Mere Representation Research Articles

Rigorous and always from the heart: what personas did in the process of designing a youth care facility

ABSTRACT Architects use scenario-based design (SBD) to design for diversity, employing instruments like personas and scenarios. The development and use of personas has been subject to debate; these instruments are critiqued for missing either rigour or heart. We contribute to this debate through a reflective case-study on what personas did in the process of designing a care facility. We examine a yearlong collaboration between architectural researchers and a youth care organisation. Next to our own perspective as researchers, the analysis considers that of the end-users (children/youth and staff), the client, and the architects. Our exploration of different perspectives shows that personas – their aspects and situations – must be recognisable beyond mere representation. While initially influential, the personas seemed less capable of steering design propositions beyond current use. Insight into how these instruments (and SBD in general) affect stakeholders’ involvement and the design process can shift discussions about rigour and heart, balancing what is important in development and usage. Rigour and heart, in this context, do not exclude one another.

চারুশিল্পের অনুষঙ্গ হিসেবে লিপিশিল্প: পরিপ্রেক্ষিত বাংলাদেশ

The aesthetic incorporation of text into visual art goes beyond mere representation, adding a dynamic dimension by interacting with various artistic mediums. The sensible use of text can elevate the aesthetic value of an artwork, rendering it not only visually appealing but also informative. It extends beyond graphic design, working diverse disciplines in fine arts. As an artistic element, text possesses a unique ability to generate aesthetic appeal while fostering effective communication with the viewers. This research explores the communicative and aesthetic functions of text within Bangladeshi art. By analysing the utilisation of text in a sample of seventeen artworks, the study aims to identify the diverse processes and techniques employed by Bangladeshi artists to achieve their artistic goals. The findings of the study reveal that text is a highly valued art form in Bangladesh, it is used in a wide variety of ways by Bangladeshi artists. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the study findings for better understanding about text as an aesthetic object in Bangladesh. It shows that text is an integral part of art and it plays an important role in shaping the country’s cultural identity.

Diversity as Capital? Marginalized Identities and Subtle Inequality in Data Journalism

ABSTRACT This study examines the intersectional dynamics of gender, socio-economic status, and migration history in data journalism, applying Bourdieu’s field theory to explore how capital is accumulated and how social change can be pursued. Through in-depth interviews with 13 German-speaking data journalists with marginalized identities, the study reveals that their capital accumulation reflects adherence to existing norms and does not automatically lead to transformative agency. Minority characteristics can enhance symbolic capital through increased recognition in specific contexts, but these same characteristics also hinder the accumulation of economic, social, and cultural capital due to smaller networks and lack of social or cultural fit. Due to the paradoxical function of minority characteristics for capital accumulation, data journalists often adopt strategies to fit in by selectively revealing their minority identities. Yet, interviewed data journalists experience subtle discrimination in informal interactions, such as casual conversations with colleagues. While the data journalists want to increase diversity in who participates in playing the field, transformative change remains limited as these journalists primarily focus on succeeding within existing structures rather than altering them. The study advocates for newsroom diversity initiatives that go beyond mere representation, emphasizing the need to share responsibility for inclusivity across all newsroom members.

Differing bodyminds: Cripping choreography

This Special Issue originated from the symposium and doctoral seminar Differing Bodyminds – Choreographing New Pathways, held in Leuven (Belgium) a few years ago. Rather than merely documenting the event, our goal is to extend the discussions and practices initiated there into a broader debate on how crip theory can reshape choreographic discourses and practices. As we argue, ‘cripping choreography’ is more than identifying disability dance or critiquing ableist structures; it involves developing a theoretical, phenomenological and performative lens for creating and analysing dance. This lens is rooted in historical and contemporary practices of non-compliant and anti-assimilationist disability-making, doing and knowing, which explicitly position disability as a desirable aspect of our world. Our collection, while building on previous thinking about disability dance and art, aims to reorient the focus from mere representation and inclusion to transformation and creation. It seeks to explore the creative potential of crip choreography poietics, celebrating often ignored and suppressed methods for crip world-making, while also explicitly attending to hopelessness, failure, ‘unlearning’ (Dind, 89 in this issue), ‘non-docile dysdance’ (Watson, 133 in this issue) and ‘wimping out’ (Melkumova-Reynolds, 17 in this issue). All authors in this issue, therefore, engage with this non-utopian perspective: What if we were to cultivate crip’s complexity, carefully tending to the cracks endemic to crip theory, practice, identity and community? How can we hold space for the complexity of crip world-making – its tensions, its failures, its competing priorities, its joys – as it manifests in dance-making processes and aesthetics?

Heat transfer effect on the modeling of jets under supercritical and transcritical conditions

The injection of nitrogen under supercritical and transcritical conditions, where the injection temperature is below nitrogen’s critical point, but the pressure is above it, is considered in this paper. While the scientific community recognizes that the sharp gradients of the different thermophysical parameters make it inappropriate to employ a two-phase flow modeling at conditions above the critical point, the issue is not restrained to the mere representation of turbulence for a mono-phase flow. Instead, a quantitative similarity with gas-jet-like behavior led to proposing an incompressible but variable density hypothesis suitable for describing supercritical and sub/near-critical conditions. Presently, such an approach is extended and assessed for a configuration including injector heat transfer. As such, axial density and temperature decay rates and jet spreading rates of density and temperature are evaluated, indicating a higher mixing efficiency in the supercritical regime and an overall dominance of heat propagation over momentum transport, with a greater preponderance in the supercritical regime.

Constructing an ideal home: Affective atmosphere creation as a public participation strategy for urban village renovation

The public participation process in the renovation of urban villages should not only ensure procedural justice but also guide the affective integration of residents. This paper explores the public's perception of the participation space and the process of affective construction based on a visual study of the Luofeng village renovation in Guangzhou. The aim is to elucidate how the space can be employed to create an affective atmosphere as a strategy for the renovation. The study reveals that participants focused on visual symbols carrying the narrative of daily life, evoking a positive emotional response to these elements. The public participation space successfully establishes a homey atmosphere and achieves the affective reproduction of residents through the creation of its physical environment, residents' embodied practices within it, and negotiated interactions among different subjects. Drawing on the case study, we advocate for the public participation process in urban village renovation to consider residents' embodied affective experiences. It provides a practical model that surpasses mere representation, with the intention of offering a reference for sustainable urban renewal.

Beyond Sun, Sand, and Sea: The Role of Hittite Heritage in the Transformation of Turkey s Cultural Heritage Regimes

This article scrutinizes the cultural heritage regimes pertaining to the Hittite Empire within the Turkish context, with a specific emphasis on archival records, media narratives, and significant political figures. Drawing upon the concept of cultural heritage regimes, this paper argues that the Hittite cultural heritage played a pivotal role in crafting the self-understanding of the emergent Turkish Republic. The focus lies on the strategic appropriation of Hittite symbols by the Republic to foster a palpable connection with an ancient past that thrived within the geographical bounds of contemporary Turkey. This connection aimed to kindle a sense of unity and shared origins among Turkish citizens. In a significant shift, the twenty-first century exhibits a noticeable change in priorities where the media discourse primarily accentuates the economic potential of Hittite cultural artifacts, largely in the context of heritage tourism. Coupled with this economic and touristic orientation is a deliberate endeavor to redefine Turkey’s image. By strategically projecting Turkey’s historical depth, the aim is to catalyze heritage tourism and move beyond the country’s mere representation as a natural “paradise” known for its stereotypical trio of sun, sand, and sea. This shift exemplifies a metamorphosis of cultural heritage regimes, where the anticipated fiscal returns from heritage tourism begin to steer the narrative, simultaneously highlighting the economic dividends of cultural preservation and catalyzing a redefinition of Turkey’s global image.

The Interrelationships Between Marital and Housing Tenure Status of Female Adolescents and Adults in Jakarta Province

This study attempts to unveil the interrelationships between marital and housing tenure status of female adolescents and adults in Jakarta province. Although gender equality becomes one of the prioritized sustainable development goals, the housing tenure of female adolescents and adults, according to their current marital status, is rarely examined for ensuring their tenure security and improvement of well-being. The employed mixed-method research with sequential quantitative-qualitative methods delivers the crosstab analysis to identify the majority of types of housing tenure according to the marital status of 289 female respondents, and axial coding from interviews with the selected respondents to understand the interrelationship between their marital and housing status. The result highlights that life-course events such as entering marriage, parenthood, and marriage dissolution lead to housing mobility and tenure changes, which are driven by financial capacity for meeting physiological and psychological needs. It emphasizes the meaning of a house for women as a haven for physical and psychological refuge, rather than a mere representation of social status. It complements the academic conversation on the gender-related topic of housing and also enriches the housing policy, planning, and design to meet the objective of the gender equality program according to sustainable development goals.

Resilience and Resistance in Athol Fugard’s Play No Good Friday

Athol Fugard, acclaimed as the greatest South African playwright in the English-speaking world, is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. In his play No-Good Friday (1958) he presents the burning zeal of an incipient black revolutionary against the exploitation faced by the blacks. At the surface level, the play appears to be a mere representation of the conditions of the blacks; but at deeper levels, it records the helplessness of the blacks in the face of exploitation by their own fellow men during the conditions of the apartheid. Fugard presents the oppressive politics working on the life of the people of Sophia town in various forms by portraying the complex and evolving nature of submissiveness in the face of oppression and how the characters struggle to find a balance between survival and resistance. The play ultimately underscores the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of resistance in the face of oppressive systems.

Heterotopias and the facesphere: “Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia”

Abstract This exploration of the works of various authors and artists will bring us to a philosophical contemplation of the portrait as a heterotopic space. On one hand, a portrait represents the faces of the self and others, embodying both individuality and collectivity. On the other hand, the space within the conventional frame of a portrait transforms from a mere representation of documented reality to a co-constructed and reified form of expression. The article is divided in three parts. The first part sinks into Lotman’s epistemic groundwork on culture, space, and especially art as a founding philosophical and analytical reference and will also outline the relationship and difference between the semiophere and the facesphere. The second part focuses on establishing a relationship between the facesphere and the heterotopic idea of space and portrait genre. Here the article explores Michael Foucault’s thought in relation to heterotopic space, later proposed in association with the space of the portrait. The third part is devoted to establishing relationships between the theoretical background and the analysis of case studies belonging to the portrait genre selected from photographic works in “Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia,” an exhibition at the National Gallery in Singapore. I will conclude with some brief considerations to summarize the path taken.

The meaning and practice of inclusion AMIDST gender diversity on boards of public sector organizations in Uganda

Purpose- Despite progress in achieving gender diversity on corporate boards, there is a growing recognition that mere representation of women does not guarantee their inclusion in terms of active participation and influencing board decisions. This research paper aimed at generating a substantive grounded theory that gives the meaning of inclusion in the boardroom and what should be the ideal practice of inclusion on boards of public sector organizations in Uganda Methodology- A qualitative study was carried out applying a constructivist grounded theory approach. This approach acknowledges the researchers' introspection and involves interpretation of data. A purposive sampling method and snowball technique were used to obtain a sample of 16 female directors serving on boards of public sector organizations in Uganda. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain data. The collection of data and analysis were done concurrently using the coding method to analyze data and to enable a thematic analysis of the themes that define inclusion and the ideal practice of inclusion within boards. Findings- Findings indicate that inclusion means diversity, gender sensitivity, equal opportunity, exploiting potential, and adopting a board charter. On the other hand, the developed ideal practice of inclusion model had some themes similar to the meaning of inclusion. The themes included; Gender Sensitivity, Diverse competencies, Necessary skills, Inclusive behavior, Exploiting potential, and board charter. Conclusion- The original value of this paper lies in its exploration of the complementary relationship between gender diversity and inclusion on boards. Highlighting the importance of inclusion efforts to reap the benefits of gender diversity on boards. Additionally, by applying the constructivist grounded theory approach this paper provides practical guidance for organizations that strive to achieve gender diversity and inclusion on boards Keywords: Female directors, board of directors, ınclusion, gender diversity, public sector organizations. JEL Codes: J16, G34, M14

DNA Damage Response (DDR) Is Associated With Treatment-free Remission in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients.

DNA Damage Response (DDR) Is Associated With Treatment-free Remission in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients.

More than a Meeting

The workshop has become a ubiquitous cultural form within art institutions, used by curators, artists and pedagogues to create opportunities for audiences to do everything from acquiring creative skills to enacting social change. Yet, despite its growing popularity, there is surprisingly little published research exploring the use of the workshop within discourses of curating art and performance. In this article we explore the significance of this turn to the workshop as a special kind of meeting within the art institution. We consider what work the workshop is doing within the context of the art institution and what cultural value systems it shifts, or fails to shift, that have been historically prioritized within those spaces. What does this form of meeting, which promises to be more productive, more open, more useful than an ordinary gathering or talking shop, invoke and bring with it? To answer this question, we draw on Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and Sara Ahmed’s reworking of this notion through the idea of institutional non-performativity, to explore further how the workshop promises, limits and demands forms of action that exceed the mere representation of issues within the art institution. Focusing on an example that both exemplified the trend for art institutions using the workshop as the idealized and politicized performance of public engagement and exceeded the boundaries of sanctioned co-production and performance, ‘Disobedience Makes History: Exploring creative resistance at the boundaries between art and life’ by The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination at Tate Modern in 2010, we argue that the workshop levies a promise for action that, even when non-performatively circumscribed, can lead to performative performance.

United in Patriarchy? A View from across the (Aegean) Pond

United in Patriarchy? A View from across the (Aegean) Pond

The forgotten half? Women in the forest management and development discourse in Africa: A review

Numerous theoretical and empirical studies examining women's engagement in sustainable forest management (SFM) have shown that women bring distinctive interests and values to forest management. However, their effective engagement is still low due to bottlenecks such as rules of entry, ownership, labor division, social norms, perceptions, rules of practice, personal endowments, institutional outcomes, and other organizational cultures. Key among those are the gendered perceptions that marginalize them from the onset. As a result, women's potential to promote SFM in Africa has not been exploited effectively, yet. This raises concerns for gender and social equity as the current practice socially excludes groups that hold specific ecological knowledge, skills, and interests that influence SFM practices. By critically reviewing systematically selected 104 studies conducted on gender issues and forest management in Africa, this paper explores how women's role in forest management and the broader development discourse is constrained. It also characterizes the prevailing engagement models and shows how they influence inclusive processes of deploying SFM practices. Women's engagement in SFM is dominated by public/civic engagement and significantly lags in effectively engaging them as stakeholders, experts, or households. Of the 104 studies reviewed, 54% (n = 57) characterized women's engagement as largely through public meetings compared to 5% (n = 5) as stakeholders and 4% (n = 4) as experts. Thirty-four percent (n = 36) did not clearly categorize the engagement type. Women's engagement in SFM is merely to fill the gender ‘representation' requirements and any effective roles such as decision making, ownership, and benefits are not under the control of women at large. As a result, women's potential to promote forest management and avert ongoing forest loss is not exploited. There is a need to transition from mere representation to a meaningful engagement of women in the sector for inclusive forest management to flourish. In general, capturing, recognizing, and effectively utilizing women's voices and potential in forest management and development discourse requires institutions that deliberately embrace inclusivity and promote equity in general and across gender.

Vernacular Virtual: Toward a Philippine New Materialist Poetics

This essay turns to and through the Philippine vernacular in order to open up the possibility of a new materialist regard of literature, one that specifically stems from the Philippine tropics. It proposes that the opportunity for such a tropical materialism rests on the onomatopoeism observed in the vernacular. Onomatopoeia, as a material linguistic principle, is recognized here to be most instructive in reunderstanding Philippine folk poetry — texts which date back to the precolonial period — in terms beyond mere representation. As a counterpoint to these traditional literary texts, the essay also ruminates on the poetry of Jose Garcia Villa, a prominent Filipino modernist writer, whose works in English are intuited here as demonstrative of the similar onomatopoeism found in Philippine folk poems. Although these literary materials might initially appear to be disparate and disconnected, the reading undertaken here nevertheless seeks to coincide these texts, bringing them into relation to highlight their possible yet understated entanglements, so as to ultimately motivate an intra-activity constitutive of contingent spatiotemporalities that may allow the emergence of a groundwork for a Philippine new materialist poetics.

Wine-making complexes of the Republic of Moldova: reconfigured vision and essential changes to their architecture

In the second half of the XX century, thanks to a plethora of famous architects, new meanings related to the perception of the wine-making complex are imposed and the concept of wine-making architecture evolves. The major interest given to the image of contemporary wineries makes it opportune to take a new approach to their architecture, classifying them as spaces and volumetric forms that are rational and at the same time expressive, suitable for functional and technical requirements, as well as for aesthetic and semantic ones. As a consequence of the changes taking place in the global wine-making industry, there is a structural revision of the overall image of domestic wine-making complexes. Having moved beyond the period of predominance of purely utilitarian, industrial forms, architecture is now entering a phase in which the expressive aspect of buildings comes to the fore. In the first decade of the XXI century, several projects based on the attractiveness of wine-making complexes have attracted attention, demonstrating a particular ability to convey ideas and concepts that are much more complex than their mere representation as a result of the subordination of a utilitarian architecture. By researching these projects, we can notice various solutions of contemporary wine cellar architecture, important contributions to the conceptualization of their development at the present stage.

The Male Figure In James Joyce's "The Boarding House" , "Counterparts" And "Eveline

Literature of the 19th century and even the first half of the 20th century has always given priority to the male figure and his dominant role in the family and the society. Through ages, women have been subject to the moods and characters of their husbands, fathers or even brothers. Women's life was at home, and if few of them started working, their role was limited. There was a clear imbalance between men and women. James Joyce is an Irish writer and a central figure in the modernist movement whose origins are to be found in the literature in the mere representation of reality but with a new emphasis on the unconscious with the works of Freud and others. This  study will examine the role and  image of the new male figure that fails to complete his duty  whether as a father, or a breadwinner or simply a parent who gives affection and security to his children in  James Joyce's short stories, "The Boarding House", "Counterparts" and" Eveline", the three of them published in his 1914 collection of short stories Dubliners.                                                                           &nbsp

Recovery from Psychological Trauma in American Post-Apocalypse Novels

This research investigates two major American post-apocalypse novels which are Cormac McCarthy The Road (2006) and Jeanne DuPrau The City of Ember (2003). In order for the study to go beyond a mere representation of characterizations or motives, the research integrates Judith Herman’s psychoanalytic theories into the various layers of both texts. First, employing Herman’s theoretical framework of hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction, which are three symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the study argues that the main purpose of The Road is the manifestation of parental love, but the main purpose of The City of Ember is survival. Second, the paper draws on Herman’s critical notions of safety, remembrance, mourning and reconnection to represent the possibility of achieving recovery in a post-apocalyptic world. Even though the nameless boy in The Road is exposed to an ashen, senseless world and the father asserts that everything has died, the son is shown as the hero of his father’s stories. Symbolically, the son is associated with light and as the source of his father’s power. Likewise, Lina and Doon’s collaboration in The City of Ember signifies that there is value to human life and friendship when an entire population are about to descend into total inferno. The study argues that even though both novels share some basic similar themes such as recovery from traumatic experiences, their approaches differ concerning the orchestration of language, symbols, settings, narrative voices and conflicts.

Re-reading İstiklal Street using an optical toy: zoetrope montage

This article examines multi-modal perceptions of İstiklal Street, a public space in İstanbul, using a zoetrope, an optical, scientific, and educational instrument invented in the mid-nineteenth century that was a predecessor to film in early cinema. It discusses how this tool increases the awareness of architectural students to environmental perception through observation. Constructing a black curtained zoetrope with a radius of five metres allowed them to metaphorically inhabit the optical device as it was large enough for their bodies to enter. After experiencing İstiklal Street as flâneur/flâneuse, students aimed to understand its heterogenous and fragmented narrative using the zoetrope. Re-reading the street through a zoetrope enabled a paradoxical interplay between the device and its scale. By interacting with a zoetrope to create different fragmented movements and scales, movement in the urban space was understood as more than a visual perception or transient state of curiosity. Instead, the students comprehended architectural production through filmmaking as ‘a mode of reflection’ rather than as mere representation. The zoetrope became a medium through which the students’ visual, haptic, and kinaesthetic senses were fused together.