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Algorithmic folding
No full textThis chapter attempts to re-envision the practice of computational art within the nexus of the fold. It takes inspiration from the artistic and somatic practices of the curators of this edited volume who have encouraged and facilitated this research. At a time in which algorithmic processes shape our experiences to a seemingly ever greater extent the practice of computational art offers a perspective from which to critically address this phenomenon as well as provides a means for intervention. Following Deleuze’s reading of Leibniz, the analysis attempts to trace interweaving threads between art and computation to foreground practices and ways of thinking and can serve as both context and subject matter for artistic investigation. Reflections on the practice-research project Mediated Movement, Choreographic Collaboration are presented as a case-study through which many of these ideas were explored
How do firms shape their interactions with universities to build structural, human and relational capital? A mixed-method study of UK firms that interact with universities
No full textUniversities are considered a key source of external resources for firms. Firms’ choices regarding the form of collaboration and how potential universities are approached, strongly influence how their partnerships with universities develop and succeed. We investigate how firms’ objectives to build three types of intellectual capital influence their prevalent mode of entering into interactions with universities. Building on a survey of 190 UK-based firms, we make an original contribution by demonstrating positive associations between: (A) structural capital-building objectives (i.e. sourcing resources and technologies required for research and development), and institutional mode of entry (i.e. directly contacting institutions of the university), mediated by the perceived functionality of acquisition channels (i.e. unidirectional transfer of resources from universities to firms); (B) relational capital-building (i.e. improving visibility and reputation), and the perceived functionality of co-creation channels (i.e. close working relationship between universities and firms), which in turn is positively associated with the frequency of use of individual modes of entry (i.e. directly contacting academics); (C) human capital-building (i.e. sourcing knowledge and associated networks) and both institutional and individual modes, mediated by the perceived functionality of, respectively, acquisition and co-creation channels (the latter when the firm intends to build new human capital, the former when it intends to exploit existing capital);. Our findings offer practical implications regarding how firms enter into relationships with universities depending on the firms’ objectives
Miners’ film workshop: opening the archive of Ateliers Varan
Full text linkThis chapter reconstructs the history, material life and ongoing restitution of the Taller de Cine Minero (Miners' Film Workshop), a pedagogical experience held in Bolivia in 1983, in which young miners were trained in documentary filmmaking in collaboration with the French film school Association Varan. Long regarded as a lost or “spectral” archive, the workshop produced 13 Super 8 films that offered unprecedented portrayals of Bolivian working-class and peasant life. This chapter traces the converging political, aesthetic and institutional trajectories that made the workshop possible—from union-led cultural initiatives and anti-colonial film traditions in Bolivia to Varan’s film pedagogy grounded in direct cinema. By locating and analysing dispersed materials preserved in France and Bolivia—including films, photographs, administrative records and oral testimonies—the chapter examines how technological dependency, developmentalist frameworks and transnational cooperation shaped both the production, neglect and recuperation of the workshop’s material and inmaterial traces. As such, it proposes a post-custodial, community-centred model of archival restitution and digital return that prioritises the “right to the story” over the return of the physical objects, and foregrounds the role of Bolivian communities and institutions in reactivating these audiovisual memories. Ultimately, the chapter reflects on the ethical, epistemic and political challenges involved in the unearthing of this archive, while critically assessing the complexity of its material determinations, entangled memories and ambiguous cultural legacies
Self-harm and suicidality experiences of autistic and non-autistic adults in midlife and old age.
Full text linkBackground: Suicide has been reported as a leading cause of premature death in autistic populations. Additionally, risk of suicidality is often found to increase with age in the general population. Despite this, suicidality has seldom been explored in autistic populations in midlife and old age. This study investigates the self-reported prevalence of self-harm and suicidality in autistic people in midlife and old age compared to an age- and gender-ratio comparable non-autistic group.
Methods: In total, 388 participants (autistic n = 222, 44% men) aged 40–93 years (mean = 60.9 years) from the AgeWellAutism study completed questionnaires related to experiences of suicidal ideation, self-harming thoughts, deliberate self-harm, and suicidal self-harm. Group, gender and age differences were examined in chi-square and linear regression analyses.
Results: The autistic group reported significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation, self-harming thoughts, deliberate self-harm, and suicidal self-harm than the non-autistic comparison group. When considering gender differences in the autistic group (but not the non-autistic group due to limited sample size), autistic women reported significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicidal self-harm compared to autistic men; no other gender differences were found. When considering age differences, autistic people in old age were more likely to have had thoughts of self-harm, to have deliberately self-harmed, and to have experienced suicidal self-harm than autistic people in midlife.
Limitations: The AgeWellAutism study is a cross-sectional convenience sample that relies on self-report. Survivor bias may also influence findings, as the study design would exclude those who have died by suicide, potentially leading to an underestimation of suicidality. Conclusions Autistic adults may be particularly susceptible to experiences of self-harm and suicidality in midlife and old age, particularly autistic women. Additionally, autistic people in old age were also more likely to experience suicidality (including recent experiences) than autistic people in midlife. These findings highlight the urgent need for targeted suicide prevention strategies and mental health interventions for autistic adults in midlife and old age, particularly autistic women and older people
Editorial
Full text linkThis European Journal of Law and Technology special issue, edited by Aysem Diker Vanberg and James Griffin, builds on the 2024 BILETA Conference theme of “Digital and Green: Twin Transitions.” It brings together scholarship addressing contemporary intersections of AI, sustainability, and law, including papers on green AI and labour rights, AI’s implications for IP and patent law, data protection limits, online safety, and cybersecurity. Collectively, the contributions highlight how emerging technologies challenge existing legal frameworks while underscoring the need for human-centric, transparent, and adaptive regulation across digital and environmental domains
Unlocking the Potential of 'Passive' Modulation: How Sensory Stimulation Shapes Hand and Face Size
Full text linkKnowledge of the body size is intricately tied to multisensory integration processes that rely on the dynamic interplay of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. Recent years have seen the development of passive sensory stimulation protocols aimed at investigating the modulation of various cognitive functions, primarily inducing perceptual learning and behaviour change without the need for extensive training. Given that reductions in sensory input have been associated with alterations in body size perception, it is reasonable to hypothesize that increasing sensory information through passive sensory stimulation could similarly influence the perception of the size of body parts. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the potential modulatory effects of passive sensory stimulation on the perception of hand and face size in a group of young adults. Passive sensory stimulation effectively modulated the size representation of the stimulated hand, supporting the notion that access to somatosensory and proprioceptive information is prioritised for the hands but may not extend to the face. Increased somatosensory input resulted in a reduction of distortion, providing evidence for bottom-up modulation of size representation. Passive sensory stimulation can induce subjective changes in body size perception without the need for extensive training. This paradigm holds promise as a potential alternative for modulating distorted size representation in individuals with body representational deficits
Sade in the Counterculture: The Progressive Defence of a Horror Show
No full textThis article explores the influence of the Marquis de Sade in the Counterculture of the 1960s. Through the novelists William Burroughs and Henry Miller and essays by Simone de Beauvoir, George Batailles and others, it considers the aesthetic and moral implications of a Sadean inheritance in post-1945 experimental writing. How did the modernist aim to "épater les bourgeoise" accommodate Sade’s aristocratic and only semi-satirical fantasies about butchering proles? How did that accommodation evolve when this niche aim became a mass appealing lifestyle one? What light does all of this shed on the efficacy of avant-garde culture, from the early 20th century to the present? Following a line of enquiry opened by Angela Nagle in 2017, the article ends by considering Sade in relation to the grotesque of transgression produced by the Trump-supporting online Alt Right and arguments about censorship, identity and free speech today
Are the robots taking over? On AI and perceived existential risk
Full text linkArtificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly infiltrating our lives, and a large proportion of the population use the technology whether they know it or not. While AI can offer significant transformative benefits, this is only true if it is used in a safe and responsible way with the right guardrails. Indeed, there have been several instances of harm resulting from the use of AI without the appropriate safeguards in place. As such, it is unsurprising that there are mixed views of AI in society, where the negative view can in fact manifest as a dystopian view of “robots taking over”. In this paper, we explore these positive and negative views of AI and the factors driving such perceptions. We propose that negative perceptions of AI often concern job displacement, bias and fairness, and misalignment with human values, while positive perceptions typically focus on specific applications and benefits of AI, such as in scientific research, healthcare, and education. Moreover, we posit that the types of perceptions one has about AI are driven by their proximity to AI, whether general or specific applications of AI are being considered, knowledge of AI, and how it is framed in the media. We end with a framework for reducing threat perceptions of AI, such that the technology can be embraced more confidently in tandem with risk management practices
Towards boundary crossing: primary and secondary school teachers teaching creative writing and its redrafting
Full text linkPurpose
There is little research into how teachers think about and teach creative writing and its redrafting and how this might differ depending upon the age of the pupils being taught. This paper aims to compare the creative writing conceptualisations and practices of primary school teachers (5–11-year olds) and secondary school teachers (11–18-year-olds) in England through a qualitative survey. This comparison enables to think about the influence of policy on creative writing in primary and secondary schools as well as what professional development could look like for these teachers to improve the teaching of creative writing.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative survey exploring the creative writing and redrafting pedagogies and conceptualisations was responded to by primary school teachers (n = 18) and secondary school teachers (n = 19). Taking an ecological view of creative writing and teacher identity, the authors undertake a comparative analysis of the survey data using the 5A’s theory of creativity (Glaveanu, 2013) and a view of professional identity existing within “landscapes of practice” (Wenger-Trayner, Wenger-Trayner, 2015). This enables to illuminate how and why creative writing is contextually afforded, or otherwise, in primary and secondary landscapes of practice.
Findings
This analysis demonstrates how the redrafting of creative writing is marginalised in both landscapes of practice and how redrafting is largely conceptualised as a technical rather than critical or creative action. The authors show how teachers, particularly in primary school, aim for their pupils to produce “products” rather than engaging in the “process” of creative writing. This analysis also shows that whilst creative writing is overall more marginalised in the secondary school landscape, it is often taught through process approaches. In both landscapes of practice, the re-drafting of creative writing is largely taught through product approaches.
Research limitations/implications
This research is potentially skewed by the fact that we recruited our participants through networks relating the teaching of English, including creative writing. What is worrying about this limitation, however, is that the picture of creative writing in schools in England probably leans more to a product approach than the picture this research has uncovered.
Practical implications
Professional development for teachers in both landscapes is needed in relation to pedagogical actions for creative writing and its redrafting. Some of the key differences we have outlined in conceptualisations and practices between primary and secondary schools landscapes, notably the overuse of product-based teaching actions in primary landscapes, and some of the differences we have outlined within discrete landscapes of practice, notably how some primary school teachers feel more confident to challenge the product-based approach, with one conceptualising redrafting as “creative”, indicate that professional development should involve teachers working across schools.
Social implications
Policy needs to be reformed to move away from the technicist view of creative writing held in both landscapes of practice. Linked to this, the way creative writing is assessed as a product in secondary schools needs to change – the re-introduction of portfolio-based coursework (Bishop, 1990) would provide the affordance of redrafting as an action central to creative writing processes.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a rare piece of research which compares primary and secondary school teachers’ approaches to teaching creative writing. It shows that primary school teachers can be formulaic in the way they teach creative writing, using product approaches. However, in secondary schools the picture is different: teachers, particularly those, who are writers themselves, give students more agency in redrafting and shaping their writing. This indicates how professional development should involve primary and secondary school teachers in dialogue with one another to cross boundaries of practice
Uncovering the latent structure of human time perception
Full text linkOne of the ongoing controversies in interval timing concerns whether human time perception relies on multiple distinct mechanisms. This debate centres around whether subsecond and suprasecond timing may be attributed to a single semi-uniform timing system or separate and interacting cognitive systems. Whereas past studies offer valuable insights, this study overcomes previous limitations by adopting multiple convergent statistical approaches in a design with strong statistical power. We conducted two online experiments involving participants reproducing temporal intervals ranging from 400 to 2400 ms (Experiment 1; N = 302) and 1000 to 2000 ms (Experiment 2; N = 302). We contrasted the application of exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to differentiate distinct latent structures underlying duration reproduction patterns. Additionally, we compared the model outcomes with results from changepoint analysis models fitted to individual participants' data. In both experiments, these analyses yielded evidence for a two-factor model comprising a general timing factor spanning the full interval range and a second factor capturing the regression to the mean of presented stimulus intervals (central tendency bias). We observed a low proportion of detected changepoints, further supporting the limited evidence for a hypothesized discontinuity between distinct underlying systems, while also finding that changepoint detection patterns were predicted by latent factor scores. These results suggest that the central tendency bias should be considered when investigating potential discontinuities in interval timing systems. Our work contributes to the integration of factor analytic and computational modelling approaches in the study of time perception and has implications for the measurement and interpretation of interval timing in a range of contexts