162 research outputs found
Cell Phones from Hell
Recently Hollywood has remade a number of movies from the 1970s, movies in which young women are terrorized by a murderer calling from a telephone located elsewhere in the house. In the remakes, the murderer uses a cell phone, which effectively destroys the sense of space and distance on which earlier horror films were predicated. In one way, these films gesture to Jean Baudrillard\u27s idea of âthe transparency of evil,â in that they depict the collapse between the speaking self and the technologies of monstrosity against which the self might be defined. In another way, though, the films proliferate sites of desire from which the telephonic subject searches for connection, even if that connection is impossible to establish. This essay reads the original and the remade When a Stranger Calls and Black Christmas through Baudrillard and Georges Bataille. Ultimately, it finds in contemporary telephonic horror a complex deracination of the desiring subject from its own speaking self
Coordinated Motion Planning and Optimal Force Distribution for Robots with Multiple Cooperating Arms
This paper is concerned with the problems of inter-arm coordination which arise when multiple robot arms attach their end effectors to a single payload in order to perform a manipulation task. The approach taken is to let the arms cooperate with equal rights, and to exploit the redundancy present in the system for the minimization of a quadratic cost criterion. The main elements of the proposed control system are generators for coordinated nominal motions and force/torque interactions with the payload, and an active compliance scheme capable of resolving kinematic conflicts and inconsistencies between motion and force/torque commands. The paper gives a detailed mathematical description of both the motion and the force/torque generators. The proposed active compliance scheme is presented in summary form
Practicas intermédias
A intermidialidade, como prĂĄtica, Ă© tĂŁo antiga quanto as artes e
até mesmo quanto a cultura, se pensamos as primeiras formas de
comunicação humana e sua transformação na midiação entre o
pensamento e a expressão. Pode-se dizer que a ela estå na criação de
todo novo modo de se comunicar
On-Surface Carbon Nitride Growth from Polymerization of 2,5,8-Triazido-s-heptazine
Carbon nitrides have recently come into focus for photo- and thermal
catalysis, both as support materials for metal nanoparticles as well as
photocatalysts themselves. While many approaches for the synthesis of
three-dimensional carbon nitride materials are available, only top-down
approaches by exfoliation of powders lead to thin film flakes of this
inherently two-dimensional material. Here, we describe an in situ on-surface
synthesis of monolayer 2D carbon nitride films, as a first step towards precise
combination with other 2D materials. Starting with a single monomer precursor,
we show that 2,5,8-triazido-s-heptazine (TAH) can be evaporated intact,
deposited on a single crystalline Au(111) or graphite support, and activated
via azide decomposition and subsequent coupling to form a covalent
polyheptazine network. We demonstrate that the activation can occur in three
pathways, via electrons (X-ray illumination), photons (UV illumination) and
thermally. Our work paves the way to coat materials with extended carbon
nitride networks which are, as we show, stable under ambient conditions
Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress
In recent years homophobic bullying has received increased attention from NGOs, academics and government sources and concern about the issue crosses traditional moral and political divisions. This article examines this âprogressiveâ development and identifies the âconditions of possibilityâ that have enabled the issue to become a harm that can be spoken of. In doing so it questions whether the
readiness to speak about the issue represents the opposite to prohibitions on speech (such as the notorious Section 28) or whether it is based on more subtle forms of governance. It argues that homophobic bullying is heard through three key discourses (âchild abuseâ, âthe child victimâ and âthe tragic gayâ) and that, while enabling an acknowledgement of certain harms, they simultaneously
silence other needs and experiences. It then moves to explore the aspirational and âliberatoryâ political investments that underlie these seemingly âcommon-senseâ descriptive discourses and concludes with a critique of the quasi-criminal responses that the dominant political agenda of homophobic bullying gives rise to. The article draws on, and endeavours to develop a conversation between, critical engagements with the contemporary politics of both childhood and sexuality
Misty, Spellbound and the lost Gothic of British girlsâ comics.
This article is a case study of the 1970s British girlsâ comics Spellbound (DC Thomson, 1976â1977) and Misty (IPC, 1978â1980). These mystery anthology comics followed the more famous American horror comics from publishers like EC Comics - but were aimed at pre-teen girls. The article situates these comics with respect to Gothic critical theory and within the wider landscape of British girlsâ comics. Firstly, it closely considers and compares the structure and content of their stories with respect to theories of the terror and horror Gothic. It discovers that both comics offer similar fare, with a subversive streak that undercuts established horror archetypes. The article then looks closely at both titlesâ aesthetics and their use of the page to draw comparisons. It uses comics theory and Gothic cinematic theory to demonstrate that the appearance of Misty is more strongly Gothic than the aesthetic of Spellbound. Finally, it considers a selection of stories from both comics and analyses their common themes using Gothic critical theory. It argues that both comics rework Gothic themes into new forms that are relevant to their pre-teen and teenage readers. It concludes by summarising the studyâs findings and suggesting that these comics offer a âGothic for Girlsâ that is part cautionary tale and part bildungsroman. This article is published as part of a collection on Gothic and horror
Exile
Byron rehearsed going into exile in 1809, when he was twenty-one years old. Before setting sail for Lisbon, he wrote, âI leave England without regret, I shall return to it without pleasure. â I am like Adam the first convict sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab and thus ends my first Chapterâ (BLJ 1: 211). Byronâs sardonic perception of himself as a biblical exile foreshadowed the allusive character of his second longer-term exile at the age of twenty-eight, when his carefully staged exit required an audience (some of the same friends and servants), expensive props (a replica of Napoleonâs carriage) and a literary precursor. On his last evening in England, Byron visited the burial place of the satirist Charles Churchill, and lay down on his grave. It was a performance of immense weariness with life and solidarity with an embittered outcast.Postprin
The Lake Poets
âIf Southey had not been comparatively good,â writes Herbert F. Tucker, âhe would never have drawn out Byronâs best in those satirical volleys that were undertaken, at bottom, in order to reprehend not the want of talent but its wastage.â And if Wordsworth and Coleridge had not been dangerously talented, Byron might have spared them some of his stinging sallies. In Table Talk Coleridge proclaimed the conclusion of the âintellectual warâ Byron threatened in Don Juan (XI. 62: 496), declaring Wordsworth the poet who âwill wear the crown,â triumphing over Byron and his ilk for the poetic laurels of the Romantic period. But Byron was not simply an opponent of his contemporaries. His responses to the Lake poets, particularly to Wordsworth, ran the gamut from âreverenceâ (HVSV, 129) then ânauseaâ (Medwin, 237) to Don Juanâs comical though cutting disdain, in under a decade. Focusing on Byronâs relationship with Wordsworth and Coleridge, I will show how Byronâs poetry and drama reveal the range and complexity of his dialogue with his older peers, where, even at their most apparently divergent, the conversation between the poets reveals the depth of the engagement across their works
Children and objects: affection and infection
This paper considers young childrenâs (aged 3â5 years) relations with objects, and in particular objects that are brought from home to school. We begin by considering the place of objects within early years classrooms and their relationship to childrenâs education before considering why some objects are often separated from their owners on entry to the classroom. We suggest that the âarrestâ of objects is as a consequence of them being understood as âinfectingâ specific perceptions or constructs of young children. We further suggest that a focus on the dichotomy between affection/infection for and of certain objects may offer new possibilities for seeing and engaging with children, thus expanding the narrow imaginaries of children that are coded in developmental psychology, UK early years education policy and classroom practice
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