RELATED TERMS: In 1932, Gertrude Stein wrote that America is, “the oldest country in the world because by the methods of the civil war and the commercial conceptions that followed it America created the twentieth century, and since all the other countries are now either living or commencing to be living a twentieth century life,Continue reading “The Twentieth Century, America, Americanisation [Snippets 7] “
Author Archives: aparsons474
Large Language Models
RELATED TERMS: Promptography; Hallucination and Confabulation; World; World-Building In recent years, Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have become synonymous with the idea of artificial intelligence (AI). In order to train these chatbots, as Jack Apollo George (2024) notes, technology companies are employing human annotators or ‘data quality specialists’. The companies and the LLMsContinue reading “Large Language Models”
Arendt, Phenomenology and the Design of Narrative Environments [Essays]
RELATED TERMS: Design of Narrative Environments; Narrative Environments; Narrative Environments – Environmental Psychology in Architecture 1 Arendt’s phenomenological method Hannah Arendt seldom referred to herself as a phenomenologist and she is not usually included in textbook treatments of the subject (Moran, 2000: 287). She had no particular interest in the phenomenological method and did not explicitlyContinue reading “Arendt, Phenomenology and the Design of Narrative Environments [Essays]”
Sloterdijk and the Design of Narrative Environments [Essays]
RELATED TERMS: Design of Narrative Environments; Narrative Environments; Narrative Environments – Environmental Psychology in Architecture 1. Envelopes Bruno Latour points out that when it is said that ‘Dasein is thrown into the world’ [1], as does Heidegger, the significance of the preposition ‘into’ is often overlooked. Peter Sloterdijk, however, Latour notes, does not overlook it and indeedContinue reading “Sloterdijk and the Design of Narrative Environments [Essays]”
Iconic Designs, Critical Designs
RELATED TERMS: Iconic Designs and Iconic Designers; Imaginary The Iconic As acknowledged in Iconic Designs and Iconic Designers, the iconic approach to design is not wholly without merit. For example, it recognises that designs have cultural meanings and other-than-utilitarian uses, such as in the construction, maintenance and performance of self-hood and social standing. In otherContinue reading “Iconic Designs, Critical Designs”
Designing, Theorising, Modelling [Snippets 6]
RELATED TERMS: Narrative Environments – Environmental Psychology in Architecture George Saunders (2022) writes that, “Neuroscientists now suggest that the mind is always doing a form of fiction writing: proposing a broad scale model for the moment that is occurring, then improving that model by way of sensory input. Strangely, this revision process apparently occurs fromContinue reading “Designing, Theorising, Modelling [Snippets 6]”
Designing, Psycho-Semiosis, Bio-Semiosis [Snippets 5]
RELATED TERMS: Hephzibah Anderson (2022) reviews Rachel Aviv’s first book, Strangers to Ourselves: Stories of Unsettled Minds. The book, according to Anderson, is a subtle and penetrating investigation into how ‘mental illness’ is diagnosed. It brings to attention the ways in which the diagnostic language used is far from neutral. Rather, Aviv suggests, such language,Continue reading “Designing, Psycho-Semiosis, Bio-Semiosis [Snippets 5]”
Snippet Methodology: Authoring-Curating [Snippets 4]
RELATED TERMS: Collage, Montage, Assemblage and Bricolage Thrownness, Givenness, Foundness In his book Reality Hunger (2010), part of David Shields’ argument is that non-fiction is better adapted than fiction to address the realities of the modern world (Morrison, 2019). In the book, he defended his habit of quoting authors without attribution as a principled standContinue reading “Snippet Methodology: Authoring-Curating [Snippets 4]”
Narratives of Willpower; Narratives of Disease [Snippets 3]
RELATED TERMS: “We’re transitioning from the personal failure, lacking willpower, lacking self-control narrative, to this narrative that says ‘Obesity is a disease, you need a prescribed cure’ … so we can sell weight-loss medication”. (Marquisele Mercedes, quoted in Kuchler, 2022). The context for this quote from Marquisele Mercedes, a doctoral student in public health atContinue reading “Narratives of Willpower; Narratives of Disease [Snippets 3]”
Investing, Narration, Theorisation [Snippets 2]
RELATED TERMS: A narrative of the ‘past’ is taking shape in the ‘present’ in contrast to which other narratives of the ‘future’, in the form of ‘bets’, are developing. The historical or hindsight narrative suggests that the 30 years from the 1990s to the early 2020s constituted a ‘golden’ age, a period of steady growthContinue reading “Investing, Narration, Theorisation [Snippets 2]”
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