Perceiving the interactive body in dance: Enhancing kinesthetic empathy through art objects

Through a consideration of audience experience of embodiment in contemporary dance performance, this project used kinesthetic empathy as a theoretical construct to inform choreographic decision-making. The research outcome challenged the traditional performer/audience relationship through an interactive dance performance work entitled Planets. This acted as a platform that allowed both audience and performer to collaboratively listen to, process and form movement in a shared kinesthetic state. This connection was enabled through the distribution of interactive art objects, which responded to the shifting proximity between performer and audience. The performance was thus experienced through following a shared goal as instigated by the interactive technology. Through practice-led research, knowledge from kinesthetic empathy, embodied cognition and the mirror neuron system were used to develop the project’s aim in encouraging interactive audiences to engage in movement. This aim influenced studio explorations of movement through an enquiry into the kinesthetic self in dance. Investigations used movement quality, tension, mobility and acceleration to access a familiar movement vocabulary appropriate for a broad interactive audience. This informed the role of the researcher as performer. Planets was developed as a collaborative project between Michael Smith and interactive visual designer Andy Bates and performed over three nights at the Ars Electronica Festival 2014 in Linz, Austria. Supported by documented footage from Planets and audience responses to the performances, this paper draws together the theoretical underpinnings behind the development of the work and includes the experiential perspective of the performer.

Art museums and the global tourist: Experience centres in experience-scapes

In the experience economy, the role of art museums has evolved so as to cater to global cultural tourists. These institutions were traditionally dedicated to didactic functions, and served cognoscenti with elite cultural tastes that were aligned with the avant-garde’s autonomous stance towards mass culture. In a post-avant-garde era however museums have focused on appealing to a broad clientele that often has little or no knowledge of historical or contemporary art. Many of these tourists want art to provide entertaining and novel experiences, rather than receiving pedagogical ‘training’. In response, art museums are turning into ‘experience venues’ and are being informed by ideas associated with new museology, as well as business approaches like Customer Experience Management. This has led to the provision of populist entertainment modes, such as blockbuster exhibitions, participatory art events, jazz nights, and wine tasting, and reveals that such museums recognize that today’s cultural tourist is part of an increasingly diverse and populous demographic, which shares many languages and value systems. As art museums have shifted attention to global tourists, they have come to play a greater role in gentrification projects and cultural precincts. The art museum now seems ideally suited to tourist-centric environments that offer a variety of immersive sensory experiences and combine museums (often designed by star-architects), international hotels, restaurants, high-end shopping zones, and other leisure forums. These include sites such as Port Maravilha urban waterfront development in Rio de Janiero, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, and the Chateau La Coste winery and hotel complex in Provence. It can be argued that in a global experience economy, art museums have become experience centres in experience-scapes. This paper will examine the nature of the tourist experience in relation to the new art museum, and the latter’s increasingly important role in attracting tourists to urban and regional cultural precincts.

Temporal and environmental influences on the vocal behaviour of a nocturnal bird

Temporal and environmental variation in vocal activity can provide information on avian behaviour and call function not available to short-term experimental studies. Intersexual differences in this variation can provide insight into selection effects. Yet factors influencing vocal behaviour have not been assessed in many birds, even those monitored by acoustic methods. This applies to the New Zealand kiwi (Apterygidae), for which call censuses are used extensively in conservation monitoring, yet which have poorly understood acoustic ecology. We investigated little spotted kiwi Apteryx owenii vocal behaviour over 3 yr, measuring influences on vocal activity in both sexes from time of night, season, weather conditions and lunar cycle. We tested hypotheses that call rate variation reflects call function, foraging efficiency, historic predation risk and variability in sound transmission, and that there are inter-sexual differences in call function. Significant seasonal variation showed that vocalisations were important in kiwi reproduction, and inter-sexual synchronisation of call rates indicated that contact, pair-bonding or resource defence were key functions. All weather variables significantly affected call rates, with elevated calling during increased humidity and ground moisture indicating a relation between vocal activity and foraging conditions. A significant decrease in calling activity on cloudy nights, combined with no moonlight effect, suggests an impact of light pollution in this species. These influences on vocal activity provide insight into kiwi call function, have direct consequences for conservation monitoring of kiwi, and have wider implications in understanding vocal behaviour in a range of nocturnal birds

Implementation of a chest pain management service improves patient care and reduces length of stay

Objective Chest pain is one of the most common complaints in patients presenting to an emergency department. Delays in management due to a lack of readily available objective tests to risk stratify patients with possible acute coronary syndromes can lead to an unnecessarily lengthy admission placing pressure on hospital beds or inappropriate discharge. The need for a co-ordinated system of clinical management based on enhanced communication between departments, timely and appropriate triage, clinical investigation, diagnosis, and treatment was identified. Methods An evidence-based Chest Pain Management Service and clinical pathway were developed and implemented, including the introduction of after-hours exercise stress testing. Results Between November 2005 and March 2013, 5662 patients were managed according to a Chest Pain Management pathway resulting in a reduction of 5181 admission nights by more timely identification of patients at low risk who could then be discharged. In addition, 1360 days were avoided in high-risk patients who received earlier diagnosis and treatment. Conclusions The creation of a Chest Pain Management pathway and the extended exercise stress testing service resulted in earlier discharge for low-risk patients; and timely treatment for patients with positive and equivocal exercise stress test results. This service demonstrated a significant saving in overnight admissions.

Prevalence and characteristics of road traffic injuries among young drivers in Oman, 2009-2011

Objectives Studies from different parts of the world have indicated that the impact of road traffic incidents disproportionally affects young adults. Few known studies have been forthcoming from Arabian Gulf countries. Within Oman, a high proportion of the population is under the age of 20. Coupled with the drastic increase of motorization in recent years there is a need to understand the state of road safety among young people in Oman. The current research aimed to explore the prevalence and characteristics of road traffic injuries among young drivers aged 17-25 years. Methods Crash data from 2009-2011 was extracted from the Directorate General of Traffic, Royal Oman Police (ROP) database in Oman. The data was analyzed to explore the impact of road crashes on young people (17-25 years), the characteristics of young driver crashes and how these differ from older drivers and to identify key predictors of fatalities in young driver crashes. Results Overall, young people were over-represented in injuries and fatalities within the sample time period. While it is true that many young people in crashes were driving at the time, it was also evident that young people were often a victim in a crash caused by someone else. Thus, to reduce the impact of road crashes on young people, there is a need to generally address road safety within Oman. When young drivers were involved in crashes they were predominantly male. The types of crashes these drivers have can be broadly attributed to risk taking and inexperience. Speeding and night time driving were the key risk factors for fatalities. Conclusion The results highlight the need to address young driver safety in Oman. From these findings, the introduction of a graduated driver licensing system with night time driving restrictions could significantly improve young driver safety.

Sleep quantity and quality during heat-based training and the effects of cold-water immersion recovery

- Introduction Heat-based training (HT) is becoming increasingly popular as a means of inducing acclimation before athletic competition in hot conditions and/or to augment the training impulse beyond that achieved in thermo-neutral conditions. Importantly, current understanding of the effects of HT on regenerative processes such as sleep and the interactions with common recovery interventions remain unknown. This study aimed to examine sleep characteristics during five consecutive days of training in the heat with the inclusion of cold-water immersion (CWI) compared to baseline sleep patterns. - Methods Thirty recreationally-trained males completed HT in 32 ± 1 °C and 60% rh for five consecutive days. Conditions included: 1) 90 min cycling at 40 % power at VO2max (Pmax) (90CONT; n = 10); 90 min cycling at 40 % Pmax with a 20 min CWI (14 ± 1 °C; 90CWI; n = 10); and 30 min cycling alternating between 40 and 70 % Pmax every 3 min, with no recovery intervention (30HIT; n = 10). Sleep quality and quantity was assessed during HT and four nights of 'baseline' sleep (BASE). Actigraphy provided measures of time in and out of bed, sleep latency, efficiency, total time in bed and total time asleep, wake after sleep onset, number of awakenings, and wakening duration. Subjective ratings of sleep were also recorded using a 1-5 Likert scale. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was completed to determine effect of time and condition on sleep quality and quantity. Cohen's d effect sizes were also applied to determine magnitude and trends in the data. - Results Sleep latency, efficiency, total time in bed and number of awakenings were not significantly different between BASE and HT (P > 0.05). However, total time asleep was significantly reduced (P = 0.01; d = 1.46) and the duration periods of wakefulness after sleep onset was significantly greater during HT compared with BASE (P = 0.001; d = 1.14). Comparison between training groups showed latency was significantly higher for the 30HIT group compared to 90CONT (P = 0.02; d = 1.33). Nevertheless, there were no differences between training groups for sleep efficiency, total time in bed or asleep, wake after sleep onset, number of awakenings or awake duration (P > 0.05). Further, cold-water immersion recovery had no significant effect on sleep characteristics (P > 0.05). - Discussion Sleep plays an important role in athletic recovery and has previously been demonstrated to be influenced by both exercise training and thermal strain. Present data highlight the effect of HT on reduced sleep quality, specifically reducing total time asleep due to longer duration awake during awakenings after sleep onset. Importantly, although cold water recovery accelerates the removal of thermal load, this intervention did not blunt the negative effects of HT on sleep characteristics. - Conclusion Training in hot conditions may reduce both sleep quantity and quality and should be taken into consideration when administering this training intervention in the field.