Review of Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture.

Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 1999. 397 pp. ISBN 0262032651

Review of Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture.

Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 1999. 397 pp. ISBN 0262032651

The Democratization and Development of Cell-free Protein Synthesis

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) using crude lysates has developed into a robust platform technology over the last 60 years to express numerous types of recombinant proteins. The open-nature, elimination of reliance on cell viability, and focus of all energy towards production of the protein of interest represent substantial advantages of CFPS over in vivo protein expression methods. CFPS has provided new opportunities across a series of research fields that include metabolic engineering, therapeutic and vaccine development, education, biosensors, and many more. In recent years, optimizations of CFPS have even allowed the platform to reach the industrial level of protein production. Although there have been many advancements toward CFPS development, the democratization of the platform to a wide variety of educational, research, and industrial institutions has lacked due to an absence of resources for new users as well as a limited number of developments toward redesigning the tedious and time-consuming protocols to generate robust cell extract. To address these challenges to CFPS implementation, a comprehensive review spanning numerous cell lines with their respective applications, methodologies, and reaction formats were provided in addition to detailed protocols outlining the process of going from E. coli cells to a completed CFPS reaction. Together, these resources provide the scientific community with easily accessible resources for CFPS implementation. Moreover, the aforementioned protocols were redesigned from a four-day process into one that may be completed in under 24-hour’s time with very little researcher oversight. The resulting workflow maintained the robustness of prior methods but generated 400% more extract compared to traditional methods via a set-it-and-forget-it approach. To date, the works presented herein have garnered tremendous viewership from the CFPS research community with a substantial following among all three of the articles. Moving forward, I anticipate that these works will continue to bring new users into the CFPS field through the ease of access to these resources and through the advance of the simplistic and reproducible new workflow for preparation of robust E. coli cell extract

Mirrors & Masks: Reflections and Constructions of the Self

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Bryn Mawr College March 23, 2017-June 4, 2017, curated by Steven Z. Levine and Carrie M. Robbins and students in the year-long course Mirroring the Self/Exhibiting the Self. The exhibition, organized by 11 student curators considers the role of mirrors, masks, makeup, and masquerade in explorations of the self across the centuries and cultures that are represented in Bryn Mawr College’s Art & Artifacts Collection.https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_books/1031/thumbnail.jp

Mirrors & Masks: Reflections and Constructions of the Self

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Bryn Mawr College March 23, 2017-June 4, 2017, curated by Steven Z. Levine and Carrie M. Robbins and students in the year-long course Mirroring the Self/Exhibiting the Self. The exhibition, organized by 11 student curators considers the role of mirrors, masks, makeup, and masquerade in explorations of the self across the centuries and cultures that are represented in Bryn Mawr College’s Art & Artifacts Collection.https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_books/1031/thumbnail.jp

Who gets credit for AI-generated art?

The recent sale of an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated portrait for $432,000 at Christie's art auction has raised questions about how credit and responsibility should be allocated to individuals involved and how the anthropomorphic perception of the AI system contributed to the artwork's success. Here, we identify natural heterogeneity in the extent to which different people perceive AI as anthropomorphic. We find that differences in the perception of AI anthropomorphicity are associated with different allocations of responsibility to the AI system and credit to different stakeholders involved in art production. We then show that perceptions of AI anthropomorphicity can be manipulated by changing the language used to talk about AI—as a tool versus agent—with consequences for artists and AI practitioners. Our findings shed light on what is at stake when we anthropomorphize AI systems and offer an empirical lens to reason about how to allocate credit and responsibility to human stakeholders

Ariel - Volume 9 Number 6

Executive Editor Seth B. Paul Associate Editor Warren J. Ventriglia Business Manager Fredric Jay Matlin University News John Patrick Welch World News George Robert Coar Editorials Editor Steve Levine Features Mark Rubin Sports Editor Eli Saleeby Photo Editor Ken Buckwalter Circulation Victor Onufreiczuk Lee Wugofski Graphics and Art Steve Hulkower Commons Editor Brenda Peterso