title: ‘It’s on the tip of my Google’: Intra-active performance and the non-totalising learning environment

authors: Snake-Beings, Emit

subjects: Assemblage, decentralised learning environment, interactive performance, noise music, non-totalising, sound culture

abstract: Technologies that expand the learning environment to include interactions outside of the physical space of the classroom, such as the use of Google as an aid to memory, represent one aspect of learning that occurs within several seemingly decentralised spaces. On the other hand, it can be argued that such interactive technologies are enclosed in what Bruno Latour calls a ‘Black-box’: a ‘totalising’ enclosure that delimits interaction and channels users towards yet another form of centralised learning space. Used as a starting point, the focus of this article rapidly shifts from the constraints of the ‘Black-box’ towards a type of engagement that embraces material agency: an engagement with materials and fragments of knowledge that emerge from the ‘non-totalising’ assemblage. To assist in this trajectory, Karen Barad’s concept of intra-activity is employed, where agency is seen as distributed between human and non-human actants. The space in which this engagement between human and materials occurs, as a non-totalising learning space, is the concern of this article, which uses an interactive audio/visual performance event called Bingodisiac as a case study to examine various ways in which we can learn to move beyond the constraints of totalising structures. Bingodisiac is a project initiated by the researcher in 2002, as an informal collection of musicians who are assembled for a one-off improvised performance. This article draws upon interviews and journal notes collected at the time of the performances to explore the analogy of ‘noise music’ and how this can be related to ways in which the learning space of the classroom and the types of knowledge produced have become decentralised.

text: ‘It’s on the tip of my Google’: Intra-active performance and the non-totalising learning environment Technologies that expand the learning environment to include interactions outside of the physical space of the classroom, such as the use of Google as an aid to memory, represent one aspect of learning that occurs within several seemingly decentralised spaces. On the other hand, it can be argued that such interactive technologies are enclosed in what Bruno Latour calls a ‘Black-box’: a ‘totalising’ enclosure that delimits interaction and channels users towards yet another form of centralised learning space. Used as a starting point, the focus of this article rapidly shifts from the constraints of the ‘Black-box’ towards a type of engagement that embraces material agency: an engagement with materials and fragments of knowledge that emerge from the ‘non-totalising’ assemblage. To assist in this trajectory, Karen Barad’s concept of intra-activity is employed, where agency is seen as distributed between human and non-human actants. The space in which this engagement between human and materials occurs, as a non-totalising learning space, is the concern of this article, which uses an interactive audio/visual performance event called Bingodisiac as a case study to examine various ways in which we can learn to move beyond the constraints of totalising structures. Bingodisiac is a project initiated by the researcher in 2002, as an informal collection of musicians who are assembled for a one-off improvised performance. This article draws upon interviews and journal notes collected at the time of the performances to explore the analogy of ‘noise music’ and how this can be related to ways in which the learning space of the classroom and the types of knowledge produced have become decentralised.

year: 2017

title: Towards Comprehensive Policy Integration for the Sustainability of Small Islands: A Landscape-Scale Planning Approach for the Galapagos Islands

authors: Pazmino, Andrés

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Accomplishing and implementing sustainable development goals in the context of insular socio-ecological systems requires effective policy integration—i.e., the integration of policy actors across multiple sectors and levels of government to improve policy outcomes. However, achieving policy integration entails significant challenges because it is highly context-dependent. This study investigates policy integration within the complex socio-ecological context of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. The paper analyses Galápagos legal and planning documents to evaluate the extent to which they support comprehensive policy integration. The analysis found that recently adopted institutional arrangements have strengthened government institutions at the provincial level, and started to consider concepts relating to socio-ecological and land–sea management. Nevertheless, key policy actors and pressing issues remain unattended, due to policy inconsistencies, institutional arrangements limitations, and fragmented approaches to conservation and development control between provincial and local governments. Insights are presented to improve the comprehensiveness of policy integration in Galápagos based on a landscape-scale planning approach.

text: Towards Comprehensive Policy Integration for the Sustainability of Small Islands: A Landscape-Scale Planning Approach for the Galapagos Islands Accomplishing and implementing sustainable development goals in the context of insular socio-ecological systems requires effective policy integration—i.e., the integration of policy actors across multiple sectors and levels of government to improve policy outcomes. However, achieving policy integration entails significant challenges because it is highly context-dependent. This study investigates policy integration within the complex socio-ecological context of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. The paper analyses Galápagos legal and planning documents to evaluate the extent to which they support comprehensive policy integration. The analysis found that recently adopted institutional arrangements have strengthened government institutions at the provincial level, and started to consider concepts relating to socio-ecological and land–sea management. Nevertheless, key policy actors and pressing issues remain unattended, due to policy inconsistencies, institutional arrangements limitations, and fragmented approaches to conservation and development control between provincial and local governments. Insights are presented to improve the comprehensiveness of policy integration in Galápagos based on a landscape-scale planning approach.

year: 2018

title: Māori and indigenous views on R and R: Resistance and Resilience

authors: Penehira, Mera

subjects: resilience

abstract: This article explores the development of Mäori and Indigenous frameworks of resilience, considering the impact of engaging with largely State- led notions of resilience on Mäori development. We highlight the closely linked notion of resistance, asserting the necessity of a fi rm political analysis from Indigenous researchers engaged in this discourse. One of the Indigenous criticisms of resilience theories is that by defi nition they assume an acceptance of responsibility for our position as disadvantaged individuals. That is, by examining and developing theories and models of resilience we buy into the idea that this is the way it is and we need simply to get better at bouncing back and being resilient. Resistance, however, represents an approach of collective fi ght- back, exposing the inequitable distribution of power, and actively opposing negative social, political and economic infl uences. This article represents a Mäori Indigenous political response to the resilience discourse.

text: Māori and indigenous views on R and R: Resistance and Resilience This article explores the development of Mäori and Indigenous frameworks of resilience, considering the impact of engaging with largely State- led notions of resilience on Mäori development. We highlight the closely linked notion of resistance, asserting the necessity of a fi rm political analysis from Indigenous researchers engaged in this discourse. One of the Indigenous criticisms of resilience theories is that by defi nition they assume an acceptance of responsibility for our position as disadvantaged individuals. That is, by examining and developing theories and models of resilience we buy into the idea that this is the way it is and we need simply to get better at bouncing back and being resilient. Resistance, however, represents an approach of collective fi ght- back, exposing the inequitable distribution of power, and actively opposing negative social, political and economic infl uences. This article represents a Mäori Indigenous political response to the resilience discourse.

year: 2014