Plural Bodies, Pluriversal Humans: Questioning the Ontology of ‘Body’ in Design

Somatechnics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-305
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Multiple Ontologies

All designing, as well as everything designed, is ontological: things shape and form humans, just as humans shape and give form to them (Willis, 2006, Fry, 2013). However, there is no ontology of the human in the singular sense, but plural, multiple ontologies, and therefore, no human, but only humans. This paper proposes the introduction of a provocation to disturb notions of the ontologically designed body, and in fact, of how we think of what a ‘body’ is, by turning to the insights offered up by a body of literature hitherto relatively unexamined in design research: the ontological turn in anthropology. By turning to a survey of the work done by cultural anthropologists on different cosmologies and cultures, I intend to demonstrate that the Anglo-Eurocentric conception of the ontologically singular body, signified in terms of the “universality” of human biology, is in fact, only one of many ways of bodily being and relating to the body; that matters of the body are locally situated and specific to communities and environments; and therefore, what we mean by ‘the body’ is in fact also plural, multistable, and wrought with incommensurabilities between human communities and cultures. The essay will end with a re-evaluation of ontological designing and speculations on what design could do, through an engagement with examples of ‘other’ ontologies and definitions of body.

Annmarie Mol on the Way to Multiple Ontologies

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-224
Author(s):  
Evgeny N. Ivakhnenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Diagnostic Methods ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Police Investigation ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Multiple Ontologies

The article critically examines the ideas of the Dutch philosopher and ethnologist Annemarie Mol. Her main work, “The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice”, is mainly subjected to analysis. According to the author of the article, A. Mol managed to offer his own version of the “ontological turn” and, perhaps, change the accents in the entire theoretical repertoire of actor-network theory (ANT). She, carrying out a “police investigation” in hospital Z, was able to show the multiplicity of ontologies of the body and its disease / illness. What is called the illness is represented by a large number of actors – people, their relationships, tools, diagnostic methods, etc. – which together can be represented as an assembly or assemblage. The “choreography of the ontology” of such an assembly is contingent, since it may be different.

scholarly journals PERBEDAAN TEKANAN DARAH PADA AKSEPTOR KONTRASEPSI SEBELUM DAN SETELAH PEMAKAIAN KB SUNTIK 1 BULAN

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Rofeny Agustin
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
The Body ◽  
Bivariate Analysis ◽  
Metabolic Outcomes ◽  
Injectable Contraceptive ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Average Average

Increased blood pressure (hypertension) or decreased (hypotension) affecthomeostasis in the body cause interference with the transport system of oxygen, carbon dioxide,and other metabolic outcomes. Hypertension is a cardiovascular disease prevalence andmortalityis quite high, especially in the developed and developing countries. Data Riskedas 2007 theincidence of hypertension in Indonesia reached 31.7%. Meanwhile, the data Bengkulu CityHealth Office incidence of hypertension as much as 30 According to IDHS (2012) the percentageof participants who experienced hypertension injectables is 0.5% of the number of acceptors. Thestudy aimed to determine differences in blood pressure at the injection acceptors before and afterthe use of injectables 1 month. Design research is an analytic survey with cross sectionalapproach. The population is around the injection acceptors in Puskesmas Nusa Indah Bengkuluin 2013 as many as 604 people. The sample totaled 86 acceptors taken by purposive sampling.The data is then processed by univariate and bivariate analysis. From the results of 86 researchnote acceptors injecting 1 month, blood pressure injection acceptors 1 month before and after theuse of injectables has average - average 9,070. Statistical tests obtained p = 0.000 <α = 0.05, thatthere are significant differences between the blood pressure before and after menggukan 1 monthinjectable contraceptive. For health care workers is expected to provide information andeducation to health 1 month injectable contraceptive acceptors.

Quantum superposition of massive bodies

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 2041003
Author(s):  
Robert M. Wald
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Field ◽  
Gravitational Radiation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vacuum Fluctuations ◽  
Quantum Superposition ◽  
Gedanken Experiment ◽  
Work Done

I describe the work done in collaboration with A. Belenchia, F. Giacomini, E. Castro-Ruiz, C. Bruckner and M. Aspelmeyer that analyzes a gedanken experiment involving a massive body that is put into a quantum superposition. Remarkably, even for a nonrelativistic body, both vacuum fluctuations of the gravitational field and the quantization of gravitational radiation are essential in order to avoid inconsistencies. In addition, it is essential that the quantum body be viewed as entangled with its own Newtonian-like gravitational field in order to understand how the body may become entangled with other massive bodies via gravitational interactions.

External work in walking

1963 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Cavagna ◽  
F. P. Saibene ◽  
R. Margaria
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Force ◽  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
The Body ◽  
External Work ◽  
High Speeds ◽  
Moving Body ◽  
Vertical Displacements ◽  
Lateral Displacements ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Static Contractions

From records obtained from a triple accelerometer applied to the trunk of a subject the displacements of the trunk in vertical, forward, and lateral directions have been calculated. With motion pictures taken simultaneously, displacements of the center of gravity within the body were measured. From these data the external mechanical work of walking was calculated. The sum of work for vertical and for forward displacements of the center of gravity of the body gives the total external work; energy for the lateral displacements was negligible. Total external work appears to be lower than that calculated from the vertical displacements alone, because work done in lifting is partly sustained by the inertial force of the forward-moving body. Total external work reaches a highest value (0.1 kcal/km kg) at the most economical speed of walking, 4 km/hr, which corresponds to an energy consumption of 0.48 kcal/km kg. At this speed the internal work appears negligible; it amounts to appreciable entities at very low speeds because of the static contractions of the muscles, and at high speeds because of considerable stiffening of the limbs and movements not involving a displacement of the center of gravity. Submitted on May 25, 1962

The Correlation between Elbow and Parturition Bed Height with the Risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Hilfia Alifa Nurly ◽  
Mulyono Mulyono
Keyword(s):  
Musculoskeletal Disorders ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
The Body ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Birth Canal ◽  
Bed Height

 Introduction: Ergonomics can potentially cause harms for workers. Midwives are among those workers who are susceptible to have an impaired performance by ergonomics. As health professionals whose main task are providing care during childbirth, 40.8% of midwives suffer from musculoskeletal disorders at neck and 24.5% on upper back due to poor repetitive and frequent work posture they need to do over a long time while assisting childbirth such as bending, tilting the body to the left and looking toward the birth canal. A study claimed that midwives had a very high risk to suffer from MSDs. This study aimed at analyzing the correlation between elbow and parturition bed height with the risk of musculoskeletal disorders among midwives while assisting childbirth at the hospital. Method: This cross-sectional design research was determined using non-probability sampling technique involving 11 midwives in the hospital delivery room. The examined variables covered age, period of working, anthropometry, parturition bed, posture, and MSDs using a measurement sheet, REBA and Nordic Body Map Questionnaire as the research instruments. The data is presented in the cross tabulation from computer analysis data program and in description. Results: As much as 91 % midwives were at the age of 26-45 years old with >10 years of experience that was about 72.7%; 3 midwives had BMI score > 29; 81.8% midwives had high score level of musculoskeletal disorders risk, 81.8% midwives did not set their parturition bed with appropriate elbow height; and the value of contingency coefficient from elbow and parturition bed height with musculoskeletal disorders was 0.707. Conclusion: There is correlation between elbow and parturition bed height with musculoskeletal disorder of midwives when assisting childbirth process at hospital.Keywords: childbirth, ergonomics, midwife, musculoskeletal disorders

scholarly journals Bodily relations and reciprocity in the art of Sonia Khurana

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-274
Author(s):  
Leon Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Digital Art ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Public Expectations ◽  
Art Practices ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Discursive Field ◽  
Affective Relations

This article explores the significance of the ‘somatic’ and ‘ontological turn’ in locating the radical politics articulated in the contemporary performance, installation, video and digital art practices of New Delhi-based artist, Sonia Khurana (b. 1968). Since the late 1990s, Khurana has fashioned a range of artworks that require new sorts of reciprocal and embodied relations with their viewers. While this line of art practice suggests the need for a primarily philosophical mode of inquiry into an art of the body, such affective relations need to be historicised also in relation to a discursive field of ‘difference’ and public expectations about the artist’s ethnic, gendered and national identity. Thus, this intimate, visceral and emotional field of inter- and intra-action is a novel contribution to recent transdisciplinary perspectives on the gendered, social and sentient body that in turn prompts a wider debate on the ethics of cultural commentary and art historiography.

The energy distribution resulting from an impact on a floating body

2000 ◽  
Vol 417 ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. KOROBKIN ◽  
D. H. PEREGRINE
Keyword(s):  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Energy Distribution ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Compression Wave ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Floating Body ◽  
Pressure Impulse ◽  
Work Done

The initial stage of the water flow caused by an impact on a floating body is considered. The vertical velocity of the body is prescribed and kept constant after a short acceleration stage. The present study demonstrates that impact on a floating and non-flared body gives acoustic effects that are localized in time behind the front of the compression wave generated at the moment of impact and are of major significance for explaining the energy distribution throughout the water, but their contribution to the flow pattern near the body decays with time. We analyse the dependence on the body acceleration of both the water flow and the energy distribution – temporal and spatial. Calculations are performed for a half-submerged sphere within the framework of the acoustic approximation. It is shown that the pressure impulse and the total impulse of the flow are independent of the history of the body motion and are readily found from pressure-impulse theory. On the other hand, the work done to oppose the pressure force, the internal energy of the water and its kinetic energy are essentially dependent on details of the body motion during the acceleration stage. The main parameter is the ratio of the time scale for the acoustic effects and the duration of the acceleration stage. When this parameter is small the work done to accelerate the body is minimal and is spent mostly on the kinetic energy of the flow. When the sphere is impulsively started to a constant velocity (the parameter is infinitely large), the work takes its maximum value: Longhorn (1952) discovered that half of this work goes to the kinetic energy of the flow near the body and the other half is taken away with the compression wave. However, the work required to accelerate the body decreases rapidly as the duration of the acceleration stage increases. The optimal acceleration of the sphere, which minimizes the acoustic energy, is determined for a given duration of the acceleration stage. Roughly speaking, the optimal acceleration is a combination of both sudden changes of the sphere velocity and uniform acceleration.If only the initial velocity of the body is prescribed and it then moves freely under the influence of the pressure, the fraction of the energy lost in acoustic waves depends only on the ratio of the body's mass to the mass of water displaced by the hemisphere.

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