Luonnoksia käsityön ruumiillisuudesta. : Käsityö Maurice Merleau-Pontyn ruumiinfenomenologian valossa.

Purpose This study focused on craft from a standpoint of phenomenological philosophy and craft was interpreted through Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body. The main focus was the physical phase of the craft process, wherein a product is made from material. The aim was to interpret corporality in craft. There is no former research focusing on lived body in craft science. Physical, bodily making is inalienable in craft, but it is not articulated. Recent discussion has focused on craft as ”whole”, which emphasizes designing part in the process, and craft becomes conceptualized with the theories of art and design. The axiomatic yet silenced basis of craft, corporality, deserves to become examined as well. That is why this study answers the questions: how craft manifests in the light of phenomenology of the body and what is corporality in craft? Methods In this study I cultivated a phenomenological attitude and turned my exploring eye on craft ”in itself”. In addition I restrained myself from mere making and placed myself looking at the occurrence of craft to describe it verbally. I read up Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body on his principal work (2002) and former interpretations of it. Interpreting and understanding textual data were based on Gadamer’s hermeneutics, and the four-pronged composition of the study followed Koski’s (1995) version of the Gadamerian process of textual interpretation. Conclusions In the construction of bodily phenomenology craft was to be contemplated as a mutual relationship between the maker and the world materializing in bodily making. At the moment of making a human being becomes one with his craft, and the connection between the maker, material and the equipment appears as communication. Operational dimension was distinctive in the intentionality of craft, which operates in many ways, also in craft products. The synesthesia and synergy of craft were emphasized and craft as bodily practice came to life through them. The moment of making appeared as situation generating time and space, where throwing oneself into making may give the maker an experience of upraise beyond the dualism of mind and body. The conception of the implicit nature of craft knowledge was strengthened. In the light of interpretation it was possible to conceptualize craft as a performance and making ”in itself” as a work of art. In that case craft appeared as bodily expression, which as an experience approaches art without being it after all. The concept of aesthetic was settled into making as well. Bodily and phenomenological viewpoint on craft gave material to critically contemplate the concept of “whole craft” (kokonainen käsityö) and provided different kind of understanding of craft as making.

"Totta kai pyrin koko ajan tuntemaan oman kroppani siellä" : Kolmen orkesteriviulistin kokemuksia ruumiillisuudestaan.

Tutkielmassa esitellään kolmen orkesteriviulistin kokemuksia ja käsityksiä omasta ruumiillisuudestaan muusikon työssään. Muusikkolähtöisyys, laajemmin tarkasteltuna tekijälähtöinen tutkimus, on nykyisin yhä tärkeämpi osa musiikintutkimusta. Muusikkolähtöistä tutkimusta on Suomessakin kirjoitettu jonkin verran, harvoin kuitenkaan ruumiillisuusteeman kautta. Haastatellut viulistit ovat pääkaupunkiseudun suurista orkestereista. Muusikon työtä voidaan tarkastella monista eri lähtökohdista. Tässä työssä pyritään ottamaan huomioon ihmisen oma kokemus ja ruumiillinen sidos maailmaan, ja näin se sitoutuu fenomenologisiin lähtökohtiin, erityisesti Maurice Merleau-Pontyn ajatteluun. Michel Foucault ja Elizabeth Grosz edustavat tämän työn kannalta sitä ajattelutapaa, jonka hengessä pidän muusikon työtä historiallisesti rakentuneena ja muutoksenalaisena prosessina. Groszin teoretisointi keskittyy subjektin ruumiillisuuteen ja tapoihin käsitteellistää ruumis länsimaisessa ajattelussa. Haastattelumateriaali jakaantuu kahteen päälukuun. Ensimmäisessä käsitellään soittajien omaa yksityistä tilaa. Harjoittelun oma tila liittyy ruumiillisuuteen sikäli, että ruumiillinen toistotyö ja viulistisen identiteetin muotoutuminen tapahtuu pitkälti yksityisesti, tietoisena julkisen tilan vaatimuksista. Orkesteriviulistien sosiaaliseen tilaan liittyy toisaalta vuorovaikutus muiden muusikoiden kanssa harjoituksissa ja toisaalta muusikoiden ja yleisön kohtaaminen konserteissa. Sosiaaliseen tilaan liittyviä ruumiillisuuteen kytkeytyviä ilmiöitä käsitellään erillään, toisessa analyysiluvussa. Tutkielma tuo esiin välähdyksiä erilaisista ruumiillisuuteen ja viulunsoittoon kytkeytyvistä ilmiöistä. Kvalitatiivisen ja fenomenologisen tutkimuksen hengessä haastateltujen erilaiset kokemukset on pyritty esittelemään pyrkimättä universalisoimaan niitä. Haastattelumateriaali osoittaa viulistisen ruumiillisuuden liittyvän merkittävällä tavalla muusikkojen käsityksiin itsestään. Haastateltujen kokemukset tuovat lisää tietoa orkesteriviulistin työstä.

Depletion of nonlinearity in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence: Insights from analysis and simulations

It is shown how suitably scaled, order-m moments, D-m(+/-), of the Elsasser vorticity fields in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be used to identify three possible regimes for solutions of the MHD equations with magnetic Prandtl number P-M = 1. These vorticity fields are defined by omega(+/-) = curl z(+/-) = omega +/- j, where z(+/-) are Elsasser variables, and where omega and j are, respectively, the fluid vorticity and current density. This study follows recent developments in the study of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes fluid turbulence Gibbon et al., Nonlinearity 27, 2605 (2014)]. Our mathematical results are then compared with those from a variety of direct numerical simulations, which demonstrate that all solutions that have been investigated remain in only one of these regimes which has depleted nonlinearity. The exponents q(+/-) that characterize the inertial range power-law dependencies of the z(+/-) energy spectra, epsilon(+/-)(k), are then examined, and bounds are obtained. Comments are also made on (a) the generalization of our results to the case P-M not equal 1 and (b) the relation between D-m(+/-) and the order-m moments of gradients of magnetohydrodynamic fields, which are used to characterize intermittency in turbulent flows.

Modélisation bayésienne avec des splines du comportement moyen d'un échantillon de courbes

Cette thèse porte sur l'analyse bayésienne de données fonctionnelles dans un contexte hydrologique. L'objectif principal est de modéliser des données d'écoulements d'eau d'une manière parcimonieuse tout en reproduisant adéquatement les caractéristiques statistiques de celles-ci. L'analyse de données fonctionnelles nous amène à considérer les séries chronologiques d'écoulements d'eau comme des fonctions à modéliser avec une méthode non paramétrique. Dans un premier temps, les fonctions sont rendues plus homogènes en les synchronisant. Ensuite, disposant d'un échantillon de courbes homogènes, nous procédons à la modélisation de leurs caractéristiques statistiques en faisant appel aux splines de régression bayésiennes dans un cadre probabiliste assez général. Plus spécifiquement, nous étudions une famille de distributions continues, qui inclut celles de la famille exponentielle, de laquelle les observations peuvent provenir. De plus, afin d'avoir un outil de modélisation non paramétrique flexible, nous traitons les noeuds intérieurs, qui définissent les éléments de la base des splines de régression, comme des quantités aléatoires. Nous utilisons alors le MCMC avec sauts réversibles afin d'explorer la distribution a posteriori des noeuds intérieurs. Afin de simplifier cette procédure dans notre contexte général de modélisation, nous considérons des approximations de la distribution marginale des observations, nommément une approximation basée sur le critère d'information de Schwarz et une autre qui fait appel à l'approximation de Laplace. En plus de modéliser la tendance centrale d'un échantillon de courbes, nous proposons aussi une méthodologie pour modéliser simultanément la tendance centrale et la dispersion de ces courbes, et ce dans notre cadre probabiliste général. Finalement, puisque nous étudions une diversité de distributions statistiques au niveau des observations, nous mettons de l'avant une approche afin de déterminer les distributions les plus adéquates pour un échantillon de courbes donné.

Muriel Rukeyser: poetry and the body

The human body occupies a central place in Rukeyser’s poetry. Her characters’ physical experiences inspire their search for an artistic form and a holistic vision that reconciles the corporeal and conceptual aspects of their life. My thesis deals with Rukeyser’s reconciliation of disparate aspects of existence through the image of the human body and the practical experiences she underwent in her personal life and incorporated in her poetry. I discuss her poetry of the 1940s, where a tension is observed between the artist’s personal life and her art, which she attempts to resolve by adopting an artistic form that accommodates her quotidian experiences. I study, mainly through her poetry of the 1950s, Rukeyser’s poetic technique in the light of her organicist poetics and the combination of tendencies to coercion and suggestiveness distinguishing her style. I examine her portrayal of the suffering body in her poetry of the 1960s and 1970s. By means of their physical experiences, the ill, her despised and the imprisoned protagonists undergo a process of development whereby they perceive the different aspects of their identity and attempt to broaden perspectives on their situation by reconciling them. I argue that Rukeyser’s engagement with physical encounters and with the poem as an inclusive, organic body enables her to reconcile disparate elements in her poetry, such as her personal life and her art, her individual existence and the public world, as well as the distinct aspects of her characters’ identity. Her vatic outlook, which integrates distinct aspects of experience, is consistent with Merleau-Ponty’s idea of human perception as characterised by the two interdependent positions of immanence and transcendence. Rukeyser’s poetry depicts her physical engagement with quotidian events of her life as a factor of artistic inspiration. These situations constitute shared human experiences that enable her to imagine the links binding her to other people and the world at large. The poet’s personal experiences inspire her search for an artistic form that accommodates them. Her perception of the concrete aspect of her individual existence gains significance when it is linked to social and political issues. Both the private and public are thus seen as interconnected, and they affect the existence of each other while retaining their distinctness.

A-ninhos : a tessitura de um espaço topológico

Esta pesquisa envolve a análise de um processo construtivo que resulta em dez objetos-ninho que compõem a série denominada “Aninhos”. O texto, integrado à tessitura do trabalho, investiga vestígios, motivações e influências na feitura do mesmo, o que o torna repleto de referências pessoais, culturais e históricas. E isto através do “olhar transpositivo” um olhar especial, reflexivo, distanciado, que resgata a trajetória dessa poiética, onde são alinhavados temas tais como o desenvolvimento do processo simbólico (Cassirer), visto pela teoria da constituição de linguagem, tratada por Lacan; as conecções com o espaço social, através das teorias de Leroi-Gourhan e de Arnau Puig; as conecções com o espaço perceptivo, através da leitura de Merlot-Ponty, Arnhein e Pareyson; as vertentes históricas tratadas por Argan e Calabrese; e um código imagético, recuperado por vertentes simbólicas (mitológicas e literárias). Associados ao processo construtivo dos objetos-ninho, todos esses assuntos revelam-se em um espaço de características neobarrocas, que nomeio espaço topológico, baseada em uma definição de Arnau Puig. Um espaço que é o objetivo deste processo e pertence tanto ao plano físico como ao imaginário; que se instaura a partir do processo de comunicação e que, contentor da dinâmica que movimenta a obra, possibilita intersecções, através de gestos e reflexões, entre obra-artista-contexto-espectador.

Diferentes percepciones de un mismo ambiente: la cuestión del género en la enseñanza de la ciência

This paper relates some considerations resulting from a thesis study in Biological Sciences held at Universidade Estadual Paulista - Unesp, Bauru Campus. Considering the perceptual act endowed with simultaneous actions of the cognitive apparatus and the individual's life history as the merleau-pontyana phenmomenon tells us, the work aimed to identify how boys and girls in elementary school realize a natural savanna. The study was realized with the extension project "Walking and learning at the cerrado” in the Center for Memory and Dissemination of Science and Technology (CDMCT) of Postgraduate Education for Science in the same institution. Classes were held in these practical activities, monitored by undergraduate and graduate students, and, the project focuses on students from public and private schools in Bauru and region, and other visiting groups. Data collection was performed using the representations in the form of free drawings of students of their environment after the activity. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, the results allowed us to highlight differences in the way in which genders perceived and thus represented the fragment of cerrado vegetation. The male drawings contained a larger amount of non-living elements, whereas the representations by women, besides their botanical details, often drew on animals and people. The framework of the drawings by the boys took the nearest way, whereas by the girls more often considered the representations and the entire context of the site visited. So, we emphasize the need for further discussions within the perception of the environment to consider differences in the representations of boys and girls within the context of the teaching of natural sciences, seeking, however, to avoid unsubstantiated preconceptions that may cause any degree of discrimination.

Percepção e Linguagem: Descrição de Figuras Ambíguas por Alunos Universitários da Área Biológica

Departing from a Merleau-Pontyan concept of linguistic mediation of perception, we ran a cognitive experiment, having the goal of studying how the perception of ambiguous figures is expressed in verbal linguage. Two of the figures mix biological and technological forms, while the third mixes two biological forms. We asked a group of a 120 undergraduate Biology students from State University of São Paulo (UNESP) to write about their perception of three ambiguous figures. We made an analysis of descriptive categories that appeared in the responses and used a qualitative method (Discourse of the Collective Subject) to reconstruct the main features of the linguistic expression of preceptual processes. In conclusion, we found in these.

A PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIMETIC LEARNING AND MULTIMODAL COGNITION: INTEGRATING EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE INTO PROGRAMS IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

My dissertation emphasizes a cognitive account of multimodality that explicitly integrates experiential knowledge work into the rhetorical pedagogy that informs so many composition and technical communication programs. In these disciplines, multimodality is widely conceived in terms of what Gunther Kress calls “socialsemiotic” modes of communication shaped primarily by culture. In the cognitive and neurolinguistic theories of Vittorio Gallese and George Lakoff, however, multimodality is described as a key characteristic of our bodies’ sensory-motor systems which link perception to action and action to meaning, grounding all communicative acts in knowledge shaped through body-engaged experience. I argue that this “situated” account of cognition – which closely approximates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, a major framework for my study – has pedagogical precedence in the mimetic pedagogy that informed ancient Sophistic rhetorical training, and I reveal that training’s multimodal dimensions through a phenomenological exegesis of the concept mimesis. Plato’s denigration of the mimetic tradition and his elevation of conceptual contemplation through reason, out of which developed the classic Cartesian separation of mind from body, resulted in a general degradation of experiential knowledge in Western education. But with the recent introduction into college classrooms of digital technologies and multimedia communication tools, renewed emphasis is being placed on the “hands-on” nature of inventive and productive praxis, necessitating a revision of methods of instruction and assessment that have traditionally privileged the acquisition of conceptual over experiential knowledge. The model of multimodality I construct from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, ancient Sophistic rhetorical pedagogy, and current neuroscientific accounts of situated cognition insists on recognizing the significant role knowledges we acquire experientially play in our reading and writing, speaking and listening, discerning and designing practices.