Learning to embrace the world - die Konstruktionen des Selbst und die Bilder der Gemeinschaft(lichkeit) in Jonas Mekas "Walden"

„I make films, therefore I live.“ – Mit jenem philosophischen Zitat resümiert Jonas Mekas in Walden – Diaries, Notes and Sketches seine künstlerische Praxis. Er nimmt damit vorweg, was zu dem ureigensten Charakteristikum seiner Filme werden sollte – ihre unzertrennbare Verschmelzung von Leben und Kunst. Bestehend aus alltäglichen Momentaufnahmen stellen seine Filme nämlich nicht nur künstlerische Reflexionen seines privaten Lebens dar, sondern sie repräsentieren auch eine spezifische Form der Annäherung an die Welt und das eigene Selbst. Anhand von Mekas erstem Tagebuchfilm Walden hat sich die vorliegende Masterarbeit daher zum Ziel gesetzt, das darin enthaltene Selbst- und Weltverhältnis genauer zu betrachten. Dafür werden schrittweise die Selbst- und Gemeinschaftsdarstellungen im Film, sowie die perzeptiven und konstruktiven Aspekte der künstlerischen Komposition analysiert. Unter Zuhilfenahme der beiden Philosophen Stanley Cavell und Roland Barthes wird herausgearbeitet, inwiefern sich Mekas filmisches Schaffen als eine Form der Selbstkonstruktion verstehen lässt und wie sich dieses Selbst zur Gesellschaft positioniert. Barthes Konzept der Idiorrhythmie, einer utopischen Gemeinschaft ohne Zwänge, Grenzen oder Hierarchien, leitet diese Studie der Verhältnisse und fördert die gesellschaftspolitischen Dimensionen zutage, die sich in den Bildern von Walden verbergen.„I make films, therefore I live.“ – In Walden – Diaries, Notes and Sketches Jonas Mekas arrives at this philosophical conclusion about his artistic work. With this statement he anticipates the one feature of his films that shall become their most distinctive – their inseparable coalescence of life and art. Consisting of ordinary snap-shots of his day-to-day life, his movies do not only represent artistic reflections of his private life, but also constitute a specific approach to his own self and the world that surrounds him. This master thesis hence attempts to take a closer look at the arrangements of the self and the world that are inscribed in Mekas first diary film Walden. Successively it analyses the representations of the self and the communities in the movie and attaches them to the perceptive and constructive aspects of the artistic composition as a whole. With reference to the philosophers Stanley Cavell and Roland Barthes the thesis elaborates, how Mekas filmic work can be understood as a mode of self-construction and how this self is siting itself within society. Throughout this study of relations the focus is thus conducted by Barthes concept of 'Idiorrhythmie', an utopian community without any constraints, borders or hierarchic structures. It reveals the sociopolitical dimensions that lie within the pictures of Walden

Inorganic polyphosphate in Dictyostelium discoideum: influence on development, sporulation, and predation.

Dictyostelium discoideum, a social slime mold that forms fruiting bodies with spores, depends on inorganic polyphosphate (poly P) for its cycles of development and for nutritional predation on bacteria. The synthesis of poly P, a polymer of tens or hundreds of phosphate residues linked by high energy, ATP-like bonds, is catalyzed in most bacteria by poly P kinase (PPK1). The eukaryote D. discoideum possesses a homolog of PPK1. We report here that mutants of D. discoideum PPK1 (DdPPK1) have reduced levels of poly P and are deficient in development. Fruiting bodies are smaller and produce fewer spores, which appear to germinate like the wild type (WT). The DdPPK1 mutant formed smaller plaques on bacterial lawns compared with those of the WT. Predation by D. discoideum, assessed by uptake and digestion of Klebsiella aerogenes, showed that fewer bacteria were taken up by the DdPPK1 mutant compared with the WT and were killed less rapidly, indicating a role of poly P and/or DdPPK1 in phagocytosis. On Pseudomonas aeruginosa lawns, cleared plaques were observed with the bacterial PPK1 mutant but not with the WT P. aeruginosa. Thus, poly P is important in predation both for the predator and prey

Influence of the Alternative σ(28) Factor on Virulence and Flagellum Expression of Legionella pneumophila

The fliA gene of Legionella pneumophila encoding the alternative σ(28) factor was inactivated by introducing a kanamycin resistance cassette. Electron microscopy and Western blot analysis revealed that the fliA mutant strain is aflagellate and expresses no flagellin. Reporter gene assays indicated that the flaA promoter is not active in the fliA mutant strain. The fliA mutant strain multiplied less effectively in coculture with amoebae than the wild-type strain and was not able to replicate in coculture with Dictyostelium discoideum