Seeing the Spell: Baroque, Decadence, and a Cinema of Digital-Animated Liberation

This dissertation draws on the artistic traditions of seventeenth-century Baroque and nineteenth-century Decadence in seeking to formulate an analytical vocabulary for the aesthetics of digitally-animated spectacle in contemporary cinema. The dissertation seeks to critique binary antinomies of narrative vs. spectacle, and instead propose a concept of narrativized spectacle whereby digital visual effects have brought about a profound liberation in cinemas capacity to envision narrative story-worlds, and depict their workings. It takes the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster as its chief subject for this inquiry, insofar as this is the filmmaking idiom most given to the embrace and deployment of digitally-liberated spectacle, and one which is frequently assumed to be largely bereft of formal and narrative sophistication. This dissertation argues, on the contrary, that the Hollywood blockbusters spectacular nature in fact bears complex utopian implications, and that the crudities which occasionally mar the form in practice are more the result of not being imaginatively hyperbolic enough, rather than being too much so. The dissertations invocation of Baroque and Decadent aesthetics provides a conceptual apparatus for describing this contemporary cinematic idiom of digitized blockbuster spectacle. It identifies a Baroque aesthetic in such stylistic traits as verticality, profusion, and the sublime, as well as narrative themes of transgression of limits, reverence before imposing scale and grandeur, and refusal to ennoble passivity and martyrdom. Likewise, it identifies Decadent aesthetics in stylistics which privilege the gaze, the enclosed and aestheticized space, and formal ritual, as well as narratives ordered around principles of perversity, self-consciousness, and interconnectedness. The ultimate intervention which this dissertation seeks to make, however, is to demonstrate the centrality rather than marginality of animation to cinema, insofar as cel animation has always possessed the graphic freedom to realize any imaginative vision, which digital effects have only recently extended to live-action cinema. All of the aesthetics of Baroque and Decadent blockbuster spectacle that the dissertation traces could be and, the dissertation seeks to show, were deployed in the animated feature years in advance of the liberation of representation that digital effects would bring to live-action

Amazonia in the international media: agents, discourses and power

Tese de doutoramento em Estudos de Comunicação: Tecnologia, Cultura e SociedadeThis thesis seeks to understand and discuss the constructions of meaning, representations and discourses about the Amazon region in eight foreign newspapers from four countries (United States, England, India and China). The region is associated with diverse and controversial social and geopolitical clashes since the arrival of European navigators five centuries ago. Additionally, there are growing national and international interests in the Amazon as a major icon in the global struggle for the protection of biodiversity and mitigation of climate change. My focus of interest lies on the international coverage about Amazonia along a seven-year period (2010-2016) and more particularly during a critical moment of discourse, represented by the forest fires of global repercussion in 2019. In this context it is assumed that the combination of diverse, often conflicting, social actors and interests generates important tensions over power. That is, power to define the meaning of the territory, who its inhabitants and beneficiaries are, the role they play and the directions of the region, whether aimed at environmental conservation, development or a debatable third way. In any case, these controversies occur in the midst of "naturalized" discursive practices in journalistic discourses, which constitute one of the main sources of information and perception about distant physical realities for news consumers. Thus, the main objective of this research is to elucidate the dynamics of signification and representation (frames, story-lines), (de)legitimation of social actors and argumentation, used by newspapers in their discourses about the Amazonian territory. By means of Critical Discourse Analysis and frame analysis tools, the thesis shows that the distinct newspapers from different countries have a relatively individualized discursive profile to introduce and elaborate meanings about the Amazon. Still, the sense that the Amazon Rainforest constitutes a global common crosses almost all coverages, although there are dissimilarities in emphasis and solutions to protect the forest. The main differences between newspapers refer to the way they portray political actors, especially the Brazilian president, as well as other social actors, especially Indigenous peoples. It was also possible to identify macro-tendencies in the coverages from global “North” and “South”, mainly in relation to funding the conservation of the Amazon as a global environmental heritage.Esta tese busca compreender e esclarecer as construções de sentido, representações e discursos sobre a região amazônica em oito jornais estrangeiros quatro países (Estados Unidos, Inglaterra, India e China). A região suscita embates sociais e geopolíticos diversos e controversos desde a chegada dos navegantes europeus há pouco mais de cinco séculos, para além dos crescentes interesses nacionais e internacional na Amazônia enquanto grande ícone da luta global pela proteção da biodiversidade e mitigação das mudanças climáticas. O foco de interesse recai sobre a cobertura internacional sobre a Amazônia num período de sete anos (2010-2016), e mais particularmente durante um momento crítico do discurso, representado pelos fogos florestais de repercussão global em 2019. Nesse contexto, assume-se que a combinação de atores sociais e interesses diversificados, seguidamente conflituosos, gera importantes tensões sobre poder. Ou seja, poder de definir o significado do território, quem são seus habitantes e beneficiários, o papel que desempenham e os rumos da região － se voltados à conservação ambiental, ao desenvolvimento ou a uma discutível terceira via. Em qualquer caso, essas polêmicas ocorrem em meio a práticas discursivas “naturalizadas” nos discursos jornalísticos, os quais constituem uma das principais fontes de informação e percepção sobre realidades físicas distantes dos leitores. Assim, o principal objetivo desta pesquisa foi elucidar as dinâmicas de significação e representação (enquadramentos, linhas narrativas, (des)legitimação de atores sociais e argumentação, usadas pelos jornais em seus discursos sobre o território amazônico. Por meio de ferramentas da Análise Crítica do Discurso e análise de enquadramentos, verificou-se que os diferentes jornais dos diferentes países possuem um perfil discursivo relativamente diferenciado para aproximar e elaborar sentidos sobre a Amazonia. Ainda assim, o senso de que a Floresta Amazônica constitui um global common atravessa quase todas as coberturas, apesar de haver diferenças na ênfase e nas soluções para proteger a floresta. As principais diferenças entre jornais se referem ao modo como retratam atores políticos, especialmente o presidente brasileiro, bem como outros atores sociais, especialmente povos Indígenas. Também foi possível notar macro-tendências nas coberturas oriundas do “Norte” e do “Sul” global, sobretudo quanto a financiar a conservação da Amazônia enquanto patrimônio ambiental global

The Student Theorist: An Open Handbook of Collective College Theory

Featuring mini-essays, blog posts, and cultural analyses selected and edited by students, The Student Theorist provides fresh and personal insights into pertinent theories that can all too often end up explicated in dried up and complex ways. The purpose of this handbook is to provide accessible introductions to theoretically robust debates and concepts, while also revealing the enduring and urgent relevance of theory in our world. This book has been almost entirely created by undergraduate students and recent alums at Plymouth State University. This file represents the state of the work after the spring 2019 semester. Visit https://opentheoryhandbook.pressbooks.com/ to see new and updated material

Television Histories: Shaping Collective Memory in the Media Age

From Ken Burns’s documentaries to historical dramas such as Roots, from A&E’s Biography series to CNN, television has become the primary source for historical information for tens of millions of Americans today. Why has television become such a respected authority? What falsehoods enter our collective memory as truths? How is one to know what is real and what is imagined—or ignored—by producers, directors, or writers? Gary Edgerton and Peter Rollins have collected a group of essays that answer these and many other questions. The contributors examine the full spectrum of historical genres, but also institutions such as the History Channel and production histories of such series as The Jack Benny Show, which ran for fifteen years. The authors explore the tensions between popular history and professional history, and the tendency of some academics to declare the past “off limits” to nonscholars. Several of them point to the tendency for television histories to embed current concerns and priorities within the past, as in such popular shows as Quantum Leap and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The result is an insightful portrayal of the power television possesses to influence our culture. Winner of the 2001 Ray and Pat Browne Award for Outstanding Textbook given by the Popular Culture Association Offers much food for thought in this highly visual age. —Alliance (OH) Review As an example of well-reasoned, original research, Television Histories makes an important contribution to the study of the medium. —Anthony Slide, Classic Images This book is even more timely and provocative because much of the material discussed is being rebroadcast now that digital television is opening even more new channels. —Choice An engrossing collection that slides the thorny subject of television, history, and memory under a microscope. . . . Digs deep into a contemporary phenomenon, and its many conclusions are right on target. —Film & History Helps those of us who care about history think more clearly about how television can shape historical thinking among our friends, neighbors, and students. —Florida Historical Quarterly Television Histories, a pioneer work, weaves an inspired and informed interdisciplinary analysis of television and history. The chapters are enlightening, readable, and entertaining; the editors and the authors have produced a work that enriches and strengthens the study of film and history. —Michael Schoenecke The stuff serious thinkers in a media age should read, mark and remember. —Rockland (ME) Courier-Gazette An insightful and important addition to the literature that sheds light on an often controversial subject for professional historians. —Southern Historian Most of the essays are likely to be of considerable value to any attentive student of television. —Television Quarterly Working from the thesis that people learn about history through television more than any other medium, Edgerton and Rollins look at what TV subliminally teaches us by what is shows and does not show. —Varietyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_film_and_media_studies/1020/thumbnail.jp

2017 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Eleventh Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1011/thumbnail.jp

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies

"The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has played a remarkable role in the creation new transformative technologies, revolutionizing defense with drones and precision-guided munitions, and transforming civilian life with portable GPS receivers, voice-recognition software, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and, most famously, the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Other parts of the U.S. Government and some foreign governments have tried to apply the ‘DARPA model’ to help develop valuable new technologies. But how and why has DARPA succeeded? Which features of its operation and environment contribute to this success? And what lessons does its experience offer for other U.S. agencies and other governments that want to develop and demonstrate their own ‘transformative technologies’? This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.

Asian Transformations

Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. He was deeply pessimistic about development prospects in Asia. The fifty years since then have witnessed a remarkable social and economic transformation in Asia – even if it has been uneven across countries and unequal between people – that would have been difficult to imagine, let alone predict at the time. This book analyses the fascinating story of economic development in Asia spanning half a century. The study is divided into three parts. The first part sets the stage by discussing the contribution of Gunnar Myrdal, the author, and Asian Drama, the book, to the debate on development then and now, and by providing a long-term historical perspective on Asia in the world. The second part comprises cross-country thematic studies on governments, economic openness, agricultural transformation, industrialization, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, education and health, employment and unemployment, institutions and nationalisms, analysing processes of change while recognizing the diversity in paths and outcomes. The third part is constituted by country-studies on China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and sub-region studies on East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, highlighting turning points in economic performance and analysing factors underlying success or failure. This book, with in-depth studies by eminent economists and social scientists, is the first to examine the phenomenal changes which are transforming economies in Asia and shifting the balance of economic power in the world, while reflecting on the future prospects in Asia over the next twenty-five years. It is a must-read

Radio evolution: conference proceedings

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Relatório de estágio World of Discoveries – museu interativo e parque temático

Versão final (Esta versão contém as críticas e sugestões dos elementos do júri)O presente relatório foi elaborado no âmbito da conclusão do Segundo Ciclo de Estudos em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas, do Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto, e tem como objetivo uma análise comentada das traduções realizadas na empresa World of Discoveries – Museu Interativo e Parque Temático, que faz parte do grupo DouroAzul. O estágio curricular decorreu na sede da mesma e teve a duração de seis meses, durante os quais foram aplicados, em contexto de trabalho profissional, os fundamentos teóricos e conhecimentos adquiridos no decorrer deste Mestrado e onde também foi possível complementar e aperfeiçoar algumas competências de natureza prática. Deste relatório consta uma breve apresentação da entidade onde se realizou o estágio curricular, uma parte teórica referente à principal bibliografia consultada – Peter Newmark (2008), Vinay & Darbelnet (1995), Rita Scotti Jurić & Sarah Zancovich (2010) - relativa ao tipo de textos traduzidos e uma análise detalhada das traduções efetuadas com exemplos de alguns excertos dos respetivos textos.The following report was elaborated to conclude the Second Study Cicle in Specialized Translation and Interpreting, from the Superior Institute of Accounting and Administration of Porto, and has as purpose a commented annalysis of the translations produced in the company World of Discoveries – Museu Interativo e Parque Temático, which belongs to DouroAzul. The curricular internship was held at the headquarters of said company and lasted six months, during which were applied, in a professional working context, the theoretical foundations and knowledge acquired throughout this Masters Degree. It was also possible to complement and improve some practical skills. This report contains a brief presentation of the company where the internship took place, a theoretical chapter refering to the main bibliography used - Peter Newmark (2008), Vinay & Darbelnet (1995), Rita Scotti Jurić & Sarah Zancovich (2010) – related to type of text translated and a detailed analysis of the translations made, along with examples of some parts of the respective texts

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies

"The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has played a remarkable role in the creation new transformative technologies, revolutionizing defense with drones and precision-guided munitions, and transforming civilian life with portable GPS receivers, voice-recognition software, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and, most famously, the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Other parts of the U.S. Government and some foreign governments have tried to apply the ‘DARPA model’ to help develop valuable new technologies. But how and why has DARPA succeeded? Which features of its operation and environment contribute to this success? And what lessons does its experience offer for other U.S. agencies and other governments that want to develop and demonstrate their own ‘transformative technologies’? This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.