Xu Bing's The Character of Characters and the Possibilities of Calligraphic Animation

This article examines contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing's (b. 1955) 2012 animation video, The Character of Characters, which remediates Zhao Mengfu's (1254–1322) calligraphy and painting. The video, in which Chinese written words become the true protagonists, was originally a commissioned installation presented at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco from October 2012 to January 2013. The article aims to model a form of extremely close analysis of new media art, which borrows vocabulary and methodologies from both art history and media studies. While making a timely contribution to Xu Bing scholarship by focusing on an understudied work in his oeuvre, it also adds new lines of inquiry: first, with regard to text-image reciprocity, which continues to be a focal point in studies of contemporary Chinese art; and second, with regard to animation-calligraphy reciprocity, which begs more critical attention. The Character of Characters, I argue, invokes a double vision that sees words on screen simultaneously as linguistic texts and pictorial shapes, a vision through which and because of which the activities of looking and reading are combined into one

Effects of tributyrin supplemented in a high-soybean meal diet on the growth performance and intestinal histopathology of juvenile <em>Scophthal musmaximus</em> L.

This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of tributyrin (TB) supplemented in diet on the growth, feed utilization and intestinal health of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.). Four experimental diets were formulated with TB at 0 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg levels respectively. A total of 2016 turbot (initial body weight: 31.22±0.05g) were randomly distributed into 12 tanks and fed the corresponding diets for 70d. Results showed that fish in 100 mg/kg group had significantly higher weight gain rate (WGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) than that in other groups (P0.05). There was no significant difference in intestinal superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and intestinal malonaldehyde (MDA) contents among all treatments (P>0.05), while the highest SOD activity and the lowest MDA content were found in 100 mg/kg group. The height of intestinal fold in 100 mg/kg treatment was significantly higher than that in other groups (P0.05). The present study suggested that 100 mg/kg TB inclusion level was recommended in the diets of turbot to promote the growth and improve the intestinal morphology structure and health in turbot