Inviting construction: Primark, Rana Plaza and Political LEGO

Collective Construction Using Lego Robots

Social insects, such as ants and termites, collectively build large and complex structures, with many individuals following simple rules and no centralized control or planning [Theraulaz and Bonabeau 1995, Camazine et al. 2002]. Such swarm systems have many desirable properties: a high level of parallelism, cheap and expendable individuals, and robustness to loss, addition, and errors of indivi...

Three Dimensional World Construction with LEGO Blocks

In this project a 3-dimensional virtual world is consructed with the use of a LEGO camera and a set of LEGO blocks. The goal is to design a construction method that is simple enough for middle school-aged children to use and at the same time is able to produce quality models for higher end users. The method was developed using RoboLab and involves a one-camera view of Lego blocks that are arran...

Globalized Garment Systems: Theories on the Rana Plaza Disaster and Possible Localist Responses

“Mass casualty management (Rana Plaza Tragedy) in secondary military hospital-anesthesiologist experience: case study”

Major challenges in the management of mass casualty have been identified as lack of human resources, lack of material resources, lack of communication and co-ordination. Our hospital has limited resources of manpower and disposable items. The Departments of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care have been seriously disrupted by the influx of 155 severely injured patients following the collapse of a...

Inviting affordances and agency

Recently several authors have suggested that affordances are not mere possibilities for action but can also invite behavior. This reconceptualization of affordances asks for a reconsideration of the ecological approach to agency. After a portrayal of the role of agency in ecological psychology, we draw upon phenomenology to reveal what it means for an agent to be invited by affordances. We sket...