"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

|

     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 ...).

studium and punctum c/o Rose (2012)

'Care' as a Photograph - duality . . .

Visual Methodologies

"It is as if the Photograph always carries its referent with itself, both affected by the same amorous or funereal immobility, at the very heart of the moving world; they are glued together, limb by limb, like the condemned man and the corpse in certain tortures." [Barthes 1982: 5-6] p.121.

 "The referent is there in photographic images in ways it is not in other sorts of visual imagery, Barthes argues. And a result, he suggests that photographs can be interpreted in two ways. First, there is a level of the studium, which is a culturally informed reading of the image, one that interprets the signs of the photographs. But he says that some photographs produce a different response, which is a second kind of reading, by containing what he called a punctum. A punctum is unintentional and ungeneralisable; it is a sensitive point in an image which pricks, bruises, disturbs a particular viewer out of their usual viewing habits. And he went so far as to suggest that 'while the studium is ultimately always coded, the punctum is not [Barthes 1982: 51]. That is, there are points in some photographs that escape signifiers and shock the viewer with their 'intractable reality' [Barthes 1982: 119]. And while shock is something that most adverts aim to achieve, it is the case that recent advertising is relying more and more, not only on the transfer of meaning between signs, but on the evocation of a feeling or a mood attached to a brand that is difficult to analyse using semiological terminology." p.122.

On twitter* @h2cm over the years I've noted a certain stance, an aversion even, to generalist approaches in nursing (as suggested apparently by Hodges' model). The simplicity of Hodges' model in its template (basic) form belies how the model can address both generalist and specialist practice and theory. Bluntly: choose your domain; slice, dice and drill as you wish. 

Rose's reference to Barthes, in-particular studium and punctum stands out. We can equate the former with the situation as found, the clues provided in the referral details, the initial cues, data and information gleaned upon assessment. What might be expected, so to speak, including assumptions. 

But the punctum, may be described - interpreted in person-centred (yet professionally balanced) terms. Especially in assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation. The punctum signifies salience: what is important to this person. If the academic emphasis is upon ‘reflection in action’, ‘reflection on action’, ‘single loop learning’ and ‘double loop learning’ (Schön, 1987), can the punctum represent empathy, rapport, the sustenance of dignity and respect, an individual's sense-making? 

Our photograph, taken through Hodges' model is comprised of four frames. The photograph is  compound, and with several exposures it can be animated.^ When played, it reveals a hint, a fraction, an interval in an individual's (potential) health career. A light upon the several-fold determinants of health and their influence and impact upon life chances experienced and exercised to date - and to follow (climate change). 
 

Rose, G. (2012). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials (3rd ed.). London: Sage. PB. [Now in 5th edition.] Image - Amazon.

Schön , D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco, CA: Jossy Bass. 

*Yes, I know.

^The Producer - Director depends on your Spiritual stance.

Rose (2012) now with student nurses [on placement from Chester University].