Tesi sul tema "Aesthetic patterns"

Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The overall aim of this research was to examine aesthetic response to façade colour. Drawing on a range of theories and studies from environment-behaviour studies (EBS), Nasar’s (1994) probabilistic model of aesthetic response to building attributes provided a theoretical framework within which to examine patterns of response. Prompted by the Development Control Plan for Sydney Regional Environmental Plan: Sydney Harbour Catchment (NSWDOP, 2005), this research also linked its aims and methods to planning policy in Sydney. The main research questions focussed on whether changes in aesthetic response are associated with variations in façade colour; and whether changes in judgements about building size, congruity and preference are associated with differences in façade colour. A quasi-experimental research design was used to examine patterns of aesthetic response. The independent variable was represented by four façade colours in two classifications. An existing process, environmental colour mapping, was augmented with digital technology and used to isolate, identify and manipulate the independent variable and for preparation of visual stimuli (Foote, 1983; Iijima, 1995; Lenclos, 1977; Porter, 1997). Façade colour classifications were created from extant colour theories (including those of Albers, 1963; Hard & Sivik, 2001 and Itten, 1961). The façade colour classifications were further developed using F-sort and Q-sort methodology (Amin, 2000; Miller, Wiley & Wolfe, 1986; Stephenson, 1953). Ten dependent variables, linked to overall aesthetic response, were drawn from studies relating to environmental evaluation, building congruity and preference (Groat, 1992; Janssens, 2001; Russell, 1988; Russell, 2003; Russell, Ward & Pratt, 1981; Wohlwill & Harris, 1980). The dependent variables were presented in the form of a semantic differential rating scale and a sample group of 288 evaluated the visual stimuli. The Latin-square technique was used for the controlled presentation of visual stimuli. Factor analysis, correlation analysis and analysis of variance were applied to the data. The findings indicate that variations in aesthetic response are associated with differences in façade colour. Judgements about building size varied by up to 5% and buildings featuring contrasting façade colours were judged to be larger and more dominant. Judgements about a building’s congruity varied by up to 13% and buildings that featured harmonious colours were considered to be more congruous. Preference varied and harmonious façade colours were not necessarily preferred over contrasting façade colours. The outcomes from this research suggest that a new approach to façade colour within the context of planning policy may be appropriate. A model of façade colour evaluation is presented and, unlike current planning guidelines, the model allows for a participatory approach to façade colour evaluation and specification. The model allows for factors that may influence aesthetic response to façade colour (such as contextual, perceptual and idiographic factors) as well as variation in architectural expression with respect to façade colour.

The overall aim of this research was to examine aesthetic response to façade colour. Drawing on a range of theories and studies from environment-behaviour studies (EBS), Nasar’s (1994) probabilistic model of aesthetic response to building attributes provided a theoretical framework within which to examine patterns of response. Prompted by the Development Control Plan for Sydney Regional Environmental Plan: Sydney Harbour Catchment (NSWDOP, 2005), this research also linked its aims and methods to planning policy in Sydney. The main research questions focussed on whether changes in aesthetic response are associated with variations in façade colour; and whether changes in judgements about building size, congruity and preference are associated with differences in façade colour. A quasi-experimental research design was used to examine patterns of aesthetic response. The independent variable was represented by four façade colours in two classifications. An existing process, environmental colour mapping, was augmented with digital technology and used to isolate, identify and manipulate the independent variable and for preparation of visual stimuli (Foote, 1983; Iijima, 1995; Lenclos, 1977; Porter, 1997). Façade colour classifications were created from extant colour theories (including those of Albers, 1963; Hard & Sivik, 2001 and Itten, 1961). The façade colour classifications were further developed using F-sort and Q-sort methodology (Amin, 2000; Miller, Wiley & Wolfe, 1986; Stephenson, 1953). Ten dependent variables, linked to overall aesthetic response, were drawn from studies relating to environmental evaluation, building congruity and preference (Groat, 1992; Janssens, 2001; Russell, 1988; Russell, 2003; Russell, Ward & Pratt, 1981; Wohlwill & Harris, 1980). The dependent variables were presented in the form of a semantic differential rating scale and a sample group of 288 evaluated the visual stimuli. The Latin-square technique was used for the controlled presentation of visual stimuli. Factor analysis, correlation analysis and analysis of variance were applied to the data. The findings indicate that variations in aesthetic response are associated with differences in façade colour. Judgements about building size varied by up to 5% and buildings featuring contrasting façade colours were judged to be larger and more dominant. Judgements about a building’s congruity varied by up to 13% and buildings that featured harmonious colours were considered to be more congruous. Preference varied and harmonious façade colours were not necessarily preferred over contrasting façade colours. The outcomes from this research suggest that a new approach to façade colour within the context of planning policy may be appropriate. A model of façade colour evaluation is presented and, unlike current planning guidelines, the model allows for a participatory approach to façade colour evaluation and specification. The model allows for factors that may influence aesthetic response to façade colour (such as contextual, perceptual and idiographic factors) as well as variation in architectural expression with respect to façade colour.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008.
Includes tables and questionnaire. Includes list of publications. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning. Title from title screen (viewed May 5, 2009) Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Arbetet handlar om att skapa en mönsterkollektion för Eco-Boråstapeter. Kollektionen består av fem mönster som behandlar struktur, volym, rörelse och rytm. Tapeterna trycks med djuptrycksmetod på slätt bestruket non woven-papper. Målgruppen är unga designintresserade människor. En designprocess utifrån en inspirationsfas redovisas som består av experimentella filmer (Grey Gardens, Gummo och The Brown Bunny) och av fotografier tagna under promenader i Växjö. Hemmiljöer och synen på tapeter behandlas utifrån målgruppens, inredningsarkitektens och designerns perspektiv. Arbetet fokuserar också på Eco-Boråstapeters industri, produktion och miljökrav.

The project is about creating a wallpaper collection of five patterns for Eco-Boråstapeter. The collection consists of five patterns dealing with structure, volume, movement and rhythm. Printing method of the wallpapers is deep print on plain coated non woven paper. The target group is young people interested in design. The design process is based on an inspiration phase which consisted of watching experimental films (Grey Gardens, Gummo and The Brown Bunny) and photographs that were taken during walks around Växjö Lake. Home environments and the perceptions of wallpapers are treated from the target group, the designer and the interior arcitect’s perspective. The project also focuses on the industry, production and environmental issues of Eco-Boråstapeter.

This doctoral project presents an aesthetic inquiry into works on paper and installation that are distinguished by a contemplative development of non-mimetic patterns. Relief etchings and linocuts dominate the research, spanning a range of media, including drawings, monoprints, kinetic sculpture, and video. This research is based upon an improvisational methodology that is diversified in response to the interactivity between ideation and material engagement. Change and constancy, motion and stasis, and form and formlessness are co-dependent, conceptual binaries establishing the foundation of this dialectical inquiry. Seeking to reconcile a transformative flux with constancy, geometry is examined as a means of understanding the relational dynamic between mind and matter and as a reference for a speculative, cosmological inquiry. Through my studio research, I have developed a pictorial language from essential motifs, and the exegesis argues that through its metaphoric agency, the particularity of art indicates an immanent materiality. This is consolidated by my research on how physics informs our understanding of materiality, with etchings made in response to the philosophy of physicist David Bohm.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

The basic premise of this work is to consider architecture as the result of the interrelationship between its constituent parts: aesthetic, tectonics, social, environmental , cultural, and organizational. When the project is focused only on one or a few of these levels, this is when hollow formalisms are generated. The main aim here is to demonstrate that patterns are able to facilitate the interaction and integration ofthese constituents. The rise of computation in architecture has had the effect of diluting the natural thought process of the architect. This paper therefore, helps to fill that theoretical void in parametric design. Hence, new tools are needed to analyse and understand architectural phenomena. For this to happen, the relationship between mathematical models and architecture needs to be cemented, and from here on after, pattern needs to be seen as an invaluable component of architecture. A methodology based on my belief that Complexity Theory could be the basis for interpreting architecture and pattern as structure, in order to transform the abstract into reality.

La filmographie des frères Dardenne s’enracine dans une société en mutation : à la crise économique, la fin du modèle industriel, l’avènement de l’ère post-industrielle, répond une perte de repères. Comme en contrepoint à cette perte de significations sociétales, nous repérons dans ces films des motifs esthétiques chargés de valeurs imaginaires ancestrales. L’étude de ces motifs les raccorde à des significations sociales qui les précèdent. Ils constituent ainsi des passerelles vers leurs occurrences antérieures : contes, mythes des origines, rites, traditions archaïques, récits de fondation. Ils peuvent alors être envisagés comme une réserve d’imagination constituante opposée au mal de représentations imaginaires qui affecte la société considérée. Il apparaît alors à l’analyse que l’œuvre des frères Dardenne comporte de manière formelle, dans sa matière filmique, les préoccupations socio-philosophiques qui animent Cornélius Castoriadis, à savoir : l’institution imaginaire des sociétés. La pensée du philosophe grec du XXème siècle surgit comme une ligne de force qui structure le champ de la représentation. La mise en images se trouve stratifiée d’un fond fictionnel qui renvoie à autant d’imaginaires fondateurs, structurels, et fédérateurs pour constituer les individus en société. Les films des frères Dardenne réactivent des imaginaires ancestraux qui participent de la mémoire collective. En convoquant cette mémoire, ils tendent vers la consolidation d’un sentiment d’appartenance à une même communauté humaine. Ainsi les motifs esthétiques dont ils se saisissent, par l’action imaginaire qu’ils engagent, viennent étayer le point d’aboutissement de la narration de l’ensemble de cette filmographie : la socialisation de leurs protagonistes qui passe par la reconnaissance de l’humanité de l’Autre
The Dardenne Brothers’ cinematography takes place in a very changing society. The economic crisis, the fading of industrial template, the beginning of the postindustrial area drive to a lake of landmarks. The Dardenne’s fiction films react against this loss of social significations. We can find in aesthetic patterns filled with ancient imaginary values. Those patterns are bound to a network of social and ancestral meanings. Those meaning values exceed their functional dimension. They carry meanings and uses coming from yore. They act like bridges toward their previous occurrences, which are myths, tales, holy scriptures, etc. We assume that those patterns are a way to resist disillusioning. Ancestral imagination comes in order to overcome the vanishing of social imagination. At this point, we can say that the Dardenne’s filmography deals with Cornelius Castoriadis’ socio-philosophy. The Greek philosopher of the twentieth century’s work is about social imagination and how societies exist thanks to a structural imagination. This preoccupation seems to reemerge in the Dardenne’s aesthesis as a guideline. Their images carry fictions bound to foundation stories. Which are able to federate people as a community. This cinematography revives ancestral imaginary. This collective memory strengthens the feeling of membership to the human community. The aesthesis pattern engages the imagination process. It joins the narration. As a matter of fact, those stories lead to the main characters’ consciousness as other people are human too

Since evolution of &ldquo
global cities&rdquo
is based on private financial actors forming the global economic network, these cities are confronting not only lifestyle changes, but also architectural and urban transformations. An important urban element produced by cities in the global economic network is the new central business district, which house vertical building forms with high demographic density. As a complex urban element serving for national and international arena as service center of liberal economy and an urban prestige symbol of the city, design and planning process of new central business districts is gaining priority to solve complexity of its structure considering public use. The aim of this study is to explore the physical public space due to be created in the new central business district in Istanbul, which has been developing along the Bü
yü
kdere Avenue. Critically concentrating on its design and the planning process and future strategies in a comparative study with other global city examples of Paris, Berlin and Singapore, which have been giving specialized priority to the planning phase and future strategies for their new central business district developments, it is aimed to develop a substantial basis for the conceptualization of how the new central business district can be implemented in Istanbul.

Submitted by Jadson Francisco de Jesus SILVA (jadson@uefs.br) on 2018-02-26T21:56:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CLARA SILVA PINHEIRO - Disserta??o - PPGDCI.pdf: 2046839 bytes, checksum: 38691dea2e56e1efe48e545c82d1a451 (MD5)
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Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES
Models are professionals who structure themselves as molds to depict and present products and services of the fashion, beauty and aesthetics world. Within the peculiarities and repercussions of the modelling profession, thoughtfulness over the body and its imagery projected and perceived in society are aspired. This Master?s degree dissertation presents the outcome of a field research regarding models performed from 2014 to 2016 in a Salvador modeling agency. Through oral narratives and semi-structured interviews, the present study aims to understand which body image insights models have from themselves, in the transition of the construction of model?s body in the dynamic of the body-fitting to body-mold. The delimited goal was to comprehend aesthetic pattern changes in the female body image of models, with the purpose of contextualizing the survey?s phenomenon. Analyzing the model?s narratives of theirs imagery perceptions of the transition from body-fitting to body-mold with photographs and grasp the paradox of the hip in that dynamic. The field gathered data highlights the strict relation of the body with model?s profession.
Modelos s?o profissionais que se estruturam como moldes para representar e apresentar produtos e servi?os no mundo moda, da beleza e da est?tica. Dentro das peculiaridades e repercuss?es da profiss?o de modelo, pautam reflex?es sobre o corpo e a imagem corporal projetada e percebida na sociedade. O presente estudo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa de campo, descritiva, explorat?ria e qualitativa sobre modelos, realizada no per?odo de 2014 a 2016 em uma ag?ncia da cidade de Salvador. As jovens que abra?am o desejo de um ?corpo perfeito? carregam consigo a fun??o de ser espelho, molde ou modelo. Ao longo desta pesquisa, nota-se a transforma??o das modelos, suas conquistas e supera??es. Com as entrevistas semiestruturadas e as narrativas orais, este trabalho busca compreender as percep??es da imagem corporal que as modelos t?m de si, na transi??o do corpo-encaixe (a se adequar) ao corpo-molde (a ser alcan?ado). Al?m disso, s?o enfocadas as mudan?as no padr?o est?tico feminino ao longo do tempo. Atrav?s da an?lise das narrativas, o paradoxo do quadril surge como fator importante na din?mica do corpo-encaixe ao corpo-molde, sendo crit?rio primordial na carreira de modelo. Diante de um campo intenso de investiga??o, verificam-se as possibilidades que o corpo de uma modelo pode alcan?ar, tanto na concretiza??o do sonho profissional como no tracejar de novos caminhos em outras esferas.

This thesis formulates a conceptual framework to account for the rural architectural traditions. The proposal is presented by referring to Ü
rü
nlü
, a Mediterranean highland settlement in Southwestern Turkey. The thesis'
basic assumption is the environmental coherence of the traditional rural culture. Environmental aesthetics provides the conceptual basis through which architectural elements of the environmental coherence are investigated. Environmental aesthetics enhances the inclusive conceptions of "
environment"
as an integral whole merging nature with culture and "
aesthetics"
as an integrated realm of perceptual engagement with environment. The integrative perspectives of environmental aesthetics unify the phenomenological approach with the concepts of "
tectonic syntax"
and "
pattern language,"
which have been raised by previous studies of the traditional built environment. This integral conceptual framework is used to derive the conceptual tools. Environmental coherence between the various scale levels of the rural settlement ranging from architectural detail to settlement pattern defines "
aesthetics of continuity."
The conceptual tools, which are the "
tectonic joint,"
the organic interface and the environmental armature, serve as the successive scale levels on which the architectural elements of the "
aesthetics of continuity"
are analyzed. This framework is applied to Ü
rü
nlü
for identifying the spatial articulations of environment as multileveled patterns illustrating culture-specific solutions to contextual problems. Hence, the patterns are reconsidered as the aspects of architectural enculturation. The thesis'
proposal for an environmental representation of the settlement concretizes the patterns of integration between the rural architectural tradition and environment and explains the aesthetics of continuity between nature and culture. The intended contribution of the case study is a new theoretical approach generally applicable to the rural settlements.

Building on Fredric Jameson's critical theory, this dissertation examines how the aesthetics of cognitive mapping were used to uncover overlooked political, economic, social and cultural dimensions behind my artistic engagement with Islamic patterns. Using a critically informed variant of arts-based research (ABR), I explored the complexity of the interconnected economic, social, political and aesthetic realities informing my positionality as a Muslim Saudi female artist/research completing her dissertation in a Western country. Particularly, my work revealed how certain global forces (including capitalist relations between Saudi Arabia and the USA, as well as global postmodern cultural influences) shape the processes of appropriation and re-signification of patterning appropriated from Islamic aesthetics. This research culminated in a body of artwork for a solo exhibition at Paul Voertman's Gallery at the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas located in Denton, Texas. I conclude the study with recommendations for a regional ABR to be developed by educators for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The study also suggests that this model of cognitive mapping as a critical art making methodology would be a great pedagogical tool for museums and art education curriculum to implement in Saudi Arabia.

The city, since the industrialization period, is no longer the product of a single mind. With bold and massive investment in infrastructure networks that followed this period, engineering professions gained unparallel social status and gained importance in municipality ranks. In parallel to this, social sciences have been very slow to pick up on the issue of mobility. The global neoliberal environment and more competitive one in which cities are confronted today, has resulted with local governments, public-private partnerships and new ways of augmenting chances of economical investments. Municipality documents used as a basis for the production and construction of urban environments are not equipped to deal with commercial and political motivated drawings and plans. There is a lack of communication between both languages that result in an unfiltered ‘laissez faire’ of aesthetics. Spatial design fields are capable of creating terminology that can properly address the serious issues concerning our networks of flows but are not enough by themselves considering the economical environment and the following self-generated urbanity inflicting our cities. Landscape architecture offers an open-ended perspective on small to large scale networks of infrastructures, thus possibly being able to bridge the gap between institutional planning mechanisms and actual design. The theoretical background generated from this research will be applied to a case scenario. Boulevard Taschereau (also called provincial road 134 at some parts) is among the most important and used arteries of the South Shore of Montréal, Québec (Canada). A contextual solution to boulevard Taschereau’s congestion issues will have to be generated in order for it to meet the expectations and social needs of its current and future users.

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FORD - Programa Internacional de Bolsas de Pós-Graduação da Fundação Ford
Esta pesquisa investigou o posicionamento estratégico da Rede Record de Televisão no mercado brasileiro de TV aberta, tendo como aporte teórico-metodológico basilar a Economia Política da Comunicação (EPC), que foi articulada com outras teorias do âmbito comunicacional ao longo do texto dissertativo. Esta análise permitiu observar que o grupo estudado compete com o Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) pelo segundo lugar no cenário televisivo; no entanto, na faixa do prime time, a Record manteve a vice-liderança no período da pesquisa. Tal projeção foi sustentada pela retomada produtiva da cabeça de rede na esfera jornalística e de teleficção. Outra circunstância que interveio no processo estratégico da Rede Record foi o investimento extramídia, com repasse de verba não convencional ao do mercado publicitário, feito pela Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. Segundo informações avaliadas nesta pesquisa, tal investimento corresponderia a aproximadamente R$ 400 milhões por ano, referentes à compra de horários no período da madrugada. Ainda foi observado que o padrão produtivo do objeto estudado entende o telejornalismo como o principal produto para desenhar sua ascensão nacional. A rede realiza ao todo seis telejornais, e as praças produzem de quatro a cinco produtos jornalísticos por dia. Dada essa importância do telejornalismo para a emissora, a investigação se propôs a caracterizar o padrão tecno-estético da Rede Record por meio do seu principal produto jornalístico, o Jornal da Record (JR), e do atual conceito editorial do jornalismo da rede, jornalismo verdade. Assim, foi possível apreender que as “verdades jornalísticas” contidas no JR são construídas, por exemplo, através da utilização da passagem ao vivo com certa frequência em eventos convencionais e o predomínio da editoria de Polícia/Segurança Pública nos fatos noticiados pelo JR.
The present research investigated Rede Record de Televisão’s (Record Television Network) strategic positioning in the public-access TV Brazilian market. The basic theoretical-methodological contribution to this work was the Political Economy of Communication (PEC), which was connected to other communication theories throughout the expository text. This analysis revealed that the group studied competes with SBT, standing for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão ( Brazilian Television System), for the second place in the television scenario. However, Record TV Network maintained the second position in primetime viewership during the research. This projection is supported by the network head’s resumption of production in the television fiction and journalistic spheres. Another circumstance which influenced on Record Network strategic process was the investment derived from outside the media. This investment came from funds not common to the advertising market, transferred by Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God). According to information assessed herein, the mentioned investment would be equivalent to about R$ 400 million per year, and it is related to the purchase of predawn airtime. It has also been observed that the production pattern of the object of study considers telejournalism as the main product to shape its rising nationally. The TV network broadcasts six news programmes altogether, and the affiliates produce 4 to 5 journalistic products a day. Due to the importance of telejournalism to the network, the present investigation proposes to characterize Record TV Network’s aesthetic and technical pattern through its main journalistic product, O Jornal da Record (Record News), and through the current network’s journalism editorial concept, a factual journalism rather than a more reflective or analytical one. Thus, it could be apprehended that the ‘journalistic truths/facts’ in the news programme are based on, for instance, frequent live broadcasting parts in conventional events; and, also, on the predominance of reports on the Police and Public Safety events.

L’observation de la présence des arts non verbaux au cœur des œuvres de Marguerite Duras, Lawrence Durrell, Elfriede Jelinek et Péter Nádas nous invite à considérer la musicalité et l’iconicité des écritures dramatiques et romanesques contemporaines en termes de modèle mais aussi de dispositif. Des phénomènes de dialogue, d’hybridation, de polyphonie, de dialogisme, d’intermédialité, de ce que Jacques Rancière nomme « l’impurification » au cœur d’un « régime esthétique de l’art » révèlent les rêves, désirs et pulsions du verbal pour d’autres arts, mais aussi pour des représentations à l’artisticité discutable. La fabrique d’un corps organique, sexuel, érotique voire pornographique par les écritures contemporaines nous convie à envisager le métissage entre art et non-art en termes de dispositif performatif et à proposer une lecture queer des œuvres. À l’heure du postmodernisme, le recours des écritures au non-verbal se donne à lire à la fois comme la manifestation d’une crise du logos et de la représentation et comme l’enjeu d’une rénovation esthétique et politique de la littérature. Qu’ils modélisent le verbal ou fassent brutalement irruption et déchirure en son sein, les arts non verbaux concourent au renouvellement des formes littéraires, mais aussi à leur politicité et au renouveau de la fiction. Cette étude ambitionne donc d’explorer le carrefour esthético-politique que dessinent, entre le milieu du XXe siècle et ce début de XXIe siècle, les relations plurielles entre les arts verbaux et non verbaux dans l’art verbal par excellence, la littérature
The observation of the presence of non verbal arts within the works of Marguerite Duras, Lawrence Durrell, Elfriede Jelinek and Péter Nádas leads us to examine the musicality and the iconicity of contemporary dramatic and novelistic writings in terms of model, pattern and devices. Dialogue, hybridization, polyphony, dialogism, intermediality, and what Jacques Rancière calls “impurification” within the “Aesthetic Regime of Art”, display the dreams, desires and longings of verbal art for other arts, but also for representations whose artistic content is arguable. The fact that contemporary writings produce an organic, sexual, erotic, even pornographic body invites us to focus on the interactions between arts and non-arts with regard to their performative devices and to propose a queer reading of the works. In Postmodernism, the fact that writings draw on non verbal forms can be understood as the expression of the failure of Logos – both language and reason – and of representation. Moreover, what is also at stake is an aesthetic and political reform of literature. Whether they tend to impose new verbal models or break into them, non verbal arts contribute not only to reshape literary forms but also to emphasize their political substance and renew their fictional content. This dissertation aims to investigate the crossroads between aesthetics and politics that the various relationships between verbal and non-verbal arts display, from mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, within Literature, the verbal art par excellence

博士
世新大學
傳播研究所(含博士班)
99
With the modern picture developing of tendency and visualize existence, film becomes the most important medium for widespread transmission art and popular images. By the recovering of film topics and the appreciations of the modern film, it is appearing the structure transforming of political aesthetic and visual pattern. Through the unique views of methodology and eclectic research habits of Jacques Ranci?嫫e, merging subjectivity, objectivity, structure and dynamic, view and actions antagonistic relationship are understood since Taiwan film developing history after 1980s. In a word, the article is summery of the film surface characteristics which have classified five image forms: stare reality, innovative and reflective, dialectical reality, trans- boundary, subjective participation. The five forms show the transformation of visual pattern and sensible of the particular community, furthermore reveal as flow, overlapping status. It also reflects on three layers: from configuration of the ‘framing’, serious conversion ‘folding’ breaking with the ‘flowing’ pattern includes the political process. In the other words, “non-consensus” is not only a symbol of the discourse and image but also concretes proposals to reconfiguration of meaning, spirit and substance. As a result, the corresponding sense of community from consciousness of the ‘pursuit of reality’ into a diverse sense of ‘multi-reality’ and ‘de-differentiation’. Base on the analysis, the article explains the more derails of the social construction transformation and material hierarchy through a variety of databases and statistics to be demonstrated which including speech rights, life and time sensitivity, economic structure, media access and new technique, supplemented with relevant policies and discourses configuration of the order, that kind of pseudo-quality phenomenon of de-differentiation. Although Ranci?嫫e’s ‘distribution of the sensible’ provided practical perspective, the article has to take local appropriate into account when the theory involves with West Art history and an ideal of radicalism, so translating subject’s work is a historical practice that always takes place within a social framework needing to consider the cultural capital, technical conditions and the desire as well. Final, reviewing of the Taiwan film since 1980s provide the relationship of the ‘image surface’--‘the distribution of sensible of the community’ from Ranci?嫫e, it also revised the relationship between ‘soical structure/ material hierarchy’ and ‘translating subject’. It is a multiple review and confirm. Meanwhile, the article offers contributions from the two levels, used Ranci?嫫e’s thoery to investigate Taiwan film since 1980s, and, based on Taiwan film to study and discussion about visuality, aesthetic politics and audience.

The main goal of this thesis is to analyse the Renaissance approaches to mimesis or imitation perceived in both aesthetic and social contexts. The central figure connecting these two planes is Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) – an ideal courtier, statesman and soldier of the late Elizabethan era, who tried to create and describe aesthetic foundations for poetic imitation in English poetry, who introduced ingenious poetic corrective models to court, and whose behaviour was later imitated and introduced back in literature in order to create patterns for further imitation. The present dissertation seeks to address various texts of culture – such as literary fiction (poetry and drama), prescriptive books of conduct, Renaissance portraits but also courtly habits inscribed in what might be called the poetics of culture.
Praca ukazuje sposób, w jaki sposób angielski Renesans przekładał wzorce literackie na osobowe modele zachowań. Doktorat skonstruowany jest wokół zagadnienia kreatywnej imitacji i sposobu, w jaki realizowane są prezentowane w literaturze wzorce. Rozważania poparte są teoriami z zakresu mimesis i tożsamości jednostki, pokazując w ten sposób uniwersalny aspekt fenomenu imitacji w Renesansie. Praca przedstawia Renesans jako okres, w którym indywidualizm rodzi się dzięki kreatywnemu powielaniu istniejących wzorców.

Chan, Pui Lam.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.

This dissertation adds to the many arguments already made for the value of art (cultural artifact) in teaching and learning. The special approach developed here concludes with the articulation of Salience Strategy. The argument firstly questions the value of seeing intelligence as a problem-solving faculty. It continues by examining consciousness, memory and the imagination as both the ground and substance of intellection. It argues that, amongst other things, interconnectedness, reiterative pathways and networks are central to the operation of consciousness and therefore, are central to its epiphenomenal attributes like intelligence. As education should strive for greater intellectual functioning so it should, therefore, strive to harness the paradigms of interconnectedness, reiterative pathways and networks. The art object, (device, gesture, statement), it is proposed, is valuable when deployed as hubs in networks of ideas allowing learners to form patterns of unexpected and creative linkages enhancing both memory, curiosity and a capacity for imaginative and associative thinking. Learning becomes movement through a landscape of complex objects and outgrowths. Two salience itineraries are explored in this dissertation. The first in relation to concepts overheard during learner conversations over the duration of a school week, and a second, exploiting my own work as an artist, selected work by the British artist Richard Long, and some of the issues raised in the theoretical discussion of consciousness and networks.

This study sets out to demonstrate the usefulness of cybernetic description for grief therapy, specifically the field parental loss of a child. This paradigm was used to facilitate an alternate mode of conceptualisation, one engendering a more encompassing, aesthetic view. The following core cybernetic concepts were used: punctuation, complementarity, pattern and metapattern forming the framework of cybernetic description as applied. A literature study attempting to merge the gestalt of cybernetic description with that of bereavement theory, specifically that pertaining to the parental loss of a child, is presented. A single case study is described illustrating how cybernetic description is applied to the grief narrative. Arising out of this, the implications of cybernetic description for the field of grief and social work in general are outlined.
Social Work
M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

碩士
國立政治大學
英國語文學系
85
In this thesis I am to proffer an aesthetic knowledge of visual poetry by illustrating Renaissance pattern poems and cummings'' visual poems, through which to rectify the conventional view of visual poetry as insignificant or "aesthetically irrelevant." 　　My thesis is composed of five parts. In Inthoduction I outline the stakes of visual poetry, present its brief history, and bring forth three aesthetic issues abstracted from Renaissance pattern poems and cummings'' visual poems. These three issues occupy respeictively one chapter of my thesis. The first issue is the mimetic relation of visual poetry to nature. In their visual shapes which are the faithful representation of natural objects, I find an epistemological difference between Renaissance pattern poems and cummings'' visual poems. The second issue is concerned with the interaction between poetry and painting. Now that visual poetry is hightly mimetic, its linkage with painting (or visual arts) is all the more intimate. I concentrate upon, in consequence, how Renaissance pattern poems and cummings'' visual poems cross respectively the border G.E. Lessing builds between poetry, the temporal art, and painting, the spatial art. The former two issues focus on the writing mode of visual poetry;then, the third one attends to how this writing--which is called by John Hollander as "aberrant"--poses a challenge to the reader''s conventional response to poetry. And there are two contrasts in this discussion:one is the distinction between the reading of conventional poetry and that of visual poetry; the other the distinction between the reading of Renaissance pattern poems and that of cummings'' visual poems. The process from the first to the third issue is, we can find, an interconnection between from and content. Such a development brings out what I asserts in Conclusion:in order to prevent visual poetry from being nothing but a world play--i.e., to be not only visual poetry but visual poetry--visual poets have to secure the compatibility between its form and content.

Ogni giorno, siamo esposti a varie immagini e video grazie ai social media, come Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, Instagram e altri. In questo scenario, l'esprimere preferenze per un dato contenuto multimediale (per esempio con l'uso del meccanismo di ``like'') è diventato pervasivo e imponente, diventando un fenomeno di massa sociale. Uno dei principali risultati nelle scienze cognitive è che i processi automatici di cui non siamo a conoscenza, modellano, per la maggior parte, la nostra percezione dell'ambiente. Il fenomeno si applica non solo al mondo reale, ma anche ai dati multimediali che consumiamo giornalmente. Ogni volta che osserviamo una immagine, guardiamo un video o ascoltiamo una registrazione, la nostra attenzione cosciente si concentra sul contenuto osservabile, ma la nostra cognizione percepisce spontaneamente intenzioni, opinioni, valori, attitudini e altri costrutti che, sebbene siano al di fuori della nostra consapevolezza cosciente, modellano le nostre reazioni e comportamenti. Finora, le tecnologie multimediali hanno trascurato questo fenomeno.Questa tesi discute il fatto che è possibile prendere in considerazione effetti cognitivi per migliore gli approcci multimediali. A questo scopo sono considerati principi di Computational Aesthetics e Social Signal Processing sotto un punto di vista computazionale. Da un lato la Computational Aesthetics ha la funzione di rendere applicabili decisioni estetiche in modo simile a come gli esseri umani sanno fare, permettendo alle tecnologie multimediali di modellare e valutare un senso comune della bellezza. Dall'altro lato il campo del Social Signal Processing ha lo scopo di modellare con algoritmi i processi cognitivi che codificano segnali sociali e che ci portano ad interagire in modo particolare con le persone o preferire immagini e video. Questa rappresenta una grande opportunità per la CA perché la risposta estetica umana è formata dalla combinazione di predisposizioni genetiche, assimilazione culturale e esperienze uniche individuali e in questo modo può essere imparata da immagini online usando la saggezza della folla.La tesi si focalizza sulle immagini come primo tentativo in questa direzione. Le motivazioni del perché concentrarsi sulle immagini sono molte: da un lato, scattare foto è una delle azioni comunemente svolte tramite l'uso di telefoni cellulari, e dell'altro lato, gli utenti postano online immagini originali o video e condividono e redistribuiscono quelli postati da altri.A questo scopo, la tesi presenta uno studio sull'estetica personale, dove lo scopo è quello di riconoscere le persone e le loro caratteristiche considerando le immagini che piacciono a queste sviluppando diversi approcci ibridi usando modelli generativi e di regressione. L'idea generale assume che, dato un insieme di immagini preferite, è possibile estratte un insieme di attributi che discriminano \textit{pattern} visuali, che possono essere usati per inferire caratteristiche personali del soggetto che le preferisce.Come primo contributo proponiamo un sistema di soft biometrics, che permette di discriminare un individuo rispetto ad altri usando le immagini che le/gli piacciono. Lo studio e sviluppo del sistema biometrico è diventato di primaria importanza sia per l'identificazione di individui che applicazioni di sicurezza è recommendation system. Su un dataset di 200 utenti e 40000 immagini, il sistema sviluppato raggiunge il 97\% di probabilità di indovinare l'utente corretto usando 5 immagini preferite come modello biometrico; per la capacità di verifica, l'EER è 0.11.Inoltre, abbiamo sviluppato un sistema capace di inferire la personalità di un soggetto usando le sue immagini preferite. La motivazione è che quando conosciamo una persona per la prima volta, tendiamo ad attribuire tratti di personalità ad esso/essa. Il processo è spontaneo e inconscio. Sebbene non necessariamente accurato, il processo comunque influenza significativamente il nostro comportamento nei confronti degli altri, specialmente quando si tratta di interazioni sociali. Il fenomeno è così diffuso che ha luogo non solo quando conosciamo altri in persona, ma anche quando li osserviamo in registrazioni video, o interagiamo con agenti artificiali che mostrano comportamenti simili agli umani o con materiale multimediale che le persone condividono online. Come risultato, la tesi mostra che ci sono pattern visuali che correlano con i tratti di personalità di utenti Flickr in misura statisticamente significativa, e che i tratti di personalità (sia auto valutati che attribuiti da altri) di questi utenti posso essere inferiti dalle immagini che questi ultimi marcano come preferite. Una della parti più importanti della tesi è stata la collezione del dataset PyschoFlickr, composto da 60000 immagini di 300 utenti Flickr annotate in termini di tratti di personalità sia auto attributi che attributi da 22 giudici. La predizione è eseguita usando più approcci (multiple instance regression e deep learning), raggiungendo una correlazione fino a 0.68 e un'accuratezza fino a 0.69 tra tratti reali e predetti.La predizione dei tratti attribuiti da altri ottiene risultati più alti rispetto a quelli auto attribuiti: la ragione è che le immagini dominano l'impressione della personalità che i giudici percepiscono e il consenso tra loro è statisticamente significativo. Questi due condizioni aiutano la regressione ad ottenere risultati più alti. Quando gli utenti auto giudicano la loro personalità, considerano anche altri informazioni che non sono disponibili nelle immagini che preferiscono, ad esempio, storia personale, la stato interiore, educazione, ecc.. Tuttavia, questo non permette di ottenere alti risultati nella regressione. Questo è un risultato importante che può aiutare a capire meglio il comportamento sociale delle persone a nel progettare agenti artificiali capaci di suscitare la percezione di tratti predefiniti desiderabili e fornire suggerimenti su come gestire le impressioni online usando le immagini preferite.
Everyday, we are exposed to various images and videos thanks to the social media, like Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, Instagram and others.In this scenario, the use of expressing preferences for a given multimedia content (for example by the use of liking mechanisms) has become pervasive and massive, becoming a social mass phenomenon.One of the main findings of cognitive sciences is that automatic processes of which we are unaware shape, to a significant extent, our perception of the environment. The phenomenon applies not only to the real world, but also to multimedia data we consume every day. Whenever we look at pictures, watch a video or listen to audio recordings, our conscious attention efforts focus on the observable content, but our cognition spontaneously perceives intentions, beliefs, values, attitudes and other constructs that, while being outside of our conscious awareness, still shape our reactions and behavior. So far, multimedia technologies have neglected such a phenomenon to a large extent. This thesis argues that taking into account cognitive effects is possible and it can also improve multimedia approaches. For this purpose we take into account Computational Aesthetics and Social Signal Processing principles under a computational point of view. On one side Computational Aesthetics makes applicable aesthetic decision in a similar fashion as human can allowing to multimedia technologies to learn, model and evaluate a common sense of beauty. On the other side,Social Signal Processing field has the aim of modeling with algorithms cognitive processes that codify social signal and that lead us to interact with a particular way with people or to prefer a particular image or video. This represents an invaluable opportunity for CA because human aesthetic response is formed by a combination of genetic predisposition, cultural assimilation, and unique individual experience and indeed it can be learned from online pictures using the wisdom of crowds.The thesis focuses on images as a first attempt in this direction.The motivation of why focusing on pictures are many: from one side, taking pictures is the action most commonly performed with mobile phones, on the other side, users either post online original images or videos or share and redistribute those posted by others. To this aim the thesis presents a study on personal aesthetics, where the goal is to recognize people and their characteristics by considering the images they like by developing several hybrid approaches using generative models and regressors.The general idea assumes that, given a set of preferred images, it is possible to extract a set of features individuating discriminative visual patterns, that can be used to infer personal characteristics of the subject that preferred them.As first contribution we propose a soft biometric system, that allows to discriminate an individual from another using the images he/she likes. The study and development of biometric system have become of paramount importance for both identification of individual and security applications and recommendation systems. On a dataset of 200 users and 40K images, the developed frameworks gives 97\% of probability of guessing the correct user using 5 preferred images as biometric template; as for the verification capability, the equal error rate is 0.11.Furthermore, we developed a system able to infer the personality of a subject using the images preferred by him/her. The motivation is that whenever we meet a person for the first time, but also when we observe her in video recordings, or we interact with an artifact displaying human-like behavior or with the multimedia material she shares online, we tend to attribute personality traits to her. The process is spontaneous and unconscious. While not necessarily accurate, the process still influences significantly our behavior towards others, especially when in comes to social interactions. As a supporting proof-of-concept, the thesis shows that there are visual patterns correlated with the personality traits of Flickr users to a statistically significant extent, and that the personality traits (both self-assessed and attributed by others) of those users can be inferred from the images these latter mark as ``favorite''. One of the most important part of the thesis has been the collection of the PsychoFlickr corpus, composed of 60K images of 300 Flickr users annotated in terms of personality traits both self and attributed by 22 assessors. The prediction are performed using multiple approaches (multiple instance regression approach and a deep learning framework), reaching a correlation up to 0.68 and an accuracy up to 0.69 between actual and predicted traits.The prediction of traits attributed from others achieve higher results compared to the self-assessed ones: the reason is that pictures dominate the personality impressions that the judges develop and the consensus across the judges is statistically significant. These two conditions help the regression approaches to achieve higher performances. When the users self-assess their personality, they take into account information that is not available in the favorite pictures like, e.g., personal history, inner state, education,etc.. Therefore, this does not allow the regression approaches to achieve high performances. This is an important finding as it can help to better understand the social behavior of people, to design artificial agents capable of eliciting the perception of predefined desirable traits and providing suggestions on how to manage online impressions using favorite pictures.

In my thesis, I discuss the fundamental aesthetic philosophy underlying the traditions of Chinese Classical Theatre. I use the term “Chinese Classical Theatre” when referring particularly to Kunqu and Jingju (Peking Opera), since these two particular genres and their artistic values most clearly represent the characteristics of Chinese Traditional Theatre or Xiqu as a classical dramatic system. The term “Chinese Traditional Theatre” or Xiqu is used in a wider and more generic sense, to include all the many varieties of traditional and regional theatre. In the first chapter, I look at the broad historical development of Xiqu, from its original sources to its supreme expression – Kunqu and Jingju. In the second, the focus is on the essence of Taoism, which is the starting point of Chinese traditional aesthetics. Taoism and Buddhism have given Chinese artists total freedom from all limitations; and have inspired them to seek a truth beyond appearance. The third chapter concentrates on Confucianism, its contribution to ancient art education, and its influence on Xiqu stylization, in particular the art of different role-types and the function of percussive music. The fundamental concept of general education and the method of Xiqu training will be explored in the fourth chapter. I examine the Keban 科班 － the old system according to which Xiqu actors were trained; and use video materials to illustrate the modern Chinese institutions for training in the Classical Theatre. In the fifth and last chapter, through the analysis of two less than successful examples, I explore, at a deeper level, the core of Chinese traditional aesthetics and how that core can be lost or preserved in the process of reform.

Doctoral thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the Doctoral Program in Information Science and Technology supervised by Professor Fernando Jorge Penousal Martins Machado and presented to the Department of Informatics Engineering of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra.
Information Visualization is usually perceived as an analytical tool with its roots in scientific reasoning. However, with the creation of programming languages directed to the design communities, along with the democratisation of data, Information Visualization expanded its conceptual boundaries to explorative and user-oriented areas. Nowadays, Information Visualization is used in different scientific and social domains, and works with different types of data, being time-based datasets common. The analysis of time-series implies understanding the evolution of data attributes over time. To achieve this, approaches from data mining and statistical areas, or even from visual design, are adopted to represent trends and patterns. The visual analysis of these temporal patterns and their disruptions is important in several fields of knowledge and are often an enticing and revealing output for the interested user. Given the relevance of the representation of trends and patterns in time-varying data, we focus our research on the development of visual mechanisms to map and synthesise complex data and enable the user to gather more information with less effort. Our visual explorations are an integral part of the design practice and will be embraced as a necessary aid to improve the understanding and accessibility of information. This thesis aims to explore the use of time-series visualization tools to allow the user to explore the data and answer specific problems in business domains, more specifically, in the retail, banking, and online shopping domains. Overall, our investigation includes: the application of existing principles of time-series visualization in business; the development of visualization models capable of highlighting temporal patterns intrinsic to the datasets; and, the development of visual models able to adapt to the user's aesthetic preferences. Different visualization tools were developed to enable the visualization of time-series data from the business domain. Firstly, we explored the representation of deviations to facilitate the analysis of the Portuguese consumption over time. This research project was developed in collaboration with SONAE, one of the most important Portuguese retail companies. With their data, we developed a set of visualization models to optimise their operations by improving the understanding of how the consumption values are distributed along time within their product hierarchy. Secondly, we explored the representation of fraudulent actions in finance. The visualization models were developed in collaboration with Feedzai, an important company in the fraud prevention domain. We developed two visualization tools to enable Feedzai's analysts to study the evolution over time of a set of transactions and detect possible cases of fraud more efficiently. Finally, we developed two visualization models to investigate the aesthetic dimension of the Portuguese consumption. These works aim to highlight the temporal patterns and rhythms in a simple and pleasing way. Also, these works aim to be a step towards captivating the big public through aesthetic experiences, luring them to further explore the data in a more analytical form. Overall, our visualization tools and models enabled us to (i) represent the deviations in consumption over time; (ii) represent suspicious and fraudulent activities in the finance domain; (iii) investigate the aesthetic domain in time-oriented data and represent visually the rhythms of consumption. Through our work, we demonstrated the feasibility of representing temporal patterns and their disruptions to enhance the understanding of the data and increase the knowledge available for business intelligence.
A Visualização de Informação é normalmente vista como uma ferramenta analítica com raízes no raciocínio científico. No entanto, com a criação de linguagens de programação direccionadas para as comunidades de design, bem como a democratização dos dados, a Visualização de Informação expandiu os seus limites conceptuais para áreas mais exploratórias e orientadas para o utilizador. Hoje em dia, a Visualização de Informação é usada em diferentes domínios científicos e sociais e trabalha com diferentes tipos de dados, sendo os dados temporais comuns. A análise de dados temporais, requer conhecimento sobre a evolução de um conjunto de dados ao longo do tempo e adquirir este conhecimento implica adoptar abordagens tais como da análise exploratória de dados, análise estatística, ou até design, de forma a promover a representação de tendências e padrões. A análise visual destes padrões temporais e respectivas perturbações pode ser, simultaneamente, cativante e reveladora para o utilizador interessado e, por isso, deve ser aplicada em várias áreas do conhecimento. Dada a relevância da representação de tendências e padrões em dados temporais, focamos a nossa investigação no desenvolvimento de mecanismos visuais para mapear e sintetizar dados complexos que permitam ao utilizador adquirir mais informação com menos esforço. As explorações visuais resultantes da nossa investigação são uma parte integral da prática do design e serão adoptadas como uma ajuda necessária para melhorar a compreensão e acessibilidade dos dados. Assim, pretendemos usar ferramentas de visualização de dados temporais de forma a permitir ao utilizador explorar os mesmos e obter respostas a problemas específicos no domínio empresarial, mais especificamente, nos sub-domínios da venda ao retalho, da banca e das compras online. Em termos gerais, a presente investigação inclui: a aplicação de conhecimento já existente sobre visualização de dados temporais ao domínio empresarial; o desenvolvimento de modelos capazes de enfatizar padrões temporais intrínsecos aos dados; e o desenvolvimento de modelos visuais capazes de se adaptar às preferências do utilizador. No contexto desta tese, foram desenvolvidas diferentes ferramentas de visualização de forma a permitir a visualização de dados temporais. Inicialmente, foi explorada a representação de desvios por forma a facilitar a análise dos consumos dos Portugueses ao longo do tempo. Este primeiro projecto de investigação foi financiado pela SONAE, uma das mais importantes empresas Portuguesas de venda a retalho. Com estes dados, desenvolvemos um conjunto de modelos de visualização para optimizar as operações da empresa através da melhoria do conhecimento interno sobre como os valores de consumo estão distribuídos no tempo. Numa segunda fase, foi explorada a representação de actividades financeiras fraudulentas. Este estudo foi financiado pela Feedzai, uma das mais importantes empresas no âmbito da prevenção de fraude. Foram desenvolvidas duas ferramentas de visualização de forma a permitir aos analistas da Feedzai o estudo da evolução temporal de um conjunto de transacções financeiras e a detecção mais eficiente de possíveis casos de fraude. Finalmente, foram desenvolvidos dois modelos de visualização de forma a investigar a dimensão estética dos consumos dos Portugueses. Com estes modelos, pretendemos enfatizar os padrões temporais e ritmos de forma simples e apelativa. Pretendemos dar um passo no sentido de capturar o interesse do grande público através de experiências estéticas, incentivando-os a explorarem, posteriormente, os dados de forma analítica. De forma geral, através das nossas ferramentas de visualização e modelos de visualização conseguimos: (i) representar os desvios no consumo ao longo do tempo; (ii) representar actividades financeiras suspeitas ou fraudulentas; e (iii) investigar o lado estético dos dados temporais, representando visualmente o ritmo dos consumos. Através do nosso trabalho demonstramos a viabilidade da representação de padrões temporais e respectivas perturbações de forma a melhorar o conhecimento dos dados e a aumentar o conhecimento disponível em inteligência de negócio.

This dissertation develops computational models to address outstanding problems in the domain of expectation-related cognitive processes and their neuroimaging markers in functional MRI or EEG. The new models reveal a way to unite diverse phenomena within a common framework focused on dynamic neural encoding shifts, which can arise from robust interactive effects of M-currents and chloride currents in pyramidal neurons. By specifying efficient, biologically realistic circuits that achieve predictive coding (e.g., Friston, 2005), these models bridge among neuronal biophysics, systems neuroscience, and theories of cognition. Chapter one surveys data types and neural processes to be examined, and outlines the Dynamically Labeled Predictive Coding (DLPC) framework developed during the research. Chapter two models hippocampal prediction and mismatch, using the DLPC framework. Chapter three presents extensions to the model that allow its application for modeling neocortical EEG genesis. Simulations of this extended model illustrate how dynamic encoding shifts can produce Mismatch Negativity (MMN) phenomena, including pharmacological effects on MMN reported for humans or animals. Chapters four and five describe new modeling studies of possible neural bases for alpha-induced information suppression, a phenomenon associated with active ignoring of stimuli. Two models explore the hypothesis that in simple rate-based circuits, information suppression might be a robust effect of neural saturation states arising near peaks of resonant alpha oscillations. A new proposal is also introduced for how the basal ganglia may control onset and offset of alpha-induced information suppression. Although these rate models could reproduce many experimental findings, they fell short of reproducing a key electrophysiological finding: phase-dependent reduction in spiking activity correlated with power in the alpha frequency band. Therefore, chapter five also specifies how a DLPC model, adapted from the neocortical model developed in chapter three, can provide an expectation-based model of alpha-induced information suppression that exhibits phase-dependent spike reduction during alpha-band oscillations. The model thus can explain experimental findings that were not reproduced by the rate models. The final chapter summarizes main theses, results, and basic research implications, then suggests future directions, including expanded models of neocortical mismatch, applications to artificial neural networks, and the introduction of reward circuitry.

This paper interweaves narrativized readings and experiential narratives as personal and cultural resources for counterhegemonic cultural critique within our historical context of globalization and ecological crisis. Framed by perspectives on epistemology, everyday life, and place, these reflections seek to engage and revitalize our notions of community, creativity, and the individual, towards visioning the human art of community as a counternarrative to globalization. Such a task involves confronting the meanings we have come to ascribe to work and economy which so deeply determine our social fabric. Encountering the thought of key 19th and 20th century social theorists ranging from William Morris, Gregory Bateson, and Raymond Williams, to Murray Bookchin, Martin Buber, and Wendell Berry, these reflections mark the indivisible web of culture in the face of our insistent divisions, and further, iterate our innate creativity as the source for a vital, sustainable culture that might reflect, in Bateson’s terms, the pattern that connects.

The presentation of this Master of Philosophy thesis consists of studio practice-led research in the form of an exhibition of paintings at the School of Art Gallery from 16 March-1 April 2011, an exegesis giving a full account of the nature and development of the research undertaken during the course of the study, and two coursework components undertaken in the first year. The work explores botanical themes, growth patterns and ornamental traditions, and the operation of metaphor and visual interpretations of life and growth as a means to abstraction in painting.

This thesis deals with the objective and subjective cognition of beauty by a scholastic philosopher Thomas Aquinas. The initial chapters provide historical sources and a source of St. Thomas´s beauty, because beauty was not the main topic of theology and philosophy in the Middle Ages. From the definition of beauty, we know that beauty belongs to the cognitive power, thus next chapters present the activity of the senses and reason, by which we recognize beauty. (Pulchrum autem respicit vim cognoscitivam). This cognitive power results in the objective characteristics of beauty, ie.: a) integrity; b) proportion; c) clarity.) The penultimate chapter justifies the importance of knowledge of objective and subjective beauty, from which it follows in us enjoyment (delectatio et amor). If there is a reason to evaluate the knowledge and principles relating to the beauty, there is a necessary overlap present knowledge such as science. The final chapter addresses the interesting question of modern science - aesthetics: "Whether beauty, as written by Thomas Aquinas, is a specific distinct transcendental or only implicit transcendental initiated by the philosophers of the 20th century?" The thesis tries to show the importance of studying medieval philosophy in shaping topics such as beauty and art.