Reconfiguring the shipping news : Maritime's hidden histories and the politics of gender display

This paper discusses the book Hello Sailor! The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea published in 2003 by Paul Baker and Jo Stanley re-interpreted as a landmark temporary, exhibition Hello Sailor! Gay Life on the Ocean Wave at Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool from where it will travel in 2007 to a number of other maritime museums. Based largely on oral history interviews and part of a hidden histories project, the book recovers the previously repressed histories of gay sailors in the ‘gay heaven’ of the merchant navy. It historically spans, roughly mid to late twentieth century. This paper seeks to explore the construction of gay seafarers presented in the book and latterly through museum display. It reveals what can be understood about the re-presentation of gendered identities and relations through the celebration of camp and cross-dressing. Baker and Stanley draw on queer theory rather than gay and lesbian studies and argue that the recovered history is not about civil rights but is rather ‘a politics of carnival, transgression and parody’ (Baker and Stanley, 2003, p. 19). The book and to a greater extent the exhibition however only partially unravel two important issues: sex and misogyny. This paper asks what light ‘hidden histories’, re-presented in museums can shed on gender and sexual relations in the present

Transgender and Art in the School Curriculum

The intention of this paper is two fold. First, it makes explicit a little known and poorly understood area of human experience: transgender. Second, it explores curriculum possibilities opened up by recent legitimating of transgender people through the Gender Recognition Act (2004). The Act foregrounds the necessity for a forum in schools to debate, reflect and understand the full implications of changes to legislation. This paper proposes that, rather than approaching transgender issues through biological science or through the levelling gaze of citizenship, issues of gender identity can be understood without censure through the visual arts. Moreover, the visual arts offer a ‘safe place’ to discuss issues around the body because they allow distance and, in offering visual representations rather than text based work, make visually concrete what science ethically cannot

Measurements of V/STOL aircraft noise mechanisms using pressure cross-correlation techniques in a reverberant wind tunnel

A 3.8 cm. model jet was operated in a wind tunnel with cross-flow in order to determine the effect on jet noise radiated characteristics. A method was developed for the determination of noise radiating characteristics of sources within reverberant wind tunnels; cross-correlation measurements were used. The averaging time in the cross-correlation is determined by the amount of background noise within the wind tunnel. It was found that cross-flow increases the radiated noise by 10 db. There was some indication of downstream radiation exceeding the sideline radiation

Aerosound from corner flow and flap flow

Noise generation at the edge of a wing flap is analyzed. The phenomenon as a single vortex moving around a corner in an incompressible, potential flow is modelled. Vortex image retarding effects are proposed as an explanation for small Strouhal numbers. The model surface pressures, sound pressures (using Curle's theory), and Mach number dependencies agree with wind tunnel experiments. A double pressure peak is found in the model (credited to image action) which is qualitatively similar to measured sound correlations. Incompressible flow aerosound calculations are discussed. The effects of a series of vortices moving in the same idealized potential flow are also studied. The vortices are assumed to be statistically independent so their intensities can be added. The frequency of appearance of the vortices are determined from measurements. Diffraction effects caused by the presence of the wing near the dipole sound radiators on the flap surfaces are included

The Oldham Road Rephotography Project

This PhD by prior publication comprises a major rephotography project undertaken in two phases (First View,1986-89 and Second View, 2009-12), together with a written commentary. The project is based on an area along the A62 which connects Manchester to Oldham, a corridor route, which I considered invisible and between places, a seeming ‘non place’.1 The research questions how can topographic images made by adopting strategies of rephotography help to depict aspects of place that remain hidden in generic representations and how, in turn, this photographic record can be put to use. The accompanying critical commentary investigates how this project came to be realised, the photographic research methodologies employed, and relevant contextual frameworks together with the different contexts through which the work has been disseminated and shared. It considers what the practice of rephotography contributes as a visual research method when analysing the shifting topography of a specific urban corridor. Further to this, it suggests ways in which such rephotography can engage different audiences and communities in debate about lived experience of social and economic change. The First View photographic research project was initially conducted by making a series of visits to the area each year recording transformation through redevelopment projects and subtler changes such as incidental events on the street and the variations of seasons. The project took an ethnographic approach to human involvement with place and space (Massey, D. 1994) as well as drawing upon anthropological methods that employ photography as a research tool (Prosser, J. 1998). Outputs from this project demonstrate processes adopted and examples of the photography made. A selection of photographs from First View became a touring exhibition shown in Oldham and Manchester (1986-87) and then in London. A book was also published by the Architectural Association (1987) with a commentary written by Ian Jeffrey. The second view (2009-12) revisits the first survey and considers what happened after. I wanted to consider twenty five years on how the continued process of change may have increasingly eroded/altered the sense of place 1 This term derives from Marc Augé’s book, Lieux et Non-Lieux (2001). 6 within the community. Since the First View a number of external factors influenced how the research would continue. The political scene had changed with introduction of private initiatives and housing associations taking responsibility to manage and refurbish aging housing stock in the public sector closer to the Manchester and in areas towards Oldham. Further cleared areas remained undeveloped due to a major financial downturn. Also the adoption of digital technologies had changed how photography was made, viewed, and used. This led me to consider how the Second View could be more collaborative (Kester, G. 2011) and so modify my method and find new ways to interact with members of the community to help inform the work. Outputs included exhibitions at Gallery Oldham and The People’s History Museum, Manchester and an accompanying commentary written by Stephen Hanson. I also include reviews and examples of additional collaborative photography made and shown alongside the core exhibitions. Examples of the printed work are now housed in Oldham library (including the complete set of Second View exhibition prints, contact sheets and this written report). It is permanently accessible for public and academic use under a commons license. Although it can be argued that all photographic practice contains elements of rephotography, this project contributes to original knowledge through analysis of processes used to make the first long-term comparative and detailed photographic study of the Oldham Road as an area exemplifying shift from industrialisation to service provision. ‘Hermeneutic perspectives emphasise photographs as texts, demanding semantic and semiotic interpretation to determine meaning’ (Margolis and Rowe, 2012). The corridor is now undergoing further changes as new projects by housing associations and globalised business begin to fill the spaces left by previous clearances. My published work shows connections, continuities and breakages and new questions emerge about what values are worth preserving for a future community. I suggest that a continuing photographic element can contribute to an understanding of incidental detail that can influence a more sensitive management of infrastructure and potentially help residents adjust to change and thus maintain their sense of place

Measurements of dynamic wind pressures on gable roofs – comparison with ČSN EN 1991-1-4

The contribution is dealing with the wind tunnel measurements of dynamic pressures on the canopy roofs. It compares experimentally determined pressure coefficients Cp with the values in ČSN EN 1991-1-4 and former code ČSN 73 0035 as well. The pressures are expressed by the dynamic values. Thus, the averaged values are presented together with the fluctuating part, which significantly contributes to the overall loading. The measurement is carried out at two roof models, two basic directions, and two turbulence intensities

Withdrawal from treatment as an outcome in the Isolde study of COPD

Objectives: To investigate the determinants of patient withdrawal from our study, and the effect of these withdrawals on the outcome of treatment with inhaled corticosteroids in patients with COPD. Design: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. Setting: Eighteen outpatient centers in the United Kingdom. Participants: Seven hundred fifty-one patients with stable COPD defined clinically as baseline postbronchodilator FEV1 > 0.8 L and < 85% predicted, FEV1/FVC ratio < 70%, and FEV1 change after albuterol < 10% of predicted. Intervention: Random assignment of either 500 micrograms bid of inhaled fluticasone propionate (FP)using a spacer device or an identical placebo inhaler. Treatment was continued for 3 years or until patients withdrew from follow-up. Measurements and results: Postbronchodilator FEV1 was measured on three occasions before randomization and every 3 months thereafter. Health status was assessed by the disease-specific St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the modified short-form 36 questionnaire (SF-36) at baseline and every 6 months. Three hundred thirty-nine patients withdrew, of whom 156 patients received FP. Prescription of frequent courses of oral prednisolone was the most common reason for withdrawing as specified in the protocol (69 patients in the FP group withdrew due to respiratory symptoms, compared with 93 patients in the placebo group). This explained the significantly greater dropout of placebo-treated patients that was most evident when FEV1 was < 50% predicted. Patients withdrawing had a significantly more rapid decline in health status, measured by both the SGRQ and the SF-36 (p < 0.001). Those withdrawing from the placebo group had a more rapid decline in FEV1 and more exacerbations than the FP-treated groups. Baseline FEV1 was lower in dropouts than in patients completing the study receiving placebo, but there was no difference between the respective groups receiving FP. Conclusions: Patients who withdrew from follow-up were those with the most rapidly deteriorating health status and lung function. Losing these patients from the final analysis can reduce the power of a study to achieve its primary end point