Fragments of place : revealing sense of place through shared phone images.

Is an interactive new media art installation that explores how the sharing of images, normally hidden on mobile phones, can reveal more about people's sense of place and this ultimately shared experience. Traditional views on sense of place, as exemplified by Wagner (1972) and Relph (1976), characterise the experience as a fusion of meaning, act and context. Indeed, Relph suggests that it is not just the identity of a place that is important, but also the identity that a person or group has with that place, in particular whether they are experiencing it as an ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’. This work stimulates debate concerning the impact of technology on sense of place. Technology offers a number of bridges between the real and virtual worlds, but in so doing places an increased tension on the sense of place and subsequently the identity of the individual. This, coupled with the increased use of camera phones, has enabled the documentation of all aspects of our lives, the things we do, the objects we encounter and the places we inhabit. The installation taps into these hidden electronic resources by letting people share their sense of place associated with a large scale event. The work explores the changing nature of the sense of place of performers, visitors and residents over the duration of the event. Interaction with the installation will transform the viewer into performer, echoing Relph’s insider-outsider dichotomy

GABAA receptor chloride channels are involved in the neuroprotective role of GABA following oxygen and glucose deprivation in the rat cerebral cortex but not in the hippocampus.

Assays on "ex vivo" sections of rat hippocampus and rat cerebral cortex, subjected to oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) and a three-hour reperfusion-like (RL) recovery, were performed in the presence of either GABA or the GABA(A) receptor binding site antagonist, bicuculline. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and propidium iodide were used to quantify cell mortality. We also measured, using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), the early transcriptional response of a number of genes of the glutamatergic and GABAergic systems. Specifically, glial pre- and post-synaptic glutamatergic transporters (namely GLAST1a, EAAC-1, GLT-1 and VGLUT1), three GABAA receptor subunits (α1, β2 and γ2), and the GABAergic presynaptic marker, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), were studied. Mortality assays revealed that GABAA receptor chloride channels play an important role in the neuroprotective effect of GABA in the cerebral cortex, but have a much smaller effect in the hippocampus. We also found that GABA reverses the OGD-dependent decrease in GABA(A) receptor transcript levels, as well as mRNA levels of the membrane and vesicular glutamate transporter genes. Based on the markers used, we conclude that OGD results in differential responses in the GABAergic presynaptic and postsynaptic systems.

Leaving Planet Earth (Follow-on Voucher Project).

SFC FOLLOW-ON VOUCHER The project was undertaken as a SFC Follow-on Voucher (£40K) alongside a student project with BDes (Hons) Design & Digital Arts (D&DA).James Blake (Centre for Media & Culture) brought together students and staff to develop digital content, including films, for a transmedia project and the induction video on the coaches to Ratho. Malcolm Innes, Ian Lambert, Andrew O’Dowd, and Euan Winton (Centre for Design Practice & Research) developed the Old Earth Museum (both physical and virtual), and transmedia designer and research student Beata Zemanek oversaw the transmedia strategy and making of the Gatekeeper film, supported by D&DA students and graduates.