaviour, the effects of typical and
atypical ageing on navigation skills, and the use of signage to improve the
navigability of complex environments such as airports and hospitals. Jan
Wiener leads the Wayfinding Lab, and he was recently awarded a major ESRC
grant on 'Demetia Friendly Architecture'. Other recent projects of his
include: 'Decreasing spatial disorientation in care-home settings: How
psychology can guide the development of dementia friendly design
guidelines' and 'Human place and response learning: navigation strategy
selection, pupil size and gaze behaviour. He is one of the Editors of the
book 'Representing Space in Cognition', published by Oxford University
press. Jan Wiener's work has been broadly published, and his papers have
been included in numerous international journals such as the Journal of
Neuroscience, Spatial Cognition & Computation,*Frontiers in Human
Neuroscience, *and the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Prof Constantinos Daskalakis
Constantinos Daskalakis is a Professor at MIT
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT>'s Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science department and a member of CSAIL
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSAIL> (MIT Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory). Together with Paul Goldberg and Christos
Papadimitriou, they received the 2008 Game Theory and Computer Science
Prize for their paper 'The Complexity of Computing a Nash Equilibrium'.
Constantinos Daskalakis won the 2008 Doctoral Dissertation Award from ACM
(the Association for Computing Machinery
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_Computing_Machinery>) for
advancing our understanding of behaviour in complex networks of interacting
individuals, such as those enabled and created by the Internet. His
dissertation, entitled "The Complexity of Nash Equilibria," provides a
novel, algorithmic perspective on Game Theory
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Theory> and the concept of the Nash
equilibrium <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium> ("The
Complexity of Computing a Nash Equilibrium"). His PhD research
<http://people.csail.mit.edu/costis/thesis.pdf> examined whether rational,
self-interested individuals can arrive, through their interactions, at a
state where no single one of them would be better off switching strategies
unless others did so as well. Such a state is called a Nash equilibrium, in
honour of John Nash, who showed that such a state always exists, and is
traditionally used in Game Theory as a mathematical way of predicting the
behaviour of rational, strategic individuals in situations of conflict.
Together with Paul Goldberg and Christos Papadimitriou they showed that in
complex systems, Nash equilibrium can be computationally unachievable. This
implies that it is not always relevant and/or justifiable to study the Nash
equilibria of a system. Daskalakis became a tenured Professor at MIT in May
2015. Prior to joining MIT's faculty he was a postdoctoral researcher in
Jennifer Chayes's group at Microsoft
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft> Research, New England
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England>, and before that he spent four
years at UC Berkeley
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley>'s theory
of computation group advised by Christos Papadimitriou
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christos_Papadimitriou>.
On 11 March 2017 at 19:41, roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Yasminers
>
> in the previous post i called for discussion of hot
> topics in research that are part of the stem to steam rationale
>
> Last time i identified the emerging field of multi modal data
> representation as one such field- faced with the disruptive situation
> brought about by big data
>
> Another area that now has 25 years lineage is the broad
> area of art and biology
>
> What is notable in recent years that some of these researchers
> have shifted to pursue the connection of art and biology, to m-health
> and more generall health care and medecine (see my blog post at
> http://malina.diatrope.com/2017/03/11/emerging-steam-
> research-hot-topics-art-biology-mhealth-and-medecine/
>
> Here at the university of texas for instance, bonnie pitman has been
> leading
> a program that includes partnerships between medical schools and museums
>
> Amajor conference was held at the NY MOMA: see
> http://www.utdallas.edu/arthistory/medicine/
> a report has now been posted on "the Art of Examination": Art Museum
> and Medical Schools Partnerships"
>
> in additon curricular are being developed by the O'Donnell Institute
> partners with The
> University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and the Dallas Museum of
> Art to
> engage medical students in observing, analyzing, and communicating about
> works
> of art to develop their diagnostic skills
>
> in our own art science lab emerging media student Ritwik Kaikaini is
> working
> with chemist jeremiah gassenschmidt to teach bacteria to sing !- some first
> process rough videos are up at
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF4D9g7s1aC6SK7OGrIco81omuBaHgc7p
>
> the ultimate application of this art science research is drug delivery to
> target
> areas of the body of cancer patients
>
> i also note ( see below, forwarded by Ingeborg Reichle) a new book
> on BioArt: Ιnstitutional Critique to Hospitality: Bio Art Practice
> Now, Athens 2017 with authors that are members of Yasmin- we would
> welcome your comments !
>
> we welcome comments on the emerging hot topic on art/biology/medecine
> as well as identification
> of other STEAM hot topic research areas
>
> for other details see
> http://malina.diatrope.com/2017/03/11/emerging-steam-
> research-hot-topics-art-biology-mhealth-and-medecine/
>
> roger malina
>
>
>
>
> From: Ingeborg Reichle <ingeborg.reichle@uni-ak.ac.at>
>
> Subject: new book on BioArt: Ιnstitutional Critique to Hospitality:
> Bio Art Practice Now, Athens 2017
> :
>
> Institutional Critique to Hospitality: Bio Art Practice Now brings
> together 13 texts by renowned art historians, art theorists and
> pioneering artists considering bio art's contemporary relevance.
>
> The first part of the book charts a transition in contemporary bio art
> practice concerned with a move away from Institutional critique into
> the idea of Hospitality: Kathy High provides an endearing account of
> 'Bees and Microbes', while Suzanne Anker reflects on 'Three Blind
> Mice'. Marta de Menezes rethinks 'Representation in Bio art' while
> Pascale Pollier considers 'The Fabric of Life' with regard to *Fabrica
> Vitae *exhibition and Αggelos Antonopoulos makes a personal statement
> with regard to his own contribution to this exhibition. Ellen K. Levy
> thinks about 'Emergence' in the context of bio art, while Adam
> Zaretsky provides a critical commentary on contemporary artists'
> engagement with bio art and Ioannis Melanitis an autobiographical one.
>
> In the second part of the book, the tension between these two notions
> and contexts is examined in a historical light: Martin Kemp discusses
> 'Pros and a few Cons' for 'Artists in Labs', while Assimina Kaniari
> considers early precedences of bio artists' gestures in Leonardo's
> Trattato. Robert Zwijnenberg examines the affinities between
> 'Xenotransfusion and Art', Gunalan Nadarajan writes on 'Specters of
> the Animal' and Irina Aristarkhova considers 'the Art of Kathy High'
> as a form of hospitality.
>
> The introduction to the anthology examines Institutional critique and
> Hospitality as ways of looking at and making sense of bio art today,
> but also as notions charting and accounting for transitions in art
> history in terms of artists' engagement with living media – whether on
> a literal or metaphorical level.
>
> Book Contents
>
> Introduction
>
> From Institutional Critique to Hospitality: Aspects and Contexts of Bio
> Art, Assimina Kaniari
>
> Part I.
>
> Bio Art as Institutional Critique and Hospitality: Artists' Statements
>
> 1. 'Dear Bees and Microbes', Kathy High
>
> 2. 'Three Questions: A Holy Trinity or Three Blind Mice?', Suzanne
> Anker and Assimina Kaniari
>
> 3. 'Representation in Bio art: Movement and Change', Marta de Menezes
>
> 4. 'Fabrica Vitae. The Fabric of Life', Pascale Pollier
>
> 5. 'Apropos Fabrica Vitae', Assimina Kaniari in conversation with
> Αggelos Antonopoulos
>
> 6. 'Bioart and Conditions for Emergence', Ellen K. Levy
>
> 7. 'iGMO: inherited Genetic Modification Orgiastics. Philosophy of
> the Biological Bedroom, a Prelude for Transgenic Humans', Adam Zaretsky
>
> 8. 'Text, Code and the Arts of Bio-age', Ioannis Melanitis
>
>
> Part II.
>
> Critical and Historical Approaches on Bio Art
>
> 9. 'Artists in Labs. Pros and a few Cons', Martin Kemp
>
> 10. 'Stranger Connections. On Xenotransfusion and Art', Robert
> Zwijnenberg
>
> 11. 'Painting and the extension of life: Leonardo's bio pictorial
> tactics after 1500', Assimina Kaniari
>
> 12. 'Specters of the Animal: The Transgenic Work of Eduardo Kac',
> Gunalan Nadarajan
>
> 13. 'Hosting the Animal: the Art of Kathy High', Irina Aristarkhova
>
>
> Εκδόσεις Γρηγόρη / Grigori Publications
>
> www.grigorisbooks.gr
>
> info@grigorisbooks.gr
>
> --
> Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Reichle
> Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien /
> University of Applied Arts Vienna
> Abteilung Medientheorie / Media Theory
> Oskar Kokoschka Platz 2
> 1010 Wien, Austria
> www.dieangewandte.at
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
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