Form Of Heterotopia Research Articles

Uncertain Future Dwelling: Emergent Interiors of the Metaverse

Contemporarily, a flood of digital interior architectural imagery has emerged of spaces developed for the Metaverse, a forthcoming immersive 3D virtual world. These spaces are not bound by the conventions of architectural practice nor the demands of the physical world, providing an opportunity for design exploration and innovation in the future of interiors and positing challenges to core architectural concepts that have accompanied traditional practice. This research offers a visual analysis of aesthetic trends and new typologies present in the interior architectural spaces designed for the Metaverse. The analysis features a curated and collaged collection of works from ten creators of Metaverse spaces, categorised to examine the impact of digital architectural spaces that increasingly detach from the needs of physical dwellings. The research reveals commanding visual trends in Metaverse interior imagery that challenge traditional notions of interiority and dwelling and finds aesthetic signifiers of belonging in spaces that Augé (1995/2009) would neatly classified as an empirical 'non-place.' Positioned as a form of heterotopia in a realm where architecture is being designed for the purely visual, we posit that the less recognisable these spaces become, the more potential they hold for innovation in both the Metaverse and in dialogue with real-world interior architecture.

Youth Heterotopias in Precarious Times

Under the structural restraints of the current financial, social and political crisis, I examine the case of a collectivity of students in Greece as an alternative small-scale form of political and cultural action, and I explore its dynamics and limits. I claim that the ‘collectivity’ is a form of heterotopia, that is, a specific social and cultural space, which somehow reflects and at the same time distorts, unsettles or inverts other spaces. In particular, I seek to uncover the rituals, practices and mentalities produced by the participants of this youth cultural space, and to understand how new subjectivities and collectivities come into being. In this context, I discuss some of the relevant literature on youth political participation. Furthermore, I illustrate the debate about ‘autonomy’ and ‘hegemony’ within social and political theory today.

Organelle and Cellular Abnormalities Associated with Hippocampal Heterotopia in Neonatal Doublecortin Knockout Mice

Heterotopic or aberrantly positioned cortical neurons are associated with epilepsy and intellectual disability. Various mouse models exist with forms of heterotopia, but the composition and state of cells developing in heterotopic bands has been little studied. Dcx knockout (KO) mice show hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cell lamination abnormalities, appearing from the age of E17.5, and mice suffer from spontaneous epilepsy. The Dcx KO CA3 region is organized in two distinct pyramidal cell layers, resembling a heterotopic situation, and exhibits hyperexcitability. Here, we characterized the abnormally organized cells in postnatal mouse brains. Electron microscopy confirmed that the Dcx KO CA3 layers at postnatal day (P) 0 are distinct and separated by an intermediate layer devoid of neuronal somata. We found that organization and cytoplasm content of pyramidal neurons in each layer were altered compared to wild type (WT) cells. Less regular nuclei and differences in mitochondria and Golgi apparatuses were identified. Each Dcx KO CA3 layer at P0 contained pyramidal neurons but also other closely apposed cells, displaying different morphologies. Quantitative PCR and immunodetections revealed increased numbers of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and interneurons in close proximity to Dcx KO pyramidal cells. Immunohistochemistry experiments also showed that caspase-3 dependent cell death was increased in the CA1 and CA3 regions of Dcx KO hippocampi at P2. Thus, unsuspected ultrastructural abnormalities and cellular heterogeneity may lead to abnormal neuronal function and survival in this model, which together may contribute to the development of hyperexcitability.

« My dear audacious Moore » : les poses de l’artiste décadent dans Confessions of a Young Man

In George Moore’s Confessions of a Young Man, published in 1886 at the beginning of Moore’s career, audacity, which is manifested both in the story and in the telling, verges on iconoclasm yet also appears as a pose. The discovery of Impressionism, of Naturalism and of the Decadent movement constitutes an original moment in Moore’s artistic experience in Paris, a time of learning and initiation amidst the French avant-garde. The autobiographical persona plays with rhetorical positions and intertextual references, both integrating and imitating literary influences and going beyond them through parody. The distance between narrating I and narrated I is constantly foregrounded and reinforces the somewhat artificial nature of the young artist’s poses. A considerable degree of ambiguity characterizes these confessions which can be considered as a form of heterotopia, a space of resistance in which boundaries between genres and tones are blurred and in which images of metamorphosis and flux abound. If audacity is constitutive of Moore’s literary stance, Confessions of a Young Man does not just display audacity for audacity’s sake but also offers a reflection on its essential function and value in artistic creation.

A case of combined forms of unilateral heterotopia

Malformations of cortical development (MCD) form a group of isorders of the brain, which primarily affect development of the erebral cortex. They commonly present with developmental delay, ental retardation, and epilepsy. Heterotopia are clusters of neuons and glia that form a nodule of gray matter in an inappropriate ocation [1]. Polymicrogyria (PMG), on the other hand, is a cortical alformation characterized by numerous aberrant microgyri sepaated by shallow sulci with fusion of adjacent molecular layers, with xcessive folding and abnormal cytoarchitecture. On brain imagng studies, PMG appears as thickened and irregular cortex with ariably visible microgyri [2,3]. Three main groups of heterotopia are now recognized i.e., eriventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH), subcortical heterotopia SH) and leptomeningeal heterotopia. Only the first two can be etected by neuroimaging. PNH is considered as the most comon form of heterotopia [1]. In this particular form of heterotopia, ests of neurons that never began migration remain adjacent to the ateral ventricles. We report of a young man with normal neuro-developmental istory and neurological examination who presented with new

Heterotopic gastric (fundic) mucosa in the duodenum.

Twenty cases of heterotopic fundic mucosa in the duodenum are reported. The patients had several small polyps ranging from one to three mm tightly grouped to form a plaque in a limited zone of the duodenal bulb. In some cases the polyps were separated from one another. They were round or conical and manifested a frosted-glass appearance with a pale-pink or redded coloration. In two cases a whitish solitary polyp of five mm was located in the 2nd part of the duodenum. Biopsies obtained from the polyps revealed them to be composed of fundal mucosa, thus representing a particular form of heterotopia, other then the steroid-induced type, and that of patients undergoing regular dialysis for uraemia. The different clinical and morphological data in the various forms of fundal heterotopia are discussed.

Heterotopic gastric mucosa in the common bile duct.

An unusual location of heterotopic gastric mucosa causing partial obstruction of the common bile duct is recorded. Frozen section led to a mistaken diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. The common bile duct was resected and a choledochoduodenostomy performed. The precise relationship between this form of heterotopia and gallbladder adenomyoma has not been determined. In this case both lesions coexisted.