University of Toronto: Journal Publishing Services
Not a member yet
21472 research outputs found
Sort by
An Exploration of Deception and Belief: Spirit Photography in the Mid-19th to Early 20th Centuries
No full textIn an era when science was outpacing widely accepted superstitions to explain the unknown, a subsection of people sought to use scientific methods and technology to make the unknown known and prove the existence of that which is beyond human perception: the supernatural. The pseudo-intellectual movement born of this goal came to be known as spiritualism. A line can be drawn between these two concepts, with spirit photography branching out from the spiritualist movement. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, audiences were enraptured by portraits seemingly haunted by transparent apparitions transposed over the image. This trend came to be known as “spirit photography.” Beyond its use for documentation, photography was derived from visual art techniques to create narratives or exaggerate aesthetic beauty. In a broad sense, photography was used as a tool of deception, and spirit photography spent decades effectively convincing its audience of the existence of spirits. In this paper, I explore the reasons belief in spirits through spirit photography persisted in spite of the 19th century’s prevailing fixation on rationality. Through the analysis of spirit photographs from the Toronto Public Library’s Arthur Conan Doyle collection, I discuss the techniques photographers used to produce ghostly images by contextualising spirit photography within the historical circumstances that led to its formation. Following the analysis of spirit photographs, I discuss why these techniques impacted their early 20th century audience, who became resistant to the increasing arguments against their validity
More-than-human Infrastructures in the World Wide Wet
No full textThe presented research contributes to discourses that center questions of materiality in relation to networks by following the materials and animals that make and circlude submarine cables in the World Wide Wet of Earth’s oceans. The sleeves of telegram cables are an invitation to think with the sticky entanglements of a tree that produced a natural plastic that insulated transatlantic telegraph cables from the 1850s onwards and facilitated a technology that both deepened and challenged colonial control. A second story makes slippery connections between a lubricant that surrounds thin fiber-optic strands and the history of human skin care. To render the internet as a material-discursive performance of various materials and nonhuman animals (Parks 2019), a third story follows a mollusk that short circuits cables and the gender binary. Developing infrastructural rewirings and rewritings, the article continues with discussions of internet infrastructure workshops that I collaboratively developed as a critical designer. Playing with cables in the form of strings makes for frictional imaginaries of internet infrastructure that are needed to counter dominant narratives of the internet as linear technoscientific progress.
Careful Whisper, Heart Feminism
No full textThis Image & Text piece is a polyvocal account of Careful Whisper, an experimental installation at the Science Gallery London involving a re-engagement with an essay published in the inaugural issue of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, “Heart Feminism” (Pollock 2015). After an introduction that situates the project in the domain of art and STS, each of the project’s collaborators contributes a section to this paper: feminist STS scholar Anne Pollock on how the project emerged, artist Nina Wakeford on its site specificity, recent neuroscience bachelor of science student (now master of science in science communication student) Maithili Pittea on how the sonic experiments engaged with Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), and bachelor of fine art student Aysha Leach on the making of the zine for the project. This account illuminates the generativity of immersive yet disorienting engagements in which feminist STS, art, and science can barely be disentangled
Here We Go Again: On the Biological
No full textIn this short essay, Herzig and Subramaniam explore the potent role of “biological” sex/gender in contemporary politics. Considering some of the social movements, legislative actions, and affective investments mobilized around concepts of the biological, the essay first names some of feminist science and technology studies’ (FSTS) core contributions to understandings of biological sex/gender, then discusses how the field might be better positioned to intervene in future debates.
Exploring Plasticity Mechanisms in Learning and Memory: An Insight into Alzheimer’s Disease
No full textNeuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt to promote learning and memory. The capacity for change is reflected in how synaptic plasticity mechanisms - Hebbian and homeostatic - contribute to Alzheimer\u27s Disease (AD). While Hebbian plasticity strengthens the connections between neurons that fire together, homeostatic plasticity balances neural activity and maintains network stability. Although these two forms of plasticity function differently, we hypothesize that both promote neural adaptations in response to environmental factors. In the case of neural activity disruption, cognitive decline and memory deficits occur as observed in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In this review, we first synthesize theoretical and empirical work on how homeostatic plasticity and Hebbian learning contribute to learning and memory. Considering the roles of synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), we also describe alterations in glutamatergic and cholinergic neurotransmission that lead to impaired memory and learning. Understanding these processes offers potential therapeutic targets for improving synaptic function and mitigating cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients
Unlocking the Future: Exploring Generative Artificial Intelligence in Post-Secondary Chemistry Education with a Focus on Summative Assessment Applications
No full textGenerative artificial intelligence (GenAI), specifically ChatGPT, has been gaining traction as a platform that allows users to do several tasks, from planning itineraries to designing logos, to answering questions. Its impacts have been felt across all sectors, including business, healthcare and academia. This systematic review paper focuses on the applications of AI in academia – specifically chemistry education. A comprehensive literature search examined all available articles as of April 2024. A total of 40 articles were found to relate to the theme of GenAI use in chemistry education. These articles were analyzed and mapped by category to provide an overview of GenAI usage and research in this subfield of academia. This resource could be of value to chemistry instructors and teaching assistants interested in exploring GenAI use in their teaching. Following the mapping exercise, the five papers regarding summative assessments were selected for a more in-depth critical review. These papers were evaluated for their approach to incorporating AI into post-secondary chemistry education, and for the author’s attitudes towards GenAI technology. While all author teams found similar shortcomings, such as inaccuracies in the GenAI outputs, how these shortcomings were viewed varied between the papers and shaped the authors’ views towards GenAI. Where some authors saw a problem, others saw an opportunity to leverage imperfect AI outputs to enhance critical thinking skills in their students. Future directions, such as developing more advanced AI models and exploring student engagement, are also discussed in this review
Öğütcü, Murat, gen. ed., and Anna Forrester, co-ed. Turkish Shakespeares
No full textThis is a review of Turkish Shakespeares
