How do we teach Filmmaking – given the rapid changes in digital technology?

“Gutenberg's concept of movable type transcended the medium used for the printing itself. Digital, perhaps, may prove to be paper to celluloid’s parchment.” [Murch, 1999] With the recent cessation of production of 35mm cinema cameras [Kaufman, 2011] and the advent of affordable digital ones capable of creating images of acceptable cinematic quality - we are seeing the beginnings of sea-change which may, like the printing press did with the written word, potentially lead to the democratization of filmmaking. With the tools of film now changing so rapidly to ones that are digital and affordable; the art, technique and language of film are clearly changing. As a result I question whether these changes should finally begin to affect our teaching the art and technology of “film”making in film schools that still strive to teach in a professional industry model. This standpoint is anathema in most film schools in the world today. Especially in the west, the backbones of educational and professional qualifications in the area strictly insist on an older model of what it means to have professional skills in an “industry”. Many in education argue that the industry model is the only responsible venue in which to educate our students. This is while the industry itself speaks of its own demise due to the financial pressures of its industry model. When I examined the history of art against the current temperature of the industry even with these digital changes in place, it is clear that both methods must be accommodated. Unfortunately, even incorporating the newer approach is a relatively unheard of practice in current film education. However it is one that must be explored and supported as it the only viable path for many graduating students. Ironically, it is also the path that many of their instructors are taking too

Representation, evolution and embodiment

As part of the ongoing attempt to fully naturalize the concept of human being--and, more specifically, to re-center it around the notion of agency--this essay discusses an approach to defining the content of representations in terms ultimately derived from their central, evolved function of providing guidance for action. This 'guidance theory' of representation is discussed in the context of, and evaluated with respect to, two other biologically inspired theories of representation: Dan Lloyd's dialectical theory of representation and Ruth Millikan's biosemantics

The relationship of site to transplantability

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

The Library as Community Center

published or submitted for publicatio

New Theory of the Earth

New Theory of the Earth is an interdisciplinary advanced textbook on all aspects of the interior of the Earth and its origin, composition, and evolution: geophysics, geochemistry, dynamics, convection, mineralogy, volcanism, energetics and thermal history. This is the only book on the whole landscape of deep Earth processes that ties together all the strands of the subdisciplines. This book is a complete update of Anderson’s Theory of the Earth (1989). It includes dozens of new figures and tables. A novel referencing system using Googlets is introduced that allows immediate access to supplementary material via the internet. There are new sections on tomography, self-organization, and new approaches to plate tectonics. The paradigm/paradox approach to developing new theories is developed, and controversies and contradictions have been brought more center-stage. As with the Theory of the Earth, this new edition will prove to be a stimulating textbook for advanced courses in geophysics, geochemistry, and planetary science, and a supplementary textbook on a wide range of other advanced Earth science courses. It will also be an essential reference and resource for all researchers in the solid Earth sciences

Solar energy converter using surface plasma waves

Sunlight is dispersed over a diffraction grating formed on the surface of a conducting film on a substrate. The angular dispersion controls the effective grating period so that a matching spectrum of surface plasmons is excited for parallel processing on the conducting film. The resulting surface plasmons carry energy to an array of inelastic tunnel diodes. This solar energy converter does not require different materials for each frequency band, and sunlight is directly converted to electricity in an efficient manner by extracting more energy from the more energetic photons

Cognitive science and epistemic openness

Recent findings in cognitive science suggest that the epistemic subject is more complex and epistemically porous than is generally pictured. Human knowers are open to the world via multiple channels, each operating for particular purposes and according to its own logic. These findings need to be understood and addressed by the philosophical community. The current essay argues that one consequence of the new findings is to invalidate certain arguments for epistemic anti-realism