Local Commons: A visual approach to collective city making through situated community engagement

Due to the numerous possibilities of voicing concerns and the flood of data we are exposed to, local issues are sometimes at risk of being overlooked. This study explores Local Commons, a design intervention in public space that combines situated digital and tangible media in order to engage communities in contributing and debating different perspectives on a given local issue. The intervention invited the community to submit images of their perspectives on the issue, which were displayed on a public screen. Via tangible buttons in front of the screen, community members then agree or disagree on the displayed perspectives, creating a space for deliberation. In a user study, we were specifically interested in testing three aspects of our intervention, which are discussed in this paper: The difference that situatedness, visual content, and tangible interaction can make to urban community engagement.

The modern primitive and the antipodes: The visual arts and Oceania

In a book seeking to redraw the boundaries between interdisciplinary and transnational modernisms, this chapter contributes to the reorientation in modernist studies by revisiting "primitivism." While no one freely identifies as “primitive,” the spectre of primitivism was a magnet of attraction as well as of critical refusal. It resided on the knife-edge of envy and denunciation, as well as for the projection of alternate imaginative utopias and the worst forms of racial chauvinism. This chapter asserts that primitivism endures as a provocation as much as a utopian aspiration, but it also provides a different understanding of cultures on the "periphery", which is how Antipodean art history has understood itself. The spectre of primitivism not only amplifies the quandaries of modernist cultures—both alerting one to the aesthetic alternatives to modernist cultures, yet also highlighting the fate of traditional culture pitted against modernist cultures, it also suggests the quandaries of a peripheral modernity.

Visual openness in urban environments: Measuring visual openness and visibility to natural landscapes in a changing urban landscape in Gold Coast, Australia

The visual characteristics of urban environments have been changing dramatically with the growth of cities around the world. Protection and enhancement of landscape character in urban environments have been one of the challenges for policy makers in addressing sustainable urban growth. Visual openness and enclosure in urban environments are important attributes in perception of visual space which affect the human interaction with physical space and which can be often modified by new developments. Measuring visual openness in urban areas results in more accurate, reliable, and systematic approach to manage and control visual qualities in growing cities. Recent advances in techniques in geographic information systems (GIS) and survey systems make it feasible to measure and quantify this attribute with a high degree of realism and precision. Previous studies in this field do not take full advantage of these improvements. This paper proposes a method to measure the visual openness and enclosure in a changing urban landscape in Australia, on the Gold Coast, by using the improved functionality in GIS. Using this method, visual openness is calculated and described for all publicly accessible areas in the selected study area. A final map is produced which shows the areas with highest visual openness and visibility to natural landscape resources. The output of this research can be used by planners and decision-makers in managing and controlling views in complex urban landscapes. Also, depending on the availability of GIS data, this method can be applied to any region including non-urban landscapes to help planners and policy-makers manage views and visual qualities.

“I understand. I am a participant”: Navigating the ‘fuzzy’ boundaries of visual methods in qualitative longitudinal research

In this chapter we discuss how utilising the participatory visual methodology, photovoice, in an aged care context with its unique communal setting raised several ‘fuzzy boundary’ ethical dilemmas. To illustrate these challenges, we draw on immersive field notes from an ongoing qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) exploring the lived experience of aged care from the perspective of older residents, and focus on interactions with one participant, 81 year old Cassie. We explore how the camera, which is integral to the photovoice method, altered the researcher/participant ethical dynamics by becoming a continual ‘connector’ to the researcher. The camera took on a distinct agency, acting as a non-threatening ‘portal’ that lengthened contact, provided informal opportunities to alter the relationship dynamics and enabled unplanned participant revelation.

Visual analytics for large-scale bioinformatic data sets

Rapid advances in sequencing technologies (Next Generation Sequencing or NGS) have led to a vast increase in the quantity of bioinformatics data available, with this increasing scale presenting enormous challenges to researchers seeking to identify complex interactions. This paper is concerned with the domain of transcriptional regulation, and the use of visualisation to identify relationships between specific regulatory proteins (the transcription factors or TFs) and their associated target genes (TGs). We present preliminary work from an ongoing study which aims to determine the effectiveness of different visual representations and large scale displays in supporting discovery. Following an iterative process of implementation and evaluation, representations were tested by potential users in the bioinformatics domain to determine their efficacy, and to understand better the range of ad hoc practices among bioinformatics literate users. Results from two rounds of small scale user studies are considered with initial findings suggesting that bioinformaticians require richly detailed views of TF data, features to compare TF layouts between organisms quickly, and ways to keep track of interesting data points.

Functional activation during the Rapid Visual Information Processing task in a middle aged cohort: An fMRI study

The Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) task, a serial discrimination task where task performance believed to reflect sustained attention capabilities, is widely used in behavioural research and increasingly in neuroimaging studies. To date, functional neuroimaging research into the RVIP has been undertaken using block analyses, reflecting the sustained processing involved in the task, but not necessarily the transient processes associated with individual trial performance. Furthermore, this research has been limited to young cohorts. This study assessed the behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) outcomes of the RVIP task using both block and event-related analyses in a healthy middle aged cohort (mean age = 53.56 years, n = 16). The results show that the version of the RVIP used here is sensitive to changes in attentional demand processes with participants achieving a 43% accuracy hit rate in the experimental task compared with 96% accuracy in the control task. As shown by previous research, the block analysis revealed an increase in activation in a network of frontal, parietal, occipital and cerebellar regions. The event related analysis showed a similar network of activation, seemingly omitting regions involved in the processing of the task (as shown in the block analysis), such as occipital areas and the thalamus, providing an indication of a network of regions involved in correct trial performance. Frontal (superior and inferior frontal gryi), parietal (precuenus, inferior parietal lobe) and cerebellar regions were shown to be active in both the block and event-related analyses, suggesting their importance in sustained attention/vigilance. These networks and the differences between them are discussed in detail, as well as implications for future research in middle aged cohorts.

Experimental Studies on Drop Formation at the Tip of Melting Rods

Drop formation at the conical tips of melting rods has been experimentally studied using the transparent wax-alcohol/acetonitrile system. The effects of cone angle, rod diameter, immersion depth, and bath temperature on the detached drop mass have been studied over a wide range, besides recording useful qualitative information based on visual observation. The experimental results suggest that the phenomenon of drop formation at the tip of melting rods has a close parallel with the drop formation at conical tips, at least on a qualitative basis. However, the results could not be quantified owing to difficulties in characterizing the physical properties of the system, despite efforts to minimize them.

Visual completion in an illusory figure

The visual systems of humans and animals represent physical reality in a modified way, depending on the specific demands that the species in question has for survival. The ability to perceive visual illusions is found in independently evolved visual systems, from honeybees to humans. In humans, the ability emerges early, at the age of four months. Thus the perception of illusion is likely to reflect visual processes of fundamental importance for object perception in natural vision. The experiments reported in this thesis employed various modifications of the Kanizsa triangle, a drawn configuration composed of three black disks with missing sectors on a white background. The sectors appear to form the tips of a triangle. The visual system completes the physically empty area between the disks, generally called inducers, with giving the perception of an illusory triangle. The illusory triangle consists of an illusory surface bounded by illusory contours; the triangle appears brighter than and to lie above the background. If the sectors are coloured, the colour fills the illusory area, a phenomenon known as neon colour spreading . We investigated spatial limitations on the perception of Kanizsa-type illusions and how other stimuli and viewing parameters affected these limitations. We also studied complex configurations thick, bent, mobile and chromatic inducers - to determine whether illusions combining several attributes can be perceived. The results suggest that the visual system is highly effective in completing a percept. The perception of an illusory figure is spatially scale invariant when perceived at threshold. The processing time and the number of fixations modify the percept, making the perception of the illusion more probable in various viewing conditions. Furthermore, the fact that the illusion can be perceived when only one inducer is physically present at any given moment indicates the potential of single inducers. Apparently, modelling illusory figure perception will require a combination of low-level, local processes and higher-level integrative processes. Our studies with stimuli combining several attributes relevant to object perception demonstrate that the perception of an illusory figure is flexible and is maintained also when it contains colour and volume and when shown in movement. All in all, the results confirm the assumed importance of the visual processes related with the perception of illusory figures in everyday viewing. This is indicated by the variety of inducer modifications that can be made without destroying the percept. Furthermore, the illusion can acquire additional attributes from such modifications. Due to individual differences in the perception of illusory figures, universal values for absolute performance are not always meaningful, but stable trends and general relations do exist.

"Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal": Cultural practices of repetition in visual social media

Looping media are recurring components of online content, from gifs to Vine videos, in addition to the conceptual repetition of memes and related practices. This paper analyses practices around looping visual media as examples of vernacular creativity, social media literacies, and internet culture, especially for irreverent and playful purposes. Focusing on the LGBTQ digital cultural context as a pilot study, this research examines multi-platform uses of looping media, including personal narratives through Vine videos and animated gifs on Tumblr. In addition to textual analysis of LGBTQ looping visual social media content, the study will further explore the platform context as part of the experience of looped media. The research will address how these factors may also contribute to practices of irreverence and play, both within the specific case of LGBTQ culture and internet culture more generally.

Dynamics of contour, object and face processing in the human visual cortex

The neural basis of visual perception can be understood only when the sequence of cortical activity underlying successful recognition is known. The early steps in this processing chain, from retina to the primary visual cortex, are highly local, and the perception of more complex shapes requires integration of the local information. In Study I of this thesis, the progression from local to global visual analysis was assessed by recording cortical magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses to arrays of elements that either did or did not form global contours. The results demonstrated two spatially and temporally distinct stages of processing: The first, emerging 70 ms after stimulus onset around the calcarine sulcus, was sensitive to local features only, whereas the second, starting at 130 ms across the occipital and posterior parietal cortices, reflected the global configuration. To explore the links between cortical activity and visual recognition, Studies II III presented subjects with recognition tasks of varying levels of difficulty. The occipito-temporal responses from 150 ms onwards were closely linked to recognition performance, in contrast to the 100-ms mid-occipital responses. The averaged responses increased gradually as a function of recognition performance, and further analysis (Study III) showed the single response strengths to be graded as well. Study IV addressed the attention dependence of the different processing stages: Occipito-temporal responses peaking around 150 ms depended on the content of the visual field (faces vs. houses), whereas the later and more sustained activity was strongly modulated by the observers attention. Hemodynamic responses paralleled the pattern of the more sustained electrophysiological responses. Study V assessed the temporal processing capacity of the human object recognition system. Above sufficient luminance, contrast and size of the object, the processing speed was not limited by such low-level factors. Taken together, these studies demonstrate several distinct stages in the cortical activation sequence underlying the object recognition chain, reflecting the level of feature integration, difficulty of recognition, and direction of attention.

Capillary electrochromatography: a versatile instrumental technique for nanodomain interaction studies

This doctoral thesis describes the development of a miniaturized capillary electrochromatography (CEC) technique suitable for the study of interactions between various nanodomains of biological importance. The particular focus of the study was low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles and their interaction with components of the extracellular matrix (ECM). LDL transports cholesterol to the tissues through the blood circulation, but when the LDL level becomes too high the particles begin to permeate and accumulate in the arteries. Through binding sites on apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100), LDL interacts with components of the ECM, such as proteoglycans (PGs) and collagen, in what is considered the key mechanism in the retention of lipoproteins and onset of atherosclerosis. Hydrolytic enzymes and oxidizing agents in the ECM may later successively degrade the LDL surface. Metabolic diseases such as diabetes may provoke damage of the ECM structure through the non-enzymatic reaction of glucose with collagen. In this work, fused silica capillaries of 50 micrometer i.d. were successfully coated with LDL and collagen, and steroids and apoB-100 peptide fragments were introduced as model compounds for interaction studies. The LDL coating was modified with copper sulphate or hydrolytic enzymes, and the interactions of steroids with the native and oxidized lipoproteins were studied. Lipids were also removed from the LDL particle coating leaving behind an apoB-100 surface for further studies. The development of collagen and collagen decorin coatings was helpful in the elucidation of the interactions of apoB-100 peptide fragments with the primary ECM component, collagen. Furthermore, the collagen I coating provided a good platform for glycation studies and for clarification of LDL interactions with native and modified collagen. All methods developed are inexpensive, requiring just small amounts of biomaterial. Moreover, the experimental conditions in CEC are easily modified, and the analyses can be carried out in a reasonable time frame. Other techniques were employed to support and complement the CEC studies. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy provided crucial visual information about the native and modified coatings. Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation enabled size measurements of the modified lipoproteins. Finally, the CEC results were exploited to develop new sensor chips for a continuous flow quartz crystal microbalance technique, which provided complementary information about LDL ECM interactions. This thesis demonstrates the potential of CEC as a valuable and flexible technique for surface interaction studies. Further, CEC can serve as a novel microreactor for the in situ modification of LDL and collagen coatings. The coatings developed in this study provide useful platforms for a diversity of future investigations on biological nanodomains.

Relational accountability in Indigenizing visual research for participatory communication

This article argues that an indigenous approach to communication research allows us to re-think academic approaches of engaging in and evaluating participatory communication research. It takes as its case study the Komuniti Tok Piksa project undertaken in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The project explores ways in which visual methods when paired with a community action approach embedded within an indigenous framework can be used to facilitate social change through meaningful participation. It involves communities to narrate their experiences in regard to HIV and AIDS and assists them in designing and recording their own messages. Local researchers are trained in using visual tools to facilitate this engagement with the communities.

VisArchive: a time and relevance based visual interface for searching, browsing, and exploring project archives

Background Project archives are becoming increasingly large and complex. On construction projects in particular, the increasing amount of information and the increasing complexity of its structure make searching and exploring information in the project archive challenging and time-consuming. Methods This research investigates a query-driven approach that represents new forms of contextual information to help users understand the set of documents resulting from queries of construction project archives. Specifically, this research extends query-driven interface research by representing three types of contextual information: (1) the temporal context is represented in the form of a timeline to show when each document was created; (2) the search-relevance context shows exactly which of the entered keywords matched each document; and (3) the usage context shows which project participants have accessed or modified a file. Results We implemented and tested these ideas within a prototype query-driven interface we call VisArchive. VisArchive employs a combination of multi-scale and multi-dimensional timelines, color-coded stacked bar charts, additional supporting visual cues and filters to support searching and exploring historical project archives. The timeline-based interface integrates three interactive timelines as focus + context visualizations. Conclusions The feasibility of using these visual design principles is tested in two types of project archives: searching construction project archives of an educational building project and tracking of software defects in the Mozilla Thunderbird project. These case studies demonstrate the applicability, usefulness and generality of the design principles implemented.

The digital-bricoleur: Contemporary screen-based visual art practices

This paper describes a practice-led methodology that combines contemporary art theory and processes, as well as concepts of fan studies to construct a space for the critical and creative exploration of screen culture. The research promotes new possibilities for purposeful creative engagements with the screen, framed through the lens of what I term the digital-bricoleur. This performative, link-making approach documents the complicit tendencies that arise out of my affective relationship with screen culture, mapping out a cultural terrain in which I can creatively and critically ‘play’. The creative exploitation of this improvisational and aleatory activity then forms the creative research outputs. It appropriates and reconfigures content from screen culture, creating digital video installations aimed at engendering new experiences and critical interpretations of screen culture.

Clinical Studies on Epidural and Spinal Postoperative Analgesia : With Special Reference to Continuous Techniques of Administration and Adjuvant Drugs

Continuous epidural analgesia (CEA) and continuous spinal postoperative analgesia (CSPA) provided by a mixture of local anaesthetic and opioid are widely used for postoperative pain relief. E.g., with the introduction of so-called microcatheters, CSPA found its way particularly in orthopaedic surgery. These techniques, however, may be associated with dose-dependent side-effects as hypotension, weakness in the legs, and nausea and vomiting. At times, they may fail to offer sufficient analgesia, e.g., because of a misplaced catheter. The correct position of an epidural catheter might be confirmed by the supposedly easy and reliable epidural stimulation test (EST). The aims of this thesis were to determine a) whether the efficacy, tolerability, and reliability of CEA might be improved by adding the α2-adrenergic agonists adrenaline and clonidine to CEA, and by the repeated use of EST during CEA; and, b) the feasibility of CSPA given through a microcatheter after vascular surgery. Studies I IV were double-blinded, randomized, and controlled trials; Study V was of a diagnostic, prospective nature. Patients underwent arterial bypass surgery of the legs (I, n=50; IV, n=46), total knee arthroplasty (II, n=70; III, n=72), and abdominal surgery or thoracotomy (V, n=30). Postoperative lumbar CEA consisted of regular mixtures of ropivacaine and fentanyl either without or with adrenaline (2 µg/ml (I) and 4 µg/ml (II)) and clonidine (2 µg/ml (III)). CSPA (IV) was given through a microcatheter (28G) and contained either ropivacaine (max. 2 mg/h) or a mixture of ropivacaine (max. 1 mg/h) and morphine (max. 8 µg/h). Epidural catheter tip position (V) was evaluated both by EST at the moment of catheter placement and several times during CEA, and by epidurography as reference diagnostic test. CEA and CSPA were administered for 24 or 48 h. Study parameters included pain scores assessed with a visual analogue scale, requirements of rescue pain medication, vital signs, and side-effects. Adrenaline (I and II) had no beneficial influence as regards the efficacy or tolerability of CEA. The total amounts of epidurally-infused drugs were even increased in the adrenaline group in Study II (p=0.02, RM ANOVA). Clonidine (III) augmented pain relief with lowered amounts of epidurally infused drugs (p=0.01, RM ANOVA) and reduced need for rescue oxycodone given i.m. (p=0.027, MW-U; median difference 3 mg (95% CI 0 7 mg)). Clonidine did not contribute to sedation and its influence on haemodynamics was minimal. CSPA (IV) provided satisfactory pain relief with only limited blockade of the legs (no inter-group differences). EST (V) was often related to technical problems and difficulties of interpretation, e.g., it failed to identify the four patients whose catheters were outside the spinal canal already at the time of catheter placement. As adjuvants to lumbar CEA, clonidine only slightly improved pain relief, while adrenaline did not provide any benefit. The role of EST applied at the time of epidural catheter placement or repeatedly during CEA remains open. The microcatheter CSPA technique appeared effective and reliable, but needs to be compared to routine CEA after peripheral arterial bypass surgery.