The cover photo contains the work 'Crucifera III ' (1964) by George Rickey. Born in 1907, Rickey dedicated his work to precisely-calibrated kinetic sculptures that he referred to as 'useless machines'. Crucifera III immediately caught my eye; its tree shape illustrating the landscape of our natural environment, embodied by the various independent yet interconnected elements which I depict as societal actors. Activated by the wind, the actors start moving, and in this interplay between the actors and the landscape, they affect not just each other, but also rebalance their landscape, making it fit perfectly with the content of this PhD thesis.Cover photo credits: Private collection.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.