Audience as community: Corporeal knowledge and empathetic viewing

This essay focuses on community in the form of audiences, and in particular, screendance audiences. A specific focus is given to a collection of screendance experiences from viewing a selection of contemporary dance films. The term screendance is used in this research as suggested by Douglas Rosenberg as "stories told by the body" and "not told by the body." What follows, for this essay, are theories borrowed from the discipline of audience and reception research detailing what we may perceive audiences to be and how the idea of 'audience' as a community may influence the way filmmakers approach the very audiences they hope to reach. Kinesthetic empathy will be used as a framework to understand the pleasures and displeasures that are experienced by the viewer from an embodied perspective. While considering kinesthetic empathy with audience and reception research, the main focus for this essay is nuancing the idea of audiences as a community that is enriched with corporeal knowledge. This knowledge reveals itself as empathetic and sympathetic viewing of the media

Review: Maya Deren: Incomplete Control

No abstract available

Characteristics and experiences of volunteers in a psychiatric hospital setting : a qualitative case analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The primary aim of the present research was to describe the characteristics and experiences of all of the volunteers in a psychiatric hospital setting. A second aim was to relate the findings to current theories and evidence on volunteers. A third aim was to explore practical implications of the findings from an organisational perspective. A qualitative case approach was adopted which used an interview schedule formulated for the present research to address general issues of motivation, expectation, satisfaction, and involvement. Specific questions concerned volunteers' initial expectations, reasons for volunteering, what the volunteers actually do, good and bad experiences, changes in perceptions of volunteering, difficulties and how coped with, perceived need for help, support, and training, extent of involvement, and, reasons and intent to continue. In addition, the 'Perceived Rewards from Volunteering Scale' (Gidron, 1983) was used to provide a quantitative measure of job satisfaction. Information about respondents' gender, age, ethnic background, marital status and dependent children, socioeconomic status, religion, residence, regular commitments, other volunteer work, and time spent as a volunteer was also recorded. The group consisted of 34 middle to late middle aged women, who were church based, and resident in a small rural community. Analysis of the results were made for the group as a whole but predominantly at the case level, using techniques of pattern matching and explanation building as described by Yin (1984). The case approach makes difficult a satisfactory summary of the main findings, however, notable results included a sociodemographic profile of the present volunteers not atypical of the general population, that volunteers rated that they were satisfied with their work, similar good and bad experiences by all volunteers, different perceived roles of their work by individual volunteers, and evidence of volunteer participation as a changing phenomenon. The utility of the present approach supports both the integrative model of Smith & Reddy (1972) and the need for further development of theories within an integrative framework. A number of practical implications were drawn, particularly concerning the need for training and information, monitoring the progress of volunteers, and for general hospital policy in the recruitment and utilisation of volunteers. Suggestions for future research were also made

The thermal cure of phenylethynyl-terminated polyimides and selected model compounds

The ability to process high performance polymers into useful adhesives and high quality composites has been significantly advanced by synthetic techniques in which oligomers terminated with reactive groups cure or crosslink at elevated temperature after the article has been fabricated. Several matrix resin systems of considerable interest to the aerospace community utilize phenylethynyl terminated imide (PETI) technology developed at the Langley Research Center to achieve this advantage. This work addresses the cure chemistry of PETI oligomers.;The thermal cure of selected oligomers and model compounds was studied using a variety of analytical techniques including differential scanning calorimetry, high pressure liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron spin resonance and mass spectroscopies and liquid chromatography - mass spectroscopy. Model compound studies indicate that the cure is extremely complex. Many stable products were isolated and attempts at identification were made. Initial cure mechanisms have been proposed based on experimental results. The intent of this research is to provide fundamental insight into the molecular structure of these new engineering materials so that their performance and durability can be more adequately appreciated

Women's Narratives of Healing From The Effects Of Child Sexual Abuse

The health of women is compromised by the experience of sexual abuse in childhood. Women who have been sexually abused in childhood say they are `healing', but there is little literature on this healing process. The purpose of my research is to gather stories of healing from women who were sexually abused in childhood, analyze them, and learn about healing. The themes that emerged were integrated with a chronological restorying of the women's narratives and the literature, resulting in a model of healing that addresses the complexities of women's lives