Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

This article discusses the historical perception of Buchenwald through artistic research focusing on the themes of camp music and children’s camps. The research is structured into three sections. The first section explores the types of music in the concentration camp and their roles, while the second investigates the development of children’s camps within Buchenwald. The third section discusses the sounding sculpture Spieldose, which the author created based on this research. The article suggests that an artistic approach to historical perception involves an interactive dialogue that shapes both personal understanding and the historical narrative itself. As for the artwork Spieldose, the author attempts to sound an alarm to the world through it, for history is not and has never been far removed from us, rather, it is unfolding right before our eyes.

In networked applications, latency can disrupt the sense of synchrony by causing offsets e.g. between local speech and remote visual response. We investigate the influence of frequency and Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) on synchrony perception during rhythmic audiovisual experiences. Our results show that the Point of Subjective Synchrony (PSS) is influenced by frequency, whereas the Window of Subjective Synchrony (WSS) is not. Variations in SOA induce adaptive gaze behavior in response to audiovisual latencies, while pupil diameter increases with increasing SOA, suggesting a higher cognitive load for successive unisensory rather than integrated events. This has practical implications for the design of computer-mediated applications that promote a sense of community through rhythmic interaction. Eye tracking data may indicate perceived (a)synchrony in audiovisual integration. In addition, the choice of frequencies may help to mask latencies, enhance the experience of synchrony and thus support feelings of closeness and intimacy in virtual interaction.

This article highlights the importance of the concept of ‘freedom to stay’ ( Bleibefreiheit ) as developed by philosopher Eva von Redecker, facing the accelerated climate crisis, the unbroken dynamics of capitalism, and the growing right-wing extremism. ‘Freedom to stay’ means the ecological autonomy to remain in places that allow for the collective production of critical subjectivity. While von Redecker unfolds this concept in dialogue with feminism and critical theory (from Simone de Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt to Rahel Jaeggi), the present article highlights the importance in this context of ‘vitalist Marxism’ in the sense of Georges Canguilhem and Gilles Deleuze, as well as institutional psychotherapy in the sense of Jean Oury and Félix Guattari. Only when the ‘fullness of time’ von Redecker invokes so elegantly is explicitly linked to the institutional struggles for social time can discourses about the ‘freedom to stay’ become crucially convincing.

The article explores the less-known work of Annetta Pedretti’s cybernetic-architectural practice at 25 Princelet Street. It maps a thread across her career—from her experiments in design writing to the long-spanning project of repairing and re-making the house at Princelet Street—which points towards how she mobilised her practice to counter various forms of ‘oppression.’ For Pedretti, ‘oppression’ was a process through which the ‘implicit ordering’ of living systems, i.e., self-organising systems, are negated or overruled in favour of explicit ordering imposed from the outside. Oppression became a word to define the processes she witnessed daily within the multicultural politics of heritage and transformation in her East End neighbourhood. Pedretti found a vocabulary to explore the complex relationship between transformation, change, implicit ordering, and recursive feedback in living systems through cybernetics. Cybernetic ideas about self-organisation and language were already present in architectural practice and knowledge discussions around that time. However, Pedretti’s work was marked by an ‘everydayness’ that points towards a different ethics and politics of engaging reflexive feedback in everyday improvisations such as writing, repairing, caring, and conversing. Thinking through Pedretti’s project becomes particularly helpful at present, where there are many obstacles to thinking in time, as problematic forms of a techno-modern ontology strengthen the runaway feedback loops between practices of making and markets. It is often the case that ‘clock time’ is so easily taken as a given that the thought that alternatives exist does not even register. But Pedretti shows us that an alternative is possible and that it begins with our own practices.

The Audiovisual Multimodal Interaction Suite (AMIS) is an open source dataset and accompanying Unity-based demo implementation designed to aid research on immersive media communication and social XR environments. AMIS features synchronized audiovisual recordings of three actors performing monologues and participating in dyadic conversations across four modalities: talking-head videos, full-body videos, volumetric avatars, and personalized animated avatars. These recordings can be used to simulate scenarios such as traditional video conferences or XR meetings with 3D avatars in controlled and replicable environments. The limitations of existing datasets, which include a restricted number of audiovisual formats, a narrow application focus, and suboptimal inclusion of verbal and non-verbal cues, are addressed by AMIS. With AMIS Studio, a Unity-based demonstrator, researchers can explore the recordings and compare the different audiovisual formats in VR scenes. This paper outlines the creation of AMIS, its design considerations, and how it may be applied in interdisciplinary domains, including cognitive psychology, audiovisual quality assessment, and social XR research.

The paper at hand presents a new numerical model based on experimental investigations of the low‐cycle fatigue behavior of the high‐strength aluminum alloy EN AW‐7020 T6. The developed plastic damage model is based on J2 plasticity with Charboche‐type mixed kinematic hardening blended with a suitable isotropic hardening. However, a detailed investigation reveals that for EN AW‐7020 T6, the model must be augmented with a damage growth model to accurately describe cyclic fatigue including large plastic strains. Different stress splits are tested, whereby the deviatoric/volumetric split is successful in reproducing the desired degradation in peak stress and stiffness. The model includes a nonlinear activation function to ensure smooth transitions between tension and compression and a damage index for the deviatoric part and for the volumetric part. The plasticity model is calibrated using finite element simulations of a dog‐bone specimen and applied to the cyclic loading of a compact tension specimen.

Research and contributions focused on social enterprises (SEs) are restricted mainly to highly industrialized economies. In the global south, particularly in Africa, empirical research linked to social entrepreneurship is still in its infancy. This study addresses and links social entrepreneurship to building community resilience. This is done through qualitative inquiry with 16 community-based SEs to investigate how and to what extent SEs contribute to community resilience in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa. The study found that SEs contributed to community resilience by filling product and service gaps, fostering innovation, building community identity, increasing resources through job creation and improving awareness of community risks. Empirical evidence demonstrates the importance of local solutions to local societal problems. This study contributes to resilience and philanthropy research by conceptualizing the contributions of community-based social entrepreneurs to community resilience in an under-researched context—South Africa’s townships.

This paper is a report of the Workshop on Simulations for Information Access (Sim4IA) workshop at SIGIR 2024. The workshop had two keynotes, a panel discussion, nine lightning talks, and two breakout sessions. Key takeaways were user simulation's importance in academia and industry, the possible bridging of online and offline evaluation, and the issues of organizing a companion shared task around user simulations for information access. We report on how we organized the workshop, provide a brief overview of what happened at the workshop, and summarize the main topics and findings of the workshop and future work. Date : 18 July 2024. Website : https://sim4ia.org/sigir2024.

Single-use plastics are a major environmental concern in developing countries like Bangladesh due to their non-biodegradable nature. Finding sustainable alternatives is crucial to reduce reliance on these harmful plastics and mitigate pollution. This study aims to explore the public opinions on plastic pollution and investigate the challenges and potential for substituting plastics with jute. The study also provides essential recommendations for addressing these challenges and fostering the successful substitution of plastics with jute-based alternatives. A thorough social study was carried out in two major cities of Bangladesh, involving 212 participants through face-to-face questionnaire surveys. The selected participants represented diverse demographics in terms of age, gender, occupation, and education level. The findings reveal broad support for plastic recyclability, with many participants favoring jute and paper bags as alternatives to plastics. However, most individuals show little concern for reusing plastic products. Moreover, more than half of the total participants, spanning various demographics, have been exposed to plastic waste reduction campaigns. Furthermore, two-thirds of participants from diverse age groups, occupations, education levels, and genders support the introduction of higher pricing, such as additional tax, as measures to reduce plastic pollution. The correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) plot reveal clustering patterns aligning plastic recycling, extra charges on plastic, and the availability of jute products with socio-demographic variables. Despite favorable views on jute, participants highlight high prices and limited availability as major barriers to adopting jute alternatives. Most of the participants call for additional support to the jute sector, with consensus favoring increased subsidies from the Government of Bangladesh and recognition of the significance of investing in research.

The construction industry is facing issues worldwide, particularly worker fatalities and injury rates. Construction safety requires careful attention and preparation across the project’s entire lifecycle, from design to demolition activities. In the digital era, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has emerged as a transformative technology in the construction industry, offering new opportunities to enhance safety standards and reduce accidents. This study examines the influence of BIM on construction safety, particularly its capacity to transform safety protocols, enhance danger identification, and minimize accidents during the construction project’s duration. The review approach used is based on PRISMA. Scopus and Web of Science were the databases used to search for qualifying publications. From an initial cohort of 502 papers, 125 were chosen as relevant to the scope of this research. A thorough analysis of the existing literature was conducted to examine the processes by which BIM helps to improve safety, such as early hazards identification, conflict detection, virtual safety simulations, and improved communication and collaboration among project stakeholders. This study examined the following knowledge gaps: integration with safety regulations and standards, a comprehensive safety dimension in BIM, BIM for real-time safety monitoring, and a BIM-driven safety culture. The following potential future research directions were highlighted: enhanced BIM applications for safety, longitudinal studies on BIM and safety outcomes, BIM for post-construction safety and maintenance, and BIM for safety training and simulation. In conclusion, the integration of BIM into construction safety protocols presents significant potential for mitigating risks and improving safety management over the asset lifecycle. As the industry increasingly adopts digital technology, BIM will be crucial in establishing safer and more efficient construction environments.

Die Entwicklung von neuartigen Lehmsteinen, Plansteinen und Planelementen samt dazu passendem Mörtel ist in den vergangenen Jahren rasant gestiegen. Neue Materialen und Systeme verlangen aber auch nach neuen Prüfmethoden und ein fundiertes Verständnis für das Materialverhalten. Die 2D‐Verformungsmessung ermöglicht es die Verformungen der Prüfkörper zu jedem Zeitpunkt der Prüfung zu betrachten. Untersucht wurde die Druckfestigkeit von drei RILEM‐Prüfkörper aus Lehmsteinen mit Dünnbettmörtel und Dickbettmörtel bei Raumtemperatur. Es konnte gezeigt werden wie sich das Versagen der RILEM ‐Prüfkörper unter axialer Druckbelastung zwischen den Mörtelarten unterscheidet.

This article is dedicated to the question of how ‘blackness’ was brought up in literary and theoretical texts of the avant-gardes, not only in France but also in Germany, for although Germany lost its colonies after the First World War, it was still characterised by its colonial past as well as by the newer African American entertainment culture. This complex situation was the subject of cultural criticism from various sides and prose fiction also became part of this discourse on blackness, with German and French authors corresponding closely with each other in this respect. When a specifically ‘black’ theory and practice of culture emerged in France a good 10 years later with the ‘Négritude’-movement and ‘Présence africaine’, it tied in with the already existing ‘white’ discourse on blackness – albeit in very different ways: while Césaire derives identity politics from a history of violence from the outset, Senghor mobilises primarily anthropological arguments to the end.

The German Research Foundation has established the priority program SPP 100+. Its subject is monitoring bridge structures in civil engineering. The data-driven methods cluster deals with the use of measurements and their special global and local analysis methods, which complement each other in an overall multi-scale concept in order to realize condition monitoring. The presented methods aim for damage detection, local-ization, and quantification of the monitored structure. Static and dynamic investigations based on mechanical multi-scale models were carried out, and process-oriented models combined with image processing methods and machine learning were created. The methods are tested on several laboratory and real-life experimental mechanical structures. The underlying theoretical concept and first experimental results of the research group are presented in this article. This study successfully employs a series of multi-scale experiments, integrating mechanical models and advanced image processing to effectively detect, localize, and quantify damage in bridge structures for enhanced structural health monitoring.