Developing the Modern Scene Design Process: Cognition and the New Stagecraft

This dissertation examines the working processes and professional activities of American scenic designers between 1910 and 1950. Beginning with the assertion that a common idea of design process has persisted among American professionals for much of the century, my case studies probe the history of “the process.” Previous historians have noted that the modern scene design process was heavily informed by the New Stagecraft movement and promulgated its aesthetic values: simplicity, unification, collaboration. Inspired by European modernist production, especially the work of Edward Gordon Craig, Adolph Appia, and Max Reinhardt, New Stagecraft artists produced simplified or abstract settings, unified design concepts, and introduced a more collaborative production model. This dissertation argues that the New Stagecraft revolution was not only an aesthetic shift, but also the beginning of theatrical design as a profession. I do so by analyzing ways in which New Stagecraft designers defined and defended their professional status. They developed new tools for script analysis and documenting their work, published books and articles demonstrating the value of good design, and strategically allied themselves with organized labor and major universities. They also institutionalized their practices in labor regulations, entrance exams, and educational curricula. The perceived stasis of the design process can be attributed to the preservation of specific design behaviors in these institutions. Methodologically I draw on studies of designing based in the cognitive and design sciences. Archived remnants of past designers are analyzed through principles of situated and extended cognition, such as offloading, affordances, and artifact use. I then develop my conclusions through concepts of professional expertise, including reflective practice and practicum education, and finally link individual practices to social change by applying the history of professionalization as it has been developed by sociologists. In total this dissertation charts a method for applying cognitive studies research to theatrical design history, and a way of linking private creative practices to larger changes in theatrical production methods. By studying the behavior of influential scenic designers, both in the studio and in their professional networks, I show how strategically placed individuals’ processes came to define the field

Two novel/ancient myosins in mammalian skeletal muscles: MYH14/7b and MYH15 are expressed in extraocular muscles and muscle spindles

The mammalian genome contains three ancient sarcomeric myosin heavy chain (MYH) genes, MYH14/7b, MYH15 and MYH16, in addition to the two well characterized clusters of skeletal and cardiac MYHs. MYH16 is expressed in jaw muscles of carnivores; however the expression pattern of MYH14 and MYH15 is not known. MYH14 and MYH15 orthologues are present in frogs and birds, coding for chicken slow myosin 2 and ventricular MYH, respectively, whereas only MYH14 orthologues have been detected in fish. In all species the MYH14 gene contains a microRNA, miR-499. Here we report that in rat and mouse, MYH14 and miR-499 transcripts are detected in heart, slow muscles and extraocular (EO) muscles, whereas MYH15 transcripts are detected exclusively in EO muscles. However, MYH14 protein is detected only in a minor fibre population in EO muscles, corresponding to slow-tonic fibres, and in bag fibres of muscle spindles. MYH15 protein is present in most fibres of the orbital layer of EO muscles and in the extracapsular region of bag fibres. During development, MYH14 is expressed at low levels in skeletal muscles, heart and all EO muscle fibres but disappears from most fibres, except the slow-tonic fibres, after birth. In contrast, MYH15 is absent in embryonic and fetal muscles and is first detected after birth in the orbital layer of EO muscles. The identification of the expression pattern of MYH14 and MYH15 brings to completion the inventory of the MYH isoforms involved in sarcomeric architecture of skeletal muscles and provides an unambiguous molecular basis to study the contractile properties of slow-tonic fibres in mammals

Redditi Turchi et potentiarum nobis. Un nuevo testimonio sobre la Cruzada contra el Imperio Otomano a mediados del siglo XV

The examination of liturgical codex 56-23 in Toledo Cathedral Library has revealed the existence of an exceptionally rich text, hitherto overlooked by researchers. This document contains an exhaustive assessment of the economic and military capabilities of the Turks and the Christian powers, as well as a description of their strengths and weaknesses in combat. Through the analysis of its contents and its materiality, on the one hand this article associates the circumstances of its origin and use with the preparations for the crusading project that Pius II organized against the Ottoman Empire in 1458. On the other it contextualizes and interprets this new evidence as one of the numerous crusading treatises that proliferated in humanist Europe after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.El examen del códice litúrgico 56-23 de la Biblioteca Capitular de Toledo ha revelado la existencia de un texto de excepcional riqueza, hasta ahora ignorado por los investigadores, que recoge una exhaustiva valoración de la capacidad económica y militar del Turco y de las potencias cristianas, así como de sus virtudes y defectos en combate. A través del análisis de su contenido y de su materialidad, este artículo vincula las circunstancias de origen y uso de dicho escrito con los preparativos del proyecto bélico que Pío II emprendió contra el Imperio otomano en 1458 y lo contextualiza e interpreta en el seno de las numerosas creaciones literarias de cruzada que proliferaron en la Europa humanista tras la conquista otomana de Constantinopla en 1453

A strategy to discover new organizers identifies a putative heart organizer

Organizers are regions of the embryo that can both induce new fates and impart pattern on other regions. So far, surprisingly few organizers have been discovered, considering the number of patterned tissue types generated during development. This may be because their discovery has relied on transplantation and ablation experiments. Here we describe a new approach, using chick embryos, to discover organizers based on a common gene expression signature, and use it to uncover the anterior intestinal portal (AIP) endoderm as a putative heart organizer. We show that the AIP can induce cardiac identity from non-cardiac mesoderm and that it can pattern this by specifying ventricular and suppressing atrial regional identity. We also uncover some of the signals responsible. The method holds promise as a tool to discover other novel organizers acting during development

‘Orientalism is a partisan book’: applying Edward Said's insights to early modern travel writing

Since its publication in 1978, Edward Said's Orientalism has had a significant impact on postcolonial studies in a range of fields. This paper assesses his impact on the historiography of Anglophone travel writing concerning Ottoman Empire during the early modern period. Said's analysis of the relationship between representational power and colonial authority remains relevant to our understanding of early modern travel texts. Said's epistemology raises significant issues for historians of early modern intercultural encounters. This article summarises recent debates surrounding early modern travel narratives. It contrasts doctrinaire applications of Said's theory with more recent, particularistic studies. It provides a much-needed survey of travel writing historiography that considers the continuing impact of Said's postcolonial thought on the study of early modern travel narratives relating to the Ottoman Middle East. In so doing, it explores the lack of fit between early modern travel narratives and Said's methodology. I explore the methodological problems thrown up by conventional applications of Said's epistemology to precolonial travellers' texts. Based on a wide-ranging survey of Said's oeuvre, the article demonstrates that, more than 30 years on, Said's work remains relevant to the historiographical challenges presented by early modern English travel writing about Islam