Junctures - The Journal for Thematic Dialogue
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“I Contain Multi-Tudes” : – A Meditation on the Need for Rough and Rowdy Ways
Get PDFSince his elevation to the Nobel laureateship, quoting the lyrics of Bob Dylan seems even more apropos to successfully understanding the rubbish which fills ‘modern times,’ and the possible solutions to our current eschatological predicament. In the more-or-less poetic ‘meditation’ which follows, I will use his lyric as jumping-off point for a kind of wilfully Derridean exegesis. My aim is not to attempt to divine what St Bob ‘meant;’ but to use ‘categories’ derived from his words to cast a sideways light on an emergent art form based on improvisation with sound, which I believe can show us the embryo of a strategy for resolving some of the challenges we are currently facing
Attentive and Appreciative: : Designers Connecting with More-Than-Human Beings
Get PDFThis essay considers a design student project that practised methods and languages for connecting designers with the more-than-human. The term refers to ecologist David Abram’s phrase “the more-than-human world” as a way of considering our entanglement with earthly nature. Alongside ecological thinking, we drew upon New Zealand Māori and Canadian First Nation scholars and worked with local cultural advisors. This project was offered across two design classes, beginning with one in Vancouver, Canada, and the other in Dunedin, New Zealand, with a six-week synchronous window. These schools connected through DESIS, a network of labs that research social innovation and sustainability. Teachers and students were able to share their approaches and progress online, culminating in an online exhibition and conversation. Key ideas explored included Karl Wixon’s “whakapapa-centred design” and Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s “grammar of animacy,” indigenous values that centre the natural world as sentient and present with the world of humans. Students were tasked with becoming advocates for a more-than-human being. They drew upon multiple frames to learn about this being and conceive of possible different relationships. After conducting a series of immersive research activities including meditative, phenomenological and academic approaches, students drew upon their design skills to translate and share their learning. The outcomes are a variety of prototypes, designed to share this advocacy as experiences for others. Through a combination of online and embodied learning, many explorations brought to light understandings about the fundamental interconnectedness of humans with the earth, with all species and with each other
The Soul of The Masks:: A Journey Through Mah Meri Indigenous Carvings
Get PDFAs part of their rituals, one of the native tribes of Malaysia, the Mah Meri, carve wooden masks and statues. These masks and statues are used in prayer rituals and ceremonies, and as a way of passing on the culture and heritage of the tribe. The carving of these artefacts was studied to learn about the Mah Meri way of life. With the help of photogrammetry, we digitised the Mah Meri masks and statues and wrote down the stories behind each one. These folktales say a lot about how the Mah Meri treat nature and how much they value it. From this data set, we wanted to see how augmented reality, installations and transmedia storytelling could be used to disseminate and preserve Mah Meri culture and history. We tried to bring the stories that were told to us back to life in a visual format, using the screens on our everyday devices. We turned the oral stories into digital sketches, which were then animated and displayed in an installation. Then, those narratives were changed so that the Mah Meri’s stories can be used in augmented reality story books. We want to show and share this multimedia representation of their folklore with the help of the digital container we have placed them in. The initial aim of the research is to immerse the wider public in the culture and heritage of Mah Meri. In disseminating this “research–creation,” we also want to see what this multimedia output could give back to the Mah Meri community and help them keep their communal knowledge alive and pass it on to the next generation
Editorial: ‘multi-’
Get PDFAfter a hiatus caused by the successive lockdowns of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Junctures 22 returns with a full issue that amply lives up to the journal’s mission of encouraging discussion across boundaries, whether disciplinary, geographic, cultural, social, or economic. The call for submissions invited contributors to reflect on how the notion of ‘multi-’ could prompt the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to reveal new truths that are hidden in plain sight, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. This invitation was prompted by the assertion that as the world around us becomes increasingly complex and as the tensions between technological advancement and environmental degradation increase, solutions for a sustainable future are only going to be found through collaborative approaches that are open to paradigms and knowledge systems that are other than those that have sustained the status quo
Live Performance as a Multiverse: : From the Present Moment to the Transverse Effect
Get PDFWhat are the different interconnected spaces and times in the construction of the character in drama, and to what extent is acting ‘live’ performances consubstantial with the notion of the multifarious, and especially the multiverse
Portals, Parallel Realities and Transdisciplinary Place Practice
Get PDFThis article is a portal to my place-based, transdisciplinary practice. In the first section, I argue that adopting a transdisciplinary stance, as I define it, is one way to find solutions to today’s complex issues. Later, I provide examples of my practice, interweaving emerging technology, community development and creativity to support the spirit and spirits of place. Throughout this article, I take a personal, reflective and autoethnographic approach
Between Democracy and Technocracy: : Ecology as Multidisciplinary Science in the Transpacific Cold War
Get PDFThis paper investigates the circulation of ecological knowledge and practices between North America and Southeast Asia via ecologists’ involvement in the politics of science during the Transpacific Cold War. Historians have documented how American scientists in the early Cold War (1945–1965) faced the contradiction between their apparent ‘freedom’ to conduct research compared to scientists in socialist countries, on the one hand, and the imperative to depoliticise the connection between their research and the military-industrial complex, on the other hand. Historians have also shown how the environmental, civil rights and antiwar movements severely challenged this apolitical science by the late 1960s. The popularisation of ecology and its convergence with environmental politics after the 1970s are often viewed as part of this trend of repoliticising science in North America
Amazing Water — A Physicist’s View
Get PDFReport from the Art+Water, art and science project 2019.Water is everywhere, familiar and necessary to life. My special interest in water began in 1985, when I started to write computer programs to simulate the appearance of water in ponds and streams to create animation. In 1999, with a group of students, I completed a five-year project to make a short movie1 which featured a waterfall, splashes, and the textures formed by sunlight in a shallow pool. The more I studied the behaviour of water, the more I came to realise that this most ordinary of materials, has the most extraordinary properties among liquids. To understand this idea properly, we must delve into a little atomic physics. This essay is based on a talk given to the Art+Water Project introductory meeting for scientists and artists, early in 2019
Art + Science + Dung Beetles: Collaborating to Sustain People, Land and Water
Get PDFReport from the Art+Water, art and science project 2019.Dung beetles connect history, myth, science, and economy. They symbolise regeneration and restoration of life. They keep vital ecological cycles churning, build soil, disperse nutrients, and even play a role in protecting our streams. They improve soils to help feed people. That makes dung beetles joiners and menders – what better agents for connecting the minds and hearts of an artist (Jessica Ritchie), an entomologist (Emma Curtin) and an ecologist (Henrik Moller) in an Art+Water project