Body and affect in the intercultural encounter

The volume draws from Ren‚ Devisch's encounters with groups in southsaharan Africa, primarily. The author had the privilege to immerse himself, around the clock, in the Yakaphones' activities and thoughts in southwest DR Congo from 1972 to 1974, and intermittently in Kinshasa's shanty towns, from 1986 to 2003. The author first examines what sparked his choice to come to Congo, and then to pursue research among the Yakaphones in the borderland with Angola. He then invites us to follow the trajectory of his plural anthropological view on today's multicentric world. It leads us to his praise for honorary doctor Jean-Marc Ela's work. He then examines the proletarian outbursts of violence that rocked Congo's major cities in 1991 and 1993. These can be read as a settling of scores with the disillusioning colonial and missionary modernisation, along with president Mobutu's millenarian Popular Movement of the Revolution. Furthermore, after considering the morose reduction of a major Yaka dancing mask into a mere museum-bound curio in Antwerp, the book unravels the Yakaphones' perspectives on spirits and sorcery's threat. It also analyses their commitment to classical Bantu-African healing cults, along with their parallel consulting physicians and healers. By sharing the Yakaphones' life-world, the analysis highlights their body-group-world weave, interlaced by the principle of co-resonance. A phenomenological and perspectivist look unfolds the local actors' views, thereby disclosing the Bantu-African genius and setting for a major reversal of perspectives. Indeed, seeing 'here' from 'there' allows the author to uncover some alienating dynamics at work in his native Belgian Flemish-speaking culture. To better grasp the realm of life beyond the speakable and factual reasoning, the approach occasionally turns to the later Lacan's focus on the unconscious desire, the body and its affects. The book addresses students and researchers in the humanities and, more broadly, all those immersed in the heat of the encounter with the culturally different.Wetensch. publicati

NASA Tech Briefs, January 1993

Topics include: Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

The contact hypothesis: Its application to the Cyprus problem

The main aim of this thesis was to empirically examine whether increased contact between people from both communities can lead either to the reduction or escalation of ethnic conflict and towards a new laissez-faire for their co-existence under the same state mechanism. To achieve this objective a number of secondary objectives were also addressed: 1. Investigation of the causes and the factors which have led to ethnic conflict in Cyprus. 2. Identifications of the reasons behind the sustained ethnic conflict in Cyprus through the years. 3. Examine whether through the course of an intensive (albeit quiet) conflict in Cyprus, each of the two communities has evolved an ethos of conflict which shapes and manifests the group's social, behavioural and cognitive frameworks, something that in turn serves as the epistemic basis of the conflict. 4. Provision of an empirical framework that would allow the application of the contact hypothesis theory to examine ethnic conflict in Cyprus.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Radiant Sites: Projection and the Mobile Spectator in Contemporary Moving-Image Installations

This dissertation examines contemporary moving-image installations that use projected images to expand and elaborate upon the cinematic experience. It focuses on works by Douglas Gordon (b. 1966), Jim Campbell (b. 1956), and the partnered artists Janet Cardiff (b. 1957) and George Bures-Miller (b. 1960), all of whom have reconfigured the classical cinematic system of viewing since the 1990s. Through their works, I trace the term “expanded cinema” as a literal extension of projected light from the screen into the open gallery and beyond. I argue that the term “projection” – as thrown light, mental anticipation, and moving bodies – brings together cinema’s apparatus, text, and reception as a cohesive experience. These artists transport their light-based images to the gallery, exposing the projected image to mobile spectators, as well as to lighting conditions less conducive to a clear picture. However, the works I will discuss also maintain an explicit connection to the theatrical projection of narrative film. As these artists expand the exhibition spaces of cinema from theater to gallery, they also converge numerous cinematic formats, including celluloid film, magnetic videotape, digital video, still photography, and dynamic audio. I offer “projection” as a term which tethers the myriad trajectories of cinema’s expansion back to its apparatus, and even to the mobile spectator. Beyond the light phenomenon, I also draw from psychoanalytic theories of projection, especially relevant given its foundational contribution to film theory since the 1970s by authors such as Laura Mulvey, Christian Metz, and Mary Ann Doane. Furthermore, the “suture” theory of Kaja Silverman and others offers a link between classical Hollywood editing conventions and the spatial orientation of the gallery spectator. From these theorists, I ultimately offer a notion of the projecting viewer, a physically active version of the “embodied viewer” as conceived by phenomenological film theorist Vivian Sobchack. By observing their similarities to the common multiplex, art house, or even living rooms, these otherwise uprooted screens reveal in fleeting flickers traces of what we might intuitively call “the cinematic.

Large bichromatic point sets admit empty monochromatic 4-gons

We consider a variation of a problem stated by Erd˝os and Szekeres in 1935 about the existence of a number fES(k) such that any set S of at least fES(k) points in general position in the plane has a subset of k points that are the vertices of a convex k-gon. In our setting the points of S are colored, and we say that a (not necessarily convex) spanned polygon is monochromatic if all its vertices have the same color. Moreover, a polygon is called empty if it does not contain any points of S in its interior. We show that any bichromatic set of n ≥ 5044 points in R2 in general position determines at least one empty, monochromatic quadrilateral (and thus linearly many).Postprint (published version

Post-Home: Dwelling on Loss, Belonging and Movement

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NASA Tech Briefs, May 1990

Topics: New Product Ideas; NASA TU Services; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

Towards a Phenomenological Theory of the Visceral in the Interactive Arts

This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author and you have a query about this item please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected])Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2319) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This thesis explores the ways in which certain forms of interactive art may and do elicit visceral responses. The term "visceral" refers to the cardiovascular, respiratory, uro-genital and especially excretory systems that affect mind and body on a continuum of awareness. The "visceral" is mentioned in the field of interactive arts, but it remains systematically unexplored and undefined. Further, interactive artworks predominantly focus on the exteroceptive (stimuli from outside) rather than the interoceptive (stimuli arising within the body, especially the viscera) senses. The existentialist phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty forms the basis for explorations of the visceral dimension of mind/body. New approaches to understanding interactive art, design and the mind/body include: attunements to the world; intertwinings of mind/body, technology and world; and of being in the world. Each artwork within utilizes a variation of the phenomenological methods derived from Merl eau-Ponty's; these are discussed primarily in Chapters One and Three. Because subjective, first-person, experiences are a major aspect of a phenomenological approach, the academic writing is interspersed with subjective experiences of the author and others. This thesis balances facets of knowledge from diverse disciplines that account for visceral phenomena and subjective experience. Along with the textual exegesis, one major work of design and two major works of art were created. These are documented on the compact disc (CDROM) bound within. As an essential component of each artwork, new technological systems were created or co-created by the author. User surveys comprise Appendices Two, Three and Four, and are also online at: www. sfu. ca/-dgromala/thesis. To access the URL: login as , and use the password . Numerous talks, exhibitions and publications that directly relate to the thesis work is in Appendix One. This work begins with an introduction to Merleau-Ponty's ideas of flesh and reversibility. Chapter Two is the review of the literature, while Chapter Three is an explication of the hypothesis, an overview of the field, and a framing of the problem. Discussions of each artwork are in Chapter Four (The Meditation Chamber), Chapter Five (BioMorphic Typography) and Chapter Six (The MeatBook). Chapter Seven forms the conclusion. References to the documentation on the CD are found throughout the thesis, and italicized paragraphs provide an artistic context for each chapter

Constructions of Sustainability' and Coalfield Regeneration Policies

Since the 1980s sustainability has, increasingly, become a policy goal, occurring in a variety of sectors and at a number of levels, from global to local. As a policy goal it is holistic, long term and all embracing; it lacks readily definable outcomes, such as job creation or miles of new road construction, that regeneration initiatives often require. It is characterised by ideals of ‘equity' and 'democracy’, and is quite different to traditional policy goals within UK government. Sustainability represents a unique challenge to many policy makers and implementers, and is often subject to discursive battles. This thesis explores the social constructions of sustainability using the coalfield regeneration policies, practices and performances in East Durham as a focus. The emphasis is upon discursive practices and how they are embedded in social relations of power and ideology. The findings suggest that sustainability operates far from its Utopian ideal. Indeed, in some cases the concepts are 'missing-in action'. At times it was hard to find traces of sustainability where one would have anticipated the concept appearing. Conversely, there are instances where much is made of the concept in order to ground certain actions over others. Essentially the language(s) of sustainability and regeneration are privileged discourses. They are used within discursive settings to legitimate a host of (in)actions. They are performed through a variety of formal and informal structures. Social power tends to lie with those actors who can use the discursive spaces and concepts. This often results in a (dis)juncture of discourse whereby those not using the privileged discourses feel dis-empowered, and sometimes adopt resistant discourses to challenge these normalised' discourses

Resource-based industrialization in Peninsular Malaysia. A case study of the rubber products manufacturing industry.

This economic history and examination of the rubber products manufacturing industry in Peninsular Malaysia contributes to the subject of resource-based industrialization in the field of development studies. The development of the industry is traced from the 1920s to 2005 when the Second Industrial Master Plan came to an end. The findings are that local interests control 80 per cent of the industry, with foreign direct investment in the remaining 20 per cent, either as subsidiary companies of overseas manufacturers or in joint ventures with Malaysian investors. The industry has a dualistic structure, with foreign-owned and joint venture companies typically being more heavily capitalized and employing a larger workforce than wholly Malaysian-owned companies. Foreign and joint venture enterprises are more likely to export a greater volume of production than local firms. Nevertheless, the industry as a whole has a strong export-orientation and Malaysian-based exporters sell into markets worldwide. A detailed examination of the industrial components production sector by means of a questionnaire indicates that Malaysian producers rely on the Malaysian Rubber Board for the transfer of manufacturing technology. Technology transfer in the foreign and joint venture sector is from parent companies and joint venture associates overseas. The conclusion is that the rubber manufacturing industry is vertically integrated with local production of natural rubber used as raw material to produce a range of goods for sale to domestic and international markets. The 80 per cent Malaysian component indicates a stable domestic industry ably supported by local technology resources