This thesis explores physical and social aspects of playing tabletop games physically versus remotely. It also examines the experiences of contemporary players of tabletop games, with focus placed on play during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report begins with an explanation of tabletop games, including social and material aspects as examined in previous work. To explore the thesis’ problem area, several tabletop game players were interviewed, resulting in a number of recurring themes. The interview results suggest that social rituals and material aspects of tabletop games are highly important to players. This has implications for the future of tabletop games, many of which are discussed in the text.

[ES] La pintura abstracta de tipo matérico se manifestó en Puerto Rico para la década de 1950 siguiendo en sus inicios los signos del arte estadounidense y europeos. Esta incorpora cantidades significativas de materiales pictóricos y/o extrapictóricos sobre el soporte. El estilo abstracto en Puerto Rico fue politizado por un grupo de artistas que entendieron que era un arte integrista de la cultura estadounidense y primaron la figuración como el estilo idóneo para afirmar la identidad cultural puertorriqueña. Este conflicto surgió en el contexto de la aprobación de la constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico en 1952 como fórmula de gobierno bajo los poderes plenos del Congreso de los Estados Unidos. El arte abstracto proliferó al margen del gobierno que auspiciaba a través del arte y la cultura el desarrollo de proyectos que sirvieron para forjar la idiosincrasia cultural puertorriqueña. Por una parte, analizamos la construcción de varios símbolos identitarios bajo el concepto de imágenes ardientes de Didi-Huberman para intentar explicar cómo la imagen figurativa se podría fijar en la memoria colectiva. Por otra parte, proponemos un análisis del fenómeno opuesto a la imagen, la abstracción matérica tomando en consideración la Teoría de la proyección sentimental de Theodoro Lipps esbozada por Wilheim Worringer. Esta argumenta que una de las posibles razones para que surja el "afán por la abstracción" proviene de una "intensa inquietud" provocada por las condiciones de vida adversas. Según Worringer, lo abstrayente evade representar la realidad por medio de las imágenes. Tomando en cuenta que la abstracción de tipo matérico se fundamenta en la incorporación de cargas de material pictórico o extra-pictóricos sobre el soporte o fuera del mismo, a modo de "derrame" de instalación-ambiente, proponemos que esta no necesariamente elude la realidad, sino que, forma parte de ella por el tipo de relieve que le identifica más con la tridimensionalidad. Consideramos el concepto de la transmodernidad esbozado por el filósofo Enrique Dussel como un acercamiento de análisis descolonizador que fija la atención en el reconocimiento de la producción local frente a las influencias extranjeras y más allá de ellas. En ese contexto que toma en cuenta las influencias euro-estadounidense pero que busca identificar razones locales que expliquen la manifestación de la pintura abstracta, identificamos las obras de tipo matérico más significativas en las colecciones públicas del país a lo largo de las décadas de 1950 al 2020. Finalmente, investigamos dos casos de estudio: los artistas Ivelisse Jiménez y Ángel Otero por ser estos representantes actuales de este tipo de arte con trayectorias consistentes. El análisis de sus obras nos permitió descubrir cuáles son sus influencias, a qué aluden sus abstracciones, qué tipo de evasión y regreso a la realidad, según Worringer y otras escuelas, plantean sus producciones artísticas y cuál es la aportación de la pintura abstracta de tipo matérico al conocimiento del arte en Puerto Rico. / [CA] La pintura abstracta de tipus matèric es va manifestar a Puerto Rico en la dècada del 1950, tot seguint inicialment els signes de l'art estatunidenc i europeu. Aquest tipus de pintura incorpora damunt del suport quantitats significatives de materials pictòrics i/o extrapictòrics. L'estil abstracte el va polititzar a Puerto Rico un grup d'artistes que el considerava com una part integral de la cultura estatunidenca, i per tant primà la figuració, que veia com l'estil idoni per a afirmar la identitat cultural porto-riquenya. Aquest conflicte va sorgir en el context de l'aprovació de la constitució de l'Estat Lliure Associat de Puerto Rico l'any 1952, com a fórmula de govern sota els poders plens del Congrés dels Estats Units. L'art abstracte va proliferar al marge del govern, que afavoria a través de l'art i la cultura el desenvolupament de projectes que serviren per a forjar la idiosincràsia cultural porto-riquenya. D'una banda, analitzem la construcció de diversos símbols identitaris sota el concepte d'imatges ardents de Didi-Huberman, tot mirant d'explicar com la imatge figurativa es podria fixar en la memòria col·lectiva. D'altra banda, proposem una anàlisi del fenomen oposat a aquesta imatge: l'abstracció matèrica. I ho fem tot prenent en consideració la teoria de la projecció sentimental de Theodoro Lipps, esbossada per Wilheim Worringer, teoria que argumenta que una de les possibles raons perquè sorgisca l'"afany per l'abstracció" prové d'una "intensa inquietud" provocada per les condicions de vida adverses. Segons Worringer, l'abstraent evadeix representar la realitat per mitjà de les imatges. Tenint en compte que l'abstracció de tipus matèric es fonamenta en la incorporació de càrregues de material pictòric o extrapictòric damunt del suport -o bé fora del suport, a manera de vessament d'instal·lació ambient- proposem que aquesta abstracció no necessàriament eludeix la realitat, sinó que en forma part pel tipus de relleu, que la identifica més amb la tridimensionalitat. Considerem el concepte de la transmodernitat, esbossat pel filòsof Enrique Dussel com una aproximació d'anàlisi descolonitzadora que fixa l'atenció en el reconeixement de la producció local, enfront i més enllà de les influències estrangeres. En aquest context, que té en compte les influències europees i estatunidenques, però que cerca identificar raons locals que expliquen la manifestació de la pintura abstracta, identifiquem les obres de tipus matèric més significatives de les col·leccions públiques del país al llarg de les dècades que van del 1950 al 2020. Finalment, investiguem dos casos d'estudi: els artistes Ivelisse Jiménez i Ángel Otero, que són representants actuals d'aquest tipus d'art amb trajectòries consistents. L'anàlisi de les seues obres ens ha permès descobrir quines són les seues influències, a què al·ludeixen les seues abstraccions, quin tipus d'evasió i retorn a la realitat, segons Worringer i altres escoles, plantegen les seues produccions artístiques, i quina és l'aportació de la pintura abstracta de tipus matèric al coneixement de l'art a Puerto Rico. / [EN] Abstract matter painting surge in the 1950s, following in its beginnings the signs of American and European art. It incorporates significant amounts of pictorial and/or all kind of materials on the support. The abstract style in Puerto Rico was politicized by a group of artists who understood it to be representative of the American culture and realistic art prevailed as the ideal style to affirm the Puerto Rican cultural identity. This conflict arose in the context of the approval of the constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952 as a form of government under the full powers of the United States Congress. Abstract art proliferated outside the government that sponsored through art and culture the development of projects that served to forge the Puerto Rican cultural idiosyncrasy. On the one hand, we analyze the construction of various identity symbols under Didi-Huberman's concept of burning images; to try to explain how the figurative image could be fixed in the collective memory. On the other hand, we propose an analysis of the phenomenon opposed to the image, the material abstraction, taking into consideration Theodore Lipps' Theory of Sentimental Projection outlined by Wilheim Worringer. This argues that one of the possible reasons for the surge of the "desire for abstraction" comes from an "intense concern" caused by adverse living conditions. According to Worringer, the abstractions evades representing reality through images. Considering that abstract matter painting is based on the incorporation of loads of material on the support, or outside of it, as an installation-environment "spill", we propose that it does not necessarily elude reality, but is part of it due to the type of relief that identify more with tridimensionality. We consider the concept of transmodernity outlined by the philosopher Enrique Dussel as an approach to decolonizing analysis that focuses on the recognition of local production in the face of foreign influences and beyond. In this context that considers Euro-American influences but seeks to identify local reasons that explain the manifestation of abstract painting, we identify the most significant materic abstract paintings in the country's public collections throughout the 1950s to 2020. Finally, we investigate two case studies: the artists Ivelisse Jiménez and Ángel Otero for being these current representatives of this type of art with consistent trajectories. The analysis of his works allowed us to discover which are their influences, what they allude, what kind of evation and return to reality according to Worringer and other schools their work propose and what is the contribution of abstract matter painting to the knowledge of art in Puerto Rico. / Cruz Corchado, R. (2022). La pintura abstracta matérica en Puerto Rico 1950-2020 [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/181338 / TESIS

Orientador: Roberto Nardi / Resumo: Esta pesquisa desenvolveu-se na correlação entre escola e universidade, no âmbito da formação inicial de professores de Matemática de uma universidade pública, cujo referencial teórico-metodológico utilizado foi a Perspectiva Histórico-Cultural, particularmente, a Teoria da Atividade de Leontiev e os pressupostos do Materialismo Histórico-Dialético. Objetivou-se investigar o movimento de constituição da atividade de ensino, no contexto da Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA), desenvolvido no processo de formação inicial de professores de Matemática, por meio do Estágio Curricular Supervisionado (ECS). Percebemos que compreender a formação de professores em suas diferentes particularidades faz-se necessário, considerando a função social do seu trabalho, enquanto agente da práxis transformadora. Diante desta necessidade, apresenta-se a seguinte questão: Quais aprendizagens teórico-práticas, da formação inicial de professores de Matemática, desenvolvidas no ECS, contribuem para a constituição do ser professor para a EJA? A obtenção dos dados empíricos ocorreu por meio de questionário aberto, observação participante, diário de campo, produções dos participantes ao longo do desenvolvimento do estágio e gravações em vídeo das intervenções, regências de estágio e dos momentos de reflexões sobre estas ações. Em consonância ao método Materialista Histórico-Dialético buscou-se a apreensão do objeto de pesquisa em seu movimento lógico-histórico, embasado no conceito de unidades de análise... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research was developed in the correlation between school and university, in the scope of the initial training of Mathematics teachers of a public university. The theoretical-methodological framework used was the Historical-Cultural Perspective, in particular, Leontiev’s Activity Theory and the assumptions of Historical-Dialectical Materialism. The aim was to investigate the movement of constitution of the teaching activity, in the context of Youth-and-Adult Education (EJA), developed in the process of Mathematics teachers initial training, through Supervised Internship (ECS). We realized that comprising teachers’ training in their different peculiarities is necessary, considering the social function of their work, as agents of transformative praxis. Because of this need, the following question arises: What theoretical-practical learning from mathematics teachers’ the initial training, developed during the ECS, contributes to the constitution of being a teacher at EJA? Empirical data were obtained through an open questionnaire, participant observation, field diary, participant productions during the internship and video recordings of the interventions, teaching and moments of reflection on these actions. In line with the Historical-Dialectical Materialist method, we sought to perceive the object of this research in its logical-historical movement, based on the concept of units of analysis proposed by Vigotski. Two units emerged from the data: particularities of the senses... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The study of the phenomenon of religion is a field that has many challenges regarding what its object of study is and how to observe and interpret the different religious phenomenon in a way that reflects both its origin and how its practiced. The study is carried out through a philosophical approach. In this essay Lua Nazerian intends to address the four different theoretical perspectives: Critical Religion Theory, Cognitive Sciences of Religion, Positive Psychology and Platonic Idealism. The two former ones are well established theoretical frameworks in the study of religion, while the two latter ones are lend from the field of psychology and philosophy to test whether they could be used as analytical tools in the study of religion. Moreover the perspectives different view on the human nature in particular are further examined through the lens of the subcategories: Materialism, Conceptualism and Realism. Furthermore, by adding the two subcategories of 1) a virtuous life 2) transcendence, the essay examines whether the perspectives touches on these topics which seems to be central concepts in the majority of religious doctrine. Finally, some possible conclusions of the perspectives inherent premises impacting the understanding of religion are carefully examined and presented. Suggested further studies to be done cross-disciplines, such as religious studies, positive psychology and philosophy. Also by a combination of descriptive and prescriptive approach within religious studies.

Our impact on the planet's functioning has allegedly become so profound that during the last years the scientific community has been considering assuming a shift from the Holocene - our current geological epoch - to the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. According to philosopher Bernard Stiegler, this "era of Humans" is not only visible in the devastation of natural ecosystems, but also through the destruction of human skills and methods of transmitting knowledge. The Anthropocene, which was initiated by the industrial revolution, thus passed through the industrialization of culture, and has disrupted our understanding of the world. Philosopher Rosi Braidotti proposes that with the advent of this new era, we ought to be aware of not only the ever-present environmental catastrophes, but that we also ought to use it as a tool for reappraising what it means to be Human. According to her, the Western subject was created as a product of the Humanist cultural hegemony which defined it within a logic of binary opposition. In light of these ideas, this Master's thesis attempts to show that art can provide us methods for redefining our relationship to each other, as well as to the wider world, and help us navigate the contours of the ongoing crisis. The work uses Posthumanist thought and its affiliated...

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This dissertation examines the role of material in six selected zines from subcultural, artistic and activist circles. The work deals with printed micro media with a small reach and is based on the concepts of alternative media, gives a brief overview of theoretical perspectives on zines from subcultural studies, through fan studies and participatory culture. The thesis is critical of the concepts and calls for the enrichment of existing perspectives, mostly consolidated in old (post- marxist) materialism: specifically, for a reflection on post-digital culture and new materialism, which allows us to reconsider the role of material in the production and distribution of zines. The case study combines personal interviews and content analysis with an emphasis on material and ethnography of the spaces where zines are formed and transmitted. Based on Bourdieu's field theory, the study conceptualises the zine scene as a field of zine production and seeks to radically contextualise the traffic between bodies, spaces, paper and other materials, machines, and finally capital (economic and subcultural). The theoretical apparatus allows to examine the changing role of zines in the post-digital age when information shifts from sowers to platforms of emotion and touch. The main argument of the thesis is that...

To write is, in a certain sense, to experience the immaterial thoughts of one’s mind materialize in the becoming of scripture. Nevertheless, since early modernism, the writing of poetry has rarely been perceived as an unmediated transition of language, from the interior of the self to the material surface of writing. Indeed, the tendency of modernist and subsequent postmodernist aesthetics to emphasize the density, opacity and autonomy of the poem, for example through various techniques of fragmentation, draws attention to the ways in which the materiality of writing is implicated in the production of meaning. The present thesis is a study of how meaning and materiality interrelate in two poetry collections, Skäran (2001) and Täthetsteoremet (2012), by the contemporary Swedish poet Helena Eriksson. The aim is to show that these relationships are important effects of the metapoetic discourse in Eriksson’s poetry, and how they produce a certain tension or ambiguity in the writing subject's relation to body and language, self and other. Through a reading of the diverse representation of the hand in Eriksson’s poetry as a metapoetic motif, the analysis combines a phenomenological view of embodied subjectivity, with a media theoretical conception of the writing hand, as well as a new materialist approach to agency and embodiment. The method of analysis that follows from these perspectives is a close, reparative reading, where the poetic text is seen as a situational discursive act that reaches out to the reader in a communicative gesture, offering its own body as meaning.

Making Sense of Things is a piece composed through consideration of the relationship between music, meaning, and materiality. The piece, written for voice, flute, percussion, and live electronics, explores topics of the "sensible" and "nonsensical" in music, moving through a variety of sonic episodes that feature different notational approaches, electronic textures, technical instrumental practice, and theatrical elements in order to explore a variety of expressive possibilities while unified around the central musical ideas of scratching sounds and metal bars. The critical essay examines the relationship between the piece and the theoretical writings which inspired it. Reading through the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I examine the relationship between Making Sense of Things and new materialist discourses, affect theory, and semiotics.

How children create meaning in relation to their physical, social, and cultural worlds can be regarded as a central question, both within the traditional Swedish preschool discourse and within the Reggio Emilia philosophical approach to early childhood educa-tion. In the Reggio Emilia approach, the search for the meaning of life and of the self in life is seen as an essential human necessity (Rinaldi, 2006). In order to be able to capture the search for meaning, pedagogical documentation is recommended as a tool for making children’s learning processes visible and subject to col-lective interpretation and reflection. This documentation is regard-ed as a potential mediator between theory and practice (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 1999/2009). In the collective reflection on documentation, discourses about what can be interpreted as children’s meaning making are ex-pressed and negotiated. In turn, these discourses govern how chil-dren’s communicative expressions and actions are interpreted and understood. The different perspectives drawn upon in teachers’ in-terpretation and understanding of documentation produce differ-ent kinds of knowledge about how meaning is created. This may ultimately impact on the opportunities and spaces offered to chil-dren, both in terms of opportunities to act and communicate and in terms of the available ways “to be” in preschool practice.The aim of this study is to analyse the ways teachers talk about how children create meaning and signification in preschool prac-tice, within the context of working with pedagogical documentation. I use Norman Fairclough’s version of critical discourse analysis to discuss and analyse how teachers talk (realization and materializa-tion of discourse) in relation to social practice and educational policy context (Fairclough 1992; 2003; 2010). This contributes to the research field of early childhood education by providing a crit-ical and theoretical analysis of the transmission of philosophy and theory associated with the Reggio Emilia approach through work-ing with pedagogical documentation in a Swedish preschool set-ting. Fairclough’s analytical approach allows the way teachers talk about documentation to be understood as a dialectical lin-guistic realization of overall philosophical, theoretical, and politi-cal ideas and perspectives.The empirical data includes observations of teachers’ discussions of documentation from one preschool department with a Reggio Emilia approach in a larger municipality in southern Sweden. The empirical material consists of field notes and recorded audio. The ethical principles of the Swedish Research Council were kept in mind during data collection. Written consent was obtained from both the participating teachers and the parents whose children are featured in the documentation discussed. The analysis shows that in talking about how children make meaning in preschool practice, a discursive, and not always coher-ent, polyphony emerges. Ideas and discourses collide, are woven together, and are renegotiated. Three overarching themes emerge, which can be understood as reflecting different aspects of chil-dren's meaning making. The themes consist of talking about chil-dren’s interests, experiences, and meaning making in relation to the physical and social environment, materiality, and body. The children are described in diverse and sometimes contradictory ways. However, there is an evident overarching perception of the children as individually meaning making, interest driven, and with an ability to construct and evaluate their own knowledge and truth through an active, individual, and sensual experience of the world. Furthermore, the children are described as interacting with something more often than with someone. In this specific case, the emerging post-humanist or neo-materialist discourse seems to make the interpersonal interaction invisible. The docu-mentation also becomes a communicative link between teacher and child, which replaces communication and exchange of ideas in the immediacy of the moment.