On Rearing an Ugly Head: Joel-Peter Witkin and the Mysticism of the “Ugly Aesthetic”

The contemporary photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin, has described his remaking of some of the most iconic paintings in the history of art as a “divine revolt”. However, there are no attempts to unravel the meaning of this project nor to analyse the visual changes that Witkin has made. This thesis argues that Witkin's re-creations serve to subvert the negation or diminishment of ugliness in art history's depictions of the mystical, and to present the experience of ugliness as alternatively inherently Godly. Through engaging in the problems in philosophical aesthetics, it contrasts the notions “aesthetically ugly” (a quality that cannot be objectively identified and studied because it ascribes aesthetic non-worth) with the “ugly aesthetic”, which refers to the “perceptive-felt” experience of an object. By integrating descriptions of this experience of the ugly aesthetic with those of the early development stage of the “psychoanalytic pre-symbolic”, it provides heuristics with which to identify perceptual identifiers ugly objects, ugly worlds and the expression of ugly feelings in mystical invocations of paintings of three chosen art historical periods and Witkin's recreations. In his reconstructing of the heavenly realms given Renaissance paintings of Leda and the Swan (1510-1515) and The Birth of Venus (1485), Witkin makes a “pre-symbolic” space with ugly objects to present a contrary vision of an ugly dwelling place for God. In amending the Catholic Baroque's Little Fur (1638) and the Protestant Baroque's Still Life of Game, Fish, Fruit and Kitchen Utensils (1646), the artist replaces mystical feelings that imbue scenes of ugly objects with an expression of ugly feelings themselves, thereby guiding the viewer into a full immersion into these objects the real site of Godly experience instead. This theoretical formulation and its application to the works at hand, evidence that Witkin's work points to the mystical power of the ugly aesthetic to unleash a personal and collective memory of Godly reality as ontologically formless and mysterious, and thereby makes a case for ugliness' value

A new species of Chaetostoma Tschudi (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from Colombia with a definition of the C. anale species group

Chaetostoma formosae sp. nov. is described from piedmont tributaries of the upper río Meta on the Cordillera Oriental in Colombia. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by the presence of an elongate unbranched anal-fin ray with two posterior dermal ridges in mature males, the presence of strongly recurved cheek odontodes, the presence of a parieto-supraoccipital dermal keel, the posterior margin of the pelvic-fin strongly projected and angulate in shape in mature males, and by details of coloration. The new species belongs to an informal monophyletic group herein called the Chaetostoma anale species group, along with two additional species, C. anale and C. jegui, from Colombia and Brazil respectively, based on an apomorphic modification of the anal fin in mature males.Se describe Chaetostoma formosae, sp. nov. de tributarios pedimontanos del alto río Meta sobre la Cordillera Oriental en Colombia. La nueva especie se distingue de sus congéneres por la presencia de un radio alargado no ramificado en la aleta anal con dos carnosidades longitudinales posteriores en machos maduros, presencia de odontoides cefálicos fuertemente recurvados, presencia de una quilla carnosa parieto-supraoccipital, margen posterior de las aletas pélvicas fuertemente proyectado y de forma angular en machos maduros, así como detalles de coloración. Se propone que la nueva especie pertenece a un grupo monofilético informal llamado en el presente trabajo el grupo de especies Chaetostoma anale, junto con dos especies adicionales, C. anale y C. jegui, de Colombia y Brasil respectivamente, con base en una apomorfia de la aleta anal en machos maduros

Geopolitical traditions of Colombia in comparison to Argentina, Brazil and Chile

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Bu çalışmanın amacı, eleştirel jeopolitiği kavramsal çerçevesiyle Kolombiya klasik jeopolitik geleneklerini analiz etmektir. Klasik jeopolitik yaklaşımlarını göz önünde bulundurarak, Latin Amerika'nın alternatif bir jeopolitik sıralaması yer almaktadır; Arjantin, Brezilya ve Şili jeopolitik geleneklerini incelenmektedir. Son olarak, jeopolitiğin yeni bir düşünce alanını açmak amacıyla Kolombiya jeopolitik geleneklerini gözden geçirilmektedir. Çalışmanın aşağıdaki gibi sorunun cevaplamasını hedeflemiştir: • Kolombiya'nın zayıf ve belirsiz bir jeopolitik tasavvurun sebepleri nedir? Bu sorunun cevabına bağlı, • "Latin Amerika'nın jeopolitik gelenekleri Kolombiya'da uyum sağlamamasının sebebi nedir? Kolombiya'nın aşırı merkezi bir jeopolitik tasavvuru savunarak sınırlar ve siyasi bütünlüğünü sürdürebilecek mi?" konusunu araştırılmaktadır2012 is catalogued as one of the darkest years regarding the direction of Colombian Foreign Policy due to the verdict given by the International Court of Justice related to a maritime and territorial dispute against Nicaragua, a tiny Central American nation. With the confirmation of Colombian sovereignty over the totality of isles, islets and cays, Nicaragua failed on its pretentions, nevertheless annexing 75000 square kilometers to its maritime platform in prejudice of the counterpart. Inside academia and political institutions in Colombia, the judgment is seen as an extremely harmful loss against national sovereignty, as well as a direct threat against national interests such as exploration of petroleum sites and fishing resources for native population, among others. Also, the judgment as a whole is seen within public opinion as one of the constant mistakes in the planning and execution of goals, as well as the consequence of state ignorance on border regions from entities like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This study aims at analyze Colombian geopolitical traditions with the objective of demonstrating the excessively central character of public administration concreted in geopolitical isolationism and the lack of even a classical conception of geography around the country. Deductive analysis of geopolitical imagination is performed using theoretical tools and concepts suggested by Gearóid Ó Tuathail's critical geopolitics (1996), implementing mentioned assumptions in a regional scale taking three examples (Brazil, Argentina and Chile), and finally performing a conjunction between formal conceptions on spatialization by intellectuals of statecraft into practical, formal and popular spheres of action (Dalby & Ó Tuathail, 1998; Dodds, 2009

With Big Data comes Big Responsibility for Science Equity Research

Our ability to collect and access large quantities of data over the last decade has been revolutionary for many social sciences. Suddenly, it is possible to measure human behavior, performance, and activity on an unprecedented scale, opening the door to fundamental advances in discovery and understanding. Yet such access to data has limitations that, if not sufficiently addressed and explored, can result in significant oversights. Here we discuss recent research that used data from a large global sample of high school students to demonstrate, paradoxically, that in nations with higher gender equality, fewer women pursued science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees than would be expected based on aptitude in those subjects. The reasons for observed patterns is central to current debates, with frequent disagreement about the nature and magnitude of problems posed by the lack of female representation in STEM and the best ways to deal with them. In our international efforts to use big data in education research, it is necessary to critically consider its limitations and biases

The Role of Private Sector Payment Rules and a Proposed Approach for Evaluating Future Changes to Payments Law

Private sector payment organizations should continue to play the primary role in establishing rights and responsibilities for payment transactions between their participating financial institutions, provided that their rules are consistent with customer protections established by federal and state governmental authorities for the customer-financial institution relationship. Current payments law structure, relying on a combination of private sector rules, baseline statutory consumer protections, and (in the case of check payments) a somewhat variable uniform check collection statute, has shown remarkable flexibility in facilitating and responding to the unprecedented scope and pace of change that has occurred in the retail payments world over the last twenty years. The financial services industry should continue to support these two separate spheres of payment laws, private sector rules and government-mandated baseline consumer protection rules. The payment system stakeholders should not attempt to further regulate or limit, either by legislation or by regulation, the ability of private sector payment organizations to establish rules governing the relationships between their participating financial institutions