Spartan Daily, May 1, 2007

Volume 128, Issue 50https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10364/thumbnail.jp

The imperfect observer: Mind, machines, and materialism in the 21st century

The dualist / materialist debates about the nature of consciousness are based on the assumption that an entirely physical universe must ultimately be observable by humans (with infinitely advanced tools). Thus the dualists claim that anything unobservable must be non-physical, while the materialists argue that in theory nothing is unobservable. However, there may be fundamental limitations in the power of human observation, no matter how well aided, that greatly curtail our ability to know and observe even a fully physical universe. This paper presents arguments to support the model of an inherently limited observer and explores the consequences of this view

Portraits, Power, and Patronage in the Late Roman Republic

Recent work in ancient art history has sought to move beyond formalist interpretations of works of art to a concern to understand ancient images in terms of a broader cultural, political, and historical context. In the study of late Republican portraiture, traditional explanations of the origins of verism in terms of antecedent influences — Hellenistic realism, Egyptian realism, ancestral imagines — have been replaced by a concern to interpret portraits as signs functioning in a determinate historical and political context which serves to explain their particular visual patterning. In this paper I argue that, whilst these new perspectives have considerably enhanced our understanding of the forms and meanings of late Republican portraits, they are still flawed by a failure to establish a clear conception of the social functions of art. I develop an account of portraits which shifts the interpretative emphasis from art as object to art as a medium of socio-cultural action. Such a shift in analytic perspective places art firmly at the centre of our understanding of ancient societies, by snowing that art is not merely a social product or a symbol of power relationships, but also serves to construct relationships of power and solidarity in a way in which other cultural forms cannot, and thereby transforms those relationships with determinate consequence

I Have No Pride : William Kennedy Laurie Dickson In His Own Words - An Autobiography

An early pioneer of cinema technology, author, photographer, and film director W.K.L. Dickson\u27s was one of the first people to perform a new type of subjectivity that we understand as multi-media. Working in the laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison, Dickson\u27s papers, photographs, and films have been carefully preserved as part of the Edison Papers Project and an examination of this archive rises to the level of autobiography. Authors Wyn Wachhorst, Paul Israel, and Charles Musser help to bring to life the world of the Edison Laboratory, the world\u27s first pure research and development company. Dickson\u27s own work speaks across the decades. He inscribed himself into the world\u27s earliest cinema and tells his own story from cinema space and through the materials in his copious archive

The projection of Cambodia, today: an inquiry into representation, fantasmatics and politics via tourism

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyToday, Cambodia has gained entrée into the world via international tourism. The ingression of tourism has also been accompanied by the prowess over the projection of aspects of culture and heritage. The purpose of this emergent, soft-science inquiry into the projection and representation of Cambodia is to sift through aspects of the culture gene bank (after Horne) of the nation to corroborate testimonies associated with the industrially/institutionally-scripted representation via international tourism. The inquiry henceforth gyrates around the projective ―discourse‖ (after Foucault) of peoples, cultures and places. The study is philosophically inspired by ―perspectivism‖ of Nietzsche and ―pluralism‖ of Berlin and Connolly and methodologically actuated by constructivism of Lincoln and Guba. The study of the discursive representation is approached vis-à-vis bricoleurship and cultural/critical pedagogies of Kincheloe and multi-sitedness of Marcus. The study identifies prevailing ramifications of the Angkorean discursivity or Angkorcentrism from constitutionality to ―banality‖ (after Baudrillard) and from public to private agents. The Angkorcentricity is nestled in the mainstream politics of projection of the nation by the state, as attested in the landscaping of public places/spaces, where the state attains its primacy in the projective authority. On the one hand, the finding anent Angkorcentric representation of the nation is generally congruent with that by Winter. On the other, the study accentuates the symbolic/projective prowess of the state in harnessing the selection, production and projection of places and spaces. Another feature which sets this emergent inquiry apart from the others about Cambodia is that it delved into the performative aspects of cultures and identities, particularly in the portrayal and characterisation of ethnicities. Otherisation has been deployed (un)consciously in the performance industry and in the official projection of peoples and places. The nucleus of this inquiry is to fathom the scripting of the dominance, subjugation and silencing in representation of facets of culture gene banks of Cambodia. The dominant aspects of cultures were manifest in the cultural dressing of places and hypostatised in the form of monumental statues, pastiches of sculptures and performances. Facets of the marginalised peoples/cultures were materialised in the projection of otherness via dances, stereotypic utterance and so forth. The museumisation of places testified the discourse of ―phantasmatic Indochina‖ (in Norindr‘s word) in the framing and the normalisation of Cambodia. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in tourism studies both conceptually and methodologically. The conceptual contributions are associated with culture gene bank, performativity and normalisation. The methodological contributions are linked with the emergent study and (critical) cultural pedagogy. This emergent, soft-science study of the projective discourse of Cambodia culminated in the Foucauldian normalisation, the Bhabhan fantasmatics and the Edensorian performativity of aspects of the Hornean culture gene bank via tourism. Further studies may crescendo along these aspects (i.e. normalisation, framing, fantasmatic, performativity and so forth) to advance particularistic understanding in the respective areas

3D modeling of cultural heritage objects with a structured light system

3D modeling of cultural heritage objects is an expanding application area. The selection of the right technology is very important and strictly related to the project requirements, budget and user's experience. The triangulation based active sensors, e.g. structured light systems are used for many kids of 3D object reconstruction tasks and in particular for 3D recording of cultural heritage objects. This study presents the experiences in the results of two such projects in which a close-range structured light system is used for the 3D digitization. The paper includes the essential steps of the 3D object modeling pipeline, i.e. digitization, registration, surface triangulation, editing, texture mapping and visualization. The capabilities of the used hardware and software are addressed. Particular emphasis is given to a coded structured light system as an option for data acquisition.Publisher's Versio

A manly artefact and a mysterious poet : around queer theory

The article deals with an interpretation of a poem by Zofia Trzeszczkowska entitled 'Posąg' (Statue). The text becomes a starting point for presentation of several 'gender-sensitive' reading strategies. The first part: a 'Non-gender-sensitive reading', attempts at reading the poem in a context of the ekphrasis theory and the Platonic reflection on arts and artistic creation. The following chapter - 'Gender-sensitive reading' - interprets the poem as a love monologue with a dominant record of homoerotic desire and fascination with man's carnality. The third part, headed 'Sexuality-sensitive reading', concerns the speaking 'I' - the identity of the lyrical 'I' is namely weak, unstable, escaping any attempted classification. This makes the poem a text speaking of admiration/delight and desire/lust in general. The article is concluded by theoretical considerations on new trends in literary criticism (those building on 'gender', 'gay' and 'queer' notions)

Supporting memory and identity in older people: findings from a ‘Sandpit’ process

Identity in old age is challenged by physical changes, evolving roles within the family, and life transitions such as retirement. Supporting identity is therefore important in later life, and might be assisted by media technologies which allow people to reflect on their lives, record their personal histories and share these with family, friends and caregivers. This possibility was explored in two creative ‘Sandpits’ with older people as part of the SUS-IT project, funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing programme in the UK. Discussions were held with PC and non-PC user groups of retirement age to understand memory and identity practices and elicit reactions to three novel product concepts. These included a Reminiscing Radio for life review, a Story Lamp for associating spoken stories with photographs and memorabilia, and a pair of virtual reality Travel Glasses for transporting you back to a special place in the past. The main findings of these discussions will be presented, along with concepts generated by the participants in a re-design exercise. This paper will also show how the sandpits enabled older people to be involved in the design process by allowing them to shape early design concepts through exploring their own ideas and motivations