Real-time for Pirate Cinema

Nicolas Maigret is a critical media artist and curator. In the Pirate Cinema, he explores piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing of audio-visual contents: a monitoring machine shows P2P transfers in real time on networks using the BitTorrent protocol. The P2P Sharing protocol is based on small-sample file fragmentation: when all the “chunks” have been downloaded, the file can then be reconstructed sample by sample until completion, from chaotic scraps received from distinct users around the world. In this essay, Geoff Cox (Associate Professor at the Dept. of Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, and Adjunct Faculty at Transart Institute) opens up a discussion on the temporal complexity and the radical montage of multiple realities reflected in the project Pirate Cinema. Understanding temporality at different speeds, levels and scales means beginning to unfold a more nuanced understanding of different kinds of time existing simultaneously across different geo-political contexts

Radion Dynamics and Phenomenology in the Linear Dilaton Model

We investigate the properties of the radion in the 5D linear dilaton model arising from Little String Theory. A Goldberger-Wise type mechanism is used to stabilise a large interbrane distance, with the dilaton now playing the role of the stabilising field. We consider the coupled fluctuations of the metric and dilaton fields and identify the physical scalar modes of the system. The wavefunctions and masses of the radion and Kaluza-Klein modes are calculated, giving a radion mass of order the curvature scale. As a result of the direct coupling between the dilaton and Standard Model fields, the radion couples to the SM Lagrangian, in addition to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. The effect of these additional interaction terms on the radion decay modes is investigated, with a notable increase in the branching fraction to photons. We also consider the effects of a non-minimal Higgs coupling to gravity, which introduces a mixing between the Higgs and radion modes. Finally, we calculate the production cross section of the radion at the LHC and use the current Higgs searches to place constraints on the parameter space.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures; v2: error in radion-gauge boson Feynman rules corrected, version published in JHE

(Micro)Politics of Algorithmic Music: Towards a Tactical Media Archaeology

Blending technical, artistic, cultural, and scientific viewpoints, this Handbook positions algorithmic music making as an essentially human activity

Vocable Code: Lecture-performance in six parts

Artist boo

Contemporary Conditions are Badly Known

The title is derived from Peter Osborne’s phrase “Contemporary Art is badly known”, that appears on the opening page of his book Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (London: Verso 2013, p.1). In this talk, rather than discuss post-media conditions as such (the post-medium conditions for artistic production), the notion of ‘contemporary conditions’ is preferred to indicate the characteristic features of the historical present. (I said this in the abstract, but actually I think I can still be said to be addressing the conditions for postmedia art.) In the context of this event, my contention is that rather than concentrate on futures or whether something is sustainable, new or sufficiently different, the notion of the contemporary poses the question of when the present of a particular work begins and ends. Like Osborne, I am stressing the conditions, and contemporaneity to be a condition (to stress its mode of being, its ontological status)

Ecology: a prerequisite for malaria elimination and eradication

* Existing front-line vector control measures, such as insecticide-treated nets and residual sprays, cannot break the transmission cycle of Plasmodium falciparum in the most intensely endemic parts of Africa and the Pacific * The goal of malaria eradication will require urgent strategic investment into understanding the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors that transmit malaria * Priority areas will include understanding aspects of the mosquito life cycle beyond the blood feeding processes which directly mediate malaria transmission * Global commitment to malaria eradication necessitates a corresponding long-term commitment to vector ecolog

Superpulsed low-level laser therapy protects skeletal muscle of mdx mice against damage, inflammation and morphological changes delaying dystrophy progression.

Aim: To evaluate the effects of preventive treatment with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on progression of dystrophy in mdx mice. Methods: Ten animals were randomly divided into 2 experimental groups treated with superpulsed LLLT (904 nm, 15 mW, 700 Hz, 1 J) or placebo-LLLT at one point overlying the tibialis anterior muscle (bilaterally) 5 times per week for 14 weeks (from 6th to 20th week of age). Morphological changes, creatine kinase (CK) activity and mRNA gene expression were assessed in animals at 20th week of age. Results: Animals treated with LLLT showed very few morphological changes in skeletal muscle, with less atrophy and fibrosis than animals treated with placebo-LLLT. CK was significantly lower (p = 0.0203) in animals treated with LLLT (864.70 U.l−1, SEM 226.10) than placebo (1708.00 U.l−1, SEM 184.60). mRNA gene expression of inflammatory markers was significantly decreased by treatment with LLLT (p<0.05): TNF-α (placebo-control = 0.51 µg/µl [SEM 0.12], - LLLT = 0.048 µg/µl [SEM 0.01]), IL-1β (placebo-control = 2.292 µg/µl [SEM 0.74], - LLLT = 0.12 µg/µl [SEM 0.03]), IL-6 (placebo-control = 3.946 µg/µl [SEM 0.98], - LLLT = 0.854 µg/µl [SEM 0.33]), IL-10 (placebo-control = 1.116 µg/µl [SEM 0.22], - LLLT = 0.352 µg/µl [SEM 0.15]), and COX-2 (placebo-control = 4.984 µg/µl [SEM 1.18], LLLT = 1.470 µg/µl [SEM 0.73]). Conclusion: Irradiation of superpulsed LLLT on successive days five times per week for 14 weeks decreased morphological changes, skeletal muscle damage and inflammation in mdx mice. This indicates that LLLT has potential to decrease progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy