Anne Lilly's kinetic sculpture motion design elegance
"I have questions that do not occur in words: questions about space, about material moving in space, and about the intermingling of space and object. I feel that space disguises itself and its nature by its transparency. It is, strangely, this very transparency that makes space opaque to our awareness. This new work uses skinny lines moving in space. Emptying out the volume reduces the visual mass so that more of the space around the work gets implicated in what the work finally is. The space shares in creating, or manifesting, the function of the work itself. This emptying-out of the mass makes it possible to imbue space without occupying space."
(Anne Lilly)
Fig.1 Parietals 2005;
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation
"Networks are constantly forming. As a dynamic process, networks can aggregate into larger structures (a network of networks). Networks can also be deconstructed into smaller structures. For example, everyone has some type of personal learning network. When an individual works for an organization, they bring their network with them, combining as part of the larger network of the corporation. In the course of our daily lives, we move among numerous networks. We are constantly acting upon and being acted upon.
Recognizing that we are continually moving in and out of networks provides an important starting point for rethinking corporate and higher education. Instead of seeing the artificial construct of a program or course as the point of learning, we can view the process of 'living life' as a constant learning process. As we acquire new nodes, form new connections, aggregate into larger networks, or deconstruct into smaller structures, we are continually learning and adapting – interacting dynamically with the world around us."
(George Siemens, August 10, 2005, elearnspace)
2). Siemens, G. (2005). "Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation." Retrieved 04 December 2010, 2010, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/networks.htm.
3). Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge, Lulu.com.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Database Publishing: Federated Search And Content Aggregation Are The Future
"Today, the majority of useful search result pages are nothing else but an aggregated and filtered cream of multiple and very diverse types of database content sources. Look at Google results. The effective content databases of today are dynamic, fed by multiple contributing engines and born just-in-time. In the world of database publishing 'the database is now'. It is born and reborn again each time uses and queries to it are generated.
'The database is now', a term developed by content business analyst John Blossom, reflects a reality in which the database is not anymore a static and rigid collector all of your diverse data records. The database is born the moment you make a query or develop a custom aggregating channel with Pipes, Popfly, Intel Mash Maker or Friendfeed.
The 'database is now' focus moves away from data normalization and right into federated context-driven aggregation"
(Robin Good)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Wicked Problems Don't Keep Still
"Wicked problems are ill-defined, ambiguous and associated with strong moral, political and professional issues. Since they are strongly stakeholder dependent, there is often little consensus about what the problem is, let alone how to resolve it. Furthermore, wicked problems won't keep still: they are sets of complex, interacting issues evolving in a dynamic social context. Often, new forms of wicked problems emerge as a result of trying to understand and solve one of them."
(Tom Ritchey and The Swedish Morphological Society, 2005)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
Minimal Structuring Design Philosophy
Manuela Faia-Correia & Miguel Pina E Cunha
minimal structuring design philosophy gives room to improvising and to making sense of the incoming events and the development of ad hoc solutions--Minimal StructuresIn organisational adaptive processes. of which the implementation of a new technology constitutes an example. there is a constant and pervasive need for dynamically integrate structure and flexibility. Several authors have noticed the potential relevance of this type of structure. Kamoche and Cunha (2001), building upon the Jazz metaphor, introduced the concept of "minimal structures". Still on the basis of jazz, Kanter (2001) referred to them as the "theme" that prevents improvised action from degenerating into chaos. Brown and Eisenhardt (1997) described them as "semi-structures". Minimal structures are a set of consensual guidelines and agreements, co-ordination devices that attempt to focus the activities of people around a common set of goals and deadlines without limiting their discretion to best decide how to reach these goals. Weick (1989, p.244) suggests that the value of a minimal structure is that "small structures such as simple melody ..., general assumptions. and incomplete expectations can all lead to large outcomes and effective action".As structuration theory (Giddens. 1984) applied to organisations might suggest. communities-of-practice (Lave and Wenger. 1991) will become ubiquitous sources of knowledge driving change (Brown and Duguid, 2001 ). These communities may make use of an improvisational model that is change-driven. unconstrained by the imperatives of function or sets of activities and lays more emphasis on combining the need of structure with that of dynamic flexibility. This is facilitated by the minimal structure. where appropriate levels of or sets of activities and lays more emphasis on combining the need of structure with that of dynamic flexibility. This is facilitated by the minimal structure. where appropriate levels of responsibilities, priorities and procedures are clearly defined and combined with wide zones of manoeuvre (Kamoche and Cunha, 1999). The minimal structure serves as a platform upon which learning and improvisation can take place and allow communities-of-practice to develop within these zones of manoeuvre. The sense of community structures discourses. learning and, coordinated actions through identity. Practice creates epistemic differences between communities within organisations and it is inside these communities that knowledge is created. The improvisation is characterised by an unrelenting quest for discovery and innovation along the social and technical dimensions. Kamoche and Cunha (2001) see minimal structures as comprising of two dimensions: social structures and technical structures. The application of social and technical structures reverberate socio-technical systems tradition (STS; e.g., Emery and Trist, 1960). STS ostensibly recognizes the importance of social forces in work organisations. This recognition frequently creates a shift from individual to group-or team- methods of performance. Positive variance within the work system is viewed favourably as a sign that teams are adapting to their unique environment conditions. In what follows we will describe each of the constitutive parts of the minimal structure and how they might help to develop a dynamic understanding of IT implementation.
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
