Boundaries unbound: Jude, adaptation and assemblages

Most commercial films are hybrid, at the boundaries of two or more genres. Literary adaptations, furthermore, seemingly straddle two media and their study crosses disciplines. Analysis here of Jude (Winterbottom, 1996) examines paratextual and peritextual features to account for its emergence and subsequent fortunes. These involve not only directorial vision, conscious conflation of filmmaking styles, and ‘fidelity’ or otherwise to its ‘source’, but conjunction of particular taste formations, conflicting commercial strategies, contrasting audiences and modes of address, and yoking together of institutional models, each with its distinctive ethos, of financing, production, and distribution. Like any text, Jude is a contingent product of time and place. Its disappointing takings, despite critical praise and enduring admiration, are, this paper contends, explained by its positioning at the boundary of two markets; months earlier this would have been refreshing and radical, but in the brief period between conception and release its commercial context altered irrevocably

‘Do you like taster menus?’ Beyond hybridity: The Trip & The Trip to Italy

In episode two of the cinematic-televisual hybrid The Trip, which has been released to various markets in diverse formats, providing different selections from core content, the protagonists discuss restaurant taster menus, one of which they are about to experience. This essay both utilises established approaches in television studies and examines developments in film and book marketing over two decades to explore how The Trip and its sequel The Trip to Italy contribute to, exploit, and satirize associated developments in literary, cinematic, and televisual culture. It concludes that, at a time when each of these aspects of art and entertainment, and institutions behind them, face unprecedented pressure from technological change, the series provide taster menus for BBC public service entertainment and educational output

Staging science on TV: Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds, Richard Hammond's Miracles of Nature, and Wild Weather with Richard Hammond

This article comprises two distinct parts. The first surveys the problems and aspirations associated with television representations of science. This historical overview contextualizes the second part, which extrapolates from textual analysis of three closely related, high profile, peak-time BBC series. It seeks to demonstrate that, despite massive efforts and a shift in attitudes within the academy towards dissemination of knowledge over the last third of a century, many of them associated with initiatives in Public Understanding (or Awareness) of Science and Public Engagement in Science and Technology, there has been little progress in how scientific matters are represented. Examination of extracts from the series argues that televised science draws upon the twin histories and discourses of the illustrated lecture and Victorian stage illusionism, each of which presented spectacle and sensationalism. Both utilised, in different ways, the pre-cinematic technology of the magic lantern. The former embodied the ideology of enlightenment; the latter exploited and perpetuated superstition and shamanism associated with natural philosophy. Co-presence of such discourses and practices points to on-going ambivalence towards science. Consideration of editing structures, verbal rhetoric, and lighting, staging and mise-en-scene, as well as confusion between digital special effects and the evidential status of events captured on camera, support the claim that contradiction and inconsistency are neither new nor unusual. Attention to the programmes’ construction and implicit informing ideologies reveals their divergence from the expository mode that they ostensibly claim to belong to. The result is mystification and distraction at a time when science has revealed pressing issues at a global level, and inclusive rational debate is urgently required to address questions of sustainability and survival. While many Public Understanding efforts appear to involve a long-standing hermetic debate between scientists and journalists predicated on outmoded communications theories, textual analysis demonstrates that relatively unsophisticated television studies approaches may yet offer worthwhile contributions. Accordingly, the article uses minimal specialized terminology or advanced theory in order to be accessible to readers from other disciplines in the hope of encouraging mutual exploration

Memories for Life: A Review of the Science and Technology

This paper discusses scientific, social and technological aspects of memory. Recent developments in our understanding of memory processes and mechanisms, and their digital implementation, have placed the encoding, storage, management and retrieval of information at the forefront of several fields of research. At the same time, the divisions between the biological, physical and the digital worlds seem to be dissolving. Hence opportunities for interdisciplinary research into memory are being created, between the life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences. Such research may benefit from immediate application into information management technology as a testbed. The paper describes one initiative, Memories for Life, as a potential common problem space for the various interested disciplines

Od epipaleolitika do najzgodnejšega neolitika (PPNA) v južni Levanti

This paper examines the nature of initial neolithisation indications during the terminal Pleistocene and earliest Holocene in the Southern Levant. This interval corresponds to a period of significant and geographically variable environmental changes in the region. Various lines of evidence are provided to demonstrate the long durée (c. 15 000 years) character of interactions during the Early, Middle and Late Epipalaeolithic that were instrumental to the emergence of the fullyfledged agricultural life ways in the later phases of the Early Neolithic (PPNB).V članku raziskujemo naravo kazalcev začetne neolitizacije v času končnega pleistocena in najzgodnejšega holocena na območju južne Levante. V tem času je prišlo do pomembnih, vendar geografsko različnih okoljskih sprememb v regiji. Ponujamo različne dokaze o dolgoročni (ok. 15 000 let) naravi interakcij v času zgodnjega, srednjega in poznega epipaleolitika, ki so bili ključni pri oblikovanju razvitih načinov poljedelstva v kasnejših obdobjih zgodnjega neolitika (PPNB)

Eisenstein: Revolutionary and International Modernist

Early Soviet filmmakers’ relationship with modernism, like that of film generally, is problematic. Yet Sergei Eisenstein’s challenging productions utilised Constructivist and Eccentrist principles evolved from pre-revolutionary Futurism and Symbolism. Core to the project of the Moscow State Film School, they were lauded internationally as avant-garde before distribution and exhibition difficulties, matters of taste, and politics compromised their accessibility, reputation and broader appeal. Piecemeal publication of Eisenstein’s translated writings have continued to maintain his centrality as a theorist whose insights, particularly into montage as a structuring principle, extend beyond cinema. This chapter argues for recognition of Eisenstein’s centrality to modernism, even though the term is imprecise, does not necessarily embrace most films, and is complicated by the political context, mass address, and status as propaganda of his output. It identifies affinities in his work with modernist Western literature, about which Eisenstein was highly knowledgeable, such as his attempt to realise interior monologue audio-visually. Having already completed his most formally experimental projects, he worked and travelled extensively in the West, and met leading writers, artists, and other intellectuals. This was during the height of modernist creativity, a period that nevertheless also saw consolidation of Stalinist dogma in the USSR as well as frustration of serious artistic ambitions for cinema everywhere with commercial imposition of expensive and unimaginatively conceived sound techniques. In particular, the proto-modernist influence of Walt Whitman on Eisenstein’s vision is traced through the American ‘city symphony’ short film Manhatta by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler

THE INVISIBLE MOATS OF THE MUN RIVER VALLEY, NE THAILAND: THE EXAMINATION OF WATER MANAGEMENT DEVICES AT MOUNDED SITES THROUGH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR)

The Mun River valley is well known for its moat-bound mounded archaeological sites that are usually associated with Iron Age occupation (~500BC- AD500).  The investigation of these sites has provided a wealth of information on the changing social and environmental conditions during prehistory.  In recent years, research has identified a greater diversity of site morphologies in the region, many of which, importantly, do not appear to have moats surrounding them.  This paper seeks to investigate whether the apparently ‘non-moated’ mound site of Non Klang (Nong Hua Raet village) was actually moated in the past, and if such, now in-filled features can be investigated through non-destructive Ground Penetrating Radar methodology.  Additionally, while large external moats can be observed in the modern day topography at sites such as Ban Non Wat, excavation has demonstrated that further, invisible, water management features exist beneath the surface within the current mound boundary of the site.  These are probably Iron Age precursors to the later more extensive and still visible moats.  This paper seeks to answer several fundamental questions: What application can GPR have at mounded sites in Southeast Asia?  Do invisible moats exist?  How will this affect our understanding of the broader prehistoric landscape in the Upper Mun River Valley? 

Analysis of neurodegenerative disease-causing genes in dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a clinically heterogeneous disorder with a substantial burden on healthcare. Despite this, the genetic basis of the disorder is not well defined and its boundaries with other neurodegenerative diseases are unclear. Here, we performed whole exome sequencing of a cohort of 1118 Caucasian DLB patients, and focused on genes causative of monogenic neurodegenerative diseases. We analyzed variants in 60 genes implicated in DLB, Alzheimer\u27s disease, Parkinson\u27s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and atypical parkinsonian or dementia disorders, in order to determine their frequency in DLB. We focused on variants that have previously been reported as pathogenic, and also describe variants reported as pathogenic which remain of unknown clinical significance, as well as variants associated with strong risk. Rare missense variants of unknown significance were found in APP, CHCHD2, DCTN1, GRN, MAPT, NOTCH3, SQSTM1, TBK1 and TIA1. Additionally, we identified a pathogenic GRN p.Arg493* mutation, potentially adding to the diversity of phenotypes associated with this mutation. The rarity of previously reported pathogenic mutations in this cohort suggests that the genetic overlap of other neurodegenerative diseases with DLB is not substantial. Since it is now clear that genetics plays a role in DLB, these data suggest that other genetic loci play a role in this disease

Sophie’s Voice? Dark Intertexts of The BFG

This article locates Spielberg’s adaptation of The BFG in a growing corpus of children’s Holocaust films. Omissions and additions, that reflect the filmmaker’s practice generally, render Dahl’s nonsensical whimsy deeply challenging. Drawing on psychoanalysis, this interpretation exposes dark intertexts that point to the Holocaust as a cultural trauma that continues to haunt creative works. As the director of Schindler’s List and creator of the USC Shoah Foundation, Spielberg has already proven his knowledge of and growing interest in the historiography of the Holocaust. However, while auteurist assumptions underpin the argument, it also looks beyond Spielberg’s filmography to demonstrate how The BFG draws on memory, folklore, literature and a history of filmmaking and interpretation. These entanglements, intertexts, and associations are neither necessarily all conscious choices nor recognised by the audience. Instead, they rest within the narrative, creating a tone which challenges that of the family adventure film. This reading of The BFG, rewritten with an interpretive master code that concerns modernity’s ‘gravest moment,’ perhaps helps explain the film’s otherwise surprisingly poor box office receipts