Project acronym AFRISCREENWORLDS
Project African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies
Researcher (PI) Lindiwe Dovey
Host Institution (HI) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES ROYAL CHARTER
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although “world cinema” and “transnational cinema” scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic “screen worlds” are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these “screen worlds” (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global “screen worlds” – and, in particular, “screen worlds” in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of ‘toolkits’ on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of “screen worlds” is better equipped than “world cinema” or “transnational cinema” to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
Summary
A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although “world cinema” and “transnational cinema” scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic “screen worlds” are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these “screen worlds” (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global “screen worlds” – and, in particular, “screen worlds” in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of ‘toolkits’ on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of “screen worlds” is better equipped than “world cinema” or “transnational cinema” to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 578 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym AMPHIBIANS
Project All Optical Manipulation of Photonic Metasurfaces for Biophotonic Applications in Microfluidic Environments
Researcher (PI) Andrea DI FALCO
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The current trend in biophotonics is to try and replicate the same ease and precision that our hands, eyes and ears offer at the macroscopic level, e.g. to hold, observe, squeeze and pull, rotate, cut and probe biological specimens in microfluidic environments. The bidding to get closer and closer to the object of interest has prompted the development of extremely advanced manipulation techniques at scales comparable to that of the wavelength of light. However, the fact that the optical beam can only access the microfluidic chip from the narrow aperture of a microscopic objective limits the versatility of the photonic function that can be realized.
With this project, the applicant proposes to introduce a new biophotonic platform based on the all optical manipulation of flexible photonic metasurfaces. These artificial two-dimensional materials have virtually arbitrary photonic responses and have an intrinsic exceptional mechanical stability. This cross-disciplinary project, bridging photonics, material sciences and biology, will enable the adoption of the most modern and advanced photonic designs in microfluidic environments, with transformative benefits for microscopy and biophotonic applications at the interface of molecular and cell biology.
Summary
The current trend in biophotonics is to try and replicate the same ease and precision that our hands, eyes and ears offer at the macroscopic level, e.g. to hold, observe, squeeze and pull, rotate, cut and probe biological specimens in microfluidic environments. The bidding to get closer and closer to the object of interest has prompted the development of extremely advanced manipulation techniques at scales comparable to that of the wavelength of light. However, the fact that the optical beam can only access the microfluidic chip from the narrow aperture of a microscopic objective limits the versatility of the photonic function that can be realized.
With this project, the applicant proposes to introduce a new biophotonic platform based on the all optical manipulation of flexible photonic metasurfaces. These artificial two-dimensional materials have virtually arbitrary photonic responses and have an intrinsic exceptional mechanical stability. This cross-disciplinary project, bridging photonics, material sciences and biology, will enable the adoption of the most modern and advanced photonic designs in microfluidic environments, with transformative benefits for microscopy and biophotonic applications at the interface of molecular and cell biology.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 524 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym APOLLO
Project Advanced Signal Processing Technologies for Wireless Powered Communications
Researcher (PI) Ioannis Krikidis
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Wireless power transfer (WPT), pioneered by Tesla, is an idea at least as old as radio communications. However, on the one hand, due to health concerns and the large antenna dimensions required for transmission of high energy levels, until recently WPT has been limited mostly to very short distance applications. On the other hand, recent advances in silicon technology have significantly reduced the energy needs of electronic systems, making WPT over radio waves a potential source of energy for low power devices. Although WPT through radio waves has already found various short-range applications (such as the radio-frequency identification technology, healthcare monitoring etc.), its integration as a building block in the operation of wireless communications systems is still unexploited. On the other hand, conventional radio wave based information and energy transmissions have largely been designed separately. However, many applications can benefit from simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT).
The overall objective of the APOLLO project is to study the integration of WPT/SWIPT technology into future wireless communication systems. Compared to past and current research efforts in this area, our technical approach is deeply interdisciplinary and more comprehensive, combining the expertise of wireless communications, control theory, information theory, optimization, and electronics/microwave engineering.
The key outcomes of the project include: 1) a rigorous and complete mathematical theory for WPT/SWIPT via information/communication/control theoretic studies; 2) new physical and cross-layer mechanisms that will enable the integration of WPT/SWIPT into future communication systems; 3) new network architectures that will fully exploit potential benefits of WPT/SWIPT; and 4) development of a proof-of-concept by implementing highly-efficient and multi-band metamaterial energy harvesting sensors for SWIPT.
Summary
Wireless power transfer (WPT), pioneered by Tesla, is an idea at least as old as radio communications. However, on the one hand, due to health concerns and the large antenna dimensions required for transmission of high energy levels, until recently WPT has been limited mostly to very short distance applications. On the other hand, recent advances in silicon technology have significantly reduced the energy needs of electronic systems, making WPT over radio waves a potential source of energy for low power devices. Although WPT through radio waves has already found various short-range applications (such as the radio-frequency identification technology, healthcare monitoring etc.), its integration as a building block in the operation of wireless communications systems is still unexploited. On the other hand, conventional radio wave based information and energy transmissions have largely been designed separately. However, many applications can benefit from simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT).
The overall objective of the APOLLO project is to study the integration of WPT/SWIPT technology into future wireless communication systems. Compared to past and current research efforts in this area, our technical approach is deeply interdisciplinary and more comprehensive, combining the expertise of wireless communications, control theory, information theory, optimization, and electronics/microwave engineering.
The key outcomes of the project include: 1) a rigorous and complete mathematical theory for WPT/SWIPT via information/communication/control theoretic studies; 2) new physical and cross-layer mechanisms that will enable the integration of WPT/SWIPT into future communication systems; 3) new network architectures that will fully exploit potential benefits of WPT/SWIPT; and 4) development of a proof-of-concept by implementing highly-efficient and multi-band metamaterial energy harvesting sensors for SWIPT.
Max ERC Funding
1 930 625 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30
Project acronym MAPPOLA
Project Mapping out the poetic landscape(s) of the Roman empire: Ethnic and regional variations, socio-cultural diversity, and cross-cultural transformations
Researcher (PI) Peter KRUSCHWITZ
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF READING
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary Poetry was the most affordable art form in the Roman world: all it required were words, and someone with a talent to arrange them in a meaningful, aesthetically convincing way. Yet, the study of Latin poetry has traditionally almost exclusively focused on a small, judiciously transmitted canon of texts – a segment of Rome’s artistic production that favours the poetry that was produced, enjoyed, and controlled, by a political, social, and financial urban elite, reinforcing their claim to cultural superiority.
Focusing on a body of over 4,000 Latin verse inscriptions that have survived from the third century B. C. to Late Antiquity and cover the Roman empire in its entirety, representing ancient Rome’s middle and lower social strata in particular, MAPPOLA is an unprecedented effort to democratise our understanding of Roman poetry.
A fundamentally multidisciplinary project that will make use of recent methodological advances in linguistic, historical, and archaeological scholarship, MAPPOLA’s prime aim is fundamentally to reassess the verse inscriptions as evidence for poetry as a ubiquitous, inclusive cultural practice of the people of ancient Rome beyond the palaces of its urban aristocracy. It will provide answers to the following questions: How is the empire’s considerable regional and ethnic diversity reflected in the engagement with inscribed verse? How and where did poetic landscapes emerge, and what inspired them? What was the cultural and social significance of inscribed Latin verse? How did subcultures and poetic subversion take shape? How did inscribed poetry transcend and transgress artificially imposed boundaries and abstractions?
Over five years, organised into five integrated Work Packages and firmly rooted in the PI’s long-term vision, MAPPOLA will open a new area of empirical and quantitative research, alongside traditional qualititative approaches, into Latin poetry and its European legacy.
Summary
Poetry was the most affordable art form in the Roman world: all it required were words, and someone with a talent to arrange them in a meaningful, aesthetically convincing way. Yet, the study of Latin poetry has traditionally almost exclusively focused on a small, judiciously transmitted canon of texts – a segment of Rome’s artistic production that favours the poetry that was produced, enjoyed, and controlled, by a political, social, and financial urban elite, reinforcing their claim to cultural superiority.
Focusing on a body of over 4,000 Latin verse inscriptions that have survived from the third century B. C. to Late Antiquity and cover the Roman empire in its entirety, representing ancient Rome’s middle and lower social strata in particular, MAPPOLA is an unprecedented effort to democratise our understanding of Roman poetry.
A fundamentally multidisciplinary project that will make use of recent methodological advances in linguistic, historical, and archaeological scholarship, MAPPOLA’s prime aim is fundamentally to reassess the verse inscriptions as evidence for poetry as a ubiquitous, inclusive cultural practice of the people of ancient Rome beyond the palaces of its urban aristocracy. It will provide answers to the following questions: How is the empire’s considerable regional and ethnic diversity reflected in the engagement with inscribed verse? How and where did poetic landscapes emerge, and what inspired them? What was the cultural and social significance of inscribed Latin verse? How did subcultures and poetic subversion take shape? How did inscribed poetry transcend and transgress artificially imposed boundaries and abstractions?
Over five years, organised into five integrated Work Packages and firmly rooted in the PI’s long-term vision, MAPPOLA will open a new area of empirical and quantitative research, alongside traditional qualititative approaches, into Latin poetry and its European legacy.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 529 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym MODES
Project Multimode light shaping: from optical fibers to nanodevices
Researcher (PI) Massimiliano GUASONI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The project MODES arises in the framework of the emerging interest for nonlinear multimode processes in optical fibers, and wants to extend it to on-chip waveguides and nanoparticles, where the study of the nonlinear multimode dynamics is still on its infancy.
This project is based on a central key-idea: by properly engineering a multimode system, we can shape and master the nonlinear interaction between the modes into play, and finally exploit it for novel applications in several strategic areas.
This project has therefore a dual nature: one key-idea but multidisciplinary, heterogeneous applications. It focuses on 4 main strategic areas (SA) and identifies an objective (OBJ) for each one, which is related to the exploitation of a specific nonlinear multimode process:
SA1: Support technology for Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) >>> OBJ1: the project investigates the development of wideband multimode wavelength converters and amplifiers
SA2: High-capacity SDM data-transmission >>>OBJ2: the project investigates the existence of multimode solitons leading to an undistorted, high-quality propagation in multicore and multimode optical fibers
SA3: On-chip infrared optical sources >>>OBJ3: the project targets the development of on-chip, widely tunable optical sources that may be used to selectively detect important environmental gases in the whole infrared spectrum
SA4: Shaping the nonlinear radiation at nanoscale >>>OBJ4: the project aim at developing a new theoretical insight into the way higher-harmonic radiation is emitted in complex nanostructures. Finally, it wants to and to exploit this new knowledge in view of an ultrafast conversion from invisible to visible light.
To conclude, by addressing new theoretical problems and unveiling a new multimode technology, MODES aim at opening new frontiers in nonlinear optics and being pioneer in the field of nonlinear multimode nanophotonics.
Summary
The project MODES arises in the framework of the emerging interest for nonlinear multimode processes in optical fibers, and wants to extend it to on-chip waveguides and nanoparticles, where the study of the nonlinear multimode dynamics is still on its infancy.
This project is based on a central key-idea: by properly engineering a multimode system, we can shape and master the nonlinear interaction between the modes into play, and finally exploit it for novel applications in several strategic areas.
This project has therefore a dual nature: one key-idea but multidisciplinary, heterogeneous applications. It focuses on 4 main strategic areas (SA) and identifies an objective (OBJ) for each one, which is related to the exploitation of a specific nonlinear multimode process:
SA1: Support technology for Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) >>> OBJ1: the project investigates the development of wideband multimode wavelength converters and amplifiers
SA2: High-capacity SDM data-transmission >>>OBJ2: the project investigates the existence of multimode solitons leading to an undistorted, high-quality propagation in multicore and multimode optical fibers
SA3: On-chip infrared optical sources >>>OBJ3: the project targets the development of on-chip, widely tunable optical sources that may be used to selectively detect important environmental gases in the whole infrared spectrum
SA4: Shaping the nonlinear radiation at nanoscale >>>OBJ4: the project aim at developing a new theoretical insight into the way higher-harmonic radiation is emitted in complex nanostructures. Finally, it wants to and to exploit this new knowledge in view of an ultrafast conversion from invisible to visible light.
To conclude, by addressing new theoretical problems and unveiling a new multimode technology, MODES aim at opening new frontiers in nonlinear optics and being pioneer in the field of nonlinear multimode nanophotonics.
Max ERC Funding
1 450 455 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2023-11-30
Project acronym NoLiMiTs
Project Novel Lifesaving Magnetic Tentacles
Researcher (PI) Pietro VALDASTRI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The aim of this project is to characterize fundamental principles at the intersection of robotics, magnetics, manufacturing and medicine, which will enable intelligent tentacle-like robots to augment the capabilities of surgeons in reaching deep into the human anatomy through complex winding pathways and treat inoperable diseases.
Magnetic tentacle robots, proposed here for the first time, have the potential to be thin, extremely soft and scalable, and to conform to curvilinear trajectories by leveraging magnetic control over their entire length. The surgeon needing to access difficult to reach targets such as peripheral nodules in the lungs, small diseased blood vessels and regions deep inside the brain, will be able to design personalised tentacles and fabricate them on demand.
My world-leading research team in surgical robotics–to be further consolidated by this grant–will define and explore new robotic architectures, as well as the design and fabrication processes integral to this novel concept. Proprioceptive sensing, combined with mathematical models, will enable intelligent robotic control. Robotic assistance will be context dependent, ranging from joystick-based operation to autonomous control along pre-planned trajectories. An integrated design environment will help systematise and streamline implementation.
The research programme consists of four work packages: 1) Robotic architectures and models; 2) Intelligence and control; 3) Rapid design, simulation and synthesis; and 4) Multi-scale experimental evaluation, embracing different scenarios where control over the entire body of the robot is crucial: lung biopsy, cardiovascular interventions and neurosurgery.
This interdisciplinary research will strengthen Europe’s position in medical robotics and improve public health by reducing patient recovery times, complication rates, and treatment costs, and ultimately saving the lives of patients suffering diseases that are inoperable—and often terminal—today.
Summary
The aim of this project is to characterize fundamental principles at the intersection of robotics, magnetics, manufacturing and medicine, which will enable intelligent tentacle-like robots to augment the capabilities of surgeons in reaching deep into the human anatomy through complex winding pathways and treat inoperable diseases.
Magnetic tentacle robots, proposed here for the first time, have the potential to be thin, extremely soft and scalable, and to conform to curvilinear trajectories by leveraging magnetic control over their entire length. The surgeon needing to access difficult to reach targets such as peripheral nodules in the lungs, small diseased blood vessels and regions deep inside the brain, will be able to design personalised tentacles and fabricate them on demand.
My world-leading research team in surgical robotics–to be further consolidated by this grant–will define and explore new robotic architectures, as well as the design and fabrication processes integral to this novel concept. Proprioceptive sensing, combined with mathematical models, will enable intelligent robotic control. Robotic assistance will be context dependent, ranging from joystick-based operation to autonomous control along pre-planned trajectories. An integrated design environment will help systematise and streamline implementation.
The research programme consists of four work packages: 1) Robotic architectures and models; 2) Intelligence and control; 3) Rapid design, simulation and synthesis; and 4) Multi-scale experimental evaluation, embracing different scenarios where control over the entire body of the robot is crucial: lung biopsy, cardiovascular interventions and neurosurgery.
This interdisciplinary research will strengthen Europe’s position in medical robotics and improve public health by reducing patient recovery times, complication rates, and treatment costs, and ultimately saving the lives of patients suffering diseases that are inoperable—and often terminal—today.
Max ERC Funding
2 698 136 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym PEQEM
Project Photonics for engineered quantum enhanced measurement
Researcher (PI) Jonathan MATTHEWS
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Advances in measurement always lead to dramatic advances in science and in technology. Our society is now heavily dependent on the sensors that permeate environmental monitoring, security, healthcare and commerce. This is quantified by the global sensing market worth rising from $110 billion in 2015 to $124 billion in 2016, and is predicted to continue to rise to $240 billion by 2022. Now, our rapidly growing understanding of how to control quantum systems vastly expands both the potential performance and application for measurement and sensing using quantum-enhanced techniques. But these techniques will only efficiently find disruptive use once they are engineered for robustness, deliver desired operational parameters and are shown to work in a platform that can be mass-produced.
This project adopts an engineering approach to the disciplines of photonic quantum enhanced sensing and squeezed light quantum optics. We will develop integrated photonics that are tailored to enable miniature, deployable and ultimately low cost sensors that exceed the state of the art through (i) exploitation of the quantum mechanics of light and by (ii) developing the requisite high performance of components in an integrated photonics platform. The methodology is to combine quantum optics of Kerr-nonlinear materials that generate squeezed light and quantum state detection with photonic device engineering. We will benchmark device performance using quantum metrology techniques. By the end of this project, we will have developed all-integrated squeezed light generation and detection technology, that provides enhanced sensors for absorption and phase measurements beyond the shot noise limit --- the hard limit that bounds performance of state of the art “classical” sensors. Applications include next generation quantum metrology experiments, measurement of photo-sensitive samples, precise characterization of photonic components and trace gas detection.
Summary
Advances in measurement always lead to dramatic advances in science and in technology. Our society is now heavily dependent on the sensors that permeate environmental monitoring, security, healthcare and commerce. This is quantified by the global sensing market worth rising from $110 billion in 2015 to $124 billion in 2016, and is predicted to continue to rise to $240 billion by 2022. Now, our rapidly growing understanding of how to control quantum systems vastly expands both the potential performance and application for measurement and sensing using quantum-enhanced techniques. But these techniques will only efficiently find disruptive use once they are engineered for robustness, deliver desired operational parameters and are shown to work in a platform that can be mass-produced.
This project adopts an engineering approach to the disciplines of photonic quantum enhanced sensing and squeezed light quantum optics. We will develop integrated photonics that are tailored to enable miniature, deployable and ultimately low cost sensors that exceed the state of the art through (i) exploitation of the quantum mechanics of light and by (ii) developing the requisite high performance of components in an integrated photonics platform. The methodology is to combine quantum optics of Kerr-nonlinear materials that generate squeezed light and quantum state detection with photonic device engineering. We will benchmark device performance using quantum metrology techniques. By the end of this project, we will have developed all-integrated squeezed light generation and detection technology, that provides enhanced sensors for absorption and phase measurements beyond the shot noise limit --- the hard limit that bounds performance of state of the art “classical” sensors. Applications include next generation quantum metrology experiments, measurement of photo-sensitive samples, precise characterization of photonic components and trace gas detection.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 890 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym PhiGe
Project Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy
Researcher (PI) Alena Rettová
Host Institution (HI) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES ROYAL CHARTER
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The project pioneers a multilingual approach to African philosophy, based on an understanding of philosophy as expressed through texts. In contrast to definitions of philosophical texts as non-fictional, written sources (Hountondji), we insist on a much more inclusive definition of “text”: both oral and written texts, fictional and non-fictional ones, public and private ones are considered in this project. A rigorous study of texts, working across multiple genres and several languages, is the first step in the development of an African philosophy derived from local African cultures, rather than from global, colonial or neo-colonial concerns, as is to date the case in the “mainstream” discipline of “African Philosophy”. This project establishes such a textual basis for African philosophy. This bottom-up approach necessitates a reconsideration of the nature, methods, and themes of philosophy, but also of its textual strategies, its use of language, of the nature of representation, and of the relationship between imaginative literature and theoretical thought.
The key premise of our project is that to understand the philosophical meaning of texts, it is necessary to start with an analysis of textual genres. Genres anchor texts in context, in culture and language. How exactly does genre impact meaning? To answer this central question of our research, we work comparatively on several genres of literature in eight African and European languages. The case studies include the essay in Ciluba and French, the novel in Swahili, Shona, Ciluba, Lingala, French, and English, digital texts such as blogs and social media, scenario planning narratives, Sufi poetry in Swahili and Wolof, and Alexis Kagame’s poetic work in Kinyarwanda and French, travestying the traditional genres of dynastic, heroic and pastoral poetry.
Challenging the conventional limits of both philosophy and literature, our approach allows new, topical philosophical concerns to emerge from this textual basis.
Summary
The project pioneers a multilingual approach to African philosophy, based on an understanding of philosophy as expressed through texts. In contrast to definitions of philosophical texts as non-fictional, written sources (Hountondji), we insist on a much more inclusive definition of “text”: both oral and written texts, fictional and non-fictional ones, public and private ones are considered in this project. A rigorous study of texts, working across multiple genres and several languages, is the first step in the development of an African philosophy derived from local African cultures, rather than from global, colonial or neo-colonial concerns, as is to date the case in the “mainstream” discipline of “African Philosophy”. This project establishes such a textual basis for African philosophy. This bottom-up approach necessitates a reconsideration of the nature, methods, and themes of philosophy, but also of its textual strategies, its use of language, of the nature of representation, and of the relationship between imaginative literature and theoretical thought.
The key premise of our project is that to understand the philosophical meaning of texts, it is necessary to start with an analysis of textual genres. Genres anchor texts in context, in culture and language. How exactly does genre impact meaning? To answer this central question of our research, we work comparatively on several genres of literature in eight African and European languages. The case studies include the essay in Ciluba and French, the novel in Swahili, Shona, Ciluba, Lingala, French, and English, digital texts such as blogs and social media, scenario planning narratives, Sufi poetry in Swahili and Wolof, and Alexis Kagame’s poetic work in Kinyarwanda and French, travestying the traditional genres of dynastic, heroic and pastoral poetry.
Challenging the conventional limits of both philosophy and literature, our approach allows new, topical philosophical concerns to emerge from this textual basis.
Max ERC Funding
1 997 762 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-01-01, End date: 2024-12-31
Project acronym PhotUntangle
Project Rendering the opaque transparent: Untangling light with bespoke optical transforms to see through scattering environments
Researcher (PI) David PHILLIPS
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2018-STG
Summary When light propagates through an opaque material, such as living tissue or a multi-mode optical fibre, it fragments and scatters multiple times. The emergent wavefront no longer forms an image because the spatial information it carries has been scrambled. Reversing this scattering offers the prospect of using visible light for high-resolution imaging of structures deep inside the human body in a safe, non-ionising way. It has recently been shown that this light scattering can be characterised and inverted. Yet arbitrary spatial mode inverters that can unscramble hundreds of light modes simultaneously to efficiently reform an image do not currently exist. The aim of this project is to understand how to design and build them.
I will pioneer the use of focused lasers to write intricate nano-structures directly into glass. The key advancement will be to overcome extreme fabrication tolerances by employing a fluid design approach, whereby the design will be modified during the fabrication process. In parallel, I will develop dynamic transformers, capable of rapidly reprogrammable optical transformations. Further, I will create new computational techniques to overcome residual levels of crosstalk, and develop new ultra-fast scattering characterisation methods based on compressed sensing. This project will advance our fundamental understanding of how to control optical scattering in complex media. Key aims are to:
- Understand how to design a new class of optical elements that can perform efficient spatial mode transforms on demand.
- Build both passive spatial mode transformers to manipulate hundreds of modes simultaneously, and active transformers that can perform dynamically reconfigurable transformations at video-rates.
- Apply this technology to unscramble light that has propagated through a moving multi-mode optical fibre in real-time, pushing towards ultra-thin micro-endoscopy, and explore an array of applications to next generation imaging systems and beyond.
Summary
When light propagates through an opaque material, such as living tissue or a multi-mode optical fibre, it fragments and scatters multiple times. The emergent wavefront no longer forms an image because the spatial information it carries has been scrambled. Reversing this scattering offers the prospect of using visible light for high-resolution imaging of structures deep inside the human body in a safe, non-ionising way. It has recently been shown that this light scattering can be characterised and inverted. Yet arbitrary spatial mode inverters that can unscramble hundreds of light modes simultaneously to efficiently reform an image do not currently exist. The aim of this project is to understand how to design and build them.
I will pioneer the use of focused lasers to write intricate nano-structures directly into glass. The key advancement will be to overcome extreme fabrication tolerances by employing a fluid design approach, whereby the design will be modified during the fabrication process. In parallel, I will develop dynamic transformers, capable of rapidly reprogrammable optical transformations. Further, I will create new computational techniques to overcome residual levels of crosstalk, and develop new ultra-fast scattering characterisation methods based on compressed sensing. This project will advance our fundamental understanding of how to control optical scattering in complex media. Key aims are to:
- Understand how to design a new class of optical elements that can perform efficient spatial mode transforms on demand.
- Build both passive spatial mode transformers to manipulate hundreds of modes simultaneously, and active transformers that can perform dynamically reconfigurable transformations at video-rates.
- Apply this technology to unscramble light that has propagated through a moving multi-mode optical fibre in real-time, pushing towards ultra-thin micro-endoscopy, and explore an array of applications to next generation imaging systems and beyond.
Max ERC Funding
1 790 105 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
Project acronym ProtMind
Project Protecting Minds: The Right to Mental Integrity and The Ethics of Arational Influence
Researcher (PI) Thomas Marcel Douglas
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Unlike most traditional forms of behavioural influence, such as rational persuasion, incentivisation and coercion, many novel forms of behavioural influence operate at a subrational level, bypassing the targeted individual's capacity to respond to reasons. Examples include bottomless newsfeeds, randomised rewards, and other 'persuasive' technologies employed by online platforms and computer game designers. They also include biological interventions, such as the use of drugs, nutritional supplements or non-invasive brain stimulation to facilitate criminal rehabilitation.
The ethical acceptability of such arational influence depends crucially on whether we possess a moral right to mental integrity, and, if so, what kinds of mental interference it rules out. Unfortunately, these questions are yet to be addressed. Though the right to bodily integrity is well-established, the possibility of a right to mental integrity has attracted little philosophical scrutiny.
The purposes of this project are to (1) determine whether and how a moral right to mental integrity can be established; (2) develop a comprehensive and fine-grained account of its scope, weight, and robustness, and (3) determine what forms of arational influence infringe it, and whether and when these might nevertheless be justified. It will deploy a tripartite methodology comprising a bottom-up, casuistic approach, drawing on reflective responses to particular interventions; a horizontal approach, in which lessons for mental integrity will be drawn from analyses of the related phenomena of coercion, manipulation, and bodily integrity; and a top-down approach, drawing on theories of moral rights.
The analysis will establish arational influence as a new area of enquiry and yield guidance on controversial novel forms of arational influence including persuasive digital technologies, salience-based nudges, treatments for childhood behavioural disorders, and biological interventions in criminal rehabilitation.
Summary
Unlike most traditional forms of behavioural influence, such as rational persuasion, incentivisation and coercion, many novel forms of behavioural influence operate at a subrational level, bypassing the targeted individual's capacity to respond to reasons. Examples include bottomless newsfeeds, randomised rewards, and other 'persuasive' technologies employed by online platforms and computer game designers. They also include biological interventions, such as the use of drugs, nutritional supplements or non-invasive brain stimulation to facilitate criminal rehabilitation.
The ethical acceptability of such arational influence depends crucially on whether we possess a moral right to mental integrity, and, if so, what kinds of mental interference it rules out. Unfortunately, these questions are yet to be addressed. Though the right to bodily integrity is well-established, the possibility of a right to mental integrity has attracted little philosophical scrutiny.
The purposes of this project are to (1) determine whether and how a moral right to mental integrity can be established; (2) develop a comprehensive and fine-grained account of its scope, weight, and robustness, and (3) determine what forms of arational influence infringe it, and whether and when these might nevertheless be justified. It will deploy a tripartite methodology comprising a bottom-up, casuistic approach, drawing on reflective responses to particular interventions; a horizontal approach, in which lessons for mental integrity will be drawn from analyses of the related phenomena of coercion, manipulation, and bodily integrity; and a top-down approach, drawing on theories of moral rights.
The analysis will establish arational influence as a new area of enquiry and yield guidance on controversial novel forms of arational influence including persuasive digital technologies, salience-based nudges, treatments for childhood behavioural disorders, and biological interventions in criminal rehabilitation.
Max ERC Funding
1 960 264 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-01-01, End date: 2024-12-31
