I AM (VR) : Wu-wei (無為), Tenuous Self (虛我) and the Liminal Body in Virtual Reality

無為),effortless action, is one of the crucial tacit knowledge from pre-Qin Chinesethinkers. Edward Slingerland articulates in Effortless action: wu-wei asconceptual metaphor and spiritual ideal in early China, “wu-wei, in the absence ofdoing exertion, literally means ‘in the absence of/without doing exertion,’ Itis important to realise, however, that wu-wei properly refers not to what isactually happening (or not happening) in the realm of observable action butrather to the state of mind of the actor. That is, it refers not to what is oris not being done but to the phenomenological state of the doer.” (Slingerland2003: 7)Seeminglyeffortless, wu-wei can be understood as a dynamic, un-self-conscious state ofmind of an agency that is optimally active and effective. This effortless flowaccurately resonates with what I have experienced throughout my journey in IAM (VR), created by Susanne Kennedy, Markus Selg, Rodrik Biersteker andRichard Janssen in 2021. During this experience, the vivid bewilderment of‘being here but not here’ reflects an uncanny sublimation of the body incyberspace. As my vision travels deeply inside, my physical body, “in theabsence of doing exertion”, remains situated in an enclosed cubic space in thegallery where the journey takes place. Such attentiveness of consciousnesstraveling through the virtual reality within the stillness of one’s body evokesa pertinent embodiment of Wu-Wei. Positioned itself in the stance ofcritical posthumanism, this essay asks how do we consider the physical form of the human body,assembled in reality-reality within the immersive sharing and exchangingprocess of virtual-reality? What kind of transformation that the human bodymight experience when it immerses into that otherworldly reality? I Am (VR),as an embodied performative happening of both artistic research andpractice of virtual reality, provides insightful perspective in searching forpossible answers. Taking this analysis as a departure point, this essay furtherinvestigates the possible entanglements between the ‘I’ and the ‘VirtualReality. @font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face{font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;mso-font-charset:128;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-134238209 -371195905 63 0 4129279 0;}@font-face{font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS";panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;mso-font-charset:128;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-134238209 -371195905 63 0 4129279 0;}@font-face{font-family:STSongti-TC-Regular;panose-1:2 1 6 0 4 1 1 1 1 1;mso-font-charset:136;mso-generic-font-family:auto;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:647 135200768 16 0 1310879 0;}@font-face{font-family:"\@STSongti-TC-Regular";mso-font-charset:136;mso-generic-font-family:auto;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:647 135200768 16 0 1310879 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin:0cm;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";border:none;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;}p{mso-style-priority:99;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:0cm;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:0cm;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";border:none;}.MsoPapDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}@font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face{font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;mso-font-charset:128;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-134238209 -371195905 63 0 4129279 0;}@font-face{font-family:"Helvetica Neue";panose-1:2 0 5 3 0 0 0 2 0 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:auto;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-452984065 1342208475 16 0 1 0;}@font-face{font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS";panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;mso-font-charset:128;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-134238209 -371195905 63 0 4129279 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin:0cm;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";border:none;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;}p.Default, li.Default, div.Default{mso-style-name:Default;mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-parent:"";margin-top:8.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;line-height:120%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";mso-fareast-font-family:"Helvetica Neue";mso-bidi-font-family:"Helvetica Neue";color:black;border:none;mso-style-textoutline-type:none;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-dpiwidth:0pt;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-linecap:flat;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-join:bevel;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-pctmiterlimit:0%;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-dash:solid;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-align:center;mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-compound:simple;}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";border:none;}.MsoPapDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}

On “Savage and Deformed Slave”: Bodily Difference in Selected Contemporary Productions of The Tempest in Poland

Dis/ability is a dynamic category produced in a complex constellation of factors that includes not only stigmatised mental and physical constraints or physiological differences, but also a manifestation of incapacity that is recognised or produced by law, social norms and the very way of thinking about the nature of bodily vulnerability. The meanings of dis/ability are thus culturally and historically dependent. Therefore, the manner in which dis/ability is presented on a theatrical stage can be considered not only as an important factor influencing the interpretation of a given production but also as a test for the dominant thinking of disability at a given point of time, in a given culture. The departure point for this paper is a brief discussion of the visibility of medieval models of dis/ability in Shakespeare’s plays and a reflection on how the reception of these dramatic texts has changed over time depending on the paradigmatic shifts in thinking about dis/ability, especially with the emergence of disability studies and the growing theoretical reflection on the position of dis/ability in theatre. An especially interesting case in point is the reception of Caliban as a character whose stigmatisation can be expressed through bodily difference. Thus, the paper focuses on what seems to be a systematic aberrant decoding of The Tempest in three twenty-first century Polish productions of the play.

THE DESIGN OF 3 GT FISHING VESSELS USING DC ELECTRIC POWER AS DRIVING AND ELECTRICITY

The purpose of this study was to design a 3 Gross Tonnage (GT) fishing boat with a speed of 6 knots to obtain the shape and size of the vessel that is suitable for the water area that using the solar panel energy system. The ship was planned to travel about a maximum of 18 Km from the departure point. The steps of the research method for the design of fishing vessels include determining the principal size of the ship, making line drawings, drafting a general plan, construction design, ship tonnage capacity, electricity requirements, and then designing solar panel energy systems. This research resulted in a ship design with a length of 8 meters, 1.75 meters wide, and 1.3 meters high. Those specifications are used as constraints to determine the number of solar panels and batteries. To satisfy all of the goals, the 3 GT boat has limited 0.9KWh solar panels to travel for 9.7 NM (18 KM) at a speed of 6 knots, forcing daytime and night fishing fishermen to idle for 1 day. The difference is in the number of night fishing batteries that are 49% more than the daytime fishing which using 25 pcs 3.2V 100Ah. With the use of 51 pcs of battery, night fishing can move into daytime fishing so that it can fish more frequently than night fishing mode only

Is leadership a myth? A ‘new wave’ critical leadership-focused research agenda for recontouring the landscape of educational leadership

Intentionally provocative, this study identifies weaknesses in mainstream educational leadership scholarship, and draws upon ‘new wave’ critical leadership studies to propose a new, potentially paradigm-shifting, direction for the field. The central argument is that educational leadership researchers, in focusing predominantly on how institutional heads and other formal ‘leaders’ may best ‘do’ leadership, are addressing the wrong questions and setting off from the wrong departure point. The unit of analysis should shift, it is argued, from leadership to influence, within a new research agenda that replaces surface-level, causality-assumptive ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ questions that have shaped mainstream educational leadership research for over thirty years, with more fundamental ‘who? and ‘what?’ questions, aimed at identifying who is in fact doing the influencing. An aspect of such inquiry is leadership scepticism and agnosticism, which confronts the question: Does leadership exist, or is it a myth that we have reified? A highly original feature of the proposed new research agenda is the adoption of the author's theoretical notion of a singular unit of micro-level influence as an ‘epistemic object’ – a concept derived from STEMM research, denoting a vague and undefined potential focus of inquiry that may (or may not) turn out to be significant.

Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions

This article argues that insights from ideology theory shed valuable light on the political aspects of COVID-19 and help understand and categorise policy responses to it. Much of the debate on the politics of COVID-19 has been dominated by questions concerning populism, but this article contends that this is not a fruitful direction for understanding current developments. The argument advanced here is that populism is a hollow and incoherent ideological category and so does not provide a suitable departure point to explore the ideological dimension of the pandemic. On the other hand, a critical engagement with the dominant ideology of neoliberalism goes a long way to explain different kinds of political fallout from COVID-19. While neoliberalism is unfit for the challenge posed by the virus, identifying the ideological underpinnings of the neoliberal approach may help to grasp its implications and formulate urgently needed alternatives.

The Life and Death of the Supermarket: How Food Trade Infrastructure Affects the Design of Architectural and Urban Settings

<p>Historically food has played an important role in how cities are shaped. The modern city is no exception to this, yet it holds an abstracted relationship to the hinterlands that feed it (Steel: 2008), thus giving the perception (particularly in Western cities) that constant food supply to the city is a given right. The problem of feeding cities still remains a challenge (Diamond: 2005), one that, in combination with an ever increasing scarcity of fossil fuels, has led to a emerging tide of urbanism looking to bring localised food back to prominence in the city. More so, investigating building infrastructure to mass produce food in cities themselves: the return to a city state model. A consequence of this is also a move towards a more resource sustainable city framework. However, there is little discussion around how this new food urbanism will be structured within the city, and conversely, how it will structure the city. The most prominent architectural/urban typology which represents food in the city currently is that of the supermarket building, a type which has evolved from the urban market but has shed its civic role (Steel: 2008). This is further characterised by the common use of the private motor vehicle to access the supermarkets site. What if we were to amputate the car from the supermarket? Would we return to the urban market as the defining food space typology in the city? Or would food space be embodied in a new formal language? Primary Research Question(s): How can we track the implications of food (supply, demand, requirements) for the contemporary Western city through a supermarket typology? Secondary Research Questions: How does food culture and its resulting space enhance the urban public sphere (i.e. the vitality of the city)? Methodology Using the analysis model of design (institutionalised/autonomous design process) versus nondesign (overlapping of cultural systems in which design is one of these) laid out by Diana Agrest in 1974 as an analysis departure point; the research will investigate the historical and contemporary role of food markets in cities. The supermarket typology will form the basis for how food exchange related design affects urban fabric build-up in Western cities. Through links in the literature review, as well as empirically based evidence, I draw through extrapolations of how a food market driven city might conduct urban change. This may nurture a more direct relationship to its surrounding geography (e.g. the hinterland) and the food sources needed to feed it. Empirical analysis has been conducted on what might typify a vibrant and civically significant urban market to counteract the research into supermarket typologies. The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia, has been selected as this case study. There is an assumption that there are qualities instilled in urban markets which have more positive effects for urban environments than that of supermarkets. Thus, through looking at these environments it may be possible to tease out new directions for solidifying the prominence of food in the city once more.</p>

The Life and Death of the Supermarket: How Food Trade Infrastructure Affects the Design of Architectural and Urban Settings

<p>Historically food has played an important role in how cities are shaped. The modern city is no exception to this, yet it holds an abstracted relationship to the hinterlands that feed it (Steel: 2008), thus giving the perception (particularly in Western cities) that constant food supply to the city is a given right. The problem of feeding cities still remains a challenge (Diamond: 2005), one that, in combination with an ever increasing scarcity of fossil fuels, has led to a emerging tide of urbanism looking to bring localised food back to prominence in the city. More so, investigating building infrastructure to mass produce food in cities themselves: the return to a city state model. A consequence of this is also a move towards a more resource sustainable city framework. However, there is little discussion around how this new food urbanism will be structured within the city, and conversely, how it will structure the city. The most prominent architectural/urban typology which represents food in the city currently is that of the supermarket building, a type which has evolved from the urban market but has shed its civic role (Steel: 2008). This is further characterised by the common use of the private motor vehicle to access the supermarkets site. What if we were to amputate the car from the supermarket? Would we return to the urban market as the defining food space typology in the city? Or would food space be embodied in a new formal language? Primary Research Question(s): How can we track the implications of food (supply, demand, requirements) for the contemporary Western city through a supermarket typology? Secondary Research Questions: How does food culture and its resulting space enhance the urban public sphere (i.e. the vitality of the city)? Methodology Using the analysis model of design (institutionalised/autonomous design process) versus nondesign (overlapping of cultural systems in which design is one of these) laid out by Diana Agrest in 1974 as an analysis departure point; the research will investigate the historical and contemporary role of food markets in cities. The supermarket typology will form the basis for how food exchange related design affects urban fabric build-up in Western cities. Through links in the literature review, as well as empirically based evidence, I draw through extrapolations of how a food market driven city might conduct urban change. This may nurture a more direct relationship to its surrounding geography (e.g. the hinterland) and the food sources needed to feed it. Empirical analysis has been conducted on what might typify a vibrant and civically significant urban market to counteract the research into supermarket typologies. The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia, has been selected as this case study. There is an assumption that there are qualities instilled in urban markets which have more positive effects for urban environments than that of supermarkets. Thus, through looking at these environments it may be possible to tease out new directions for solidifying the prominence of food in the city once more.</p>

Music ensembles as self-organized groups

Making music in small groups can be viewed as a form of intensive team work. This chapter examines the self-organized nature of music-making, taking as its departure point current thinking in organizational studies. In achieving their goals, self-organized music groups need to balance flexibility and creativity within a framework of “rules” or conventions, within a genre or community of practice. Organizational characteristics of music ensembles are presented as a number of tensions, in which competing forces of stability versus change, collectivity versus individuality, and maturity versus emergence are balanced. These tensions are managed in relation to an organizational structure consisting of roles, leadership, and communication processes, as well as constraints and developments over time. These perspectives offer ways to reflect on group dynamics and musical creative processes, and the internal and external forces impacting rehearsal and performance.

Language evolution from a cognitive-grammar perspective

This paper considers language evolution from a cognitive-grammar (CG) perspective taking Classical Arabic Case Marking (CACM) as a case in point and a departure point. It is argued that the accusative case is diachronically the baseline case mark, designating the Objective Scene (OS) and demarcating an object of perception in the initial stage of maximal subjectivity in which the ground (G) is totally implicit. Such maximum is then attenuated through a process of objectification such that g entities are gradually put onstage to fulfill the functions of identification and predication. The nominative case, then, figures to mark such emerging entities in their baseline, immediate status. This conception of G with its functions is later extended to mark entities external to G, which gives rise to the full, nominative-marked, baseline existential core (C∃) comprising the existential predicate (P∃) and the existential subject (S∃). The truncation (T) of a verb’s nominative case is argued to fulfill the semantic function of situating a process out of existential reality yielding the existential predicate minus (P-∃), which represents a basic elaboration on baseline C∃. Processes being extensions from perception, the accusative case attenuates to mark entities (D) that demarcate processes, implementing the semantic function of processual modification. Finally, a genitive-marked entity (RP) is proposed to implement the semantic function of referential modification, anchoring and referencing the conceptions of all those facets of reality.

Laissez-Faire Public Spaces: Designing Public Spaces for Calm and Stressful Times

Under extreme conditions, such as wars, pandemics, and climate events, the role of open space and public rituals alters dramatically. Extreme conditions remind us that daily life is fragile. What should dictate the development of public spaces? What does Covid-19 teach us about public space, its use and future design? Should planners and designers address the unexpected when designing public spaces? These questions are the departure point for discussing the social value and design of public space during both extreme conditions and calm times.