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Sociality is one of the most fundamental aspects of being human. The key to sociality is coordination, that is, the bringing of people "into a common action, movement or condition" [134]. Coordination is, at base, how social creatures get social things done in the world. Being social creatures, we engage in highly coordinative activities in everyday life"two girls play hopscotch together, a group of musicians play jazz in a jam session and a father teaches a son how to ride a bicycle. Even mundane actions such as greetings, answering a phone call, and asking a question to ask a question by saying "Can I ask you a question?" are complex and intricate. Actors not only need to plan and perform situated actions, but also need to process the responding actions----even unforeseen ones----from the other party in real time and adjust their own subsequent actions. Yet, we expertly coordinate with each other in performing highly intricate coordinative actions. In this work, I look at how people coordinate joint activities at the moment of interaction and aim to unveil a range of coordinative issues, using "methodologies and approaches that fundamentally question the mainstream frameworks that define what counts as knowledge" (p.2, [80]) in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To investigate computer mediated interactions among co-located people, I examine different interactional choices people make in the course of carrying out their joint activities, and the consequences of their choices. By investigating co-located groups as they played a collaborative, problem-solving game using distributed technologies in experimental settings, I (1) provide critical case reports which question and challenge non-discussed, often-taken-for-granted assumptions about face-to-face interactions and coordination, and (2) tie the observations to the creation of higher level constructs which, in turn, can affect subsequent design choices. More specifically, I ran two studies to look at how co-located people coordinate and manage their attention, tasks at hand, and joint activities in an experimental setting. I asked triads to work on a Sudoku puzzle collectively as a team. I varied support for the deictic mechanism in the software as well as form factors of mediating technology. My research findings show that: (1) different tools support different deictic behaviors. Explicit support for pointing is desirable to support complex reference tasks, but may not be needed for simpler ones. On the other hand, users without sophisticated explicit support may give up the attempt to engaged in complex reference. (2) talk is diagnostic of user satisfaction but lack of talk is not diagnostic of dissatisfaction. Therefore, designers must be careful in their use of talk as a measurement of collaboration. (3) the more people talk about complex relationships in the puzzle, the higher their increase in positive emotion. Either engaging with the problem at hand is rewarding or having the ability to engage with the problem effectively enough to speak about it is engaging. (4) amount of talk is related to form factor. People in both computer conditions talked less about the specifics oF the game board than people in the paper condition, but only people in the laptop condition experienced a significant decrease in positive emotion. (5) different mediating technologies afford different types of non-response situations. The most common occurrences of non-responses were precipitated by speakers talking to themselves in the computer conditions. Participants did not talk to themselves much in the paper condition. Differences in technology form factors may influence people's behaviors and emotion differently. These findings represent a portrait of how different technologies provide different interactional possibilities for people. With my quantitative and qualitative analyses I do not make bold and futile claims such as "using a highlighter tool will make users collaborate more efficiently," or "making people talk more will make the group perform better." I, instead, illustrate the interactional choices people made in the presence of given technological conditions and how their choices eventuated in situ. I then propose processlessness as an idea for preparing designs that are open to multiple interactional possibilities, and nudgers as an idea for enabling and aiding users to create and design their own situated experiences. / Ph. D.

This thesis documents an inquiry into the architecture of contemplative spaces and the process and evolution of the design of such a place. Man has often sought a place of solitude, a shelter, where the diversities diminish and differences become insignificant. In the recent decades many non-denominational temples and chapels, such as the MIT peace chapel, were built around the world by seekers of unity in diversity. This study explores the design of such a place and inquires into how the subtle architectural aspects contribute to the quality of solitude and tranquility of that place. These aspects are further explored in the design of a rotunda which becomes the heart of the thesis. / Master of Architecture

This thesis discusses female silence, voice and representation as portrayed in four postcolonial novels written by Asian female writers or those from the Asian diaspora. The novels included in the corpus are The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo, Brick Lane by Monica Ali and Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne. This thesis aims to explore the different strategies adopted by the authors to represent different forms of silence of the type highlighted in theoretical work by Spivak, Olsen and Showalter. The novels analysed open up new contexts in which issues of silence, migration, displacement and multiculturalism, which are central in postcolonial literature, are explored. In its examination of these issues in detail, the thesis has been influenced by postcolonial and diasporic studies, with a focus on women’s issues and feminist thought. Instead of focusing on the role of silence solely in relation to specific characters, the thesis attempts to engage with the complex ways in which these narratives represent various forms, moments and scenes of silence. From the analysis, we can exemplify that the novels can also be used to suggest the ambivalences of speaking/not-speaking via the narrative representations of silence. Authorial silence involves the author’s deliberate refusal to speak directly in the text ; instead, the author utilises several literary devices to convey something indirectly to the reader. Silence is also linked to concepts such as shame, secrets and gossip. One is likely to refrain from speaking if he or she is ashamed, secretive or is the topic of gossip in one’s community. There are also some female characters who are portrayed as not-speaking, or choosing to remain silent so as not to cause problems for the family. A few other characters have been portrayed as refusing to speak out as they have been traumatised into silence. Lastly, women can also be complicit in holding on to patriarchal structures and in the process, attempt to speak out in order to to silence or to cause problems to other women.

Nous formons l’hypothèse que Racine met en scène une lutte contre l’indicible. Dans chaque pièce, il s’agit de révéler quelque chose d’inacceptable et d’impossible à dire. Comment dire ce qu’on ne peut pas dire ? Et surtout, comment ne pas provoquer l’effroi de celui qui écoute ? Le silence, qu’il représente une pure absence de mots ou un bruissement de voix permettant de ne pas répondre, se trouve ainsi au coeur de l’échange dialogique. La déclaration d’amour relève de cet indicible et suscite une tension permanente entre « dire » et « taire ». Cette étude s’articule donc autour du paradoxe suivant : parler est impossible, mais la réticence à dire, une fois surmontée, produit l’irrémédiable. La déclaration d’amour est l’emblème de ce procédé. Elle représente l’énoncé tragique par excellence, puisqu’elle engendre la fatalité. Révéler l’amour, c’est condamner l’autre. L’oracle fatal s’exprime par la bouche des personnages amoureux. Racine donne ainsi naissance à un nouveau théâtre de l’amour dans lequel la déclaration correspond à une crise existentielle. Le personnage racinien affirme son être-au-monde par l’expression de son amour qui fait violence à l’autre. / I argue that Racine represents the fight against the unspoken. Each play reveals something that is unacceptable and impossible to articulate. How does one state all that cannot be stated? Above all, how to avoid stirring the terror of the listener? Silence, whether it represents a pure absence of words or a murmuring of voices that inhibit an answer, finds itself at the core of the discursive exchange. The declaration of love emerges from the unsaid and brings about a permanent tension between « the spoken word » and « silence. » This study is based on the following paradox: speech is impossible, but the reticence to speak, once overcome, induces an irreversible process. The declaration of love is the symbol of this process. Its utterance represents the ultimate tragic enunciation as it engenders Fate. To show one’s love is to condemn the other.The fatal oracle expresses itself through the words of characters in love.Racine inaugurates a new theater of love in which the declaration corresponds to a deep existential crisis. The Racinian character asserts his subjectivity by expressing his love, though it violates the other.

La pratique de l’assistance spirituelle en milieu hospitalier consiste, selon les textes législatifs, à répondre aux besoins spirituels du patient. Mais l’attente qu’éprouve un patient en fin de vie ne peut se réduire ni à un pur besoin, ni à un pur désir. A partir d’un travail anthropologique, philosophique et d’analyse des dialogues d’accompagnement, les notions d’hospitalité, de silence, de soin, de désir et d’éveil éclairent cette recherche. La présence silencieuse répond en premier lieu à un appel exprimé par le patient. Cette hospitalité est un espace ouvert à une reconnaissance mutuelle de la vulnérabilité présente dans l’altérité.Le soin spirituel met en jeu le courage d’un travail intérieur. Il représente un secours capable de faire basculer la souffrance en clarté même en fin de vie ; il est une invitation au repos, à la confiance. Seul le silence peut signifier au patient, la nature de ce souffle qui l’habite et le transcende. Dans son accueil de l’impuissance, la présence silencieuse, comme soin spirituel, révèle la capacité d’éveil de la vie du patient jusqu’au dernier souffle comme un don. / Summary not transmitted. The practice of the spiritual assistance(audience) in a hospital environment consists, according to the legislative texts, in answering the spiritual needs for the patient. But the wait(expectation) which feels(experiences) a patient at the end of life can be reduced neither to a pure need, nor to a pure desire. From an anthropological, philosophic work and from an analysis of the dialogues of support(accompaniment), the notions of hospitality, silence, care, desire and awakening light(enlighten) this search(research). The silent presence answers first of all a call(appeal) expressed by the patient. This hospitality is a space open to a mutual gratitude(recognition) of the present vulnerability in the otherness. The spiritual care involves(puts at stake) the courage of an internal work. He(it) represents a help capable of making tip over the suffering in clarity(brightness) at the end of life; it is an invitation in the rest, in the confidence(trust). Only the silence can inform the patient, the nature of this breath which lives in him(it) and transcends him(it). In its welcome(reception) of the powerlessness(impotence), the silent presence, as spiritual care, reveals the capacity of awakening of the life of the patient until the last breath as a gift(donation). [Translation made by the web site Reverso]

La fascination est une expérience des limites qui met en demeure le langage de trouver d’autres voies / voix pour dire, dans l’instant où le sujet se voit, souffle coupé, au bord de l’aphasie. La philosophie, à travers la question du sublime, a posé les jalons de cette question, cherchant à définir en termes rhétoriques, ontologiques et éthiques, ce qui se joue dans un instant syncopé où la raison est suspendue. La poésie mystique occidentale a elle aussi sondé des instants de rapt où le sujet en extase reçoit, dans une plénitude paradoxalement douloureuse, la présence divine. Ce travail se propose de reposer ces questions en les transposant dans un corpus romanesque, qui s’inscrit sous un horizon teinté de l’expérience lyrique surréaliste, où l’absolu est immanent. La question de l’Autre parcourt ces romans qui sont traversés, dans leur forme et signification, par une rencontre qui fait événement et han! te irrémédiablement l’écriture. Une dramaturgie se révèle : le roman devient l’espace propice à l’apparition de l’événement saillant de l’expérience, en permettant à la parole de se détacher ostensiblement dans le flux narratif, de prendre des détours et de se choisir des relais. Mais une scène invisible apparaît en filigrane : celle de réseaux souterrains de liens d’emprise qui donnent accès à une émotion hyperbolique et ambiguë. Le temps se fige pour emprisonner l’événement labile, et les frontières entre les sens se brouillent pour traduire l’indicible. La musique vient relancer le texte en proie au silence, à peine percé, parfois, de cris. L’altération du sujet fasciné se propage à l’écriture romanesque qui se fraye un chemin près de la poésie. / Fascination is an experience of limits which requires language to find other means of expression at the moment when the subject sees himself / herself breathless on the brink of aphasia. Philosophy, in its question of the sublime has paved the way by searching for definitions in rhetorical, ontological and ethical terms as to what happens during loss of consciousness when reason is suspended. Western mystical poetry has also probed those moments of rapture when the subject in the grip of ecstasy receives, in a fullness paradoxically painful, the Divine presence. The present work poses against these questions transposing them in to a corpus of novels coloured by a Surrealist lyrical experience, when the absolute is immanent. The question of the Other pervades these novels whose forms and meanings are traversed by a meeting which is the outstanding event and which haunts irremediably the text. A dramaturgy is revealed: the novel becomes the fa! vourable space for the appearance of the capital event of the experience, allowing speech to detach itself ostensibly in the narrative flow to take other turnings and to choose relays. An invisible scene appears however beneath the surface and an underlying network of power relations which gives access to a hyperbolical and ambiguous emotion. Time freezes to imprison the labile event, and the frontiers between the senses become blurred to translate the unspeakable. Music relaunches the text a pray to silence barely pierced, sometimes, by cries. The alteration of the fascinated subject spreads throughout the text which opens out a pathway towards poetry.

Après la tragédie de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les mots semblent ne plus suffire pour désigner le réel. La littérature du XXe siècle invente alors un langage nouveau, qui tend vers le silence. C’est ainsi que, traumatisé par l’Histoire, Georges Perec se tourne vers une écriture du silence, manière pour lui de réfléchir au langage et à ses limites, et cette démarche est perceptible surtout dans Un homme qui dort, La Disparition et W ou le souvenir d’enfance. La première partie de cette thèse s’ouvre sur les définitions du silence, puis se propose d’examiner sa rhétorique et ses motivations, et enfin de traiter les divers aspects du blanc, l’équivalent visuel du silence. La deuxième partie se concentre quant à elle sur l’examen des techniques narratives servant à la mise en place d’une écriture du silence : les jeux de la narration liés à la présence ou l’absence du narrateur, le morcellement narratif où le silence réside à chaque arrêt, et le patchwork intertextuel dont les voix remplacent celle de l’auteur. La troisième partie aborde enfin la question de la quête autobiographique que Perec a menée de manière plus ou moins oblique. Les thèmes de l’étrangeté à soi et de l’oubli se présentent comme des éléments essentiels car c’est la perte de mémoire et d’identité qui entraîne une perte de la parole. Puisque l’écrivain ne peut pas témoigner de l’expérience concentrationnaire qu’il n’a pas vécue, il assimile cette histoire collective, écho de son histoire individuelle, à une histoire fictive. Enfin, l’écriture perecquienne est un travail de deuil : l’auteur se sert du silence comme thème et technique d’écriture pour parler de la disparition de la mère, victime de la Shoah. / After the tragedy of the Second World War, words seem insufficient to represent reality. The authors of the 20th century have invented a new language that tends towards silence. Traumatized by history, Georges Perec thus turns to writing about silence. Through writing about silence, Perec contemplates the language and its limits; this approach is noticed particularly in Un homme qui dort, La Disparition and W ou le souvenir d’enfance. The first part of this thesis deals with the definitions of silence, then examines the rhetoric and motivations of silence. The different aspects of “the blank”–visual equivalence of silence–are also taken into account. The second part focuses on the narrative techniques implemented for the writing of silence. These techniques include the dynamic of narrative voices connected to the narrator’s both presence and absence; a fragmented narrative where silence exists after certain breaks; and the replacement of the author’s voice by an intertextual patchwork. The third part investigates Perec’s autobiographical elements which are more or less obliquely presented. Perec’s own alienation and forgetfulness are employed as key factors contributing to the uniqueness of silence as loss of memory and identity undermines the ability to speak. Since the author could not testify the trauma in the concentration camp through first-hand experience, he transforms collective history, echoing his individual history, into fictional history. Finally, Perec’s writings can be regarded as a literature of mourning: the silence, deployed as themes and literary techniques, is an instrument for recounting the loss of Perec’s own mother—a Shoah victim.