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Unsettling play: perceptions of Agonistic Games
Get PDFIn this article, we propose Agonistic Games (AGs) as a serious games subcategory that can stimulate critical reflection on topics of dark heritage through multiperspectivity and unsettling play. We first discuss the emerging topic of agonism in memory studies, and then how games can be used to support its objectives. We then discuss the development of two original AGs: Endless Blitz and Umschlagplatz ’43. We explore whether these two AGs were perceived as capable of stimulating critical reflection by collecting data from visitors to the exhibition “Krieg. Macht. Sinn” at the Ruhr Museum in Germany where the games were installed, and from participants in an online course describing the games. From analysing data collected, we outline four factors inhibiting the capacity of AGs to stimulate critical reflection (topic, context, design, and assumptions about games) and propose strategies for overcoming these inhibitors. Our findings are valuable to scholars, game researchers, and designers, strengthening the foundations for the design and development of future AGs
Reading ambient literature: immersion, distraction, and the situated reading experience
Get PDFThis article considers the experience and process of reading works of ambient literature, a form of situated literary experience delivered by pervasive computing platforms, responding to the presence of a physically situated reader to deliver a story. This form of situated digital work does not need to be bound by a material form, such as a printed book. Without such a framing device, and its position embedded in the physical world, this narrative form has boundaries that are often in flux. It can shift and respond to the presence of the situated reader, and its beginning and ending can become blurred. This article addresses the specifics of this fluid literary form, open to distraction and unpredictability for the reader, and examines the potential of a reading experience informed by pervasive and ubiquitous computing practices. In doing so, it draws on Ulrich Schmidt's notions of distraction and immersion in relation to the position of the reader. In particular, it addresses the idea that attention can dissolve in two opposite directions, toward a lack of concentration or toward an absorbed trance, a time of focused concentration and immersion, and explores how in ambient literature these become literary devices that lead and shape the reader's experience
Being student leaders or ‘ordinary’ students: children's emotional experiences of relationships with others in a Chinese school
Get PDFThe student leader system is commonly used in Chinese schools. Student leaders are children who are elected by classmates, then assigned by teachers, to be responsible for monitoring classmates' behaviour. Based on the data collected through an intensive ethnographic study in a rural primary boarding school in China in 2016, this article discusses emotional experiences in peer relationships reported by both student leaders and other ‘ordinary’ students, who were not student leaders. The article argues that China's student leader system is likely to create hierarchical relationships between student leaders and ‘ordinary’ students, and exposes ‘ordinary’ students to the potential risk of being exploited by student leaders. The article also argues that because of this student leader system and relevant student evaluation values, student leaders and ‘ordinary’ students all feel stressed when they are building up and maintaining peer relationships, such as friendships, with each other
Recomposing the archive? On sound and (hi)story in Damara / ǂNūkhoe pasts, from Basel to west Namibia
No full textWe explore interconnected texts in a ‘coloniser archive’ of stories, songs and historic narratives in Khoekhoegowab, recorded by German linguist Ernst Dammann and his wife Ruth in Namibia in 1953-1954 and housed in Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Switzerland. We outline the ‘re-ordering’ strategy enabling us to ‘release’ information caught by the Dammanns, and work towards culturally contextualised understandings of the pasts spoken of by their interviewees. We engage with a specific recording as a multivalent object prompting recall of both autobiographical and cultural/collective memory, sharing an initial recomposition of a song from this recording as an initiative to amplify its content and reach through a contemporary mix drawing on electronic music-making possibilities. We close by reflecting briefly on pragmatic copyright issues arising through this reworking of the archived Dammann recordings
The Stationers’ Company, 1403–1775: London’s book trade guild
No full textThe Stationers’ Company is one of Britain’s most important cultural institutions. Founded in 1403, it oversaw the regulation of the London’s book trades for several centuries. From the mid-16th century to the end of the 17th, the Company maintained a near-national monopoly over the technology and craft of printing; during that same period, almost every important English printer and publisher belonged to it, and the vast majority of books published in England were printed and sold by its members. It played a crucial role in the development and implementation of modern Anglo-American copyright law, establishing in the 1550s a ‘Register’ for the recording of publishing rights that was still being used in the early decades of the 20th century. Six centuries on, the Company continues to retain strong ties to the printing, publishing, and allied industries.
The Company was — and remains — one of the dozens of livery companies that historically regulated London’s crafts and trades. Its national powers, granted to it by the crown in 1557, were exceptional but not unique, and effectively lapsed in 1695. It had oversight of training, labor, wages, and prices, and regularly arbitrated members’ disputes; it also provided vital welfare and social functions for its members and their families. During the early modern period, it was frequently cited in state decrees and legislation that sought to regulate the publication of printed material, but it was never the active censoring body that subsequent scholarship has often claimed. Despite weakening powers from the late 17th century, the Company flourished into the Victorian era, in large part due to its distinctive publishing venture, the English Stock, whose interests it fiercely defended. In 1937 it formally incorporated newspaper makers into its ranks, becoming the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers. The Company’s hall, which houses its archive, is located off Ludgate Hill in central London
2059
No full textSimon Lee Gallery presents a series of new paintings by British artist Dexter Dalwood on the occasion of his second exhibition at the Hong Kong space.
In these recent works, Dalwood looks nearly four decades into the future, to the year 2059; something that the title of each painting in the exhibition makes reference to. In spite of this nominative forward-looking approach, the artist resumes his longstanding commitment to the construction and interpretation of history in painting: each work is composed out of a network of interrelated references and sources from across the annals of art, politics, literature, as well as Dalwood’s own biography. The mix of brutalism and elegance, the old and the new depicted in this latest series creates visual paradoxes that echo a version of the future that simultaneously reflects on the present
Clinical legal education: conflicting aims, political activism and extraordinary times thinking
No full textClinical legal education (CLE) arguably serves a range of important social functions beyond the offer of valuable student learning and experience. Indeed, contemporary law school arrangements and promotional material often go out of their way to emphasise the benefits for community users of these services. Student activity may help satisfy unmet legal need, often for vulnerable individuals and marginalised communities within the general population. As such, CLE may serve a valuable role in securing access to justice for specific sections of the population, even
when these functions are relegated to a bi-product of student learning. This paper pursues two central lines of inquiry. First, it examines whether CLE and associated
student activities can ever be politically and ethically neutral; addressing whether partisan activism is necessarily problematic from the perspective of key stakeholders? For example, do student advice clinics, justice initiatives and law reform activities help perpetuate, rather than minimise, broader issues of social injustice and inequality within communities? Are the narrative aims and contemporary
justifications for CLE sufficiently coherent, and if not, what are the appropriate normative foundations for this kind of legal learning? Secondly, it addresses the possible impact of extraordinary times thinking, precipitated by the
COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shift to online mechanisms of dispute resolution, which suggest that conventional ethical paradigms have been superseded by states of exception or similar acute circumstances that warrant direct action and the prioritisation of collective welfare interests. In particular, do extraordinary circumstances, such as these, warrant a shift in our conventional (ordinary) time thinking about CLE and the role that law students might play as agents of social
change
Catering for diversity in psychosocial and learning needs in a low-income country
No full textThis chapter reviews the work of three largely residential schools run by EducAid, a small NGO in Sierra Leone. Thousands of children had missed out on schooling following the rebel war (1991–2002). Marginalised children included child soldiers, children whose parents had died in the fighting and children returning from refugee camps. The post-conflict context was one in which many students had been exposed to violence, trauma and tragedy. The challenge was to provide a loving, learning community with appropriate teaching and learning methods for a wide range of ages, educational experience, competence and confidence. Some students have missed years of schooling, but others arrive at EducAid having missed little or none of their education. Consequently, some teenagers are illiterate on admission, with attainments below those of much younger children. EducAid, therefore, devised a personalised learning system that encourages children to take responsibility for their own learning, and to learn with and from peers, supported by teachers. Progression depends on reaching a specified standard in each module. The purpose-written modules cover the content of the national exams but provide opportunities for students to interact with each other in ways that challenge their previous negative and violent experiences. In other words, catering for diversity in learning can not be carried out independently of diversity in psychosocial experiences
Practices for learning in early careers
Get PDFAgainst a backdrop of competitive labour markets, employers have questioned business schools' ability to prepare fresh graduates to 'hit the ground running'. This empirical study explores the research question, "How do fresh graduates prepare themselves for the early stages of their careers through the use of learning practices?" The findings show a gap between students’ espoused and enacted learning practices, as graduates transition from the scaffolds of university learning to an autonomous practice-based way of learning. Espoused learning practices engage a top-down causal approach involving goal-setting and identifying resources, while enacted learning practices involves a bottom-up effectuation process that is about discovery, improvisation and reflexivity. For the first contribution, I offer a more nuanced view of learning practices in the form of practices for learning that is about ‘doing to learn’. The second provides insight from the coalescence between sociomateriality and self-directed learning to shape bespoke practices for learning in support of early-career success. Third, I offer more granularity to the notion of learning careers. I argue that distinctive practices for learning that emerge over time helps with overcoming challenges associated with important episodes in graduates’ careers, such as in their early careers and career change
The Last Hurrah (and The Long Haul): co-creation of theatre as climate change education
Get PDFMeaningful action on climate change requires affective engagement with the human impacts of the
problem. The Last Hurrah (and The Long Haul) project was developed using theatrical storytelling as a
tool to provoke thought and empathy about the lived experience of climate change. Over a period of three
years, a company of Acting students and their lecturer worked with faculty and students from a
Geography department to explore climate change stories and the physical and human geographies that
shape their impacts.
This paper reflects on the process, highlighting opportunities and challenges for Geographers to become
involved in interdisciplinary teaching and creative engagement as part of a more holistic approach to
wicked problems, and explores the impact of the learning experience with the students involved. We
conclude that storytelling is profoundly suited to overcoming the psychological barriers that can stand in
the way of appreciating and empathising with the implications for everyday life of an altered climate system. Recommendations are made for future interdisciplinary education projects using creative arts to address global challenges