Documenting Documenta : Decoding and Recoding the History of an Exhibition in 1955, 2002, and 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Fluid Stirring on a Sphere -- a Topological Approach

The stirring and mixing of a fluid with moving rods is vital in many physical applications in order to achieve homogeneity within the mixture. These rods act as an obstacle that stretches and folds together fluid elements. Over time, the permutation of these rods comprise a mathematical braid whose properties dictate a minimum topological entropy, a number to describe the total disorder or chaos of a system. A braid whose topological entropy is greater than one exhibits chaotic behavior which guarantees an optimal mixing pattern. These rod stirring braids have been previously studied on both the disk as well as the two dimensional torus. The trajectory of fluid mixing on a sphere poses an intriguing starting inquiry to overall mixing on spherical surfaces like the ocean, stars, etc. We use a recipe established by Yvon Verberne to create pseudo-Anosov maps on a punctured sphere using Dehn twist in order to construct similar maps on a 4-times punctured sphere. Since a quotient of the torus under a hyperelliptic involution of torus is the 2-sphere with 4 marked points, we are able to use various methods in order to estimate the topological entropy of a stirring protocol on a 4-times punctured sphere

Minimal Requirements for Topologically Protected Edge Modes

In systems with non-trivial topologies that violate time-reversal symmetry, the bulk-boundary correspondence gives rise to the propagation of waves without counter-propagation (back scattering). In this thesis, we investigate three types of systems that ultimately aim to provide insight as to what the minimal number of bands required to support topologically protected edge modes. We begin by exploring a 3 band fluid system that has non-trivial topological phase: rotating shallow water. We then examine the 4 band system comprised of a honeycomb lattice of spring-masses on a rotating platform. Ultimately, we wish to provide an entry point to a classical 2 band system with non-trivial topological phase. These examples will ideally provide vital insight in proving that a 2 band classical system cannot support unidirectional waves and show that 3 bands is the minimal requirement

Introduction

The task of this special issue is to unearth the often denied logic of neoliberal rationality in Germany over the last few decades by exploring how various literary texts, films, and artistic projects, at the level of both content and formal experimentation, have sought to visualize the ramifications of deregulation and ceaseless self-management. The volume features scholarly work on various literary texts, performances, films, time-based art works, and theoretical interventions that explore the nexus between neoliberalism, new media culture, and the landscapes of temporal experience

Raus aus der Haut : Division and Identity in Current German Cinema

A Report from the 48. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, February 11-22, 1998 Notes 1. Gerhard Schulze, Die Erlebnisgesellschaft: Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart (Frankfurt/M.: Campus, 1992). For a critical discussion of Schulze\u27s terms, see Axel Honneth, Desintegration: Bruchstücke einer soziologischen Zeitdiagnose (Frankfurt/M.: Fischer, 1995).2. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994) 70.3. Leslie A. Adelson, Making Bodies, Making History: Feminism and German Identity (Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1993) 36

Landscapes of Ice, Snow and Wind: Alexander Kluge’s Aesthetics of Coldness

Discusses the German author and filmmaker Alexander Kluge's exploration of the theme of coldness in film and other works. The authors report on the theorist Theodor Adorno's discussion of the subject in an essay written in 1967, note that Kluge focused on coldness in works in different media created after 2010, and study his approach to the theme in the film 'Landschaften mit eis und schnee' (2010; illus.) noting his treatment of ice in the work. They assess the relationship of Kluge's film to the work of various theorists including Peter Wollen, comment on Kluge's focus on the wind in his films 'The patriot' (1979; illus.), 'Gelegenheitsarbeit einer sklavin' (1973; illus.) and other works, and report on Kluge's use of photographs of snow taken by Gerhard Richter in the book 'December' (2010; illus.) also examining the work's relationship to the films 'Landschaften mit eis und schnee' and 'Zitraffer mit schneetreiben vor meinem balkon, Elizabethstrasse 38(2010; illus.). They refer to Kluge's incorporation of footage from his films into talks given in 2010, and contrast his approach to the theme of coldness with that of Adorno

Experimental Techniques In The Recording And Display Of Archaeological Materials

In the area of the display of data and images from archaeological sites there is very little uniformity. Universities, museums, and institutions use a variety of techniques and software. Because of the lack of a common framework for storing information gathered from the field a great deal of time is lost converting between disparate file formats and learning new program structures. The goal of this project is to create an open platform to accomplish the specialized tasks of recording and displaying data from the field, specifically dealing with the unique problems associated with sites in an underwater context. The final result should be freely available and adaptable. Many challenges were overcome over the course of this project. Providing security, estimating the user’s level of technical ability, creating a simple but effective interface, creating a three dimensional object viewer, and using only tools freely available for public use were the primary problems. The software chosen to author the platform as well as the hardware requirements were intentionally left to a minimum to ensure that users without access to the latest hardware would still be able to use these tools. In addition to these requirements, the final product would have to be hardware agnostic, as well as operating system neutral. As tempting as it would be to call this project complete, it is very much still an evolving work in progress. As new challenges arise the platform should be robust enough to be able to adapt. The modular design of the platform will ensure that future users will be able to adjust and even create completely new components to add functionality and customize the software to their needs

Secret Signals from Another World: Walter Benjamin’s Concept of Innervation

Walter Benjamin refers to the “idea of revolution as an innervation of the technical organs of the collective” as one of the articles of his politics. The significance of this assertion has received relatively little attention in the philosophical reception of his political thought compared to the alternative model of revolution – made famous from the paralipomena to the late theses ‘On the Concept of History’ – as the emergency handbrake of history. Drawing on some of the debates and tensions generated by the work of Miriam Bratu Hansen, this discussion aims at an exegesis of some of the lesser known intellectual sources that influenced Benjamin’s theory of innervation. The purpose in doing so is not an attempt to reconcile or integrate these sources with dominant philosophical reconstructions of what is sometimes characterized as Benjamin’s “Western Marxism” and elaborated, in the more familiar context of Surrealist innervation, as a synthesis of Freud and Marx, but rather to reveal an alternative constellation of Soviet biomechanics and reactionary anti-capitalist Lebensphilosophie, united in their shared rejection of Freudian psychoanalysis

Integrated Late Eocene-Oligocene Stratigraphy of the Alabama Coastal Plain: Correlation of Hiatuses and Stratal Surfaces to Glacioeustatic Lowerings

We integrated strontium and oxygen isotopic, biostratigraphic, and magnetostratigraphic studies of two upper Eocene-Oligocene boreholes drilled near Bay Minette and St. Stephens Quarry (SSQ), Alabama. Continuous coring provided fresh, unweathered material for magnetostratigraphic studies, minimizing problems reported from nearby outcrops. Difficulties with each technique were encountered because of diagenesis, absence of marker fossils, and the presence of unconformities; however, by integrating results from isotopic stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and magnetostratigraphy, we correlated these relatively shallow-water deposits to the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS). At the SSQ borehole, the upper Eocene to lower Oligocene section is apparently complete within our stratigraphic resolution (0.2-0.5 m.y.), allowing us to estimate the ages of several stratal surfaces. Late Eocene Sr isotope age estimates are as expected at the SSQ borehole, but Oligocene ages are ~1 m.y. older than expected due to diagenesis. At the Bay Minette borehole, a latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene and a late early Oligocene hiatus were detected. We correlate these two hiatuses and stratal surfaces at SSQ with global δ^18O increases inferred to represent glacioeustatic lowerings and with evidence for hiatuses on other continental margins: (1) a distinct disconformity at the base of the Chickasawhay Limestone at both boreholes and a hiatus at Bay Minette correlates with a global δ^18O increase; we revise the age of this surface (equivalent to the TB 1.1 sequence boundary) making it ~2 m.y. older than previously reported; and (2) a surface at the top of the Shubuta Member (lowermost Oligocene) has been interpreted both as a condensed section and a disconformity; this surface at SSQ and a hiatus at Bay Minette correlate with a sharp global δ^18O increase and with hiatuses on the New Jersey and Irish margins. The timing of the hiatuses and stratal surfaces correlates with the inflection of the δ^18O increases and not with the maximum values, supporting models that indicate that unconformities form during the maximum rates of sea level fall

Creativity and commerce: Michael Klinger and new film history

The crisis in film studies and history concerning their legitimacy and objectives has provoked a reinvigoration of scholarly energy in historical enquiry. 'New film history' attempts to address the concerns of historians and film scholars by working self-reflexively with an expanded range of sources and a wider conception of 'film' as a dynamic set of processes rather than a series of texts. The practice of new film history is here exemplified through a detailed case study of the independent British producer Michael Klinger (active 1961-87) with a specific focus on his unsuccessful attempt to produce a war film, Green Beach, based on a memoir of the Dieppe raid (August 1942). This case study demonstrates the importance of analysing the producer's role in understanding the complexities of film-making, the continual struggle to balance the competing demands of creativity and commerce. In addition, its subject matter - an undercover raid and a Jewish hero - disturbed the dominant myths concerning the Second World War, creating what turned out to be intractable ideological as well as financial problems. The paper concludes that the concerns of film historians need to engage with broader cultural and social histories. © 2010 Taylor & Francis