When we begin to investigate the persistence of objects through time, we find immediately that the sort of concerns embodied in Leibniz's Law cause philosophers to divide themselves into the two major camps of Purdurantists and Endurantists. What is required according to each for a given object at a given time to be identified with a given object at another time is held to be dramatically different, even while both often look to the same general sort of indicators for their answers to identity questions: identity or similarity of physical properties, including relational properties like spatial location. I believe, however, that logically prior to the problem of the persistence of objects through time will be questions regarding the composition of objects--we must have coherent notions of what an object is, what it means for parts to compose an object, and what is required for an object to be considered to exist at a single time before we can discuss the continued existence of objects at other times. I believe that posing the problem of temporal gaps for both the Perdurantist and Endurantist to solve can help us uncover reasonable answers to these more basic questions, and thereby help us judge the comparative coherence of the parent theories. Towards this goal, we investigate here some of the assumptions of persistence theories--that Perdurantists are four-dimensionalists and Endurantists are Presentists, for example--before moving on to find reasonable explanations of the composition of objects from within each theory. Important at this stage is clarifying such concepts as parthood and the present. When we at length turn our attention to the problem of gaps, it becomes useful to distinguish two sorts of gaps, each with their own difficulties: a 'gap' as a length of time during which the proper parts of an object are scattered through space, and a 'gap' as a length of time during which the proper parts of an object do not exist in space at all. My contention here is that Perdurantism, paired with four-dimensional spacetime, provides the most coherent answers to the challenges presented throughout.

This exegesis is an exploration of issues involved in making an exhibition -The Gay Museum (2003) -at the Western Australian Museum. Inspired by the work of artist Joseph Kosuth at the Brooklyn Museum (1990) and curator Peter Emmett at the Museum of Sydney (1994), this project attempts to explore and extend the role of artists as curators in contemporary museums. The project also shows that by re- interpreting objects in museum collections artists can actively challenge and support museums in a period of change and that collaboration between artists and museums as 'makers of meaning' can open up new possibilities for both. The curatorial vision for the exhibition therefore included strategies from contemporary museums - a multi-disciplinary approach and the use of non-linear narrative - and strategies from the contemporary art world -those that explore an aesthetic approach to objects and installation. Research for the project was determined by the expectations, unique histories and political choices that shaped and connected three 'communities' - Jo Darbyshire from the visual arts community, the Western Australian Museum community and the gay and lesbian community of Western Australia. As The Gay Museum project shows, the collaboration between artists and museums can contribute to museums being sites that vibrantly reflect contemporary cultural changes.

Throughout history, people have made or acquired vessels from which to sip their favourite beverage. In the contemporary domestic setting, households frequently accumulate multiples of the same type of object in numbers that are considerably greater than is necessary and practical for use alone. Of these many objects there are often individual pieces that have special significance for the owner or user. Some are so valued that they may even be removed and set aside because of their perceived importance. The research was initiated by a previous study of tea drinking vessels coupled with a desire, as an object maker and collector, to find out why people have special items that they designate as personally important. The aim was to identify how significance could be recognised in specific objects and whether the notion that a group of features used to gauge such objects could be conveyed into studio based work. The research outcomes are evidenced in a text-based document (which articulates the theoretical and empirical elements of the enquiry) and a body of creative studio work developed in response to aspects of the investigation. The document encompasses two components of the study. The first references material from the fields of museum and cultural studies, pivotal in focusing the enquiry. This contributed to the compilation of a general and speculative inventory of qualities that might pertain to objects deemed ???significant???. During these early investigations it became evident that a more in depth and contemporary analysis of significant drinking vessels, their owners and/or users was required. A Survey Questionnaire regarding personal use and special drinking vessels preceded a series of Interviews with a selected group of Australia curators, artists, academics and collectors who discussed and analysed their association with a personally significant drinking vessel. Subsequently, the content of these interviews became central to the focus of the research and outcomes. The research isolates a number of attributes that are commonly identified in objects that, whatever their condition, are deemed ???significant???. These describe the maker, usage, ownership, association and historical context. The perceived value or worth of the object for its owner, is recognised as a consequence of significance and declares the object as distinctive. This outcome is clearly validated by the interviews. The studio work develops from the fusion of personal narrative that has been enhanced by findings of the research. In particular, it references the cherished object, most especially those pieces that have been retained despite the ravages of time and use. The resulting work was exhibited as Trace Elements ??? Marking Time: Significance, the Vessel and the Domestic at Kudos Gallery, Paddington in April 2004.

This thesis reopens the question of subject/object relations in the works of Gertrude Stein, to argue that the fetishisms theorised by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and later Walter Benjamin and Michael Taussig, and problematised by feminist critics such as Elizabeth Grosz, are central to the structure of those relations. My contribution to Stein scholarship is twofold, and is reflected in the division of my thesis into Part One and Part Two. Part One of this thesis establishes a model for reading the interconnections between subjects and objects in Stein???s work; it identifies a tension between two related yet different structures. The first is a fetishistic relation of subjects to objects, associated by Stein with materiality and nineteenth-century Europe, and the identity categories of the ???genius??? and the ???collector???. The second is a ???new??? figuration of late modernity in which the processual and tacility are central. This latter is associated by Stein with America and the twentieth century, and was a structure that she, along with other modernist artists, was developing. Further, Part One shows how these competing structures of subject/object relations hinge on Stein???s problematic formulations of self, nation, and artistic production. Part Two uses the model established in Part One to examine the detailed playing-out of the tensions and dilemmas of subject/object relations within several major Stein texts. First considered is the category of the object as it is constructed in Tender Buttons, and second the category of the subject as it is represented in the nexus of those competing structures in The Making of Americans and ???Melanctha???. The readings of Part Two engage with the major strands of Stein criticism of materiality, sexuality, and language in Tender Buttons, Stein???s famous study of objects. The critical areas engaged with in her biggest and most controversial texts respectively ??? The Making of Americans and ???Melanctha??? ??? include typology, ???genius???, and Stein???s methodologies of writing such as repetition/iteration, intersubjectivity, and ???daily living???. This thesis contends that the dilemma of subject/object relations identified and examined in detail is never resolved, indeed, its ongoing reverberations are productive up until and including her final work.

<p>In V.S. Naipaul’s novel <em>A House for Mr. Biswas </em>furniture and possessions are consistently present and their path can be clearly traced, but they are rarely brought to the fore as the central image in the unfolding events of the novel. To borrow a metaphor from movies: the furniture is not the leading actor; the house is. The furniture has a supporting role in the story. This essay explores how the furniture and other possessions in <em>A House for Mr. Biswas </em>underline and illustrate various aspects and themes of the novel from the perspective of what the things in themselves project, what their role is and what they say about the character of Mr. Biswas and his life’s trajectory in the overall colonial context.</p>

In V.S. Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr. Biswas furniture and possessions are consistently present and their path can be clearly traced, but they are rarely brought to the fore as the central image in the unfolding events of the novel. To borrow a metaphor from movies: the furniture is not the leading actor; the house is. The furniture has a supporting role in the story. This essay explores how the furniture and other possessions in A House for Mr. Biswas underline and illustrate various aspects and themes of the novel from the perspective of what the things in themselves project, what their role is and what they say about the character of Mr. Biswas and his life’s trajectory in the overall colonial context.

A current popular paradigm in e-learning is that of the "learning object". Broadly de-fined, a learning object is a reusable piece of educational material intended to be strung together with other learning objects to form larger educational units such as activities, lessons, or whole courses. This aggregating of learning objects together is a recursive process small objects can be combined to form medium sized objects, medium sized objects can be combined to form large objects, and so on. Once objects have been com-bined appropriately, they are generally serialized into content packages, and deployed into an online course for delivery to learners.<p>Learning objects are often stored in distributed and decentralized repositories throughout the Internet. This provides unique challenges when managing the history of such an ob-ject, as traditional versioning techniques (e.g. CVS, RCS, etc.) rely on centralized man-agement. These challenges have been largely ignored by the educational technology community, but are becoming more important as sharing of learning objects increases.<p>This thesis explores these issues by providing a formal version model for learning ob-jects, a set of data bindings for this model, and a prototype authoring environment which implements these bindings. In addition, the work explores the potential benefits of ver-sion control by implementing a visualization of a learning object revision tree. This visualization includes the relationship between objects and their aggregates, the struc-tural history of an object, and the semantic changes that an object has undergone.

A current popular paradigm in e-learning is that of the "learning object". Broadly de-fined, a learning object is a reusable piece of educational material intended to be strung together with other learning objects to form larger educational units such as activities, lessons, or whole courses. This aggregating of learning objects together is a recursive process small objects can be combined to form medium sized objects, medium sized objects can be combined to form large objects, and so on. Once objects have been com-bined appropriately, they are generally serialized into content packages, and deployed into an online course for delivery to learners.<p>Learning objects are often stored in distributed and decentralized repositories throughout the Internet. This provides unique challenges when managing the history of such an ob-ject, as traditional versioning techniques (e.g. CVS, RCS, etc.) rely on centralized man-agement. These challenges have been largely ignored by the educational technology community, but are becoming more important as sharing of learning objects increases.<p>This thesis explores these issues by providing a formal version model for learning ob-jects, a set of data bindings for this model, and a prototype authoring environment which implements these bindings. In addition, the work explores the potential benefits of ver-sion control by implementing a visualization of a learning object revision tree. This visualization includes the relationship between objects and their aggregates, the struc-tural history of an object, and the semantic changes that an object has undergone.

Current orbital solutions for 99942 Apophis predict a close approach to the Earth in April 2029. The parameters of that approach affect the future trajectory of Apophis, potentially leading to an impact in 2036, 2056, 2068, etc. The dynamic model used for this prediction does not account for non-gravitational perturbations including solar pressure and the Yarkovsky effect. Estimates of the displacement due to these perturbations range from -1500 to 1500km by 2029, comparable to 7? uncertainty in orbital solution. Uncertainties in physical characteristics stem from a lack of direct observations and a shortage of empirical data on similar objects. These perturbations, which stem from interactions with solar radiation, are directly related to the albedo of Apophis? surface. By modifying the average albedo of Apophis by 0.5%, between 4 and 15m of displacement can be effected between 2023 and 2029, rendering this method capable of avoiding all near-nominal solution keyholes. This modification is obtained by the deposition of electrostatically charged particles. These particles are charged via tribo-electrification and cure on the surface of Apophis creating a 30 micron thick layer of material with desired properties. This study found that a change in average albedo would nominally require 160kg of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to increase by 0.5% or 290kg of PTFE to decrease by 0.5%. The Apophis Exploration and Mitigation mission concept both improves accuracy of nongravitational perturbation models and delivers the albedo modification mechanism to Apophis, launching in 2021 and modifying albedo in 2023.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-66).