The Future Historiography of AI Art

More and more artists from all over the world are engaging in the production of AI art. Because of this, art historians need to start thinking about how the histories of AI art should be articulated. This paper aims to take part in this conversation by addressing the problem of whether the AIs created by human artists should be considered as artists too in the discourse of art and its history. By building on previous research on ethics, consciousness, authorship, creatorship, and intent, this paper presents a number of arguments as to whether or not anthropocentrism should be abandoned in the writing of AI art’s histories

Country, God, and the Sublime: Imaginative Reflections on the Life and Works of the Philippine Painter Ricarte Puruganan

This study focuses on the Philippine artist Ricarte Puruganan’s reckoning with the ideas of “country,” “God,” and “the sublime.” It does so through a hermeneutic reading of the artist’s works as a cultural text. In order to fill the gaps in the historiographic record and to enrich the material on the artist that was already available, the author engaged in imaginative reflection. This act of imagination was used to shape the narrative presented in this work. The thesis presents a biography of Ricarte Puruganan as well as an explication of his aesthetics (particularly his ideas on a Philippine Kunstwollen—or will to form—and the sublime in Philippine art). It also provides an exploration of the tropes the painter used in his artistic discourse—such an exploration was imperative as it is only through the use of these discrete expressive mechanisms built on visual metaphors that Ricarte was (and is) able to impress his ideas on “country,” “God,” and “the sublime” on us

Adaptive Optics system of the Evanescent Wave Coronagraph (EvWaCo): optimised phase plate and DM characterisation

The Evanescent Wave Coronagraph (EvWaCo) is an achromatic coronagraph mask with adjustable size over the spectral domain [600nm, 900nm] that will be installed at the Thai National Observatory. We present in this work the development of a bench to characterise its Extreme Adaptive Optics system (XAO) comprising a DM192 ALPAO deformable mirror (DM) and a 15x15 Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS). In this bench, the turbulence is simulated using a rotating phase plate in a pupil plane. In general, such components are designed using a randomly generated phase screen. Such single realisation does not necessarily provide the wanted structure function. We present a solution to design the printed pattern to ensure that the beam sees a strict and controlled Kolmogorov statistics with the correct 2D structure function. This is essential to control the experimental conditions in order to compare the bench results with the numerical simulations and predictions. This bench is further used to deeply characterise the full 27 mm pupil of the ALPAO DM using a 54x54 ALPAO SH-WFS. We measure the average shape of its influence functions as well as the influence function of each single actuator to study their dispersion. We study the linearity of the actuator amplitude with the command as well as the linearity of the influence function profile. We also study the actuator offsets as well as the membrane shape at 0-command. This knowledge is critical to get a forward model of the DM for the XAO control loop

Purification of matrix Gla protein from a marine teleost fish, Argyrosomus regius: Calcified cartilage and not bone as the primary site of MGP accumulation in fish

Matrix Gla protein (MGP) belongs to the family of vitamin K-dependent, Gla-containing proteins, and in mammals, birds, and Xenopus, its mRNA was previously detected in extracts of bone, cartilage, and soft tissues (mainly heart and kidney), whereas the protein was found to accumulate mainly in bone. However, at that time, it was not evaluated if this accumulation originated from protein synthesized in cartilage or in bone cells because both coexist in skeletal structures of higher vertebrates and Xenopus. Later reports showed that MGP also accumulated in costal calcified cartilage as well as at sites of heart valves and arterial calcification. Interestingly, MGP was also found to accumulate in vertebra of shark, a cartilaginous fish. However, to date, no information is available on sites of MGP expression or accumulation in teleost fishes, the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates, who have in their skeleton mineralized structures with both bone and calcified cartilage. To analyze MGP structure and function in bony fish, MGP was acid-extracted from the mineralized matrix of either bone tissue (vertebra) or calcified cartilage (branchial arches) from the bony fish, Argyrosomus regius,(1) separated from the mineral phase by dialysis, and purified by Sephacryl S-100 chromatography. No MGP was recovered from bone tissue, whereas a protein peak corresponding to the MGP position in this type of gel filtration was obtained from an extract of branchial arches, rich in calcified cartilage. MGP was identified by N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis, and the resulting protein sequence was used to design specific oligonucleotides suitable to amplify the corresponding DNA by a mixture of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 5'rapid amplification of cDNA (RACE)-PCR. In parallel, ArBGP (bone Gla protein, osteocalcin) was also identified in the same fish, and its complementary DNA cloned by an identical procedure. Tissue distribution/accumulation was analyzed by Northern blot, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry. In mineralized tissues, the MGP gene was predominantly expressed in cartilage from branchial arches, with no expression detected in the different types of bone analyzed, whereas BGP mRNA was located in bone tissue as expected. Accordingly, the MGP protein was found to accumulate, by immunohistochemical analysis, mainly in the extracellular matrix of calcified cartilage. In soft tissues, MGP mRNA was mainly expressed in heart but in situ hybridization, indicated that cells expressing the MGP gene were located in the bulbus arteriosus and aortic wall, rich in smooth muscle and endothelial cells, whereas no expression was detected in the striated muscle myocardial fibers of the ventricle. These results show that in marine teleost fish, as in mammals, the MGP gene is expressed in cartilage, heart, and kidney tissues, but in contrast with results obtained in Xenopus and higher vertebrates, the protein does not accumulate in vertebra of non-osteocytic teleost fish, but only in calcified cartilage. In addition, our results also indicate that the presence of MGP mRNA in heart tissue is due, at least in fish, to the expression of the MGP gene in only two specific cell types, smooth muscle and endothelial cells, whereas no expression was found in the striated muscle fibers of the ventricle. In light of these results and recent information on expression of MGP gene in these same cell types in mammalian aorta, it is likely that the levels of MGP mRNA previously detected in Xenopus, birds, and mammalian heart tissue may be restricted toregions rich in smoot Our results also emphasize the need to re-evaluate which cell types are involved in MGP gene expression in other soft tissues and bring further evidence that fish are a valuable model system to study MGP gene expression and regulation.NIAMS NIH HHS [AR25921]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Finding Queer Optimism in the Art of Oscar Zalameda

Queer theorists have traditionally advocated for the adoption of an outlook of queer pessimism in order to develop a criticality that helps the queer community effectively address the issues it presently faces. Some queer theorists, however, have instead advocated for an outlook of queer optimism—an outlook which allows space for celebrating joy and embracing optimism without forgoing the criticality needed to fight for queer rights. This paper touches on the validity of having such a disposition even in the dark times we currently live in—specifically how art can move us to embrace queer optimism. In discussing the formal techniques the queer artist Oscar Zalameda employed in his art practice, this paper aims to provide a phenomenological/hermeneutic explication of how he formed affects of queer optimism through his works. The artist's paintings continue to preserve these forces, and our encounters with them in the present give us hope. Considering the political potential of queer optimism amidst the current realities queer persons are facing in the Philippines, it is important to take a critical look at the works of Zalameda and other queer artists embracing such a disposition

Finding Queer Optimism in the Art of Oscar Zalameda (Preprint)

Preprin

PERFORMANCE OF LOW-COST DUAL CIRCUIT SOLAR ASSISTED CABINET DRYER FOR GREEN BANANA

A low-cost solar cabinet dryer was designed to dry green banana. The dryer was made of low-cost material readily available locally. The dryer consists of two types of solar collector (air and fluid collectors), water tank, automotive radiator and a drying cabinet. The experiment was conducted in Iligan City, Philippines and placed at the roof top. Banana slices were placed in the cabinet and dried for the whole day. Temperature and moisture were observed during different solar conditions. The temperature of the chamber, output temperature of the air heater and water heater were enough for low temperature drying. Chamber temperature has a mean maximum value of 48 C and an average temperature of 41 C. The overall dryer efficiency was 18 %. The dryer efficiency is lower than the projected simulated dryer efficiency but good enough considering the low-cost construction of the dryer

The scientific capabilities of the Evanescent Wave Coronagraph EvWaCo

The Evanescent Wave Coronagraph, EvWaCo, is an in-development prototype coronagraph, designed for use on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope (TNT), in the R and I-band filters. This work examines the astronomical capabilities of EvWaCo using the results from Fourier-analysis simulations. Fourier optics simulations were applied to the EvWaCo prototype to analyse its performance, combining different sources of contrast degradation that will be present in the system. The simulations used for the main analysis assume a good night at the Thai National Observatory (TNO) and include the fitting error, aliasing, measurement noise and lag, providing a radially averaged contrast curve. From the contrast curve, the detection limit, as defined by a minimum signal to noise ratio of 5 for a typical observation time, can be calculated for different primary star magnitudes. The relative fluxes of various binary stars, with a range of spectral classes and separations, were modelled allowing comparison to the EvWaCo detection curves. The photon-noise limited detection curves provide a theoretical baseline for the performance that will be achieved with EvWaCo; they, therefore, give an indication of the types of objects EvWaCo can observe. Along with a broader discussion of observable objects, a number of known binary systems are suggested for observations on the TNT using EvWaCo

Study of a coronagraphic mask using evanescent waves

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