Puntos de Fuga (Vanishing Points): Performance Writing for the Digital Theater

Examining the contemporary challenges of "writing" or composing for the digital stage and new forms of real-time programmable or augment­ed multimedia theater, the authors delve into some theoretical concerns that are characteristic of such compositional practices—discussing no­tions of interactivity, wearable space, participatory design, postdramatic textuality and choreography, bilinguality and translation, and political content—before using their new play, Puntos de Fuga (Vanishing Points), as a case study. The essay contextualizes the production aesthetic used for Puntos de Fuga, referring amongst others to the Wooster Group's "dancing with technology," and proceeds to delineate the performer techniques and rehearsal methods used in composing an integrated dig­ital performance and multimediated mise en scene closely and passion­ately dedicated to the poetic testimony of harsh political/economic real­ities at the US-Mexican border

The Black Diamonds of Bahia (Carbonados) and the Building of Euro-America: A Half-century Supply Monopoly (1880s-1930s)

This paper traces the birth, maturity and decline of what was Bahia’s natural supply monopoly of black or industrial diamonds: first used in polishing materials (for consumption); then in drilling; and by 1940 they were employed in making parts for the Third Reich’s premier fighter plane, the Messerschmitt bF 109. The evolution in the way these stones were produced, the agents involved in production and distribution, and how the income was distributed along the commodity chain are examined. The importance of technological change is documented with the huge boost in demand for industrial diamonds when the Leschot diamond-head drill was invented (1863). The First World War cut off Bahia from traditional intermediaries and opened up a space for North American capital. A great surge in black diamond production in Bahia was led by the Bandler Corporation of New York, which introduced modern machine-based mining in the late 1920s; but the Great Depression doomed the venture. Between 1931 and 1941, keen secret competition arose to secure access to Bahia’s diamonds between the rising Axis and the Allied powers given the crucial role these stones played in making the modern weapons of war. The first section analyses the emergence of Brazil’s natural monopoly in black diamonds. The second points out the crucial importance technological change (the Leschot diamond-head drill). The next section develops a unique analysis of how earnings were distributed along the black diamond commodity chain at the turn of the twentieth century. The final section underscores how the Great War created a vacuum into which North American capital plunged, such that by the late 1920s for the first time modern machinery was being used for the mass production of black diamonds in Brazil. While the Great Depression frustrated these efforts, the looming Axis and Allied contenders carried out secret schemes to secure Brazil’s black diamonds so central to the execution of modern war

The Evolution and Impact of Documentary Films

Long considered either high art or the bane of every student’s existence when a substitute teacher came to class, documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment. As a result, they are starting to have a bigger effect on society, as they begin to address issues with the goal of informing the public and pushing for social change. This project will first address historical documentaries, the reasons that they were made, and what techniques were established that have carried through to documentary film today. My paper will then examine today’s documentary films, what techniques they use to obtain viewer trust and to be considered credible, and be assessed for their impact on the public using the following model, from University of South Carolina political science professor David Whiteman: I argue that an adequate model (a) must conceptualize films as part of a larger process that incorporates both production and distribution; (b) must consider the full range of potential impacts on producers, participants, activist organizations, and decision makers; and (c) must consider the role of films in the efforts of social movements to create and sustain alternative spheres of public discourse. 1 Another issue central to this investigation is the evolution of documentary films from reporting fact or recording history, to opinion pieces designed to further personal political agendas. By the same token, the concept of viewership for these films will also be looked at- who goes to see these films? Do they cater to the viewers who already agree with their agendas? Can a documentary have an impact if consumers don’t see it? To answer this question, I will investigate documentaries that have had impact through laws or regulations that have resulted from their views. This project will also address two more unconventional forms of documentary. One is documentary television, in the form of the recent “reality television craze.” The translation of techniques used in film will be looked at through several popular reality series, and their credibility will also be discussed. The second more unconventional form is the established genre of mock documentary, or “mockumentary” film. Here, the techniques used to create the illusion of documentary film will be identified, the defining characteristics that separate this genre from its real life- based counterpart, and specific examples of popular and controversial mockumentary films will ask the question, “Can mockumentary film hurt the credibility of the documentary film genre?” All of these questions will be answered using a knowledge foundation from close to forty documentary films that I’ve watched, then developing case studies on the most significant in each category (historical, recent, television and mockumentary). 1. Whiteman, David (2004). Out of the theaters and into the streets: A coalition model of the political impact of documentary film and video. Political Communication, Vol 21. Retrieved 11 November 200

Bleeding flowers and waning moons : a history of menstruation in France, c. 1495-1761

This thesis explores early modem perceptions of menstrual bleeding, demonstrating that attempts to understand menstrual bleeding extended beyond the early modem medical world and captured the imagination of an entire cross-section of French society revealing culturally- embedded concerns about marriage, progeny, the family, patrilineage and state formation. The thesis draws on diverse sources including medical, casuistic and judicial texts, court records and private documents. Chapter One outlines the database of medical texts which forms a cornerstone of the thesis. The database includes texts printed between 1495, with the French edition of a medieval Latin work by Bernard de Gordon, and 1761, with Montpellier physician Jean Astruc's treatise on women's diseases which introduced the term 'menstruation' into French medical vocabulary. Chapter Two examines medical notions of menstrual bleeding within the context of attitudes to blood, blood-related fluids and the humoral and mechanical bodies. Sixteenth-century casuistic interpretations of Biblical taboos surrounding sex during menstrual bleeding and notions of menses as polluting are cross-referenced with medical notions of the relationship of menses to conception demonstrating the overriding concern for healthy progeny. Chapter Three explores the significance of concepts of time and periodicity, in the context of the merging of blood-related fluids in the humoral body, as a key to early modem perceptions of menstrual bleeding. Chapter Four examines early modern debates on the length of gestation and the calculation of a woman's time on the basis of the monthly menstrual cycle relating these to Sarah Hanley's model of the 'marital regime'. In Chapter Five, the ambivalent nature of menstrual bleeding in the medico-legal arena is investigated and the different cultural meanings ascribed to various bloody discharges emanating from the living female body are analysed. In the sixth and final chapter the role of menstrual bleeding in issues of sexual difference and hermaphroditism is discussed