Magister Artium - MA

The current airline practice is to assign aircraft capacity to scheduled flights well in advance of departure. At such an early stage in this process, the high uncertainty of demand poses a major impediment for airlines to best match the airplane capacities with the final demand. However, the accuracy of the demand forecast improves markedly over time, and revisions to the initial fleet assignment become naturally pertinent when the observed demand considerably differs from the assigned aircraft capacity. The Demand Driven Re-fleeting (DDR) approach proposed in this thesis offers a dynamic re-assignment of aircraft capacity to the flight network, as and when improved demand forecasts become available, so as to maximize the total revenue. Because of the need to preserve the initial crew schedule, this re-assignment approach is limited within a single family of aircraft and to the flights assigned to this particular family. This restriction significantly reduces the problem size. As a result, it becomes computationally tractable to include path level demand information into the DDR model, although the problem size can then get very large because of the numerous combinations of composing paths from legs. As an extension, models considering path-class level differences, day-of-week demand variations, and re-capture effects are also presented. The DDR model for a single family with path level demand considerations is formulated as a mixed-integer programming problem. The model's polyhedral structure is studied to explore ways for tightening its representation and for deriving certain classes of valid inequalities. Various approaches for implementing such reformulation techniques are investigated and tested. The best of these procedures for solving large-scale challenging instances of the problem turns out to be an integrated approach that uses certain selected model augmentations and valid inequalities generated via a suitable separation routine and a partial convex hull construction process. Using this strategy in concert with properly selected CPLEX options reduces the CPU time by an average factor of 7.48 over an initial model for a test-bed of problems each having 200 flights in total. Prompted by this integrated heuristic approach, a procedure for finding solutions within a prescribed limit of optimality is suggested. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these developed methodologies, we also solved two large-scale practical-sized networks that respectively involve 800 and 1060 flights, and 18196 and 33105 paths in total, with 300 and 396 flights belonging to the designated family. These problems were typically solved within 6 hours on a SUN Ultra 1 Workstation having 260 MB RAM and a clock-speed of 167 MHz, with one exception that required 14 hours of CPU time. This level of computational effort is acceptable considering that such models are solved at a planning stage in the decision process. / Master of Science

My drawings contemplate the unfixed nature of my experience. I draw from a state of uncertainty about the relationship between self and space, between a moment of experience and the one that follows it. My process involves intuitive mark-making in which instances of perception are indeterminate and discontinuous. I draw from the experience of unhinged moments, from silence and stillness, and from the indefinable, inarticulable, interstitial moments of perception between those that can be concretely described. The immediacy of drawing, the direct engagement with the mark on the surface, is central to my work. Intuitive mark-making is a way of engaging as directly as possible with the indeterminate nature of my experience. As the drawn marks allude to a once-fleeting present, the layers of marks interact to remind me of the non-linear nature of time and the unfixed nature of experience. The making of the mark punctuates a fragment of experience, dividing it into before and after the mark. The esoteric nature of drawing, the variety of marks engaging on and within the surface, the ethereal traces, the engagement with the space implied by the panel, the discontinuities revealed between adjacent drawings on panel, and the implied experience compressed in the seams between the panels address multiple and unresolveable ways of experiencing a moment in a space.

[pt] Seguindo o encalço da noção benjaminiana de experiência, nos dedicamos a construir uma leitura da obra de Benjamin à crítica da cultura. A partir do encadeamento de seus ensaios apresentamos questões fundamentais no pensamento do filósofo que se fundem com a noção de experiência, tais como a teoria do tempo, o conceito de barbárie e tradição, memória e esquecimento. Intentamos encadear este trabalho seguindo o método indireto de Benjamin, não pretendendo uma construção linear, mas engendrada como uma montagem que segue as semelhanças entre os assuntos, assim buscamos pontos de conexão dentro do pensamento de filósofo. Neste percurso nos lançamos a pensar a crítica da cultura de Benjamin fundamentada pela percepção do tempo, ou seja, pela teoria do tempo que Benjamin constrói a partir das noções de vivência e experiência. / [en] This work aims to expose Walter Benjamin s critique of culture having the concept of experience as it s bases. Thru the interpretation of the philosopher essays, it s needed to deal with the notion of fleeting experience, enduring experience, his theory of time, barbarism, tradition, memory and forgetfulness. Instead of using a linear way to deal with Benjamin s essays, notions and concepts, this work use s Benjamins indirect method, searching for similarities and conective points along his works.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo apresentar a degradação da experiência humana na modernidade a partir do diagnóstico feito por Walter Benjamin. Para tanto, num primeiro momento, parte-se de um rápido percurso da história da filosofia a fim de delinear o conceito de experiência e analisar um dos primeiros textos em que Benjamin trata diretamente do assunto, “Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura”. Num segundo momento, busca-se demonstrar como vai acontecendo a decadência da experiência a partir do ensaio “Experiência e pobreza”, em que Benjamin considera que aos pobres de experiência resta apenas assumir uma nova barbárie. O tema também aparece em “O narrador”, em que o autor demonstra o aniquilamento de uma experiência, outrora sinônimo de sabedoria e autoridade, consolidada por meio de sua transmissão de geração em geração, própria de uma organização coletiva, comunitária, ritualística e artesanal. As formas narrativas correspondentes são sintomáticas deste processo de esfacelamento da experiência: a narração - que vigorava no solo de um tempo onde ainda tinha-se tempo para contar e ouvir histórias - fora substituída pelo romance, caracterizador dos indivíduos isolados e solitários, e este, por sua vez, substituído pela informação jornalística, forma narrativa fragmentada e desconexa. Analisar a questão da experiência (erfahrung) em Walter Benjamin é contrapô-la à noção de vivência (erlebnis). Na esfera da vivência, saturada de eventos e sensações, resta ao ser humano a capacidade de reagir a esses estímulos (reportando à noção de choque em Freud). A memória (e seu correlato – o esquecimento) é imprescindível à experiência, mas perante os choques, o ser humano só armazena suas vivências na camada mais superficial da consciência, impossibilitando recursos para a experiência estética ou poética. Num terceiro momento, procura-se, nesse estudo, fazer um diálogo entre as constatações e os conceitos da filosofia da experiência benjaminianas com algumas imagens literárias, buscando, na literatura, elementos que vicejam a reflexão filosófica. O conto de Jorge Luis Borges - “Funes, o memorioso” - e o trecho de “Cem anos de solidão”, de Gabriel Garcia Marquez, sobre a doença do esquecimento, são preciosos mananciais para esse fim. Por último, problematiza-se a constatação da degradação da experiência na modernidade. Discute-se a possibilidade da realização da experiência, bem como o resgate de seu aniquilamento provocado pelas idiossincrasias da contemporaneidade e, ainda, quais espaços propiciariam este possível resgate. / This thesis presents the degradation of human experience based on Walter Benjamin’s diagnosis of it. In order to do that, firstly a brief overview of the history of philosophy is presented so as to delineate the concept of experience and analyze one of the first texts in which Benjamin directly deals with the subject (“Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura” – “On the Program of the Coming Philosophy”). Secondly, the decadence of experience is demonstrated in the essay “Experiência e pobreza” (“Experience and Poverty”), in which Benjamin considers that the poor of experience are left with only taking on a new barbarism. That theme is also dealt with in “O narrador” (“The Narrator”), in which the author demonstrates the annihilation of an experience once synonymous with wisdom and authority, consolidated through its transmission from generation to generation and proper to a collective, communitarian, ritualistic, and artisanal organization. The corresponding narrative forms are symptomatic of that process of experience ruin: narration, which thrived at a time when one had time to tell and listen to stories, was replaced by the novel, a characterizer of isolated and lonely individuals. The latter, in its turn, was replaced by journalistic information, a fragmented and disconnected narrative form. Analyzing the issue of enduring experience (erfahrung) in Walter Benjamin means opposing it to the notion of fleeting experience/ephemera (erlebnis). In the sphere of fleeting experience/ephemera, saturated with events and sensations, the human being is left with the capacity to react to those stimuli (reminding us of Freud’s notion of shock). Memory (and its correlate – oblivion) is essential to enduring experience, but in the presence of shocks, the human being only stores his fleeting experiences/ephemera on the most superficial layer of consciousness, precluding resources for the aesthetic or poetic experience. At a third moment, this study promotes a dialogue between the realizations and concepts mentioned above and some literary images, searching in literature for elements which cause philosophic reflection to bloom. Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Funes, o memorioso” (“Funes the Memorious”) and the extract from Gabriel García Marquez’s Cem anos de solidão (One Hundred Years of Solitude) about the disease of forgetfulness are precious sources for that end. Lastly, the realization of the experience ruin in modernity is discussed. Is it still possible to have an enduring experience and rescue it from its annihilation caused by the idiosyncrasies of contemporary times? What possible spaces would allow that rescue?

本篇論文主要探討台灣期貨市場於2005年至2008年的快速抽單(Fleeting orders)現象。文章將市場交易者區分為機構法人、散戶、自營商以及外資共四類族群，研究抽單背後的動機是否與各族群中交易者的下單積極程度、追價動作，或是降低成交成本有關。實證結果顯示，機構法人在快速抽單動作上無顯著動機；在散戶部分，僅部分散戶具有能力進行快速抽單，而其主要動機是為了降低交易成本。自營商的進場動機，主要是以造市為考量，因此測試市場上是否存在更激進的交易對手單是快速抽單的原因之一。此外，自營商亦會因要降低成交成本而進行快速抽單的動作。由於外資的主要策略是使用波段操作獲取大額利潤，無顯著證據證明外資進行快速抽單的動機是涵蓋於上述三種假設。 本文亦透過實證分析，探討快速抽單與合約報酬的關係，並以研究觀察有較高的快速抽單率是否會帶來較佳報酬，實證結果顯示各族群皆無顯著正相關，但散戶有顯著負相關。四類族群各自有不同的交易型態，故不能將他們概一而論，本篇論文的貢獻即是透過快速抽單，證明四個交易族群在程式交易上，具有不同的策略方向以及對於市場有不同的熟悉程度。 / This paper focuses on the phenomenon of fleeting orders in Taiwan’s futures markets from 2005 to 2008. Traders who in the markets will be divided into local institutional investors, individual, Dealer, and foreign institutional investors. Our study will find the motivation behind fleeting orders under the three hypotheses: attractive, chasing, and the cost-of-immediacy. The empirical results show that local institutional investors have no significant motivation. Only part of individual investors have the ability to use fleeting orders, and their main motivation is to reduce transaction costs. Dealers act as a market maker, so the main motivation for dealers is to raise liquidity. So to test whether a more aggressive limit orders exists in the market is one of the reasons for them to submit fleeting orders. In addition, dealers will also cancel limit orders in order to reduce the transaction costs. Because the main strategy for foreign institutional investors is to obtain a large profit during a period, they have no significant evidence to explain any motivation under the three assumptions. This article also analysis the relationship between fleeting orders and performance, and investigate whether the high fleeting ratio could bring much better profits. The empirical result show that all of four type investors have no significant positive correlation of fleeting orders and performance, but individual investors have significant negative correlation of fleeting orders and performance. Each of four type investors has different trading patterns, so that we should treat them case by case. The contribution of this paper is to prove that the four type investors have different strategies when they use trading program, and they also have different experience in Taiwan’s futures markets.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo apresentar a degradação da experiência humana na modernidade a partir do diagnóstico feito por Walter Benjamin. Para tanto, num primeiro momento, parte-se de um rápido percurso da história da filosofia a fim de delinear o conceito de experiência e analisar um dos primeiros textos em que Benjamin trata diretamente do assunto, “Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura”. Num segundo momento, busca-se demonstrar como vai acontecendo a decadência da experiência a partir do ensaio “Experiência e pobreza”, em que Benjamin considera que aos pobres de experiência resta apenas assumir uma nova barbárie. O tema também aparece em “O narrador”, em que o autor demonstra o aniquilamento de uma experiência, outrora sinônimo de sabedoria e autoridade, consolidada por meio de sua transmissão de geração em geração, própria de uma organização coletiva, comunitária, ritualística e artesanal. As formas narrativas correspondentes são sintomáticas deste processo de esfacelamento da experiência: a narração - que vigorava no solo de um tempo onde ainda tinha-se tempo para contar e ouvir histórias - fora substituída pelo romance, caracterizador dos indivíduos isolados e solitários, e este, por sua vez, substituído pela informação jornalística, forma narrativa fragmentada e desconexa. Analisar a questão da experiência (erfahrung) em Walter Benjamin é contrapô-la à noção de vivência (erlebnis). Na esfera da vivência, saturada de eventos e sensações, resta ao ser humano a capacidade de reagir a esses estímulos (reportando à noção de choque em Freud). A memória (e seu correlato – o esquecimento) é imprescindível à experiência, mas perante os choques, o ser humano só armazena suas vivências na camada mais superficial da consciência, impossibilitando recursos para a experiência estética ou poética. Num terceiro momento, procura-se, nesse estudo, fazer um diálogo entre as constatações e os conceitos da filosofia da experiência benjaminianas com algumas imagens literárias, buscando, na literatura, elementos que vicejam a reflexão filosófica. O conto de Jorge Luis Borges - “Funes, o memorioso” - e o trecho de “Cem anos de solidão”, de Gabriel Garcia Marquez, sobre a doença do esquecimento, são preciosos mananciais para esse fim. Por último, problematiza-se a constatação da degradação da experiência na modernidade. Discute-se a possibilidade da realização da experiência, bem como o resgate de seu aniquilamento provocado pelas idiossincrasias da contemporaneidade e, ainda, quais espaços propiciariam este possível resgate. / This thesis presents the degradation of human experience based on Walter Benjamin’s diagnosis of it. In order to do that, firstly a brief overview of the history of philosophy is presented so as to delineate the concept of experience and analyze one of the first texts in which Benjamin directly deals with the subject (“Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura” – “On the Program of the Coming Philosophy”). Secondly, the decadence of experience is demonstrated in the essay “Experiência e pobreza” (“Experience and Poverty”), in which Benjamin considers that the poor of experience are left with only taking on a new barbarism. That theme is also dealt with in “O narrador” (“The Narrator”), in which the author demonstrates the annihilation of an experience once synonymous with wisdom and authority, consolidated through its transmission from generation to generation and proper to a collective, communitarian, ritualistic, and artisanal organization. The corresponding narrative forms are symptomatic of that process of experience ruin: narration, which thrived at a time when one had time to tell and listen to stories, was replaced by the novel, a characterizer of isolated and lonely individuals. The latter, in its turn, was replaced by journalistic information, a fragmented and disconnected narrative form. Analyzing the issue of enduring experience (erfahrung) in Walter Benjamin means opposing it to the notion of fleeting experience/ephemera (erlebnis). In the sphere of fleeting experience/ephemera, saturated with events and sensations, the human being is left with the capacity to react to those stimuli (reminding us of Freud’s notion of shock). Memory (and its correlate – oblivion) is essential to enduring experience, but in the presence of shocks, the human being only stores his fleeting experiences/ephemera on the most superficial layer of consciousness, precluding resources for the aesthetic or poetic experience. At a third moment, this study promotes a dialogue between the realizations and concepts mentioned above and some literary images, searching in literature for elements which cause philosophic reflection to bloom. Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Funes, o memorioso” (“Funes the Memorious”) and the extract from Gabriel García Marquez’s Cem anos de solidão (One Hundred Years of Solitude) about the disease of forgetfulness are precious sources for that end. Lastly, the realization of the experience ruin in modernity is discussed. Is it still possible to have an enduring experience and rescue it from its annihilation caused by the idiosyncrasies of contemporary times? What possible spaces would allow that rescue?

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo apresentar a degradação da experiência humana na modernidade a partir do diagnóstico feito por Walter Benjamin. Para tanto, num primeiro momento, parte-se de um rápido percurso da história da filosofia a fim de delinear o conceito de experiência e analisar um dos primeiros textos em que Benjamin trata diretamente do assunto, “Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura”. Num segundo momento, busca-se demonstrar como vai acontecendo a decadência da experiência a partir do ensaio “Experiência e pobreza”, em que Benjamin considera que aos pobres de experiência resta apenas assumir uma nova barbárie. O tema também aparece em “O narrador”, em que o autor demonstra o aniquilamento de uma experiência, outrora sinônimo de sabedoria e autoridade, consolidada por meio de sua transmissão de geração em geração, própria de uma organização coletiva, comunitária, ritualística e artesanal. As formas narrativas correspondentes são sintomáticas deste processo de esfacelamento da experiência: a narração - que vigorava no solo de um tempo onde ainda tinha-se tempo para contar e ouvir histórias - fora substituída pelo romance, caracterizador dos indivíduos isolados e solitários, e este, por sua vez, substituído pela informação jornalística, forma narrativa fragmentada e desconexa. Analisar a questão da experiência (erfahrung) em Walter Benjamin é contrapô-la à noção de vivência (erlebnis). Na esfera da vivência, saturada de eventos e sensações, resta ao ser humano a capacidade de reagir a esses estímulos (reportando à noção de choque em Freud). A memória (e seu correlato – o esquecimento) é imprescindível à experiência, mas perante os choques, o ser humano só armazena suas vivências na camada mais superficial da consciência, impossibilitando recursos para a experiência estética ou poética. Num terceiro momento, procura-se, nesse estudo, fazer um diálogo entre as constatações e os conceitos da filosofia da experiência benjaminianas com algumas imagens literárias, buscando, na literatura, elementos que vicejam a reflexão filosófica. O conto de Jorge Luis Borges - “Funes, o memorioso” - e o trecho de “Cem anos de solidão”, de Gabriel Garcia Marquez, sobre a doença do esquecimento, são preciosos mananciais para esse fim. Por último, problematiza-se a constatação da degradação da experiência na modernidade. Discute-se a possibilidade da realização da experiência, bem como o resgate de seu aniquilamento provocado pelas idiossincrasias da contemporaneidade e, ainda, quais espaços propiciariam este possível resgate. / This thesis presents the degradation of human experience based on Walter Benjamin’s diagnosis of it. In order to do that, firstly a brief overview of the history of philosophy is presented so as to delineate the concept of experience and analyze one of the first texts in which Benjamin directly deals with the subject (“Sobre um programa da filosofia vindoura” – “On the Program of the Coming Philosophy”). Secondly, the decadence of experience is demonstrated in the essay “Experiência e pobreza” (“Experience and Poverty”), in which Benjamin considers that the poor of experience are left with only taking on a new barbarism. That theme is also dealt with in “O narrador” (“The Narrator”), in which the author demonstrates the annihilation of an experience once synonymous with wisdom and authority, consolidated through its transmission from generation to generation and proper to a collective, communitarian, ritualistic, and artisanal organization. The corresponding narrative forms are symptomatic of that process of experience ruin: narration, which thrived at a time when one had time to tell and listen to stories, was replaced by the novel, a characterizer of isolated and lonely individuals. The latter, in its turn, was replaced by journalistic information, a fragmented and disconnected narrative form. Analyzing the issue of enduring experience (erfahrung) in Walter Benjamin means opposing it to the notion of fleeting experience/ephemera (erlebnis). In the sphere of fleeting experience/ephemera, saturated with events and sensations, the human being is left with the capacity to react to those stimuli (reminding us of Freud’s notion of shock). Memory (and its correlate – oblivion) is essential to enduring experience, but in the presence of shocks, the human being only stores his fleeting experiences/ephemera on the most superficial layer of consciousness, precluding resources for the aesthetic or poetic experience. At a third moment, this study promotes a dialogue between the realizations and concepts mentioned above and some literary images, searching in literature for elements which cause philosophic reflection to bloom. Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Funes, o memorioso” (“Funes the Memorious”) and the extract from Gabriel García Marquez’s Cem anos de solidão (One Hundred Years of Solitude) about the disease of forgetfulness are precious sources for that end. Lastly, the realization of the experience ruin in modernity is discussed. Is it still possible to have an enduring experience and rescue it from its annihilation caused by the idiosyncrasies of contemporary times? What possible spaces would allow that rescue?

This Master of Fine Arts thesis is divided into four main sections:FAITH and DISBELIEF: In which I reckon with the implications of faith versus rationality as a secular nontheistic artist. IDEAS: The central locus of my work is a place of indeterminacy between what is known/familiar and what is just one step outside of that. This has nothing to do with mysticism, science fiction, or anything else unmoored from established fact. Section also touches on the particular vantage of a female artist with working class roots.THE WORK: Selection of work made during graduate school, and the the guiding thoughts behind each.EMPTINESS, STILLNESS, ABSENCE, GHOSTS, DOUBT: A discussion of influential artists and ideas.