#Materials Science Conference 2018

[mpchev]

You like reading fanfics? How about reading about fanfics? 😏

Here’s what I've read so far (or am currently getting through) for my dissertation on fanfiction bookbinding! I'll be updating it as I go until the end of July. If you have any recs to add to the towering pile or any questions/opinions about something on there, I’m all ears!

on fan studies & ficbinding ✔

Alexander, Julia, ‘Making fanfiction beautiful enough for a bookshelf’, The Verge, 9 March 2021 <https://www.theverge.com/22311788/fanfiction-bookbinding-tiktok-diy-star-wars-harry-potter-twitter-fandom> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Buchsbaum, Shira Belén, ‘Binding fan fiction and reexamining book production models’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 37 (2022)

Dym, Brianna, and Casey Fiesler, ‘Ethical and privacy considerations for research using online fandom data’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 33 (2020)

Jenkins, Henry, Textual Pochers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (New York: Routeledge, 1992)

Jenkins, Henry, ‘Transmedia Storytelling 101’, Pop Junctions, 21 March 2007 <http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html#sthash.gSETwxQX.dpuf> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Hellekson, Karen, ‘Making Use Of: The Gift, Commerce, and Fans’, Cinema Journal, 54, no. 3 (2015), 125–131

Kennedy, Kimberly, ‘Fan binding as a method of fan work preservation’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 37 (2022)

Minkel, Elizabeth, ‘Before “Fans,” There Were “Kranks,” “Longhairs,” and “Lions”: How Do Fandom Gain Their Names?’, Atlas Obscura, 30 May 2024 <https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fandom-names> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Penley, Constance, Nasa / Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America (London: Verso, 1997)

Price, Ludi, ‘Fanfiction, Self-Publishing, and the Materiality of the Book: A Fan Writer’s Autoethnography’, Humanities, 11, no. 100 (2022), 1–20

Schiller, Melanie, ‘Transmedia Storytelling: New Practices and Audiences’, in Stories: Screen Narrative in the Digital Era, ed. by Ian Christie and Annie van den Oever (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), 99–107

on folklore, the internet, other background reading ✔

Barthes, Roland, ‘La mort de l’auteur’ in Le Bruissement de la langue: Essais critiques IV (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1984)

Blank, Trevor J., Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2009)

Mauss, Marcel, ‘Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques.’, L’année sociologique, 1923–1924; digital edition by Jean-Marie Tremblay, Les classiques des sciences sociales, 17 February 2002, <http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/2_essai_sur_le_don/essai_sur_le_don.html> [accessed 10 June 2024]

McCulloch, Gretchen, Because Internet: Understanding How Language is Changing (Random House, 2019)

Niles, John D., Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 1999)

hopefully coming up next (haven't started yet)

A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies, ed. by Paul Booth (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018)

A Fan Studies Primer: Method, Research, Ethics, ed. by Paul Booth and Rebecca Williams (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2021)

Dietz, Laura, ‘Showing the scars: A short case study of de-enhancement of hypertext works for circulation via fan binding or Kindle Direct Publishing’, 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (HT ‘23), September 4–8, 2023, Rome Italy (ACM: New York, 2023)

Fathallah, Judith May, Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017)

Finn, Kavita Mudan, and Jessica McCall, ‘Exit, pursued by a fan: Shakespeare, Fandom, and the Lure of the Alternate Universe’, Critical Survey, 28, no. 2 (2016), 27–38

Hjorth, Larissa et al., eds. The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2017)

Jacobs, Naomi, and JSA Lowe, ‘The Design of Printed Fanfiction: A Case Study of Down to Agincourt Fanbinding’, Proceedings from the Document Academy, 9, issue 1, article 5

Jenkins, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: New York University Press, 2006)

Jenkins, Henry, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning In A Networked Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013)

Kennedy, Kimberly, and Shira Buchsbaum, ‘Reframing Monetization: Compensatory Practices and Generating a Hybrid Economy in Fanbinding Commissions’, Humanities, 11, no. 67 (2022), 1–18

Kirby, Abby, ‘Examining Collaborative Fanfiction: New Practices in Hyperdiegesis and Poaching’, Humanities, 11, no. 87 (2002), 1–9

Kustritz, Anne, Identity, Community, and Sexuality in Slash Fan Fiction (New Work: Routeledge, 2024)

Lamerichs, Nicolle, Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affecive Reception in Fan Cultures, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam Universtiy Press, 2018)

Popova, Milena, ‘Follow the trope: A digital (auto)ethnography for fan studies’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 33 (2020)

Rosenblatt, Betsy, and Rebecca Tushnet, ‘Transformative Works: Young Women’s Voices on Fandom and Fair Use’, in eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy into Dialogue with Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices, ed. by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves

Soller, Bettina, ‘Filing off the Serial Numbers: Fanfiction and its Adaptation to the Book Market’, in Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence, ed. by Johannes Fehrle, Werner Schäfke-Zell (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019), 58–85

[dailyanarchistposts]

On tranarchism and intellectual oppression

In November 2019, at the École de la Cause Freudienne’s annual conference in Paris, Paul B. Preciado presented a speech to around 3,500 psychoanalysts. By stating “Can the monster speak?”, Preciado (2020, n.p.) invited an academy of psychoanalysts to recognize the norms that psychoanalysis produces and reproduces, despite its subversive character in relation to modern biomedicine/psychiatry. In his words, “it is the normative heterosexual psychoanalysts who urgently need to come out of the closet of the norm”. Preciado poses as a trans body,

to whom neither medicine, nor the law, nor psychoanalysis, nor psychiatry recognize the right to speak with expert knowledge about my own condition, nor the possibility of producing a discourse or a form of knowledge about myself. (Idem, n.p.)

Preciado’s critique is addressed to academic rigour which, despite claiming to be neutral, operates as an exclusionary instrument that nullifies knowledges produced by ‘others’. No wonder, then, that during his speech, several of the psychoanalysts in the auditorium began to react verbally and to turn their backs and leave, refusing to exercise what underpins the psychoanalytic clinic — that of listening. This is the expression of Otherness (Kilomba, 2019), associated with the idea of Other (Morrison, 2019), whereby the modern self grants itself the ability — or the authority — to inferiorize the one it designates as Other.

It is worth wondering whether, during the drafting of the ICDs and DSMs, the trans individuals taken as research objects had a voice in defining transsexuality, or in conceptualizing cisgenderity in the official documents. Similarly to the national State defending its fictional borders with militarism and legislation, biomedical knowledge materializes, in its official documents and care protocols, the naturalization of cisgenderity and the pathologization of transsexuality. An example of this is the current brazilian legislation up until 2018, according to which, in order for a trans person to change their name and sex on their civil documents, they had to present psychiatric and psychological reports attesting to their transsexuality.

As Bakunin (1975, p. 48) pointed out, “what is true for scientific academies is equally true for all constituent and legislative assemblies”. Only on the basis of pathology would a non-normative gender identity be legitimized. Another example of universalist science being used to legitimize State violence is Operation Tarantula, which took place in 1987, when police forces took to the streets of downtown São Paulo (Brazil) to arrest transvestite sex workers, claiming, although without any evidence, that they were committing the crime of venereal HIV infection. This is ‘scientific’ knowledge being used to legitimize institutional violence against trans people.

It is not uncommon for insurgencies by trans movements to be dismissed as violent, as attacks on society or on the heterosexual bourgeois family. However, a distinction must be made between State violence and revolutionary violence — the latter being a form of self-defense. When Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera threw bricks at New York police officers during the StoneWall Riot (1969), they were defending themselves against the everyday racist and sexist violence that prevented them from freely walking the streets of the city. Not surprisingly, numerous trans movements with political strategies aligned with revolutionary anarchist ideals, especially self-determination, direct action and mutual support (Kropotkin, n.d.), emerged and/or received greater visibility after 1969. Furthermore, the naming of cisgenderity is a clear affront to this institutional power. If, until the mid-1990s, the antagonism of transsexuality was normality, from that moment on, with the term ‘cisgenderity’, this antagonism dissolved — and this term was rejected by scientific academia, especially in gender studies. The transfeminist movement was largely responsible for introducing the concept of cisgenderity in Brazil, motivating the union of countless trans organizations against intellectual oppression.

Intellectual oppression, for Bakunin, seemed to be one of the most arduous to overcome, for what determines an individual’s intellectual capacity are scientific academies whose institutional power exceeds the individual’s power to question them. It is this same institutional power that determines what ‘true’ transsexuality is, in its numerous and biased diagnostic criteria. The direction that trans movements adopt in relation to scientific academies is not to claim legitimacy or freedom, because “the one who restrains is just as trapped as the one whose movements are hindered by the ropes” (Preciado, 2020, n.p.).

It would not be coherent to plead for freedom, as freedom should not be granted, since it is, according to Bakunin, indivisible. By naming cisgenderity, we confront an academy that determines dichotomies between the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’, which inferiorizes the different and imposes itself authoritatively in order to legitimize the Law. The fragility of the law is revealed by exposing the existence of an intellectual oppression that pushes us to the ‘outside’ of universities, since our presence on the ‘inside’ is far too damaging. If Malatesta (2009, p. 04) defines a government as “[...] an authoritarian organism which, by force, even if it is for good ends, imposes its own will on others”, it is clear that trans movements oppose precisely the imposition of gender and sexuality norms — which, as we have seen, are reiterated by the forces of the State.

Our preferred definition of tranarchism would elucidate the proximity between anarchist principles and trans emancipation strategies. Another concept that stands out in this proposition is self-determination. If, as Pfeil (2020, p. 146) writes, “the freedom of a people is its capacity to govern itself, in the anarchist perspective, to define its own future, then the freedom of a body is its capacity to self-determine [...]”. Self-determination is dear to both trans movements, in the sense that we do not need institutional legitimization to affirm who we are, and anarchist movements.

Tranarchism highlights individual and collective self-determination as a fundamental trait in the struggle for liberation. As Bakunin understood that one’s freedom is not limited, but expands with the freedom of others, likewise we understand that one’s self-determination only expands with the self-determination of others. Not surprisingly, mutual support is notable among trans movements in LGBTIAP+ shelters, autonomous care initiatives, orientation programs to facilitate access to health care and the modification of documents (Idem, 2020).

Just as, according to Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin (1993, p. 23), “Anarchists believe the first step toward self-determination and the Social revolution is Black control of the Black community”, the same is reflected in trans movements for social emancipation and combating State violence. Despite these remarks, Jeppesen & Nazar (2012) observe a scission between feminist/queer anarchisms and a supposedly ‘cisheteronormative’ anarchism, which would not consider ‘identity’ issues to be relevant to the popular struggle. However, anarchist movements have grown largely as a result of feminist and queer organizations in their strategies to confront State domination. It is in opposition to this separatism that our thoughts on tranarchism — an anarchism that does not reproduce the institutional normativities of modernity — are based.

[follow-up-news]

Unfortunately, June 18, 2023, wasn’t the first time I’d heard of Rush, or his company OceanGate, or his monstrosity of a sub. He and the Titan had been a topic of conversation talked about with real fear, on many occasions, by numerous people I met over the course of five years while reporting my book The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean. I heard discussions about the Titan as a tragedy-in-waiting on research ships, during deep-sea expeditions, in submersible hangars, at marine science conferences. I had my own troubling encounter with OceanGate in 2018 and had been watching it with concern ever since. Everyone I met in the small, tight-knit world of manned submersibles was aware of the Titan. Everyone watched in disbelief as Rush built a five-person cylindrical pressure hull out of filament-wound carbon fiber, an unpredictable material that is known to fail suddenly and catastrophically under pressure. It was as though we were watching a horror movie unfold in slow motion, knowing that whatever happened next wouldn’t be pretty. But like screaming at the screen, nothing that came out of anyone’s mouth made any difference to the ending.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New research shatters long-held beliefs about asteroid Vesta

For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system’s asteroid belt, wasn’t just an asteroid. They concluded that Vesta has a crust, mantle and core – fundamental properties of a planet. 

Astronomers studied it for clues to how early planets grew, and what Earth might have looked like in its infancy.

Now, Michigan State University has contributed to research that flips this notion on its head.

A team led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab or JPL published a paper in Nature Astronomy revealing Vesta's interior structure is more uniform than previously thought. These findings startled researchers who, until then, assumed Vesta was a protoplanet that never grew to a full planet.

“The lack of a core was very surprising,” said MSU Earth and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Seth Jacobson, a co-author on the paper. “It’s a really different way of thinking about Vesta.”

What is Vesta’s true identity? The research team has two hypotheses that need further exploration.

The first possibility is Vesta went through incomplete differentiation, meaning it started the melting process needed to give the asteroid distinct layers, like a core, mantle and crust, but never finished. The second is a theory Jacobson floated at an astronomy conference years ago -- Vesta is a broken chunk off a growing planet in our solar system.

At the conference, Jacobson wanted other researchers to consider the possibility that some meteorites could be debris from collisions that took place during the planet formation era. He included Vesta in his suggestion but hadn’t considered it a real possibility.

“This idea went from a somewhat silly suggestion to a hypothesis that we’re now taking seriously due to this re-analysis of NASA Dawn mission data,” Jacobson said.

More than an asteroid

Most asteroids are made of a very ancient chondritic material, appearing like a cosmic sedimentary gravel. In contrast, Vesta’s surface is covered in volcanic basaltic rocks. Those rocks indicated to scientists that Vesta went through a melting process called planetary differentiation, where the metal sinks to the center and forms a core. 

NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft in 2007 to study Vesta and Ceres, the two largest objects in the asteroid belt. The goal was to better understand how planets were formed.

Dawn spent months from 2011 to 2012 orbiting Vesta, measuring its gravity field and taking high-resolution images to create a very detailed map of its surface. After performing similar tasks at Ceres, the mission finished in 2018, and scientists published findings from the data.

Jacobson said the more that researchers used the data, the better they got at processing it. They found ways to more accurately calibrate measurements that yield an improved picture of Vesta’s makeup. That’s why Ryan Park, a JPL senior research scientist and principal engineer, and his team decided to reprocess Vesta’s measurements. 

"For years, conflicting gravity data from Dawn’s observations of Vesta created puzzles,” Park said. “After nearly a decade of refining our calibration and processing techniques, we achieved remarkable alignment between Dawn’s Deep Space Network radiometric data and onboard imaging data. We were thrilled to confirm the data’s strength in revealing Vesta’s deep interior. Our findings show Vesta’s history is far more complex than previously believed, shaped by unique processes like interrupted planetary differentation and late-stage collisions.”

Planetary scientists can estimate the size of a celestial body’s core by measuring what’s called the moment of inertia. It’s a concept from physics that describes how difficult it is to change the rotation of an object around an axis. Jacobson compared this concept to a figure skater spinning on ice. They change their speed by pulling their arms in to speed up and moving them outward to slow down. Their moment of inertia is changed by the changing position of their arms.

Similarly, an object in space with a larger core is like a ballerina with their arms pulled in. Celestial bodies with a dense core move differently than one with no core at all. Armed with this knowledge, the research team measured the rotation and gravity field of Vesta. The results showed Vesta didn’t behave like an object with a core, challenging prior ideas about how it formed. 

Two hypotheses

Neither hypothesis has been explored enough to rule either out, but both have problems that require more research to explain. While incomplete differentiation is possible, it doesn’t line up with the meteorites researchers have collected over time.

“We’re really confident these meteorites came from Vesta,” Jacobson said. “And these don’t show obvious evidence of incomplete differentiation.”

The alternative explanation is based on the idea that as the terrestrial planets formed, large collisions occurred, mostly growing the planets but also generating impact debris. The ejected materials from those collisions would include rocks resulting from melting, and, like Vesta, they wouldn’t have a core.

Jacobson’s lab was already exploring the consequences of giant impacts during the planet formation era. He’s working with one of his graduate students, Emily Elizondo, on the idea that some asteroids in the asteroid belt are pieces ejected from the growing planets. 

This idea is still far from proven. More models need to be created and fine-tuned to prove that Vesta is an ancient chunk of a forming planet. Scientists can adjust how they study Vesta meteorites to dive deeper into either hypothesis, Jacobson said. They could also do further studies with the new approaches to the Dawn mission data.

This paper is only the beginning of a new direction of study, Jacobson said. It could forever change how scientists look at differentiated worlds.

“No longer is the Vesta meteorite collection a sample of a body in space that failed to make it as a planet,” Jacobson said. “These could be pieces of an ancient planet before it grew to full completion. We just don’t know which planet that is yet.”

[reasoningdaily]

After Black Lives Matter - CEDRIC G.JOHNSON

THIS BOOK IS A FREE DOWNLOAD FROM THE BLACK TRUEBRARY CLICK THE TITLE TO DOWNLOAD

Contemporary policing reflects the turn from welfare to domestic warfare as the chief means of regulating the excluded and oppressed The historic uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd transformed the way we think about race and policing. Why did it achieve so little in the way of substantive reforms? After Black Lives Matter argues that the failure to leave an institutional residue was not simply due to the mercurial and reactive character of the protests. Rather, the core of the movement itself failed to locate the central racial injustice that underpins the crisis of policing: socio-economic inequality. For Johnson, the anti-capitalist and downwardly redistributive politics expressed by different Black Lives Matter elements has too often been drowned out in the flood of black wealth creation, fetishism of Jim Crow black entrepreneurship, corporate diversity initiatives, and a quixotic reparations demand. None of these political tendencies addresses the fundamental problem underlying mass incarceration. That is the turn from welfare to domestic warfare as the chief means of regulating the excluded and oppressed. Johnson sees the way forward in building popular democratic power to advance public works and public goods.  Rather than abolishing police, After Black Lives Matter argues for abolishing the conditions of alienation and exploitation contemporary policing exists to manage.

Review

"A virtuoso performance! Weighing the successes and limitations of Black Lives Matter, Johnson concludes that identity-based mobilization—confusing what people look like with what they need—cannot substitute for majoritarian political coalition-building." —Barbara J. Fields, Columbia University "A brilliant scholar who is first and foremost concerned with equality and justice. It’s those very commitments that lead him, in After Black Lives Matter, to question today’s antiracism and its nostrums." —Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto "Essential reading for those weary of platitude-driven texts on race and criminal justice and in the market for an empirically grounded political analysis that points to practicable solutions to one of the biggest problems of our day." —Touré F. Reed, author of Toward Freedom "A provocative and expansive critique from the left of the loose collection of protest actions, organizations, and ideological movements-whether prison abolition or calls to defund the police-that make up what we now call Black Lives Matter...After Black Lives Matter should be commended both for the clarity of its message and the bravery of its convictions." —Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker

About the Author

Cedric Johnson is professor of African American Studies and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His book, Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics was named the 2008 W.E.B. DuBois Outstanding Book of the Year by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.  Johnson is the editor of The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism and the Remaking of New Orleans. His 2017 Catalyst essay, “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now: Anti-policing Struggles and the Limits of Black Power,” was awarded the 2018 Daniel Singer Millenium Prize. Johnson’s writings have appeared in Nonsite, Jacobin, New Political Science, New Labor Forum, Perspectives on Politics, Historical Materialism, and Journal of Developing Societies. In 2008, Johnson was named the Jon Garlock Labor Educator of the Year by the Rochester Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He previously served on the representative assembly for UIC United Faculty Local 6456.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Given the sheer scale, magnitude and diversity of 2020’s resurgent Black Lives Matter protests, many pundits, scholars and activists celebrated the George Floyd rebellion as an historic watershed, one where the possibility of real reform came into view. For too  many, however, the euphoria of the moment suspended any criti- cal analysis of what it all meant. This is a deeper problem on the  US left—the tendency to read protests as always prefigurative rather than contingent, and as a manifestation of real power rather than a reflection of potential. Such wish-fulfillment think- ing, however, forgets that mass mobilization is not the same as  organized power, and that mass mobilization is much easier now with the endless opportunities for expressing discontent provided by social media, online petitions, memes and vlogging.

The scale of protests can be misleading, and their actual effectiveness, regardless of their size, is dependent on historical conjunctures, such as the balance of political forces, the organized power and  capacity of opposition and the clarity of objectives among activists. Throughout the opening decades of this century, ever larger  protests have proved incapable of consolidating in a manner that might effectively oppose ruling-class prerogatives. In recent memory, we have witnessed successive mass protests—turn-of the-century demonstrations against global capitalism, protests against the Bush administration’s so-called War on Terror, Occupy Wall Street encampments, anti-eviction campaigns, the March for Our Lives following the Parkland High School mass shooting, protests against police violence and ICE deportations, among others—but these have done little to depose capitalist class power and the advancing neoliberal project.

If anything, the hegemony of finance capital, the war-making powers of the national security state, the criminalization of immigration, the power of the gun lobby and the unaccountability of police are as entrenched as ever. THIS BOOK IS A FREE DOWNLOAD FROM THE BLACK TRUEBRARY

[denimbex1986]

'During the middle of World War II, teenage physics major Roy Glauber found himself plucked out of college on the East Coast and assigned to work at a mysterious new government research center in the far-off deserts of New Mexico.

His destination turned out to be a laboratory at Los Alamos, a part of the Manhattan Project, where he was assigned to work under groundbreaking theoretical physicist Hans Bethe to help calculate the smallest amount of fissionable material—the critical mass—needed to set off a sustained nuclear reaction.

Glauber was one of the youngest scientists in the 1,400-person Los Alamos staff, and afterward he went on to a distinguished career in physics, earning a doctorate—and later becoming a professor—at Harvard University. His work focused on a wide variety of topics, including quantum dynamics, the collisions of high-energy particles such as hadrons, and the behavior of light particles, especially in clarifying how light had the characteristics of a wave and a particle simultaneously. In addition to his research, Glauber was known for his sense of humor, such as being the official “keeper of the broom” at an annual mock scientific conference sponsored by what has been called the MAD magazine of science, where his role was to sweep the stage clean of paper airplanes. (It’s become a tradition for members of the audience to throw paper airplanes at the stage to celebrate the end of the night’s proceedings.)

In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics; some years later, the 91-year-old Glauber attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where he agreed to an interview with me. Sadly, he died a year-and-a-half later, in 2018.

In this interview, one of the last surviving eyewitnesses from the effort to build the first atomic bomb gives his impressions of that project’s driving force—the director of the Los Alamos lab, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Glauber describes what it felt like to be working there as a young physicist; experience the overwhelming need for secrecy—and witness the test explosion of the first atomic bomb.

Dan Drollette Jr: To start things off, I thought we might look at these photos on my laptop of 1940s security ID badges from Los Alamos. As you can see, each one has a name, an ID number, and a kind of small black-and-white photo—but at least they each show the individual faces of the people who worked there at the time.

Roy Glauber: Oh, yes. (Looks through array of photos on screen.)

There’s Dorothy McKibbin.

And there’s a very young Richard Feynman. Though they all look young.

You know, there was very little sense at Los Alamos at the time that any history was being enacted which would be of interest after the war was over. So, there was very, very little photography devoted to the individuals.

Although there was a large photographic division, which photographed all the experiments—including all the failures, and there were vast numbers of those. (Laughs.)

But there was not much on simply recording the way people lived, and where we hung out.

Drollette: I like that smirk on Feynman’s ID photo. It’s a funny expression.

Glauber: Well, for all intents and purposes, he was the resident clown. You would often find that wherever people gathered for lunch, there would always be a little knot of about half-a-dozen women all in the corner, laughing—and in the center would be Feynman, telling stories. He really made quite an entertainer of himself. He happened also to be possibly the brightest young mathematician in the place. I met Feynman in the year 1943, when I arrived there.

Drollette: And how old were you when you went to Los Alamos?

Glauber: I was 18.

Drollette: From the description you gave for an oral history about the Manhattan Project, it sounded like they didn’t tell you much about what you were getting into.

Glauber: That was a matter of security, of course.

But I quickly got a general impression of what might be in the air, because the story of fission had been really big just a few years earlier, in 1939. All during the middle ‘30s, Fermi had been subjecting many elements to irradiation by neutrons… By 1938, he was doing it with uranium. He found all sorts of funny particles flying out, which he could not analyze, and which were found to have strange chemical properties. And researchers had developed the idea that maybe they might be evidence of the fissioning of uranium.

That was a really great discovery, which then led to speculation about the possibility of a chain reaction. It made a big stir in the newspapers for a time, and it was an exciting story, at least for a kid like me.

But then it all just … disappeared. Not another word about it. There was speculation that fission might have some strategic importance, and so it was declared secret, at least in America. And one really heard nothing more of it, in the several years that followed. The story went subsurface. It just went nowhere.

Drollette: But you had a general kind of sense?

Glauber: Well, I don’t know if I’d say that, but that was what had been going on in the background. All I knew for sure was that we were at war, I was in college, I’d registered for the draft, and I was expecting to be going directly into the armed forces….

But suddenly other things began to happen … and happen quite rapidly. It all started quite soon after I filled out this questionnaire that had arrived from Washington, from an organization which has almost never been heard of before or since, called the “National Roster of Scientific Personnel.” It was intended to put people who were trained and with the right skills into the right places—and there was a great shortage of people who were well-trained.

While filling out that questionnaire I wrote down that I had taken all these courses, which were almost all things that one takes much later, in graduate school. So, to make a long story short, they came and got me—I received instructions to leave Harvard as soon as one could leave that school term and get a ticket for the first train to Chicago.

Drollette: But weren’t you only in your first year of college?

Glauber: Well, you have to understand that by ’43, they were tired of drafting older men—particularly those with families. They wanted young guys for the military. And it all makes sense, given my personal history: I had skipped some grades in high school—which was much more common back then, when they really pushed people forward academically, regardless if they were really mature enough—and I’d been involved in all kinds of science projects, and a high school teacher had given me some books on calculus. Which all meant that I got a little ahead.

And then after I did get into college, all the professors started leaving to go work in the war effort, and the college administration announced that this would be the last chance for many of us to take some of the more advanced courses for the duration of the war. So, the whole education business was kind of telescoped for us—meaning that I had all these graduate-level classes on my school record.

Drollette: What happened next?

Glauber: It was very secretive; they would not say where one was going after Chicago. After I got there, I had to make a phone call to someone at some agency, who gave me another train ticket that turned out to go to a place in New Mexico I’d never heard of, called Lamy—not much more than a wooden boardwalk for a station. And it was there that I was supposed to get off, and someone would meet me. Meanwhile, any personal belongings I wanted to ship out—books and clothing—would go to a post office box. I still remember the address: Post Office Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Well, I had never been west of Chicago. So that alone was quite an exciting business for me, riding on the Santa Fe Railroad, seeing bona fide cowboys, and watching people who were bronze in color and wearing furs and blankets get on the train.

When I got to Lamy, I was met by a tall, slender fellow who to all intents looked like a cowboy: He literally had a 10-gallon hat and wore a checked yellow shirt and dungarees. And this cowboy picked up not only me from the train but a short man with a derby hat and a navy-blue overcoat who also got off at that same stop—whom I later found out was John von Neumann.

The most remarkable thing was the geography. I’d never seen anything quite like that before; mesas and gulches and mountains, with narrow roads dug into the sides of canyon walls…

And this chap, this cowboy figure I’ve described to you, was a mathematician that previously worked with Neumann, and they started talking about what was going on in “the research up on ‘the Hill.’ ”

They had to resort to this way of talking, because they felt that was what one had to do in order to preserve the lab’s secrets—they didn’t know my state of clearance at all. So they described in terms appropriate to them the terrible things that were going on in a particular computation. It was not in the real world, but they were describing it as if it were the real world.

The fact that matter was being annihilated was to them a simple description of a mathematical mistake, while to me it was a description of the most incredible feats going on in the real world. So it was a very unusual sort of introduction to this kind of life.

Drollette: What were your first impressions?

Glauber: Well, I mentioned the geography: all canyons and plateaus. Los Alamos was placed in a virtually impassable area, miles from the nearest town. At the stage that I got there, there were still some log houses remaining from what had formerly been the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys—a tuberculosis sanatorium—and the beginnings of more new structures. They had started putting up dormitories and some small apartment buildings a few months earlier, but none of them had space for more than four apartments with small families.

And there were quite a few small families, and many families that got appreciably larger. It had one of the busiest maternity hospitals, I think, that were run anywhere by the US Army. (Laughter.)

You have to understand that these were all young people; the older people didn’t want to go to this godforsaken location.

Drollette: What was the very first day of work like at the Manhattan Project?

Glauber: The first morning I was there, I was given a list of people to march around and meet. It was as if they had to compete for new personnel—to speak up and say “I want the new guy.”

Out of them all, I best remember an interview with Robert F. Bacher, who was head of the physics division.

On meeting me for the first time, Bacher said: “I bet you’re interested in what we’re working on here.” And I said I didn’t know.

So he said: “What’s your best guess? What do you think we’re working on?” He was asking me—an 18-year-old!

So I told him that “Judging from the treatment that the story had been given by the newspapers earlier, you’re probably trying to create a chain reaction based on fission.”

He said: “Well, that’s a very erudite guess. But I have to tell you, we succeeded in doing that a year-and-a-half ago”—he was describing the fact that they had indeed gotten a reaction to occur in Chicago, although that had nothing to do with Los Alamos.

And he added: “I have to tell you, however, that we are indeed working on a chain reaction here, it just happens to be a fast chain reaction, not a slow one.” And he then went on to explain that it was a bomb.

I was really quite upset by that—the notion that this was not going to be so much about a gift to mankind, but a weapon.

And it did take some weeks and months to overcome that feeling … and to discover that there were really interesting mathematical problems involved in making this bomb. And those really did keep me busy for the next two years.

So anyway, that’s how I learned what the story was.

Drollette: Was there any kind of orientation?

Glauber: There was something called the Primer, which you had to go and read—a sort of text for beginners. It was available in the library, and you had to sign out a copy, where you could learn of all of the speculations about the bomb that had been voiced in the months earlier.

Drollette: Were you at the Trinity Test?

Glauber: Well, how to put this… I saw it. (Laughs.)

They didn’t want us to fear its presence, so it was okay to view it from a distance.

But I had no authorization, if that’s what you mean. Just as important, there was also a considerable shortage of transportation. Very few people had cars at Los Alamos, and gasoline rationing meant you couldn’t go very far, anyway.

Luckily, I did get a lift to a mountain near Albuquerque, to the only place where a road goes to a really high altitude at that area, called Sandia Peak… I think there may have been 20 or 30 people altogether who went to the top of Sandia to try to see that test.

Unfortunately, we had no radio contact with the people running the Trinity Test, which was on a plain almost due south of Albuquerque. Now, we knew the test was supposed to be a couple of hours after midnight. But there was, in fact, a lightning storm at that time so it was delayed. I don’t know if lightning was striking right there at that testing spot—but frankly, it would have been very scary to be anywhere near there, because the bomb was held in a 100-foot-tall steel tower. And the lightning striking around there would have had a considerable chance of striking that tower.

Anyway, after a while, we saw some flashes, little flashes—which would have been considerable disappointments.

So by 5:30 in the morning, nearly everyone had left, because you got tired of just sitting there with no indication of when it was going to happen.

But I was a little more stubborn. The others had left, but I was sitting there facing in that direction when at 5:30 in the morning, it was as if the sun was rising from the south.

Drollette: So you saw it?

Glauber: I saw it. (Pause.)

Drollette: That must have been some experience.

Glauber: Yes. (Pause.)

Drollette: What was Oppenheimer like?

Glauber: He was a remarkable choice. Oppenheimer was an ultra-intellectual American, and he loved to express himself in poetic images and phrases. When he was in college—I think it took him only three years to go through Harvard—he developed the knack of reading Sanskrit and a passion for Indic poetry. Now, I can’t begin to tell you how deep or how accurate his knowledge was of these areas—none of us could. There was no one else at Los Alamos who knew about this sort of thing.

But he had studied it, and he used those phrases often. Oppenheimer used them particularly to describe the unearthly things that one saw in a nuclear explosion. He had a passionate involvement with expressing himself in literary language. He did not speak the ordinary language of New York, which many of us did.

Drollette: You’re referring to his comment “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”?

Glauber: Exactly, exactly.

So he was very different. He did not sound like a typical American leader at all. Yet somehow all of us respected that—and even admired that. He was about as opposite an individual as you could imagine from General Groves. They were like two polar opposites.

But they often appeared together in public—the leader of the science side and the leader of the military part. They were very careful that at important, strategic times, they would both appear together. There was something really symbolic about that, and you’ll notice it in many of the photographs.

Drollette: Let’s see if I can call it up on the screen—okay, here’s the ID badge photo of Oppenheimer.

It’s not very good, more like the picture you have on your driver’s license. But even in the security picture, I get a sense of him as being sort of otherworldly.

Glauber: That’s a good word. He acted otherworldly, a little. Women found him somewhat strange.

I knew one woman he had gone with before he married, and she thought that he behaved very strangely. She described how one time they had driven up to some place or other above Berkeley. He had left her sitting in the car and went off on some kind of solitary walk by himself one night, leaving her. (Laughs.)

There were many such stories about him. He was a rather different sort of person. He had already had some difficulties.

He was rather—how should I say it—an aesthete.

And in Britain, he had a rather difficult time: He tried joining an experimental group, and there was some sort of serious trouble. I can’t remember what the trouble was, but it was really quite serious. He left Britain and went to Germany. And there, he began working under Max Born and decided that he was a theorist, not an experimenter. He would never have been a decent experimenter, he was altogether too nervous. He never stopped smoking, he always had a cigarette in his mouth. He was a very nervous, tense man.

But he expressed himself quite beautifully. And the scientists really seemed to respect that. He never had any serious trouble with the scientists; no insurrection or disagreements.

Drollette: Was he soft-spoken?

Glauber: He was, yes.

And the remarkable thing, which you’ll catch in my own photos when I show them tomorrow, is that as a theorist, Oppie went around and visited all the experimental sites. He involved himself with the experimenters as much as possible—even though he never touched experiments and never went near the performance of experiments himself, after his bad experience in Britain.

Drollette: Is there something that makes theoretical physicists different from experimental physicists? They just seem to be a different group.

Glauber: Well, they are, they really are. First of all, many of them are physically clumsy.

You put them in the laboratory and the glassware starts breaking. (Laughter.)

Although that isn’t true of all of them, of course.

And I’ve got to say that when I was a kid, I myself thought that I was going to be an experimenter—and then mathematics moved me away. I felt later that that was a mistake, and that I should have become an experimenter. But it was too late.

Drollette: What did Oppie do that made Los Alamos so extraordinary?

Glauber: Well, he was extraordinary. He was a man of really considerable insight. The curious thing is how few things he actually did himself; there is next to nothing known by Oppenheimer’s name. But he understood it all and described it very well—and made quite a contribution that way.

Drollette: So he was a good manager, he understood the people he was dealing with?

Glauber: Well, you never would have thought that; he had had zero experience as a manager. And putting him in charge was the most imaginative thing that General Groves ever did.

He was rather an aloof person, and not easy to get to know.

But on the other hand, Oppie somehow created an atmosphere at Los Alamos that was unique, where everyone was working together on a mission. Consequently, even if you were a student, you could talk to a famous physicist.

All the physicists who were there were very accessible, and very involved. The only exception that comes to mind is Edward Teller.

Drollette: What was Teller’s role?

Glauber: Teller was one of the early theorists about chain reactions. And he had worked on why the stars shine—the thermonuclear reactions which go on in stars. He was known for that sort of thing.

But Teller was also a very impatient man, and very outspoken.

And I must say, when I got to Los Alamos, he was absent. There was an office next to mine which had the name “Teller” on the door, but there was no Edward Teller. He had determined in late 1943 that he had not been given the important positions that he wanted, and he had left in a huff. He left for something over a month, and then came back.

He was a big noise.

But Oppenheimer welcomed him back and gave him a division all his own, that would deal with what was called the “Super”—and the Super turned out to be the only passion that Teller truly had.

Drollette: What was the Super?

Glauber: That was the idea that one could use the fission reaction from the atomic bomb as a sort of match to ignite the kind of enormous continuous release of energy that occurs in a thermonuclear reaction—the kind that the stars burn. So, Teller’s notion was that you would use the fission bomb to ignite a thermonuclear reaction, which would release unlimited amounts of energy. And eventually, by 1954, that was what happened.

Drollette: So Teller was the man behind the H-bomb.

Glauber: Well, he tried hard to be the man behind the H-bomb. When the war was over and a great many people began leaving Los Alamos, Teller was the one person who would not leave. Teller felt his mission was still to start the thermonuclear reaction—and he had no success at it.

And that failure to discover how to ignite that reaction continued on through 1949, which was the point at which the Russians tested their first fission bomb.

So, immediately there was pressure on President Truman to get the Super project regenerated, in order for the United States to have the hydrogen bomb—an order of magnitude of destructive power above what we had been working on during the war.

And I must say that the hydrogen bomb has never done anybody any good. It does exist, and it is an enormous threat, but it has accomplished nothing in constructive terms.

Nothing for science.

Nothing for anybody.

Nothing for security.'

[xwx26]

Exploring VR

As VR is something new to me, I decided to investigate a bit on VR, why is it enjoyable and any technicalities to look for.

Virtual Reality, or VR, is an evolving technology that creates immersive digital environments that can engage users through multisensory stimulation through sound, sight and interactivity. In fact, the appeal of VR lies in its ability to generate presence—the psychological feeling of "being there" in a virtual environment despite knowing you're physically elsewhere (Slater, 2009).

VR is popular as its able to tap into components that no other media can such as spatial presence, involvement, a feeling of "realness", and inmersivness. All these factors combined can cause heightened emotional responses and engagement, even more so compared to the other medias such as normal games or books.

Introduction to VR Experience

Virtual Reality (VR) technology creates immersive digital environments that engage users through multisensory stimulation. The appeal of VR lies in its ability to generate presence—the psychological feeling of "being there" in a virtual environment despite knowing you're physically elsewhere (Slater, 2009). This sense of presence is achieved through a combination of stereoscopic visual displays, spatial audio, and motion tracking systems that respond to user movements in real-time.

Research indicates that effective VR experiences engage three key psychological components: spatial presence, involvement, and realness. When these elements align properly, users report heightened emotional responses and engagement compared to traditional media formats.

Fig.1: Beat saber (2018)

For instance, a popular game that takes advantages of the possibilities is Beat Saber, a game that focus on sound and quick reaction from the players as they try to slash obstacles on beat with the music.

As mentioned previously, VR is still an evolving technology, so it does still have quite limitations. For example, VR has some polygon limitations, which is usually lower than traditional games. This limit from what I have seen personally usually does not surpass 1 million polys per scene. In addition frame rates are very important as frame drops can cause discomfort for the player which would tarnish the experience. Another aspect to consider is to limit the amount of materials, including low texture maps sizes and baking of lighting being heavily recommended. These limitations might cause the game not to look as aesthetically pleasing but they are important to keep performance, so a balance has to be found.

These limitations are similar to those of mobile games, where developers have to balance aesthetic and art style with performance and optimization.

VR has also expanded beyond entertainment into numerous professional fields:

Healthcare: It can be used for exposure therapy, pain management, and surgical training with documented efficacy.

Education: Studies show improved knowledge retention rates of 75-90% compared to 5-10% with traditional lecture formats (Freina & Ott, 2015).

Architecture and Design: Enables stakeholders to experience spaces before construction, reducing costly design changes.

All in all, VR is a very promosing field with an interesting future. It might take while for VR to take over traditional media as mentioned above, it does have several constraints. Fixing these issues might take years to decades, but once they are done, I believe that VR will become the most consumed form of media within the upcoming years.

----------------------------------------------------------------

References

Freina, L., & Ott, M. (2015). A literature review on immersive virtual reality in education. The International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education.

Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3549-3557.

[cleekleequlee]

NERD 6th Sense

Earlier this month (November 2024) I flied to Augsburg, Germany to attend the NERD conference hosted by BIRD. NERD - New Experimental Resarch in Design. BIRD - Board of International Research in Design. Conference is always exciting - someone as introvert as I am could suddenly turn into hyper mode. But this one is particularly interesting for its single track setup - only 12 speakers in the course of two days, full attention from the audience promised. Because of this, I was able to talk to almost all speakers, most of the organizers personally and made a few new friends.

A few observation / highlights:

What is special about design research? My interest in NERD/BIRD largely started with reading of Prof. Wolfgang Jonas' theory on Research through Design, informed by systems thinking. In the opening speech Prof. Jonas reiterated his proposition for design research as "muddling through" (See the "preface to the new edition" in Jonas (2024)). This playful, experimental, "not taking it too serious" attitude and a higher tolerance and acceptance of uncertainty in the process of research is one of the features in almost all presentations. The framing of this often open-ended process, however, can differ from project to project. Often it is easier to present a project in the form of final outcome, for example, the cultivation of bacteria from nearby plant in Emma's case (1), the speculative design in Veronica's case (3), or the systems thinking + speculative design curriculum in Ranjit's case (12). The research process, or how such research is achieved, still largely escapes capturing. This will lead to a focus on the quality of final outcome, or give rise to the questions like "why it's design's job, not material science's?". Fundamental to all projects mentioned above, I think, is a reconsideration of the relations between "product" and human. Emma's project perceives a kombucha bacteria not only as a living organism but also place-based, with its geneaology and symbiotic relationships with plants, people, culture and practice. Veronica's speculative design of silkworm-woven artificial heart, on the other hand, could be viewed as the embodiment/materialization of a reevaluation of human-silkworm ethics. In this light, my research can also be seen as establishing a responsive / corresponsive relationship between human and more-than-human through a process of recuring urbannature encounters. Using the concept of "escape" employed by Tobias Rees (2018), it is important to articulate what the new and emerging is escaping from (the linear historicity, the natural evolution of a certain narrative...), and why is it important.

Systems thinking: I had the fortune to talk to Prof. Jonas and Ranjit Menon and exchange our ideas on systems thinking. Of course it still means different things for different people, but for me more and more systems thinking becomes a first-step departure from mechanic understanding of the world. Understanding of the movement of the world through elements, causations and feedback loops can be liberating at the start of the journey and limiting at a later stage, and at that time the mind will be better prepared to embrace complexity and chaos. So the combination of systems thinking and speculative design in Ranjit's case is really interesting, providing both a research tool for designers and a scarfolding for views. Also on systems thinking, it was encouraging for me to reach agreement with Prof. Jonas on our focus on irreducible complexity of relality. A process view of the iterative process of wayfaring seems unavoidable, and I'm glad that Prof. Jonas find my description of the process "convincing".

More-than-human: On the topic of non-human / more-than-human, there are a few interesting presentations/discussions. Marta's work (2), although focusing on mycelium, seems still captivated by the tendency of anthropocentric control. Do we listen to "others" just so they could finally conform to our will? Veronica's work (3) poses interesting ethical question: if killing is unavoidable, what is the use that is worth the killing (of hundreds of silkworms)?Elias' robot surprisingly is positioned to escape anthropomorphism - what does otherness really mean and can it be translated to a human sense (with reference to sci-fi aesthetics)? (I think it will be actually interesting to explore the affective relationship by writing an autoethnographic piece ...Elias? ;). The quick exchange with Michelle Christensen was enormously encouraging in that we both agree design's material intervention/exchange/worldmaking is still largely undervalued in new materialism theory. How can design research collectively make our voice heard?

Affective stitches: Pamela's feminism informed stitches (7) and Valarie's proposition of industrial-level repair designer (8) reminded me of the inspiration I got from visible mending workshop in Rotterdam. There is something about reflexivity, time, embodied thinking, and attachment to materiality (Hirscher, 2024) in the act of stitching and mending, though I don't know yet what connection it will make with my research...

Philosophy of design: The last presentation by Luz Christopher Seiberth & Robert Fehse was a unique collaboration between philosopher and product designer. Their presentation in the form of a philosophical essay may appear to be arrogant to some, but I find it powerful and deliberate. The dance between properties (material features) and perspective (subjective perception) can be ellaborated with many other pairs of terms, but the idea of specificity defines and develops concept is an intresting one to dwell in. The question asked by Alias in the Q&A question is particularly interesting for me: if recipe cannot be strictly and identically followed every single time, are we already designing by following the recipe? For me, this gap, or grey space, between the concept and abstraction, which can be easily equated with each other as in a math equation, and the specificity which is multiple and distinct every single time (think of an apple, there are never two apples that are identical) is particularly interesting. A multiple understanding of reality/materiality to me sits in the central of design. On a euclidean plane, the shortest distance between any two distinct points is the line segment joining them. But what are the other possibilities in the space that is wide open?

Feminist camp: Although there is no panel dedicated to feminism, the influences of feminist thoughts are either claimed or visible in many presentations (1, 3, 4, 7). The topic of gender was also slightly touched upon in Uta's session (particularly in the questions in Pamela's presentation regarding the stitch circles, whether the dominance of female participants introduces bias, or is a homage to the female mutural support legacy in many cultures). Despite the constant influence of feminist posthumanism theories in my research, for pragmatic reasons it sometimes takes a backseat. It was interesting that the role of "body" or "bodily knowing" in my research seems to get more attraction than RtD, and female and male audience seem to have very different reactions. At a point I have to bring in my experience as a mom to help explain that by "body" i don't mean bodily physicality, but a different way of sensing-knowing. Should I take a stronger claim in my feminist new materialism position? How does it help? I haven't made up my mind. But on the side Lisa (4) offered a powerful manifest on identity. I wonder how male audience feel about it...

****

NERD 6 sense program

Alive Matters

A Multi-sited Approach in Biodesign: Biomaterial Diversity in the Lab and the Field Emma Sicher (HfG Offenbach am Main / Matters of Activity, HU Berlin)

2. Between Alive and Inert: Exploring Potentials of Mycelium-based Composites in Context of Bio-inclusive Architecture Marta Mastalerska-Scholz (TU Berlin)

Speculative Existence

3. Polyphonic Futures: Collectively Speculating Bio-Digital Imaginaries as a Transversal Engagement Method Across Matter, Design, Science and the Public Veronica Ranner (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

4. Pleasing Machines: Aproaches to Experimental Artistic Research Design Lisa Glauer (Kang Contemporary)

Spatial Encounters

5. Walking with the More-than-human in Hong Kong: En/Inaction in Design for Posthumanist Transformation Clee-Zhuo Wang (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

6. Counter Space: Strategies for Challenging Hegemony in Institutional Spaces Ozan Güngör (Critical Media Lab / HGK Basel, Switzerland)

Textile Narratives

7. Digital Stitch Pamela Nelson (Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Netherlands)

8. Designers Repairing Fashion Valerie Lange (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Austria)

Machinic Extensions

9. RoboSonic Play: Performing Auditory Dimensions of Otherness Elias Naphausen (THA), Jan Willmann (Bauhaus University Weimar) & Andreas Muxel (THA)

10. My Leib is my Lab: Post-phenomenological Investigation of the Explorative Computer-aided Design of Graphic Images Natascha Tümpel (Bauhaus University Weimar) (Cancelled)

Explorative Reflections

11. Experiments in the Art of Systems Thinking: Remediating Systems Thinking for Design Education in Product Design Ranjit Menon (Amrita University, India)

12. No Recipes for Design: Reference Resolution, and the Metaphysics of Design Objects Luz Christopher Seiberth (University Potsdam) & Robert Fehse (ARGUMENT)

****

Reference:

Jonas, W. (2024). A cybernetic model of design research towards a trans-domain of knowing. In P. Rodgers & J. Yee (Eds.), The Routledge companion to design research (Second edition. ed.). Routledge. 

Rees, T. (2018). After ethnos. Duke University Press. 

Hirscher, M. (2024, 2024-06-23). Human-material interactions as practice for care. DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston.

[tritonmarketresearchamey]

Latest Advances in Gene and Cell Therapies Transform Healthcare

Gene and cell therapies represent a ground-breaking advancement in medical science, offering potential cures for a variety of previously untreatable diseases. These therapies are revolutionizing how we provide targeted healthcare by modifying genetic material or using cells to restore or alter biological functions. Early interventions in congenital disorders can significantly reduce long-term health complications, offering a healthier start to life for newborns. Thus, the potential of gene and cell therapies to transform medical treatments is immense, especially in the field of natal and prenatal care.

A notable example of gene therapy involved the birth of the first babies with edited genes. In 2018, Dr. Jiankui announced the birth of twin girls whose genes were edited using CRISPR technology. He edited and deactivated a gene known as CCR5 with the goal of conferring resistance to HIV in those girls.

Latest Developments in Gene and Cell Therapies

The field of gene and cell therapies is crucial in the mainstream as drug-regulating authorities approve treatments for diseases like lymphoma and muscular dystrophy. Let us explore the latest developments regarding these therapies.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) accounts for about 4% of all cancers in the US, with an estimated 80,620 new cases expected this year. In this regard, Bristol Myers Squibb’s Breyanzi, a CAR T cell therapy, was approved in 2024 by the FDA, which utilizes the patient’s immune system to target and destroy cancer cells.

In 2024, the FDA approved Sarepta Therapeutics’ Elevidys, a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which affects approximately 1 in 3,500 to 5000 male births worldwide, typically manifesting between ages 3 and 6. This groundbreaking offers new hope by addressing the root cause of this debilitating condition.

Exploring Current and Future Applications

CRISPR and Genome Editing: CRISPR technology has revolutionized genome editing, offering precise modifications to DNA and correcting genetic defects at their source. This technology is being explored for a variety of applications including current and future applications. However, acquiring approvals to run trials on humans has always been challenging, yet the CTX001 stands out with its success in this regard. The CTX001 is an autologous gene-edited stem cell therapy developed by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Haydar Frangoul, the medical director at HCA Sarah Cannon Research Institute Center, has been treating the first patient in the CTX001 trial for SCD therapy. The patient had battled sickle cell disease for 34 years before undergoing this one-time treatment. Post-treatment, her blood showed a significant proportion of fetal hemoglobin levels, enabling her to avoid blood transfusions and pain attacks without major side effects.

Stem Cell Research: These cells have the unique ability to differentiate into various cell types, making them invaluable for regenerative medicine. Research in stem cell therapy aims to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries by replacing damaged cells with healthy ones in the near future. A notable example is a study using device-encapsulated pancreatic precursor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. This study has shown that increased cell doses in optimized devices lead to detectable insulin production and improved glucose control.

CAR-T Cell Therapy: This therapy has shown impressive results in treating certain types of leukemia and lymphoma, offering hope for patients who have not responded to traditional treatments. This innovative approach uses modified T-cells to target and kill cancer cells. The future of CAR-T therapy looks promising, thereby expanding its application to treat more types of cancers, including solid tumors.

Gene Silencing and RNA-based Therapies: Emerging technologies like RNA interference (RNAi) and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are being developed to silence harmful genes. An RNAi therapy like ‘AMVUTTRA’ developed by Alnylam, is approved in the US for treating polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis in adults. Thus, the future use of RNA therapies includes the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s disease.

Understanding Ethical Considerations & the Role of Regulatory Bodies

Ethical frameworks must evolve amidst the concerns regarding ‘designer babies’, where genetic modifications used to select desired traits pose significant ethical dilemmas. A prominent example is the controversy of using CRISPR technology in human embryos, who claimed to have created the first gene-edited babies, sparking ethical debates and leading to his imprisonment. Several studies emphasize the importance of international regulatory standards and effective governance to ensure the responsible use of gene editing technologies.

Amidst the rapid pace of technological advancement, regulating gene and cell therapies needs rigorous safety standards. The regulatory bodies and agencies like the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) in the US and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the EU play a critical role. Their frameworks include guidelines for approval of regenerative medicines and conditional or time-limited authorizations to facilitate quicker access to innovative treatments.

What the future beholds?

The future of gene and cell therapies lies in their integration into personalized medicine based on the genetic makeup of individual patients. Companies like CRISPR Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, and Intellia Therapeutics are at the forefront of research, developing therapies that could revolutionize the treatment of genetic disorders. As these therapies become more refined and accessible, they could significantly extend healthy life spans and improve the quality of life for millions.

[mymasterthesis]

Master Thesis and Bibliography Major Problems Creating a bibliography for a master's thesis typically involves listing all the sources you consulted or referenced in your research. Here's a general format you can follow, using APA style as an example:

References

Books:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book. Publisher.

Articles:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. DOI or URL

Websites:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Website Name. URL

Thesis/Dissertation:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis/dissertation (Master’s thesis). Institution Name, Location.

Other Sources:

Follow similar formats as appropriate, ensuring to include all necessary information such as author(s), publication year, title, publication/source name, volume/issue/page numbers (if applicable), and URL or DOI (if available).

Example:

Books:

Smith, J. A. (2005). The Art of Research. Academic Press.

Articles:

Johnson, R. B., & Smith, K. (2010). Strategies for qualitative research. Journal of Educational Research, 22(3), 15-28.

Websites:

Brown, C. (2022, January 15). Understanding the impact of climate change. Climate Now. https://www.climatenow.com/impact

Thesis/Dissertation:

Doe, J. (2018). The Effects of Social Media on Adolescent Well-being (Master's thesis). University of XYZ, United States.

Ensure to adapt these examples according to the specific sources you have used in your thesis. Also, make sure to follow the citation style required by your institution or supervisor, as different disciplines or universities might have different formatting requirements.

Best Sources

Selecting the best sources for your master's thesis bibliography depends largely on your research topic, field of study, and the specific requirements of your thesis. However, there are some general guidelines to follow when determining the quality and relevance of sources:

Peer-Reviewed Journals: Academic journals that undergo peer review are often considered reliable sources of information. Look for articles in reputable journals relevant to your field of study. Peer-reviewed sources undergo rigorous evaluation by experts in the field, ensuring high quality and credibility.

Books by Established Authors: Books written by recognized experts or scholars in your field can provide valuable insights and comprehensive coverage of your topic. Check the author's credentials and reputation within the academic community.

Government Publications: Government agencies often publish reports, statistics, and research findings on various topics. These sources can provide authoritative data and information, especially for topics related to policy, economics, and social sciences.

Theses and Dissertations: Previous master's theses and doctoral dissertations on related topics can serve as valuable sources of literature review and reference lists. They often provide in-depth analysis and bibliographies that can guide your research.

Academic Conferences: Conference proceedings and papers presented at academic conferences can offer cutting-edge research and insights into emerging trends and topics within your field.

Research Repositories and Databases: Online databases such as PubMed, JSTOR, Google Scholar, and institutional repositories contain vast collections of scholarly articles, theses, dissertations, and other academic resources. These platforms allow you to search for relevant sources and access full-text documents.

Credible Websites: While websites can be valuable sources of information, it's essential to evaluate their credibility carefully. Look for websites of reputable organizations, educational institutions, government agencies, and established scholars. Avoid sources with biased or unreliable information.

Primary Sources: Depending on your research topic, primary sources such as historical documents, interviews, surveys, experiments, and archival materials may be essential for supporting your thesis arguments and conclusions.

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses summarize and analyze existing research on specific topics. They can provide comprehensive overviews of the literature and identify gaps or areas for further investigation.

Consult with Experts: Don't hesitate to reach out to professors, librarians, or subject matter experts for guidance on identifying the best sources for your thesis. They can offer valuable recommendations and help you navigate the vast landscape of academic literature.

By incorporating a diverse range of high-quality sources into your bibliography, you can strengthen the credibility and depth of your master's thesis. Be sure to critically evaluate each source for relevance, reliability, and academic rigor before including it in your bibliography.

[huanyukang]

Reader: sources and significance

1

Xiaoyi, J., Haiying, T., Huilin, Z., & Yuxin, Z. (2020). A study of Chinese elements in Hollywood movies. Frontiers in Art Research, 2(1), 10-19. Available at: https://scholar.google.com/  (Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article mainly describes the application of Chinese elements in American Hollywood films. The author summarizes the development process of Chinese cultural elements in Hollywood since the beginning of the last century, and introduces the classification of Chinese cultural elements in Hollywood films. The author first introduces the history of a large number of Chinese culture introduced into Hollywood films, mainly from the beginning of the 1890, the Qing government led by Li Hongzhang visited the United States, which made the traditional Chinese cultural elements spread rapidly in the United States, and directly affected Hollywood films in the early 20th century. Secondly, the author introduces the classification of Chinese elements in Hollywood films, such as the application of Tai Chi element in the movie the Mummy 3 and so on

2

Sukhenko, I. (2022). Situating Tierratrauma within Permaculture Ethics in Nuclear Fiction: Intermedial Ecocritical Perspective. Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article presents an analysis of set design in American science fiction films, and the author focuses on the sources of inspiration for the design of large space stations that exist in science fiction films. The author uses the example of the large space station design in the film Star Trek to introduce the inspiration for the design of the space station's shape, such as the aesthetics of the rounded shape of the design. At the same time, the author focuses on the internal architecture of the station, such as the construction of the transport hub between the station's residential area and the experiment building, the structural design of the massive station supports, and the composition of the station's massive water system. In addition, the author is also delving into the significance of the scene design of science fiction films for the future development of mankind

3

Tang, F. (2019). Chinese Aesthetics in Film and Television: A Case Study of Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke's Movies. In 2018 International Workshop on Education Reform and Social Sciences (ERSS 2018) (pp. 296-302). Atlantis Press.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article mainly introduces the film aesthetic styles of two famous directors in Chinese cinema. The author summarises the aesthetic styles of the two directors, such as scene layout, and author also compares and analyses their film aesthetic styles. And the author introduces that director Zhang Yimou likes to design grand and colourful scenes in his films, like the red sorghum field and the corresponding architectural design in his film "Red Sorghum", he likes to create grand scenes and also likes to use a lot of traditional Chinese elements to set up the scenes. However, Jia Zhangke likes to record the lives of ordinary people and the grassroots in China, and his films are full of the imprints of the lives of the grassroots in society, so that ordinary people can also follow the empathy

4

Gao, X., & Zhang, L. (2010). Discussing on the Traditional Chinese Elements and Animation Design. In Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Information Technology and Scientific Management (Vol. 1, pp. 11-17).Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article is a practical research and summary of animation. The author introduces how to use Chinese elements in animation character design and scene design. The author mainly takes the film kung fu panda as an example, how to collect the material of traditional Chinese elements in the model design part, and find the corresponding sketch of the relevant material painting. At the same time, the author also introduces how the movie Kung Fu Panda collects the corresponding materials in the generation of character animation, such as how to make the Chinese Taiji movement realized in the role. In addition, the author also analyzes some specific design cases of Chinese animation

5

Liu, M., & Wang, P. (2010). Study on image design in animation. Asian Social Science, 6(4), 39.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article mainly introduces the expressive elements of image design from the three perspectives of artistic style, that is, modeling style, motion performance, and indisguise. The author first introduces the workflow of traditional animation companies, from making sketches to generating models, and then to the production of the final animation. Secondly, in the part of character action design of animation, the author also studied the action production process of other kinds of animation, such as the production of traditional Chinese marionettes, and compared the differences between some experimental animation and traditional animation production process. At the same time, the author compared the production process of different kinds of animation and put forward some suggestions on animation innovation

6

MORALIOĞLU, B., & GÜL, L. F.（2021） FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO DESIGN FICTION: SPECULATIONS ON THE ADAPTATION OF XR TECHNOLOGIES INTO THE FUTURE SPACES. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article describes the inspiration of architectural design in science fiction movies. The author mainly discusses the representation of alien civilization in science fiction movies, and focuses on the representation of Utopian and anti Utopian architecture in science fiction movies. Secondly, the author gives some examples, such as the design of the space station in the film iron man, and the environmental analysis of the planet corresponding to the space station. In addition, the author analyzes the climate, atmospheric composition, soil composition, terrain and landform of many other planets, which are also the elements that affect the architecture and scene design in science fiction movies

7

Jiang, C. (2016). The Representation of the Silk Road Culture in Chinese Traditional Animation. Art Research Letters, 5, 7-16.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

At the beginning of this article, the author criticized the production level of Chinese animation in recent years. The author believed that because Chinese animation borrowed too much from the American style and used a lot of special effects in recent years, it lacked Chinese characteristics. Therefore, the author mainly studies the animation style of the peak era of Chinese animation in the 1980s. These animations, like the monkey king, show a unique style of Chinese ink painting, which is unique to China and is completely different from the animation style of other countries. These animation styles are made of the unique color of Dunhuang murals in China. The author mainly analyzes the Chinese animation style of this period

8

Lu Yurun. (2023). Research on the inspiration of traditional architecture on modern illustration design creation. Design, 8, 1133.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article mainly describes how to transform traditional Chinese architecture into illustrative elements. The author mainly summarizes the style of traditional Chinese architecture and the general classification of elements. At the same time, it gives an example of the “three stars of fortune, luck and longevity”painting in traditional Chinese architecture, and analyzes the influence of the color composition on the creation of illustration. In addition, according to her own practical experience, the author summarizes how to transform the symbols of traditional Chinese architecture into advertising images and illustrations through refining, element replacement, combination, comprehensive application of software and other techniques

9

Wu Kaili. (2019). Styling analysis of the animated film "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes to the World". Art Research Letters, 9, 6.Available at: https://scholar.google.com/(Accessed: 15 February 2024)

This article mainly analyzes the design aesthetics of the animated film Nezha: birth of the demon child. The author first analyzes the role design of the film, in which the role prototype draws on a large number of Chinese Taoist mythological images. Then the author analyzes the scene art design of the animated film, in which the most representative Tianting is designed by drawing on a large number of Chinese traditional architecture and painting styles, At the same time, this animated film is more distinctive in the production of special effects, including the use of many Taoist styles in three-dimensional scenes. In addition, the author also analyzes the influence of the lines and dialogues, sound design and so on in this animation on the scene design

10

Luo J. （2017）Research on the Characteristics of Chinese Animation[C]//2017 4th International Conference on Literature, Linguistics and Arts (ICLLA 2017). 2017: 165-168.(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

This article mainly studies the character design in Chinese animation films. The author believes that first of all, in terms of character design proportion, Chinese animation character design pays more attention to anatomy and character proportion design. In contrast, Japanese and foreign animation like to exaggerate the proportion of characters in character design, so Chinese character design is more realistic and forms a unique style. Secondly, Chinese animation is also keeping pace with the times, absorbing the styles of American animation and Japanese animation. The most characteristic is that the character design also draws on the humorous characteristics of American animation, and also shows the characteristics of humor and entertainment in the design of character action

[hopper-miller-lvl5]

CVL Brief Bibliography

99% Invisible. (2015). 99% Invisible. [online] Available at: https://99percentinvisible.org/.

Abdaal, A. (2023). How I Manage My Time - The Trident Calendar System. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o2tm00Ar8A [Accessed 21 May 2023].

Apple. (n.d.). Apple Watch Series 8. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-8/.

ArgoPrep. (2020). 8 Psychological Theories of Motivation to Increase Productivity. [online] Available at: https://argoprep.com/blog/k8/8-psychological-theories-of-motivation-to-increase-productivity/.

Codeart (2023). UI/UX Design Trends 2023. [online] Codeart. Available at: https://medium.com/codeart-mk/ui-ux-design-trends-2023-c7285391e610.

D’Avella, M. (2023). I learned a productivity system for organizing life. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_44XEVOwek [Accessed 18 May 2023].

designcode.io. (n.d.). Design+Code - Learn to design and code React and Swift apps. [online] Available at: https://designcode.io/.

Et-foundation.co.uk. (2014). Society for Education and Training. [online] Available at: https://set.et-foundation.co.uk/.

Experience, W.L. in R.-B.U. (2022). Taxonomy 101: Definition, Best Practices, and How It Complements Other IA Work. [online] Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/taxonomy-101/.

Forte, T. (2019). Building a Second Brain: An Overview. [online] Forte Labs. Available at: https://fortelabs.com/blog/basboverview/.

Forte, T. (2022). Building a Second Brain. Profile Books.

Freight, S. (n.d.). Drive lifetime value and revenue with ownership enrichment. [online] Clyde. Available at: https://joinclyde.com/ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

Giaro, M. (2022). Do You Really Need a Zettelkasten, or Is It Just the Latest Productivity Gimmick? [online] Curious. Available at: https://medium.com/curious/do-you-really-need-a-zettelkasten-3613c3b255a6 [Accessed 31 May 2023].

Hacq, A. (2018). Everything you need to know about Design Systems. [online] UX Collective. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/everything-you-need-to-know-about-design-systems-54b109851969.

Korolev, S. and Lyalina, I. (2021). The rating Brain of Bureaucrats and Luhrmann’s Zettelkasten: two versions of the ‘Machine Man’ in the age of digitalization. SHS Web of Conferences, 106(04008). doi:https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202110604008.

Linear. (n.d.). Linear ⋅ A better way to build products. [online] Available at: https://linear.app/.

Material Design. (n.d.). Material Design. [online] Available at: https://m3.material.io/.

mattgiaro (2022). What Are The Best PARA Method Alternatives For 2023? [online] Matt Giaro. Available at: https://mattgiaro.com/para-method-alternatives/ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

motion.zajno.com. (n.d.). Motion. [online] Available at: https://motion.zajno.com/ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

Mr. Pops. (n.d.). Mr. Pops. [online] Available at: https://mrpops.ua/en/.

Murugan, V. (2020). Building Your Own Productivity System; Elements & Tools. [online] Design Warp. Available at: https://medium.com/design-warp/building-your-own-productivity-system-627181f7b6f2 [Accessed 31 May 2023].

Park, J., Lu, F.-C. and Hedgcock, W.M. (2017). Relative Effects of Forward and Backward Planning on Goal Pursuit. Psychological Science, 28(11), pp.1620–1630. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617715510.

Realtime Colors. (n.d.). Realtime Colors. [online] Available at: https://realtimecolors.com [Accessed 31 May 2023].

The Engine. (n.d.). Home. [online] Available at: https://engine.xyz/.

Toby Sinclair. (2022). Building a Second Brain Summary by Tiago Forte. [online] Available at: https://www.tobysinclair.com/post/building-a-second-brain-summary [Accessed 31 May 2023].

Williams, D. (n.d.). The importance of cognitive load theory | Society for Education and Training. [online] set.et-foundation.co.uk. Available at: https://set.et-foundation.co.uk/resources/the-importance-of-cognitive-load-theory#:~:text=Cognitive%20Load%20Theory%20(CLT)%20%2D.

Worksmiths. (n.d.). Worksmiths — Old School Dedication to Craft. [online] Available at: https://worksmiths.com/old-school/ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.highperformanceinstitute.com. (n.d.). The Science of Planning: How to be Super Productive. [online] Available at: https://www.highperformanceinstitute.com/blog/the-science-of-planning [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.notably.ai. (n.d.). Is Modern Zettelkasten Notetaking the Ultimate Evolution of Knowledge Synthesis? [online] Available at: https://www.notably.ai/blog/is-modern-zettelkasten-notetaking-the-ultimate-evolution-of-knowledge-synthesis#:~:text=The%20word%20%22Zettelkasten%22%20is%20a [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.starlight.money. (n.d.). Starlight — The Financial OS for Web3 Teams. [online] Available at: https://www.starlight.money/ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). How I Built a SECOND Brain 🧠 in Obsidian MD (Tiago Forte BASB / PARA Method). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bdE_54UUA4&t=496s [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). How I use my analog Zettelkasten. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k71P3nRsXwU [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). How to Organise your Life - Building a Second Brain. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ssUVyfn5g [Accessed 27 Jun. 2022].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). My Toxic Trait is.. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNlcnLp4cE [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Obsidian Organization of Notes / University Student Example / Part 1. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlU5-Lv-kKI [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Practical UI Design Trends 2023. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpWz3EU1KQ4 [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Real-world UX Design Trends 2023. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_AcGH38Wok [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Zettelkasten Introduction (Simple & Complete Explanation). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2zY7l2tzoQ [Accessed 31 May 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). ZETTELKASTEN METHOD (Explained Clearly with Examples and Software). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZHuWLA09M [Accessed 31 May 2023].

[shannonvking]

Shannon Victoria King

Washington, DC

Summary

Ambitious and positive-minded curriculum development professional and teacher who is able to manage large scale, long term projects with multiple teams. Trilingual in Swedish, French, and English and literate in Swedish, French, English, Danish, and Norwegian with ability to apply linguistic knowledge across multiple disciplines, including but not limited to: second language pedagogy, linguistic analysis, research methods, semantics and pragmatics, intercultural communication, and marketing strategies. Seeking jobs in teaching, curriculum development, and consulting.

Education

GEORGETOWN 2022-2024

MS in Applied Linguistics 

GPA: 3.72

Graduate Student Government Senator

UC SANTA CRUZ    2019-2022

GPA: 3.93

BA in Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism with a Minor in Linguistics

TESOL Teaching Certificate 

NEWBURY PARK HIGH SCHOOL 2015-2019

GPA: 4.30, Honors/ AP/ IB Level Coursework

California Seal of Biliteracy in French

Experience

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER (AELRC)- Georgetown, Washington DC 09/2022 to Present

Project Manager, Research Assistant

Manages large scale critical language proficiency test development projects for the National Security Administration and the Department of Defense

Builds, reviews and maintains extensive Literature Reviews across multiple projects and teams through collaboration with outside scholars and organizations

Adheres to and meets strict deadlines across multiple projects and teams consistently set by both self and upper management

Conducts original research on applying linguistic research to classroom and business performance

Performs qualitative and quantitative analysis for multiple projects in addition to designing the analysis methodology 

Innovates and adapts digital content to promote ongoing and future linguistic projects for the center

Works and manages projects in all stages of completion

Attends conferences while representing a top 15 academic institution and building new professional academic relationships with other scholars

Handles secure testing materials professionally and proctors high stakes exams

Proficient in Microsoft Office, Google Suite, and Zoom

ATHLETICS TEAM TUTOR - Washington, DC       01/2024 to Present 

Tutor

Leads group tutoring sessions for a Division 1 athletics team in writing composition and comprehension

Manages multiple syllabi, student schedules, and materials in order to provide the highest quality of instruction

Performs regular Needs Analysises to ensure the best quality of instruction

PRIVATE TUTOR - USA, remote                           08/2018 to Present 

Tutor

Self-employed private tutor for elementary, middle school, and high school students

Teaches Math, English, French, History, and Science at various grade levels for multiple College Board and International Baccalaureate exams including but not limited to;

AP US History

AP European History

IB Language A: Language and Literature

Maintains a 100% pass rate on standardized tests

Specializes in Language Arts, French, writing/composition, and standardized test prep (ACT Writing, AP European History, AP US History, IB French)

Performs regular Needs Analysises to ensure the best quality of instruction

THRIVE ACADEMICS- Newbury Park, CA 09/2020 to 09/2023

Tutor

Tutored Math up to Algebra 2, K-12 English, K-12 Science, and K-12 History

Experienced with maintaining a professional profile and promoting an educational brand

BIOMONKEY LITERACY LABS- Santa Cruz, CA 05/2021 to 08/2021

Teacher

Wrote and developed an original curriculum for a middle school entry-level French course with over 50 original assessments, lesson plans and homeworks

Taught original curriculum to over 20 students split into 3 separate summer sessions

Had a 100% return rate of students wanting to continue learning French

Capable of teaching remotely, in person, and hybrid

LOWES HARDWARE STORE- Newbury Park, CA                                               08/2020 to 12/2020

Cashier/Customer Service Representative

Cashier of the Month: November, 2020

Knowledgeable of multiple Point of Sale systems 

Able to perform various transaction types on one order

Assessed the sales performance of departments and made suggestions for improvement based on observations

NPHS WRITING CENTER TUTOR - Thousand Oaks, CA                                         08/2018 to 06/2019

Tutor

Assisted students on a variety of written assignments including essays, lab reports, college applications, resumes, and personal statements

Performed and monitored administrative tasks such as student sign-ins and appointments

NPHS COLLEGE AND CAREER CENTER TA - Thousand Oaks, CA                       08/2018 to 06/2019

Student Assistant

Filed papers and work permits for students

Created spreadsheets and ran the copy machine

Assisted Career Center coordinators with paperwork and office management

SVENSKA SKOLAN - Thousand Oaks, CA remote 03/2017 to 06/2020

Volunteer & Student

Taught the Swedish language and culture with native speakers as a teacher’s assistant

Helped teachers with their American born students in a classroom environment

Tutored students in small groups, focusing on basic grammar and vocabulary

Assisted with standardized TISUS (test i svenska för universitets) test prep for older students

[materialscienceconferences-blog]

Materials Sciecne conference 2018

Welcome to  Material Science conference 2018...!!!

Theme : Revolutionising the New Horizon in Materials Science and Graphene Research

“Investing in scientific Research and Education"

It’s a glad welcome to all Materials Science's Scientists, Academicans, scholars,delegates  to have a look on our organization and join us for the session Material Science conference 2018. Today is the day  when you begin to learn to look through the eyes of others; to find out and experience what the world is like for you. Here we provide a tremendous opportunity to join in this forum to utilize the expertise and novelties that expands your views in the fields of Materials Science and Graphene Technology

International Conference on Materials Science and Graphene Technology 2018 has  prepared a platform for all  to have an open discussion with your pal's who share  similar thoughts and aspirations  like you.

We Welcome you all to join us for this Knowledge oriented Materials Science Scientifc session

CITATIONS INTERNATIONAL is proud to host research scholars and professional experts to participate in this event. It's our pleasant duty to bid you all a genial welcome to share your valuable innovations and suggestions to the next generations. We aims to bring together front-line experts from multidisciplinary research and application areas to join this conference, to discuss the ongoing Research and Development efforts in the field of Materials Science and Graphene.

On behalf of this scientific extravaganza, CITATIONS INTERNATIONAL invites you to take this opportunity to join us.

It's gratifying to look around you in the upcoming event!!!

[deirdre-martin]

The current technological state in juvenile detention facilities....

            I was recently watching a TED talk about building the sustainability of the digital divide given by Mike Lindsay who described this phenomenon as the lack of infrastructure to provide easy access to the internet in rural and remote parts of the world. He added that this phenomenon also existed within different demographic areas within our society that contained low-income populations. (Lindsay, 2019) It immediately occurred to me that the one specific, habitually invisible population was not mentioned as part of this group, students within juvenile justice facilities. 

            As an audience comprised of teachers and administrators within this system, we are all collectively aware of the perpetual disenfranchisement of this group of students from educational pathways and services provided for non-incarcerated populations, despite all our collective efforts to stem the tide of that reality. Despite mountains of research validating education as a primary deterrent to the commission of crimes, priorities related to the security, safety and general well-being of each resident continues to drive decision making within the systems. How then can we as educators mitigate this reality and create an open, sustainable conduit into this expanding digital universe for students who will ultimately reintegrate into society?

            Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives have become a major educational priority throughout the nation and the world, the gold standard for real world application through authentic context, hand-on learning and innovative teaching methodologies. (Schrum, 2018) In the context of what we experience on a daily basis, struggling against multiple factors like budgeting, staffing, security priorities, materials, etc., it seems nearly futile to even attempt a conversation about how to create an inroad to this learning for our students, knowing that the outside world is moving at warp speed to align itself with the Internet of things.(IoT) Few are aware of the limitations we face daily, not only including restrictions about the introduction of innovative materials to meet the learning needs of the students, but the fact that they cannot and do not have access to the internet, as both are considered security issues. (Harrington, 2022)This situation is not specific to one or two institutions, but impacts on hundreds if not thousands of incarcerated, disadvantaged youth throughout the country.

            This reality is a constant, and, while there is hope that someday security governors over the technology for these students will be discovered, we have an obligation to find alternative pathways of access beyond these constraints to plug up this leak in the STEM pipeline for them. A collective initiative must be reached to explore innovative applications which can be utilized to usher students gradually toward a STEM based pathway to establish an entry point when the technology is finally available to them

References

Linday, M. (2019, June 26). How do we bridge the digital divide sustainably? [Video]. TED

Conferences. https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=BwhhhlNBnMrg

Harrington, K. (2022).Transforming education in the juvenile justice system with technology,

University of Massachusetts Amherst, https://www.umass.edu/education/values/transforming-education-juvenile-justice-system-technology

Schrum, L. (2018). Learning supercharged, International Society for Technology in Education

Challenges and Advantages

            Change or paradigm shifts involving alternative methodologies have to be approached slowly requiring discussions, planning, goal setting, monitoring and review and modifications, regardless of the proposal complexity. We have to look at this new pursuit in minimal increments, to provide the level of supervision and support necessary for sustainability. Applications need to be introduced within incubator scenarios, allowing a platform of safety to test and document ideas within a controlled environment to facilitate decision making about adjustment to ensure sustainability and our ability to duplicate practices. Initially, soft skill engagement; critical thinking, collaboration, decision-making, etc. (Schrum, 2018) can provide the jumping off point and are skills sorely needed to be addressed within this population. Introducing these concepts through minimally invasive, innovative learning methodologies and applications which align with collaborative game play frameworks, not only creates pathways into ultimate STEM understanding but new realities about the world they will re-enter by learning and developing the social skills necessary for task completion. In addition, gamification of concepts, without actually turning the learning into a game, minimizes the “do-over” ideology, a very toxic mindset within the criminal mentality. (Gilyazova, 2020)

            If done with vigilance and thoroughness, the likelihood of success can be maximized, and the results presented before the powers that be to stimulate interest in seeking alternative technological choices for expanding the program toward direct engagement. Without substantiated data, we know that the likelihood that larger financial investments can or will be justified is negligible. (Hewk et al., 2019) Decisions for support on the executive level require a level of substantiation for them to go beyond their comfort zones as they relate to funding and other considerations of logistical challenges.

References

Gilyazova, O. (2020). Gaming practices and technologies in education: their educational

potential, limitations and problems in the world-of-work and world-of-play, Revista Tempo e Espacos en Educacao, 13 (32), 1-23

Hewk, K., Tang, M., Crengyan, J., & Chun, K. (2019). Where is the “theory” within the field of

educational technology, British Journal of Educational Technology, 50 (3), 956-971

Schrum, L. (2018). Learning supercharged, International Society for Technology in Education

Possibilities?

            The field of vision when looking for solutions outside the box to address these needs is very narrow. I have found three extremely exciting applications that I am confident will provide the foothold into successful incubator programs for everyone to harness, implement and document to increase the power of the argument in support of these kids and access to the metaverse.

            The first application I found with endless possibilities is for Code.com (https://code.org/curriculum/unplugged ). WOW! Lessons are specifically designed for students that are “unplugged���, meaning that they will be working with pen to paper and some assortment of materials or materials. What is particularly awesome is that it provides lesson plans which identify a specific concept related to coding and, in many cases, videos which can be downloaded by teachers to a SMART screen. Each of the lessons can be adapted by the teacher to meet the learning needs and instructional levels of students and therefore are planning gold. In the drop-down menu they also provide additional projects, catalog, and support links for questions.

            Who knew that NASA itself had an app that would be so motivational and chock full of information relating to every aspect of STEM

Learning (https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/best/edp.html )

            Talk about complex adaptive systems! This second site also integrates all aspect of literacy engagement for teachers to tap into and provides a drop-down menu of multiple topics, missions, images, etc. for direct engagement into subjects specific to their mission. I found an interactive asset which, I have to admit, took me on a journey that captivated my interest for quite a while.(https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/make-a-scale-solar-system/)

            A video is provided which is most enlightening and interesting and includes a projects list and an opportunity for the students to decide which way they will approach this assignment. Students have the opportunity to decide what kind of model and location they will chose, and then mathematical calculations must be done to create scale and planet size. They take the project-based learning through to the actual display and presentation leaving no holes in the planning. The range of topics and information is instantly engrossing, and I am hard pressed to imagine that students will not love it.

            Everyone needs to be on the lookout for the release of the last app through the University of Massachusetts (https://www.umass.edu/education/values/transforming-education-juvenile-justice-system-technology)

 which I am including as my third site recommendation because it is the first one that has been specifically designed to address the educational needs of the juvenile justice population through technology. the designer(s) of the program demonstrates a full understanding of the barriers in servicing this population but has developed an iPad integration which will align with those concerns. Take the time and watch the video for a more complete idea of its implications. (https://www.umass.edu/news/article/college/education%E2%80%99s-project-raise-video)

What I know

            Those of us who have been strong enough to withstand conditions of being an educator within the juvenile justice system are fiercely loyal and dedicated advocates for those within our charge, realizing the impact of huge gaps in educational parity for a population of students already experiencing huge gaps in their educational histories. When speculating about sustained recidivism rates, one only must go beyond the curtain to see why reintegration for these residents is so unsuccessful, returning to their school districts unprepared, jumping back in like uncoordinated double-Dutch participants.

            Most of these residents are examples of the Matthew effect, starting at a disadvantage and becoming more disadvantaged over time unlike their counterparts, the advantaged, who start that way and accumulate more advantages over time. This situation is not new and recorded early in scripture, “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (New International Version, 2022, Matthew 25: 29-30) This disparity, seen in this blog as the digital divide, is no exception. Some see this situation, the inability to bridge the educational or technological gap, as a byproduct of modern capitalism (Henricks, 2018) putting these students in a category of collateral damage. Those servicing these individuals, however, will see this attempt to find alternative passageways into technological savvy as a first attempt in creating the momentum of a virtuous cycle for sustainable growth and success.

References

Henricks, S. (2018). The Matthew effect: is inequality just a fact of the universe, Big Think,

https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/is-there-a-scientific-law-stating-thatinequality-is-a-fact-of-the-universe/

New International Version Bible. (2022). NIV

Online, https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-International-Version-NIV-Bible

[designmorphine]

@negarkalantar, Associate Professor at California College of Arts, will be delivering a lecture on the intersection of architecture, science, and engineering at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference. - Join now, link in bio or: https://parametric-architecture.com/computational-design-next-9-0/ - Event details: Date: May 7-8, 2021 (Saturday & Sunday) Time: 12:30 - 20:30 UTC Where: ZOOM Online - She is the co-director of the Digital Craft Lab at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, as well as the co-founder of the transLAB, where she bridges current advances in additive manufacturing technology with large-scale structures. Additionally, she has received several awards, including the Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award 2018, a National Science Foundation grant, an Autodesk Technology Center Grant, and an X-Grant from the Texas A&M President’s Excellence Fund for developing sustainable materials for 3-D printed buildings. . . . . . . @cdnext @parametric.architecture @designmorphine @ekimroyrp @pa.next @hamithz @thepaacademy #arch #construction #3dmodeling #sidefx #structure #furniture #3dmodeling #artist #parametric #parametricdesign #parametricarchitecture #computationaldesign #computational #computation #grasshopper3d #rhino3d #rhinoceros3d #generativedesign #sketchup #design #art #architecture #generativeart #superarchitects #next_top_architects #architecture_hunter #architecturestudent #3dmodel #archviz #cdnext (at 𝓣𝓱𝒆 𝓤𝒏𝒊𝓿𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcceQKXuGkN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=