L’art comme contestation démocratique

Dans le contexte contemporain de la démocratisation de l’accès à l’information, la liberté d’expression est considérée comme un fait accompli, et le rôle de l’art dans la démocratie est obscurci par une approche consumériste apolitique de l’art. Dans ce mémoire je défends la thèse que l’art représente une valeur pour la démocratie qui se trouve dans la nature contestataire de l’art. De cette valeur s’ensuit la fonction démocratique de l’art. Pourtant, l’art est aussi utilisé comme un moyen de pression antidémocratique. L’usage de l’art contre la démocratie est un usage de l’art contre l’art puisque c’est l’usage à l’encontre de sa nature. Les forces antidémocratiques exploitent les relations ambigües de l’art avec la vérité et l’égalité. À cause des utilisations démagogiques de l’art et des prétentions élitistes par ces forces, on est incité à croire qu’il y ait une rupture entre l’art et les valeurs de la vérité et de l’égalité. Je soutiens que ces ruptures ne sont pas naturelles pour l’art et que des dangers et des contraintes auxquels l’art est confronté sont aussi des dangers et des contraintes pour la démocratie. Dans le cadre méthodologique, je considère la démocratie conceptuellement dans deux dimensions : statique formelle, c’est-à-dire comme un système politique, et dynamique, c’est-à-dire comme une force de transformation sociale. La dimension dynamique correspond à la contestation démocratique que je prends pour une prémisse normative. L’art a aussi ses dimensions statiques et dynamiques. Sa dimension dynamique détermine l’art comme l’activité nécessairement libre d’une valeur démocratique. Pourtant, pour que le potentiel démocratique de l’art soit réalisé, on doit protéger l’art contre la censure et la défiguration en développant une attitude démocratique.In the contemporary context of democratisation of access to information, freedom of expression is considered as an established fact, and the role of art in democracy is obscured by the apolitical consumerist attitude towards it. In this work I advance the thesis that art represents a value for democracy which can be found in the contesting nature of art. From this value the democratic function of art follows. However, art is also used as a tool of antidemocratic pressure; the use of art against democracy is the use of art against art because it goes against art’s nature. Antidemocratic forces exploit the ambiguous relations between art and truth, and between art and equality. By using art in demagoguery and by labelling it elitist they pretend there is a rupture between art and the values of truth and equality. I argue that this rupture is not natural for art and that the dangers and the constraints that art faces are also the dangers and the constraints for democracy. Methodologically, I consider democracy conceptually in two dimensions: the formal static one, as a political system, and the dynamic one, as a force of social transformation. The dynamic dimension corresponds to the democratic contestation which I take as a normative premise. Art also has its static and dynamic dimensions. Its dynamic dimension defines art as a necessarily free activity that has a democratic value. However, for the democratic potential of art to be realized we have to protect art against censorship and disfigurement. We have to do that by developing a democratic attitude towards art

Vladimir Obroutchev, le Jules Verne russe qui fut vraiment explorateur

Les découvertes, les expéditions scientifiques et les voyages de science-fiction de V.A. Obroutchev (1863-1956) sont étudiés à partir du dépouillement des archives de l’Académie des sciences de Russie, d’entretiens inédits avec des spécialistes de l’édition et avec des chercheurs utilisant encore ses travaux, ainsi que de visites de terrain recoupant les itinéraires qu’il avait suivis il y a un siècle. Géologue de formation, mais très lié à la Société de géographie, son principal héritage scientifique concerne l’effet de la néotectonique faillée dans le rajeunissement des massifs anciens, l’importance des remaniements postérieurs aux dépôts des lœss et la nature des gisements aurifères alluvionnaires cimentés par le pergélisol. Passionné par le terrain et les explorations lointaines, Obroutchev en a effectué de multiples en Sibérie et en Asie centrale russe, mais ce fut sa participation à la seconde expédition de Potanine en Chine qui le rendit célèbre. La renommée d’Obroutchev dépassa la sphère scientifique pour atteindre au monde culturel, grâce à ses deux romans, traduits dans le monde entier, qui firent de lui l’inventeur de la science-fiction russe. Ce sont de grands voyages initiatiques et imaginaires, devant beaucoup à la géographie, surtout la Terre de Sannikov, et à la géologie, en particulier la Plutonie. Dans le premier, l’île forme un isolat géographique autorisant la préservation de la paléogéographie de la dernière glaciation. Dans le second, la zonation géographique fait se succéder les périodes géologiques : plus on va vers le sud, plus on remonte dans le temps.Discoveries, scientific expeditions and science fiction trips of V.A. Obruchev (1863-1956) are studied considering the examination of the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, unpublished interviews with specialists and with researchers still using his work, as well as field visits along the itineraries he had followed a century ago. Trained as geologist, closely associated with the Society of Geography, his main scientific heritage concerns the impact of fault neotectonics in the rejuvenation of the old mountains, the importance of reworked lœss in Asia and the conditions of gold diggings in permafrost. Passionate about field work and distant expeditions, he explored many parts of Siberia and Central Asia; his participation in the second Potanin’s expedition in China made him famous. Obruchev’s reputation went beyond the scientific sphere to reach the cultural world, thanks to his two novels, translated all over the world, which made him the inventor of Russian science fiction. These great initiatory and imaginary journeys owe much to geography, especially Sannikov land, and to geology, especially Plutonia. In the first, the island forms a geographical isolate allowing the preservation of the paleogeography of the last glaciation. In the second, the geographical zonation follows the geological periods: the more we go south, the more we go back in time

Shock initiation of explosives: the idealized condensed-phase model

Many current models of condensed-phase explosives employ reaction rate law models where the form of the rate has a power-law dependence on pressure (i.e. proportional to pn where n is an adjustable parameter). Here, shock-induced ignition is investigated using a simple model of this form. In particular, the solutions are contrasted with those from Arrhenius rate law models as studied previously. A large n asymptotic analysis is first performed, which shows that in this limit the evolution begins with an induction stage, followed by a sequence of pressure runaways, resulting in a forward propagating, decelerating, shockless supersonic reaction wave (a weak detonation). The theory predicts secondary shock and super-detonation formation once the weak detonation reaches the Chapman–Jouguet speed. However, it is found that secondary shock formation does not occur until the weak detonation has reached a point close to the initiating shock, whereas for Arrhenius rate laws the shock forms closer to the piston. Numerical simulations are then conducted for O(1) values of n, and it is shown that the idealized condensed-phase model can qualitatively describe a wide range of experimentally observed behaviours, from growth mainly at the shock, to smooth growth of a pressure pulse behind the shock, to cases where a secondary shock and possibly a super-detonation form. The numerics are used to reveal the different evolutionary mechanisms for each of these cases. However, the evolution is found to be sensitive to n, with the whole range of behaviours covered by varying n from about 3 to 5. The simulations also confirm the predictions of the theory that pressure-dependent rate laws are unable to describe homogeneous explosive scenarios where a super-detonation forms very close to the point of initial runaway

Studying the spatially resolved immobilisation of enzymes on a capacitive field-effect structure by means of nano-spotting

Conventional methods for enzyme immobilisation onto sensor surfaces often use dip-, drop- or spin-coating techniques. In this study, a nano-spotting technique has been investigated for a patterned, spatially resolved deposition of enzymes onto a capacitive field-effect electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor (EIS) sensor and compared with the drop-coating method. Therefore, four different sensor arrangements covered with immobilised penicillinase as a model enzyme have been studied: (i) The sensor surface fully drop-coated, (ii) half drop-coated, (iii) half nano-spotted and (iv) fully nano-spotted with penicillinase. The sensors have been electrochemically characterised in pH buffers and penicillin solutions by means of impedance-spectroscopy, capacitance–voltage and constant-capacitance methods