This thesis proposes a theoretical framework for spatial inquiry into conditions of radical social gregariousness, through probing the crowd design problem in the work of the Soviet Rationalist architects (1920s-30s) - particularly their submissions to the Palace of Soviets competition (Moscow 1931-3). Legitimizing the crowd construct as an index of collective consciousness, and examining the early-modern revolutionary crowd's struggles for proclaiming its self-consciousness, this thesis investigates the interwar political phenomenon of amassing large crowds within buildings as a device for constructing collective social relations. The research project is divided into two main parts. The first is concerned with the crowd design problem, identifying this problem not just as the technical task of accommodating large political crowds, but as the basis of the formulation a new kind of conceptual intent in architecture. Finding the competition brief inadequate to in-depth formulation, the thesis investigates three primary sources for the crowd design problem: mass-events, revolutionary-theatre and revolutionary-art. Four components comprise the Crowd Design Problem each seeking legitimacy in the mass of crowd-bodies: i) the problem of crowd configurations; ii) challenges from the kinesthetic-space conception evoked by theatrical director V.E. Meyerhold's Biomechanics; iii) the legitimacy of 'the object' within a spatial-field of intersubjectivity; and iv) the challenge of 'seeing' crowds from immersive viewpoints counteracting representational filters of class privilege. Part-II focuses on the response of the Rationalists--one of the groups participating in the competition--to the crowd design problem. The study unearths in their designs a logic of space-making founded in the construction of inter-subjective states of consciousness radically different from prevailing individualistic conceptions of social space. To explain this logic of space-making, it proposes the notion of Gregarious Space--a theoretical framework of inquiry into what Marx called "species-being", taking radical gregariousness as the primary, generative condition of society. Besides drawing on morphological principles, social theory, historical analyses, and philosophical reflections, the notion of Gregarious Space is found to be particularly amenable to design propositions. Within the proposed theoretical framework, the Rationalists' design-proposition of curved-grounds, dense notations, textured co-visibilities and empathetic graphic conventions - all comprise a founding spatial-principle trafficking in rhythmic fields between subjects and against non-commodified objects: a principle which challenges the material domain of Productivist Constructivism as well as Historical Materialism's canonical constructs of alienation. Moreover, its uncertain kinesthetics sustain dynamic, aleatory states of consciousness which subvert prevailing disciplinary techniques of Panopticon inspection.

Esta pesquisa busca ampliar a compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de jovens e adultos em escolarização inicial, especialmente no que diz respeito à ação gráfica – enquanto experiência de uso e de manipulação dos símbolos -, tendo em vista aprofundar em quê e como as representações gráficas contribuem para produzir formas de ver o mundo, de lógicas para compreendê-lo, organizá-lo, produzi-lo, atuar mesmo nele. Tomo as representações gráficas como objetos privilegiados para a investigação das relações entre as dimensões simbólica e cognitiva do conhecimento, implicando tanto na produção de um modo específico de conhecimento desenvolvido pela modernidade - o conhecimento científico -, quanto na apropriação dos conhecimentos científicos/escolares por alunos jovens e adultos. Recorro aos autores Bottéro, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, entre outros, para problematizar aspectos das representações gráficas e construir um panorama histórico e cultural das mesmas: com Bottéro, especialmente no que diz respeito a alguns obstáculos epistemológicos superados no desenvolvimento histórico das representações gráficas; com Goody, o conceito de escritura - enquanto ação e efeito de escrever - produzindo tanto transformações cognitivas quanto sociais; com Olson, a construção do conceito de representação próprio da modernidade, que estabelece uma relação singular do homem com o mundo, situando-o num “universo representado sobre o papel”; e com Ferreiro, algumas especificidades da língua escrita - como uma forma particular de realizar a linguagem - de forma muito diferente da língua oral. Faço uso dos estudos de Piaget para compreender a formação do símbolo e a constituição do pensamento representativo, e analisar a importância do desenvolvimento simbólico para toda a inteligência posterior. Busco também as possibilidades de desenvolvimento da teoria piagetiana, especialmente com reflexões acerca do conhecimento científico e da abstração reflexionante, tendo como foco as representações gráficas, mesmo que essas não tenham sido tema de estudo do autor. Indico, por fim, a possibilidade de uma leitura solidária e complementar entre os aspectos figurativos e operativos do conhecimento, assim como entre o pensamento simbólico e o pensamento conceitual. A investigação realizada encaminha-se para uma discussão de cunho teórico e lida com as representações gráficas no âmbito epistemológico, quando busca compreender sua natureza, e, no âmbito funcional, quando apresenta as produções de sujeitos adultos pouco ou não escolarizados. Mas essa distinção entre sujeito epistêmico e psicológico só reflete as formas de elaboração complementares do sujeito que tende tanto ao conhecimento normativo quanto ao conhecimento prático e empírico, tratando-se, independentemente dos aspectos salientados num ou noutro momento dessa tese, da tentativa de enfocar o sujeito cognoscente, isto é, a de um sujeito que tenta participar ativamente na construção do conhecimento do mundo e de si próprio. / This research aims at broadening the understanding of learning processes young people and adults undergo during elementary education, especially concerning graphic activities – experiences with the use and manipulation of symbols. This thesis will try to discuss how graphic representations contribute to produce ways to see the world, how they create logics to understand, organize, produce and live in this world. I take graphic representations as privileged objects in the investigation of relations between the symbolic and cognitive dimensions of knowledge. Such representations imply both the production of a specific knowledge developed by the Modern era, the scientific knowledge, and the appropriation of school/scientific kinds of knowledge by young people and adults. Using theoretical authors like Bottero, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, among others, this research questions aspects of graphic representations in order to construct a historical and cultural panorama of them: Bottero’s contribution especially regards some epistemological obstacles that were overcome in the historical development of graphic representations; Goody brings the concept of writing – as action and effect of writing –, producing both cognitive and social changes; Olson discusses the construction of the representation concept, which is typical of the Modern era and sets up a singular relationship between the world and men, placing them into a “universe represented on paper”; Ferreiro uses an approach to discuss some particularities of written language – as a particular way to perform language – that differs a lot from the approach used to study oral language. Piaget’s studies help to understand the formation of the symbol and the constitution of representative thinking. His theories were also useful to analyze the importance of symbolic development throughout an individual’s life. This thesis searches for the possibilities to develop Piaget’s theory, especially with considerations on scientific knowledge and on reflexive abstraction, focusing graphic representations, although this author didn’t studied this theme. Finally I indicate the possibility of a complementary and supporting reading between figurative and operative aspects of knowledge, as well as between symbolic and conceptual thinking. The investigation carried out attempts to establish a theoretical debate and deals with graphic representations in the epistemological scope, when it comes to understand their nature, and in the functional scope, when they present the production of adult subjects with little or no education at all. However, this distinction between the epistemological and the psychological subject only reflects a complementary elaboration of a subject that tends both to normative knowledge and to practical and empirical knowledge. Independently of the aspects stressed in one or another part of this thesis, it attempts to focus cognoscent subjects, that is, subjects that try to actively take part in the construction of their knowledge on the world and on themselves.

Esta pesquisa busca ampliar a compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de jovens e adultos em escolarização inicial, especialmente no que diz respeito à ação gráfica – enquanto experiência de uso e de manipulação dos símbolos -, tendo em vista aprofundar em quê e como as representações gráficas contribuem para produzir formas de ver o mundo, de lógicas para compreendê-lo, organizá-lo, produzi-lo, atuar mesmo nele. Tomo as representações gráficas como objetos privilegiados para a investigação das relações entre as dimensões simbólica e cognitiva do conhecimento, implicando tanto na produção de um modo específico de conhecimento desenvolvido pela modernidade - o conhecimento científico -, quanto na apropriação dos conhecimentos científicos/escolares por alunos jovens e adultos. Recorro aos autores Bottéro, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, entre outros, para problematizar aspectos das representações gráficas e construir um panorama histórico e cultural das mesmas: com Bottéro, especialmente no que diz respeito a alguns obstáculos epistemológicos superados no desenvolvimento histórico das representações gráficas; com Goody, o conceito de escritura - enquanto ação e efeito de escrever - produzindo tanto transformações cognitivas quanto sociais; com Olson, a construção do conceito de representação próprio da modernidade, que estabelece uma relação singular do homem com o mundo, situando-o num “universo representado sobre o papel”; e com Ferreiro, algumas especificidades da língua escrita - como uma forma particular de realizar a linguagem - de forma muito diferente da língua oral. Faço uso dos estudos de Piaget para compreender a formação do símbolo e a constituição do pensamento representativo, e analisar a importância do desenvolvimento simbólico para toda a inteligência posterior. Busco também as possibilidades de desenvolvimento da teoria piagetiana, especialmente com reflexões acerca do conhecimento científico e da abstração reflexionante, tendo como foco as representações gráficas, mesmo que essas não tenham sido tema de estudo do autor. Indico, por fim, a possibilidade de uma leitura solidária e complementar entre os aspectos figurativos e operativos do conhecimento, assim como entre o pensamento simbólico e o pensamento conceitual. A investigação realizada encaminha-se para uma discussão de cunho teórico e lida com as representações gráficas no âmbito epistemológico, quando busca compreender sua natureza, e, no âmbito funcional, quando apresenta as produções de sujeitos adultos pouco ou não escolarizados. Mas essa distinção entre sujeito epistêmico e psicológico só reflete as formas de elaboração complementares do sujeito que tende tanto ao conhecimento normativo quanto ao conhecimento prático e empírico, tratando-se, independentemente dos aspectos salientados num ou noutro momento dessa tese, da tentativa de enfocar o sujeito cognoscente, isto é, a de um sujeito que tenta participar ativamente na construção do conhecimento do mundo e de si próprio. / This research aims at broadening the understanding of learning processes young people and adults undergo during elementary education, especially concerning graphic activities – experiences with the use and manipulation of symbols. This thesis will try to discuss how graphic representations contribute to produce ways to see the world, how they create logics to understand, organize, produce and live in this world. I take graphic representations as privileged objects in the investigation of relations between the symbolic and cognitive dimensions of knowledge. Such representations imply both the production of a specific knowledge developed by the Modern era, the scientific knowledge, and the appropriation of school/scientific kinds of knowledge by young people and adults. Using theoretical authors like Bottero, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, among others, this research questions aspects of graphic representations in order to construct a historical and cultural panorama of them: Bottero’s contribution especially regards some epistemological obstacles that were overcome in the historical development of graphic representations; Goody brings the concept of writing – as action and effect of writing –, producing both cognitive and social changes; Olson discusses the construction of the representation concept, which is typical of the Modern era and sets up a singular relationship between the world and men, placing them into a “universe represented on paper”; Ferreiro uses an approach to discuss some particularities of written language – as a particular way to perform language – that differs a lot from the approach used to study oral language. Piaget’s studies help to understand the formation of the symbol and the constitution of representative thinking. His theories were also useful to analyze the importance of symbolic development throughout an individual’s life. This thesis searches for the possibilities to develop Piaget’s theory, especially with considerations on scientific knowledge and on reflexive abstraction, focusing graphic representations, although this author didn’t studied this theme. Finally I indicate the possibility of a complementary and supporting reading between figurative and operative aspects of knowledge, as well as between symbolic and conceptual thinking. The investigation carried out attempts to establish a theoretical debate and deals with graphic representations in the epistemological scope, when it comes to understand their nature, and in the functional scope, when they present the production of adult subjects with little or no education at all. However, this distinction between the epistemological and the psychological subject only reflects a complementary elaboration of a subject that tends both to normative knowledge and to practical and empirical knowledge. Independently of the aspects stressed in one or another part of this thesis, it attempts to focus cognoscent subjects, that is, subjects that try to actively take part in the construction of their knowledge on the world and on themselves.

Esta pesquisa busca ampliar a compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de jovens e adultos em escolarização inicial, especialmente no que diz respeito à ação gráfica – enquanto experiência de uso e de manipulação dos símbolos -, tendo em vista aprofundar em quê e como as representações gráficas contribuem para produzir formas de ver o mundo, de lógicas para compreendê-lo, organizá-lo, produzi-lo, atuar mesmo nele. Tomo as representações gráficas como objetos privilegiados para a investigação das relações entre as dimensões simbólica e cognitiva do conhecimento, implicando tanto na produção de um modo específico de conhecimento desenvolvido pela modernidade - o conhecimento científico -, quanto na apropriação dos conhecimentos científicos/escolares por alunos jovens e adultos. Recorro aos autores Bottéro, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, entre outros, para problematizar aspectos das representações gráficas e construir um panorama histórico e cultural das mesmas: com Bottéro, especialmente no que diz respeito a alguns obstáculos epistemológicos superados no desenvolvimento histórico das representações gráficas; com Goody, o conceito de escritura - enquanto ação e efeito de escrever - produzindo tanto transformações cognitivas quanto sociais; com Olson, a construção do conceito de representação próprio da modernidade, que estabelece uma relação singular do homem com o mundo, situando-o num “universo representado sobre o papel”; e com Ferreiro, algumas especificidades da língua escrita - como uma forma particular de realizar a linguagem - de forma muito diferente da língua oral. Faço uso dos estudos de Piaget para compreender a formação do símbolo e a constituição do pensamento representativo, e analisar a importância do desenvolvimento simbólico para toda a inteligência posterior. Busco também as possibilidades de desenvolvimento da teoria piagetiana, especialmente com reflexões acerca do conhecimento científico e da abstração reflexionante, tendo como foco as representações gráficas, mesmo que essas não tenham sido tema de estudo do autor. Indico, por fim, a possibilidade de uma leitura solidária e complementar entre os aspectos figurativos e operativos do conhecimento, assim como entre o pensamento simbólico e o pensamento conceitual. A investigação realizada encaminha-se para uma discussão de cunho teórico e lida com as representações gráficas no âmbito epistemológico, quando busca compreender sua natureza, e, no âmbito funcional, quando apresenta as produções de sujeitos adultos pouco ou não escolarizados. Mas essa distinção entre sujeito epistêmico e psicológico só reflete as formas de elaboração complementares do sujeito que tende tanto ao conhecimento normativo quanto ao conhecimento prático e empírico, tratando-se, independentemente dos aspectos salientados num ou noutro momento dessa tese, da tentativa de enfocar o sujeito cognoscente, isto é, a de um sujeito que tenta participar ativamente na construção do conhecimento do mundo e de si próprio. / This research aims at broadening the understanding of learning processes young people and adults undergo during elementary education, especially concerning graphic activities – experiences with the use and manipulation of symbols. This thesis will try to discuss how graphic representations contribute to produce ways to see the world, how they create logics to understand, organize, produce and live in this world. I take graphic representations as privileged objects in the investigation of relations between the symbolic and cognitive dimensions of knowledge. Such representations imply both the production of a specific knowledge developed by the Modern era, the scientific knowledge, and the appropriation of school/scientific kinds of knowledge by young people and adults. Using theoretical authors like Bottero, Goody, Olson, Ferreiro, among others, this research questions aspects of graphic representations in order to construct a historical and cultural panorama of them: Bottero’s contribution especially regards some epistemological obstacles that were overcome in the historical development of graphic representations; Goody brings the concept of writing – as action and effect of writing –, producing both cognitive and social changes; Olson discusses the construction of the representation concept, which is typical of the Modern era and sets up a singular relationship between the world and men, placing them into a “universe represented on paper”; Ferreiro uses an approach to discuss some particularities of written language – as a particular way to perform language – that differs a lot from the approach used to study oral language. Piaget’s studies help to understand the formation of the symbol and the constitution of representative thinking. His theories were also useful to analyze the importance of symbolic development throughout an individual’s life. This thesis searches for the possibilities to develop Piaget’s theory, especially with considerations on scientific knowledge and on reflexive abstraction, focusing graphic representations, although this author didn’t studied this theme. Finally I indicate the possibility of a complementary and supporting reading between figurative and operative aspects of knowledge, as well as between symbolic and conceptual thinking. The investigation carried out attempts to establish a theoretical debate and deals with graphic representations in the epistemological scope, when it comes to understand their nature, and in the functional scope, when they present the production of adult subjects with little or no education at all. However, this distinction between the epistemological and the psychological subject only reflects a complementary elaboration of a subject that tends both to normative knowledge and to practical and empirical knowledge. Independently of the aspects stressed in one or another part of this thesis, it attempts to focus cognoscent subjects, that is, subjects that try to actively take part in the construction of their knowledge on the world and on themselves.

Hearing parents of deaf children who are reliant on Sign Language need to learn to sign to ensure communication mode-match with their children. Signing is vital for parent-child interaction, and has implications for the socio-emotional well-being and educational outcomes of the child. However, poor signing skills of parents is repeatedly reported in the literature, with the majority of children in signing educational programmes reported not to be exposed to signing in the home. Teaching parents to sign therefore appears a priority, with sign teaching strategies being debated in the literature. The learning of Sign Language as a second language by hearing parents of deaf children within the bilingual educational approach, which regards Sign Language as the first language of deaf children, raises the challenges of cross-modality language learning for hearing parents. Reports on teaching methods are mainly anecdotal with only a few studies addressing sign learning by hearing individuals. While the use of graphic representations of signs is a common practice in teaching signs, there is no empirical data on their influence on the learning of signs. This study explored the contribution of graphic representations of signs in sign teaching. The main aim of the study was to describe the impact of sign illustrations on the teaching of signs to hearing mothers. Two sub-aims were formulated to compare the conditions of sign learning with and without the use of sign illustrations in graphic displays in terms of (a) sign reception and sign production, and (b) the amount and nature of assistance required in learning signs. An Adapted Alternating Treatments Design (AATD), with four theme-based sign sets, and probes balanced for equivalence, was developed and used. Four biological mothers of three boys and a girl in a Grade Three class at a day school for the deaf in an urban area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa took part in the study. The results revealed no significant differences between the two training strategies for sign acquisition, in terms of sign reception and sign production post-training. There were however, significant differences between the two training strategies with regard to assistance required while learning signs. The graphics strategy required significantly less trainer assistance (p<0.05). In addition, there were significant differences in the nature of assistance provided with the use of graphic representations. Significantly fewer repeated demonstrations of signs were required by the participants during self practice (p<0.01). There was a significantly higher number of corrections with the graphics strategy (p<0.01) initially, and this decreased over time, unlike with the signing-only strategy. It would appear that the sign illustrations were redundant during the initial stages of sign learning using a multimodal approach, but that they were relied on to trigger recall of signs during the self practice phase. Thus, the study confirmed the supportive role of sign illustrations in sign learning. The use of theme-based graphic displays of sign illustrations emerged as a viable method in teaching signs. The implications of these results and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

The aim of this thesis is to graphically interpret navigation messages from a prototype of global navigation satellite system. The resulting application is implemented in Python programming language for Windows operating system and follows requests from researchers developing the prototype. Necessary terminology together with graphical user interface programming possibilities of object-oriented language Python is a base for theoretical background of this text. Practical part of this research describes a solution for receiving generated messages from the prototype as well as their storing and filtering into useful information. Further, the design of graphical user interface of the application for prototype interactions and other tools used for its configuration are included.

This master's thesis deals with the problem of monitoring of a presence state from multiple points. It begins with analysis of presence information propagation in various systems and also with multiple points of presence in general terms. After that follows requirements analysis and design of information system which will evaluate presence information from multiple sources with various features and than display it graphically on plans or maps. At the conclusion there is described implementation and testing of developed information system.