RELATED TERMS: Anime and Manga: Barry Watt, a psychotherapist working mainly with young homeless people, situates the popularity of the South Korean drama series Squid Game within a larger movement of young people towards Japanese and Korean anime and manga. They are looking, he conjectures, for a response to their experience that is not beingContinue reading “Neurodiversity and Narrativity”
Author Archives: aparsons474
Enaction Paradigm – Cognitive Science
RELATED TERMS: Body; Exosomatisation; Ontological Metalepsis; Sensorimotor System; Somatosensory System; World-building Enaction, as a programme for understanding cognition, was initially articulated in 1991 by Varela, Thompson and Rosch (2016). This programme breaks with the formalisms of the information-processing and symbolic representation approaches previously prevalent in cognitive science. Instead, cognition is taken to be grounded inContinue reading “Enaction Paradigm – Cognitive Science”
Sensorimotor System
RELATED TERMS: Somatosensory System; In order to interact sensibly with the world and to manipulate objects skilfully, information needs to be shared between the somatosensory and the motor systems, forming a complex somato-sensori-motor system. The two systems communicate via a network of extensive connections between the sensory and motor cortices but also by motor cortexContinue reading “Sensorimotor System”
Design and Philosophy
RELATED TERMS: Artifactuality and Actuvirtuality; Philosophy “Our thoughts install us in a real fiction.” (Dubreuil, 2015: 75) “Teaching philosophy in art school means devoting oneself to a method of a particular kind, given that the students’ main activity is not to practice philosophy but rather art or design.” (Dautrey, 2020) “The ungraspable is a mistContinue reading “Design and Philosophy”
Somatosensory System
RELATED TERMS: Enaction Paradigm – Cognitive Science; Sensorimotor System Sensory Systems A design may explicitly and deliberately address one or all of the human body’s sensory systems. It may also be the case that a design addresses more that one of these senses implicitly or unintentionally; or unintentionally prioritises or hierarchises one of the senseContinue reading “Somatosensory System”
Anglosphere
RELATED TERMS: The term Anglosphere has been used as part of an endeavour to redefine British identity in a post-Brexit world by some right-wing Eurosceptics. Although the word was introduced fairly recently by Neal Stephenson in his 1995 science fiction novel The Diamond Age, it plays upon older 19th century notions of Anglo-Saxon racial greatness.Continue reading “Anglosphere”
Metaverse
RELATED TERMS: “So Hiro’s not actually here at all. He’s in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. In the lingo, this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It.”Continue reading “Metaverse”
Open Systems Theory
RELATED TERMS: Theoretical practice Open system theory was initially developed by Ludwig von Bertanlanffy in the 1950s. Although conceived in the context of biology, the theory is applicable in other disciplines. The theory defines systems as being “characterized by an assemblage or combination of parts whose relations make them interdependent” (Scott, 1992: 77). As oneContinue reading “Open Systems Theory”
Emergence
RELATED TERMS: Heterarchy; Open Systems Theory The concepts of complexity, emergence and relationality were introduced in 20th century science and philosophy as means of counteracting the effects of positivism and reductionism. They are crucial for understanding the operation of designed outputs as material, semiotic phenomena and therefore important to consider in conceptualisation and design processes.Continue reading “Emergence”
Ecology and Economy
RELATED TERMS: Human Ecosystem; Lifeworld – Lebenswelt – Umwelt; Systems Theory “The economist Kate Raworth believes she has a solution. It is possible, she argues, to design an economy that allows humans and the environment to thrive.” (O’Brien, 2023) The Greek word oikos, meaning whole house or household, lies at the root of both the notionsContinue reading “Ecology and Economy”
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