Vanishing in Plain Sight

Playfully negotiating the historical constructs of theatrical vanishing and its disturbingly female trappings this paper centers on the creation of Bautier de Kolta’s l’Escamotage D’une Dame, an illusion used to screen the anxieties of the male British populous, irked by a buoyant surplus in unmarried, white, middle class women, in the late 1880s. Introducing texts such as W. R Greg’s Why are women Redundant? This paper makes ever more apparent the political, violent and sexual connotations of the female body in magical feats of performative disappearance. From the photographic curios of hidden mothers to the dark room of the séance, the conversation unfurls around the many forms of female vanishing, culminating in a discussion of the contemporary artwork Escamotage (Grace A Williams, 2015) that takes the Persian rug as both a motif of magical vanishing and a tool for the exposure of form. This paper was originally delivered as a performance from within a ‘Zig-Zag’ illusion box, in collaboration with artist David Cheeseman. The first critical analysis of women’s role within magical illusions, delivered by a female artist from within a magical prop that continues to dismember female bodies for entertainment in the contemporary magic market

Margaret Thatcher, Dilma Rousseff, & Angela Merkel: The Impact of Female World Leaders through Collaborative Negotiation

This paper seeks to address the question, “How do women negotiate international crisis and what are their outcomes?” To do this, I derive hypothesis from both the realist and feminist theories to test in three case studies of prominent women leaders in the 20th-21st centuries. I analyze qualitative case studies on Margaret Thatcher, Dilma Rousseff, and Angela Merkel, in which I test variation in negotiation style affecting outcomes. In addition to assessing their early influences and overall negotiating styles, I look at the specific cases of The Falkland Islands Crisis, the NSA Surveillance Crisis, and the Ukraine Crisis negotiations. I find that Merkel and Rousseff embraced collaborative approaches, while Thatcher consistently used a confrontational approach. I also find that collaborative approaches tend to result in better outcomes for all parties, while a confrontational approach creates winners and losers. Overall, this offers more support for feminist theory than realist theory

“The Dada of Haha”: The Hypermodern Anti-Comedy of Tim and Eric, Eric André and Million Dollar Extreme

Meaningfully meaningless anti-comedy is the logical next step in comedy’s evolution as we head into wildly uncertain hypermodern times. Three major case studies from the 21st century will allow us to truly understand this timely transformation: the works of comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) Eric André (of The Eric André Show) and the troupe Million Dollar Extreme (of Million Dollar Extreme Presents World Peace). The three share similar sinews in style; despite their surface-level aesthetic similarities, however, the three utilize the weaponized subgenre to fire shots at completely distinct facets of hypermodern culture

The Impact of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Use on Parent-Child Relationships

The Impact of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Use on Parent-Child Relationships Children with complex communication needs (CCN) have difficulty understanding and generating language in the same manner as their typically developing counterparts. Typically, children with CCN will rely on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) technologies, which encompasses all forms of communication other than oral speech, in order to construct language output. Currently, research and development of AAC devices focuses on information transfer and rate enhancement as markers of communicative success, with little attention paid to the personal experiences of the individuals who utilize this technology. The current study sought to understand and evaluate the quality of communication and relationships before and after an AAC device was introduced to a child with CCN. Specifically, the study examined if social closeness, efficiency of communication, and quality of life changed after an AAC device was introduced. The current investigation worked with three individuals who utilized AAC technologies and their parents. The participants in this study completed interview questions, surveys, and a naturalistic observation in order to understand communication patterns before and after AAC device implementation. Results will show how AAC has impacted social relationships among parents and their children, as well as understanding specific device features that aid in social closeness. The findings will be essential to the field of AAC, identifying the strengths that these specific devices hold in social communication, as well as identify areas that need improvement to increase the quality of life for AAC users. Keywords: Augmentative and Alternative Communication, parent-child relationships, quality of life, social closeness, technology developmen

Hunting Billbug Sphenophorus venatus (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) adult feeding and attraction to warm- and cool-season turfgrasses

The hunting billbug Sphenophorus venatus Say (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Dryophothorinae) is a generalist stem-boring pest on warm- and cool-season grasses. The objectives of this work were to (1) investigate adult feeding preference for four common turfgrass host species and (2) explore whether adults are attracted to the volatile odors emitted by these grasses. In laboratory feeding assays, S. venatus adults preferred zoysiagrass Zoysia japonica Steud ‘Meyer’ over all other species tested: Bermudagrass Cynodon dactylon ‘Patriot’, Kentucky bluegrass Poa pratensis ‘Barron’, and creeping bentgrass Agrostis stolonifera ‘Penncross’. In y-tube olfactometry assays, only males were attracted to bermudagrass. Our findings suggest that although S. venatus odor recognition potentially influence dispersal and host-seeking behavior, it may not ultimately determine feeding preference, where more close-range cues may be important. Further investigations on the mechanisms that cause variation in these behaviors could aid in the pursuit of more sustainable management techniques, such as strategic plant species selection and development of synthetic semiochemical lures for monitoring and trapping

MALL BARANG BEKAS DAN DAUR ULANG DI KOTA SEMARANG DENGAN PENDEKATAN ARSITEKTUR SUSTAINABLE

Penjualan barang bekas atau barang “second” merupakan hal menarik yang sudah ada sejak lama. Barang yang masih bisa layak pakai tetapi sudah tidak diinginkan oleh pemiliknya dapat digunakan kembali dengan cara menjualnya atau mendaur ulang kembali menjadi barang yang berguna dan berharga. Sebenarnya beberapa tahun terakhir jumlah pasar dari “thrift shopping” ( jual beli barang bekas) terutama yang dapat dikoleksi semakin naik karena orang- orang suka mencari dan mendapatkan barang lama layak pakai ( bermerk ataupun tidak ) dengan harga yang jauh lebih terjangkau dan kadang tergolong rendah untuk dipakai maupun dijual lagi. Hal ini juga merupakan hal yang bagus karena masyarakat mulai dari anak muda sampai orang dewasa secara tidak langsung mendukung sustainable lifestyle , contohnya dalam hal ini adalah sustainable fashion. Tidak hanya itu , di Semarang sudah beberapa kali diadakannya “event” barang bekas tetapi dengan tempat seadanya. Sama dengan halnya daur ulang, Pada masa sekarang masyarakat sudah lebih pintar dalam mendaur ulang berbagai macam limbah dari limbah dapur sampai limbah pakaian menjadi sesuatu yang baru dan berharga) . Hal ini tentunya membuat banyak orang semakin tertarik untuk mendaur ulang untuk dapat dipakai lagi ataupun dijual juga dan secara tidak langsung bisa menaikkan “zero waste” yang berarti juga mengurangi sampah. Tidak sedikit pula orang yang ingin mengembangkan usaha daur ulangnya dan membutuhkan wadah, dan orang yang ingin belajar bagaimana cara mendaur ulang yang baik. Tetapi tidak seperti beberapa kota lain, Semarang belum memiliki wadah jual – beli untuk barang-barang lama atau bekas , barang-barang daur ulang berkualitas yang tentunya dengan peminat yang tinggi . Tempat yang memiliki fasilitas yang lengkap dan baik dengan area menarik yang nyaman juga bersih. Padahal , Semarang sudah memiliki sumber daya yang sangat cukup.Maka dari itu perlu dibangunnya sebuah mall sebagai pusat jual-beli yang menyediakan semua fasilitas untuk jual-beli barang lama dan mengolahnya. Kata Kunci : Barang Bekas, Daur Ulang, Zero Waste , Sustainable Architectur

More From the Sunset: Lars von Trier and "Bipolar Cinema"

The acts of profane illogic, the breaks from reality, the rapid-cycling mood swings, the high heights and then the dead-eyed anhedonia – these qualities apply to Lars Von Trier’s woeful leading ladies and to the style and rhythm of the films themselves, making his oeuvre a solid starting point for the development of a conception of “bipolar cinema,” a concept coined by David Coleman in his book “The Bipolar Express: Manic Depression and the Movies.” Coleman articulates “bipolar cinema” as a three-pronged umbrella concept – there are films that center on bipolar disorder, films created by those with bipolar disorder and films that evoke the qualities of manic-depressive episodes in their narrative strategies. Von Trier squarely belongs in the third category, offering a nuanced and clear-eyed visual representation of the experience of the condition’s manic upswings and depressive lows. Due to this expressionistic approach, Von Trier not only offers fully realized heroines with complex psychological profiles but also allows the audience to embark on their emotional journey on an intimate level through his moving storytelling. Von Trier expresses his themes not only explicitly in his screenplays but also through the use of such tools as visual metaphor, recurring motifs, thoughtful camerawork and overall evocative mise-en-scene. His films, with these hyper-connections and frequent tonal shifts, themselves operate like the bipolar mind

The supernatural sex: women, magick & mediumship; assembling a field of fascination in contemporary Art

This thesis develops the concept of a field of fascination to denote the importance of curiosity in the processes of making in fine art practice. Through an exploration of the methods used in the production of my own artwork, including the appropriation of archival and found material pertaining to the history of women in the fields of magick and mediumship, it offers a way of expressing the material experimentation and selection that occurs in the development of an artwork. Additionally it references the practical exploration of how an atmosphere conducive to fascination could be established through employing techniques of theatrical staging, directly considered in my own exhibition Escamotage (2014). The core material of this thesis established from an interest in the shared language of ‘channeling’ within the fields of mediumship and fine art practice in which the body is positioned as a conduit. In particular, this thesis argues that the centrality of the female body as a ‘channel’ in the practice of mediumship offers a unique and unexplored nuance for the discussion of the materiality of the body in new materialist feminist theory. Through a theoretical framework employing the writing of Elisabeth Grosz, Karen Barad, Judith Butler and Susan Hekman the double-edged power dynamic of the female body as a ‘channel’ is interrogated and repositioned within the context of artistic production. This takes account of the recent re-engagement with the work of Hilma af Klint (1862 – 1944) and Georgiana Houghton (1814 – 1884) two female practitioners who produced astoundingly important abstract painting under the guise of spiritualist mediumship. Contemporarily, it critically addresses Susan Hiller’s practice as one that continues to interpret the periphery of the occult and interrogates the emergence of ‘not knowing’ as a descriptor of artistic methodology in the writing of Rachel Jones and Rebecca Fortnum. The original contribution of this thesis is the positioning of the term ‘claircognizance’ ‘clear-knowing’ within the field of artistic practice as a replacement for the concept of ‘not knowing’ as defined by Jones and Fortnum. Borrowing from the language of clairvoyant mediumship ‘claircognizance’ sidesteps the negative connotations of the lay meaning of ‘not knowing’ to describe the clarity of thought that emerges through studio experimentation as a form of ‘clear knowing’. Finally, the negotiation of critical discourses from fields including feminist theory, philosophy, the history of art and contemporary artistic practice provides a unique interweaving of approaches that is useful for future interdisciplinary research