Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
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Needles to Say: Women Quilters’ Narratives from the Past, Present and Future with the Coming of Creative Technology for Creative Industries in India
No full textStory telling and informal learning is passed down generations and has been recognized as the best approach for human evolution and development. Its efficient process has made its impact and has demonstrated its benefits scientifically at the DNA level. There are scientific publications that attribute human evolution to this DNA based memory, making humans thrive on this planet as dominant species with emotions and care. One such form of storytelling and informal learning is folk quilting which has an extensive history. The power of storytelling and informal learning over generations helped quilters acquire their sense of identity, belonging with a deep sense of felt values. Every patch in a quilt is a story to say invoking memories presenting a living tradition in the folk world. The story of quilts are not just personal appeal to those who stitch but symbol of care, comfort, and inspiration to their loved ones and to those who eventually own them. Community of collaborative quilters within families and guild collectives resonate to social values; patience, connectedness and expression that are central to the form. Hybrid networks of quilting communities in developed countries maintain integrity of social values different from that of traditional folk quilters in developing countries due to the very nature of digital accessibility. With the growing global market, native folk quilters are approached by the creative industries with a certain sense of urgency. Creative technological tools are introduced to meet the demand for increased production. With market driven production, care and collaboration are in question. To top it all, as digital immigrants, traditional folk quilters struggle with technological adoption as they are already threatened to survive and sustain the purity of the indigenous form. They now are further challenged to impart their sense of effective passing down of traditions to their younger generation with the care different from their own. Adopting technology on their own terms is no easy feat, as makers of technology don’t necessarily see folk artists as their primary users. As part of my research into creative technology influencing quilters, I hope to draw on transdisciplinary methodologies ranging from textual analysis of case studies from India and North American folk art history, folk feminist ethnography, cultural studies, ethno-mathematics and digital fabrication. I will be interviewing folk quilters, quilt guilds, artists, designers and technologists to understand the complex dynamics of the interplay of social values, aesthetics, technology and production. In my proposed paper, I will share voices from the field that will examine the changes in the process of how memories and stories are told with the coming of new digital tools and technology and a reaction on how to take forward care for cultural nature of this rich artistic tradition to their own communities through living practitioners. These voices could help transfer the cultural nuances to creative technologists in ways that inform their design processes such that they improve the chance of technology success amongst folk artists for creative production, discourse building and folk quilting pedagogy to sustain and thrive
Reframing Refugee Characters: Empathy and Agency in Interactive Narratives
No full textBy allowing viewers to interact with stories, interactive films have revolutionized how viewers engage with social issues and events. The emergence of immersive technologies and interactive storytelling has transformed traditional storytelling forms and methods. These technological advances have rendered interactive storytelling more complex by challenging users to reexamine understandings of the mediated world. Consequently, basic media literacy skills are necessary to benefit from these projects dealing with refugees stories.
Although interactive storytelling creates new forms of social engagement, the question about which social issues or subjects are most effectively addressed through interactive narratives remains. How do refugee stories and discourses contribute to interactive engagement? This essay analyzes a series of interactive projects focusing on refugees\u27 storytelling, politics, and aesthetics in order to examine their socio-political engagement and their unique attributes. Refugee stories hold a strong emotional appeal, positioning them as ideal for interactive narratives. How do unique refugee experiences of displacement and disarray engage creators and viewers/users/players?
This essay argues that refugee storytelling interactivity contributes significantly to viewers\u27 engagement with social issues and characters. While creating empathy and responsibility, these projects allow users to connect with people far removed from their own lived experiences. Characters with well-known and reliable stories make users feel closer in the position of moral concern to their situation and can instigate political accountability for their future. In interactive narratives, refugee characters redefine agency and storytelling. They offer the ability to recreate history, engender a change in the world, or revise a topic with a sense of justice toward dependable and trustworthy characters.  
Materializing Trans/Fat Bodies: Lessons from an Arts-Informed Project
No full textThis paper engages in a new materialist analysis of arts-informed research to demonstrate that fatness and transness materialize in an intra-active relationship. Baradian intra-action explains how each attribute of embodiment carries agential force to create and shape the other. The data analyzed in this paper comes from a research project wherein sixteen people participated in semi-structured interviews to share how they navigate body policing in relation to their non-normative gender identity and body weight/shape/size. Among this group, ten participants worked with artists to generate digital stories, or short videos that pair autobiographical script with curated visuals. The project’s methodology fuses artistic expression with qualitative approaches to explore and express embodied difference, in order to disrupt dominant narratives about under-served communities. A range of themes emerged from participant interviews and art that illustrate the agential properties of the trans/fat intersection. First, participants shared when fat felt like or was framed as a hindrance to their gender transition. This happens because, as many participants reflected, thinness codes culturally valued gender presentations. Second, then, participants considered how they reconstitute fat in their enactments of gender, some using fat to signify masculine strength, others feminine softness, others still playing with the non-binary in-between. Finally, participants described what they do with their bodies, and how their acts remake the meanings of fat and gender
Excess/Excessive Abundance
No full textExcess/Excessive Abundance is a textile artwork that was inspired by an exploration of the author\u27s personal experiences of being labelled as excessive, and her desire to embrace the joy of excessive abundance in her own life and lives of others. This essay presents photographs of the artwork while providing reflections on the meaning of the piece and the art-making process
Performing the Performance Artist: Reflections on Taboo Bodies in Academia : Cindy Baker in conversation with Kristin Rodier
No full textIn this conversation, artist Cindy Baker and philosopher Kristin Rodier converse about a performance and the after events where Rodier performed as Baker. Both identify as having fat taboo bodies, and in the context of the shared performance, discuss how standing in for each other can resist representation and diminish harm in stigmatizing environments. Baker and Rodier consider the performance as an authentic doing, reciprocal exchange, and affective doubling. The interview contains images from previous performances that highlight Baker’s engagements with liveness, absence, and meta-critical humour for taboo artists’ bodies
Embodying Excess
No full textThis article delves into the concept of excess and identity through Allison Tunis’ mixed-media self-portrait and accompanying artist statement “Embodying Excess”. As a super-fat, sensory-seeking neurodivergent individual, Tunis has encountered societal criticism for being “too much” in various avenues of her life. This artwork challenges these norms, reclaiming joy in their body, identity and artistic explorations without restraint or apology. The article highlights the need for valuing our differences and individuality, along with fostering more authentic connections to our peers and ourselves, so that we may work towards a more inclusive and liberated future for all
Average transmittance of solar cell models based on perovskite type that can extend the bandgap to the near infrared (NIR)
No full textSolar cell development has attracted both researchers and industries. A solar cell is a device that converts sunlight into electrical energy. The purpose of this study is to develop a solar cell model based on perovskite types that can stretch the bandgap to the near infrared (NIR) with different metal types (Al, Ag, and Au). The transfer matrix method (TMM) is used to calculate incident light transmission and reflection for various physical parameters of the structure, and the numerical results are generated using Maple program software. The structure with aluminum has the best transmittance than silver and gold, as silver and gold thickness increases, then, the transmittance decrease, silver, and gold have similar transmittance for different perovskite thicknesses and wavelengths, and the cell with aluminum layer shows that the transmittance curve shifts to the long wavelength as the thickness increase. The results obvious that for different perovskite thicknesses the cell has a very good transmittance, and more than one peak with a transmittance of up to 95%
A Study on Modelling Energy Performance in Buildings
No full textThe UK property industry needs to verify its energy usage; without this, the market cannot achieve the performance improvements necessary in order to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. In the UK, there is a stock of buildings with ‘performance gaps’. This means that the energy performance of a modelled building does not equate to its actual operational performance. Design focuses on theoretical performance under standard conditions instead of paying attention to how buildings perform in reality. In this study, TAS software was used to perform conventional dynamic thermal simulation and advanced simulation for the chosen building. The aim of the dynamic simulation is to verify compliance with Building Regulations. The advanced simulation focused on the HVAC plant and its predicted energy use. The results of these two simulations were compared and analysed, and demonstrate that there are strong drivers and a coherent rationale for establishing a scheme to support Design for Performance. Dynamic simulation models include simplifications and assumptions compared to how a real building operates and underestimates the real energy consumption of the building
Thermal Energy Storage with Nanoparticle Embedded Phase Change Materials in Concentrated Solar Systems
No full textIn this study, a concentrated solar thermal system for water heating is coupled with latent heat storage utilizing nanoparticle embedded phase change materials (nano-PCM). The system consists of parabolic trough collector (PTC), pipes carrying the heat transfer fluid (HTF), water in this study, and a nano-PCM tank. The HTF transfers its thermal energy to nano-PCM via pipes passing through the tank. The main function of the storage system is the nighttime use of solar energy stored during the day. Numerous types of nanoparticles with different concentrations are investigated in the literature, and it is observed that while the nanoparticle addition improves some thermophysical properties, some others get negatively affected. For this reason, an optimization study is necessary. In our study, the effects of nanoparticle addition on thermal conductivity, heat storage capacity, and charge-discharge time are investigated. TiO2, graphene, Al2O3, CuO, SiO2 and carbon black are chosen as nanoparticles within the concentration range of 0 - 1% vol. RT42 and RT55 are used as PCMs. Among the considered cases, the addition of graphene nanoparticles into the PCM with 1% concentration yielded the highest effective thermal conductivity, 1% CuO addition resulted in the highest heat capacity, and 1% SiO2 in RT55 provided the longest discharge time
On Estimating Thermophysical Properties of Liquid Metals
No full textA numerical model for estimating the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of liquid metalshas been developed using a combination of the Levenberg–Marquardt method and the golden-section technique. Themodel solves the inverse problem with the progressive reduction of the intervals based on the measured temperaturedistribution. This technique was verified using a one-dimensional unsteady numerical experiment in which liquid metal isplaced in a cylindrical container. The measured temperature distribution was generated from the numerical solution of thedirect problem. The results show reasonable error between the estimated properties and the values used in the directnumerical solution