Art after atrocity: post-Holocaust representation and affect

The thesis investigates how to effectively address (through visual art) events of war and traumatic memory, with particular focus on the Holocaust and its subsequent visual representation. Through critical analysis and interviews with artists, theorists, historians, philosophers, writers and curators as well as the studio-based outcomes: the research creates a detailed analysis of traumatic, memory based visual representation and effective memorialization, and its purpose in contemporary society. The PhD advances the role, positioning and association of memory within the representation of horrific experience, and how this affects the creation, presentation and affecting qualities of art based on perpetrated atrocities and near incomprehensible human experience (Art After Atrocity). Accompanying the written research is a single, large-scale artwork produced in parallel to the written research. This artwork, Deathgate, consists of an individually handmade ceramic ‘stone’ for each of the 1.3 million people detained in the Auschwitz network of concentration camps creating an immersive installation environment. The thesis involves the examination of memorialization, remembrance and traumatic memory in the context of visual art. The written research responds to 3 distinct research areas: firstly, German philosopher, Theodor Adorno’s suggestion that there can be ‘no poetry [art] after Auschwitz’, which opens discussion into the problematics of post-Holocaust representation. Secondly, ideas established by French philosopher, Jean- Francois Lyotard regarding the sublime as a way of visually and physically ‘presenting the unpresentable’, and lastly, German Jewish philosopher, Walter Benjamin’s theory concerning the transcendental qualities or ‘affective dimension’ of art (‘aura theory’) in order to establish and position the new term ‘aura of atrocity’ within the field of art theory. This term is directly associated to art with implications of traumatic memory and extreme, seemingly incomprehensible human capability and experience. The investigation of these three research areas will demonstrate the historical, and continually changing function, necessity for, and ongoing role of memorialization and the importance of visual art in relation to the continued representation, legacy and relevance of historical events such as the Holocaust

A study of the association of organic acids with human serum albumin

U.V./Visible spectral changes accompanying the interactions of some organic acids with human serum albumin have been studied in detail. The spectra have been analysed by means of matrix rank analysis to estimate the number of spectrophoto-metrically distinguishable species in solution. This may be used to estimate the number of distinct classes of binding sites on the albumin molecule. A new method has been developed to obtain equilibrium constants and numbers of binding sites per albumin molecule from spectrophotometric data. The method involved the titration of a constant concentration dye solution with human serum albumin. The series of spectra thus obtained were analysed by means of a computer assisted data fitting routine. The routine was based on a model for the system, using two independent classes of binding sites on the albumin molecule. A series of derivatives of azobenzene were studied by the method in order to correlate structural features of the molecules with the extent to which they bound to human serum albumin. The interactions of the azobenzene derivative series, with human serum albumin, were studied by an ultrafiltration technique. Projected ultrafiltration binding curves from the U.V./visible spectrophotometric experiments were found to be in agreement with those measured experimentally. Spectral changes accompanying the competitive interactions between Bromophenol Blue, and the azobenzene10derivatives, with human serum albumin, have also been studied. An attempt has been made to correlate these results with the foregoing binding experiments.<p