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Friday, December 2

L' altezza
by
Sal Fiore
on Fri 02 Dec 2011 06:22 PM GMT
Tra gli idiomi utilizzati dalla mafia vi e’ l’altezza’. Per un mafioso un individuo non e’ alto quando non e’ mafioso o non lo vuole diventare.
L’altezza, utile attributo per apparire. Resta molto complicato comunque dover spiegare l’altezza mentale, e forse dovremmo utilizzare una scala metrica. Basterebbe invertirla per poter poi parlare di regressione dell’intelligenza e di un vedere sempre piu’ illuminato. La trasparenza allora, potrebbe non avere altezza, le ombre sono chiaramente visibili e per cui discutendone possiamo valutare. La valutazione dell’altezza intesa come liberazione dall’ambiguita degli oggetti fisici e mentali, e’ stata dibattuta nel tempo. Come potrebbe un bambino afferrare la costante scivolosa ambiguita’ degli oggetti se non con la metafora? Allora, il parlare mafioso e’ sicuramente primordiale: la metafora ingabbia, il simbolo inganna. Non trasliamo liberamente un concetto con metafore, poiche’ gli oggetti scivolano dalla nostra attenzione. L’essere umano mostra un livello di attenzione e di uno solo potrebbe parlarne. Immaginiamo cosa significhi veramente dire: "rifletto sul fatto che rifletto" senza pronunciar parola. Mentre sembra piu’ umanamente possibile notare l’oggetto mentre se ne riflette l’uso e le circostanze che ne hanno determinato l’esistenza. Allora si potrebbe parlare di una mafiosita’ storicamente nulla. L’ideologia non avendo storia ne fagocita l’esistenza: cosi’ e’ sempre stato.
L’altezza puo’ allora sfuggire tra varie mafioserie. E si sente dire davvero: non essere all’altezza. Non capire, non afferrare il giusto senso delle cose, essere fuori dal giro, essere estraneo, l’alienazione dell’ ermeneutica sempre nascente, ossia nulla. E potrebbe essere solo questo: un inganno della mente in una comunita’ che sfugge il proprio essere. L’altezza intesa come intelligenza e’ vana poiche’ multiple intelligenze evolvono in un singolo individuo, variano con il variare della percezione degli oggetti, ma l’intelligenza dovra’ necessariamente legarsi alla storia. L’altezza e’ anche primitiva, se ci si posiziona guardando verso un futuro immediato; l’altezza e’ quindi degli esseri cosi’ definiti superiori in una data comunita’. Il potere ne conosce l’uso per tale metafora e sa ben dosare le altezze relative.
L’altezza non e’ quindi universale, una cosa, per cosi’ dire scientifica, almeno per quella di cui ne possiamo parlare ora, in questo istante, senza scale metriche.
E’ indubbiamente una definizione che sfugge al nuovo arrivato, al diverso; infatti possiamo essere certamente sicuri che con il potere magico delle metafore possiamo anche non parlare della stessa altezza. La storia dell’uomo e con essa l’esperienza del vivere pervade la metafora. Allora si trattera’ di intravedere in una "pratica delle altezze" la possibile realizzazione dei nostri pensieri desiderosi di altezza piu’ che di cercarla attraverso i nostri sensi in una definizione linguistica.
La mafia impone per questo l’interpretazione delle metafore, con i suoi simbolismi, le procedure violente, l’efficacia della morte, la perversione della mente disumana che non coglie l’effetto devastante della mancata applicazione delle metafore al di fuori dell’esperienza. Il bambino impara le metafore precocemente. L’esperto maestro ne facilita l’uso nella vita, e trasparentemente integra l’esperienza puerile con la didattica facendo leva sulla metafora. La mancata capacita’ nel relazionare le metafore e’ vissuta poco gradevolmente dall’infante, e con molta caparbieta’ il maestro non vedra’ le limitazioni della didattica in questo senso. La mancata possibilita’ di traslare o applicare le stesse metafore in contesti diversi e’ vissuta dall’infante come una scoperta, per l’adulto come una limitazione della propria esperienza, per il mafioso questo avra’ un effetto traumaticamente aberrante. In realta’ le metafore sono legate al contesto che le genera.
Quest’ idioma, per cosi’ dire chiave, per l’essere mafioso, cosi’ indiscussamente ricercato tra le varie caratteristiche degli individui potenzialmente mafiosi, poco affidabile dal punto di vista linguistico poiche’ non cede ad una costante nel tempo e’ gia sempre pieno di una carica espressiva. L’altezza degli aristocratici, cosi’ reverita nel tempo, ha sempre avuto una origine oscura per il popolo che con i suoi simboli, tradizioni, consuetudini ne ha rafforzato il significato. Essere potente significa quindi anche ’essere alto’ e non necessariamente nel significato di avere una determinata statura ma nel senso di essere in grado di vedere chiaro, essere lungimirante, avere caratteristiche peculiari a coloro che in passato hanno prodotto ricchezza ma probabilmente anche nel senso di essere la chiave dei segreti inconfessabili per elevarsi in altezza.
Essendo la natura dell’uomo che ha potere su altri uomini perversa, e definitivamente anche ambivalente. Cosi’ come l’emozione, il cui significato si perde nei tempi che ne determinarono l’esistenza in essere, l’altezza dimostra l’ inefficacia nella violenza della propria espressione.
Per il mafioso, il tempo memorabile, regno delle passate illusioni, e’ solo dei tardivi o di coloro che non colgono tale essenza. L’origine dell’altezza e’ quindi inscritta tra sguardi, emozioni, illusioni, evanescenti situazioni, ambiguita’ di informali codici di vita urbana, misinterpretazioni, vanifica l’esistenza con il trionfo dell’ideologia. E’ ormai arcinota l’espressione con cui un mafioso si difende una volta vista l’impossibilita’ dell’esecuzione maestrale delle sue metafore: "mi scusi ma non capisco", "mi scusi ma non ricordo".
Il mafioso (e qui si legga camorrista, ndranghetano e l’affiliato o il simpatizzante di tutte le altre associazioni non libere che hanno scopo di lucro con l’uso coercitivo della volonta dell’individuo") profondamente indottrinato non riconosce nei rituali giornalieri i propri limiti esistenziali, discredita colui che lo aiuta a verificare l’esistenza del pensiero ideologico nel suo parlare. Per il mafioso, allora, la scuola reale dove si legge, si impara, si discute, si critica, sara’ tutta una perdita di tempo poiche’ il solo "do ut des" regna tra le parti.
Wednesday, August 18

Energie senza confini
by
Sal Fiore
on Wed 18 Aug 2010 01:36 PM BST
Contro la proliferazione a dismisura delle rinnovabili nelle terre pugliesi.
Il pannello solare, questo sconosciuto ai contadini, cosi' misterioso, cosi' ... more »
Tuesday, December 29

La massa inerte
by
Sal Fiore
on Tue 29 Dec 2009 07:13 AM GMT
La globalizzazione e', a detta di molti, cosa inevitabile.
Tale affermazione riconduce il pensiero a valori di liberta' e democrazia ... more »
Tuesday, January 1

IADIS - WWW/Internet conference 2006
by
Sal Fiore
on Tue 01 Jan 2008 06:17 PM GMT
This is a video of the presentation of a research paper on online shopping and sound. The paper was presented at the IADIS WWW/Internet 2006 conference in Murcia, Spain. This conference is so relaxed and accessible that makes it a very nice experience accessible to everybody and not only to the intellectual elite caste. more »
Tuesday, December 25

Local and global quality provisions: dissonances in resource management at the University of Wolverhampton
by
Sal Fiore
on Tue 25 Dec 2007 03:26 PM GMT
This essay examines issues of availability, allocation and management of resources at the University of Wolverhampton. Specifically, it explores dissonances for quality and equality created by the provision of courses designed for commercial profit, in the context of a global competitive market of HE. more »
Saturday, September 8

The lack of a cohesive strategy for the implementation of peer review at the University of Wolverhampton
by
Sal Fiore
on Sat 08 Sep 2007 01:03 PM BST
This essay examines the process of strategic management in the development of a plan to implement a university-wide peer review scheme at the University of Wolverhampton. The failure in implementing such scheme should be attributed to lack of communication, cohesion and planning amongst various executives and senior managers. more »
Monday, May 7

Surveying the use of sound in online stores: Practices, possibilities and pitfalls for user experience
by
Sal Fiore
on Mon 07 May 2007 09:27 PM BST
Taking human experience rather than commerce as a starting point, sound reveals to be essential (to hearing people) whereas from a commercial perspective, it can be seen as a welcome luxury as long as technological hurdles can be overcome. The lack of sound in so many websites we surveyed is a failing which reveals the influence of commercial interests in making the contemporary World Wide Web a very quite place. Retailers need to do more than exploit techniques for representing the hedonic aspects of products and should be looking at ways of enriching websites with sound to represent products more completely, yet in a way that does more than make purchase decisions easier or more fun, by actually contributing to giving people a means to express and experience for themselves what they think and feel about a product. more »
Thursday, May 3

An analysis and critical evaluation of strategies for educational improvement at the University of Wolverhampton
by
Sal Fiore
on Thu 03 May 2007 12:31 AM BST
This essay explores current strategies for educational improvement at the University of Wolverhampton. Commencing with a very brief ‘macro-analysis’ of the external context in which the University operates, the first three paragraphs explore the purpose of HE today, the prevailing concepts of quality assurance and improvement and the role of strategic management approaches in setting the agenda for educational improvement in a market-driven sector. Here the emphasis is upon exploring how the macro-environment influences and shapes the possibilities for educational improvement within the institution.
Further, with a micro analysis, an examination of strategies for educational improvement at the University of Wolverhampton is carried out. Critical examination of some themes within the learning and teaching strategy, particularly widening participation and lifelong learning focuses upon some of the factors impacting upon the achievement of stated aims and the implications such aims can have. Criticisms focus on dynamics created by strategic approaches to quality which may harm the quality of provision. more »
Saturday, April 7

The gendering of roles in higher educational leadership and management: Inequality in diversity
by
Sal Fiore
on Sat 07 Apr 2007 01:28 AM BST
Through theoretical understanding and a series of conversations with female Vice-Chancellors, this paper highlights the tenuous nature of certain knowledge claims about women, reported throughout the management literature. It further lends support to the assertion that leadership roles held by women are socially constructed rather than intrinsic to the gender. The methodology adopted, a series of semi-structured interviews, has enabled the author to raise issues related to equal opportunities and equality in Higher Education, with regard to leadership and management. Although not statistically documented, the research presents discussions and reflections on themes which are subject to discussion and current debate in educational management and leadership literature. The paper concludes that it is important to discuss further the concept of masculinity and femininity in educational leadership and management, suggesting that femininity is an untapped source of diversity, which should be explored not only by women, but also men in senior management positions within educational organisations. more »
Sunday, April 1

A Pragmatist Aesthetics approach to the Design of a technological artefact
by
Sal Fiore
on Sun 01 Apr 2007 07:54 AM BST
We describe work in developing an approach to the design of technological artefacts based in pragmatist aesthetics, grounding ideas in a developing case study, representing one possible way in which such a conceptual approach, which we see as essentially empathic, may evolve. From a conception of designer as creative and intersubjective subject, we explore the difficulties and possibilities in designing empathically for blind experience. We propose appropriation as a basis for sighted designers to build empathy with users by understanding blind experience as aesthetic. Various phases of appropriation provide a way of developing empathy and increasing agency in design. more »
Friday, March 30

Supporting Design for Aesthetic Experience
by
Sal Fiore
on Fri 30 Mar 2007 09:43 PM BST
In this paper, a review of some recent advances in thestudy of experience in HCI highlights developments towards an emphasis on the aesthetic and the subjective in design and use of electronic artefacts. A framework for the conceptualisation of user aesthetic experience is then presented, inspired by theorists from disciplines outside the traditional HCI matrix. The framework emphasises the relation between users and designers as co-constructors of experience and allows for physical, emotional and intellectual qualities in aesthetic experiences. The work represents one phase in an ongoing research program to develop a methodology for understanding and designing to support user experience, at a time of change towards humanist concerns in HCI. more »
Friday, March 23

All that is language between us
by
Sal Fiore
on Fri 23 Mar 2007 01:03 PM GMT
Following current developments on the scene of design and research practice for HCI, we have augmented the understanding we may have of our roles as prescribed by society. Seeking a pragmatic way of developing our understanding of what it is to design technology, we argue the role of designers to be more than we perceive of ourselves. In particular, we propose envisaging such roles in a broader context concerning how actions relate to a community, to language and to the vocabularies that constitute the role. Our call is for a greater openness to wider communities and a complete abandonment of the fallacy of objectivity. Most importantly, we try to establish hope for a reweaving of beliefs and a move beyond method to free our roles as agents rather than seeing them directed from external imagined sources. more »
Sunday, July 23

Designing unscientifically for experience
by
Sal Fiore
on Sun 23 Jul 2006 12:05 PM BST
HCI approaches centering on designing for experience rather than task completion attempt to address a need for computational artefacts that are enjoyable, fun, appealing or meaningful. Tracing historical influences on computer science and user interface design, we highlight some limitations of resulting scientific approaches to design for experience. An example of an information display based on the concepts of ‘informative art’ illustrates a means of overcoming some of the limitations through a more holistic approach. more »
Friday, September 30

Designing invisible objects: A case study in empathy and appropriation
by
Sal Fiore
on Fri 30 Sep 2005 05:05 PM BST
Current work involves examining the implications and possibilities of adopting a pragmatist aesthetics perspective in HCI. Specifically, emphasis is on pursuing a better understanding of how the practice of designing technological artefacts may be an aesthetic experience resulting in the construction of objects that form the focus for reflection and meaning-making. In this position paper, we discuss the initial phases of a developing case study addressing the challenge for sighted designers of constructing such a technological artefact for blind people. The case study, adopting qualities of a pragmatist aesthetics approach, highlights the implications for design of the inseparability of acts of creating and appropriating objects and emphasises the role of empathy in designing and the search for the aesthetic in design more »
Tuesday, April 12

Agency, interaction and disability: Making sense through autobiographical accounts
by
Sal Fiore
on Tue 12 Apr 2005 12:57 AM BST
An approach to Interaction Design emphasising the emotional-volitional construction of experiences with technology as sensual, emotional and embodied, can lead to a betterunderstanding of how to support blind people‘s experiences with interactive technologies ina meaningful way. In this paper we discuss how understanding and interpretation ofautobiographical accounts by people with vision loss, has provided opportunity for reflectionover how people build meaningful experiences without sight. Such critical reflection emphasises the significance of emotion and agency in making artefacts meaningful, rather than just usable, for blind users. An interpretive approach to the texts, supports a notion ofthe designer(s) as creative, empathic subject(s). The research forms a part of a larger project exploring the means and dynamics suggested by a pragmatist aesthetics approachto creating artefacts that help designers understand the world in different ways. more »
Thursday, September 23

Oppressive Interactions: Betweeen expression and imagination
by
Sal Fiore
on Thu 23 Sep 2004 02:03 PM BST
Language connects people. It helps communicate felt meaning and turns otherwise nondescript occurrences into meaningful experiences. Transformation into meaningfulness is the result of language operating through the actions of a community (Dewey, 1958). In this sense, language helps distinguish humans from other animals. For example, humans can not only feel the heat from a radiator and want to be near it out of pure instinct.. more »
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