112 research outputs found
A return to Kristeva: reconstructing female voice in contemporary consumer society
Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZuluThere has been considerable debate amongst feminist scholars as to whether the
normalization of cosmetic surgery positively impacts women, empowers women by promoting
agency and choice (Gimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006), or oppresses women by propagating
patriarchal ideologies that confine womenâs bodies and consequently inhibit their voice (Blum
2003, Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Rather than entering this
debate my argument proceeds from a premise that the normalization of cosmetic surgery is a
form of implicit and exclusive violence. Using a selection of postâstructuralist, feminist, and
psychoanalytic theories, I analyze the manner in which this form of violence confines womenâs
bodies and structures the psyche. Using Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, and Michel Foucaultâs
argument on pastoral power, I deconstruct the formation of the normalized self, the conscience,
and the act of confession as it translates in the context of the cosmetic surgical body itself.
Furthermore, I highlight liberal feminismâs role in this form of oppression. In so doing, I
theoretically show the continual and effective functioning of pastoral power in the context of an
individualization technique that oppresses women in the second decade of the twentyâfirst
century. I argue that the normalization of cosmetic surgery provokes a silencing of womanâs
voices, an exploitation and oppression of the individualâs psyche, and an invalidation of the living
body by a less visible, less explicit, mode of incarceration that is concealed by an aesthetic and
moral veil.
It is in this context that I present a counter discourse to the oppression that underlies the
normalizing discourses promoted by the cosmetic surgical industry, a destabilization of
patriarchal norms embedded within cosmetic surgical discourses, and a theoretical
reconstruction that involves an inscription of what I refer to as an authentic feminist voice in
contemporary consumer culture â a mode of intimate unconscious insurgence.
I advocate a return to Julia Kristevaâs theory and the intimate revolt promoted by her
ethical approach. Furthermore, I present a voice that demonstrates an intimate revolt â a voice
that challenges patriarchal norms and is not exclusively confined by the mechanisms of
normalization that shape the twentyâfirst century woman with emphasis on the cosmetic surgical industry and its superincumbent discourses â the South African poet Antjie Krog. It is Krogâs
skillfully structured poetic texts that facilitate my theoretical reconstruction.
Applying Kristevaâs theory on semanalysis, I theoretically show that Krogâs work fabricates
an excess to the confines of the law of the Father and the mechanisms of normalization itself. In
addition, I present an âoriginary attachmentâ as an adaption of Kristevaâs argument on the chora
and my proposal of an âoriginary idealâ challenges Kristevaâs emphasis on phonetic grams in the
context of that which underlies the realm of the paternal metaphor.
Using Louise Viljoenâs analysis of Krogâs work and Bridget Garnhamâs research on
emerging designer cosmetic surgical discourses as support, I then present Krogâs poetic texts as
a counter discourse to the âmoralâ cosmetic surgical discourses that exploit the ageing individual
in the second decade of the twentyâfirst century. In addition, applying Kristevaâs theory on
paragrams to Krogâs poetic text(s), I present a destabilization of the patriarchal norms implicit
within cosmetic surgical discourses. Furthermore, I extend Kristevaâs theory on the principle of
negativity to present a reâtranslation of the actâofâconfession in Krogâs poetic text(s), an
extension of Foucaultâs pastoral power and Butlerâs argument on the exclusivity of normalization,
and a reclamation of her ageing body in Verweersrkrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).Feministiese geleerdes voer al geruime tyd 'n warm debat oor die kwessie of die
normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie vroue positief beĂŻnvloed, vroue bemagtig deurdat dit
volmag en keuse vir hulle in die hand werk (Gimlin 2002; Kuczynski 2006), of vroue onderdruk
deurdat dit patriargale ideologieë voorstaan wat die vroueliggaam inperk en gevolglik die
vrou inhibeer om haar stem te laat hoor (Blood 2005; Blum 2005; Clarke en Griffin 2007;
Heinricy 2006; Tait 2007). In plaas daarvan om by hierdie debat betrokke te raak, gaan ek van
die veronderstelling uit dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie 'n vorm van implisiete
en eksklusiewe geweld is.
Aan die hand van post-strukturalistiese, feministiese en psigoanalitiese teorieë
ontleed ek die manier waarop hierdie vorm van geweld vroue se liggaam onderwerp en hul
psige vorm. Ek dekonstrueer die vorming van die genormaliseerde self, die bewussyn en die
daad van belydenis, soos dit in die konteks oorgebring word, aan die hand van Jacques Lacan,
Judith Butler en Michel Foucault se beskouings van herderlike oftewel pastorale mag.
Hierbenewens onderstreep ek die rol wat liberale feminisme in hierdie vorm van
onderwerping speel. Sodoende demonstreer ek teoreties hoe die voortdurende en
effektiewe funksionering van pastorale mag in die konteks van ân individualiseringstegniek
vroue in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu onderdruk. Ek maak die aanname
dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie daartoe bydra dat vroue die swye opgelĂȘ
word, die individu se psige uitgebuit en onderdruk word en die lewende liggaam ontkragtig
word deur middel van ân inkerkering wat minder sigbaar en minder eksplisiet is en agter ân estetiese en morele sluier verdoesel word.
In hierdie konteks bied ek ân teendiskoers aan vir die onderwerping wat onderliggend
is aan die normaliseringsdiskoerse wat die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf ondersteun, en ek
bepleit dat die patriargale norme wat in diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie vassit,
gedestabiliseer word. Ek demonstreer verder ân teoretiese rekonstruksie wat ân inskripsie
insluit van wat ek ân geloofwaardige feministiese stem in die eietydse verbruikerskultuur
noem â ân modus van intieme, onbewuste opstandigheid.
Ek bepleit 'n terugkeer na Julia Kristeva se teorie en die intieme oproer wat deur haar
etiese benadering voorgestaan word. Afgesien hiervan stel ek ân stem voor wat ân intieme opstand demonstreer â ân stem wat patriargale norme uitdaag en nie uitsluitlik onderdruk
word deur die normaliseringsmeganismes wat vorm gee aan die vrou van die een-entwintigste
eeu nie, waar die klem op die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf en die boliggende
diskoerse daarvan val â Antjie Krog, Suid-Afrikaanse digter. Dit is juis Krog se kunstig
gestruktureerde digterlike tekste wat my teoretiese rekonstruksie fasiliteer.
Aan die hand van Kristeva se teorie oor semanalise toon ek teoreties dat Krog se werk
ân ruimte daarstel wat "uitstyg" bo die grense wat die wet van die Vader en die
normaliseringsmeganismes stel. Hierbenewens stel ek ân "originĂȘre gehegtheid" as
aanpassing van Kristeva se beskouing van die chora voor, en my voorstel van ân "originĂȘre
ideaal" daag Kristeva se opvating oor paragramme uit in die konteks van dit wat ten grondslag
lĂȘ aan die gebied van die paternalistiese metafoor.
Op grond van Louise Viljoen se ontleding van Krog se werk en Bridget Garnham se
navorsing oor opkomende diskoerse oor ontwerpers- kosmetiese chirurgie bied ek Krog se
digterlike tekste aan as ân teendiskoers vir die "morele" diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie
wat die verouderende individu in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu uitbuit.
Daarby, deur Kristeva se teorie oor paragramme op Krog se digterlike teks(te) toe te pas,
demonstreer ek 'n destabilisering van die patriargale norme wat implisiet in diskoerse oor
kosmetiese chirurgie teenwoordig is. Hierbenewens brei ek Kristeva se teorie oor die
negatiwiteitsbeginsel uit deur middel van ân heroorsetting van die belydenisdaad in Krog se
digwerk(e), ân uitbreiding van Foucault se pastorale mag en Butler se opvatting oor die
eksklusiwiteit van normalisering, en ân opeising van Krog se verouderende liggaam in
Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).Sekubekhona izingxoxo-mpikiswano eziningi kwizifundiswa zama-feminist ukuthi
ngabe ukwenza isurgery yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka ngokwemvelo
(cosmetic plastic surgery) kunomphumela omuhle yini kwabesimame, ngabe kuhlinzeka
ngamandla kwabesimame ngokuphakamisela phezulu ukuthi umuntu azenzele akufunayo
kanye nokuzikhethela (Grimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006) noma kuyinto ecindezela abesimame
ngokuqhubela phambili indlela nama-idiyoloji abekwa ngabesilisa ukuthi imizimba
yabesimame kumele ibukeke kanjani, kanti lokhu kucindezela izwi labesimame (Blum 2003,
Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Kunokuthi iphuzu nami
ngingenele kule ngxoxo-mpikiswano, elami iphuzu lona liqhubeka ukusukela kwisimo
sokuthi ukwamukela uhlujzo olungajulile lokuzitshintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame
(cosmetic surgery) kuyindlela yodlame olungaqondile ngqo kanye nolukhipha inyumbazane
abesimame. Ngokusebenzisa amathiyori epost-structuralist, awe-feminist kanye nawepsychoanalytical,
ngihlaziya indlela le nhlobo yalolu dlame ecindezela ngayo imizimba
yabesimame kanye nokuhlela indlela okumele bacabange nokuzibona ngayo.
Ngokusebenzisa iphuzu likaJacques Lacan, Judith Buttle kanye noMichel Foucault lamandla
okukhokhela ngokomoya, ngiqhaqha indlela okubumbeka ngayo isithombe sokuzibona,
unembeza kanye nomoya wokuhlambulula ngokuzidalula (confession) lapho kubhekwa
izinto ngaphansi kwesimo somzimba wokuhlinzwa okungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka
ngokwakho. Nangaphezu kwalokho, ngigqamisa indima ye-liberal feminism ngokwayo kule
nhlobo yencindezelo. Ngokwenza lokho, ngikhombisa ngokwethiyori ukuqhubeka
nokusebenza kwamandla esikhokhelo ngokomoya ngaphansi kwethekniki yokuzazi komuntu
eyedwa okucindezela abesimame kwiminyaka elishumi yesibili, yesenshuri yamashumi
amabili nanye . Ngiqhubela phambili iphuzu lokuthi ukwenziwa kohlinzo olungajulile
lokuzishintsha ukubukeka kuqala umoya wokucindezela izwi labesimame, ukuxhashazwa
kwabo, kanye nendlela umuntu azibona ngayo ngokwengqondo, kanye nokucindezela
umzimba ophilayo ngezindlela ezingazibonakalisi obala, ezifihlekile, indlela yokubopha
efihlwa yindlela yokubukeka kanye nokwembozwa umoya.
Kungaphansi kwalesi simo lapho ngethula khona i-discourse yencindezelo eyenza
ukuthi imboni yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame kube yinto
ephakanyiswayo nokubonwa iyinhle, ukuphazamiseka kwama-norm endlela yengcindezi
yabesilisa, ngaphansi kwama-discourse okuhlinzwa okungajulile ukushintsha ukubukeka,
kanye nokwakha ithiyori ebandakanya ukubona izinto ngendlela ethize, engikuchaza
njengezwi okuyilo elifanele le-feminism, kwisimo sosiko esiphila ngaphansi kwaso samanje -
okuyindlela abantu abazibuka ngayo ezingqondweni ngendlela engekho obala.
Ngigcizelela ukubuyela kwithiyori kaKristeva, kanye nokuthi abantu babhoke
indlobana ngezindlela eziphansi, okuyinto ayiphakamisayo yenkambiso yokwazi okulungile
nokungalunganga (ethical approach). Naphezu kwalokho, ngiveza izwi elibonisa ukubhoka
indlobana kwabesimame ngendlela engekho sobala - izwi elifaka inselele kuma-norm
okubhozomelwa ngumqondo wokulawula kwabesilisa, kanti futhi leli zwi aligcinanga nje
kuphela umumo wabesimame ngendlela ejwayelekile njengowesimame wesenshuri
yamashumi amabili-nanye ngokugcizelela kwimboni yohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha
ukubukeka, kanye nendlela lokhu okuyisihibe ngayo â ngokusho kukasonkondlo waseNingizimu Afrika, u-Antjie Krog. Imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog ezinobungcweti yiyo
eyenze ukwakha kwami kabusha ithiyori.
Ngokusebenzisa ithiyori kaKristeva ye-semanalysis, ngibonisa ngokwethiyori ukuthi
umsebenzi kaKrog uqambe okweqele ngaleya kwizihibe zomthetho kubaba kanye nezindlela
zokwenza izinto zibukeke ngendlela evamile noma zingavamile. Nangaphezu kwalokho,
ngifakela i-"originary attachment" njengokwenza ukuthi kube kwesinye isimo, iphuzu
likaKristeva ku-chora kanti isiphakamiso sami se-"originary ideal" sifaka inselele kusigcizelelo
sikaKristeva ngamagremu efonethiki ngaphansi kwesimo esigcizelela umfanekiso
ngasohlangothini lobaba.
Ngokusebenzisa ukuhlaziya kukaLouise Viljoen kumsebenzi kaKrog kanye nocwaningo
lukaBridget Garnham ngokuvela kwama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha
ukubukeka njengesisekelo, ngase ngethula imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog njenge-discourse
yokuphikisa ama-discourse e-"moral" yama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha
ukubukeka, elixhaphaza abantu abagugayo ngeminyaka eyishumi yesibili kwisenshuri
yamashumi amabili-nanye. Naphezu kwalokho, ngisebenzise ithiyori kaKristeva
kumapharagramu kwimibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog, ngaphazamisa imibono yokuphatha
kwabesilisa equkethwe kuma-discourse ohlinzo ulungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka.
Ukuqhubekela phambili, nginwebe ithiyori kaKristeva ngesimiso se-negativity ukwethula
ukuhumusha kabusha umoya wokuzihlambulula ngokuzidalula otholakala kwizinkondlozikaKrog, ukuwukunweba amandla umbono kaFaucault wamandla okuthi abantu bazibone
ngenye indlela kanye nephuzu likaButler wlkuthi into engavamile engaphandle ibonwe
njengento efanele, kanye nokwamukela umzimba ogugayo kwinkondlo ye-
Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).English StudiesD. Litt. et Phil.(Theory of Literature
Fast and Accurate Visibility Preprocessing
Visibility culling is a means of accelerating the graphical rendering of geometric models. Invisible objects are efficiently culled to prevent their submission to the standard graphics pipeline. It is advantageous to preprocess scenes in order to determine invisible objects from all possible camera views. This information is typically saved to disk and may then be reused until the model geometry changes. Such preprocessing algorithms are therefore used for scenes that are primarily static.
Currently, the standard approach to visibility preprocessing algorithms is to use a form of approximate solution, known as conservative culling. Such algorithms over-estimate the set of visible polygons. This compromise has been considered necessary in order to perform visibility preprocessing quickly. These algorithms attempt to satisfy the goals of both rapid preprocessing and rapid run-time rendering.
We observe, however, that there is a need for algorithms with superior performance in preprocessing, as well as for algorithms that are more accurate. For most applications these features are not required simultaneously. In this thesis we present two novel visibility preprocessing algorithms, each of which is strongly biased toward one of these requirements.
The first algorithm has the advantage of performance. It executes quickly by exploiting graphics hardware. The algorithm also has the features of output sensitivity (to what is visible), and a logarithmic dependency in the size of the camera space partition. These advantages come at the cost of image error. We present a heuristic guided adaptive sampling methodology that minimises this error. We further show how this algorithm may be parallelised and also present a natural extension of the algorithm to five dimensions for accelerating generalised ray shooting.
The second algorithm has the advantage of accuracy. No over-estimation is performed, nor are any sacrifices made in terms of image quality. The cost is primarily that of time. Despite the relatively long computation, the algorithm is still tractable and on average scales slightly superlinearly with the input size. This algorithm also has the advantage of output sensitivity. This is the first known tractable exact solution to the general 3D from-region visibility problem.
In order to solve the exact from-region visibility problem, we had to first solve a more general form of the standard stabbing problem. An efficient solution to this problem is presented independently
Heat transfer augmentation during water steam condensation on twisted profile tubes
Some results are presented of experimental and theoretical research of hydrodynamics and heat transfer during condensation of water steam (both stationary and slowly moving) on twisted profile tubes (TPT). For a heat transfer coefficient during condensation of stationary steam on TPT two characteristic areas were observed. At small values of condensate film Reynolds numbers a TPT heat transfer coefficient can be 10-15% below that of the plain tubes depending on profile parameters. With the rise of both condensate film Reynolds number and profile parameter h/s heat transfer coefficient increases up to 50% in comparison to a plain tube. During slowly moving steam condensation the TPT heat transfer coefficient increases up to 70% as compared to a plain tube. Conducted research and industrial tests results showed that the assured effect of a heat transfer coefficient increase in TPT heat exchangers could reach for turbine condensers 15%, for low cycle heaters 35-40%. The heat exchangers hydraulic resistance increases by 40-70%. © 2014 WIT Press.International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering;International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning;WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environmen
Single-phase media hydrodynamics and heat transfer in heat exchangers with twisted profile tubes
A profiled heat exchanger tube is the one in which some features have been incorporated into the tube geometry for heat transfer enhancement. They offer a perspective method of steam turbine shell-and-tube heat exchangers improvement. Twisted profile tubes (TPT) are widely used in power engineering. This paper presents some results of experimental and theoretical research of hydrodynamics and heat transfer in TPTs. It is revealed that the heat transfer coefficient for water flow in a TPT increases up to 80% compared to that of a plain tube. With a rise of media Reynolds number, the heat transfer rate in a TPT decreases in comparison to that of a plain tube, but for air flow in a TPT the heat transfer coefficients ratio does not depend on the Reynolds number value. Water flow hydraulic losses in TPTs increase from 15 to 100% depending on the tube profile parameters. © 2014 WIT Press.International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering;International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning;WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environmen
Hardware Accelerated Visibility Preprocessing using Adaptive Sampling
We present a novel aggressive visibility preprocessing technique for general 3D scenes. Our technique exploits commodity graphics hardware and is faster than most conservative solutions, while simultaneously not overestimating the set of visible polygons. The cost of this benefit is that of potential image error.
In order to reduce image error, we have developed an effective error minimization heuristic. We present results showing the application of our technique to highly complex scenes, consisting of many small polygons. We give performance results, an in depth error analysis using various metrics, and an empirical analysis showing a high degree of scalability. We show that our technique can rapidly compute from-region visibility (1hr 19min for a 5 million polygon forest), with minimal error (0.3% of image). On average 91.3% of the scene is culled
Exact from-region visibility culling
To pre-process a scene for the purpose of visibility culling during walkthroughs it is necessary to solve visibility from all the elements of a finite partition of viewpoint space. Many conservative and approximate solutions have been developed that solve for visibility rapidly. The idealised exact solution for general 3D scenes has often been regarded as computationally intractable. Our exact algorithm for finding the visible polygons in a scene from a region is a computationally tractable pre-process that can handle scenes of the order of millions of polygons. The essence of our idea is to represent 3-D polygons and the stabbing lines connecting them in a 5-D Euclidean space derived from PlĂŒcker space and then to perform geometric subtractions of occluded lines from the set of potential stabbing lines.We have built a query architecture around this query algorithm that allows for its practical application to large scenes.
We have tested the algorithm on two different types of scene: despite a large constant computational overhead, it is highly scalable, with a time dependency close to linear in the output produced
A Low Dimensional Framework for Exact Polygon-to-Polygon Occlusion Queries
Despite the importance of from-region visibility computation in computer graphics, efficient analytic methods are still lacking in the general 3D case. Recently, different algorithms have appeared that maintain occlusion as a complex of polytopes in PlĂŒcker space. However, they suffer from high implementation complexity, as well as high computational and memory costs, limiting their usefulness in practice. In this paper, we present a new algorithm that simplifies implementation and computation by operating only on the skeletons of the polyhedra instead of the multi-dimensional face lattice usually used for exact occlusion queries in 3D. This algorithm is sensitive to complexity of the silhouette of each occluding object, rather than the entire polygonal mesh of each object. An intelligent feedback mechanism is presented that greatly enhances early termination by searching for apertures between query polygons. We demonstrate that our technique is several times faster than the state of the art
Exact From-region Visibility Culling
To pre-process a scene for the purpose of visibility culling during walkthroughs it is necessary to solve visibility from all the elements of a finite partition of viewpoint space. Many conservative and approximate solutions have been developed that solve for visibility rapidly. The idealised exact solution for general 3D scenes has often been regarded as computationally intractable. Our exact algorithm for finding the visible polygons in a scene from a region is a computationally tractable pre-process that can handle scenes of the order of millions of polygons.
The essence of our idea is to represent 3-D polygons and the stabbing lines connecting them in a 5-D Euclidean space derived from PlĂŒcker space and then to perform geometric subtractions of occluded lines from the set of potential stabbing lines.We have built a query architecture around this query algorithm that allows for its practical application to large scenes.
We have tested the algorithm on two different types of scene: despite a large constant computational overhead, it is highly scalable, with a time dependency close to linear in the output produced
Hierarchical Level of Detail Optimisation for Constant Framerate Rendering of Radiosity Scenes
The predictive hierarchical level of detail optimization algorithm of Mason and Blake is experimentally evaluated in the form of a practical application to hierarchical radiosity. In a novel approach the recursively subdivided patch hierarchy generated by a perceptually refined hierarchical radiosity algorithm is treated as a hierarchical level of detail scene description. In this way we use the Mason-Blake algorithm to successfully maintain constant frame rates during the interactive rendering of the radiosity-generated scene. We establish that the algorithm is capable of maintaining uniform frame rendering times, but that the execution time of the optimization algorithm itself is significant and is strongly dependent on frame-to-frame coherence and the granularity of the level of detail description. To compensate we develop techniques which effectively reduce and limit the algorithm execution time: We restrict the execution times of the algorithm to guard against pathological situations and propose simplification transforms that increase the granularity of the scene description, at minimal cost to visual quality. We demonstrate that using these techniques the algorithm is capable of maintaining interactive frame rates for scenes of arbitrary complexity. Furthermore we provide guidelines for the appropriate use of predictive level of detail optimization algorithms derived from our practical experience
Accelerating Ray Shooting Through Aggressive 5D Visibility Pre-processing
We present a new approach to accelerating general ray shooting. Our technique uses a five-dimensional ray space partition and is based on the classic ray-classication algorithm. Where the original algorithmevaluates intersection candidates at run-time, our solution evaluates them as a preprocess.
The offline nature of our solution allows for an adaptive subdivision of ray space. The advantage being, that it allows for the placement of a user set upper bound on the number of primitives intersected.
The candidate sets produced account for occlusion, thereby reducing memory requirements and accelerating the ray shooting process. A novel algorithm which exploits graphics hardware is used to evaluate the candidate sets. It is the treatment of occlusion that allows for the practical precomputation of the ray space partition. This algorithm is called aggressive since it is optimal (no invisible primitives are included), but may result in false exclusion of visible primitives. Error is minimised through the adaptive sampling
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