This article attempts to outline the most important assumptions of the work of Kokyu Studio led by Przemysław Błaszczak and Joanna Kurzyńska and based at the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław in Poland. The Studio’s educational and artistic programme is founded on the idea of a ‘place of practice’, which captures the philosophical, practical, aesthetic, and ethical horizon of the activities common to all members of the Studio. The regularity of practice, exposure to long working processes, and the improvement of the quality of movement, which are rooted in several traditions and methods of work, allow practitioners to study their own development and integrate various sources of knowledge. Reflections here also ask questions about the place and application of such a model of work in the context of contemporary challenges for actor-performer training.

The problem of optimally scaling the proposal distribution in a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is critical to the quality of the generated samples. Much work has gone into obtaining such results for various Metropolis–Hastings (MH) algorithms. Recently, acceptance probabilities other than MH are being employed in problems with intractable target distributions. There are few resources available on tuning the Gaussian proposal distributions for this situation. We obtain optimal scaling results for a general class of acceptance functions, which includes Barker’s and lazy MH. In particular, optimal values for Barker’s algorithm are derived and found to be significantly different from that obtained for the MH algorithm. Our theoretical conclusions are supported by numerical simulations indicating that when the optimal proposal variance is unknown, tuning to the optimal acceptance probability remains an effective strategy.

Scientific advancement is inextricably linked to cultural advancement, and historically the arts have worked hand in hand with technological change. This essay explores some of the connections that exist between science, technology, and the arts, privileging instances where technological change resulted in new forms of artistic creation. Although the role of the arts in contemporary society has ebbed in comparison to that of technology and science, the essay argues that quality, meaningfulness, and longevity are key components in how the arts can retain cultural value in today’s technocentric world. It explores significant instances from the history of music and visual art as the authors make the case that the methods of science and art are both distinct yet commensurate in their ability to shape the values and ideas of contemporary society.

A common strategy to reduce the cost of a filter is to use a manufacturing technique with an intermediate accuracy and use tuning elements to compensate for the manufacturing errors. However, including tuning elements in the final EM simulations, and tuning the filters after manufacturing, can be quite challenging. In this context, therefore, we review in this paper two powerful filter design procedures based on Aggressive Space Mapping (ASM), and two semi-automatic tuning techniques. As a validation, we describe in detail the design and tuning of two types of filters that are commonly used for both space and ground applications, namely, a six-pole inductive filter in rectangular waveguide, and a more complex five-pole filter based on dual-mode resonators.

Power transfer efficiency in loosely coupled inductive systems can be enhanced by resonance. Primary and secondary can be tuned to same resonant frequency. In this paper, MOSFET-based Varactors and switchable capacitors are used for re-tuning of such a system at 13.56 MHz. This is achieved either using each cap structure alone or as a hybrid model. These techniques are designed for 13.56 MHz wireless power transfer system.