Matěj Malecha, Akcident ve Stacku Abstract (in English): The master thesis explains the notion of "accident" in the book The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty by Benjamin H. Bratton. First, it identifies suitable mental models within the fields of complex systems theory, philosophy of technology and theory of information. The models inform subsequent analysis and interpretation of the Stack showing that Stack's accidentality (1) is an inevitable consequence of the functional principle of digital technologies, and that (2) the accidentality differs qualitatively depending on whether it manifests at the level of a layer or within the whole. The last part examines how Bratton's remark that the book is a design brief, and the fact that the Stack is not used solely by people affects the role of designer.

In <i>Resurrection Flowers and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge </i>Kaden C. Milliren seeks to evaluate and analyze differences in perspectives and perceptions of the environment between Western and Indigenous worldviews and, consequentially, the different attitudes and ways-ofbeing with the world that emerge as a result. In so doing, Milliren discusses the sacredness of local landscape for Indigenous peoples and the role its spiritually-significant elements impact an entire cosmology. These important elements of sacred local ecologies are socially, materially, and symbolically rhetorical, ascribing meaning onto all elements of worldview from faith to ceremony, oratory to cultural tradition, physical sustenance to ancestral connection. In feedback and feedforward loops, these aspects of cosmology continue to ascribe meaning onto one another, affecting and being affected by each other, continually weaving together meaning and, therefore, rhetorical mattering.<div><br></div><div>In this case study Milliren discusses the sacredness of the landscape of Southcentral Washington State, the land of the Yakama Nation, an affiliation of 14 bands and tribes indigenous to the area. Central to the physical ecology, as well as the ecology of life for the Indigenous population, is the salmon, a food source significant to all areas of Yakama life and central to Yakama spirituality, oral tradition, ceremony, and nourishment. Tracing the impact of colonial capitalism beginning in the 19th century, Milliren discusses diminished salmon populations and its impact on the local landscape as well as the Yakama way of life. Additionally, he discusses the Yakama Nation’s response to colonial violence through acts of culturally-situated events aimed at maintaining Yakama tradition and improving its peoples’ cultural and physical health. Coining the term<i> resurrection flowers </i>Milliren analyzes the ways the government has utilized the salmon for monetary gain at the expense of Indigenous populations, and how Indigenous activists have fought to preserve the salmon population and resurrect cultural tradition through revitalized acts of decolonial cultural practices.<br></div>

This thesis draws upon the young theory of eco-masculinities and the aspiring movement of economic degrowth. We find the concept of eco-masculinities to be an underrepresented complement to the movement of ecofeminism. Studies show that masculine people are less involved in sustainability-related issues in conventional society. We identified this phenomenon as the ‘eco gender characteristics gap’. In the following pages, we elaborate what eco-masculinities can look like at an ecovillage and where we can see possible connections between eco-masculinities and a degrowth mindset. We do so by analysing qualitative data derived from observations of, interviews with and a questionnaire filled out by people living in ecovillages. At an ecovillage, it seems that awareness about feelings and emotions as well as communicating them are highly valued. Our analysis shows that these factors form crucial parts of precepts for eco-masculinities to develop. Connected to degrowth, we can see that eco-masculinities have to be actively implemented and are not automatically attained by living in an alternative setting. We hope that our gained insights contribute to gender characteristics research and to the understanding and acceptance of diverse eco-masculinities in society. / <p>Due to COVID-19, the presentation was held online in a Zoom meeting.</p>

This thesis examines transformations of human characters into trees, stones, and water sources in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The current climate crisis is partly the result of a view of nature as a passive object, or inert matter, that humans without consequences can exploit. Using primarily the ecocritical theory new materialism, this thesis is a study of how nonhuman organisms can be assumed to have agency in order to alter this view of nature. The characters in the Metamorphoses that transform have different forms of agency before and after transformation depending on the body they inhabit. With close reading of the transformations themselves and the portrayal of the characters after transformation, the thesis finds that the material reality of the body determines what a body can do. Thus, it is possible to use the Metamorphoses to do a contemporary ecocritical reading that shows how a narrative can portray nature and nonhuman organisms with as much importance as human organism. By understanding the agency of nature and find it to be an active subject instead of only an object, it can change the relationship humans have with nature to one that is less exploitative.

A speculative inquiry into perception regimes, ‘unlearning’, entanglements and how to discuss re-production in the realm of (art) production today. A textual crossreading of how to actively admit and amplify the colonial and imperial consequences active in all levels of society, both personal and collective, and how these ideas continues to (re)produce in ways outside (and inside) of our imagination.  An experimental essay negotiating the relations and symbioses between form an ideology, a try to undermine binary thought formations such as nature and culture, private and public. A proposed crossreading of theory and lived life; how to deal with the (im)possibility of imagining outside of neoliberal conditions, of colonial and capitalist frameworks?

This research approaches archaeological human remains in museum collections from a rhetorical perspective. Instead of joining the body of scholarship in museum studies that focuses on the process of curatorial interpretation, this project applies public memory studies to explore what happens to curatorial interpretation when it goes out into the world and is taken up in public circulated discourse. With a focus on publics, the moment of knowledge construction when visitors approach a display of human remains in a museum is captured and analyzed through the lenses of new materialism, rhetoric in situ, and public memory studies. Each lens represents the chosen approach to each of the three elements that converge at the moment of knowledge construction ? publics, objects, and place ? which are grouped together as a triangle of interrelated dynamics all working in a situationally-contingent rhetorical ecology of other factors and influences. Thus, the dynamic inseparable trio of publics, objects, and place are coined the ?ecotriangle.? For museum studies, rhetoric?s foundational work can provide critical perspective into the nature of communication and meaning-making that happens when publics meet human remains in a museum space. In order to explore the ecotriangular relationship of publics, objects, and place with an interdisciplinary approach, this project begins by interrogating the implicit assumptions within the defitions of terms like ?public? and ?object? then develops collaborative definitions from the scholarship in rhetoric, archaeology, and museum studies. The particular case of human remains challenges most scholarships? definitions of object. Yet as this research reveals, human remains as case study help develop and refine the approach to objects, materiality, interpretation, and museum display when challenged to inclusively frame such a case instead of treat human remains as an exception or outlier to scholarship on objects. Exploring the ecotriangle as a heuristic model for conceptualization of interrelational dynamics in knowledge construction extends current scholarship in rhetoric, especially rhetoric in situ and rhetorical ecology, and also reinforces existing interdisciplinary bridges between the fields of rhetoric, archaeology, and museum studies.

Resources: The topic of this Master's thesis is oniomania, or in other words, pathologic shopping and how it is affected by an individual's materialistic value orientation. Pathologic shopping refers to an unmanageable urge to buy something, to order, to own a thing. For the needs of this thesis, materialism is understanded as the conviction that gaining material goods is the ultimate life goal, main index of success and key to happiness. Based on the research, materialism is considered to be a significant predictor of oniomania. Aims and methodology: The main aim of this thesis was to describe the relationship between pathologic shopping and materialism. Then prevalence of pathologic shopping was further detected in the focus group which consisted solely of non-medical health care staff as well as the prevalence of age and income. The research also focused on circumstances and consequences of pathological shopping. 853 respondents participated in this correlation research based on data gained from the survey. Main results: With use of correlation analysis it was found that rising rate of materialism leads to higher tendency to shopping compulsively. 55 impulsive shoppers were identified in the research sample which makes it 6,45 % of the total number of respondents. The results showed that neither...

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