30115 research outputs found
Sort by
How Ocean Dreams: Sonic transmissions, deep-sea ecologies, and pluriversal listening
No full text2.6 kilometres below the surface of the Northeast Pacific Ocean, Radio Amnion: Sonic Transmissions of Care in Oceanic Space is submerged as a chimerical anomaly, a sonic platform entangled with an immense physics experiment and a vast oceanographic monitoring station. Attached to a subaquatic telescope that probes anarchic, abundant yet extremely elusive neutrino particles, the SFB1258’s Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE) and Radio Amnion are in turn hosted at the »Cascadia Basin node« of Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) NEPTUNE Observatory. 300Kms west off the shores of Turtle Island (aka »North America«) this multi-year audio platform and communication device has commissioned and relayed more than 25 unique artists’ compositions deep within – and addressed to – Ocean. During each full moon since 2021, activating scales and senses ‘beyond-the-human’ (Kohn), participants have taken part in telepresent, nonlocal, sono-luminous hydrosocial ceremonies initiated at the lunar-clock and portal https://radioamnion.net – Ocean is transcendental in that they are one of the prime conditions for the possibility of complex planetary life. Their dire and tumultuous conditions under industrial, extractive and monopoly capital include rapid die off, eutrophication, darkening, heating, and acidification. These in turn lead to cataclysmic events like an oversaturated Ocean that can no longer heat or carbon sink, as well as expectations for Atlantic Meridional Overturning Conveyor (AMOC) collapse (Ocean current collapse leading to unknowable climate and weather system disintegration). As a site for ecological grief and reprieve from hegemonic Western beliefs, Radio Amnion (RA) is an extension of an unprecedented opportunity to enter into a vast, distant and otherwise unreachable abyssal zone where physicists scry the depths for a rare neutrino’s superluminal cascade. In this audio-paper extracts from Amnion compositions alongside excerpts from Stanislaw Lem's science fiction masterpiece Solaris (1961) punctuate this development of the Quantum Ecologies project of Thoms’ PhD on »Landscape-Laboratories« (2021). Here we advocate for the re-enchantment and decolonization at sites of scientific knowledge production where »pluriversality« (Escobar) should be fundamental. By listening from a »cosmopolitical« (Stengers) perspective, this investigative array of vibratory thought explores how commissioned RA artists have approached Ocean through rites of sonic meditation, sonic fiction, and (watery) materiality
Sonic Maze: Pressure-Sensitive Drawing as an Affective Sonic Practice
Get PDFThis paper introduces Sonic Maze, a sonic drawing system that translates gestural force into spatialised sound. Developed through an iterative prototyping process, the system uses a load-cell interface to capture the physical act of drawing and convert it into real-time spatial audio. Situated within a practice-based research framework, the project investigates how drawing may function as a mode of listening and composition, beyond its conventional visual role. Initial pilot sessions with artists suggest that the interface supports affective engagement and encourages improvisational interaction. The paper contributes to ongoing discussions in embodied sonic interaction and spatial audio by presenting an interface that invites non-linear, situated approaches to soundmaking. Preliminary reflections indicate the potential of such systems to act as tools for cognitive exploration and sonic navigation in performance and installation settings
Making ethics: praxis of care, refusal, and becoming
Get PDFInstitutional research ethics remains tethered to proceduralism-reducing ethics to a compliance task that disciplines researchers into risk-averse, self-monitoring subjects. Under the guise of care, governance mechanisms flatten the relational, embodied, and situating complexities of research into administrative predictability. I intervene in that logic by proposing making ethics a praxis-grounded in care, refusal, and relational becoming. Drawing on new and neomaterialist thought, feminist ethics, and abolitionist praxis, I argue that ethics governance is not merely regulatory but a powerful site of subject formation shaped by neoliberal, colonial, and metric-driven logics. Instead of seeking reform, I remake ethics-as-policing to ethics-as-praxis. The paper unfolds in three movements: a critique of proceduralism, a theorisation of relational becoming, and provocations for remaking governance as care-based infrastructure. Making ethics is introduced as a conceptual intervention that positions ethics as a lived, co-produced, materially situated praxis-attuned to the entangled realities of research relations
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Technology, Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications for Society of the Metaverse
Get PDFSince late 2021, there has been increasing interest in the idea of the “metaverse.” This is a virtual, augmented or mixed reality system that potentially millions of people can simultaneously inhabit and where people can interact with one another in real-time, irrespective of the physical distance between them. It is heralded by some as the next-level world wide web that will use a 3D immersive interface, with the potential of mixing virtual and physical reality, with environments persisting over time and all interoperable between different platforms and devices. Nevertheless, there is still no true example of a metaverse, only a number of nascent examples. Here we discuss the technical foundations for such metaverses, the role of generative AI, and its possible impact on society—including education, healthcare and quality of life, business and consumers, the future of work, and its implications for democracy. We also discuss public perceptions of the metaverse, issues of governance and regulation, and its legal implications. Overall, while the metaverse may radically and positively alter the way that we live, we must take into account ethical and regulatory issues in order to avoid predictions of a dystopian future being realized. This study is, therefore, a multi-disciplinary introduction to the metaverse concept that may be useful to readers with many different interests
Error and Knowledge Production: Productive Tensions at the Intersection of Arts and Sciences
No full textThis paper explores the productive role of error in knowledge production, particularly in the context of art-science collaborations, and proposes methodologies which creatively leverage error as a tool for interdisciplinary exploration. Spaces at the edges of disciplines or in-between disciplines – emergent ‘error-prone spaces’ where established knowledges and practices often falter – are identified as particularly fruitful sites for experimentation and exchange. In these contexts, the paper explores the intentional mis-use of scientific tools and technologies as a productive methodological approach to research for interdisciplinary and post-disciplinary work.
While an embrace of error may appear antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge, especially in scientific fields where reproducibility and precision are paramount, this paper argues that error is already intrinsic to processes through which knowledge evolves. By examining error from both a conceptual and a methodological standpoint, the paper proposes that creative engagement with error can generate new epistemic relations between art, science, and technology.
The paper opens by drawing on historical and philosophical perspectives which position error not as a failure or deviation but as a generative condition of inquiry, across both the arts and sciences. The following sections then unpack these ideas in more concrete terms, through the analysis of four experimental art-science projects which rely on undisciplined uses of technology and creative relationships to error to chart new connections between disciplines: from decolonial approaches to cartography, to novel intersections of art with aerospace technology, astrophysics, and geophysics, respectively. The paper concludes by identifying potential methodological takeaways for interdisciplinary knowledge creation more broadly, and makes the case for seeking out spaces of playful experimentation, error, and accident – far beyond the boundaries of established disciplinary practices
Individual differences in auditory scene analysis abilities in music and speech
Get PDFAuditory scene analysis (ASA) is the ability to organize complex auditory mixtures into meaningful events and streams and is fundamental for auditory perception of both music and speech. Individual differences in ASA are recognized in the literature, yet the factors driving this variability remain poorly understood. This study employs a novel music-based ASA task, the Musical Scene Analysis (MSA) test, alongside a speech-in-noise test, to examine the influence of hearing loss, age, working memory capacity (WMC), and musical training. Ninety-two participants were categorised into four groups: 31 older normal-hearing, 34 older hearing-impaired, 26 younger normal-hearing, and one younger hearing-impaired individual. Results reveal a moderate correlation between ASA performance in speech and music (r = − .5), suggesting shared underlying perceptual processes, yet the factors influencing individual differences varied across domains. A dual modelling approach using ridge regression and gradient-boosted decision trees identified hearing loss as the strongest predictor of speech-based ASA, with a weaker effect of age, while musical training and WMC had no impact. In contrast, musical training showed a substantial effect on musical ASA, alongside moderate effects of hearing loss and age, while WMC exhibited only a marginal, non-robust effect. These findings highlight both shared and domain-specific factors influencing ASA abilities in music and speech
Establishing predictive machine learning models for drug responses in patient derived cell culture
Get PDFThe concept of personalised medicine in cancer therapy is becoming increasingly important. There already exist drugs administered specifically for patients with tumours presenting well-defined genetic mutations. However, the field is still in its infancy, and personalised treatments are far from being standard of care. Personalised medicine is often associated with the utilisation of omics data. Yet, implementation of multi-omics data has proven difficult, due to the variety and scale of the information within the data, as well as the complexity behind the myriad of interactions taking place within the cell. An alternative approach to precision medicine is to employ a function-based profile of cells. This involves screening a range of drugs against patient-derived cells (or derivative organoids and xenograft models). Here we demonstrate a proof-of-concept, where a collection of drug screens against a highly diverse set of patient-derived cell lines, are leveraged to identify putative treatment options for a ‘new patient’. We show that this methodology is highly efficient in ranking the drugs according to their activity towards the target cells. We argue that this approach offers great potential, as activities can be efficiently imputed from various subsets of the drug-treated cell lines that do not necessarily originate from the same tissue type
Disproportion and decision: Ethnic minority overrepresentation and police risk assessment in missing persons cases
Get PDFDisproportionality in missing persons cases raises critical questions about forensic and legal decision making. In the UK, Black individuals comprise 14% of missing persons but only 3% of the population. This study analysed 18,266 cases from nine police forces in England and Wales to examine how case characteristics and ethnicity influence risk assessments. Analyses proceeded in three stages: (i) descriptive profiling of demographic, contextual, and risk-related factors; (ii) statistical comparison across ethnic groups; (iii) predictive modelling of how these characteristics influence risk classification. Ethnicity did not independently predict risk classification once other characteristics were controlled for. However, characteristics disproportionately associated with Black missing persons, such as youth and care orders, were linked to lower risk classifications. In contrast, White individuals were more often reported with mental health, health, or harm risks, which strongly predicted high-risk classification. This suggests police decision making may be indirectly shaped by ethnicity via associated characteristics, raising concerns about equity in assessment and investigative prioritisation. Potential mechanisms include underreporting of vulnerabilities in minority communities and inconsistencies in police recording practices. The study highlights the need for culturally informed, evidence-based decision frameworks in missing persons investigations to support just and accurate decision making in policing
Principal Component Analysis for Programmers
No full textA series of tutorials covering Principal Component Analysis, from the perspective of programmers
Beyond participants–researchers–research outsiders: food talk and the (co-)construction of knowledge in multi-sited participatory ethnography
Get PDFIn participatory ethnography, the boundaries between participants and researchers often become blurred, as both parties routinely shift roles throughout the knowledge construction process. This blurring contests and challenges the traditional power dynamics imposed by the research process. In this paper, we discuss how the design of a pilot project on the intersection of food, language and migration not only dismantled these barriers but also created opportunities for “research outsiders” to actively participate in the research. Conceived as a multi-sited ethnography with collaborative and sensory elements, the project brought together Italian-speaking migrants working in London’s hospitality sector and a team of researchers for a series of dinners. These dinners explored how migrants used food talk to position themselves within London’s food scene against the backdrop of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse two key episodes to illustrate the complex ways in which research participants took ownership of the knowledge co-construction process. This included making bids for the conversational floor and actively supporting, shifting and extending the conversation’s agenda. Additionally, due to the public nature of the spaces where we conducted our research, non-participants with stakes in the research (a waiter and a chef) actively and knowingly contributed to the negotiation of research identities and the polyphonic narratives being co-shaped around the table. Participants and research outsiders performed various roles, interacting not only with one another but also with the research space and the sensory and physical elements around them. We consider how our research complicates the roles that participants, researchers and “research outsiders” assume in the construction of knowledge in ethnographic work and the methodological and ethical implications created by the dynamic, interconnected and shifting nature of these roles