ЗАЧЕМ БЫТЬ ФОТОГРАФИЧЕСКОМУ ИЗОБРАЖЕНИЮ?

Many contemporary imaging systems share a striking quality: their output need not be limited to images. Instead the raw data such systems collect and generate can just as easily appear as acoustic signals or as text. Furthermore, of those images an unexpected proportion bears the familiar form of the photograph. These two phenomena, I argue, stem from an unconditioned bias towards images, on our behalf, and from the cognitive accessibility of photographic images in particular. This should be seen as a unique epistemic advantage. Arguably, this advantage has not diminished much in the course of the last decades. This is especially surprising given the wide anxiety about the end of photography and what will, or has, come after it. Confusingly, this anxiety has given rise to the term analogue photography, which is, I argue, somewhat misguided. Accordingly I propose revised definitions for the terms «analogue» and «digital» in respect to photography. These facilitate an alternative understanding of what photographic images are.  Многие современные системы визуализации обладают поразительной способностью: их продукция не обязательно только изображения. Данные, которые собираются и генерируются этими системами, могут быть представлены в виде акустических сигналов или текстов. И только часть изображений представлена в виде фотографий. Оба эти явления растут из нашего необоснованного предпочтения к изображениям вообще и из понятности фотографических изображений в частности. Это необходимо рассматривать как уникальное эпистемическое преимущество. Возможно, это преимущество в большой мере сохраняется в течение последних нескольких десятилетий. Это особенно удивительно, учитывая всеобщее беспокойство о том, что фотография «закончилась» и о том, что придёт или уже пришло ей на смену. По непонятной причине эта тревога стала причиной распространения термина «аналоговая фотография», термину не совсем правильному.  Я предлагаю пересмотреть определения терминов «аналоговый» и «цифровой» в отношении фотографии, с тем, чтобы выработать альтернативное представление о том, что есть фотографическое изображение. 

From abstract art to abstracted artists

What lineage connects early abstract films and machine-generated YouTube videos? Hans Richter’s famous piece Rhythmus 21 is considered to be the first abstract film in the experimental tradition. The Webdriver Torso YouTube channel is composed of hundreds of thousands of machine-generated test patterns designed to check frequency signals on YouTube. This article discusses geometric abstraction vis-à-vis new vision, conceptual art and algorithmic art. It argues that the Webdriver Torso is an artistic marvel indicative of a form we call mathematical abstraction, which is art performed by computers and, quite possibly, for computers

Enhanced production yields of rVSV-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine using Fibra-Cel® macrocarriers

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to high global demand for vaccines to safeguard public health. To that end, our institute has developed a recombinant viral vector vaccine utilizing a modified vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) construct, wherein the G protein of VSV is replaced with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (rVSV-ΔG-spike). Previous studies have demonstrated the production of a VSV-based vaccine in Vero cells adsorbed on Cytodex 1 microcarriers or in suspension. However, the titers were limited by both the carrier surface area and shear forces. Here, we describe the development of a bioprocess for rVSV-ΔG-spike production in serum-free Vero cells using porous Fibra-Cel® macrocarriers in fixed-bed BioBLU®320 5p bioreactors, leading to high-end titers. We identified core factors that significantly improved virus production, such as the kinetics of virus production, the use of macrospargers for oxygen supply, and medium replenishment. Implementing these parameters, among others, in a series of GMP production processes improved the titer yields by at least two orders of magnitude (2e9 PFU/mL) over previously reported values. The developed process was highly effective, repeatable, and robust, creating potent and genetically stable vaccine viruses and introducing new opportunities for application in other viral vaccine platforms

Photography from the Turin Shroud to the Turing Machine

Photography has always been a migratory system of representation. Today, it is integrated into numerous systems, in a profusion of specialties, sub-disciplines and disciplines. Within many of these domains, the exponentially growing powers of information processing enable the manufacturing of images that are seemingly photographic, yet partly (or fully) synthetic. How do we define these images? Are traditional disciplinary accounts relevant? Photography’s cultural value is most often measured in terms of its products, the various kinds of pictures that it generates. Instead, photography can be interrogated by studying the dynamic relationships between its components: the electromagnetic, optical, mechanical, chemical and recently mathematical elements and procedures that combine as a process that produces images. This dissertation utilizes two metaphors for defining photography: the Turin Shroud and the Universal Turing Machine. The former is presented as a set of propositions that facilitate new understandings about the history and theory of photography. The latter is introduced as a conceptual model that expands the theory and philosophy of photography into new realms, most notably those of new media and media philosophy. In support of this novel exposition, and to more adequately portray the trajectory of photography’s reincarnation as a form of computation, various terms from Vilém Flusser’s philosophy are reinterpreted and further developed. Through these it is suggested that photography is a family of programs wherein both ‘analogue’ and ‘digital’ characteristics always coexist. These are not to be seen as mutually exclusive qualities but as complementary discursive modalities. Further, because photography has always had mathematical qualities and potentialities, the recent technological turmoil does not designate the ‘end’ of the medium, but rather its coming of age. Importantly, now that the medium of photography has become media, photographic images should no longer be understood as bearers of ontological qualities but only as epistemic containers

Central Pain Modulation in Drosophila melanogaster

From the Washington University Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts (WUSHTA), Volume 6, Spring 2014. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Jane Green and Stacy Ross, Editors; Kristin G. Sobotka, Undergraduate Research Coordinator. Mentor: Yehuda Ben-Shaha