This is a practice-based research thesis situated in the research context of the 'Internet of Things', and critiques contemporary theoretical discourse related to the 21st century turn of connecting everyday objects to the World Wide Web. In the last decade we have seen the 'Internet of Things' articulated predominately through three commercial design fictions, each a response to the shift towards pervasive", "ubiquitous" (Weiser 1991), or "context-ware" (Schilit, 1994) computing; where we inhabit spaces with objects capable of sensing, recording and relaying data about themselves and their environments. Through reflecting upon these existing design fictions, through a new combination of theories and practice-based research that embodies them, this thesis proposes a recovery to understanding the role of objects in the 'Internet of Things', which this author believes has been lost since its conception in the mid 2000s. In 2000, HP Labs presented Cooltown, which addressed what HP identified as the 'convergence of Web technology, wireless networks, and portable client devices provides'. Cooltown's primary discourse was to provide 'new design opportunities for computer/communications systems, through an infrastructure to support "web presence" for people, places and things.' (Anders 1998; Barton & Kindberg 2002). IBM's Smarter Planet followed this in 2008 and shifted importance from the act of connecting objects to understanding the value of data as it flows between these objects in a network (Castells 1996; Sterling 2005; Latour 2005). Finally, Cisco presented The Internet of Everything in 2012 and moved the argument on one stage further, identifying that the importance of connected objects lies in the sum of their communication across silos of networks, where data can provide potential insight from which you can improve services (Bleecker 2006). Despite these design and theoretical fictions, the affordances of the Internet of Things first proposed in the mid 2000s has regressed from data to product, driven largely by unchanged discourse argued by those designers at its conception and also the enticement of being the next Google acquisition; instead of pigeons reporting on the environmental conditions of a city (Da Costa 2006), we have thermostats controllable from your smartphone (www.scottishpower.co.uk/connect). Therefore the aim of this thesis is to re-examine the initial potential of the Internet of Things, which is tested through a series of design interventions as research for art and design, (produced as part of my EPSRC funded doctoral studies on the Tales of Things and Electronic Memory research project and also whilst employed as a research assistant on two EPSRC funded research programmes of work Sixth Sense Transport, and The Connected High Street), to understand how we use data to allow an alternative discourse to emerge in order to recover the role of a networked object, rather than producing prototypical systems.

Based on amber artifacts from excavated sites as well as museums and private collections, this thesis focuses on the art of amber in the Liao Dynasty, and though comparing with the use of amber in ancient Europe and other periods in China to reveal the significance of amber in the Liao Dynasty founded by the Qidan, a semi-nomadic people who lived in China's northeast. Through the comparative study of materials, techniques, usage, decorative themes, cultural and artistic meanings, this thesis concludes that: (1) amber artifacts in China flourished during the Liao Dynasty (907--1125A.D.), although there is no textual evidence on record; (2) amber artifacts from Liao tombs and Buddhist pagodas are comparable to other material arts in terms of quality, quantity and artistry; (3) the Qidans, founders of the Liao dynasty, used amber widely as personal ornaments, religious items, and funeral objects; (4) like jade, gold and silver, amber was a symbol of rank and power; it was also used by the Qidan elite to emphasize their ethnic identity. This phenomenon is unique and unprecedented in Chinese history; nothing like it came before or after. Qidan amber has greater political and cultural meaning than jade, gold and silver; (5) Baltic amber is the likely source of Qidan amber, finding its way from Baltic to Qidan territory through "the fur route" across Southern Siberian and "the silk route" across Central Asia, with Uyghur merchants playing important roles as intermediaries. / 許晓東. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. 165-183). / Adviser: Jenny F. So. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0006. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. 165-183). / Xu Xiaodong.

Pagal iškeltus reikalavimus suprojektuojama šviečiančių dekoratyvinių objektų kompozicija. Atsižvelgiant į potencialius vartotojus ir jų lūkesčius, projekte sprendžiama reikalingumo, funkcionalumo ir erdvės apšvietimo problema. Kuriami objektai numatomi ilgalaikiam naudojimui. Susidedantys iš tvirtų ir atsparių medžiagų. Kompozicija projektuojama kaip meninis objektas. Kuri tampa kultūrine miesto erdvės dalimi. Suprojektuoti objektai sukuria poilsio zonas aplink kompoziciją. Projektuojant objektus buvo siekiama išlaikyti bendrą kompozicijos sukuriamą vaizdą, naudojantis ekonomiškomis ir ilgaamžėmis medžiagomis. Tai buvo pasiekta naudojant poliruotas nerūdijančio plieno plokštes, bei epoksidine derva impregnuotas jūrinės faneros plokštes. Tamsiuoju paros metu pro plieno plokštėse išpjautus ornamentus sklindanti šviesa, sukuria kitokį emocinį krūvį ir vizualią išraišką kompozicijai. / According requirements imposed Project of Illuminated objects in the city is designed. In view of the potential users and their expectations, the project addressed the need, functionality and space lighting problem. Objects are designed for long-term use. Consisting of a strong and resistant materials. Composition is designed as an art object. Which becomes a cultural part of the city space. Designed objects creates rest zones around the composition. The design of the objects sought to keep the overall composition of the output image, using economical and long-term materials. This has been achieved by using decorated stainless steel plates and impregnated plywood. During the night through the ornament cutouts in steel plates illumination creates different emotional tension.

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incongruent ilk is a thesis exhibition of formally and conceptually linked situations that by their distilled nature initiate deeper contemplation of topics that are often just examined superficially. For my thesis exhibition I set out to produce curated arrangements of objects and materials because I believe something important is revealed about ourselves when we engage with common and banal objects in the material world. The exchange between the human experience and the unique nature of specific objects can connect us to each other by highlighting shared, yet subjectively interpreted experiences. The linear connections in this body of work give way to incongruent and contradictory contexts. incongruent ilk has undertones and overtones of leisure, travel, and warning that are delivered by humor, subversion, and the formal arrangements of materials. There is an intersection between objects and images that drips with subjective judgment; this subjectivity is crucial to incongruent ilk. The audience excavates the depth of potential metaphor, analogy, or concept naturally and artificially existing in the work by how deeply they are willing to consider what is presented visually.

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