No description available.

Outcomes of innovative designing are frequently described as enabling us in achieving more desirable futures. How can we design and innovate so as to enable future processes of design and innovation? To investigate this question, this thesis probes the conditions, possibilities and limitations of toolmaking for novelty and knowledge generation, or in other words, it examines designing for designing. The focus of this thesis is on the development of digital design tools that support the reconciliation of conflicting criteria centred on architectural geometry. Of particular interest are the roles of methodological approaches and of biological analogies as guides in toolmaking for design, as well as the possibility of generalising design tools beyond the contexts from which they originate. The presented investigation consists of an applied toolmaking study and a subsequent reflective analysis using second- order cybernetics as a theoretical framework. Observations made during the toolmaking study suggest that biological analogies can, in informal ways, inspire designing, including the designing of design tools. Design tools seem to enable the generation of novelty and knowledge beyond the contexts in and for which they are developed only if their users apply them in ways unanticipated by the toolmaker. Abstract The reflective analysis offers theoretical explanations for these observations based on aspects of second-order cybernetics. These aspects include the modelling of designing as a conversation, different relationships between observers (such as designers) and systems (such as designers engaged in their projects), the distinction between coded and uncoded knowledge, as well as processes underlying the production and the restriction of meaning. Initially aimed at the development of generally applicable, prescriptive digital tools for designing, the presented work results in a personal descriptive model of novelty and knowledge generation in science and design. This shift indicates a perspective change from a positivist to a relativist outlook on designing, which was accomplished over the course of the study. Investigating theory and practice of designing and of science, this study establishes an epistemological model of designing that accommodates and extends a number of theoretical concepts others have previously proposed. According to this model, both design and science generate and encode new knowledge through conversational processes, in which open-minded perception appears to be of greater innovative power than efforts to exercise control. The presented work substantiates and exemplifies radical constructivist theory of knowledge and novelty production, establishes correspondences between systems theory and design research theory and implies that mainstream scientific theories and practices are insufficient to account for and to guide innovation. Keywords (separated by commas) Digital design tools, geometry rationalisation, second-order cybernetics, knowledge generation

The birth of a child is a life-changing event in a woman's life. However, women's subjective experiences of giving birth have not been extensively researched, while the literature reflects an inherent realist approach. This has resulted in a decontextualised account of this critical event in women's lives. This conceptual study discusses the body of knowledge on the birthing experience from a widened perspective that includes not only the birthing woman, but also the people she interacts with and the context in which birth is embedded. The study comments on the way birth is managed in technological society and how its inherent Newtonian epistemology impacts on a woman's experience of birth. Ecosystemic epistemology is presented as an alternative approach which provides an holistic understanding of this experience. A reconceptualisation is proposed which acknowledges the social construction of birth. Lastly, the alternative birth movement as a more holistic approach to birth is discussed

An overview of the existing body of knowledge on the most widely researched areas of childhood leukaemia was presented and it was argued that a conceptual shift is required to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the problem. This conceptual shift encompassed an ecosystemic approach. This study was conducted within a holistic systemic epistemology. A qualitative approach employing a case study method to provide rich descriptions of the context in which two leukaemia sufferer's symptoms were embedded. / Psychology / M.A. (Psyhcoloy)

Clinical Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This thesis constitutes a narrative description of the evolution of my therapeutic self during my training as a clinical psychologist. During the telling of this story, I review the ways in which I was perturbed by the mix between the various theories and the various contexts visited during the years of my post-graduate training. I have described and critically compared my responses to the following models: psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, first-order cybernetic, and secondorder cybernetic (covering the first, second and third movements). Throughout, I have attempted to track the development of a congruent, personal therapeutic self while simultaneously assuming that this self is constantly coming-into-being. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study sets out to report on the reflections of a therapist-in-[post-graduate] training on his experiences when endeavouring to shift from [between] a positivistic to [and] a constructivistic paradigm. Reflections on some experiences associated with the positivistic epistemology that were relinquished were described; reflections on experiences associated with the constructivistic epistemology that were gained were described as well as reflections on experiences of both paradigms, that were added. These reflections were based on research data acquired during the researcher's first year of post-graduate training and exposure to the "new" constructivistic paradigm. Transcriptions from audio-taped sessions with a client from the researchers private practice, during this period served as the research data for this study. A literature study attempting to distinguish between the positivistic and constructivistic paradigms is presented. Arising out of this, the implications of a paradigm shift of this nature, is outlined. / Health Studies / M.A. (Mental Health)

Os processos de produção de arte eletrônica contemporânea (pós-anos 1990) são discutidos sob a ótica da cibernética de segunda ordem, cujos princípios consideram o observador durante a observação dos sistemas, analisando como circular a relação entre observador e observado. A metodologia empregada baseia-se na Teoria Fundamentada nos Dados, cujo argumento emerge do entrecruzamento do arcabouço teórico sobre o assunto com as informações coletadas através de observações, conversas e entrevistas. A análise se desenvolve em três capítulos, todos atravessados pela exploração das relações entre acidente e controle no campo da arte eletrônica. No primeiro capítulo levamos em consideração os aspectos conceituais e estruturais da produção artística em questão. No segundo, exploramos as relações que se tecem entre agentes criativos durante o processo, observando tal produção enquanto sistema social pautado em conversações. No terceiro, vislumbramos a experiência criativa coletiva enquanto possibilidade de construção de espaços de conhecimento, e arriscamos uma auto-crítica sobre o que apreendemos sobre o processo de produção da arte eletrônica. Nossas considerações finais trazem nossa apreensão para as relações entre a arte eletrônica e a arquitetura, apontado para o caráter utópico de nossos argumentos. / The production processes on contemporary media art (post-1990\'s) are discussed through the second order cybernetics perspective, whose principles study the observer and observed as a circular motion. The research methodology is based on the Grounded Theory. The argument emerges by blending together the theoretical framework on the subject with the information collected through observations, conversations and interviews. The analysis is developed in three chapters, all interrelated exploring the relationships between accident and control in the media art field. In the first chapter the conceptual structure of this artistic production is analyzed. In the second chapter, we explore the relationships that emerge between creative agents during the process, observing such production as a social system being ruled by conversation. In the third chapter, picturing the collective creative experience as means to the construction of knowledge spaces, we apply to the architectural field what we learned about the production process of media art. Our final conclusions bring our perception to the relations between media art and architecture leading to the utopian character of our arguments.

No description available.

An overview of the existing body of knowledge on the most widely researched areas of childhood leukaemia was presented and it was argued that a conceptual shift is required to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the problem. This conceptual shift encompassed an ecosystemic approach. This study was conducted within a holistic systemic epistemology. A qualitative approach employing a case study method to provide rich descriptions of the context in which two leukaemia sufferer's symptoms were embedded. / Psychology / M.A. (Psyhcoloy)