The Quality of Space in Painting

For purpose of classification, the space of depth in a painting has long been considered in terms of the historical spatial concept prevalent at the time of the execution of the painting. Painting today does not necessarily require a literary or symbolic preconception on the part of the viewer. It asks only that he look at the painting; the painting is considered an independent entity in that its communication is totally within itself and not dependent on its provoking a great amount of associational response in the viewer in order to gain meaning. With this in mind, the author of this essay is proposing a classification of paintings on the basis of the visual quality of the space existent in them. Within this classification paintings are found to be grouped into three major categories constructed on the basis of the visual tangibility assumed by the space in the particular painting. The individuality of the artist is manifested, within the classification, through the specific use he makes of the means at his disposal in order to create space. The degree of visual tangibly of the space in two paintings by two different painters may be essentially the same, but the construction of the space is not the same due to the necessarily individual means and the individual expression characteristic of each individual painter.</p

Assistive visual content creation tools via multimodal correlation analysis

Visual imagery is ubiquitous in society and can take various formats: from 2D sketches and photographs to photorealistic 3D renderings and animations. The creation processes for each of these mediums have their own unique challenges and methodologies that artists need to overcome and master. For example, for an artist to depict a 3D scene in a 2D drawing they need to understand foreshortening effects to position and scale objects accurately on the page; or, when modeling 3D scenes, artists need to understand how light interacts with objects and materials, to achieve a desired appearance. Many of these tasks can be complex, time-consuming, and repetitive for content creators. The goal of this thesis is to develop tools to alleviate artists from some of these issues and to assist them in the creation process. The key hypothesis is that understanding the relationships between multiple signals present in the scene being created enables such assistive tools. This thesis proposes three assistive tools. First, we present an image degradation model for depth-augmented image editing to help evaluate the quality of the image manipulation. Second, we address the problem of teaching novices to draw objects accurately by automatically generating easy-to-follow sketching tutorials for arbitrary 3D objects. Finally, we propose a method to automatically transfer 2D parametric user edits made to rendered 3D scenes to global variations of the original scene

An examination of human anatomy in the drama of the early modern period

An examination of the science of human anatomy and dissection as it occurs in plays of the early modern period. Starting with a survey of available literature on the subject, the thesis then moves on to examine the state of human anatomy in England at the time as well as an overview medical training, textbooks and information that may have been available to the public at large. This leads to an examination of a group of plays that refer explicitly to the practice of anatomy, references that are found to be either literal or metaphorical in nature. In this, the theatrical representation of anatomy is examined with an eye toward investigating the nature of these representations

UB Knightlines Spring 2016

The UB Knightlines newsletter for spring of 2016. This issue contains articles discussing the heart of the city storytelling series, SASD student Erin LaFavor’s story of entrepreneurship, two UB alumni being awarded teaching awards, alumnus Jim Ford honored at White House for STEM education, UB chaplain leading an interfaith prayer vigil, UB model UN team’s win at the National Model United Nations Europe Conference, SASD students exhibiting at book fair at Yale, UB students win the Connecticut Space Grant, UB seminar on image, perception, and self-perception, a new scholarship to at risk students, UB and the Connecticut Technology Council host a programming challenge, a new Student Entrepreneur Center opens its doors, UB student volunteering during Martin Luther King Jr. Day, emeritus professor Richard Allen’s appearance on Prairie Home Companion, faculty news, alumni news, books published by alums and faculty, an African-American alumni reunion, and other campus and sports news

Gender differences of fatigue in the workplace for surgeons

Purpose Previous literature identifies increased burnout in female surgeons and contributors to fatigue outside of work. However, it is not yet understood whether there are gender discrepancies of contributors to fatigue or coping mechanisms for workplace fatigue in surgeons. This study aims to identify gender differences in causes of fatigue, how fatigue occurs and any interventions/strategies that surgeons may use/know to try and mitigate the effects of fatigue. Methods Using an online questionnaire at a single hospital in England, the questionnaire asked whether surgeons had been subject to any contributors to fatigue at work and what contributes to their fatigue at work using a list of multiple-choice answers. Results 97% of surgeons suffer from at least one contributor to fatigue. Females were statistically more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal injuries at work than males and more likely to suffer from mental exhaustion. Females were significantly more likely to contribute fatigue to prolonged static postures, lack of control during the shift and high levels of demand. To mitigate fatigue, females were significantly more likely to change positions whilst operating. Males were less reluctant to adopt Microbreaks during surgery to reduce musculoskeletal fatigue. Conclusions Our analysis identifies gender differences with coping mechanisms and the onset of fatigue. There is still a stigma attached to workplace fatigue in surgeons. Acknowledgement of these gender differences in fatigue is critical to reducing the statistical likelihood of fatigue onset in both genders. Further research should identify whether surgical operating rooms are adequately suitable for females. </jats:sec

Radulescu: the other spectralist

Rădulescu is often marginalised in discussion of the early spectral composers in contrast to the Parisian 'mainstream' of (in particular) Murail and Grisey. Furthermore, his music and thought are often placed as a somewhat 'mystical' antithesis to that of Grisey. However, despite the dissimilarity on the surface of the music, the underlying principles by which Rădulescu's musical style was built are in many respects identical to those of the mainstream spectral ideal. This paper unpicks some of Rădulescu's theoretical works to demonstrate the commonality of thought with Murail and Grisey, and suggests reasons for their sounding divergence.  There follows a detailed analysis of Rădulescu's solo viola piece Das Andere, Op. 49 (1983), placed in comparison with Grisey's Prologue (1976)