"Release Hitting": An Analytical Study Commemorating the Artistry of the South Korean Shaman Musician Kim Yongt'aek

Within the world of South Korean traditional music, the percussion-based ritual music performed by hereditary shaman troupes in the East Coast region is justly famed for the diversity and complexity of its rhythmic structures and the virtuosic patterning that the ritualists often produce. This article presents a detailed rhythmic analysis of a multi-sectional structure called “tchoshigae,” which is frequently reckoned by the ritualists to be the most difficult item to perform in their repertoire, primarily because of its passages of ever-shifting polyrhythmic interplay, its lengthy metrical frameworks characterized by irregular and flexible internal organization, and its rapid tempi. In addition, because tchoshigae is performed at a critical juncture in a post-death ritual (Ogu Kut), the ritualists are keenly aware its effective performance is crucial to ensuring a successful ritual. Specifically, this analysis focuses on a single ritual performance of tchoshigae recorded by the author in April 2000, led by the celebrated ritual musician Kim Yongt’aek, playing the changgo drum, and his wife the shaman Kim Yŏngsuk, singing of the challenges posed by death, with other essential parts provided on kkwaenggwari hand-gongs and ching gong. The aim here is to present a thorough and wide-reaching examination of the selected performance, elucidating the music’s metrical frameworks, identifying how the ritualists organize their patterning within those frameworks, and clarifying the links between musical attributes, song text, belief system, and ritual objectives. Kim Yongt’aek, who passed away in February 2018, was the most highly esteemed and widely emulated instrumentalist within the tradition; this analysis shines a light on the impressive musical artistry that he cultivated together with Kim Yŏngsuk

Joseph Priestley and the intellectual culture of rational dissent, 1752-1796

PhDRecent scholarship on the eighteenth-century polymath Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) has focused on his work as a pioneering scientist, a controversial Unitarian polemicist, and a radical political theorist. This thesis provides an extensive analysis of his comparatively neglected philosophical writings. It situates Priestley’s philosophy in the theological context of eighteenth-century rational dissent, and argues that his ideas on ethics, materialism, and determinism came to provide a philosophical foundation for the Socinian theology which came to prominence among Presbyterian congregations in the last decades of the century. Throughout the thesis I stress the importance of rational debate to the development of Priestley’s ideas. The chapters are thus structured around a series of Priestley’s engagements with contemporary figures: chapter 1 traces his intellectual development in the context of the debates over moral philosophy and the freedom of the will at the Daventry and Warrington dissenting academies; chapter 2 examines his response to the Scottish ‘common sense’ philosophers, Thomas Reid, James Beattie, and James Oswald; chapter 3 examines his writings on materialism and philosophical necessity and his debates with Richard Price, John Palmer, Benjamin Dawson, and Joseph Berington; chapter 4 focuses on his attempt to develop a rational defence of Christianity in opposition to the ideas of David Hume; chapter 5 traces the diffusion of his ideas through the syllabuses at the liberal dissenting academies at Warrington, Daventry, and New College, Hackney. The thesis illustrates the process by which Priestley’s theology and philosophy defeated a number of rival traditions to become the predominant intellectual position within rational dissent in the late eighteenth century. In the course of doing so, it illuminates some of the complex interconnections between philosophical and theological discourses in the period

'Local Heroes': Re-establishing Drums and Gongs in Ulleungdo’s Musical Life

A small number of people have become widely known in South Korea as influential innovators and/or preservers of traditional percussion band music, having led the way to establishing it as an icon of Korean identity on the national level. Meanwhile, there have been countless others who have been responsible for spreading percussion band music-making on the local level. This paper examines the activities of two such unsung heroes, Yi Ch’ungsŏng and Kim Chŏngsu, who have lived their whole lives on the remote island of Ulleungdo and who were instrumental in founding new groups there in the 1990s and 2000s. The paper begins by examining the disappearance of the island’s original folk percussion ensembles in the 1960s and 70s. It then explores Yi and Kim’s motivations for beginning to learn traditional percussion music at a late stage in life, and documents the trials and tribulations they experienced to re-establish drums and gongs in Ulleungdo’s musical life

Life beyond ritual? Preserving the shamanic performance arts in South Korea today.

An overview of the remaining topic teams: Innovative Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities, Campus Climate, and Faculty Roles and Structure

Gilbert Simondon: Causality, ontogenesis & technology

This PhD thesis focuses on the elucidation, development and application of Gilbert Simondon's realist philosophy of individuation. In particular the thesis has three main goals: First, to provide a developed account of Simondon's ontology. Second, to develop a coherent account of causality in line with Simondon's theorization of individuation. Third, to give a full account of Simondon's philosophy of technology and evaluate its relevance for the contemporary technological state of affairs.To answer the third of these questions it is necessary to address the others. A realist, non-anthropological account of technology necessarily requires the development of a robust ontology and a suitable theorization of causality.In this thesis this is achieved by developing the key concepts involved in Simondon's theory of individuation such as transduction, metastability and pre-individuality. Before developing an account of transductive operation in the three regimes of individuation which Simondon stipulates (physical, vital and psycho-social) we argue for Simondon's account of allagmatics (theory of operations) as consistent with and in some ways superior to some contemporary powers based theories of causality.Having established the broad scope of Simondon's axiomatic use of individuation it is then utilized in order to fully examine his philosophy of technology. This is achieved by bringing together Simondon's theorization of individuation in multiple domains (e.g. the image-cycle, transindividual) in relation to that of technology. In doing this we also develop other important aspects of Simondon's philosophy such as aesthetics, epistemology and ethics.By necessity the thesis has a broad scope in order to reflect the encyclopedic ambition which Simondon had for his genetic philosophy and without which his work is prone to be misunderstood. As such it describes a novel encounter between cybernetics, phenomenology and energetics

Predicting the Sources and Formation Mechanisms of Evolved Lunar Crust by Linking K/Ca Ratios of Lunar Granites to Analogous Terrestrial Igneous Rocks

Although silicic rocks (i.e. granites and rhyolites) comprise a minor component of the sampled portion of the lunar crust, recent remote sensing studies [e.g., 1-4] indicate that several un-sampled regions of the Moon have significantly higher concentrations of silicic material (also high in [K], [U], and [Th]) than sampled regions. Within these areas are morphological features that are best explained by the existence of chemically evolved volcanic rocks. Observations of silicic domes [e.g., 1-5] suggest that sizable networks of silicic melt were present during crust formation. Isotopic data indicate that silicic melts were generated over a prolonged timespan from 4.3 to 3.9 Ga [e.g., 6-8]. The protracted age range and broad distribution of silicic rocks on the Moon indicate that their petrogenesis was an important mechanism for secondary crust formation. Understanding the origin and evolution of such silicic magmas is critical to determining the composition of the lunar crustal highlands and will help to distinguish between opposing ideas for the Moon's bulk composition and differentiation. The two main hypotheses for generating silicic melts on Earth are fractional crystallization or partial melting. On the Moon silicic melts are thought to have been generated during extreme fractional crystallization involving end-stage silicate liquid immiscibility (SLI) [e.g. 9, 10]. However, SLI cannot account for the production of significant volumes of silicic melt and its wide distribution, as reported by the remote global surveys [1, 2, 3]. In addition, experimental and natural products of SLI show that U and Th, which are abundant in the lunar granites and seen in the remote sensing data of the domes, are preferentially partitioned into the depolymerized ferrobasaltic magma and not the silicic portion [11, 12]. If SLI is not the mechanism that generated silicic magmas on the Moon then alternative processes such as fractional crystallization (only crystal-liquid separation) or partial melting should be considered as viable possibilities to be tested

Termination of Pregnancy, Article 40.3.3, and the Law of Intended Consequences

ArticleMuch of the public debate concerning the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 (2013 Bill) has either presumed or explicitly claimed that “abortion” is never necessary to save the life of the mother, since procedures intended to save the life of the mother are not “direct” or “intentional” terminations and therefore, by definition, not abortions. The 2013 Bill itself seems to imply sympathy with this view; others have claimed that it renders the 2013 Bill unnecessary. We trace this claim to the Thomist “Doctrine of Double Effect”, which is a mainstay of Catholic moral theology, and examine its plausibility in real-life medical cases. We focus in particular on the example of ectopic pregnancy. It is implausible, we argue, that the distinction typically drawn by Catholic theologians between the various procedures available for treating such unviable and life-threatening pregnancies can be explained by either directness or intention. Indeed, no single principle seems capable of distinguishing such cases in a medically or morally significant manner. “Abortion”, then, even narrowly defined as the “direct” and “intentional” termination of a pregnancy, is sometimes necessary and appropriate to save the life of the mother; and “abortion” in this sense is accordingly permitted under the terms of the 2013 Bill

Factors affecting response of dogs to obedience instruction: a field and experimental study

Communication is an essential component of the translation of learning theory into the practical control of the behaviour of dogs. A handler sends a signal (e.g. a command), to which their dog responds. This response is dependent on the dog’s perception of the signal rather than the intention of the sender. Previous research has shown that a dog’s response can be influenced by specific changes in the verbal and non-verbal qualities of signals (i.e. the commands) used, but there has been little scientific evaluation of what happens in practice. Therefore in a first study, 56 dog handlers were videotaped giving their dogs a “sit” command and the significance of verbal and non-verbal factors on response was analyzed. Two factors were associated with a significant decrease in obedience: the dog’s attention to its handler and the handler giving additional verbal information preceding the actual verbal command. Based on these results, a second more controlled study was run with 12 dogs that were trained to a new (“uff”, i.e. jumping onto a raised surface) and a known (“sit”, “down” or “paw”) command. Once trained to predefined criteria, dogs were tested for their responsiveness with each of three additional types of verbal information preceding the command: the dog’s name, the dog’s name followed by a pause of 2 seconds and a “novel word”, i.e. a word with no established relationships in this context (“Banane”). The results suggest that the addition of the novel word significantly reduced response to both the known (p = 0.014) and the new (p = 0.014) commands. The name plus a pause preceding the command significantly reduced the response to the new command (p = 0.043), but not the known one. The use of the name before the command without a pause had no significant effect on performance. The dogs’ ability to generalize learned commands from the training context to a new context was tested by going through the same procedure in an unfamiliar environment. There was a significant reduction in correct responses only to the new command independent of the preceding verbal information (name (p = 0.028), name plus pause (p = 0.022) and novel word (p = 0.011)). This suggests that dogs may have more difficulties generalizing a less well-established command than an already known command