c/o Jayne Wilton: Reflex-ive :: Reflection - Breathe : DO - REPEAT - WHILE

INDIVIDUAL

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    INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

'Many of us will have experienced playing with the interaction of our breath on shiny surfaces such as windows and mirrors, allowing us temporary fields of condensation in which to doodle thoughts or messages. In emergency situations a mirror or shiny surface is held in front of the mouth of a subject to confirm whether or not they are breathing. The Breathe series makes use of these dynamics. The breath of a series of  individuals was captured on a shiny copper surface and then etched to create a negative of the breath where it sat on the copper plate. The result is a series of evocative landscapes. This work employs and yet subverts traditional printing processes. The inscription of spent breath onto precious metal immortalises a discharge and presents an alternative to portraiture.' Jayne

Reflection - Reflexive   Resuscitation    mirror

Wilton - is a visual artist who explores the breath as a unit of exchange between people and their environments. Her practice uses darkroom processes with drawing, photography, video and sound to capture the usually invisible trace of breath as it moves across a surface. www.jaynewilton.com

My source and thanks to Jayne Wilton: 

Jayne Wilton. Breathe, Artist's Statement. Resurgence & Ecologist, July/August2023: 339: p.47 & (p.49 image).

Previously: 'breathing' : 'reflex' : 'reflection' : 'art'

Disciplinary bridges ... how's your sense of direction?

As an advocate for Hodges' model, I've acquired an affinity for inter- multi- transdisciplinary bridges, especially medical sociology, those leading towards the mathematical, and human geography. An old but significant influence is:

Chapman, K. (1979). People, pattern, and process: an introduction to human geography. London: Edward Arnold.

Chapman begins with the concept of distance, speed of movement and the consequence of the shrinking world. Our ability to move faster has radically altered the total travel time: from what was a 50 mile walking-day. In chapter 2, 'A Conceptual Framework' refers to:

• Decision making - the basic mechanism
• The Spatial Context
• The Content of Space
• Dimensions of Space
• Spatial Process - Causality in Time and Space

Overall, the book also takes me back to a paper I cited in 2007: Bell jars and bell curves

I'm sure the 'School of Geography' at Leeds is unrecognisable today from that of the 1980s. But the referenced paper in the 'Bell jars..' post:

Macgill, S.M. (1984). Structural Analysis of Social Data, A Guide to Ho's Galois Lattice Approach and A Partial Re-Specification of QAnalysis, Working Paper 416, School of Geography, University of Leeds. Abstract 1985

- still gives me an itch I can't scratch. 

 I could not fully understand, or follow, the print quality doesn't help, but it captured my imagination (perhaps that is enough?).

Chapter 9 stands out with 'Spatial Pattern' pp.203-234, 9.1.1 Topologic Structures, pp.205-209. Here, Chapman explains and has examples of connectivity matrices, with three indices to calculate the connectivity in a graph. All grist for the mill.

Happy Solstice too!

Problem solving, case formulation and policy formulation

On W2tQ this year, and possibly in a previous paper, or conference presentation, I've stated that the nursing process is basically a problem solving algorithm. Nothing profound there of course. 

'Problem solving' is a developmental threshold and an evolutionary skill obvious in humans, with learning passed on across generations. Evidence of problem solving in animals and nature is becoming increasingly apparent; with examples over recent decades of problems solved not witnessed before.

In healthcare, and psychotherapy more specifically, we shift to case formulation. Again a step-wise process to arise at a sufficiently complete rationale for therapy. Ideally, this extends beyond the individual. As an parent, grandparent, guardian, teacher, supervisor ... teaches a child so therapy is an opportunity for learning and, it must be added, unlearning.

Returning to (and passing on):

Hague, R., & Harrop, M. (2007). Comparative Government and Politics (7th ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter 18 (pp.377-395) concerns 'Public Policy'. Clearly, here there is a shift from the individual to the collective, population and citizenry. The chapter's second page on 'Initiation and Formulation' quickly provides a flowchart 'Figure 18.1 Stages of the policy process'. Box 18.1 informs readers about 'Rational and incremental models and policy-making' (p.380):

'The key contrast between the two models is this. The rational model views policy formulation as emerging from a systematic search for the most efficient means of achieving defined goals. By contrast, the incremental model sees policy as emerging from a compromise between actors who have goals which are ill-defined or even contradictory. Where the rational model seeks the best policy in theory, an incremental framework seeks out a practical policy acceptable to all the interests involved.' p.380.

The book highlights Simon (1983) as a source for the rational or synoptic model:

 

Simon H.A. (1983) Reason in human affairs. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Plus, for the incremental model:

Lindblom, C.E. 1979. Still muddling, not yet through. Public Administration Review 39: 517–526.

If needed, online, you will find accounts and diagrams on problem solving, the nursing process, case formulation and policy formulation. That's quite a family is it not? 

While not referred to as explicitly today, the nursing process (now routinized) should address parity and integrate care across mental and physical health. The individual (person, patient) should be assessed and care planned with their social and community context taken into account. Collaboration in care should help assure that this is indeed the case. The nursing process in the sociological domain acknowledges the role of parents, guardians, and families as informal carers. The social care sector can also be represented and further the objectives of a more open and integrated care community as per the local situation. While not added to the sciences domain; case formulation should also factor in the physical and political. 

Politically, are all instances of problem solving, and formulation recognised for their importance and influence on outcomes and effectiveness, economy, efficiency (another 'box' p.357), plus efficacy? Are services politically afforded the resources, as defined across the domains of Hodges' model required to deliver, improve and change (achieve sustainability, educational, preventive)? 

The elephant here of course are the determinantS. Ultimately, all these forms of problem solving should be at 'home' in the political domain, but they are rarely there. It is not just the practitioner who can make the difference - be the difference.

Enough of l-implementation

Policy needs to be fit for 21st century purposes, and not hollowed-out but allowed out - beyond the legislative walls where it can make a real difference.

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

Nursing process Case  formulation	Nursing process
Nursing process Case  formulation	Policy formulation

    

See also: https://herbertsimonsociety.org/

 'nursing process' : 'case formulation'

"Passport please!"

Press release

'Innovator passports’ set to accelerate cutting-edge NHS care

The move is a key part of the government’s Plan for Change and its 10 Year Health Plan, which will transfer power to patients and transform how healthcare is delivered, creating an NHS fit for the future.

For too long, cutting-edge businesses avoided working with the NHS and went elsewhere, weighed down by slow timelines and reams of processes. Now, organisations will be able to join up with the NHS quicker than ever before through the removal of needless bureaucracy. Not only is this better for patients but also for our NHS and economic growth.

A ‘one-stop shop’ thorough check from the NHS will now allow businesses to get to work as quickly as possible and deliver on what matters most to patients across the country. It means NHS patients will get more effective treatments and support quicker, and the NHS will make the most of its finite assessment resource, all while businesses are given a boost through the government’s industrial strategy.

Treatments including special wound dressings - already reducing surgical site infections by 38% at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals - could be adopted more widely, benefiting patients across the country.

At Barts Health NHS Trust in London, use of antimicrobial protective coverings for cardiac devices has cut infections and saved over £103,000 per year. At University Hospitals Dorset, adopting rapid influenza testing reduced bed days and antibiotic use, freeing up vital resources.

The new passport will eliminate multiple compliance assessments, reducing duplication across the health service. It will be delivered through MedTech Compass, a digital platform developed by DHSC to make effective technologies more visible and widely available.

MedTech Compass will make these innovations and the evidence underpinning them clear to buyers within the NHS.

The initiative builds on the government’s drive to slash waiting lists and ensure people have access to health and care when and where they need it under the Plan for Change.

Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: 

For too long, Britain’s leading scientific minds have been held back by needless admin that means suppliers are repeatedly asked for the same data in different formats by different trusts - this is bad for the NHS, patients and bad for business. 

These innovator passports will save time and reduce duplication, meaning our life sciences sector - a central part of our 10 Year Health Plan - can work hand in hand with the health service and make Britain a powerhouse for medical technology.

Frustrated patients will no longer have to face a postcode lottery for lifesaving products to be introduced in their area, and companies will be able to get their technology used across the NHS more easily, creating a health service fit for future under the Plan for Change.

Dr Vin Diwakar, Clinical Transformation Director at NHS England, said:

We’re seeing the impact improvements to technology are having on our everyday lives on everything from smartwatches to fitness trackers - and we want to make sure NHS patients can benefit from the latest medical technology and innovations as well.

The new innovator passports will speed up the roll-out of new health technology in the NHS which has been proven to be effective, so that patients can benefit from new treatments much sooner.

It also forms an important element of the industrial strategy through the upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan, which will turbocharge Britain’s life sciences sector and cement the UK’s position as a global innovation leader.

MedTech Compass helps speed up decision-making in trusts, allowing technology to scale faster - making it easier for trusts across the country to find, assess and adopt proven technologies that improve and speed up patient care.

The passports mean that once a healthcare tool has been assessed by one NHS organisation, further NHS organisations will not be able to insist on repeated assessments, reducing the need for local NHS systems to spend their limited resources on bureaucratic processes that have already been completed elsewhere.

The digital system will act as a dynamic best buyer’s guide, making it easier for trusts to compare products side-by-side in one place.

Read the full press release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovator-passports-set-to-accelerate-cutting-edge-nhs-care

In my source (below) Laura Hughes also notes:

'However, the Financial Times has reported on calls by frontline workers for basic NHS infrastructure to be brought up to a minimum standard before politicians extol the virtues of cutting-edge tech.

Matthew Taylor, head of The NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said not all NHS organisations were at the same stage of digital maturity, which would "affect their ability to either innovate or implement preapproved innovation in this passport model."'

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

innovation personal passport awareness of existing state / processes	innovation 'innovation passport' duplication
innovation public safety waiting lists / times accountability - standards - assurance	innovation bureaucracy - multiple Trusts procurement of infrastructure and innovation - cutting-edge technology

Laura Hughes NHS use of medical innovations streamlined. FTWeekend, 2 July, 2025, p.3.
https://www.ft.com/content/1d025579-990a-4d58-9e0b-6d0d29d27dab

Previously:

Infracare - Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model

edges : Socio-Technical

Online: Hodges' model in Safety presentation

Later this week I've an online presentation to deliver. The brief is to introduce Hodges' model and relate the model to the matter of safety - some thoughts ...

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

PATIENT safety Task: Attention - Concentration Rest - Sleep psychological environment - safety to ERR is human HUMAN as weakest link risk to SELF Cognitive support - lists, names, informational analysis of environment Critical thinking Situational awareness Therapeutic - OBSERVATIONS ethics- video surveillance

PATIENT - PROCESS safety  - e.g. diagnosis, handover physical safety: 1st law 1st aid. SELF-harm : SELF-neglect Assessments, Plan, Evaluation environment:safety, construction, buildings occupational/disciplinary safety Comms - Information theory  safety as security: lone working signals - alarms, protocols medical safety: medicines, devices risk reduction - management Human factors Human- Computer/Tech/AI Interaction Research - Records Interfaces Public Health Safety: Food, Pollution

risk to others stereotypes - assumptions risk from others - bullying social media teamwork: simulation PRACTICE safety

Law - Health & Safety Reporting - Statistics Transparency Mandatory Training / Learning Whistleblowing safety standards ISO safety organisations The Learning Organisation Other sectors e.g. Aviation, Formula 1 ... Risk of 'groupthink'

 Is it a risk to assume parity of estem in patient safety? What of 'a' patient's safety?

safety
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=safety

'Health and Wellbeing Boards' - hiding the obvious

Does the language we use really matter? A public NHS document includes the following:

'PHARMACY

2.1

Background

Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) in England hold statutory responsibility to publish and keep up to date a statement of the needs for pharmaceutical services of the population in its area, referred to as a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA). PNAs are used by the NHS to make decisions on which NHS funded services need to be provided by local community pharmacies.'

I'm not asking, or demanding, change to this but the words we employ do matter. One of them above matters greatly. The question of responsibility and its attribution. In the response to mental illness,  responsibility has always been played out on the public stage. Even when society's response was to leave 'care' to religious and charitable agencies. Then the state stepped in with the first legislation. The state assumed responsibility as per the previous post. Not only where the keys thrown away, but many people admitted there, did not need be. The 'reason for referral' was more accurately described as a social ill. In this way, individuals were incarcerated and forgotten.

It is in the gift of Hodges' model, care of its vertical axis [INDIVIDUAL - GROUP], to be able to negotiate the contextual switch from personal to group and population. There is a marked contrast from self-medication, a nurse doing a medicines round - to the design, testing and research effort of production of a specific drug or intervention. The focus then is obviously at the population scale. The pharmocological business, is not just a business. It is a pharmaco-industrial complex, e.g.

Grouse L. Cost-effective medicine vs. the medical-industrial complex. J Thorac Dis. 2014 Sep;6(9):E203-6. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.09.01. PMID: 25276402; PMCID: PMC4178073.

When we think of dependence it is often framed at the individual level. But how can we expect to change health services, health systems to see them as they truly are: Illness and Infirmity Boards masquerading as Health and Wellbeing Boards?

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

	drugs manufactoring testing
	Sybil Shainwald (April 27, 1928 – April 9, 2025)

Sybil Shainwald 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Shainwald

4Ps - human-MACHINE :: HUMAN-machine

HODGES' MODEL: Axes & Domains

As visited many times here on W2tQ, in Hodges' model I've associated one of 4P's with each of the model's care/knowledge domains. I immediately associated PROCESS with the sciences domain (physical, chemical, biological, geological..), driven by the seemingly process-bound approach of project management, logistics, automation and sequencing. 

This preoccupation can work to the detriment of the user(s) of systems (the public!), devices, interfaces and administrations - record management for example. Allied with POLICY in the political domain you can end up with a massive and technocratic bureaucracy. 

In nursing there was concern when the nursing process emerged that progress of individualised, person-centred care would be overwhelmed with a return to task-oriented care. Patients would literally be processed, in what is a problem-solving algorithm: assess, plan, intervene, evaluate.

Of course,  as in all idealised models, there is overlap between the 4Ps and the model's domains. We speak routinely of social, psychological, and political processes.

The rise of AI however prompts (demands) this debate be re-visited:

SELF / INDIVIDUAL  -  OBJECT / THING

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

the human - PURPOSE(S) the machine -	- can become machine PROCESS - can become human
PRACTICE socio-	POLICY -political

Previously: 'ethics' : 'nursing process' : '4Ps'

'Critical Notes on the Nature of Sociology as a Science'

4Ps

As a model of care (education, management, safety, systems, ...)*, or a conceptual model, conceptual framework, or however described, Hodges' model, as with its many peers is idealised.

You quickly 'see' that the 4Ps I've associated with the knowledge - care domains of Hodges' model are far specific, or limited to that domain alone.

In our dialogues, media and literature it becomes obvious that in addition to physical, sequential, and  natural (scientific) processes, there are also political,  sociological, and psychological, or mental  (interpersonal) processes.

I've always been drawn to the diagonal distances between the interpersonal-political domains; and that between the sociological-scientific. The latter I think about often as it makes the news regularly, when education is raised, literacy, the state of our schools, colleges, universities and (globally) the public's understanding of the sciences. So finding a paper heading for its centennial birthday caught my attention. Not just that, but the journal - Social Forces is (very much!) still with us aged 103 this year. Unsurprisingly, I like the way Woodard contrasts the mechanistic and humanistic:

Hodges' model

'For there is a further distinction to be made among evaluations of functional appropriateness. I may analyze the functional appropriateness of the gears and pulleys of a machine. That is applied mechanics, not the pure science of mechanics. For the function of the machine is tacked on to it arbitrarily and does not emerge from the data of the science of mechanics. But the same may not be said of hearts and lungs, of mental and emotional processes, or of social structures, functions, and processes. Here the functions are not extraneously tacked onto an arbitrarily assembled collation. They are inescapable emergents from the process of scientific analysis and are warp and woof of our data as it confronts us, in situ, in the natural universe. They are not in any sense superimposed.' p.32.

Interesting point regarding 'hearts and lungs' - to possibly return to? Also, as a template Hodges' model provides a 'warp and woof' for data gathering - a foundation.

Woodard, J. W. (1932). Critical Notes on the Nature of Sociology as a Science. Social Forces, 11(1), 28–43. https://doi.org/10.2307/2569615 

*Please give it a try whatever your field, and let me know your thoughts. ... h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk

NURSING -:- INFOTECH - worlds apart? Software testing

Another draft from over a decade ago ... duly revisited and updated:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/793628/worldwide-developer-survey-most-used-languages/

Reading up on Ruby and Rails and attending Scotland on Rails, I've been struck by the emphasis on testing. Testing in this context is about reliable software and building this into the 'product' from the outset. A book on Rails gets criticized because it leaves the chapter on 'Testing' until the end (even if the authors had their reasons - as they explained).

This take on testing is sufficient if (of course) it is appropriate and it is applied (as per the manual) to the application concerned. There are other more formal methods that extend to writing a specification for code which entails the use of formal specification languages such as Zed (as encountered in BA(Hons.) studies. This arises in situations were software is being developed for safety-critical situations. Clearly, robotic surgery, nuclear energy, and keeping an aircraft in the sky, take-off and landing are mission-critical. In the latter case a company is still dealing with life threatening loss of life that can follow, should the software system fail or more covertly introduce an error.

Reading about Rails, there are specific tests and these are provided as a result of scaffolding, a process whereby the bones of a web application are created within the Rails framework: with tests.

Rails creates a test directory for you as soon as you create a Rails project using bin/rails new application_name. If you list the contents of this directory then you will see:

$ ls -F test
application_system_test_case.rb  controllers/                     helpers/                         mailers/                         system/                          fixtures/                        integration/                     models/                          test_helper.rb

Source: https://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html

Rails uses a popular convention to organise and integrate the elements of a web application that includes a database, and dynamic interface. The approach is known as:

Models, Views and Controllers - MVC

MVC underpins several programming languages and frameworks. As displayed above, the tests that Rails creates have specific names and you can quickly see where they come from and how they encompass Rails (an essential property of course).

Today, I still wonder [ what's new! 😉 ] what is the equivalent to MVC in nursing? Models seems to fit! Over the years at many IT events, you can't help but reflect on nursing and its 'API' - application programming interface. Worryingly, in humanistic terms there is an instrumental potential in Hodges' model. If Nursing on Rails was a thing, what would the tests look like? Identity would be a feature, to demonstrate person-centredness, safety in medication and other treatment procedures. Is there a way to demonstrate the integration of care, and for a patient - the extent of holistic bandwidth? Of course, nursing comprises just a part of a clinical information system. It must be in sync in accord with other disciplines, medical and pharmacy and other multidisciplinary team members and yet ensure that 'nursing is visible'.

Previously: API : 'Waste not - want not'

Ethics and the 'big picture'

'It has been my experience that many of the most successful and creative heads of major research labs around the country came to their place from other disciplines. For example, one prominent geneticist that I know has his Ph.D. in chemistry. He told me that coming to genetics from outside the discipline gave him an awareness of structures and values that were invisible to those laboring inside the established system. Much as one has critical insights into the ambience of a city or culture when one comes from outside as a foreigner, so also is there critical understanding of academic disciplines. Thus, one response to the add-on question is to reply that the material you are providing can make your students better scientists by giving them a more global, contextual perspective. A global, contextual perspective allows one to consider divergent research designs that approach a problem in many directions. This is sometimes called "big picture" thinking. Part of the big picture includes other scientific contexts. For example, biology is seen in the context of chemistry, and chemistry is seen in the context of physics. But it is more than that. It also includes values. Should I, as a scientist, pursue all questions with the same vigor? Are there some questions that should be avoided because of the social consequences of their results? Is the scientist compelled to think in terms of helping humankind or helping himself to a Nobel Prize in any way he can? All of these involve values and ethics. They are critical components to global big picture thinking. Such a perspective is a valuable tool for anyone seeking excellence in scientific research.' p.28.

Boylan, M., & Donahue, J. (2003). Ethics across the curriculum : a practice-based approach. Lexington Books. 

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

GROUP

PERSONAL ETHICS INDIVIDUAL INTEGRITY MY EXPERIENCE MY REFLECTIONS INTERSUBJECTIVITY PURPOSE BELIEFS CHARACTER EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

PROCESS OBJECTIVITY FACTS  EMPIRICISM 'We define ethics as the process of reflection on the moral meaning of actions.' p.5. 'BIG PICTURE' PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

PRACTICE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE ETHOS^ (Chap. 6) 'Ethics is not a discrete body of knowledge that one simply acquires for application and use in particular situations. It entails the ongoing appropriation of ideas of the good as they relate to the changig situations, contexts, and developments in individuals and groups lives. ^ Ethics reflects on actions the actions of individuals and groups.' p.5.

PROFESSIONAL BODIES PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS PROFESSIONAL & COMMERCIAL - ACCOUNTABILITY PROFESSIONAL ETHICS DUTY OF CARE POLICY LAW JUSTICE autonomy; nonmaleficence; beneficence; justice*

^Stackhouse, M. (1972) Ethics and the Urban Ethos: An Essay in Social Theory and Theological Construction, Boston: Beacon Press. (Chap. 6, Boylan & Donahue)

*Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2013). Principles of biomedical ethics (7th ed.). Oxford University Press. (Chap. 6, Boylan & Donahue)

Health & Care results in mountains of data: c/o Burke & Cao 2024

"When medical schools train medical students, they teach them to treat patients as collections of various data points. They are laboratory tests and results, each measured to a standard number of significant figures. Notes students write hack down the richness of patients' identities and experiences: unemployment increases suicide risk while having a religion diminishes it. Each positive result that an interview or physical exam reveals adds another data point to the growing mountain, while a negative result erases a branch of possibilities in a treatment algorithm. It is a familiar process for every doctor, almost second nature, and yet it creates a chasm between patients and providers. Learning about a patient and their life becomes a process of deleting what's seen as irrelevant, and a patient's humanity gets lost in the chaos of data. ..."

"How would Nan Shepherd treat a mountain without her vision being mangled by medical training? She would probe it, palpate its surface, and listen to it rather than trying to comprehend it by reading reams of surveyor data. She would build a portrait of it in her mind beyond solely that which was intended to slot into the criteria of the IC-10. Perhaps she'd write a sensuous physical exam: ..."  

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

"CONSTITUTIONAL: a granite mountain range, millions of years old, overall stable and solid, teeming with living, breathing organisms CARDIOVASCULAR: its rivers are patent, low and high turbulence at turns, its veins crisscross the surface RESPIRATORY: the wind carves through it in mighty exhales MUSCULOSKELETAL: its stone carries a range of lives, and the wind, the snow, the sun slowly bend the range of its form GI/GU: it slowly digests, grows, evacuates, and seethes as its wastes give rise to new life NEUROLOGICAL: the mountain is awake but dreaming with you"

The Living Mountain

Burke, R., Cao, E. To Care for a Mountain - What medical practitioners can learn from Nan Shepherd. Oxford Review of Books, Summer 2024, Volume 8, Issue 2. p.14. In association with Stanford. Ack. length of quotations in relation to length of author's article.

Nan Shepherd 1893 - 1981:  Scottish Poetry Library 2024.
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/nan-shepherd/

Cover image: Allen and Unwin

Information and Records Management Society [IRMS] Conference Bursaries

Dear list,

Apologies for the cross-posting. I am forwarding this on behalf of the Information and Records Management Society.

If you think you can’t afford to attend the IRMS Conference or that it’s not the place for someone like you, it could be time to think again! That’s because we’re offering FREE bursary places that will give 3 people from under-represented groups an all-inclusive ticket to IRMS24 in Brighton on 12-14 May.

But you’ll need to be quick – the deadline is less than 2 weeks away!

There are 3 categories of bursary available:

1. New Generation – open to anyone aged 30 or under at the start of the conference on 12 May 2024
2. Diversity and Inclusion – offered to an information professional or student from an ethnic minority background, or who has a disability (or both)
3. International – available to IRMS members based outside of the UK and Ireland

Each bursary provides 1 fully-funded place at the whole event, including all conference sessions, food and refreshments, evening social events, and two nights’ luxury B&B accommodation at the conference venue, the DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole hotel. Please note we are unable to cover any travel costs.

You must meet certain criteria to be eligible for a bursary. If you do, then to apply, all you have to do is tell us who you are, which bursary you are applying for and why, and how you will benefit from being at the IRMS Conference 2024 – including which speakers or topics you are most excited about! We also ask how you would share your experience at the event.

You haven’t got long - the deadline for applications is Sunday 10 March.
For full details and to apply, go to www.IRMSConference.org.uk/Bursaries.

And spread the word - we want these bursaries to be available to the widest possible audience, so please share with friends, colleagues and contacts.

Thank you, and good luck! Joe
Joe Chapman IRMS Conference Director

Best Regards,
Ren

Reynold Leming
Managing Director
reynold AT informu-solutions.com
https://www.informu-solutions.com/

My source: Records Management List - Archive
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK

Vera Spencer - Artist versus Machine c.1954

Tate Etc.

"The paper card used to create this collage by the artist Vera Spencer may look unassuming, but the idea behind them is monumental. Around 1800, the French merchant and weaver Joseph Marie Jacquard first developed the automated loom, a machine which used perforated cards to store advanced weaving patterns. These perforations - a series of holes or not-holes - created the world's first large-scale system of binary data storage. Jacquard's loom went on to inspire British mathematician Charles Babbage to design the Analytical Engine, the first punch-card calculator and a precursor to the modern computer - the potential of which was grasped by the mathematician Ada Lovelace, regarded as the first computer programmer. . . . 

By modifying punched cards, Vera Spencer started up a material fight with the very tissue of automation. The same automation that today, with the invention of self-learning image and text-creating algorithms like Dall-E and ChatGPT, has reached the practices of artists and writers, challenging our very concept of creativity and ultimately threatening their work." p.99.

 

 Individual
  |

     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

creativity	automation material size-scale: loom <> punched card computer  tissue
Vera Spencer Artist versus Machine c.1954

Smith, A., on Vera Spencer Artist versus Machine c.1954, Summer 2023, Tate Etc., Issue 58, p.99.

Previous posts on W2tQ:
Ada Lovelace 

Four* care domains - revisited ...

 INDIVIDUAL
  |

     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

My source: https://x.com/LeanneHPatrick/status/1731311359554371938?s=20

*Hodges' model can be embedded within the spiritual as per the situation - context.

"Coal Fired Computers" c/o MUTE

"Graham Harwood and Matsuko Yokokoji (YoHa) build

contraptions that expose and collapse down the productive

chains linking telecommunications media to some of the

raw materials that constitute them.
In this interview with ANTONY ILES, however,

Harwood rejects theoretical discourses

of resistance in favour of a more direct and technical

method of 'action research' which skirts art and politics." p.159.

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

Poster image for YoHa's Coal Fired Computers exhibition, AV Festival, Newcastle 2010

"AI: Though these projects do not work solely within a logic of 'representation' they do, almost as a side effect, produce awful images. I am thinking in particular of the film still from Aluminium and the blackened lung hooked up to a coal fired computer. If the 'contraptions' you make can be thought of as diagrams of socio-technical relations, what are the qualities of the images they produce? To what extent are these images necessary by-products of the processes. GH: We can see the images arising out of the forces that threaten to break the machine, or assemblages arising out of its in-betweenness. Its unfinished nature always requires the imagination of the participant/viewer to finish the job, fill in the details. This is a powerful strategy." p.164.

Source: Iles, A. (2011) Double Negative Feedback. In the mud and blood of networks: an interview with Graham Harwood, MUTE. Spring/Summer, Vol. 3, #1, pp.158-171. 

Image: http://yoha.co.uk/cfc

https://www.metamute.org/editorial/magazine/mute-vol.-3-no.-1-double-negative-feedback

Note 'Anti-disciplinary' in this issue too:

https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/anti-disciplinary-feedback-and-will-to-effect

Will investigate anti-disciplinary, as this appears to strike a discordant note in nursing in Hodges' model promulgating genericism. A quick check was encouraging leading to MIT Lab, but then disappointing in terms of personnel and resignations - but a lead for the future (inter- multi- transdisciplinary and Hodges' model).

(Yes, second post from this issue of MUTE, a random yet informative purchase. It cost £12.00. Still clearing, boxing, moving ...).

23rd UKSS International Conference: Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

23rd UKSS International Conference

Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

15th of September 2023 in the Richmond Building, University of Portsmouth

The Conference programme for the 15th of September is as follows: UKSS 2023 Conference programme Friday the 15th of September Time Activity 10.00 – 10.30 a.m. Arrival and registration, Reception, The Richmond Building 10.30 – 10.45 a.m. Welcome by the UKSS President, Professor Stowell, Room 201 10.45 – 11.45 p.m. Keynote presentation, Ray Ison, Read More …

I thought I had posted this news, but it seems not. I'm pleased to do so now and have only recently  booked. As above, the conference is for one day and costs £25.00 while free for UKSS members, which will make you a UKSS member if not already. You can attend in-person or virtually.

As per 2018 when I presented Hodges' model in Portsmouth, I plan to attend physically, visiting Oxford on the way down.

Blankets and DNR . . .

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

Initially not person-centred, I -	Blankets
- recall several 'conversations' with junior doctors. The situation was 'recovered'.	"Blanket use of forms"

22:00-22:30 BBC News at Ten. DNR - Do Not Resuscitate 

DNR is a critical aspect of health care that will not go away. It can't as part of the interface (to put it mechanistically) between life, death, and quality of life and death. Ever since and even prior to the Liverpool Care Pathway, the issues raised in medical care, humanity, dignity and respect, ethics, professionalism, integrity and governance are challenging to reconcile.

Hodges' model can play a part in critical thinking about not just a troublesome concept, but the interaction of several and making sense of them and the situation to hand - and heart. 

As such Hodges' model isn't going away either.

Knights D, Wood D, Barclay S. The Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying: what went wrong? Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Oct;63(615):509-10. doi: 10.3399/bjgp13X673559. PMID: 24152449; PMCID: PMC3782767.

'Process-based art' in Hodges' model

Process-based art appears to confirm my association of 'process' with the sciences care (knowledge) domain in Hodges' model. Hopefully, we all have the opportunity to confirm this as small children #PaintOnTheHandsFeet 

INDIVIDUAL
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INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES              
HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC
SOCIOLOGY :   POLITICAL
|
GROUP

“I layer the lidocaine [the numbing agent used by dentists before uncomfortable procedures] onto the white,” explains Estep, “which has been painted around the edges with black paint.” At this point he takes the canvas off of the stretcher and, in a nod to his former work as an art technician, restretches it, but this time disturbing the still-wet borders and creating smudgy mistakes as he loses all feeling in his hands. This audacious dulling of the senses raises questions of authorship, randomness and the very idea of painting – while also creating beautiful works. The materials and methods sit mostly within the canon of manual labour,” Estep explains, hinting at the discrepancy between the physical work that goes into his paintings and their eventual impracticality. Asked about the safety of the procedure, Estep, a robust and charismatic 33-year-old, shrugs his lack of concern. More worryingly, he then laughingly recalls one time when he got the measurements wrong and lay completely immobilised on his studio floor for several hours."

Art Culture

Artists mentioned include:

Oscar Tuazon: https://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/oscar-tuazon#tab:thumbnails

Ryan Estep: https://www.artnet.com/artists/ryan-estep/

Analia Saban: https://analiasabanstudio.com/

Holmes, Pernilla, A piece of the action, FT Weekend, HTSI, Nov-Dec 2014? pp.14-18.

(I did not record the date on the pages.)

See: https://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3143_Guffwatch__Processbased_art