Ana Mendieta, the Iowa Years: A Critical Study, 1969 through 1977

This dissertation investigates the artistic development of Ana Mendieta (born Cuba, 1948; died United States, 1985) from 1969 to 1977 when she lived in Iowa City, attended the University of Iowa, worked as an art teacher, and established herself as an artist. Mendieta is known for her early performance pieces and earth-body sculptures. From the late 1980s her work has been increasingly included in the contexts of feminist art history, performance, photography, work in nature, body art, self-representation, Cuban art, and transcultural identity. Collected by major museums throughout the United States, her work has begun to be included in surveys of world art. Her approach to earth-body art differed significantly from the new forms of conceptual art of the 1960s and early 1970s. By 1974 the artist had begun to produce ephemeral body-earth pieces in Iowa and Mexico that endowed nature with a human form, personifying it and evoking nature\u27s lifecycle. That work evolved from both painting and performance-oriented work that layered multiple references, with sources as diverse as her autobiography, everyday life, transcultural myths, Catholic subjects, and Western and non-Western art and archaeology. This study begins with Mendieta\u27s exile from Cuba and relocation in Iowa, then examines her evolution as a graduate student in painting (1969–1972), a Multimedia student (1972–1977), and an elementary art school teacher (1973–1975). Mendieta. developed during a period of intense collaboration between the university\u27s Multimedia area and the Center for New Performing Art, two unique programs that encouraged interdisciplinary, experimental performance work. In contextualizing that innovative period, I investigate the artist\u27s learning environment and studio practice. I also examine works that have not yet been written about, elaborate the circumstances of their creation, identify the sites and the assistance the artist had in making or performing them, incorporate her written sketchbook notations for them, and relate the substance of her comments regarding intentions for specific pieces. This study incorporates oral histories from previous instructors, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances and discusses the artist\u27s responses in her work to well-known visiting artists such as Robert Wilson, Vito Acconci, and Scott Burden, who performed and lectured at the university. Mendieta\u27s early and middle production has not been examined in the literature within the larger artistic milieu at the university. This study remedies this omission and presents a contextual reading of the artist\u27s work, thereby locating her practice within contemporary art history wherein performance, body work, and earth art were key expressive modes

The 700-1500 cm-1 region of the S1 (A1-B-2) state of toluene studied with resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), zero-kinetic-energy (ZEKE) spectroscopy,and time-resolved slow-electron velocity-map imaging (tr-SEVI) spectroscopy

We report (nanosecond) resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), (nanosecond) zero-kinetic-energy (ZEKE) and (picosecond) time-resolved slow-electron velocity map imaging (tr-SEVI) spectra of fully hydrogenated toluene (Tol-h8) and the deuterated-methyl group isotopologue (α3-Tol-d3). Vibrational assignments are made making use of the activity observed in the ZEKE and tr-SEVI spectra, together with the results from quantum chemical andprevious experimental results.Here, we examine the 700–1500 cm−1 region of the REMPI spectrum, extending our previous work on the region ≤700 cm−1. We provide assignments for the majority of the S1 and cation bands observed, and in particular we gain insight regarding a number of regions where vibrations are coupled via Fermi resonance. We also gain insight into intramolecular vibrational redistribution in this molecule

Online chemical adsorption studies of Hg, Tl, and Pb on SiO2 and Au surfaces in preparation for chemical investigations on Cn, Nh, and Fl at TASCA

Online gas-solid adsorption studies with single-atom quantities of Hg, Tl, and Pb, the lighter homologs of the superheavy elements (SHE) copernicium (Cn, Z =112), nihonium (Nh, Z =113), and flerovium (Fl, Z =114), were carried out using short-lived radioisotopes. The interaction with Au and SiO 2 surfaces was studied and the overall chemical yield was determined. Suitable radioisotopes were produced in fusion-evaporation reactions, isolated in the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA, and flushed rapidly to an adjacent setup of two gas chromatography detector arrays covered with SiO 2 (first array) and Au (second array). While Tl and Pb adsorbed on the SiO 2 surface, Hg interacts only weakly and reached the Au-covered array. Our results contribute to elucidating the influence of relativistic effects on chemical properties of the heaviest elements by providing experimental data on these lighter homologs

Catalina Parra : reconstruire images et textes

ABSTRACT- Conceptual artist Catalina Parra refers to her work as «reconstructions» altering found images from the mass media using a scissors- and-paste technique characteristic of collage. Parra makes use of the daily flow of images in order to halt or reverse the notion of the ephemeral and to challenge the viewer to rethink the social, economic, political, and even philosophical issues to which these images refer. She has contributed to the ways in which found texts and images can be reinvested with new meanings relevant to contemporary problems.RÉSUMÉ- Catalina Parra, artiste conceptuelle qui définit ses œuvres comme des « reconstructions », détourne des images trouvées dans les média en utilisant les techniques du collage. A partir du flux quotidien des images elle interroge la notion d'éphémère pour susciter une réflexion sur les thématiques sociales, économiques, politiques voire philosophiques qu'elles recèlent. Elle contribue au développement de nouvelles voies pour doter les images et textes trouvés de significations liées aux problématiques contemporaines.RESUMEN- Catalina Parra, artista conceptual que define sus obras como «reconstrucciones», altera imágenes encontradas en los medios de comunicación utilizando las técnicas del collage. A partir del flujo cotidiano de imágenes interroga lo efímero para suscitar una reflexión sobre las temáticas sociales, económicas, políticas y hasta filosóficas que encierran. Parra ha contribuido al desarrollo de nuevas vías para dotar imágenes y textos sacados de la prensa con significados relacionados a las problemáticas contemporáneas.Herzberg Julia. Catalina Parra : reconstruire images et textes. In: Caravelle, n°80, 2003. Arts d'Amérique latine : marges et traverses. pp. 145-154

Gegenarchive : bäuerliche Autobiographik zwischen Zarenreich und Sowjetunion

Herzberg J. Gegenarchive : bäuerliche Autobiographik zwischen Zarenreich und Sowjetunion. 1800 2000. Kulturgeschichte der Moderne. Bielefeld: Transcript; 2013

Postface. Ego-Documents As Counter-Archives in Russia

In discussions about the value of autobiographical texts as historical sources, the potential of these texts to compensate for limitations of archives has played a greater role in Russia and the Soviet Union than in Western Europe. Historians, literary scholars, and publicists valued this category of texts as “counter-archives” and saw in it a documentation of those events that otherwise remained inaccessible in the arcana of power – sealed behind archive walls, concealed by censorship. The a..

Lecture by Julia Platt Herzberg, given at Florida International University, 2002

Julia shares her field notes on a number of Cuban artists. Introduction by Dahlia Morgan