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"Socially engaged art has the capacity to coax new shared understandings out of the darkness and confusion we're facing at the moment."

"Can you remember the last time you woke up and didn't think we were living through a crisis?"

R.M. Sanchez-Camus, cofounder of the UK-based social practice arts community Social Art Network (SAN), likes to ask this question at conferences and workshops. "The urgency and adrenaline [it] causes is precisely the space that socially engaged artists are inhabiting fearlessly, producing work in response to the time we are living in," he says.

Social practice art - often defined as collaborative, community-driven work that engages with social issues - has emerged as a powerful approach for artists confronting current political and social challenges, especially in the UK. "I see this as the current avant-garde of art-making today," says Sanchez-Camus, "working against what art has become in the era of late capitalism and market-driven economies."

Earlier this year, Kickstarter teamed up with SAN to mentor nine artists and artist teams as they prepared to launch projects on Kickstarter. The pairing solidifies the idea that collaboration lies at the center of art-making's future, says Sanchez-Camus. "The clear link between collaboratively made artworks and crowdfunding allows a much larger audience to participate in the making of the work and share in the incredible reward that is socially engaged art-making."

We chatted with artists mentored by SAN, whose projects are live on Kickstarter now, about the importance of social practice art at this pivotal moment in time.

My work is all about the language of social inequality, which feels more and more important in an increasingly divided world. I see social practice art as an accessible and engaging way of highlighting these issues while actually bringing people along on the journey.

The UK can be a very fragmented and tribal place. (I'm not saying this is new. I do not think we should falsely romanticise days gone by; we have been battling institutional issues and divisions throughout history.) We're navigating our way through so much information that we risk losing nuance and the space to understand each other better. I'm trying to create more space for that nuance, for that considered thought. I want to give people equal footing to stand tall and be proud of who they are. I'm fighting for a better feminism.

From S.M.I.L.E (SEND ME INSPIRING LOVING ENERGY)

Kay Rufai, S.M.I.L.E (SEND ME INSPIRING LOVING ENERGY)
A photographic journey across Europe to connect strangers through smiling.
As a marginalised group, we don't have the luxury to just create art for art's sake. There are too many challenges being faced by people who look like me and have various intersections of discriminations - the work I/we create has to be actively speaking to these biases, empowering minority groups, and creating opportunities for wider spectrums of visibility in a bid to challenge one-dimensional stereotypes, lazy, one-sided narratives, racism, xenophobia, and all forms of bigotry, which has become more rife in our society today. I hope to speak to these issues through my work, especially shattering stereotypes and misperceptions of minority groups in the wake of Brexit.

I believe there is a dire urgency for reimagining our society, particularly in the UK right now, but also further afield. Socially engaged artists are in a unique place to take such work forward in our current social and political climate. We operate in the margins, in uncertain places; at its best, socially engaged art has the capacity to coax new shared understandings out of the darkness and confusion we're facing at the moment. It operates alongside and within other networks, most obviously grassroots activism.

Socially engaged art has the capacity to coax new shared understandings out of the darkness and confusion we're facing at the moment.

-Ian Nesbitt

For me personally, at the moment, I'm looking at ways to be together. When the Brexit vote happened I knew that my work as an artist had to more directly and urgently address the upheaval in our society. At that point, I began making work that sets out to bring people together through large, collective projects focusing on what we have that we can share, rather than how we are different. Back in 2016, in the week Donald Trump was elected, I produced a text work that states, "To challenge the politics of isolation, we need tactics for togetherness." Ultimately, this Kickstarter project can be understood as an enactment of that statement.

Today's world feels as though it is constantly turning away from art, and everyone equates it with excess, snobbery, and elitism. And they're right. We need art to be more - not merely another tool in the hands of the powerful. At a time when divisions are rife within our society, we need art to be our shelter, to be a refuge.

At a time when divisions are rife within our society, we need art to be our shelter, to be a refuge.

- John Davis

The art world is a law unto itself, a home to the corrupt, the filthy rich, and the opportunist. Art has been weaponized into yet another investment to be made. It feels like a duty to be done - we need to give art back to people, to convince them that it is for them, not just for the elite, that they can own original work, and [remind them] how wonderful and special it is. Equally, beyond that, we as a society are facing huge issues - economically, environmentally, politically, and in many other ways. Social practice art has a huge role to play in helping us face, and in many cases overcome, the problems that affect our world.

Sharon Bennett: Social practice is an emergent field that brings a much wider audience and society close to artists and creating work. It's a way to test out and experiment with new social paradigms and models, tapping into the genii of artists and bringing them out of the gallery ghettos. It is my belief that art is fundamental to being human; all small children draw and make things with their hands, live in their imaginations. If we can bring art into society in a bigger way - if we can "normalise" creative practice - we can do a huge amount of good and healing.

Sarah Dixon: In my work I am interested in looking at the customs and practices we take for granted or that go unexamined, and asking, "What power myths are being perpetuated here?" Becoming a mother was particularly significant, and I have some work addressing the way women get "invisibilised" when they have children, and how they have done throughout history. This is manifest in capitalism, in advertising, in the news, magazines, in the law, in our institutions... and in art galleries. This mismatch is deeply uncomfortable and can be damaging. In my work I want to reveal to people the ways in which they are following unwritten rules and ask them to reconsider - to ask, "Who made these rules, and why? Who do they serve?" and, ultimately, "Why am I doing this, and could I do something more fulfilling with my time?"

Davina Drummond: Social practice art is crucial in today's world because people want to be part of the creative process and be an audience to artworks that they can relate to.

We think there is a major shift in how we think about contemporary art and its role in society now. There have always been major shifts, from conceptualism to modernism, and this shift sees us moving away from traditional object-based work to meaning-making that happens through conversation and debate, which can lead to social change. This social and active engagement allows the public to be an integral part of meaning-making, where it becomes a collective act, making art accessible and inviting.

As the arts are being cut in education and art funding pots get smaller and smaller each year (plus the current political situation in the UK), we need other ways to educate people, especially children, who are now more than ever becoming more aware of the political, environmental, and social changes. We want [our] magazine to be a part of the ongoing movement to change the world, one art project at a time.

With global populations increasingly concentrated in cities and urban areas, there is a real need to ensure that urban environments are conducive to well-being. Cities are complex, multi-authored habitats, in need of constant renewal and care. At regular intervals we need to reevaluate how the built environment is serving the needs of its communities and enhancing vitality. Also to ensure that meanwhile use spaces [temporarily vacant spaces that can be used for meetings and events, like pop-ups] - those in-between lives - are utilised for creative and cultural purposes.

Especially in times of uncertain political or economic futures, coming together through social art is ever more important to connect with others on a human level, build trust, and forge new ways of being through understanding and unity. Through coming together to add colour - in a myriad of ways - we can spark and create new creative possibilities for a space, foster a sense of local pride, cultivate agency, and improve communication and social cohesion.

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Ten Artists on What Social Practice Means to Them

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"Can you remember the last time you woke up and didn't think we were living through a crisis?" R.M. Sanchez-Camus, cofounder of the UK-based social practice arts community Social Art Network (SAN), likes to ask this question at conferences and workshops.

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Learning on Screen - The British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council

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The research found that Top Trumps:    Assists with Numeracy    Develops strategic & tactical play    Builds knowledge – base for special subjects    Enhances reading skills    Builds concentration levels    Encourages interactive play    Aids memory and fact-finding skills    Helps social skills like sharing and taking turns

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The research found that Top Trumps:    Assists with Numeracy    Develops strategic & tactical play    Builds knowledge – base for special subjects    Enhances reading skills    Builds concentration levels    Encourages interactive play    Aids memory and fact-finding skills    Helps social skills like sharing and taking turns

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https://toptrumps.com/classics/

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Top Trumps Classics are packed full of stats and facts on all your favourite topics. Outsmart your opponents, and discover new & exciting facts.

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 It is estimated air pollution kills over 100 Lambeth residents each year and leads to 750 emergency hospital admissions

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 It is estimated air pollution kills over 100 Lambeth residents each year and leads to 750 emergency hospital admissions

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https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2023/02/lambeth-council-adopts-the-air-quality-action-plan/

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Lambeth Council adopts the Air Quality Action Plan

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Lambeth Council has announced that it has adopted the Air Quality Action Plan, and outlined how it will "improve air quality and protect those most at risk from the effects of pollution and toxic air."

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Our patented Florafelt living wall systems will help you create a vibrant vertical garden or impressive green wall feature. Learn how easy it is to install large-scale professional living walls to easy DIY home gardens, practically anywhere.

Photo: Florafelt Pocket Panel Living Walls for MGM Cotai Macau by Birkdale International.

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When you plant a living wall you are creating a living ecosystem. Plants grow together and morph into a complex forest. Unlike container gardening, Florafelt allows plants to forever expand into a living ecological biome because roots and microbiology become one with the system.

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Grow a Garden Anywhere with Florafelt Living Wall Systems Our patented Florafelt living wall systems will help you create a vibrant vertical garden or impressive green wall feature. Learn how easy it is to install large-scale professional living walls to easy DIY home gardens, practically anywhere.

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Install green screening/climbers around the
exposed edible garden and eastern edge of
the playground in place of the iron railings and
bamboo screening. It might also be
considered on the sides of the building that
flank Romero Close, which would double as a
means of increasing the prominence of the
school if incorporating the school emblem or
name. A dense vegetation layer with a high
leaf density can catch some pollutant and
particulates and hang on to them until they can
be washed away by rainfal

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    Improves air quality through oxygen production and fine dust absorption    Plants increases productivity and creativity    Vertical greenery requires little space    Improves the living, learning and working environment    Promotes health, wellbeing and biodiversity

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    Improves air quality through oxygen production and fine dust absorption    Plants increases productivity and creativity    Vertical greenery requires little space    Improves the living, learning and working environment    Promotes health, wellbeing and biodiversity

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Le Musee du quai Branly , Paris

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School is generally set well back from the surrounding main roads and screened by terracedhousing, limited screening around an area of the playground and edible garden near main roadand busy bus stop. 

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School is generally set well back from the surrounding main roads and screened by terracedhousing, limited screening around an area of the playground and edible garden near main roadand busy bus stop. 

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A portion of the playground wrapsaround the south of the main building, and includes the sports pitches uses for P.E., and the easternfringes of this area are more exposed to the higher levels of emissions from Stockwell Road.

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A portion of the playground wrapsaround the south of the main building, and includes the sports pitches uses for P.E., and the easternfringes of this area are more exposed to the higher levels of emissions from Stockwell Road.

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Many injustices (and toxins!) are invisible due to distance, ideology, or simple chemistry. If you can’t see it, you can’t change it. So, the first task of an activist is often to make the invisible visible.

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In big cities, getting from place to place is just another part of everyday life, but constant pollution from structures like busy motorways is damaging our health in more ways than we might realise. In addition to the long-term effects like heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory issues, air pollution has been shown to actually reduce our cognitive ability. An exciting new installation in London is set to tackle this issue through design.
Design studio Fieldwork Facility aims to combat the awful health effects of air pollution through supergraphics, engaging local minds on their everyday travels.

Following their 'Plants not Pollution' project, the studio were invited by Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council to design some supergraphics for the Hammersmith flyover; a popular throughfare for pedestrians and cyclists, under an elevated motorway in London.

The puzzles' difficulty are specifically designed to ensure they can't be solved in the duration it takes to pass by, as the aim is to keep minds engaged as they travel through each day.

The studio, whose focus on communication, innovation and place, took the opportunity to ask the question of how design can help counter the negative effects air pollution has on local commuters and residents. After discovering that air pollution degenerates our cognitive ability, the project 'Brain Teasers' was created to keep passers-by stimulated with riddles and mazes.

Painted in bright colours across the grey walls of the flyover, the murals immediately catch our attention. The puzzles' difficulty are specifically designed to ensure they can't be solved in the duration it takes to pass by, as the aim is to keep minds engaged as they travel through each day.

Can you solve any of the puzzles?

Want to learn more about how design can improve HEALTH ...? Read MORE here

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A mural for your thoughts - What Design Can Do

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In big cities, getting from place to place is just another part of everyday life, but constant pollution from structures like busy motorways is damaging our health in more ways than we might realise. In addition to the long-term effects like heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory issues, air pollution has been shown to actually reduce our cognitive ability.

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 Role of Social Influence Processes in Social ChangeSocial change is the shift or change in society's beliefs, behaviours and attitudes, it is a continuous but gradual change and is usually, minority influence is the driving force behind societal changes. Minority viewpoints slowly win over the majority, making society itself change    Minorities can change their beliefs, behaviours and the attitudes, usually through consistency, commitment and flexibility     As people slowly convert to the minority, it has the snowball effect, where it gets bigger and bigger and becomes the majority     Social change is a slow process, it allows the change to be gradual and not disrupt social order     Many of those who use to hold the older unpopular beliefs have Social Cryptoamnisa, where they deny holding the old now popular beliefs or that they resisted change     Minorities often used informed social influence to change the majorities beliefs, which can lead to internalisation    Governments can bring social change quickly by changing laws to implement it and upholding those laws

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 Role of Social Influence Processes in Social ChangeSocial change is the shift or change in society's beliefs, behaviours and attitudes, it is a continuous but gradual change and is usually, minority influence is the driving force behind societal changes. Minority viewpoints slowly win over the majority, making society itself change    Minorities can change their beliefs, behaviours and the attitudes, usually through consistency, commitment and flexibility     As people slowly convert to the minority, it has the snowball effect, where it gets bigger and bigger and becomes the majority     Social change is a slow process, it allows the change to be gradual and not disrupt social order     Many of those who use to hold the older unpopular beliefs have Social Cryptoamnisa, where they deny holding the old now popular beliefs or that they resisted change     Minorities often used informed social influence to change the majorities beliefs, which can lead to internalisation    Governments can bring social change quickly by changing laws to implement it and upholding those laws

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Design team

Anna Rank, Nicola Albertin, Tiago Arieira, Ashley Munday, Clive Lewis

Did the project take an intersectional approach? In that it focused on the east london community to support dialogue about the issues of invisible pollution

How could have it been more inclusive?  By focusing on the communities that we know are most affected, in poorer boroughs of London and those near the south circular road.

What were the project's assets (what did the different collaborators contribute E.g. material resources, time, expertise)?

the building structure that contained 11,000 litres of air (what we breathe in a day)
Time
Photography
bold graphic artwork by Art + Believe

What was the action (how did they contribute, what was produced?)

An installation using interactive and immersive digital and lighting technologies to provide real-time data on London’s pollution.

What was the project agenda (why did the project happen, what was the purpose)?
Creating a space for people to  understand the impacts of air pollution, and to support a dialogue around what can be done to make moving through cities more healthy and fulfilling.

How might these terms relate to your own emerging team project in Creative Unions?  I think we need to consider the agenda more, in order to create an outcome that impacts or addresses the potential for social change.

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Hassell | Breathing Space, London Design Festival

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Transforming an overlooked public square in East London, Breathing Space gave festival goers just that - a place for time out. The installation used interactive and immersive digital and lighting technologies to provide real-time data on London’s pollution. With its bold graphic artwork by Art +…

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onitor air quality warnings and take action on poor air quality days. On days when pollution levels are high, taking action can help reduce the risk of harm to those who are most vulnerable. Reducing overall car usage and avoiding idling your car can help on days with high levels of ozone pollution. Save refueling and use of gas-powered yard equipment for the evening when it is cooler and ozone levels are lower. On days when particle pollutants are high, avoid burning yard waste and wood. Choosing to carpool or using a clean transportation method is always helpful, especially on days with high levels of air pollution. 

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onitor air quality warnings and take action on poor air quality days. On days when pollution levels are high, taking action can help reduce the risk of harm to those who are most vulnerable. Reducing overall car usage and avoiding idling your car can help on days with high levels of ozone pollution. Save refueling and use of gas-powered yard equipment for the evening when it is cooler and ozone levels are lower. On days when particle pollutants are high, avoid burning yard waste and wood. Choosing to carpool or using a clean transportation method is always helpful, especially on days with high levels of air pollution. 

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Air pollution is created when harmful substances, in the form of gases, liquids, or solids, enter the air. There are natural processes that create air pollution - such as sulfur and chlorine gases from volcanic activity, smoke and ash from wildfires, dust storms, and biological decay - but most pollution enters the air from human-made (anthropogenic) sources.

Most human-made air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels for transportation, electricity, and industry. Common pollutants produced by fossil fuel burning engines are carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulates. Stoves, incinerators, and open burning produce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, as well as particulates.

We also create chemicals that would not naturally occur in the atmosphere. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which are used as refrigerants, are examples of pollutants that only come from human activity. Other sources of CFCs include fumes from aerosol sprays, paint, varnish, and solvents.

Six Types of Human-Made Air Pollutants

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI) is based on the measurements of six pollutants: particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), lead (Pb), and carbon monoxide (CO).

Particulate Matter (PM)

Particulate matter, also called aerosols or particle pollution, is composed of a large variety of chemicals. Some particles are primary pollutants that come directly from smokestacks, construction sites, fires, or volcanoes. However, most are secondary pollutants that form as the result of chemical reactions in the atmosphere due to emissions from power plants, factories, and vehicles.

Particulate matter is classified by size:

PM10 is coarse particles with a diameter of 2.5 to 10 micrometers, such as dust, dirt, pollen, or mold.

PM2.5 is fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, such as soot, smoke, organic compounds, or metals.

Nitrogen Dioxide

Vehicle exhaust is the largest source of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the atmosphere, but it is also formed by factories and power plants, and naturally by lightning strikes, volcanoes, and during the decomposition of organic matter. Nitrogen dioxide causes the characteristic reddish-brown color of smog and reacts in the presence of sunlight to produce harmful ozone.

Ozone (O3)

Though ozone naturally exists within the stratosphere, it does not typically occur at the surface. Ozone in the troposphere is a secondary air pollutant created from chemical reactions with other air pollutants. It forms when nitrogen oxides from tailpipes and smokestacks react with VOCs in the presence of sunlight. Tropospheric ozone, also called ground-level ozone, is most common in urban areas and is often measured at high levels in the summer and during the warmest times of the day.

One common type of secondary pollution that contains ozone is smog. Smog is a smelly, toxic haze composed of ground-level ozone, particulate matter, and a variety of other chemicals. Smog is an example of how primary air pollution from human activity can lead to even more harmful secondary pollution.

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)

The smell associated with burnt matches comes from sulfur dioxide. Almost all sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere is the result of human activity, though volcanoes are also a natural source. Coal, oil, and gas often contain sulfur, as do some mineral ores. The burning of any of these sulfur-containing materials, during industrial processing or generation of electricity, releases toxic sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide, together called sulfur oxides, into the atmosphere. When mixed with water droplets suspended in the air, sulfur dioxide forms sulfuric acid, which is a component of acid rain.

Lead (Pb)

Lead is a heavy metal found naturally underground. It enters the air through ore and metals processing, and through the burning of leaded fuel for aircraft and vehicles. The EPA's requirement to remove lead from "on-road" vehicle gasoline resulted in a 98% decrease in lead levels in the air between 1980 and 2014 (leaded fuels are still allowed for race cars, farm equipment, and propellor aircraft).

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

If something is burning, carbon monoxide is likely being released. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that is created when carbon is burned. Most of the carbon monoxide pollution comes from burning fossil fuels in vehicles, factories, and power plants, but another major source is from burning wood or crop waste. Carbon monoxide is released from volcanoes and forest fires as well. Secondary pollutants like ozone and carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, come from carbon monoxide.

Greenhouse Gas Pollution

The burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation is increasing the amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) in our atmosphere. Small amounts of these gases in the atmosphere are safe to breathe but are also dangerous because they are changing Earth's climate through a process called the greenhouse effect. Land use changes due to farming and forestry also lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. For example, livestock and their waste release methane, and cutting down trees mean less carbon dioxide is removed from the air. The shift from coal to natural gas as an energy source and the increased use of renewable energy is helping to slow carbon dioxide emissions, but overall greenhouse gas emissions remain high. As long as greenhouse gas emissions remain high, global average temperatures will continue to rise.

Indoor Pollutants

Formaldehyde, asbestos, radon gas, and mold are common harmful indoor air pollutants. Many products used in buildings, such as foam insulation, carpet, and furniture glues, give off high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Paints, varnishes, and cleaning materials also contain VOCs. Smoking indoors adds many pollutants, including cancer-causing chemicals, to the air. If you burn natural gas or wood to heat your home, be sure to monitor for elevated carbon monoxide levels.

Because we typically spend many hours indoors, and because indoor pollutants are confined within a small area, the level of exposure needed to cause harm is much lower than for outdoor pollutants. To reduce health risks from indoor pollutants, limit or eliminate the use of products that give off VOCs within your home. Ensure that homes and buildings have adequate ventilation and open doors or windows when using chemicals or introducing materials that contain VOCs to your indoor environment. Visit the EPA's website to learn more about indoor air quality.

© 2020 UCAR

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Air Pollution: How We're Changing the Air

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Air pollution is created when harmful substances, in the form of gases, liquids, or solids, enter the air. There are natural processes that create air pollution - such as sulfur and chlorine gases from volcanic activity, smoke and ash from wildfires, dust storms, and biological decay - but most pollution enters the air from human-made (anthropogenic) sources.

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Putting the findings into action

After testing the air around the school, the students thought through how they wanted to share the information they had discovered to raise awareness of the dangers and improve the air around their school.

Some students made road signs with air pollution information, inspired by the London campaign group, Choked Up.

Others researched their local MP and wrote them a letter.

They explained what they had discovered from testing the air, the impact it could have, and what they'd like to happen to make it better.

They invited their MP to visit to continue the conversation.

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air quality awareness
eat sussex
your active journey
school streets

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Raising awareness of air pollution around primary schools in East Sussex

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Putting the findings into action After testing the air around the school, the students thought through how they wanted to share the information they had discovered to raise awareness of the dangers and improve the air around their school. Some students made road signs with air pollution information, inspired by the London campaign group, Choked Up.

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Creating healthy, safe and vibrant cities where babies, toddlers and their families thrive

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Schools taking part in a School Streets trial can currently take part in the challenge.

During the challenge, Stomper, the leader of the Pompey Monsters, encourages children to stomp (walk, cycle or scoot*) at least three times a week on their way to and from school. Children who take part will earn in-app challenge badges, plus there's a unique, collectible, Pompey Monster keyring for children to pick up from their school at the end of every week. Our keyrings are made from recycled tyres so they're kind to the planet too.

* For a safe journey to school please remember that private e-scooters are illegal. It is illegal to ride a rental e-scooter with more than one person on it and they can only be rented by people over 18 who hold at least a provisional licence.

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Schools taking part in a School Streets trial can currently take part in the challenge. During the challenge, Stomper, the leader of the Pompey Monsters, encourages children to stomp (walk, cycle or scoot*) at least three times a week on their way to and from school.

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Build on data and evidence

Take practical and meaningful action, and lead by example

Change people’s perception by improving communication

Introduce stringent environmental regulation

Ensure that interventions and their outcomes are just and equitable

Always keep the big picture in mind and prepare for potential risks

Have the tenacity and courage to make a difference

Think long-term in implementation and in the evaluation of impact

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Organisations looking to improve air quality and/or reduce the exposure to air pollution in urban areas are to benefit from a new report published today by Design Council and Impact on Urban Health.

Addressing Urban Health Inequities: Eight Design Principles for Working with People to Reduce Air Pollution brings together insights gathered by Design Council from a diverse group of experts across the world - including those working in air quality science, urban planning, product design, community engagement and urban mobility. Drawing on their findings, the publication includes key recommendations for local authorities, businesses, communities and others designing or running air quality projects in urban areas.

Design Council's research forms part of Impact on Urban Health's 10-year programme, launched in 2020. The programme aims to understand how people's health is affected by poor air quality in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, while exploring how the health effects of air pollution intersect with other systemic causes of ill-health. Over the course of the programme, Impact on Urban Health will work with local government, industry and the communities most affected by air pollution, to make sure any interventions work for them.

The eight principles highlighted in Addressing Urban Health Inequities are:

Build on data and evidence

Take practical and meaningful action, and lead by example

Change people's perception by improving communication

Introduce stringent environmental regulation

Ensure that interventions and their outcomes are just and equitable

Always keep the big picture in mind and prepare for potential risks

Have the tenacity and courage to make a difference

Think long-term in implementation and in the evaluation of impact

Gyorgyi Galik, Interim Head of Programmes at Design Council, said: "Design Council works with communities, local authorities and national infrastructure providers across the UK to create places which improve people's health and wellbeing. Ensuring that we can all breathe cleaner air is a key part of our work. Addressing Urban Health Inequities will be helpful reading for anyone looking to improve air quality in urban areas and improve health outcomes for all. Beyond raising awareness, the report outlines the structural and infrastructural, economic and political barriers that also need to be overcome to bring about real change. I am grateful to our expert contributors for outlining how they have been addressing this complex challenge and for sharing such excellent examples of air quality projects from across the globe".

Anthony Mysak, Portfolio Manager at Impact of Urban Health, said: "Our 10-year programme will involve testing, iterating and evaluating practical interventions to improve health outcomes for the people in Lambeth and Southwark who are most susceptible to the health effects of air pollution - including children, older people and people with heart and lung conditions. The design principles set out in Addressing Urban Health Inequities will provide invaluable guidance to our health effects of air pollution programme and other organisations looking to achieve similar impact around the world".

Key contributors to Design Council's research include: Bill Aboudi, President of Oakland Port Services; Rachel Aldred, Professor of Transport and Director of Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster; Nicolas Smith de la Carrera, architect and planner from Concepcion, Chile; Cllr Clyde Loakes, Councillor for Leytonstone Ward, London Borough of Waltham Forest; Fred Luhrmann, Manager of Exposure Assessment Studies and Sonoma Technology Inc; Megan Prier, Project Manager at Hyphae Design Laboratory; Fred Manson, former Head of Planning at London Borough of Southwark.

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New report sets out practical ways to reduce air pollution in urban areas

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Organisations looking to improve air quality and/or reduce the exposure to air pollution in urban areas are to benefit from a new report published today by Design Council and Impact on Urban Health.

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Hassell | Breathing Space, London Design Festival

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Transforming an overlooked public square in East London, Breathing Space gave festival goers just that - a place for time out. The installation used interactive and immersive digital and lighting technologies to provide real-time data on London’s pollution. With its bold graphic artwork by Art +…

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Ocean Rebellion, a group that fights to protect the high seas, emerged from the broader Extinction Rebellion movement in 2020, when it became clear that ocean degradation required singular focus. Cofounders Rob Higgs and his partner, Sophie Miller, are both artists who create theatrical stunts to convey its message.

Higgs has a background in mechanical sculptures, so he builds the props, while Miller, who has worked in film, takes a lead coordinating the performance element. Last summer, she found herself dressed as a polar bear, dancing on the bows of the world's largest privately owned residential cruise ship while activists projected slogans such as: "SORT YOUR SHIP OUT!" on the vast hull. It can be fun, but hair-raising. "It feels like David and Goliath," she says, "when you're out at night on a much smaller vessel with those massive boats."

Ocean Rebellion works closely with NGOs to figure out how to hit each issue with laser focus. "We work on campaigns from cruise liners and shipping pollution to fishing and deep-sea mining," says Miller. "So we rely on scientists and NGOs to find out the information from the people who have spent decades studying it - not just to understand what the problem is, but also where the pinch point is." WC

Choked Up: 'We want clean air enshrined as a children's right'

Formed by sixth-formers Nyeleti Brauer-Maxaeia, Anjali Raman-Middleton, Destiny Boka Batesa and Kaydine Rogers from the Advocacy Academy in Brixton, south London, which teaches young people how to create transformational campaigns, Choked Up aims to make clear how air pollution and social justice are inextricably linked - and how people of colour are likely to be the most affected by toxic air.

"We're lobbying for the environment bill, which is currently in parliament, to include more comprehensive targets and strategies to reduce air pollution," says Brauer-Maxaeia. Their reach is not only local - the founders lobbied the London mayoral candidates to become a mayor for clean air - but also global. Choked Up works with the environmental charity Global Action Plan to get clean air "enshrined as a children's right globally".

"People in the cabinet understand issues hypothetically," says Raman-Middleton. "They can say: 'This is how I imagine it feels to be living by one of these roads, this is how I imagine pollution will affect my daily life.' But it's very different to be living that." KC

BP or not BP: 'Out, damned logo!'

It takes a particular sort of skill - and commitment - to sneak a 12-metre (40ft) sea monster into the British Museum, but for a "merry troupe" of guerrilla performers committed to protesting against sponsorship of cultural institutions by oil companies, it's all in a day's work. The group has also wheeled a Trojan horse into the museum's courtyard, invaded it with a Viking longship and curated living artworks with up to 350 people at the museum. "We take huge pride in our smuggling game," says Jess Worth, one of the founders. "I don't want to give away too many of our secrets."

The BP or not BP story began in 2012, when Worth found herself among a group of people involved in activism against the oil industry. "This group were performers, too," she says, "so when we saw BP was sponsoring the Royal Shakespeare Company ... that got us where it really hurts." They were inspired by another protest group, Liberate Tate, which used art to challenge BP's sponsorship of the gallery. "We thought, what does that approach look like for BP sponsoring the RSC?" says Worth. "That probably looks like Shakespearean stage invasions!"

And so, in April 2012, as the audience members at the Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon awaited a performance of the Tempest, the group leaped on stage. The lead actor, who had concealed his Shakespearean garb beneath a long goth coat, launched into a heartfelt, two-minute soliloquy. There were heckles, but as he concluded with the words: "Let us break their staff that would bewitch us! Out damned logo!" and ripped the BP badge from the programme, cheers and applause rang out. After a prolonged campaign, supported by artists and the public, the RSC ended its sponsorship deal with BP in 2019. WC

Pass the Mic: 'It's hard for people on the frontline to get to Cop26'

Founded in the autumn of 2020 by Tori Tsui, Dominique Palmer, Frances Fox, George Steedman Jones and Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson after waves of climate strikes, Pass the Mic came together in response to David Attenborough retiring his Instagram account, although it still has 6 million followers. The campaign acts as a call to arms to get influential figures, brands and organisations to #PassTheMic and turn the spotlight on to frontline climate activists and those who are most affected by the crisis. "It doesn't stop at David Attenborough," says Tsui, 27. "The climate movement being centred on one person isn't only a huge responsibility, it's a distraction from the fact that everybody comes together to create a movement and change."

"The people who are dealing with the effects of the climate crisis are left out of conversations," says Fox. "Conferences like Cop26 are inaccessible - it's hard for people from countries on the frontlines to get there because of visas and expenses. They're not voiceless - they're just unheard". KC

HS2 Rebellion: 'Direct action has not been seen on this scale since the 1990s'

HS2 Rebellion is a broad church. It encompasses groups such as Stop HS2, members of Extinction Rebellion, eco-activists and local residents along the route. It has united everyone from diehard environmentalists to Ukip. This alone is a remarkable testament to the impact of one of Europe's largest infrastructure projects.

It has attracted protests since it was mooted, but there has been an intensity to the level of activism that has bubbled up since construction began: protesters have scaled buildings and embarked on hunger strikes. Images of activists trussed up in trees, putting their bodies between bulldozers and woodland, have come to symbolise the resistance to the railway. Many people have faced criminal convictions for the cause.

Construction ploughs on, but activists hope their disruption will at the very least have an impact on how infrastructure decisions are made in future. This style of direct action has not been seen in the UK on this scale since the 1990s, when eco-activists pitched camps and dug tunnels to obstruct expansion of the road network. WC

Planet Patrol: 'People want to actively participate in solving this'

In 2016, Lizzie Carr embarked on a journey. She paddleboarded the length of the country along England's waterways: 400 miles over 22 days. She catalogued every piece of litter that she saw and plotted it on an interactive map. As she shared her findings on social media, people got in touch asking how they could help. It all led to the launch of Planet Patrol (originally Plastic Patrol), a global campaign to clean up the planet.

Carr turned her interactive map into an app, so others could log litter, too. Then she started organising events to get more people out on the water.

The project has snowballed: 350,000 pieces of litter have been logged across 83 countries. Planet Patrol uses wellness to engage people with the environment and has expanded beyond paddleboarding to facilitate cleanups combined with yoga, parkour and other health and fitness activities: about 35,000 people have participated. "People feel helpless and overwhelmed about what they can do to actively participate in solving this," says Carr. "It's important for me to find a way to get people to come out and be part of the solution." WC

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Beyond Extinction Rebellion: the protest groups fighting on the climate frontline

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Ocean Rebellion, a group that fights to protect the high seas, emerged from the broader Extinction Rebellion movement in 2020, when it became clear that ocean degradation required singular focus. Cofounders Rob Higgs and his partner, Sophie Miller, are both artists who create theatrical stunts to convey its message.

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People's power to improve cities
Cyclists become data miners: the Province of Utrecht has distributed 500 sensors to its residents that they could attach to their bikes to collect data on air quality, humidity, temperature, and...
CitizensHack2022 | 10-12 February 2022
The CitizensHack2022 offers EU citizens an opportunity to work on their real-life problems in collaboration with researchers and contribute to creating a...
Analysing the value of environmental citizen-generated data: Complementarity and cost per observation
This paper proposes a methodology to account for the value of citizen observations as a function of their complementarity to existing environmental observations and the evolution of their costs in time.

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Can better data visualisation contribute to cleaner air in our cities? | CitiMeasure

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People's power to improve cities Cyclists become data miners: the Province of Utrecht has distributed 500 sensors to its residents that they could attach to their bikes to collect data on air quality, humidity, temperature, and... CitizensHack2022 | 10-12 February 2022 The CitizensHack2022 offers EU citizens an opportunity to work on their real-life problems in collaboration with researchers and contribute to creating a...

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Cost of Living Crisis and Sustainable Food

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Blog by Emily O'Brien (Food Matters) and Sofia Parente (Sustain), May 2022 Sometimes it can feel like there is a tension between high quality sustainable food and the needs of low-income families. But everyone deserves to access a healthy, sustainable, nutritious diet. With cheap food, somebody,

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How do we effectively communicate air pollution to change public attitudes and behaviours? A review - Sustainability Science

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Solutions that engage the public are needed to tackle air pollution. Technological approaches are insufficient to bring urban air quality to recommended target levels, and miss out on opportunities to promote health more holistically through behavioural solutions, such as active travel. Behaviour ch…

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" "My daughter Ella was a playful, happy child growing up in South East London. Healthy at birth, with a lust for life, she didn't develop asthma until just before her seventh birthday. A few weeks after her ninth birthday, she suffered a fatal asthma attack. Ella is the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. " "

Rosamund Adoo Kissi Debrah

THE EARLY YEARS

Ella was born in 2004 in Lewisham Hospital, South East London. At 8lbs, she was a healthy baby girl. Energetic and fun-loving, she grew up in London with a keen interest in sport, especially enjoying time she spent in the swimming pool. She started 'Little Kickers' at Millwall FC when she was just two, and by four she had graduated to gymnastics.

Ella also loved books, and had a reading age well beyond her years. Her creativity and love of music meant she spent many happy hours playing different instruments and making up songs - often taking a starring role in shows put on by Jigsaw Performing Arts, the local drama and dance school. Her big dream, however, was to be an air ambulance doctor and to rescue people from tricky spots, something she was inspired to be after seeing the Red Arrows fly by.

EVERYTHING CHANGES WHEN ILLNESS BEGINS...

Three months before her seventh birthday, Ella developed a chest infection that turned into a persistent cough. It sounded a lot like whooping cough but a doctor diagnosed her with asthma. Rosamund, her mum, didn't initially worry at the mention of this common childhood complaint - 5.4 million people in the UK are asthmatic, 1.1 million of them children - and life continued as normal.

Now in Year 2, Ella was continuing to enjoy her busy and fun-packed life. She easily made friends at school, and felt secure at home, cared for by a loving mother and revelling in the attention and adoration of her younger twin siblings.

That changed when, soon after the asthma diagnosis, Ella coughed so much she blacked out; she had suffered a 'coughing syncope' caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. Fortunately a neighbour with first aid skills was on hand to resuscitate her. She was admitted into hospital and released the following day, but a week later it happened again. This time she was put in a medically induced coma and woke up three days later. She went from being a happy, healthy child to being disabled by asthma.

The next two years were filled with a barrage of tests to find out what was causing Ella's ill health. These examinations ranged from sleep and bacterial studies, to tests for everything from epilepsy to cystic fibrosis. They only revealed she was atopic (sensitive to allergens) but couldn't ascertain the cause of her asthma.

In 2012 she was put in the care of Dr Colin Wallace, a respiratory consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and was well enough to enjoy a summer full of activities and fun, which included the 2012 London Olympics. However, the coughing returned in September and Ella was in and out of hospital.

A life cut short. On 15th February 2013, just three weeks after her ninth birthday, Ella died of a fatal asthma attack.

She had over 30 emergency hospital admissions between the first diagnosis of asthma and her death, just over two years later. Throughout her short life and illness, there had been no mention of air pollution being a possible factor in relation to her illness.

On Ella's original death certificate it said she died of acute respiratory failure. At no point in her illness did any medical professional mention that air pollution could be an asthma trigger, alongside traditional triggers such as pollen or the weather.

ELLA'S
LEGACY

THE FOUNDATION

Rosamund was determined that some good should result from her daughter's premature death, but didn't know where to start. It was Ella's consultant, Dr Wallace, who first suggested to Rosamund that a Foundation may be a fitting way to commemorate Ella and improve the lives of children with asthma in South East London. The Ella Roberta Foundation was launched at Ella's primary school on what would have been Ella's tenth birthday.

POLLUTION MATTERS

It was then that Rosamund began to realise there may be a link between her daughter's death and air pollution. A local resident contacted her after a piece was published in the local paper, and suggested she should; "have a look at the air pollution levels on the night Ella died". Rosamund did some research and discovered that the heavily congested South Circular, near where they lived, had illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide caused by traffic.

At the same time Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, a consultant respiratory physician at the University of Southampton, was examining Ella's medical papers and coming to a similar conclusion. He reported that in his opinion the severity of her asthma, and also her death, were linked to the high levels of air pollution in the area where she lived.

A NEW INQUEST

The impact of air pollution had never been previously considered by medics caring for Ella and was not looked into at the inquest into her death, so Rosamund decided to seek legal advice. She started to work with Jocelyn Cockburn, a human rights lawyer, soon afterwards.

Because of the new evidence that cast doubt on Ella's cause of death, in January 2019 the Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox QC MP gave his consent for the family to apply to the High Court for a fresh inquest into Ella's death. Rosamund subsequently applied to the High Court to quash the findings of the first inquest and a second inquest was granted.

The new inquest, in December 2020, looked at the role air pollution played in her death. It examined what government departments, local authorities and the then Mayor of London had done to reduce illegal levels of air pollution where Ella lived. It became apparent that throughout Ella's life, nitrogen dioxide emissions in Lewisham exceeded both EU and national levels and particulate matter levels were above the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

THE FINDINGS

At the end of a nine day inquest the Coroner, Philip Barlow, concluded:

"Air pollution was a significant contributory factor to both the induction and exacerbations of her asthma. During the course of her illness between 2010 and 2013 she was exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide (N02) and particulate matter in excess of World Health Organisation Guidelines. The principal source of her exposure was traffic emissions. During this period there was a recognised failure to reduce the level of NO2 to within the limits set by EU and domestic law which possibly contributed to her death. Ella's mother was not given information about the health risks of air pollution and its potential to exacerbate asthma. If she had been given this information she would have taken steps which might have prevented Ella's death."

His conclusion was: "Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution".

His narrative findings included that "excess levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, PM10 and PM2.5, were a health risk especially to children with asthma" and that "the health impacts of air pollution have been acknowledged for many years ."

The case made legal history by ruling that air pollution was one of the causes of the nine-year-old's death.

PREVENTION OF
FUTURE DEATHS

Occasionally, the evidence from an inquest will show that there is a risk that future deaths could occur and in these cases the Coroner must publish a Prevention of Future Deaths Report (PFD) so these risks can be addressed by those responsible. This happened in Ella's case and in April 2021, the coroner reported three concerns which pose an ongoing risk to life:

1. National air pollution limits for particulate matter are set at a far higher level than World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. The WHO guidelines should be seen as the minimum requirements. Legally binding targets based on these levels would reduce the number of deaths.

2. There is low public awareness about air pollution. Greater awareness would help people reduce their exposure to air pollution. The issue needs to be available at a national as well as a local government level including increasing capacity to monitor air quality.

3. Patients are not being advised about the impact of air pollution on health and this needs to be addressed in medical and nursing training and education at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional guidelines levels.

The Coroner's PFD provides powerful leverage for change. He has put the Government, and all of us, on notice that a failure to reduce air pollution to safe levels and increase understanding of the health risks posed by air pollution will cost lives.

For more on how what we do relates to the Coroner's report, please visit:

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About Ella | The Ella Roberta Foundation

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" "My daughter Ella was a playful, happy child growing up in South East London. Healthy at birth, with a lust for life, she didn't develop asthma until just before her seventh birthday. A few weeks after her ninth birthday, she suffered a fatal asthma attack.

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Why do we still waste so much food at home?

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New figures show Britons throw away 4.2 million tonnes of edible food every year. This equates to six meals a week for every household. Karl Mathiesen asks why, in this climate of austerity, are we still so careless with our food?

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101. INTRODUCTION                                                                                 Archaeological narratives of past socio-economic and culturaldevelopments can give meaning and context to the present daylife of each human being. They position the individual in thecontinuum of human development and history and help incoming to grips with the temporary nature of human existenceand the relative nature of culture.

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101. INTRODUCTION                                                                                 Archaeological narratives of past socio-economic and culturaldevelopments can give meaning and context to the present daylife of each human being. They position the individual in thecontinuum of human development and history and help incoming to grips with the temporary nature of human existenceand the relative nature of culture.

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Introduction The main difference between recording a coin (or jetton, token etc) and any other object is that for a coin there is an extra form to complete, in addition to the standard finds form, …

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Absolute dating

Dates are expressed in absolute terms, that is in specific units of measurement such as days, years, centuries, or millennia. For example, the village was inhabited between AD 1400 and 1650. Absolute dates may be expressed with a standard deviation (see Radiocarbon dating.) Absolute dating and relative dating are contrasting concepts.

Archeopedology

The study of ancient soils in an archeological context.

Artifacts

Portable objects that are used, modified, or created by human activity.

Assemblage

A collection of artifacts.

Attribute

An artifact's physical property, such as the material(s) from which the artifact is made, its size, shape, function, and decoration.

Backfilling

Covering an archeological site with fill to stabilize and preserve it.

Cataloging

The process of describing and recording an artifact's many attributes.

Ceramics

Artifacts that are modeled or molded from clay and then made durable by firing.

Collection

Material remains that are excavated or removed during a survey, excavation, or other study of a prehistoric or historic resource, and associated records that are prepared or assembled in connection with the survey, excavation or other study.

Compliance work

Archeology undertaken to comply with requirements mandated by law. Often compliance refers to work done to satisfy requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, or comparable state laws.

Conservation

Measures taken to prolong the life of an object or document and its associated data as long as possible in its original form. May involve chemical stabilization or physical strengthening.

Context

The arrangement or position of artifacts, ecofacts, and features within the soil matrix.

Cross-dating

Relative dating of objects based on consistencies in stratigraphy between parts of a site or different sites, and objects or strata with a known relative chronology.

Curation

The long-term, professional management and care of objects, associated records, and reports.

Debitage

Debris produced during stone tool manufacture.

Distortion

Event occurring during or after the formation of a site that may cause strata to disappear in one area of the site and reappear farther along at a different distance from the surface. Distortion could result from processes such as landfilling, dumping, a landslide or other earth movement.

Dendrochronology

Also referred to as tree-ring dating, this absolute dating technique uses annual growth rings of trees from a single region to compare and match sequences of growth rings to determine that date when the tree was first cut down. Dendrochronology is also used to calibrate radiocarbon dates.

Disturbance

Event that changes the contexts of materials within a site, moving and mixing materials from and between strata. Some causes of disturbance are farming, heavy construction, rodent burrowing, and natural forces such as floods.

Ecofacts

Natural remains, such as those of wild and domesticated animals and plants, that are found in the archeological record.

Features

Nonportable elements such as hearths, postholes, soil stains and architectural elements such as walls and trenches.

Flotation

Suspending soil samples in liquid, usually water, to recover tiny materials.

Geoarcheology

Science by which archeologists incorporate geomorphological studies to gain an understanding of what earlier landforms were like, where sites potentially may be located, and insights regarding prehistoric raw material availability, site formation processes, and landscape history.

Geologic dating

Relative dating technique used by geologists to develop dates for various geological stages by relating them to other climactic and geologic events.

Geomorphology

The science that studies the general configuration of the earth's surface, specifically the study of the classification, description, nature, origin, and development of present landforms and their relationships to underlying structures, and the history of geologic changes as recorded by these surface features.

GIS

Abbreviation for Geographic Information System, an analytic tool used to create a computerized, layered composite of spatial information about an area.

GPS

Abbreviation for the Global Positioning System, a "constellation" of satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground receivers to pinpoint their geographic location. GPS allows archeologists to determine location coordinates in the field. Archeological sites and their environments can be mapped quickly and accurately using GPS to measure control points.

Historical

Text-aided archeology that studies that portion of human history that begins with the appearance of written records and continues until today.

Historical science

Sciences such as geology, evolutionary biology and archeology that deal with past events that no longer can be directly observed or replicated, although the evidence they left behind can be studied to reconstruct what took place.

Horizon

Ties and uniformity across space at a single point in time. In archeology, a horizon is a pattern characterized by widespread distribution of a complex of cultural traits that lasts a relatively short time. Factors that might create the pattern of a horizon would include a rapid military conquest or effective religious mission. Horizon and tradition are contrasting concepts.

In situ

The position in which an archeological object is first uncovered during an excavation or survey.

Interruption

Elements that break the continuity of a stratum such as stones, tree roots, walls, wells and post holes.

Law of Superposition

This law holds that, under normal circumstances, deeper layers of soil, sediment, or rock are older than those above them.

Material culture

Elements of the physical environment that people have modified through cultural behavior. Tangible material culture may reveal information about intangible cultural elements such as social practices and ideology.

Mean ceramic dating

Technique used in historical archeology to date sites based on the average age of recovered ceramics. A mean ceramic date (MCD) provides a weighted average of manufacturing dates and does not indicate a range of occupation.

Midden

A trash deposit, located either in a contained feature such as a pit, or spread over the ground surface. The latter is referred to as a sheet midden.

Obsidian hydration

Absolute dating technique that measures the microscopic amount of water absorbed on freshly broken obsidian surfaces. The principle behind obsidian hydration dating is simple-the longer the artifact surface has been exposed, the thicker the hydration band will be-but its application requires careful analysis of absorption rates for different obsidian sources. Obsidian hydration can indicate an artifact's age if the datable surfaces tested are only those exposed by deliberate flintknapping, rather than by accidental breakage.

Paleoethnobotany

The analysis and interpretation of plant remains from archeological sites in order to understand the past interactions between human populations and plants (Thomas 1998:325).

Phytolith

A plant microfossil composed of silica.

Pipe stem dating

Technique used in historical archeology to date sites based on the statistical analysis of English clay smoking pipe bore widths.

Primary context

The soil layer and location in which an artifact, ecofact or feature was originally deposited or constructed.

Provenience

The precise location on a site where artifacts were recovered.

Radiocarbon dating

Absolute dating technique based on the knowledge that living organisms build up organic carbon. When the organism dies, the carbon 14 (C14) atoms disintegrate at a known rate, with a half-life of 5,700 years. It is possible to calculate the date of an organic object by measuring the amount of C14 left in the sample. Because the concentration of radiocarbon in the atmosphere has varied considerably over time, radiocarbon dates as far back as 7,000 years may be corrected by calibrating them against accurate dates from radiocarbon-dated tree rings and developing a master correction curve (see Dendrochronology).

Relative dating

Dates are expressed in relation to one another, for instance, earlier, later, more recent, and so forth. For example, the habitation of the east end of the site is older than the one on the west end. Relative and absolute dating are contrasting concepts.

Research design

A plan in which the objectives of an archeological investigation are described and justified. It states research questions and describes methods and techniques to be used to identify, recover, study and store associated archeological materials.

Sampling

Methods for identifying portions of an archeological site or resource area to be examioned. Sampling methods vary according to each research design.

Seriation

Relative dating technique whereby artifacts are ordered temporally based on the assumption that cultural styles (fads) change and that the popularity of a particular style or decoration can be associated with a certain time period. The fattest part of the cluster is the central part of the fad (Thomas 1998:246).

Sherd

A fragment of a ceramic artifact.

Sites

Location where there is evidence for the human past. A site is often a spatial cluster of artifacts, features, or ecofacts that can be quite sparse.

Social context

Interpretations of an artifact's technical production and use, its value to the people who used it, and perhaps how and if the object symbolized those peoples' ideology.

Spalled

Condition when pieces of material have come off an artifact.

Stabilization

Preserving an archeological site or artifact by supporting or strengthening it to reduce the possibility of deterioration.

Stratum (plural strata)

A soil layer, visually separable from other layers by a distinct change in color, texture, or other characteristic.

Stratigraphy

Analysis of sequences of layered, or stratified, deposits. Like geological exposures, archeological sites usually contain stratified layers, some of them the results of human activity, like house building, and others from natural phenomena like rain and wind.

STP

Abbreviation for shovel test pit, a type of subsurface probe. Archeologists place shovel test pits at systematic or random patterns in an area being investigated. Each pit is approximately one foot in diameter and extends deep enough to penetrate sterile subsoil.

Terminus post quem (TPQ) dating

The date after which a stratum, feature, or artifact must have been deposited. The TPQ is determined by the most recent date. A 1962 penny, for example, indicates that the feature in which it was found dates to after 1962.

Thermoluminescence

Absolute dating technique used for rocks, minerals and ceramics. It is based on the fact that almost all natural minerals are thermoluminescent-they emit light when heated. Energy absorbed from ionizing radiation frees electrons to move through the crystal lattice and some are trapped at imperfections. In the lab, ceramic samples are heated, releasing the trapped electrons and producing light that is measured to fix a date.

Tradition

A pattern of long persistence of cultural traits in a restricted geographical area. Traditions not only suggest a strong degree of conservatism, but a stable pattern of permanent settlement that allows such developments to take place relatively undisturbed. Tradition and horizon are contrasting concepts.

Typology

Arrangement of artifacts into idealized categories or types.

Zooarcheology (or archeozoology)

The study of faunal (animal) remains from archeological sites.

Sections of this Glossary were adapted from:

Childs, S. Terry and Eileen P. Corcoran
2000 Managing Archeological Collections. Archeology Program, National Park Service, Washington, DC.

Deetz, James
1996 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life, Revised Edition. Doubleday, New York.

Thomas, David Hurst
1998 Archaeology, Third Edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth.

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NPS Archeology Program: Archeology for Interpreters

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Dates are expressed in absolute terms, that is in specific units of measurement such as days, years, centuries, or millennia. For example, the village was inhabited between AD 1400 and 1650. Absolute dates may be expressed with a standard deviation (see Radiocarbon dating.) Absolute dating and relative dating are contrasting concepts.

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Have you ever heard of an archaeologist who burns, hammers or smashes artifacts? That's what Metin Eren does, except it's with replicas. Eren is a rising star in the field of experimental archaeology. In his lab at Kent State University, he tests recreations of early stone tools, trying to understand their purpose and design--and what those meant for human development. Nsikan Akpan reports.

Metin Eren:
Experimental archaeology is a way of studying ancient technologies by creating really accurate replicas. And because those replicas are worthless, we can throw them and break them and shoot them to figure out how they work, and reverse-engineer them.

Nsikan Akpan:
The first human technology emerged three million years ago, and our tech became more and more complex as our ancestors spread across the globe and into North America.

Nsikan Akpan:
It's not just artifacts that Metin and his students are recreating. The sounds made by early stone tools may be important too.

Metin Eren:
We made stone tools for three million years. There might be a link there between the sounds that we're hearing as we make stone tools every day and the types of language that eventually emerged in the human lineage.

These observations that these ancient people made about their technology and their surroundings allowed them to create technologies that are just astounding. And you figure out how they work through experimental archaeology.

So, really, experimental archaeology is the future of the field.

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Why recreating ancient artifacts may be the future of archaeology

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Have you ever heard of an archaeologist who burns, hammers or smashes artifacts? That's what Metin Eren does, except it's with replicas. Eren is a rising star in the field of experimental archaeology. In his lab at Kent State University, he tests recreations of early stone tools, trying to understand their purpose and design--and what those meant for human development.

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The GIF is officially 30-something, and in the prime of its internet life.

Three decades ago, on June 15, 1987, the most beloved image file extension on the internet was birthed by a team of CompuServe developers seeking a way to compress images with minimal data loss. The solution: the GIF, a simple, flexible file format for lower-resolution pictures.

My, how far we've come since those inauspicious beginnings. These days, the GIF is so ubiquitous as a piece of internet culture that it's got its own offshoot formats like reaction GIFs, GIF art, and Tumblr GIF sets. The question of how to pronounce the word "GIF" has become a rote topic of cultural debate. (The man who invented the GIF, Steve Wilhite, says it with a soft 'G,' like Jif peanut butter, but most people on the internet say it with a hard 'G,' because a) it's more fun, b) it avoids confusion with said brand of peanut butter, and c) come on, it's Graphical Interchange Format, not Giraffe-ical Interchange Format.)

On the surface, it might sound strange that a file format that has essentially remained unchanged since the '90s has managed to outlast so many other kinds of higher-level internet tech, from Flash animation to early JavaScript. But as the blog Enthusiasms notes, "the story of how [the GIF evolved] is really the story of the internet growing up."It's simultaneously a tale of how the internet's design evolution impacted the GIF, and one of how the GIF impacted the internet's design evolution.

The early days: the internet was under construction, and so was the GIF

Ah, the '90s. The internet was awash in garish designs, thanks to websites with noisy wallpaper backgrounds, Comic Sans font, and the ubiquitous Website Under Construction sign. That Under Construction sign, along with many other cute, small animated icons, served as the average human's introduction to the GIF.

Netscape, Marc Andreessen's early web browser, reigned supreme for a hot moment in late 1994 and early 1995, just before the advent of Internet Explorer (released along with Windows '95) and other competing browsers like Netscape's eventual successor Firefox. The fate of the GIF was intertwined with Netscape's early success.

Netscape was the first browser to allow the user to interact with an image on a website instead of just text - meaning you could click on an image and have it link you to another webpage or new information. And when Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released in 1995, it supported the .GIF format, including animated GIFs. Thus, if you wanted an easy way to decorate your website, GIFs, whether static or animated, were simple and available.

Plus, when compared to other file formats, these early GIFs took up very little space on your hard drive and required very little bandwidth to download.

But even back in the '90s the GIF was already starting to transcend its workhorse origins. Early viral images like the Dancing Baby and meme-ish GIF-based websites like YTMND (You're the Man Now, Dawg, a reference to a famous early meme) laid the groundwork for the later GIF-splosion. In fact, though the "Baby Cha-Cha," as the boogying infant was known to 3-D modelers, began its life as a video in 1996, it wasn't until developer John Woodell released it as a GIF later that year that its popularity began to spread.

Another early meme was a literal whole page of GIFs - the famous "Hamster Dance" website, created by an art student named Deidre LaCarte in 1998.

Early GIFs revealed two crucial things about the format: It was easy to pass around, and no matter how many frames it contained, it could be looped an infinite number of times, for an infinite supply of delight.

The middle years: spurred on by everything from Flash to YouTube, the GIF slowly evolves

As web design evolved during the early 2000s, the GIF largely fell out of favor except among meme fans, due to the popular conception that GIFs were tacky and garish. (At that point in the GIF's history, popular conception wasn't exactly wrong.) The emergence of Flash animation, JavaScript, and other more sophisticated tools for transmitting video and images online outstripped the GIF's usefulness.

Still, the GIF remained a useful way to transmit early memes and replicate Flash-based animation - like the 2001 Dancing Banana from the famous Flash animation Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

Throughout the mid-2000s, the concept of " Web 2.0" was the reigning approach to web design. Flash was beginning to falter under the weight of its own clunky load time and the public's dislike of splash pages - those time-consuming, graphics-heavy "front doors" to websites that would take forever to load and which didn't always allow you to navigate freely on the corresponding website. Web 2.0 coincided with the advent of Google, Wikipedia, and the first social media platforms - MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, which all debuted between 2003 and 2005. It emphasized less Flash-heavy design, better load times, and more elegant, prettier web pages.

Smartphones, like the iPhone prototype that first appeared in 2005, were beginning to emerge, and their operating systems and early mobile browsers required more portable, lightweight web design and image handling, which would eventually shift the "Web 2.0" movement into an emphasis on responsive cross-platform design.

By 2004, all of the existing patents on licensing for the GIF had expired, and the format essentially entered the public domain. The combination of fewer legal restrictions on the GIF and a broader, smartphone-boosted demand for a simple, quick, and more lightweight substitute for Flash animation brought the GIF back in a major way. GIF editing was becoming more advanced thanks to the growing accessibility of editing software like Photoshop, and people were beginning to convert video into GIF formats in order to quickly present video images.

Meanwhile, the advent of YouTube in 2005 had begun to spur the confluence of meme culture with emerging vlogger culture and celebrity culture, and the GIF was there to capture it all. A classic example: 2007's "Leave Britney Alone" meme, which gave us a famous proto-reaction GIF:

These early video-to-GIF viral memes paved the way for the deluge of celebrity reaction GIFs in our future.

The modern era: reaction GIFs explode across the internet - and GIFs become an art form unto themselves

And then came the onsetof social media, and lo, GIFs were everywhere.

Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr launched in 2005, 2006, and 2007 respectively, and each of them played major roles in shifting the culture of social media toward the use of GIFs - especially the image-friendly Tumblr, where GIFs could be uploaded in sets of up to 10 images at once. On Tumblr, GIF sets were frequently elaborate, and people used them to tell stories or encapsulate and circulate current news.

GIFs could also be easily embedded into the text of Tumblr posts or added to a "reblog" in order to react to an earlier poster's thoughts. And on Reddit, entire subforums arose that were devoted to sharing the perfect reaction GIF or the perfect video moment in GIF form.

Historically, the animated GIF could be a static image or series of static imageslooped continuously, looped only once, or looped as many or as few times as the user desired. While it's always been true that GIFs could be looped infinitely or not looped at all, but the modern GIF is generally looped infinitely by default. The infinite loop has become a crucial part of its social function, and advances the GIF's role in allowing viral videos to spread more easily across the internet in meme form.

And today, it's relatively easy for the average internet user to screengrab video or still images as GIFS and convert, edit, and add text and additional imagery to them. There are even services that automate the process, allowing GIFs to be more portable and versatile as they travel the web.

Another crucial aspect of the modern GIF is its nature as a quick, all-purpose form of expression. "MFW/TFW" ("My Face/That Feeling When") and "MRW" ("My Reaction When") have become standard parts of internet lingo that precede the use of a reaction GIF. And while basically any GIF can be a reaction GIF, some GIFs have become so well known as reaction GIFs that they've essentially entered the cultural lexicon.

Reaction GIFs are so broadly recognized as fundamental parts of expression on social media that modern social media platforms, from Twitter to Slack, now support GIF searches through third-party GIF platforms like Giphy and Gfycat. Meanwhile, innumerable smartphone apps support the sending of GIFs through texts.

Finally, the modern era of GIFs has also seen the emergence of GIF artists - particularly on Tumblr, where people have made inroads in animated art while forming a complex and unique community. In 2013, Tumblr chose GIF artist and game designer Roger Von Biersborn as its first artist in residence, inviting him to create original art for the site.

At the same time, more retro movements like the Glitch and Vaporwave art movements combine the GIF with the classic pixelation of the early internet to create a unique kind of magic.

Similar to the GIF art on Tumblr is a form of GIF art called the " Cinemagraph," a popular style of Instagram art begun by photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck which attempts to create high-level GIF photography.

The GIF evolution is tied to the future of the internet

In 1987, it's highly unlikely that anyone imagined what a broad range and role the GIF would play in modern internet culture. But as the internet has evolved, the GIF has shown a surprising ability to evolve with it. It's this durability, flexibility, and - let's face it - just a touch of kitsch that has allowed the GIF to become the internet's primary purveyor of memes and looping pictures.

So where will the GIF take us from here? History would suggest that the future of the GIF will depend on how the internet itself evolves. Notably, Tumblr, Twitter, and Reddit, the current drivers of GIF culture, are all struggling to attain sustainability - and as we saw in the case of Vine, some kinds of internet art can't outlive the death of a platform that birthed the culture surrounding them.

But the GIF would seem to be here to stay. Technologically speaking, it's portable and durable. Perhaps more importantly, it's also expressive and fun. It has hopped from platform to platform for three decades without stopping, and remained popular in its highest and lowest resolutions, whether animated or cinematic, ironic or sincere.

So GIF on, internet. Here's to another 30 years.

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The GIF is 30 years old. It didn't just shape the internet - it grew up with the internet.

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Here's how the internet's favorite image format evolved into a cultural staple.

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Information overload: the differences that age makes

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Information overload has long been studied as a phenomenon that causes problems at the personal, social and organisational level. This study investigates overload from a new angle, that of the influence of age on perceptions of information overload. A combination of questionnaires, interviews and di…

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This component of the digital worldview is manifested by the phenomenon of the new media (Siapera, 2017), a phenomenon which introduced the diverse range of modern digital media, from mobile applications to specific software tools for creating and publishing diverse media content. The subjective dimension of the worldview is associated with individuals' self-awareness of their new role, not as isolated agents but as interconnected informational organisms. Such a self-conception results from being immersed in social networks, having ubiquitous access to knowledge, and the widespread prevalence of mobile devices. One of the symptoms of such a self-conception is the so-called personal online identity (Rodogno, 2012).

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This component of the digital worldview is manifested by the phenomenon of the new media (Siapera, 2017), a phenomenon which introduced the diverse range of modern digital media, from mobile applications to specific software tools for creating and publishing diverse media content. The subjective dimension of the worldview is associated with individuals' self-awareness of their new role, not as isolated agents but as interconnected informational organisms. Such a self-conception results from being immersed in social networks, having ubiquitous access to knowledge, and the widespread prevalence of mobile devices. One of the symptoms of such a self-conception is the so-called personal online identity (Rodogno, 2012).

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In general, digital society supports an informational view of the world, whereby reality is interpreted in terms of its relevant information.

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In general, digital society supports an informational view of the world, whereby reality is interpreted in terms of its relevant information.

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whereby virtual objects are given the same weight as real objects and environments. This has a phenomenological as well as an ontological impact, as it relates to constructs of thought and perception. 

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whereby virtual objects are given the same weight as real objects and environments. This has a phenomenological as well as an ontological impact, as it relates to constructs of thought and perception. 

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suggested that digital technologies have effected an ontological shift in human thought. 

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suggested that digital technologies have effected an ontological shift in human thought. 

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Likewise, some of the current theorists consider society's transition into the digital era to be yet another revolution in human consciousness, thus comprising the fourth revolution in this series. Supporters of this approach argue that the recent revolution relates to very fundamental principles that characterize human existence. The meaning of the digital revolution lies in the transformation of people's understanding of our position in the world, from being a passive part of nature to actively creating our own artificial world (Floridi, 2014). This interpretation of the digital revolution characterizes it as a transformation in human consciousness, that is, a revolution which leads to fundamental shifts in people's worldviews.

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Likewise, some of the current theorists consider society's transition into the digital era to be yet another revolution in human consciousness, thus comprising the fourth revolution in this series. Supporters of this approach argue that the recent revolution relates to very fundamental principles that characterize human existence. The meaning of the digital revolution lies in the transformation of people's understanding of our position in the world, from being a passive part of nature to actively creating our own artificial world (Floridi, 2014). This interpretation of the digital revolution characterizes it as a transformation in human consciousness, that is, a revolution which leads to fundamental shifts in people's worldviews.

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 A number of philosophers argue that the digital revolution has taken on a significance that transcends the realm of technology; it has brought about a revolution in human consciousness

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 A number of philosophers argue that the digital revolution has taken on a significance that transcends the realm of technology; it has brought about a revolution in human consciousness

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X18307601

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Ilya Levin received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering in 1987 from the Institute of Computer Technologies, Latvian Academy of Science. From 1987 he was the Head of the Computer Science Department in the Leningrad Institute of New Technologies (in the former USSR). He moved to Israel 1990. Between 1993 and 1997, Ilya Levin was the Head of the Computer Systems Department in Holon Institute of Technology. In 1997, he worked as a Research fellow in the Computer Science Department of University of Massachusetts. During four years between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Ilya Levin was an Associate Professor of the School of Engineering in the Bar Ilan University. Presently, Prof. Ilya Levin is a Full Professor in the School of Education of Tel Aviv University. His recent research interests include: Computer Design, Cultural Studies of Information Society. Ilya Levin is the author of around 160 research papers both in Computer Engineering and in Humanities.

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Science teachers' worldviews in the age of the digital revolution: Structural and content analysis

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Ilya Levin received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering in 1987 from the Institute of Computer Technologies, Latvian Academy of Science. From 1987 he was the Head of the Computer Science Department in the Leningrad Institute of New Technologies (in the former USSR). He moved to Israel 1990.

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Coronavirus has forced a global confinement and made the internet including digital networks our everyday life survival kit to stay connected with the world.

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Coronavirus has forced a global confinement and made the internet including digital networks our everyday life survival kit to stay connected with the world.

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The digital growth has created a new commodity, data. It has overtaken oil as the most valuable resource in the world. 

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The digital growth has created a new commodity, data. It has overtaken oil as the most valuable resource in the world. 

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social media surveillance and device monitoring has been growing rapidly. 

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social media surveillance and device monitoring has been growing rapidly. 

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The digital networks that linked users from around the world, have also been collecting massive amount of critical data about these users including their personal info and daily activity. Yet, there is still no real transparency about what is being collected, how the data collected is being used, and whom is it being shared with.

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The digital networks that linked users from around the world, have also been collecting massive amount of critical data about these users including their personal info and daily activity. Yet, there is still no real transparency about what is being collected, how the data collected is being used, and whom is it being shared with.

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Digitization Due to New TechnologyThis is the conversion of objects that once had a physical form into abstract digital data. Take the design of architecture, which was traditionally done on paper and using models but is now entirely computerized.

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Digitization Due to New TechnologyThis is the conversion of objects that once had a physical form into abstract digital data. Take the design of architecture, which was traditionally done on paper and using models but is now entirely computerized.

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https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/social-studies/social-institutions/digital-age/

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The internet and digital technology are as much a part of modern life as other institutions, such as the government or the education system. This was not always the case, though - we are living in the midst of the Digital Age, which started less than a century ago.

So, how did the Digital Age develop? What are its features? In this explanation, we will address these questions as well as others, looking at:

The meaning of the Digital Age

The timeline of the Digital Age

Features of the Digital Age

Privacy in the Digital Age

Parenting in the Digital Age

Digital Age: Meaning

It's important to understand what we mean by the Digital Age, as it has other names and overlaps. Let's examine the meaning of the Digital Age!

The Digital Age, often known as the Information Age, refers to a historical era and information technology-based economy originating in the twentieth century. It is marked by a rapid transition from the industrialized economy brought about by the Industrial Revolution to a knowledge-based economy.

The Digital Age intersects with the Internet Age, which describes the time since the public first had access to the Internet, as well as the fundamental changes it brought about in terms of information availability and worldwide communication.

They are not the same, however, as the Digital Age started earlier, before the development of the internet.

A Digital Age Timeline

There have been many technological developments that led to the era that we currently live in. As we cannot explore all of them here, below is a timeline of the major developments in almost every decade of the Digital Age.

1970s: the Altair Microcomputer Kit, the first home computer, was released. The video game console, the first coin-operated video games, and the heyday of arcade video games all came into existence.

Late 1980s - 1990s: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, which became publicly accessible. The Internet quickly spread, entered popular culture, and many companies mentioned websites in their advertisements. Despite their invention, phones were not widely used.

Culture and Technology in the Digital Age

There are two broad forms of culture in sociology: material and nonmaterial culture.

Objects or possessions belonging to a group of people are referred to as material culture. In contrast, nonmaterial culture refers to a society's ideas, attitudes, and values.

Language, gestures, morals, customs, and values are examples of nonmaterial or symbolic culture. However, culture also has a tangible component: a group's possessions, from their houses and cars to their clothing. Technology is at the heart of a group's material culture. In its most basic form, technology is comparable to tools. In a broader sense, technology also refers to the abilities or methods required to create and employ those tools.

Technology's sociological impact extends well beyond the tool itself - it shapes the nonmaterial culture of a people. How individuals think and interact with one another changes along with the technological advancements within a group.

Take gender relations as an example. Men have traditionally dominated women throughout history and in all parts of the world (nonmaterial culture). However, the worldwide communications (material culture) of today make it more challenging to uphold patriarchy.

Women in traditionally patriarchal societies can access academic and cultural knowledge about women's lives in freer societies through the internet. This can motivate them to protest and demand equal rights and freedoms, undermining male hegemony.

Cultural Lag in the Digital Age

The phrase ' cultural lag' was first used by sociologist William Ogburn (1922). Ogburn intended this to convey the idea that not all aspects of a culture evolve at the same rate. Other aspects of a culture lag behind when one aspect changes.

According to Ogburn, the nonmaterial culture of a group typically changes after the material culture. That is, the nonmaterial (or symbolic) culture is forced to play catch-up. For instance, we now have advanced genetic engineering technology that would enable people to select the sex and/or traits of their potential children. However, this has not become a common practice because most people believe this is unnatural or immoral.

Technology and Cultural Diffusion

Although contact with other groups and tribes has usually been limited, people throughout history have always shared knowledge and adopted ideas they deemed desirable.

This process is known as cultural diffusion, and, in contemporary society, it has been occurring at an unprecedented rate thanks to modern travel and communications. People can travel worldwide and access international media and different cultures that they would never have otherwise.

This means that societies are now more culturally diverse than they have ever been. For instance, you can watch a French-language film, attend the world tour of a Korean pop group, eat at a Mexican restaurant, and join a friend's Diwali celebration, all while living in the US.

Features of the Digital Age

The Digital Age has many features, many of which you will be familiar with yourself. Let's start by looking at one of the primary features before diving into other defining characteristics.

New Technology and Society

One of the central features of the digital age is referred to as new technology.

Every day, people create new, small-scale technology. The majority are minor upgrades to already-developed technologies. However, they occasionally create a technology that has a significant impact on human life. The phrase "new technology" mostly refers to these advances. The printing press was a novel invention in the year 500. Computers, satellites, and the Internet are the three main components of modern technology for us.

Other features of the Digital Age that have arisen as a result of new technology are as follows:

New Technological Networks

The internet and other networks enable communication and interaction between numerous machines and people, all over the world.

This is the result of the dramatic evolution of communications. Face-to-face speaking or written notes passed from person to person used to be some of the only means of communication. Today, we can message, call, learn about world events in real time, and access all forms of media in a matter of moments.

Mobility Due to New Technology

Digital tools and the internet have allowed us to carry out activities such as employment or social engagement from any location while remaining mobile, e.g., remote working. Where international travel used to be extremely difficult and/or inaccessible, it is now possible for almost anyone to travel the entire world in a few hours, thanks to affordable and widely available air travel.

Knowledge and Research Due to New Technology

Over six billion people currently use smartphones worldwide. 2 Almost everyone now has the option to look up any topic and obtain a response within a matter of minutes. This level of knowledge accessibility is unheard of in human history.

Digitization Due to New Technology

This is the conversion of objects that once had a physical form into abstract digital data. Take the design of architecture, which was traditionally done on paper and using models but is now entirely computerized.

Consumerization Due to New Technology

In the past, businesses typically purchased equipment that was unreachable for the average customer. For instance, the first computers were extremely expensive mainframes and supercomputers.

As the years passed, consumer-level computers improved to the point where businesses stopped using specialized business computers in favor of consumer models. Numerous businesses are likely to experience this consumerization process.

Misinformation and Disinformation Due to New Technology

The internet enables everyone to take part in the global exchange of information and opinion. This offers a significant alternative to the domination of big media firms but also permits the quick spread of false and misleading information.

New Technology and Globalization

Globalization is the blending of systems, economies, communities, and politics beyond geographical boundaries. As a medium for communication and shared experience, the internet significantly speeds up this lengthy process.

The result of this is not only cultural diffusion but cultural leveling, which is the process by which cultures become increasingly similar to each other. Globalized capitalism brings Western culture as well as technology to other parts of the world. For instance, Japan has incorporated elements of both Western and Eastern traditions into its culture by embracing capitalism and Western fashion and music.

Security Concerns Due to New Technology

Information security is becoming almost as crucial as physical security as economies, society, companies, and people grow more and more reliant on technology. The rapid speed of progress in information technology also tends to expose technologies to cybercrime and cyber warfare.

Privacy in the Digital Age

The right to privacy is seen by many as a fundamental human right, but how much privacy can we actually have when so much of our personal information and activity is "out there" in cyberspace?

As we have discussed, digital technology can do a lot of good. It can act as an effective tool for enhancing human development and significantly contribute to the promotion and defense of human rights.

However, while technology and data-sharing have greatly facilitated our progress, maintaining our fundamental right to privacy is a new and formidable challenge in the Digital Age.

Data is everywhere, and its growth is exponential due to increased internet usage, the development of cloud technologies, and our increasing reliance on smart devices (not just smartphones - cars and watches, for example). Data-intensive technologies help to create a digital environment where states and businesses can increasingly follow, analyze, forecast, and even affect people's behavior to a previously unheard-of degree.

If used without adequate protections, these technological advancements pose serious hazards to individual autonomy, dignity, and privacy, as well as the exercise of rights generally. Cybercriminals, who are particularly interested in gaining access to personally identifiable information (PII) they can easily sell and use for fraudulent reasons, are a particular threat.

Parenting in the Digital Age

With the advent of issues around privacy and security, the Digital Age has also raised concerns about parenting and raising children safely and in an internet-savvy manner.

Children and young people have access to the internet and various smart devices very early. They must therefore be educated about exercising caution when sharing information and interacting with others online, and parents must be vigilant about ensuring content is age-appropriate.

The Internet Age - Key takeaways

The Digital Age, often known as the Information Age, refers to a historical era and information technology-based economy originating in the twentieth century. It is marked by the rapid transition from the industrialized economy brought about by the Industrial Revolution to a knowledge-based economy.

There have been many technological developments that led to the era that we currently live in. The Digital Age began in the 1940s and is ongoing in the present day.

The nonmaterial culture of a people is framed by technology. How individuals think and interact with one another changes along with the technological advancements within a group.

The Digital Age has many defining features. One of its primary features is new technology, which refers to technology that has a significant impact on human life.

While technology and data-sharing have greatly facilitated our progress, maintaining our fundamental right to privacy is a new and formidable challenge in the Digital Age.

References

1. DataReportal. (2022). Global Digital Overview. DataReportal - Global Digital Insights. https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview

2. Statista. (2022). Number of Smartphone Users Worldwide 2014-2020 | Statista. Statista; Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/

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The internet and digital technology are as much a part of modern life as other institutions, such as the government or the education system. This was not always the case, though - we are living in the midst of the Digital Age, which started less than a century ago.

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Objects or possessions belonging to a group of people are referred to as material culture. In contrast, nonmaterial culture refers to a society's ideas, attitudes, and values.

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Objects or possessions belonging to a group of people are referred to as material culture. In contrast, nonmaterial culture refers to a society's ideas, attitudes, and values.

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I want to explore how dice can be studied as stylisitc objects In order tocomment and critique  on belief systems and changing world views. bycreating the 'Information Age' evolution of the die.

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I want to explore how dice can be studied as stylisitc objects In order tocomment and critique  on belief systems and changing world views. bycreating the 'Information Age' evolution of the die.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Digital Age, often known as the Information Age, refers to a historical era and information technology-based economy originating in the twentieth century. It is marked by a rapid transition from the industrialized economy brought about by the Industrial Revolution to a knowledge-based economy

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The Digital Age, often known as the Information Age, refers to a historical era and information technology-based economy originating in the twentieth century. It is marked by a rapid transition from the industrialized economy brought about by the Industrial Revolution to a knowledge-based economy

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"People think that only the future can be changed, but in fact, the future is continually changing the past. The past can and does change. It's exquisitely sensitive and delicately balanced." -Keiichiro Hirano, At the End of the Matinee

When we think about time, we tend to divide it into three dimensions: past, present, future. We also tend to accept certain beliefs about each dimension without much questioning.

The present time is the "here and now." It's what's currently happening. The future, alternatively, is what will happen. It's what will come to be.

In both of these dimensions, there are many possibilities. We could do all sorts of things right now, and we can make all kinds of choices in the future. (Ignore, at least for the moment, the debate over whether we really have free will.)

Unlike the present and the future, the past is locked in. Short of inventing the elusive time machine, there's not much we can do to change the past. We simply have to accept it and move on. Or do we?
Here's the concept: the way we experience the future affects our recording of the past. In some cases, we can actually change the past.
The past lives in our memories, and these memories are far from reliable. We are the unreliable narrator of our own story. We might exaggerate our successes or magnify our failures out of proportion. These tendencies are not mutually exclusive: we might do both at the same time!

There are at least three ways the future can change the past. I suspect you'll relate to one of them, if not all three.

1. The Effect of New Experience

Think back on a time in which you really wanted something and didn't get it. You wanted to gain the acceptance or approval of someone. You wanted a relationship to succeed. You wanted to be offered a job or admission to an elite program. Whatever it is, you wanted it badly, even desperately -and you didn't get it.

When you failed to achieve your goal, you experienced feelings of despair. For a long time afterwards, it hurt to think about it. You wondered if you should have tried harder or done something differently. (We've all been there!)

As painful as it was, however, you eventually reached a turning point. Something else came along that wouldn't have been possible in the alternative universe you so desired-yet, clearly, this new thing turned out to be much better.

Looking back later, you see the original situation in a whole different light. Now you understand that instead of that situation serving as a low point of your life, something you always wish had turned out differently, it's taken on another role entirely: the time you didn't get what you wanted, thank God.

Just think about that. The thing you most wanted was the very thing you didn't need.

This isn't simply a matter of interpretation. In these situations, the past is literally different because of something that took place ... in the future.

2. The Effect of New Information

Now imagine that your family takes a DNA test, and you discover that your dad is not your biological father. This actually happened to a close friend of mine when she was thirty years old. Her whole family learned the results at the same time! She told me afterwards that it felt like a bad soap opera plot, except it was happening in her mom's living room.
Does this new information change the past? Well, whether you think it should or shouldn't, it does.
In the case with my friend, the disclosure created years of turmoil within her family. If they hadn't taken the test, the family dynamics and sense of shared history (regardless of its accuracy) would have endured.

You could argue that new information shouldn't have so much power. My friend's family was happy, or at least stable, before learning that a secret had been held for more than thirty years. Why shouldn't everyone just accept that "something is different, but most things are still the same?"

As I said, whether or not they should or shouldn't is irrelevant. The status quo was an impossible outcome: the family could no longer see the past the same way ever again. Substantial new information changes the past.

3. The Weight of Major Events

Finally, imagine that a major event takes place in your life. It could be either positive or negative, but let's go with positive: you win the lottery. It's a really big lottery, one of those that makes headlines and provides you with a dizzying amount of money.

The week before you won the lottery, you'd missed a credit card payment. The missed payment had been lingering in the back of your mind, making you feel anxious whenever it surfaced.

Now, as a $100 million lottery winner, what do you think about that missed payment? Chances are, you don't think much about it at all!

Whatever guilt you had over it would be eliminated as you cheerfully went to pay off the entire balance. Your internal narrative would shift.

Before: This credit card bill is really bothering me. I feel embarrassed and ashamed.

After: Remember that time I missed a payment right before I won the lottery? What a difference a day makes!

You might even skip the analysis altogether, in which case the past would effectively be erased. Lots of other things about your life would be changing as well, and credit card bills would no longer be on your mind.

When a major event occurs, the shift in the past can be sudden and total. Situations in your past that bothered you before now seem much farther off in the distance. They are far less relevant to your life now.

Better Than a Time Machine?

Think of time travel by changing the future as a tool you can use in dealing with time anxiety. It doesn't work all the time-just consider the classic quote, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"-but sometimes it's a lifesaver.

We want so much to go back and change things that happened long ago, or even something that happened yesterday. But the way we remember the past is greatly influenced by what we do in the future.

The next time someone says "You can't change the past," you'll know better. You're changing the past every day! The past also changes on its own, merely through the passage of time and events outside your control.

By taking control of your future-and by paying close attention-you'll notice that the past is fluid and subject to change.

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"People think that only the future can be changed, but in fact, the future is continually changing the past. The past can and does change. It's exquisitely sensitive and delicately balanced."

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We've been told it over and over again:
You can't change the past.
But in a way, that's a big fat lie...

You can change the past.

...And I'm not talking about time travel...

"The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind." - Kiran Desai

Our mind is a super computer with power to process and correct any information. We have the ability inside of us to change the past, but it may not be in the ways you think...

When I was younger, I remember learning about the Declaration of Independence in school.

I was fascinated by the concept of simply claiming, by way of a statement and signature, that things were no longer to be a certain way.

I drafted up my own Declaration of Democratic Independence and turned it into my teacher, telling her I no longer needed History class.

Not surprisingly I got a visit from the principal the next day. He looked me straight in the eye and asked,

"Why do you think we need History?"

I don't remember what I said (I think a lot of uhhhs and mmms were involved) but I do remember the response he chimed in with,

"When we drive a car, we use a rear view mirror to move forward. History allows us to do the exact same thing. We move forward with the help of the past..."

At the time I still couldn't really understand why a bunch of wars and dead guys allowed me to live my life any better... but I smiled, nodded, and thanked my principal for his time, running back to class, just grateful for the fact I didn't get detention ...

I always find it interesting to watch shows and movies that take place in a time of History that is not our own. I often wonder if the characters would really be like that or if they are simply projections of our current worldviews ...

I don't know for certain. But I think it might be extra satisfying to watch something that rights the wrongs of History and spices up a story with modern ideals.

When you think about it, we actually do this exact same thing with our own mind and memories every day as well...

Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd wrote an interesting book called The Time Paradox.

In it, they explain that memories don't play out the exact same way every time we bring them up. Memories are reconstructions of the past based on our current understandings of the world. Memories change, little by little. They fluctuate. They are filtered.

So, the way we remember something when we are 5 is very different than how we remember it at age 50. We see the world differently at different stages in our life.

"the paradox of time perspective, is something that influences every decision you make, you're totally unaware of" - Philip Zimbardo

Our memories are truths only because of the meaning and filters we give to them...

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman talks about how our minds don't experience things in a straightforward manner at all. In our brains we have different selves. We have a memory self, a remembering self, and a experience self

They categorize things differently, asking questions like,

" How was this event as a whole "

vs

" How does it feel now?"

As a result of this, our selves are in conflict. Our memories can become faulty or mixed.

The mind gives meaning, definition, and reality to our memories in a very powerful way. So much so, that we should be utilizing every opportunity we have to make sure our brain is functioning at peak positivity levels.

The way we view our past very literallydetermines how we live today.

People who view the past in a positive way (even if that means exaggerating circumstances or ignoring pieces and parts of it) are more inclined to be happier, healthier, and more successful.

People who view the past negatively tend to have more anger, anxiety/depression, and low self-esteem.

Want to know the good news?

We can change the past simply by changing the way we feel about it!

"While no one can change events that occurred in the past, everyone can change attitudes and beliefs about them." ― The Time Paradox

Our brain literally defines the world we live in. If we change our focus, our attitudes and beliefs, we have the power to change our realities.

It's not about delusion. It's not about pretending. We simply can change the past simply by giving it new definitions and filters.

"Out of your deepest pain will come your greatest gifts, but this can only happen when you take control of the meaning." - Tony Robbins

The only thing we can control in life is the meaning we give to things. And this is magical. Because meaning is everything.

When we give positive meaning to events in the past, we get more positivity back, today!

"There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means." -Ryan Holiday

We get to define our story, from past to future, so let's make it a good one. Today.

The mind is an incredible tool...

It's a time machine.

It's a film screen.

It's a History book.

And it has the power to change the world. It has the power to change the past.

Next time you recall a bad event or memory from life, try to look at it through rose-tinted glasses. Ask yourself questions like,
What did I learn? What am I grateful for because this happened?
And so on...

Then watch the past become something different than it was before...

Because when we see the world positively, we change it.

The Future. The Past. The Present.
They are all what we make them to be...

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How To Change The Past Without a Time Machine

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Our mind is a super computer with power to process and correct any information. We have the ability inside of us to change the past, but it may not be in the ways you think... I was fascinated by the...

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Weird But Fair Dice (plus the D120) - Numberphile

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15 Ways to Get a Fresh Perspective On an Old Topic

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How do you give yourself a fresh pair of eyes when you've seen it all before? I pondered this after the announcement that David Eastwood--someone deeply involved in HE--had been made Chair of Russell Group. In a time of difficulty for the sector, it is obvious that a top role needs someone with a lot...

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Roman dice were often visibly biased, but that might not have mattered to someone who believed in divine intervention.

Dice, in their standard six-sided form, seem like the simplest kind of device-almost a classic embodiment of chance. But a new study of more than 100 examples from the last 2,000 years or so unearthed in the Netherlands shows that they have not always looked exactly the way they do now. What's more, the shifts in dice's appearance may reflect people's changing sense of what exactly is behind a roll-fate, or probability.

Dice have been found all over Europe, says Jelmer Eerkens, an archaeologist at the University of California at Davis, who led the study. They haven't always been well documented, however; Eerkens measured and photographed almost twice as many dice as he and his coauthor ended up being able use in this study, bypassing those without clear dates. It's evident that dice arrived in the Netherlands with the Romans in the first few centuries after the death of Christ. And in contrast with modern dice, they weren't always exactly cubes. Sometimes they were noticeably a bit flatter than a true cube, or a bit longer, making them more likely to fall on some faces than on others.

Did it matter to game players that these dice were not fair? "We don't know for sure," Eerkens says. The way Romans wrote about dice falls suggests they were regarded as signs of supernatural favor or of a player's fortune, however. The archaeologist Ellen Swift, in her book Roman Artifacts and Society, writes that high rolls had associations of benevolence and felicity, and that rolling three sixes at the same time seems to have been called a Venus. "Dice potentially played an important role in conceptualizing divine action in the world," she writes.

If you thought that your prayers had more to do with a roll's outcome than anything else, perhaps a perfect shape wasn't required. Eerkens says, "Some of the non-symmetry that we see in the earlier dice might be a by-product [of the idea] that it wasn't thought to be very important in the function of the dice-that it didn't matter too much, because other things were controlling whether you would win or lose the game."

After the fall of the Roman Empire, dice largely disappear from the record in the Netherlands. Then, when they come back on the scene in about 1100 AD, the way the numbers are arranged around the die has changed. Rather than using the arrangement called sevens, where one and six are on opposite sides, as are three and four, and five and two, so each set of sides adds up to seven, the dice now use an arrangement called primes. One and two are opposite, as are three and four, and five and six: The sets each add up to a different prime number. "Suddenly, they're all in this primes configuration," says Eerkens. "We don't know where that idea came from."

At the same time, dice tend to get smaller, perhaps to make them easier to hide, as gambling was not favored by the increasingly powerful religious authorities. Some of the study's dice from this era, in fact, were found all together in a small hole in a garbage heap, including one cheater's die with an extra three. Could it be someone saw the light and forswore dice?

Still, despite official disdain, by the 13th century, at least in some parts of Europe, people begin to write in a systematic way about why dice games work the way they do, as the dice themselves grow more and more uniform. In the 17th century, even Galileo writes about why, in a game with three dice, the number 10 should come up more than the number 9. It's an observation that one would only be able to detect after thousands of rolls, but the reason behind it involves how many combinations of numbers can add up to each different option.

The dice even switch back to the sevens configuration, a move that Eerkens suggests may have something to do with a growing sense that dice must be balanced, both physically and conceptually. (Lest you think one of these orientations is somehow the default, in an earlier experiment, the researchers asked schoolchildren to number the sides of paper cubes, and showed that neither primes nor sevens was intuitive. Instead, the kids wrote one on one face, turned the cube 90 degrees to write two on the next face, and so on, resulting in a configuration the researchers call turned.)

All these changes in dice come about, says Eerkens, "as different astronomers are coming up with new ideas about the world, and mathematicians are starting to understand numbers and probability." Which came first: Did people begin to intuitively understand what true chance felt like, and adjusted dice accordingly, or did it trickle out from what would eventually become known as the scientific community? It isn't clear, but to Eerkens, the story told by the dice is of a rising awareness of randomness. "It's so embedded in the way we think [now]," he says. In our current conception, even the weather, once interpreted as a foregone conclusion thanks to divine intervention, is random. The very idea that there is a 50 percent chance of rain is a radical change from the past.

And it does make you wonder: Would you know that fair dice should fall equally on each side, or that in a three-dice game, it's better to bet on 10 than nine, if someone hadn't told you?

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The Shape of Ancient Dice Suggests Shifting Beliefs in Fate and Chance

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Roman dice were often visibly biased, but that might not have mattered to someone who believed in divine intervention. Dice, in their standard six-sided form, seem like the simplest kind of device-almost a classic embodiment of chance.

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What do you do to get your dice to roll properly?

I remember this being asked in a dragon magazine and the stories were wild. People putting their dice in the microwave to 'teach them a lesson', firing bad dice with a wrist-mounted slingshot over their balcony. Leaving their dice with the highest side up in the hopes the old story of glass gradually flowing down in stained glass windows is true.

I always have a lucky dice set- the only complete set of otherwise odd dice- and I make all my most important rolls with it. But ONLY the important rolls, or the luck will run out.

So, people of reddit, what do you do with your dice?

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What are your dice superstitions and rituals?

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What do you do to get your dice to roll properly? I remember this being asked in a dragon magazine and the stories were wild. People putting their dice in the microwave to 'teach them a lesson', firing bad dice with a wrist-mounted slingshot over their balcony.

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"DON'T TOUCH MY DICE!"

How many times have you heard that in a gaming session? Dude, it's just some molded plastic. So what if I roll them? Apparently, some people take their dice very seriously. And when I say "very seriously" I mean to the point where they actually have superstitions about them. Players believe that certain actions can bless or doom your dice rolls.

Even the cast of our own Critical Role are superstitious about their dice. At Gen Con, Marisha started using a brand-new set of opalite dice and rolled three natural 1s in a row. It was hilarious for the viewers, but terrifying for the cast. They later concluded that receiving an opal as a gift negates it being bad luck for anyone not born in October. Then something something blah blah Taliesin magical lawyering to make the dice a gift, etc. This actually happened. Of course, opalite and opals are two different stones, but perhaps I won't mention that to them.

This incident got me wondering, what other dice superstitions are out there? I did some digging, and here's what I found. Unfortunately, many of these superstitions contradict or are the complete opposite of another. So um, good luck not feeling paranoid after reading this.

Don't roll the die before you need it because you'll use up your good rolls.

Always roll out the bad rolls before you need the die.

Once you have a good roll, don't let the die sit idle for too long lest it "get cold."

Your first set of dice is sacred. Don't ever discard or mix them with other dice.

Always lay your dice with the lowest number facing up.

Always lay your dice with the highest possible number facing up.

Never allow ANYONE else to roll your dice. Sharing is not caring. Sharing lets in the monsterous bad-luck demon that makes you roll poorly! Just kidding. It's Satan himself.

Specific dice are used for specific situations. There is an attack roll D20, a D20 for saving throws, a different D20 for skill checks, a D20 to seduce red-haired, one-eyed bearded dwarven women named Irene, etc.

A new die must be tested: Keep the new die separated. Roll it 25 times. Count the number of times the max roll appears versus the minimum roll. If the maximum is greater, that's a successful turnout. Repeat this process. If the die fails the test three times, get rid of it. Oh, did you pay $400 for that D20 made of 925 sterling silver? TOO BAD! IT'S TRASH!

If the status of a die's luck is in question, keep it separated from the rest of the dice, lest it bring down the luck of the others.

On the other hand, some believe mixing a single unlucky die with several lucky ones will make it roll better.

There are various rituals to prime or "cleanse" dice before use. They range from leaving them in a special place for a day to rubbing them on the tombstone of a deceased game developer.

Teach a particularly bad die a lesson by "punishing" it. This can be putting it in "the shame bag" or even the freezer.

If a bad die is clearly cursed for all eternity, it must be destroyed while the other dice bear witness.

If you find that one particular die is lucky, you should name it (but not after a significant other) and only use it for very important rolls. And it should also be kept in its own special holder. And you should talk to it when you take it out and put it away. Yes, seriously.

Do you believe in dice superstitions? What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments. Image credits: Courtney Kraft, Geek & Sundry

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15 Of The Craziest Superstitions About Dice

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"DON'T TOUCH MY DICE!" How many times have you heard that in a gaming session? Dude, it's just some molded plastic. So what if I roll them? Apparently, some people take their dice very seriously. And when I say "very seriously" I mean to the point where they actually have superstitions about them.

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The Changing Shape of Fate: The Origins of Dice - Where Did They Come From, Who Invented Them and Why Do We Like Them So Much?

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Many an outcome has been decided by a roll of the dice. As time’s gone by they seem to have shifted from conveyors of fate to fine-tuned fairness - ‘Maths Rocks’ as the D&D crowd fondly refer to them. But where did dice come from and why do we seem to be so enamoured with them? We took a look at how…

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    Now, when we roll a die, we’re less likely to think of the outcome as fate, rather a matter of luck and probability.    Dice are no longer conveyors of fate, but carefully crafted ‘maths rocks’.That said, there’s still something so satisfying about rolling a set of dice. Why?Aside from the precious gem-like feel in your hands, the many captivating varieties on offer nowadays and the satisfying clikedy-clack sound as dice hit together, maybe it’s that human urge to surrender to lady luck - or probability - or fate (if that’s your inclination) once in a while - and let something else take the driving seat for a bit?

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    Now, when we roll a die, we’re less likely to think of the outcome as fate, rather a matter of luck and probability.    Dice are no longer conveyors of fate, but carefully crafted ‘maths rocks’.That said, there’s still something so satisfying about rolling a set of dice. Why?Aside from the precious gem-like feel in your hands, the many captivating varieties on offer nowadays and the satisfying clikedy-clack sound as dice hit together, maybe it’s that human urge to surrender to lady luck - or probability - or fate (if that’s your inclination) once in a while - and let something else take the driving seat for a bit?

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This page describes the history of the true random number service RANDOM.ORG, which offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs.

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LavaRnd, like all the best cryptographic methods, has two parts, an algorithm which describes how the technique works and a key. Good algorithms are not a secret, it is the key that must always be kept secret. The key must have a large number of possible values so that it is virtually impossible to…

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The modern computer age runs on random numbers. Patternless strings of digits are essential for the data encryption that promises privacy and security online. And since computers-fundamentally deterministic machines designed to follow set procedures-cannot deliver true randomness, we must source our entropy from the physical world.

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I am a sculptor based in Edinburgh. I trained at Edinburgh College of Art, BA in Ceramics and MA in Sculpture. I exhibit regularly in the UK, and am elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Currently working on funded residency with Art Walk Projects and a solo show at the Upright Gallery, Edinburgh next year. I am also a Life Coach.
I am a visual artist producing work from small delicate objects to large-scale sculptural pieces. At the core of my practice is experimentation with the limits and possibilities of materials. I use the analogy of weathered objects to suggest the uncertainty and changes we face as human beings. Recent research has led towards the edge of textiles, creating personal sculptural spaces in response to the tension between comfortable containment and restraint. Currently I am creating tools using old objects exploring psychological change, to capture the intangible way in which we make decisions, inform personal changes and deal with anxiety.

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I am a sculptor based in Edinburgh. I trained at Edinburgh College of Art, BA in Ceramics and MA in Sculpture. I exhibit regularly in the UK, and am elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Currently working on funded residency with Art Walk Projects and a solo show at the Upright Gallery, Edinburgh next year.

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Although knucklebone pieces were originally made from the knucklebones of sheep or goats, they were later crafted in a great variety of materials: brass, copper, silver, gold, glass, bone, ivory, marble, wood, stone, bronze, terracotta and precious gems. All of the JHUAM knucklebones are made of glass, except for knucklebone piece HT 972, which is made of copper alloy. Usually produced in sets of four or five, the pieces themselves are diminutive: about two centimeters long and one centimeter wide. No side of a knucklebone is alike. Each piece has four long sides and two short sides. Of the four longer sides, two are noticeably broader. One of the broader sides is concave, while the other is convex, just as one of the narrower sides is indented and the other is flat. Their corners are either rounded or pointed so that they are unable to stand on one end.

The precise origin of the game of knucklebones is unclear. It may have originated in either Egypt or Lydia. When exactly the Greeks and Romans adopted this game is also unknown. Still its popularity in antiquity is confirmed by abundant archaeological and visual evidence: not only have numerous knucklebone pieces been found at various sites, but the game itself -whether played by men, women or children- is frequently depicted in painting and sculpture.

The game of knucklebones, also known as astragaloi in Greek and tali in Latin, could be played in several different ways. The simplest and perhaps most common form of this game, played by children, was comparable to the modern-day game of jackstones: all five small pieces were simultaneously tossed into the air, the goal being to catch as many as possible on the back of one hand. Another variation of the game involved players throwing one or more of the pieces into a small dirt hole in the ground or into the opening of a small vessel. He or she with the best aim would win.

Adults, however, played different games of knucklebones. For women, the game of knucklebones served an oracular function. In antiquity, a woman who played knucklebones was seen as placing herself in the hands of fate. This was especially true of young, unmarried women who, by playing knucklebones, were thought to be entrusting themselves to Aphrodite. In Greek, young, nubile women were often referred to as philastragalai, i.e. "loving knucklebones." Aphrodite's role in the game was so prominent that a perfect roll in which all the knucklebones landed on different sides was called an "Aphrodite throw."

Men, on the other hand, treated knucklebones like dice. Using only four knucklebones, men would throw the pieces onto the ground or a table thirty-five times. Each side represented a different numerical value, so that each knucklebone throw was calculated. Differently from the modern game of dice, it was not the side of the knucklebone that faced up that counted. It was instead the side that landed on the surface. Although each knucklebone side was different and therefore, did not require a numerical marking, often, for the sake of convenience, numbers were inscribed on the pieces.

It is clear, then, that knucklebones were used differently according to the player's age and gender. These different variations of the game of knucklebones also recall the social hierarchies that set children apart from adults and men from women in the ancient world. Ultimately, they bring us closer to the games and customs that colored ancient daily life.

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Archaeology of Daily Life | Childhood Knucklebones By Alexandra Good Measurements: Length 1.8 cm, Width 1.0 cm, Depth 3.1 cm Material: Glass and Copper Alloy Date: Unknown Origin: Unknown Find Spot: Unknown Collection: Helen Tanzer Accession Numbers (from left to right): Top Row: HT 970, HT 971; Middle Row: 983, HT 974, HT969; Bottom Row: HT 973, HT 972

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Table of Contents

dice, singular die, small objects (polyhedrons) used as implements for gambling and the playing of social games. The most common form of die is the cube, with each side marked with from one to six small dots (spots). The spots are arranged in conventional patterns and placed so that spots on opposite sides always add up to seven: one and six, two and five, three and four. There are, however, many dice with differing arrangements of spots or other face designs, such as poker dice and crown and anchor dice, and many other shapes of dice with 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, and 20 or more sides. Dice are generally used to generate a random outcome (most often a number or a combination of numbers) in which the physical design and quantity of the dice thrown determine the mathematical probabilities.

In most games played with dice, the dice are thrown (rolled, flipped, shot, tossed, or cast), from the hand or from a receptacle called a dice cup, in such a way that they will fall at random. The symbols that face up when the dice come to rest are the relevant ones, and their combination decides, according to the rules of the game being played, whether the thrower (often called the shooter) wins, loses, scores points, continues to throw, or loses possession of the dice to another shooter. Dice have also been used for at least 5,000 years in connection with board games, primarily for the movement of playing pieces.

History

Dice and their forerunners are the oldest gaming implements known to man. Sophocles reported that dice were invented by the legendary Greek Palamedes during the siege of Troy, whereas Herodotus maintained that they were invented by the Lydians in the days of King Atys. Both "inventions" have been discredited by numerous archaeological finds demonstrating that dice were used in many earlier societies.

The precursors of dice were magical devices that primitive people used for the casting of lots to divine the future. The probable immediate forerunners of dice were knucklebones (astragals: the anklebones of sheep, buffalo, or other animals), sometimes with markings on the four faces. Such objects are still used in some parts of the world.

In later Greek and Roman times, most dice were made of bone and ivory; others were of bronze, agate, rock crystal, onyx, jet, alabaster, marble, amber, porcelain, and other materials. Cubical dice with markings practically equivalent to those of modern dice have been found in Chinese excavations from 600 bce and in Egyptian tombs dating from 2000 bce. The first written records of dice are found in the ancient Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, composed in India more than 2,000 years ago. Pyramidal dice (with four sides) are as old as cubical ones; such dice were found with the so-called Royal Game of Ur, one of the oldest complete board games ever discovered, dating back to Sumer in the 3rd millennium bce. Another variation of dice is teetotums (a type of spinning top).

It was not until the 16th century that dice games were subjected to mathematical analysis-by Italians Girolamo Cardano and Galileo, among others-and the concepts of randomness and probability were conceived ( see probability and statistics). Until then the prevalent attitude had been that dice and similar objects fell the way they did because of the indirect action of gods or supernatural forces.

Manufacture

Almost all modern dice are made of a cellulose or other plastic material. There are two kinds: perfect, or casino, dice with sharp edges and corners, commonly made by hand and true to a tolerance of 0.0001 inch (0.00026 cm) and used mostly in gambling casinos to play craps or other gambling games, and round-cornered, or imperfect, dice, which are machine-made and are generally used to play social and board games.

Cheating with dice

Perfect dice are also known as fair dice, levels, or squares, whereas dice that have been tampered with, or expressly made for cheating, are known as crooked or gaffed dice. Such dice have been found in the tombs of ancient Egypt and the Orient, in prehistoric graves of North and South America, and in Viking graves. There are many forms of crooked dice. Any die that is not a perfect cube will not act according to correct mathematical odds and is called a shape, a brick, or a flat. For example, a cube that has been shaved down on one or more sides so that it is slightly brick-shaped will tend to settle down most often on its larger surfaces, whereas a cube with bevels, on which one or more sides have been trimmed so that they are slightly convex, will tend to roll off of its convex sides. Shapes are the most common of all crooked dice. Loaded dice (called tappers, missouts, passers, floppers, cappers, or spot loaders, depending on how and where extra weight has been applied) may prove to be perfect cubes when measured with calipers, but extra weight just below the surface on some sides will make the opposite sides come up more often than they should. The above forms of dice are classed as percentage dice: they will not always fall with the intended side up but will do so often enough in the long run for the cheaters to win the majority of their bets.

A die with one or more faces each duplicated on its opposite side and certain numbers omitted will produce some numbers in disproportionate frequency and never produce certain others; for example, two dice marked respectively with duplicates of 3-4-5 and 1-5-6 can never produce combinations totaling 2, 3, 7, or 12, which are the only combinations with which one can lose in the game of craps. Such dice, called busters or tops and bottoms, are used as a rule only by accomplished dice cheats, who introduce them into the game by sleight of hand ("switching"). Since it is impossible to see more than three sides of a cube at any one time, tops and bottoms are unlikely to be detected by the inexperienced gambler.

Yet another form of cheating with dice produces controlled shots, in which one or more fair dice are spun, rolled, or thrown so that a certain side or sides will come up, or not come up, depending on the desired effect. Known by such colourful names as the whip shot, the blanket roll, the slide shot, the twist shot, and the Greek shot, this form of cheating requires considerable manual dexterity and practice. Fear of such ability led casinos to install tables with slanted end walls and to insist that dice be thrown so as to rebound from them.

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dice, singular die, small objects (polyhedrons) used as implements for gambling and the playing of social games. The most common form of die is the cube, with each side marked with from one to six small dots (spots).

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Daytona State College Instructional Resources

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CEN3722   Interface Metaphors and Conceptual Models