OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Jackie Milad

It Means Desert, Desert (2020). Installation view. Photo credit: Vivian Doering

JACKIE MILAD thinks of her layered, mixed media works as time-based art. She employs layering as a strategy to protect, hide and transform recurring symbols like eye, snake, brick wall, and breast. She cuts and draws and paints and sews, cannibalizing previously-exhibited works to make new works. A part of one piece becomes the beginning of another. This ongoing, ever-evolving process of creation refuses the notion of artworks as static, archival objects. Jackie earned her BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts and her MFA from Towson University. In 2019, she was named a Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Finalist and a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby Grantee. Recent solo exhibitions include: Chaos Comes and Goes (2019) at C. Grimaldis Gallery (Baltimore), Portate Bien (2020) at Langer Over Dickie (Chicago) and It Means Desert, Desert (2020) at Julio Fine Arts Gallery (Loyola University, Maryland). Only three days left to see her work in Re-Materialize at Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). It closes on December 20, 2020. Jackie lives and works in Baltimore City, Maryland.

OtherPeoplesPixels: When I say the word layers, where does your mind go?

Jackie Milad: History. Ancestors. Information. Hidden. Protected. Removable or changeable.

Nope, No Way (2019) Mixed Media Collage on Paper. Photo credit: Vivian Doering

OPP: Who are your artistic ancestors?

JM: It was during undergrad at SMFA where I was first introduced to Performance Art and was really inspired by the work of women performance artists of the 60s and 70s and in particular: Yoko OnoAdrian PiperJoan Joanas and Valie Export. It was their fearlessness and vulnerability I was drawn to and how they used their bodies to examine and critique the politics of othering and to deconstruct power structures such as white supremacy and patriarchy. Other influences include Howardena Pindell and Jack Whitten for their textural mixed media works and their processes.

I love maximalist audio and visual experiences, it's hard to narrow it down because there is so much out there from mainstream pop culture to experimental work—however, my absolute favorite movie is Dario Argento's 1977 Suspiria, for its garish lighting and beautiful compositions. I also really love the synchronized dance sequences in Busby Berkley films of the 1930s for the extravagance of it all.

Chaos Eyes Redux (2020) Mixed media. 72" x 72"

OPP: You use recurring formal strategies like transparency, overlapping and reusing parts of old work to make new work. How do these serve your conceptual interests?

JM: Layering is a vital element in my work. Every layer shows a new choice; it’s a record of my decisions. History is a complicated thing; it is almost always told from the perspective of the dominant power. Showing the history of my hand is a way to tell my own story, my own history. I also dig back into the layers or cut and paste older works to reveal the past. My work is personal, and some of the layerings are meant to reveal and later protect or hide information.

Additionally, I think a lot about how works of art are read. There is a general expectation that the work will be broken down into basic and understandable codes, whether by the artist themselves a writer, or by a curator. I like to defy this expectation by stacking layers, mixing up multiple signals, codes, and even languages. I rarely give it away. I want people to understand and accept that not everything has to be for them, not all symbols have to be revealed and explained—and sometimes it can be confusing and left a mystery.

The Flood Six - Hyena (2018) Acrylic, flashe, marker and collage on paper. 50" x 42"

OPP: Do you think of your mixed media collage works as representing some kind of space, be it physical, mental or social?

JM: I think of them as representing all of the above, or more accurately a record of time within the physical, mental, and social-political spaces. It takes time for me to layer the works, the pieces do not have an endpoint or finish point—they are more of an ongoing ever-changing, malleable record of my hand, my decisions, and of my observations of those things outside of my control. Ideally, in my studio, I am cutting from one piece to add to another in a fluid ongoing intuitive process. I compare them to doing performance art or time-based work.

OPP: How do you think about the works that you’ve sold or gifted in terms of being ongoing?

JM: Once the works leave my studio, they become out of reach or off-limits for obvious reasons. In a way, the objects become something else, they become more of a document or remnant of the performance/process. It would be amazing to one day collaborate with a collector to have work returned to my studio so that a piece could have another life yet again... and again and so on.

Yallah Sim Sim (2020) Video. 4 minutes.

OPP: You use a pastiche of found and created imagery in Yallah Sim Sim (2020), a digital animation with the feel of a sacred dance party. Many symbols have been accumulating meaning for most of human history—pyramid, eye, snake, tear drop—and you use them in a way that is completely idiosyncratic. Tell us about the combinations of images and sound in this work.

JM: I did this video in collaboration with my spouse, Tom Boram. We worked on this video after a research trip to my father’s homeland of Egypt in January. Going from ancient site to ancient site, and seeing a repetition of pharaonic symbols, but more importantly, the confluence of many cultures and epochs on one surface was very inspiring. The video recreates the experience of seeing the layers of Egyptian history competing with wayward touristic signs, a far-off Pizza Hut sign, or a booming car stereo playing mahraganat (Egyptian electronic dance music). This is really on point with what I’m getting at in my own 2D works In this video piece— information collapses onto itself in a chaotic pop kind of way. The writing is literally on the wall of tombs built for ancient pharaohs, turned Coptic monasteries, turned mosques, turned touristic sites. One fascinating architectural example is the pharaonic Luxor Temple which the Romans converted and renovated to be a church, and then later Arabs literally built a mosque (still in use) on top of the ruins of both the church and temple.

Untitled (2019) from Chaos Comes and Goes

OPP: Can you talk about the untitled golden necklaces works from 2019? The composition and palette in these predominately black works is so paired down compared to most of your recent work.

JM: This piece and the other work in this series were done as a counter to the larger collage works. I have several works in which I single out one pattern or theme. I like the idea that a viewer can get a very unfiltered view of a symbol that is repeated and layered throughout my larger dense pieces. I think of the series as a map key to the other work.

Quarantine One-a-Day Drawings (2020) 7" x 7." Photo credit: Vivian Doering

OPP: Tell us about your quarantine experience. It included making a drawing a day. How were these works generated by the early days of the pandemic.

JM: Ah, quarantine. Well, I live with my husband, two dogs, and my nine-year-old son. At the start of the lockdown with schools closing and our jobs going entirely online, there was no time or energy to work in the ways I did pre-Covid. Going to my studio seemed impossible, so to maintain momentum and some mental stability I cut up some small 7” square paper and started drawing, but of course, was regularly interrupted, so what I thought would be these quick simple sketches turned out to take all day to make. This slowing down of my process was important to do at the time. I needed to slow down and be okay with it. I’m not actively doing the quarantine drawings anymore, I’m back in my studio, but I do have plans to go back to making them at some point.

Gold Bars (2020) Mixed Media Collage on Hand-Dyed Canvas.

OPP: What are you currently most excited about in your studio?

JM: These days in my studio, I've been using the time to think and experiment with materials. Just yesterday I cut up a canvas piece that I've shown in an exhibition recently and started to reconfigure it by sewing other remnants and painting over it with a palette of colors I rarely use. The pandemic and the general stress of this year have made it hard to be consistently productive, so I am taking small steps to find a way forward—and sometimes that means a dance break in my studio or lying on the floor for a different perspective.

To see more of Jackie's work, please visit www.jackiemilad.com and follow her on Instagram @_jackie_milad_.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Szu-Wei Ho

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Luis Romero

OPP: What role does optical illusion play in our work?

OPP: Talk about your recent painted paper constructions.

In-progress work in the studio

OPP: How are they both drawing and sculpture?

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Diyan Achjadi

Dip, 2018. Ink and gouache on paper. 48" x 60"

DIYAN ACHJADI uses painting, drawing and printmaking to investigate the visual languages and meanings of ornament and pattern. Informed specifically by the "(mis)representations, (mis)translations, and imaginings of Indonesia," her works often include the hybrid animals of Javanese myth, references to historical textiles and dizzying mash-ups of pattern and popular imagery. Diyan has exhibited widely across Canada and beyond. Recent projects include a  year-long commission for the City of Vancouver Public Art Program called Coming Soon! and NonSerie (In Commute), part of How far do you travel?, a year-long exhibition on the exterior of public buses commissioned by the Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) in partnership with Translink BC. A publication documenting Coming Soon! is available for purchase through the Contemporary Art Gallery. You can see Diyan’s work in the exhibition The Tin Man Was A Dreamer at the Vancouver Art Gallery through November 1, 2020. Diyan lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

OtherPeoplesPixels: What do you say to people who dismiss pattern and decoration as superficial?

Diyan Achjadi: We need to constantly unpack the ways that we arrive at these types of judgements and recognize the implicit and explicit biases at play. Racism, sexism, and white supremacy inform, produce, and reproduce problematic notions of good and bad taste, as well as notions of "real" or "superficial" work. The dismissal of pattern and decoration is a form of reifying modernist European paradigms. We know that patterns can be deeply infused with symbolism and meaning. We also know the ornament and decoration as material history hold many clues as to the ways that images and information circulate and are reproduced. For instance, there's an ornamental cloud form that I often draw, based on a batik pattern found in Cirebon, a city on the north coast of Java, where some of my father's family are from. This pattern, called megamendung, is emblematic of this city and seen everywhere—on uniforms, as architectural detail, as wrapping paper, for instance. This cloud has similarities to cloud forms one might see on Chinese textiles or painted ceramics, which one could see as an artifact from centuries of international trade, exchange, and in the batik pattern is a synthesis of multiple cultural influences.

Unfashioned Creature, Half Undone, 2015. Ink, gouache, and acrylic on paper. 62" x 96"

OPP: Tell us about Creature Drawings (2015-2016) and Venationes (2014-2015). How do you employ mythic creatures to talk about both dissonance and harmony when the decorative languages of two cultures collide?

DA: These two groups of works have slight differences. In Creature Drawings, I wanted to explore spaces of hybridity, where there's not a fixed understanding of place, time or logic and to imagine a space where different forms of visual language that are often seen as not belonging together co-exist and build off of each other. The creatures become a way of articulating a personality or narrative within this space. For instance, the title of Unfashioned Creature, Half Undone is a line from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which was a way for me to allude to questions of hubris. Back and Forth has a two-headed monster (acknowledging that the idea of the monster is also culturally loaded) going in opposite directions simultaneously, resulting in stasis. In these works the creatures are explicitly fictional.

Venationes (after __ , after ___), 2014. Lithography. 49.5 cm x 38 cm

OPP: And what is different in Venationes?

DA: I was responding to a 16th Century book that was meant to be factual but included images of dragons and unicorns within the volume as if they really existed. I was doing some research on how Europeans imaged animals from Asia in printed matter, which led me to a book about hunting games.

The creatures in this series of prints are more about trying to understand the ways that we value certain parts of non-human animals as valuable or precious—such as tusks—and the violence in that gesture.

Java Toile, 2015. Toner Print on Tyvek. 9 sheets, each 144" x 40." Photo credit: Paul Litherland

OPP: What does Toile de Jouy mean to you?

AD: The patterns associated with Toile de Jouy, with its intricate lines and drawings, were made possible through advancements in printing technologies. So, from a printmaker's perspective, they've always held a place of interest for me. As a form of decoration, I have also been fascinated by the types of scenarios that are often portrayed in these patterns, such as European pastoral tableaus and fantastical Chinoiserie landscapes. The form is also tied to imperialism and colonialism, from the aspects of production to the images portrayed and the spaces that these patterns would populate.

Java Toile (detail), 2015. Toner Print on Tyvek. 9 sheets, each 144" x 40." Photo credit: Paul Litherland

OPP: Tell us about the new content that you have injected into this old pattern in False Creek Toile (2016) and Java Toile (2015).

AD: For Java Toile, I began the project by thinking of the extinction of non-human animals that used to populate the island of Java, where I am from. I wanted to make links between that extinction and land exploitation, commerce, capital, and tourism. The drawings respond to  archival images, postcards, news images, ceramic figurines, and photographs that I've taken on my trips back home. For False Creek Toile, I was thinking of lost landscapes in parts of Vancouver that were once water, but have in the past century been filled and are now asphalt and concrete.

Railway + Jackson site, August 2018. Photo credit: Harry Armstrong

OPP: Your recent project Coming Soon! (2018-2019), commissioned by the City of Vancouver Public Art Program,is visually distinct from previous work. Is this a new direction or an outlier? Or did the project grow naturally out of previous works?

AD: I’m not sure if it's a new direction or an outlier! While it looks different visually than many other works that I've exhibited, it was made concurrently with drawings such as Sinking or Dip. Some of the core aspects of the project—questions of value, labour, time, craft—are a consistent thread throughout my practice. I have also always had an interest in art that circulates beyond traditional white-cube gallery spaces, whether in domestic contexts, ephemeral posters, or animations made for public spheres. The project also grew out of a desire to spend more time in the print studio. I teach printmaking and am very immersed in its techniques, contexts, and history, but so much of my recent work has been in drawing. I wanted to make a concerted investment into these techniques and make printmaking visible in my practice in a way that I don't think I have before.

The history of printmaking as a mode of distribution is intimately intertwined with the technologies of image and text reproduction. I was curious to make a public project that was anachronistic, where its modes of production used processes that were once considered quick and impersonal, but now are seen as rarified and craft-centric. I also wanted to invite passers-by to pause at what they were seeing. The works were all posted or pasted on temporary construction fences that usually have notices, advertisements, and the occasional graffiti. My hope is that passers-by will notice the prints and start to pay attention to what was happening behind these fences. In many ways I approach my drawings in a similar way, where I hope to invite a slowing down in the process of looking.

At the Moment They Collided, 2013. Ink, gouache, and silkscreen collage on paper. 22" x 30"

OPP: How are you coping with life during a global pandemic? How is your studio practice being affected?

AD: I’m very lucky in that I have stable employment and have continued to have work throughout this. I'm also very lucky to be in Vancouver at this time, where we are now finding ourselves in a slow, cautious, and measured reopening. I have been thinking through what it means to make things in the studio, and what and who I am making things for. To make pictures is always a strange activity, and now it seems even stranger than ever. With the isolation and changing social structures necessitated by the pandemic, I find myself wanting to work on things that give me a sense of connection, dialogue, and community.

I've been working on a four-person drawing project that started just before everything shut down, with three friends and colleagues from graduate school—Ilga LeimanisMelissa Manfull, and Doreen Wittenbols—where we have been mailing drawings to each other, and responding to the previous person's mark making and imagery before sending it on to the next person. It's been really lovely to get these large drawings in the mail and be in dialogue with these three other artists through this process. I'm realizing more and more how much I value working collaboratively, and the challenges and joy in the process of figuring things out together. I've been making a few very short comics in response to assignments from another friend, which have stretched me to think through narrative and storytelling more deliberately. I'm also beginning a new animation that will use some small, intimate watercolour drawings made in the past few months as its starting point.

To see more of Diyan's work, please visit www.diyanachjadi.com.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Seth Goodman

To see more of Seth's work, please visit sethgoodman.net.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Michael Zachary

OPP: What are the sources for your landscape drawings?

To see more of Michael's work, please visit drawsoftly.com.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Jeff Krueger

Failure is an Option, 2017. Installation view.

Ghosts, 2017.

OPP: Talk about the abstract visual language you work with.

OPP: Can you give us a specific example of that?

Infinity is King, 2017.

To see more of Jeff's work, please visit jeffskrueger.com.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Rachelle Reichert

BackwardFuture, 2017. Installation shot, Black Crown Gallery. Photo credit: Phillip Maisel.

RACHELLE REICHERT's sculptural forms are minimal and her palette is monochromatic—almost exclusively black, white and grey. These formal decisions grow directly from her material choices—graphite and salt. Underlying the seemingly-simple, formal elegance is a committed interest in the social and ecological impact of technology. Rachelle earned her BFA at Boston University, following by her MFA at Mills College (Oakland, CA). In addition to numerous solo exhibitions, she has presented her work at the California Climate Change Symposium, the State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference, the American Geophysical Union Meeting. Her work will be on view from September 9 - October 21, 2018 in the group show Unwalking the West at the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture at Pacific Northwest College (Portland, Oregon). Rachelle is curatingTrace Evidence: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Climate Change in affiliation with Global Climate Action Summit in September 2018. The show opens at Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco) on September 5, 2018 and will be accompanied by a panel discussion sponsored by SFMOMA on September 11, 2018. Rachelle lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

OtherPeoplesPixels: Why are salt and graphite the dominant materials in your work? How do they drive your work?

Rachelle Reichert: I am interested in the familiar becoming unknown and in the complexity of seemingly ordinary things. My practice explores the connection between basic natural materials, their use by industry and technology and the resulting impact on the environment and culture. I have created work with metal, clay, natural pigments, charcoal and more. But graphite and salt have held my attention for over five years.

Graphite is a primary tool for drawing— a practice that helped develop human consciousness. Graphite was originally used by sheepherders to mark sheep. Since then, it has a history in industrialization as a lubricant to machinery and now in the lithium-ion battery found in cars and  smartphones. Graphene—graphite’s 2-D form—is enabling leaps in nanotechnology and biotech because it is an excellent superconductor. I research the life cycle of the material, from extraction to implementation and create artwork based on this research.

First Rains, 2016. Salt. 15 x 12 x 9 in each.

OPP: And salt?

RR: I started thinking about salt in 2013 in my first semester of grad school. I had an incredible professor, the late Anna Valentina Murch, who encouraged material experimentation in sculpture when I was making large graphite paintings. She helped to transform my thinking. Salt has been extracted industrially from the San Francisco Bay since the 1850s. It is an incredibly unstable mineral that is essential for human life. Like graphite, I’ve researched salt’s use in industry, such as local extraction and the repercussions shaping the San Francisco estuary. In addition I have studied salt’s role in culture, such as its use in woman-led pagan practices that were later adopted by Catholicism. My salt circles come directly from that.

Both graphite and salt are extracted all over the world. Presently, I am looking at graphite extraction in China and I recently returned from the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world with the largest reserves of lithium.

Exhibition at Monterey Peninsula College, 2017

OPP: How do you make formal choices to support your conceptual concerns?

RR: My forms and palettes are determined by the materials themselves. I am sensitive to the textures and forms of the materials. That is where the complexity lies. These works are demanding and require close looking. Unfortunately, photographs of the works don’t communicate this well.

OPP: How do the forms grow out of the material? It’s clear in the saltworks, but what about the hexagons, for example?

RR: The hexagons reference the crystalline structure of graphite, an allotrope of carbon. It’s the hexagonal form that allows for the superconductivity of the material. A beautiful example of form follows function.

Untitled (Hexagons 3), 2018. Graphite on panel. 50 x 24 inches (variable).

OPP: Is the sourcing of your materials important?

RR: Yes, very important. It creates the content for some works. I often harvest my own materials or when I can’t do it myself, I work with companies who do and build relationships with these companies. I often watch sights for a very long time, years usually, before I start making work. Watching includes tracking locations via satelite images and reading news, geological reports, surveys or any information I can find and visiting the locations—if I can.

Currently, I am working on a project where I’ve been visiting locations in California impacted by forest fires and making oil paint from the charred trees. I started this in 2014 but it is just now that I am making paintings. The fires have accelerated rapidly in the time I’ve been researching. I coincidentally started making this work during the largest recorded fire in California history, the Thomas Fire in December 2017. Since then, the Mendocino Complex Fire, burning as I write this, now holds the record as the largest fire. I am creating this work as it rains ash from the sky in San Francisco and grieving, like so many others, for a California past and for those who have suffered from these fires.

Blackdragon Mine #15, 2017.

OPP: What role does satellite imagery play in your drawing practice?

RR: I use private-sourced earth imaging satellites to track locations affected by global warming. I have access to these images from a research ambassadorship. I track graphite mines with these images and salt evaporation ponds, wildfires and new sites of extraction in the American West. These images come from technology that could not exist without the raw materials that are being photographed and so I want to highlight that connection with my drawings.

OPP: Are the Black Dragon drawings examples of this? Do viewers/critics ever miss the connection and want to talk abut these as pure abstraction?

RR: Yes. The name comes from the mining group that I have been following in China. These works can function as pure abstraction or as an investigation of the images I am exploring and creating the works from. The connection is often missed, but I think that adds an interesting layer, potentially revealing the reference images in unexpected ways. Most people don’t realize that satellite images are highly edited—color corrected, cropped, composited—to look like what one would expect from a satellite image: a clear view of the land below with no clouds or blurs or camera malfunctions (remember, these images are coming from space!). The drawings are layered and space is negotiated in strange ways intentionally to reveal this.

Blackdragon Mine #16, 2017. Graphite on prepared paper. 12 x 16 inches.

OPP: You’ve presented your artwork at the California Climate Change Symposium, the San Francisco State of the Estuary Conference, and the American Geophysical Union Meeting. Can you talk about presenting art in a scientific context?

RR: My research requires a lot of understanding into the chemical composition of my materials and how their uses impact the planet. I track pollution from extraction and man-made marks on our planet. I feel that art is an essential tool to help understand science, especially climate science. There is an urgency there and I am always seeking opportunities to intersect ideas and collaborate.

To see more of Rachelle's work, please visit rachellereichert.com.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Amanda Burnham

Neighborhood Watch (installation detail), 2016. Acrylic, flashe, paper, cardboard, and LEDs. 5 vignettes, each approx. 10 x 10 x 5.'

AMANDA BURNHAM's immersive, collage installations are dense with vernacular signage, brick walls and and trash cans. She pieces hundreds of gestural drawings of the surrounding city together, deliberately confusing three-dimensional space.  Instead of a realistic rendering of what a city looks like, she captures the frenetic energy of city architecture. Amanda earned her BA in Visual and Environmental Studies, at  Harvard University and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at Yale University. Her long and varied exhibition record includes recent solo shows at University of Baltimore (2017), Elon University in North Carolina (2017), Arlington Art Center in Virginia (2016) and Dittmar Gallery at Northwestern University in Chicago (2014). Her work is included in the permanent collections of National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC) and the New York Public Library, as well as various private collections. Amanda just completed the Antenna Projects Artist Book Residency in New Orleans, and her solo show Amanda Burnham: In Situ will open at Gershman Gallery in Philadelphia on September 6. Amanda lives and works in Baltimore.

OtherPeoplesPixels: Your drawings and installations are all about cities. What’s your favorite city in the world?

Amanda Burnham: There are many cities that I love, but I'm going to go with Baltimore—not only because I live here, but because of its rich, diverse architectural vernacular, history, neighborhoods, and challenges. It inspired the direction of the installation work I have been making for the last decade.

Better Waverly, 2014. Paint and paper.

OPP: Tell us about the first installation?

AB: The first installation I made was for a show at the Julio Gallery at Loyola University in Baltimore in 2008. I'd been asked by the curator to show a group of the plein air cityscape drawings I'd been consumed with making at that point. I'd made hundreds of these small observational drawings of different sites during my first full year in the city. It started as a way of getting to know my new surroundings. I'd begun to feel the limitations of working at a small scale, from a fixed perspective. I increasingly felt that it wasn't the best way to capture the energy and activity of the city as I came to know it while sitting for many hours drawing it. I asked the curator if she would be open to me creating an installation for the show to accompany my drawings, and, thankfully she was. Looking at back at the resulting work (which, at the time I was very proud of, and which was very freeing for me), I'm struck by how minimal and reserved it is. But it changed the direction of my practice entirely.

Edmondson Avenue, 2009. Ink on paper. 9 x 12."

OPP: Earlier drawings are more realistic renderings of city landscapes, but it seems like you have been drawing in a more illustrative, comic style lately, especially in the installations. What led to this shift?

AB: Lately I've been interested in broadening the parameters of my work, so that it is less defined by a visual shorthand that references the built environments of urban spaces. I want it to be more inclusive of imagery that also suggests all the activity that occurs within those spaces. What really draws me to cities, anyway, is the events that happen when our living circumstances are not isolated and homogenous and the way they enable people to collect/collide/interact.

The somewhat comic stylistic approach of my drawings allows me to incorporate ideas which are less literal and strictly visually descriptive. I like that a comic style, given its bold, graphic qualities, allows me to formally weave together imagery from a lot of really different places—objective, inventive or visionary, metaphoric, etc.

In the Weeds (detail), 2016. Acrylic, flashe, and paper. 10 x 72.'

OPP: Tell us about the process of creating these drawing installations? Are they site-specific? What determines the imagery?

AB: They are always site-specific in the sense that they are constructed almost entirely within the space they will be shown, and are therefore sensitive to the physical peculiarities of whatever that space is. They are often site-specific in the sense that I choose to enfold imagery discovered in the surrounding area to some degree. I've done this in very subtle ways, and I've also built entire pieces that were meant to evoke a specific city (as with RFP in Baltimore).

I start by looking at the space and by collecting imagery from which to make drawings. I walk around the neighborhood, take pictures and make sketches. Using my sketchbook, I establish parameters for the piece, ideas I want to address or imagery I want to incorporate and roughly how I will engage the space. I sketch out broad compositional outlines for shape on the wall, where I want collage layers to be massed, palette, whether there will be sculptural components or embedded lighting.

I'll spend the weeks leading up to making a piece preparing raw materials for collage. I roll out drawing paper in my studio, prepare it with color (watered down acrylic, usually), and make hundreds of quick gestural drawings with black acrylic. When I put the piece together in the space, I take anywhere from a day or two to several weeks. Everything is orchestrated very extemporaneously within the parameters I've set. I use different widths of black or colored masking tape and light duty staples to attach pieces to the wall, and sometimes paint directly on the wall, as well.  The final pieces are the result of many layers of collage build up.

High Winds, 2011. mixed media

OPP: You mentioned RFP, which was a unique installation in that it involved audience participation. What does RFP stand for?

AB: RFP stands for Request for Proposals. Its a term commonly used in city planning for the development of a parcel of land. I wanted to evoke this common usage because Baltimore—like most older, formerly industrial cities—has a fraught and lengthy history with issues surrounding planning. There are neighborhoods with legacies of exclusion borne by restrictive covenants and red-lining, division and isolation of formerly thriving neighborhoods via poorly considered large scale building projects (like highways), disinvestment and civic neglect of neighborhoods (frequently along racial lines), gentrification that prices long term residents out of their homes and established communities. A commonality to all these dynamics is how bound up they are in bureaucratic and political structures that can seem far from the reach or control of the individual citizens that they impact.

RFP was motivated by an idealistic desire to propose a city democratically shaped in every way by the people who actually live there; it was a request for proposals from the residents of Baltimore.

RFP, 2015. Paper, paint, cardboard, tape, lumber, lights. 2015

OPP: How did the installation evolve?

AB: The piece as it opened on day one was like my other work in its use of paper and collage installation. All of the drawings were recognizably Baltimore; different neighborhoods were woven together throughout the space, commingled without reference to literal geography.

I wanted the piece to feel very welcoming. The piece was orchestrated in a large ground floor former department store space with huge, plate glass windows in front. It was located on West Baltimore Street, an area of the city which a lot of different people traverse for a lot of different reasons every day. In addition to having numerous hand drawn OPEN signs (like the neon ones you see in bodegas) and a sandwich board inviting people in from the sidewalk, I designed the piece so that it would be maximally visible from outside. It stretched all the way to the front so there wasn't any apparent barrier to entry (like the imposing desks that sit at the front of most galleries). All of this was meant to be a reflective backdrop, and the centerpiece of the installation was a big table full of drawing supplies and some loose prompts inviting thought about Baltimore: "I feel the most like I belong here when...", "This city needs...", "My neighborhood is..." etc.

Visitors were invited to add their writings and drawings to the existing backdrop. During the time the piece was up, more and more of these amassed, so that by the time it came down it was covered with hundreds of contributions, ranging from reminisces, to suggestions, to manifestos, to actual images altering the preexisting ones.

OPP: Was there anything frustrating about depending on the public to complete the work? What was satisfying about it?

AB: Not in this case. We had a large volume of visitors due to the visibility from the sidewalk and the high traffic in the area. The piece was set up so that it would be clear to someone that contributing was the idea without having to ask. The paper on the table was color keyed to the backdrop, in addition to the rolls of tape and drawing supplies were visual cues, and this seemed to work (though I was on hand every day to greet people and answer questions if they had them, too.) There was some initial anxiety that it wouldn't work, or that I'd have to edit contributions (i.e. if someone posted something abusive or hateful), but wonderfully, there was no need.

Since I was there everyday, I met a lot of people over the course of the piece's life. As satisfying as it was to see (and be surprised by!) the range of physical additions to the piece, the most satisfying was that the piece became a way for me and other visitors to talk to people we might never have met otherwise.

To see more of Amanda's work, please visit amandaburnham.com.

OtherPeoplesPixels Interviews Florine Demosthene

Releasing the Truth, 2018. Mix media on canvas. 32 x 48 inches.

The female figure in FLORINE DEMOSTHENE's mixed media work hovers in a gauzy, blue and gray haze. In some works, she sprouts whole other versions of herself from her back. In others, she lovingly carries herself in her arms or on her shoulders, as a parent carries a child. This figure represents our relationship with ourselves. She is both a physical body and a symbol of the spirit. Florine earned her BFA at Parsons the New School for Design and her MFA at Hunter College. She had had solo exhibitions at Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands), Gallery MOMO (Capetown and Johannesburg, South Africa), Semaphore Gallery (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana). She has received grants from Arts Moves Africa and Joan Mitchell Foundation. Florine resides between New York, Accra and Johannesburg, although she's spending 2018 in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a 2018 Tulsa Art Fellow.

OtherPeoplesPixels: How do you see the relationship between the mind and the body, the internal and the external?

Florine Demosthene: The works are about the relationship we have with ourselves. . . the different parts of ourselves and how we are engaged in this continual battle. I have been investigating the duality between mind, body, emotion, spirit and essence through this series of works. I have not quite formulated a solid understanding of these components and how they interconnect. It's like I have gone down this rabbit hole that keeps getting deeper and more nebulous.

Disappear Into Myself 3, 2013. Ink, charcoal, graphite and oil bar on polypropylene. 9 x 12 inches.

OPP: It seems like you are really talking about a spiritual path of inquiry. How does art-making aid in that path? Can you share any insights or observations you have?

FD: Making art in integral to my path of self-awareness and discovery. It allows me to create a cocoon around myself where I can delve deeper into my psyche. It has been an intriguing journey. I find when I allow my anger to rise to the surface, I make leap and bounds in my art work. I don't want to be in a perpetual state of rage, but it does serve as a catalyst for me to push past my boundaries.

Illumination #11, 2018. Collage on paper. 11 x 14 inches.

OPP: Are these works self-portraits?

FD: I don't necessarily see the works as self-portraits but rather an exploration of ideas. I reference myself, particularly my body, because it is readily available and I can easily manipulate it in the way that I want.

OPP: Can you talk about Mind Chatter and The Story I Tell Myself? Is the secondary figure a burden to the first? Or simply an integral part that the main figure must nurture and carry through life?

FD: Those two works are addressing the shadow aspects of who we are and what exactly constitutes our personal narratives. I find that we fear the darkness within ourselves and shy away from addressing that truth within us. With those two works, I was searching for how to unburden this aspect within us.

Meta, 2018. Mix media on wood panel. 40 x 52 inches.

OPP: Blue lines seem to operate differently in different works. In Meta, they grow from the fingertips and remind me of Freddy Krueger’s knife glove. In Wounds #2, they seem more like blood dripping and in Wounds #7, they shackle the feet. How do you think about the blue in these works?

FD: Firstly the large areas of blues and black are glitter. The blue glitter lines are a continuation of the yellow beams that I was using in a previous series. These lines represent energetic communication or a sort of higher consciousness.

There has been this question that has been gnawing at me for quite some time: If we are only using like 10% of our brain capacity, then what would it look like if we say use 55%-100% of our minds?

In the quest to find answers to this question, I have come to the understanding that it is not about our brains, but rather our connection to our soul/essence/spirit...that spark that ignites the life within us. If we could gain full access to this spark, then we can propel the brain (and how it functions) to level unimaginable. The thing is, we are so disconnected from this aspect of ourselves. In these works (the ones with the radiating lines) I'm attempting to bridge that gap between mind and spirit. . . to somehow build a connection to allow for direct communication.

To Come Undone, 2018. Mix media on wood panel. 52 x 120 inches.

OPP: In earlier works, the figure feels trapped in the backgrounds because there is more visual noise and, in some cases, actual locations with buildings and furniture. But in more recent works, the figure seems to be floating in an empty, abstract space. Can you talk about this change?

FD: The simplified background was just a natural progression of the work. In earlier works, I was concerned quite a bit with the figure/ground relationship. As the series developed, it became more and more about the body—and what's within the body—and less about the space in which the figure resides. This gradual shift helped me to hone in a bit more on what I wanted to convey with these drawings and paintings.

Meta-Two, 2018.  Collage on canvas. 36i x 48 inches.

OPP: In 2018, you won the Tulsa Fellowship, which offers an unrestricted award and brings artists from elsewhere to Tulsa for a year. Tell us about the experience. What has it been like to relocate? And what are you working on?

FD: I have been out of the USA for four years, so I had to mentally adjust for this fellowship. Thus far, the fellowship program has been surprising (in a good way) and it is allowing me to have some much needed time to regroup. I plan on continuing this series as well as possibly incorporation 3D and digital works. . . but we shall see how that goes.

To see more of Florine's work, please visit florinedemosthene.com.


Anthraquinone synthesis gene in plants identified!

Anthraquinone synthesis  gene  identified!

New work from an international team of scientists reveals a gene responsible for anthraquinone synthesis in plants. Their findings could help scientists cultivate a plant-based mechanism for harvesting these useful compounds in bulk quantities.

"Senna tora is a legume with anthraquinone-based medicinal properties that have long been recognized in ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic traditions, including antimicrobial and antiparasitic benefits, as well as diabetes and neurodegenerative disease prevention," the author explained.

Despite its extensive practical applications, genomic studies of Senna have been limited. So,  the research team used an array of sophisticated genetic and biochemical approaches to identify the first known anthranoid-forming enzyme in plants.

"Now that we've established the first step of the ladder, we can move quickly to elucidate the full suite of genes involved in the synthesis of anthraquinone," said lead author.

Once the process by which plants make these important compounds is fully known, this knowledge can be used to engineer a plant to produce high concentrations of anthraquinones that can be used medicinally.

"The same techniques that we use to help improve the yields of agricultural or biofuel crops can also be applied to developing sustainable production methods for plant-based medicines," the author concluded.


For the 2020-2021 season, our team will have Project Leader positions in addition to the Division Coordinators. Any Division Coordinator may seek self-nominations for a specific Project Lead position within their Division.

The project leaders will work closely with their corresponding division coordinator in managing the progress of the certain project he or she is in charge of. Some responsibilies of a project leader may include planning, attending and/or documenting project meetings. In the case that the division coordinator is unable to attend a meeting, project leads may also be able to serve as a proxy.

If members have any projects they are interested in leading, they should reach out to the leadership team and their respective department coordinator!


CMStatistics 2017: Start Registration
View Submission - CMStatistics
Title: Modeling a complex multi-state warm standby system with loss of units through a D-MMAP Authors:  Juan Eloy Ruiz-Castro - University of Granada (Spain)
Mohammed Dawabsha - University of Granada (Spain) [presenting]
Abstract: In reliability literature it is usual to consider the replacement of a unit which has undergone a non-repairable failure in a negligible unit of time. A complex multi-state warm standby system subject to different types of events, internal and accidental external failures, inspections and preventive maintenance is modeled by considering a discrete Markovian arrival process with marked arrivals. The system is composed of a finite number of units, including the main one and the others in a warm standby. When a non-repairable failure occurs and the system can keep on working, the unit is removed and the system continues working with one unit less. If all units are removed, the system is then reinitialized by considering a new identical one. The number of repairpersons depends on the number of units in the system. Inspections have place randomly and if the observed online unit is worn out, then it goes to preventive maintenance. Different repair times are considered for corrective repair of the online unit, warm standby units and preventive maintenance. The system is modeled and the transient distribution is determined. Some reliability measures of interest are calculated. Rewards and costs are included. A numerical example illustrates the model.


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Glossary of terms related to ozone

Author：www.dahuan.net Views：date：2019-01-14 09:56

Ozone production: is the yield of ozone, the amount of ozone produced in hours. Unit of measurement: mg/h, g/h, kg/h. Concentration × flow rate
Ozone concentration: The amount of ozone per unit volume. Unit of measurement: mg/L, mg/m3, ppm
Water soluble ozone concentration: Ozone is dissolved in water, the ozone content per unit volume. Unit of measurement: mg/L, ppm
Ozone concentration for air application: The concentration of ozone used for air disinfection is generally 1-10 mg/m3.
Environmental ozone concentration: The concentration of ozone contained in the ambient air, the environmental quality standards specified in the environmental quality standards are 0.12/0.16/0.2 mg/m3.
Power consumption: The power consumption of the ozone generator unit for every 1kg of ozone generated without the air handling system. (This unit is an indicator for evaluating the performance of the ozone generator, which is different from the power of the equipment). Unit of measurement: kwh/kgO3
Addition amount: The amount of ozone added to a certain unit of liquid or gas. Unit of measurement: g/m3, g/T
Production of unit discharge area: The amount of ozone generated per unit area of the discharge medium, which is an indicator for evaluating the performance of the discharge medium. Unit of measurement: g/m3
Dew point: is an indicator of air dryness. At what temperature the air begins to dew condensation. Unit of measurement: °C.
Inlet Air Flow: The amount of material gas entering the ozone generator discharge chamber per hour. Unit of measurement: m3 / h
Exhaust flow: The flow rate of ozonated mixed gas per hour from the generator discharge chamber. Unit of measurement: m3 / h
Intake pressure: The pressure of the material gas entering the discharge chamber of the ozone generator. Unit of measurement: MPa
Photochemical generation of ozone: A method of decomposing and polymerizing oxygen molecules by ultraviolet light to form ozone.
Chemical Ozone Production: A method of electrolyzing an oxygen-containing electrolyte to produce ozone using a DC power source.
Corona discharge method: A method in which an alternating oxygen high-voltage electric field is used to generate a corona discharge of an oxygen-containing gas, and a high-energy free electron in a corona dissociates an oxygen molecule and polymerizes to form an ozone molecule.
Air gap discharge method: A type of corona discharge in which a discharge region occurs in a region between a dielectric layer and a high voltage electrode or a low voltage electrode.
Fringe discharge method: A type of corona discharge in which a discharge region occurs at the edge of a high voltage electrode.
DTA Discharge Body: An enamel is the main dielectric ozone discharge body with high output and high concentration.
Electrode: A conductive portion that forms a conductive interface with a medium having a different electrical conductivity, and an electric conductor that distributes a high voltage electric field in the ozone generating unit.
Medium tube (plate): The basic electromagnetic field performance is a component composed of a substance polarized by an electric field. In the ozone generating unit, it is located between the two poles, resulting in a stable glow. Light discharge insulator.
Dielectric Barrier Discharge: A gas discharge phenomenon caused by an alternating voltage applied and raised in an electrode and a discharge space blocked by a dielectric.
Medium strength: The highest electric field strength that a dielectric material can withstand without being damaged.
Ozone generating unit: constitutes the most basic component for generating ozone, such as an ozone generating unit that discharges with a corona air gap as a high voltage electrode, a ground electrode, a medium, and an air gap.
Ozone generating unit: The basic component for generating ozone, consisting of a dielectric body and an electrode and a discharge space separated by it.
Ozone generation room: A device consisting of one or more groups of ozone generating units
Ozone generator: A device necessary for the production of ozone by oxygen or air through a dielectric barrier discharge.
Ozone system: Part or all of the equipment combination of ozone generator, gas source device and contact reaction device.
Standard state: The gas state at a temperature T = 273.15 K (0 ° C) and a pressure P = 101.325 kPa (standard atmospheric pressure).
Ozone:O3, composed of three oxygen atoms, is a trace component of the natural atmosphere, with an average content of 0.1-0.01 ppm, most concentrated in the stratosphere of 10~30km, tropospheric ozone Only 10%. If at zero degrees Celsius, the ozone in the atmosphere is compressed to an atmospheric pressure in the vertical direction, the thickness is only about 3 mm, which is equivalent to the thickness of two 5 cent coins stacked together. The chemistry of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere plays a very important role in maintaining the Earth's energy balance and ecological balance by absorbing solar radiation.
Ozone Layer:Ozone Layer, the atmosphere that concentrates most of the ozone in the atmosphere in the stratosphere.
Ozone depletion: Ozone Depletion, the ozone concentration in the ozone layer is in a dynamic equilibrium, maintaining a certain concentration, and the ozone concentration in the ozone layer is reduced due to other reasons, called the ozone layer loss.
Antarctic Ozone Hole:Ozone Hole, observed in the 1980s, since the end of September each year, the total amount of ozone over Antarctica has been rapidly reduced by about half, in the center of the ozone layer over the polar region, nearly 90% of ozone It is destroyed. If it is observed from the ground up, the high-altitude ozone layer is extremely thin. Compared with the surrounding, it forms a hole with a diameter of thousands of kilometers, called the “ozone hole”.
D.U.: Dobson Unit, defined as 0°C, under standard sea level pressure, 10-5m thick ozone as 1 Dobson. The Dobson spectrophotometer used to measure Dobson units was used by the World Meteorological Organization as a standard measuring instrument. "Total ozone" refers to the total thickness of the ozone column, and describes the integrated height of the column density, expressed in centimeters (STP).
TOMS:Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, an instrument equipped to measure global ozone concentrations on satellites
ODS:Ozone Depletion Substances, ozone depleting substances
ODP:Ozone Depletion Potential, the potential ability to characterize a substance causing ozone depletion. ODP is defined as the loss of O3 caused by a unit mass species divided by the O3 loss caused by the unit mass of CFC-11.
GWP:Global Warming Potential, Global Warming Potential
CFC:(Chlorofluorocarbon), chlorofluorocarbons
UV-B:Ultraviolet-B, refers to ultraviolet light with a wavelength between 290 and 320 nm
UV-C: refers to ultraviolet light with a wavelength between 320 and 400 nm.
UV-A: refers to ultraviolet light with a wavelength of less than 290 nm
SOD:Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
Freon:Freon, trade name for chlorofluorocarbons
Halons:Halon, containing bromide
Flocculation: In the chemical field, the colloid is suspended in the form of flocs or flakes. This effect differs from the precipitation in that the colloid is only suspended in the liquid and is practically insoluble in the solution prior to flocculation. In the flocculation system, no filter cake is formed because all flocs are in suspension
Antimicrobial: A substance that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms [1], such as bacteria, fungi or protozoa. Antibacterial drugs can kill microorganisms (microorganisms) or prevent microbial growth (microbial inhibition). Disinfectants are antibacterial substances used in non-biological organisms.
Corona Discharge: This is the most popular type of ozone generator for most industrial and personal uses. Although there are variations in the "hot spark" corona discharge method for ozone production, including medical grade and industrial grade ozone generators, these units typically operate through corona discharge tubes. [42] They are usually very cost effective and do not require an oxygen source other than ambient air. However, they also produce nitrogen oxides as a by-product. The use of an air dryer can reduce or eliminate the formation of nitric acid by removing water vapor and increasing ozone production. The use of an oxygen concentrator can further increase ozone production and further reduce the risk of nitrate formation by not only removing water vapor but also removing most of the nitrogen.
UV Light: Ultraviolet Ozone Generator or Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) Ozone generator uses a source of narrow-band UV light, which is part of the sun. The sun's ultraviolet rays maintain the ozone layer of the Earth's stratosphere. Although standard UV ozone generators tend to be less expensive, [need to clarify] they typically produce ozone at a concentration of about 0.5% or less. Another disadvantage of this method is that it requires exposure of air (oxygen) to the UV source for a longer period of time and does not treat any gases that are not exposed to the UV source. This makes it impractical for the UV generator to be used in the case of handling fast moving air or water streams (eg, air disinfection in a pipeline). Ozone production is one of the potential dangers of UV germicidal radiation. VUV ozone generators are used in swimming pool and spa applications and range from millions of gallons of water. Unlike corona discharge generators, VUV ozone generators do not produce harmful nitrogen by-products, and unlike corona discharge systems, VUV ozone generators work very well in humid air environments. There is also generally no need for expensive exhaust mechanisms or air dryers or oxygen concentrators that require additional cost and maintenance.
Cold Plasma: In the cold plasma method, pure oxygen is exposed to a plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge. The diatomic oxygen is split into individual atoms and then recombined in the triplet state to form ozone. The cold plasma machine uses pure oxygen as the input source to produce a maximum concentration of about 5% ozone. They produce more ozone in a given time than UV generation. However, since cold plasma ozone generators are very expensive, they are found to be less than the first two types. The discharge appears as a filamentous transfer of electrons (microdischarge) in the gap between the two electrodes. In order to evenly distribute the microdischarge, a dielectric insulator must be used to separate the metal electrodes and prevent arcing. Some cold plasma units also have the ability to produce short-lived oxygen allotropes, including O4, O5, O6, O7, and the like.
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Understanding CPU caching and performance

An introduction to the concepts of CPU caching and performance.

The memory hierarchy

I'm sure you've figured it out already, but the warehouse in our analogy is the level 1 (or L1) cache. The L1 can be accessed very quickly by the CPU, so it's a good place to keep the code and data that the CPU is most likely to request, next. (In a moment, we'll talk in more detail about how the L1 can "predict" what the CPU will probably want.) The L1's quick access time is a result of the fact that it's made of the fastest and most expensive type of static RAM, or SRAM. Since each SRAM memory cell is made up of four to six transistors (compared to the one-transistor-per-cell configuration of DRAM) its cost-per-bit is quite high. This high cost-per-bit means that we generally can't afford to have a very large L1 cache unless we really want to drive up the total cost of the system.

In most current CPUs the L1 sits on the same piece of silicon as the rest of the processor. In terms of the warehouse analogy, this is a bit like having the warehouse on the same block as the workshop. This has the advantage of giving the CPU some very fast, very close storage, but the disadvantage is that now the main memory (our suburban warehouse) is just as far away from the L1 cache as it is from the processor. So if some data that the CPU needs isn't in the L1, a situation called a cache miss, it's going to take quite a while to retrieve that data from memory. Furthermore, remember that as the processor gets faster, the main memory gets "further" away all the time. So while our warehouse may be on the same block as our workshop, the lumber yard has now moved not just out of town but out of the state. For an ultra-high-clockrate processor like the P4, being forced to wait for data to load from main memory in order to complete an operation is like our workshop having to wait a few days for lumber to ship in from out of state.

Check out the table below, which shows common latency and size information for the various levels of the memory hierarchy. (These numbers are a bit old. The current numbers are smaller and shrinking all the time). Notice the large gap in access times between the L1 cache and the main memory. For a 1 GHz CPU a 50 ns wait means 50 wasted clock cycles. Ouch. To see the kind of effect such stalls have on a modern, hyperpipelined processor, check out Part I of my P4 vs. G4e comparison.

The solution to this dilemma is to add more cache. At first you might think we could get more cache by enlarging the L1, but as I said above the cost considerations are a major factor limiting L1 cache size. In terms of our workshop analogy, we could say that rents are much higher in-town than in the suburbs, so we can't afford much warehouse space without the cost of rent eating into our bottom line to the point where the added costs of the warehouse space would outweigh the benefits of increased worker productivity. So we have to fine tune the amount of warehouse space that we rent by weighing all the costs and benefits so that we get the maximum output for the least cost.

A better solution than adding more L1 would be to rent some cheaper, larger warehouse space right outside of town to act as a cache for the L1 cache. Hence processors like the P4 and G4e have a Level 2 (L2) cache that sits between the L1 cache and main memory. The L2 cache usually contains all of the data that's in the L1 plus, some extra. The common way to describe this situation is to say that the L1 cache subsets the L2 cache, because the L1 contains a subset of the data in the L2. In the picture below, the red cells are the code and data for the process that the CPU is currently running. The blue cells are unrelated to the currently active process. (This diagram will become more clear once we talk about locality of reference.)

This series of caches, starting with the page file on the hard disk (the lumber yard in our analogy) and going all the way up to the registers on the CPU (the workshop's workbenches), is called a cache hierarchy. As we go up the cache hierarchy towards the CPU, the caches get smaller, faster, and more expensive to implement; conversely, as we go down the cache hierarchy they get larger, cheaper, and much slower. The data contained in each level of the hierarchy is usually mirrored in the level below it, so that for a piece of data that's in the L1 cache there are usually copies of that same data in the L2, main memory, and page file. So each level in the hierarchy subsets the level below it. We'll talk later about how all of those copies are kept in sync.

Level Access
Technology Managed
Registers 1-3 ns ?1 KB Custom CMOS Compiler
Level 1 Cache (on-chip) 2-8 ns 8 KB-128 KB SRAM Hardware
Level 2 Cache (off-chip) 5-12 ns 0.5 MB - 8 MB SRAM Hardware
Main Memory 10-60 ns 64 MB - 1 GB DRAM Operating System
Hard Disk 3,000,000 -
10,000,000 ns
20 - 100 GB Magnetic Operating System/User

As you can see from the above table, each level of the hierarchy is controlled by a different part of the system. Data is promoted up the hierarchy or demoted down the hierarchy based on a number of different criteria, but in the remainder of this article we'll only concern ourselves with the top levels of the hierarchy. Also, again note that these numbers are kind of old. I cobbled them together from a chart I found on the web (check the bibliography) and the Hennessy and Patterson book. More detailed numbers for P4 and G4e-based systems will be forthcoming in the next installment.

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Bas Reus' quest on self-organization and online collaborative spaces

Self-organization as concept of a system?

Posted in online collaborative spaces, self-organization by Bas Reus on November 12, 2009

The last post about ‘Systems thinking’ again showed differences in understanding of the subject. Mainly when systems thinking is compared to organizations. Can we make use of systems thinking when looking at organizations? Some think we can. Some think we can’t. That’s no surprise, as it is precarious to directly compare an organization with a system. It is very much a matter of definitions. I’m not after a discussion for definitions or understanding of a concept. My assumption (due to the earlier fruitful discussions) is that an organization is not a system, but at least it can help to apply systems thinking on organizations, as it helps to apply other thinking on organizations. The complexity and uniqueness of organizations just makes it impossible to always apply one way of thinking.

What about self-organization? It is not an organization, nor a complex adaptive system, rather, it is a process where organization spontaneously increases. Recently I was pointed to the work of the Japanese professor Iba (thanks Margaret). He’s definitely a systems thinker, especially complex systems and autopoiesis. He explains that there are many differences in theories when people are referring to systems theory. I make the mistake myself, when talking about systems thinking and systems theory. Prof. Iba gives a brief history of systems theory, that developed from 1st generation systems theory to 3rd generation.

The most interesting shift is from the 2nd to the 3rd, from self-organizing systems to autopoietic systems. Iba notes that there is a clear distinction between “self-organization” and “autopoiesis” after the revolution caused by third generation. In this context, self-organization is focused on structural formation, but autopoiesis is focused on system formation. This is where Luhmann comes in. Iba quotes him:

Autopoietic systems, then, are not only self-organizing systems, they not only produce and eventually change their own structures; their self-reference applies to the production of other components as well. This is the decisive conceptual innovation. […] Thus, everything that is used as a unit by the system is produced as a unit by the system itself. This applies to elements, processes, boundaries, and other structures and, last but not least, to the unity of the system itself.

Interesting to notice is that in the thinking of Iba (and Luhmann), self-organization and autopoiesis are concepts of a system. I thought that Luhmann couldn’t help me very much, but now I have my second thoughts on that. By applying his thinking, I conclude what is important is that organization is defined by the interplay between the elements of the system (or organization). The elements (or people) itself are not important for the system (or organization) to work, but the events and as a result the change in the elements and the system (again, or organization) due to the events are what matters.

Unfortunately, I have to compare systems and organizations once more. However, I keep struggling with it, it is not very satisfying. But if we are to understand social behavior in relation to an organization a bit more, I think self-organization or even autopoiesis can be of help. That brings back systems thinking or systems theory, at least for now, because I’m not in the process of developing a new theory here.

To conclude this post, self-organization (or autopoiesis) can apparently be seen as a concept of a system. The constant processes that come into play during self-organization makes organizations (or systems) change constantly. That is, the processes, the actors, and the whole (the organization or system). That makes an organization an almost fluid ‘thing’, like a Barbapapa. Food for thought. If that is true, how can we have an online collaborative space that functions like a fluid, as it acts as an environment (or system)?


Dry Needling: More Than Just a Fad?

March 28, 2018

It appears Dry Needling is officially here to stay. It has been a bit of a tumultuous few decades for this new modality, filled with controversy, intrigue, and misconception. Controversy regarding its safety and legality, with equal parts intrigue and misconception regarding its background and efficacy.

If you haven’t heard of it, you will. Since its explosion on to the mainstream about a decade ago, it has seen substantial increases in popularity and research. Go ahead, type in “dry needling” into Google, I’ll wait…. As you can see, the internet has exploded with courses, advertisements, testimonials, litigation, and information. With the new age of information access, it can be really difficult to sift through it all.

So, Does it work? Who can do it? Is it safe? What it is really doing? Have no fear….. We’re here to help!

What Is It?

Let’s first start by tackling what it’s NOT. Although dry needling is the use of small, filiform needles with the intention of improving neuro-musculoskeletal problems, it is certainly NOT acupuncture. No doubt they look similar; they use the same tool! But that’s just a small portion of it. Dry Needling does not identify with its Eastern Medicine cousin’s ideas on yin/yang, lines of flow, or energy meridians. It focuses much more on tangible, neuro-musculoskeletal problems, such as trigger points, flexibility, muscle recruitment, and pain reduction. Acupuncture, having been around for much longer (centuries), is a popular modality for a variety of conditions, including things like the common cold or depression, and is only within the scope of practice of a licensed acupuncturist.

Quite simply: the tool does not define the profession. Holding a hammer certainly does not make me a carpenter just the same that a calculator does not make me an accountant! Long story short: We’re different, but both effective! It is important to keep that in mind.

Book Definition: “Dry needling is a skilled intervention that uses a thin filiform needle to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points, muscular, and connective tissues for the management of neuromusculoskeletal pain and movement impairments. [It] is a technique used to treat dysfunctions in skeletal muscle, fascia, and connective tissue, and to diminish persistent peripheral nociceptive input, and reduce or restore impairments in body structure and function, leading to improved activity and participation.”1

Part of Your Plan of Care!

After an evaluation from a licensed professional, he or she may determine you would be a good candidate for dry needling. In many cases, it allows health professionals to get to places that would otherwise be difficult to reach. Deeper tissues, like the deep gluteal muscles or back stabilizers, pose a real problem due to the amount of pressure and contact force it takes to get to them. This can bring about a very uncomfortable experience… think about that aggressive sports massage you got when you were already sore…. ouch!

Dry Needling can be a bit more specific and targeted to tissue that is dysfunctional. However, it is ALWAYS part of a broader, more comprehensive approach. Dry Needling can be exceptionally supportive for managing pain or dysfunction, but it should always be incorporated with follow up and reinforcing behaviors or exercise. 2,3

What Does it Do and How Does it Work?

Without completely boring you to death with fancy, and confusing, 5 syllable words with over-the-top medical connotations, I am going to give you the cliff note version of how it all works. Essentially, it comes down to 3 concepts:

1. Trigger Points and Myofascia

2. The Nervous System

3. The Brain

Ultimately, all work together, but you might hear various treatment impacts depending on the training and beliefs of the health care practitioner you see. Inserting the needle into areas of pain, limitation, or dysfunction has been shown to change the chemical environment of the tissue (helping normalize things!) This might include increases in tissue blood flow, which might help with a healing response.

It also affects the nervous system and the brain! In the same manner that we rub our elbow when we bump it on the coffee table, the needle provides a stimulus to the brain which can override or occupy it from the current state of pain it is perceiving.

Lastly, it can improve nutrition to the nervous system. Your nerves are a pipeline to and from the brain bringing information and also nutrition. There is some evidence to support that needles close to nerves or in muscles close to nerves, can improve the quality of that transportation. This could be pain reduction, improved strength or muscle quality, or relaxation. Something like a reset provided to a locked-up computer!

The research out there says it works, although the research depth isn’t quite enough to say so completely. As with many medical tools, theorems, and practice patterns, more research is needed to study the variables at work! The land of research has not quite caught up yet to give use exact specifications about all the variables being impacted by the needle!2-4

How about an example? It is marathon season after all, and that usually means no shortage of runners with foot or ankle pain due to the mileage and beating imposed on their lower bodies. Dry Needling is very helpful in managing things like shin splints, ankle sprains, tendonitis, etc. Each of these would be evaluated first, but certainly would fall within the umbrella of management options.

Although dry needling is certainly an invasive procedure, it is typically done in the clinic. It is strongly encouraged your health care professional practice clean environment techniques, and always practice sterile needle technique.

Is This Done in the Clinic?

Yes! Although dry needling is certainly an invasive procedure, it is typically done in the clinic. It is strongly encouraged your health care professional practice clean environment techniques, and always practice sterile needle technique. Essentially, be diligent you observe them use brand new, unopened needles and dispose of them into a sharps container. Proper hand sanitation and clean work space should also be a must! Practitioners with proper training and education will adhere to these rules without question! Be diligent and ask plenty of questions. Any health care professional should have training and experience with dry needling outside of basic school education.

What Risks Should I be Concerned About?

Dry Needling is actually very low risk when performed by a person with training and in compliance with appropriate safety concerns. The most common reactions include bruising, soreness, or a small hematoma. Chances of infection are substantially small (assuming the use of clean environment and sterile needle); and the risk of serious events (things like organ damage) are very very low when dry needling is done by an educated and experienced clinician.5,6 Expect to feel sore, like workout sore, but that usually goes away in a few hours. In the meantime, keep moving! Light aerobic exercise, like riding a bike, is helpful for the soreness afterwards.

Take Home

The primary goal of Dry Needling is to desensitize supersensitive structures, to restore motion and function and to possibly induce a healing response to the tissue. For seasoned practitioners, Dry Needling is extremely beneficial for quick and tangible results on top of other movement remediation. I realize the above it not dense with research, references, and huge data. The truth is, its lacking and this write up is to ultimately give you some insight into what is out there. I would very much encourage speaking to a practicing dry needler or seek out more information!

About the Author: Chris Juneau PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS, USAW-2

Chris is a Sports Specialist and Sport Performance Trained, Physical Therapist with Memorial Hermann Ironman Sports Medicine in Houston, Texas. Chris completed his sports training and education with The University of St. Augustine, The Ohio State University, and University of Louisville.

His background and training are rooted in sports medicine and performance, hip and knee preservation management, and on-field sports care. He has spent time working with multiple orthopedic physicians and surgeons to develop post-operative protocols and procedures, and now works very closely with Dr. Alfred Mansour and the Hip Preservation Program within the University of Texas and Memorial Hermann Healthcare systems. He is currently an employee of the Ironman Sports medicine clinic with the Memorial Hermann and is involved in sports residency and internal administrative function.  He also helps as an on-field responder, coaches Olympic lifting, and provides consultation and educational resources to local school sports and other agencies.

For further questions, comments or scheduling feel free to email me at christopher.juneau@memorialhermann.org or contact our clinic at 713-526-6143

References or More Information?

The “Dry Needling in Physical Therapy” page at  ww.apta.org/StateIssues/DryNeedling features resource papers describing what the intervention is, how it is used by PTs, APTA positions, evidence, and more. The site features state resources, as well, including attorneys general opinions.

1. APTA document Description of Dry Needling in Clinical Practice: An Educational Resource Paper. www.apta.org/StateIssues/DryNeedling/

2. American Physical Therapy Association. Description of Dry Needling in Clinical Practice. http://www.apta.org/StateIssues/DryNeedling/. Published February 2013. Accessed February 9, 2015.

3. Dunning, J, Butts R, Mourad F, et al. Dry needling: a literature review with implications for clinical practice guidelines. Phys Ther Rev. 2014. 19(4): 252–265.

4. Mejuto-Vasquez MJ, Salom-Moreno J, Ortega-Santiago R, et al. Short-term changes in neck pain, widespread pressure pain sensitivity, and cervical range of motion after the application of trigger point dry needling in patients with acute mechanical neck pain: a randomized clinical trial. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2014:44(4):252-260.

5. Brady S, McEvoy J, Dommerholt J. Adverse events following trigger point dry needling: a prospective survey of chartered physiotherapists. J Man Manip Ther. 2014; 22(3): 134–140.

6. Cummings T, White A. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. Needling therapies in the management of myofascial trigger point pain: a systematic review.  2001;82(7):986-92


Why Should You Conduct Employee Satisfaction Surveys?

Employee Engagement
November 27, 2020
Taruna Lohmror

To avoid high turnover rates, you want to look at the various ways to keep your employees happy, right? Ensuring your employees are happy is also good for you and the company, seeing happier employees work harder. Studies show that they are up to 12% more productive!

This is exactly why you should conduct regular employee satisfaction surveys. So, let’s dive a little deeper and explore how this can benefit your company.

What Is An Employee Satisfaction Survey?

Employee Satisfaction Survey

The main purpose of the employee satisfaction survey is to allow management better insight into how they can improve systems and processes that are in place. It also allows management to see exactly where they need to improve by identifying common areas in which employees feel unsatisfied or frustrated.

With the results gathered from the survey, ideally, the point is to promote a positive and inclusive work culture. With surveys, companies can listen to employees' needs and work toward creating an environment where employees feel valued and included.

Why Do Companies Need To Conduct An Employee Engagement Satisfaction Survey?

Importance of Employee Satisfaction Survey

1. It Boosts Employee Engagement

It Boosts Employee Engagement

Employees that are engaged will go the extra mile to reach their role targets. So, you want to make sure that they are engaged.

2. Allows For Better Understanding

Allows For Better Understanding

Have you given thought to how employees are feeling? What are their attitudes (both positive and negative)? How do they feel about any changes that have taken place? Do they agree or disagree with them?

3. Insights Into The Growth Of Organizations

Insights Into The Growth Of Organizations

4. Allows Employees To Be Heard

Allows Employees To Be Heard

The survey allows employees to have a platform where they can express their views freely in a safe space. Anonymous surveys are an excellent way to get deeper and more honest insights. This is because your employees know that they won’t face any repercussions for giving their opinions.

5. Predicts And Reduces Employee Turnover

Predicts And Reduces Employee Turnover

High employee turnover rates are a concern for companies because it has its own repercussions regarding time and money invested in employees.

Surveys provide valuable insights into how to limit the number of employees that think of leaving. Asking the right questions enables you to get a clear picture of how happy your employees are at their jobs. It can also highlight what employees want and need in terms of their careers in the long run.

Factors That Contribute To Employee Satisfaction

employee satisfaction factors

Let us go through some employee satisfaction factors:

1. Financial Stability And Salary

For employees, it could be that everything related to job satisfaction comes second to knowing that the company they work for isn’t going to go out of business soon. Financial security takes a lot of stress off one’s shoulders. So, it makes sense that this is a top contributor to employee satisfaction.

Check this out to understand the "Importance of Employee Satisfaction Surveys."

2. Appreciation

Not all employees will always feel confident or free enough to speak openly about feeling undervalued. There could be times when they’ve thought that their hard work has gone unnoticed. A simple ‘thank you’ goes a long way in ensuring that your employees feel valued and appreciated.

3. Good Relationships With Colleagues And Management

Often, poor relationships with co-workers or managers can make facing the workday just a little tougher. A lot of the time, the unpleasantness experienced could be resolved through effective communication. Perhaps even some team-building activities or a weekly team lunch would help?

Having good working relationships contributes to employee satisfaction in many ways. It makes them feel better about going into work, boosts productivity and morale, and contributes to a more positive work environment.

4. Work-Life Balance

They want to spend time with their families and friends and have time for their hobbies and other things they love. This is especially true when it comes to millennials. More than 80% say that a key consideration for a new job is how it will affect their work-life balance.

5. Career Development

Employees want to know that the company they’re working for has a keen interest in advancing their careers. Do companies afford them opportunities to learn new skills or build on those they are good at and passionate about?

Sample Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions To Include

Sample Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions To Include

Include these 16 Questions to measure Employee Satisfaction level in your Organization.

  1. What are your thoughts on the company’s culture?
  4. How open are managers to feedback?
  6. Is important company news communicated regularly and clearly?
  8. Is there visible transparency from management?
  9. Is the workload distributed evenly?
  10. How meaningful do you think your work is?
  11. Is there enough attention given to career development?
  12. Are you adequately equipped to do your job?
  13. Are job roles and responsibilities clearly defined?

Read these "20 Employee Engagement Survey Questions" that will make the survey more interesting.

Final Thoughts

When thinking about the costs of training new employees and dealing with high turnover rates compared with the benefits of employee satisfaction surveys, the decision is a no-brainer. Once you’ve seen the results, you’ll soon discover that employee satisfaction surveys are well worth the time and effort.

Make conducting your regular surveys easier with Empuls by Xoxoday. You can create your own surveys or choose from our templates to make sure that you’re asking the right questions.

Empuls makes it easy for you to see the results of your surveys and put them into perspective so that you can see how your employee satisfaction improves over time. By doing so, you will start to see how the simplest changes can result in much happier employees!

Guide To Action For Empuls Engagement Survey: Employee Recognition And Career Growth
Originally published on
November 27, 2020
Updated on
December 28, 2020
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At What Age Does Vision Start To Decline?

Is 5 eyesight bad?

These are rare, though, so no cause for alarm.

How can I improve my eyesight after 40?

Fortunately, people with presbyopia now have many options to improve their vision….Encountering problems with near vision after 40Eyeglasses, including reading glasses, bifocals, and progressive lenses.Contact lenses, including monovision and multifocal lenses.Laser surgery and other refractive surgery procedures.

Is minus 2.75 eyesight bad?

Does eyesight get worse as you age?

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