9,344 research outputs found
Post-landscape or the potential of other relations with the land
No full textHave we reached a post-landscape condition? Have prevailing visual relations between people and land, exemplified by English traditions of pictorial settings, individual perspectives and enclosed properties, reached a conclusion? Has a particular frame of landscape, which Denis Cosgrove describes as a ‘way of seeing’ (1985, 45), come to a close? Conceptions of landscape, that emerged in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England and that have continued to be reinforced through contemporary architectural representations and designed transformations, package landscapes as scenic backgrounds and frame tracts of land as spatial products. While referring to these dominant relationships with the land, Barbara Bender reminds us that there are many other ways of conceiving of landscapes: ‘when the word “landscape” was coined and used to its most powerful effect, there were, at the same time and the same place, other ways of understanding and relating to the land – other landscapes’ (1993, 2). What she describes as contrasting, and often contradictory, constructs of landscape, defined through individual and societal relations with our environments, have grown and receded in relevance. Landscapes are defined through specific economic, social and spatial contexts. So while dominant pictorial ideas of landscape may endure for some people in countries influenced by Anglo-Saxon traditions, other landscapes are configured through contrasting material, ecological, cultural and symbolic relationships with land. In this chapter I explore two inseparable contemporary London landscapes, Paternoster Square and the Occupy London Stock Exchange (LSX). I question a continuation of these English landscape traditions that embrace: predominantly visual approaches; scenes considered from static positions; and singular perspectives framed as representations and urban spaces, enclosed and transformed through design. Raymond Williams proposes:
It is possible and useful to trace the internal histories of landscape painting, landscape writing, landscape gardening and landscape architecture, but in any final analysis we must relate these histories to the common history of a land and its society. And if we are to understand changes in English attitudes to landscape, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, this is especially necessary. (Williams, 1973, 120
Myths On/Of The Northern Soul Scene
No full textA history of the northern soul scene is comprehensively set out in a range of books, films and websites which give a rich picture of the scene’s past. They tell a story of the background to the scene’s formation and its early and later incarnations, all expressed through the strong sense that the scene has survived and flourished, welcomed new members and renewed itself, while always remaining true to its origins and traditions. Many of these mediated histories are stories produced for an insider audience by authors and media producers who themselves have personal experience of the scene. We see this as part of an extensive process of self-documentation which has become a central cultural practice of the northern soul scene. In this chapter, the authors seek to explore how the story of the northern soul scene is told through a range of media and how they relate to processes of scene self-documentation. They tease out the differences between self-documenting media texts and the more mainstream ways in which the scene is represented. And they argue that the myths of northern soul represent a shared narrative; held as a common point of reference, widely distributed and used as a locus for personal identity. Above all, these stories are testaments to an insider identity: a sense of what it is to be a member of the scene and, by contrast, what lies outside. This chapter explores some of the self-documented histories of the scene, drawing out core myths, exploring how they operate over a range of media as a key part in the mythologizing process of self-documentation, and identify the ways in which they act as a stabilising and legitimising force
Publicity and propriety: Democracy and manners in Britain's public landscape
No full textThis chapter provides the case for the importance of treating public landscape as space of democratic engagement, and, by extension, of its importance in the moral life of civil society. It argues that manners are the expression of virtues and that as such they are an integral part of shared morality. Design and planning can support or deny ethical encounters in public space. The chapter reviews some ways in which this occurs to provide some useful examples for design that encourages democratic life in a healthy civil society. Democratic public life depends upon a customary compact between citizens; an agreement as to what is proper in a public context. The narrow sidewalks along Goodge Street have filled with tables for swanky cafes, and are more crowded with pedestrians. Individuals, isolated in either the sanitized privately owned public space (POPS) or by a doxic landscape that guides their every move by design, become needier and less empowered, and thus better consumers
Do dolphins benefit from nonlinear mathematics when processing their sonar returns?
No full textAn interview with author Tim Leighton about the paper
Opportunities for linking young surveyors across professional surveying member organisations and FIG
No full textEnergy simulations of a transparent-insulated office facade retrofit in London, UK
No full textPurpose – Transparent insulation materials (TIMs) have been developed for application to building facades to reduce heating energy demands of a building. The purpose of this research is to investigate the feasibility of TI-applications for high-rise and low rise office buildings in London, UK, to reduce heating energy demands in winter and reduce overheating problems in summer.
Design/methodology/approach – The energy performance of these office building models was simulated using an energy simulation package, Environmental Systems Performance-research (ESP-r), for a full calendar year. The simulations were initially performed for the buildings with conventional wall elements, prior to those with TI-systems (TI-walls and TI-glazing) used to replace the conventional wall elements. Surface temperatures of the conventional wall elements and TI-systems, air temperature inside the 20mm wide air gaps in the TI-wall, dry-bulb zone temperature and energy demands required for the office zones were predicted.
Findings – Peak temperatures of between 50 and 70°C were predicted for the internal surface of the TI-systems, which clearly demonstrated the large effect of absorption of solar energy flux by the brick wall mass with an absorptivity of 90 percent behind the TIM layer. In the office zones, the magnitude of temperature swings during daytime was reduced, as demonstrated by a 10 to 12 h delay in heat transmission from the external façade to the office zones. Such reduction indicates the overheating problems could be reduced potentially by TI-applications.
Originality/value – This research presents the scale and scope of design optimisation of TI-systems with ESP-r simulations, which is a critical process prior to applications to real buildings
Tim Di Muzio on 'Sabotage'
No full textIn a series of essays published in 2013 and 2014 on capitaspower.com, political economist Tim Di Muzio explored the concept of ‘sabotage’ as it applies to capitalist power. I recently rediscovered these essays and was so impressed by them that I have reposted them here as a single piece.
About the author: Tim Di Muzio is a researcher at the University of Wollongong. He is the author of numerous books, including Debt as power, Carbon capitalism, and The 1% and the Rest of us
1996-1997 Tim Gautreaux
No full textTim Gautreaux is the author of three novels and two earlier short story collections. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and GQ. After teaching for thirty years at Southeastern Louisiana University, he now lives, with his wife, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Photo credit: Randy Bergeron)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/grisham_res/1023/thumbnail.jp
Post-landscape or the potential of other relations with the land
No full textHave we reached a post-landscape condition? Have prevailing visual relations between people and land, exemplified by English traditions of pictorial settings, individual perspectives and enclosed properties, reached a conclusion? Has a particular frame of landscape, which Denis Cosgrove describes as a `way of seeing´ (1985:45), come to a close? Conceptions of landscape, which emerged in fifteenth and sixteenth century England and that have continued to be reinforced through contemporary architectural representations and designed transformations, package landscapes as scenic backgrounds and frame tracts of land as spatial products. While referring to these dominant relationships with the land, Barbara Bender reminds us that there are many other ways of conceiving of landscapes: `when the word `landscape´ was coined and used to its most powerful effect, there were, at the same time and the same place, other ways of understanding and relating to the land - other landscapes´ (1993:2). What she describes as contrasting, and often contradictory, constructs of landscape, defined through individual and societal relations with our environments, have grown and receded in relevance. Landscapes are defined through specific economic, social and spatial contexts. So while dominant pictorial ideas of landscape may endure for some people in countries influenced by Anglo-Saxon traditions, other landscapes are configured through material, ecological, cultural and symbolic relationships with land. In this chapter I accept Bender´s assertion of a plurality of landscapes. I also question a continuation of English landscape traditions that embrace: predominantly visual approaches; scenes considered from static positions; and singular perspectives framed as representations and urban spaces, enclosed and transformed through design
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