Consumed Bodies and Unhinged Women. The dystopian worlds of Murata Sayaka’s Seimeishiki (Life Ceremony, 2013) and Ono Miyuki’s Karada o uru koto (“Selling the Body,” 2020)

This paper investigates the representation of bodies in two contemporary Japanese works, namely Murata Sayaka’s Seimeishiki (生命式 , Life Ceremony, 2013) and Ono Miyuki’s Karada o uru koto (身体を売ること “Selling the Body,” 2020). Both novellas are set in the future and share the trope of the ‘uncanny,’ heightened through the transgression of boundaries thanks to the presence of what I refer to as ‘consumed bodies,’ and female protagonists as an ‘unhinged woman,’ the anti-heroine interpreted as a feminist icon recently emblazoned in social networks. In Life Ceremony, the Japanese government has approved anthropophagy as a social practice; in “Selling the Body,” healthy flesh bodies are sold to survive in polluted environments and replaced by robotic ones. Present anxieties concerning the control over bodies and their reproductivity, as well as the fear of objectification are expressed through the practices of cannibalism and cyberization. Consequently, readers are forced to rethink the human nature and ethics in a posthuman dialectic within a hyper-capitalistic society

Pull out a chair. OFFICE in Venice

Fifteen years ago, the architects of OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen participated in two editions of the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2008 in the Belgian pavilion, and in 2010 in the People Meet in Architecture exhibition, curated by Kazuyo Sejima. The meanings of these interventions – the way they exhibited thoughts concerning architecture – are examined in this text. In 2008, 1907…After the Party put the Belgian pavilion itself on display, enclosing the historic building and separating it from the Biennale by means of a wall. Confetti, scattered both inside and outside, added layers of meaning to this ‘installation’, which can be interpreted as a reflection on both the architectural exhibition and on the state of architecture in the 21st century. Similarly, the smaller, more traditional Garden Pavilion (7 rooms, 21 perspectives) exhibition in 2010 was an opportunity to create a new space for architecture culture, within the machinery of the Venice Biennale.Quindici anni fa, gli architetti di OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen parteciparono a due edizioni della Biennale di Architettura di Venezia, nel 2008 nel padiglione belga e nel 2010 nella mostra People Meet in Architecture, curata da Kazuyo Sejima. I significati di questi interventi – il modo in cui hanno esposto riflessioni riguardanti l’architettura – vengono esaminati in questo testo. Nel 2008, 1907…After the Party mise in mostra il padiglione belga stesso, racchiudendo l’edificio storico e separandolo dalla Biennale mediante un muro. Coriandoli, sparsi sia all’interno che all’esterno, aggiungevano strati di significato a questa ‘installazione’, che può essere interpretata come una riflessione sia sulle mostre di architettura sia sullo stato dell’architettura nel XXI secolo. Allo stesso modo, la mostra del 2010 Garden Pavilion (7 rooms, 21 perspectives), più piccola e tradizionale, è stata un’opportunità per creare uno spazio nuovo per la cultura architettonica, all’interno dell’apparato della Biennale di Venezia

Form as Thought

As former chief curator of the fifth Lisbon Triennial of architecture in 2019, I will first discuss about utility of such events to allow architecture to meet a wider audience as the academic or professional ones. This issue is also about form of such events in terms of overall organizations: didactic exhibitions conceived by curators vs. conceptual installations made by architects. I will explain why I chose the first option in Lisbon, and how this choice influenced the form of the exhibitions. Additionally, I will explore in which way the fact that I was an “intellectual practitioner” allowed me to give specific answers to a series of questions regarding architecture itself but as well the art of exhibition: in which way form can improve thought.In qualità di chief curator della quinta Triennale di architettura di Lisbona nel 2019, discuterò innanzitutto dell’utilità di tali eventi per consentire all’architettura di incontrare un pubblico più ampio rispetto a quello accademico o professionale. La questione riguarda anche la forma di tali eventi in termini di organizzazione generale: mostre didattiche concepite dai curatori vs. installazioni concettuali realizzate dagli architetti. Spiegherò perché ho scelto la prima opzione a Lisbona e come questa scelta ha influenzato la forma delle mostre. Inoltre, esplorerò in che modo il fatto di essere un “intellectual practitioner” mi abbia permesso di dare risposte specifiche a una serie di domande riguardanti sia l’architettura stessa sia l’arte della mostra: in che modo la forma può migliorare il pensiero

Klinische Studien: grundlegende Terminologie für Fachübersetzerinnen und Fachübersetzer. Eine kontrastive Analyse zu Deutsch, Englisch und Italienisch

Der medizinische Bereich gehört zweifelsohne zu den Hauptdomänen der Fachübersetzung, seine spezifische Terminologie ist daher von großer Bedeutung für Übersetzerinnen und Übersetzer. Eine wichtige Teildisziplin ist die der klinischen Studien. Allerdings mangelt es derzeit an umfangreichen terminologischen Ressourcen für Fachübersetzerinnen und Fachübersetzer auf diesem Gebiet. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, diese Lücke mittels einer kontrastiven terminologischen Analyse zu den Sprachen Deutsch, Englisch und Italienisch zu schließen.Medicine is undoubtedly one of the most important domains of specialised translation; its terminology is therefore paramount for translators. A significant niche consists in the language of clinical studies. However, to date there are no extensive terminological resources for translators in this field. The purpose of the present paper is to try and fill this gap by conducting a contrastive terminological analysis in German, English and Italian.Der medizinische Bereich gehört zweifelsohne zu den Hauptdomänen der Fachübersetzung, seine spezifische Terminologie ist daher von großer Bedeutung für Übersetzerinnen und Übersetzer. Eine wichtige Teildisziplin ist die der klinischen Studien. Allerdings mangelt es derzeit an umfangreichen terminologischen Ressourcen für Fachübersetzerinnen und Fachübersetzer auf diesem Gebiet. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, diese Lücke mittels einer kontrastiven terminologischen Analyse zu den Sprachen Deutsch, Englisch und Italienisch zu schließen

The Apulian University System and Urban and Youth Cultural Policies: Mapping of Resources and First Proposals for an Agenda

The study of the theme “The role of Universities in Urban and Youth Cultural Policies”, within the “Puglia Regione Universitaria” project, was based on the mapping of the cultural resources available in Apulian universities, carried out to assess their accessibility by the university community, their permeability to citizens and their role in terms of improving the quality of urban life. The survey focused on the direct and active role that Universities play in promoting and producing resources in various areas of culture, in order to estimate their impact on the urban cultural scene and their ability to involve students in the organization and management of cultural events and resources. The critical issues that emerged from the survey, considered from the perspective of both the referents and students, tend to converge on some recurring problems. These weaknesses were the starting points for the development of a set of proposals for improvement as part of a right-to-education agenda focused on culture

New Forms of Relationships Between the University and the City: Padua, the UnicityLab Project, and the Idea of an Urban Center

UNICITYLab (2019-2022) has been an interesting three-year experience of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary cooperation taking place at the University of Padua, which sought to study and analyse the forms and effects of the presence of a pluricentennial university in a medium-sized city. The UNICITYLab activities – beyond the exploration of the characteristics and conditions of the context –have been devoted to a crucial examination of the relationships between the two chief institutions in the City and their mutual policies to cope with emerging problems. It results in a lack of information about processes in progress or institutional and non-institutional networks; a general misunderstanding about issues to manage; no awareness about the need of cooperation. UNICITYLab has worked to present evidence of the situation and the need to put forward proposals for an innovative and incisive action, with the definition of a different role from the past, proactive, open, and collaborative, in the system of local relations. The organisation of a new place for discussion, collaboration, and co-planning, which we call the “Urban Centre” in a simplified way, currently seems to be a feasible solution

Reproduction status of the angelwing clam, Pholas orientalis (Gmelin, 1791), obtained from Selangor, Malaysia

To understand the habitat status of Pholas orientalis offshore of Selangor, which is an important fishing ground in Malaysia, P. orientalis was obtained from the region in August and November 2014. The shell sizes and weights of the specimens were measured, and tissue sections of various organs were prepared, stained with hematoxylin and eosin solution, and observed under a light microscope. The results obtained for the gonads, digestive tube, and midgut gland were summarised, and the results showed that many individuals of both sexes had already reached the mature stage in August, and the maturation was almost synchronised in both sexes. In November, more than 40% of both sexes entered the spawning stage, suggesting that the spawning peak in the region occurred during the rainy season. From observations of the presence or absence of food in the digestive tube and epithelium condition estimation of the midgut gland, food presence in the clams was confirmed in more than 80% of individuals in both months, and the epithelium condition was also good. In addition, from the Global Eutrophication Watch internet homepage, chlorophyll-a concentration data on the fishing ground area were shown as the stable phytoplankton occurrence area. Therefore, these data suggest that suitable food availability is an important factor for the habitation of this species

Alcuni risultati sulla regolarità dei vettori analitici-Gevrey

My aim is to give, in this talk, some topics on the question of regularity of Analytic-Gevrey vectors of partial differential operators (p.d.o.) with analytic-Gevrey coefficients. Since the results obtained in the sixties on elliptic p.d.o's, which are both hypoelliptic (C∞ setting), analytic-Gevrey hypoelliptic (analytic-Gevrey setting) and satisfy the so-called Kotake-Narasimhan property, a lot of works and articles were devoted to these problems in case of non elliptic p.d.o's under suitable hypotheses (for example on the degeneracy of ellipticity). I will consider the third problem on analytic-Gevrey vectors in the three cases of global (on compact manifolds), local (near a point in the base-space), microlocal (near a point in the cotangent space), situations, and say few words on the main two methods used in order to obtain positive (or negative) results. Finally I will focus on some new microlocal results on degenerate elliptic (also called sub-elliptic) p.d.o's of second order, obtained in a common work with Gregorio Chinni.Il mio scopo è quello di trattare, in questo intervento, alcuni argomenti sulla regolarità dei vettori analitici-Gevrey di operatori differenziali alle derivate parziali (p.d.o.) a coefficienti analitici-Gevrey.Nella parte finale mi concentrerò su alcuni nuovi risultati microlocali relativi a p.d.o. degeneri ellittici (anche detti sub-ellittici) del secondo ordine, ottenuti in un lavoro con Gregorio Chinni

«For there is no power but of God»: Diptych of Philip II and Christ (1568) and Habsburg Printed Propaganda

This article examines one of the few prints taking up the Spanish Habsburg cause during the early years of the Eighty Years’ War: Diptych of Christ and Philip II (1568), presumably engraved by Johannes Wierix. Because prints were less commonly used by the royalist side to distribute their propaganda in the Low Countries, this engraving offers a singular view into what the medium afforded them. Examined against the backdrop of iconoclasm, the engraving puts forward a multi-faceted argument about the protection of King Philip II and devotional objects as well as the sacralization of the king and the preservation of the Catholic faith.L’articolo esamina una delle poche stampe che sostengono la causa degli Asburgo spagnoli durante i primi anni della Guerra degli Ottant’anni: il Dittico con Cristo e Filippo II (1568), inciso da Johannes Wierix. Considerato che le stampe erano impiegate con molta meno frequenza dal partito realista, al fine di distribuire idee circa la propaganda spagnola nei Paesi Bassi, la presente incisione offre una visione singolare di quanto il mezzo grafico consentisse di diffondere. Esaminata nel quadro dell’iconoclastia divampata al tempo, l’incisione si fa carico di dispiegare una polisemica argomentazione: il patrocinio garantito dallo stesso Filippo II e dagli oggetti devozionali a lui connessi, come pure la sacralità del sovrano e la sua missione di preservare la fede cattolica