Take a look at Digital Learning…
Posted: February 15, 2011 Filed under: Digital Learning, jessica's notes Leave a commentCheck it out – a PBS documentary on Digital Learning – the above video gives a kind of overview of the series, but you can see an interesting interview with Dr. Katie Salen here – She talks about Digital Learning, and some of the kids give a brief explanation of the kind of school environment they learn in – the School is called Quest to Learn: School for Digital Kids. Amongst things to do with Gaming as a way to understand Systems, the ethos seems to embrace the understanding that the learner’s experience outside of school is formative, and that the space of school needs to take this into account.
“Math is called Code World, Science is The Way things Work” (A Kid from the Quest to Learn School)
It’s very interesting, and both videos are worth a look.
The 4th Screen
Posted: February 15, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes, Telecommunication Leave a commentWe have a Transition Year student in with us this week, and he’s going to be researching telecommunications from his point of view using the internet, and blogging. So the team here at CTVR are giving him lots of avenues to explore, from Student Union Elections, to Programming Hardware, to talking about telecommunications, what it is and how ‘it’ works. So in this frenzy of excited learning, I decided to do a very brief search of my own on telecommunications through YouTube and came across this…
…It’s quite a sophisticated form of narrative advertising – and communicates a kind of technological utopianism.
I’m hoping that after our first ‘Inspired by…’ talk at the Science Gallery that we will be able to tour a talks/workshop program to Cork & Limerick, two of CTVR’s research hubs. It would be interesting to discuss the nature of Telecommunications through the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies in Limerick, and to get a ‘utopian’ perspective on the Eames film A Communications Primer.
It all comes back to the Primer, oh yeah…
Analysis of Then for Now, now, now…
Posted: February 14, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes Leave a comment
Why is A Communications Primer of interest to us? We have an intuition that an analysis of the film will perhaps cast light on issues of communication within the fields of science, engineering, art and politics, not to mention within the experience of the everyday….
I came across some research today that might be helpful to us in our analysis of A Communications Primer:
Chiara Ambrosio of University College London wrote her PhD thesis on Picasso’s famous painting Guernica. Her thesis is titled ‘Iconicity and Network thinking in Picasso’s Guernica: A Study of Creativity across the Boundaries’.
Ambrosio writes: “The representative force of Guernica depends on its conceptual core, the roots of which are found in Picasso’s experimentations across the boundaries of art and science.” She goes on to write: ” From this background, my contention is that an analysis of Guernica can substantially contribute to the current debate on the nature of artistic and scientific representations.”
I’ve only just dipped into the introduction of Ambrosio’s thesis (found here) but I think that her research could be helpful in how we think about A Communications Primer. By analyzing this film we wish to expand a critique of ‘transdisciplinarity’ in age of heightened and advanced information and communications technology…
At present, we are only just beginning to map similarities & differences in methodology & research thinking in the fields of Engineering & Architecture, by hosting the Eames’ inspired event at the Science Gallery this coming Thursday. But this discussion must & will expand, to envelop the everyday experience of information and communication, and everyday understandings and conceptions of technological development & research, from the domestic to the academic, and beyond…
setting the stage…
Posted: February 4, 2011 Filed under: Furniture & Objects, jessica's notes Leave a comment
Some of the furniture made available to us by Retrospect on Cows Lane – Janet was hugely helpful & has agreed to let us use the Eames chair above – which she stresses is authentic & not a Vitra Museum reproduction. So there.
Etymology of ‘Communication’
Posted: February 3, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes Leave a comment
n. About 1384 communicacioun an imparting or transmitting of something, in the Wycliffe Bible; borrowed from Old French communicacion, learned borrowing from Latin communicationem (nominative communicatio) from communicare make common to many, share, impart (com- together + a lost adjective *moinicos carrying an obligation, from munia, Old Latin moenia duties; see COMMON); for suffix see -ATION.
The specific sense of the imparting or transmitting of ideas, knowledge, information, etc., is first found in English in Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). – communicate v. 1526, partake in common, share; either 1) a back formation from English communication, or 2) borrowed from Latin communicatus, past participle of communicare make common, share, impart; for suffix see – ATE.
Excerpted from the Chambers Dictionary of Etymology.
In relation to the Eames’ film A Communications Primer I think the above etymology of the word Communication reveals something of the meaning in the sentence below, from the narration in the film:
“Communication means the Responsibility of Decision, All the way down the Line…”
The association of the word ‘communication’ with the ‘Lost Adjective’ moinicos – ‘carrying an obligation’ – is interesting. Is responsibility the ‘carrying of obligation’?
Smart Geometry – A Model for the Workshops?
Posted: January 31, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes, Workshops Leave a comment
I came across this event – Smart Geometry – which looks really interesting. I think we could consider our approach to the Workshops as being along similar lines – there seems to be a strong theory/practice holism going on – and a view to sharing, learning & innovating ideas on location through CLUSTERS:
The SG2011 workshop will be organised around Clusters. Clusters are hubs of expertise. They comprise of people, knowledge, tools, materials and machines. The Clusters provide a focus for workshop participants (approx. ten participants per cluster) working together, within a common framework. Clusters provide a forum for exchange of ideas, processes, and techniques and act as a catalyst for design resolution.
The CLUSTER themes
Though this is on a truly larger scale altogether, I like the way the Workshop Clusters are pitched, small scale in number of participants but large scale on ideas & their practical implementation.
Any thoughts?
Eames’ Chairs… Live
Posted: January 27, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes Leave a comment
I had the pleasure of sitting in an authentic Eames Chair the other night! A friend of mine obtained them years ago from an antique dealer. Apparently they used to belong to a German Doctor. He must have appreciated the importance of his patients comfort!
I have been offered permission to use the Chairs the Illustrated Lecture event at the Science Gallery on February 17th! So, the development of a ‘set design’ for the evening is afoot – has anyone got any mid 20th century furniture, fabrics or even plants to donate for one night only? A small ‘drinks’ table for water glasses would be great, rugs, plants, and lamps?
Take inspiration from the Eames House.
Notes from my Notebook 24.1.11
Posted: January 25, 2011 Filed under: jessica's notes Leave a comment
Some key words from a meeting with Hugh, Fiona, Alice, James, Linda and myself out at the UCD School of Architecture yesterday.
Communicating Communication 