Academic literature on the topic 'Melton (Vic. : Shire)'

IntroductionAustralia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world with variable care provided by a diverse range of clinicians. Clinical quality registries aim to identify these variations in care and provide anonymised, benchmarked feedback to clinicians and institutions to improve patient outcomes. The Australian Melanoma Clinical Outcomes Registry (MelCOR) aims to collect population-wide, clinical-level data for the early management of cutaneous melanoma and provide anonymised feedback to healthcare providers.Methods and analysisA modified Delphi process will be undertaken to identify key clinical quality indicators for inclusion in the MelCOR pilot. MelCOR will prospectively collect data relevant to these quality indicators, initially for all people over the age of 18 years living in Victoria and Queensland with a melanoma diagnosis confirmed by histopathology, via a two-stage recruitment and consent process. In stage 1, existing State-based cancer registries contact the treating clinician and provide an opportunity for them to opt themselves or their patients out of direct contact with MelCOR. After stage 1, re-identifiable clinical data are provided to the MelCOR under a waiver of consent. In stage 2, the State-based cancer registry will approach the patient directly and invite them to opt in to MelCOR and share identifiable data. If a patient elects to opt in, MelCOR will be able to contact patients directly to collect patient-reported outcome measures. Aggregated data will be used to provide benchmarked, comparative feedback to participating institutions/clinicians.Ethics and disseminationFollowing the successful collection of pilot data, the feasibility of an Australia-wide roll out will be evaluated. Key quality indicator data will be the core of the MelCOR dataset, with additional data points added later. Annual reports will be issued, first to the relevant stakeholders followed by the public. MelCOR is approved by the Alfred Ethics Committee (58280/127/20).

There are spells in the world: incantations that can transform reality through the power of procedural utterances. The marriage vow, the courtroom sentence, the shaman’s curse: these words are codes that change reality. (Finn 90) Introduction As a child, stories on magic were “opportunities to escape from reality” (Brugué and Llompart 1), or what Rosengren and Hickling describe as being part of a set of “causal belief systems” (77). As an adult, magic is typically seen as being “pure fantasy” (Rosengren and Hickling 75), while Bever argues that magic is something lost to time and materialism, and alternatively a skill that Yeats believed that anyone could develop with practice. The etymology of the word magic originates from magein, a Greek word used to describe “the science and religion of the priests of Zoroaster”, or, according to philologist Skeat, from Greek megas (great), thus signifying "the great science” (Melton 956). Not to be confused with sleight of hand or illusion, magic is traditionally associated with learned people, held in high esteem, who use supernatural or unseen forces to cause change in people and affect events. To use magic these people perform rituals and ceremonies associated with religion and spirituality and include people who may identify as Priests, Witches, Magicians, Wiccans, and Druids (Otto and Stausberg). Magic as Technology and Technology as Magic Although written accounts of the rituals and ceremonies performed by the Druids are rare, because they followed an oral tradition and didn’t record knowledge in a written form (Aldhouse-Green 19), they are believed to have considered magic as a practical technology to be used for such purposes as repelling enemies and divining lost items. They curse and blight humans and districts, raise storms and fogs, cause glamour and delusion, confer invisibility, inflict thirst and confusion on enemy warriors, transform people into animal shape or into stone, subdue and bind them with incantations, and raise magical barriers to halt attackers. (Hutton 33) Similarly, a common theme in The History of Magic by Chris Gosden is that magic is akin to science or mathematics—something to be utilised as a tool when there is a need, as well as being used to perform important rituals and ceremonies. In TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information, Davis discusses ideas on Technomysticism, and Thacker says that “the history of technology—from hieroglyphics to computer code—is itself inseparable from the often ambiguous exchanges with something nonhuman, something otherworldly, something divine. Technology, it seems, is religion by other means, then as now” (159). Written language, communication, speech, and instruction has always been used to transform the ordinary in people’s lives. In TechGnosis, Davis (32) cites Couliano (104): historians have been wrong in concluding that magic disappeared with the advent of 'quantitative science.’ The latter has simply substituted itself for a part of magic while extending its dreams and its goals by means of technology. Electricity, rapid transport, radio and television, the airplane, and the computer have merely carried into effect the promises first formulated by magic, resulting from the supernatural processes of the magician: to produce light, to move instantaneously from one point in space to another, to communicate with faraway regions of space, to fly through the air, and to have an infallible memory at one’s disposal. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) In early 2021, at the height of the pandemic meta-crisis, blockchain and NFTs became well known (Umar et al. 1) and Crypto Art became the hot new money-making scheme for a small percentage of ‘artists’ and tech-bros alike. The popularity of Crypto Art continued until initial interest waned and Ether (ETH) started disappearing in the manner of a classic disappearing coin magic trick. In short, ETH is a type of cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. NFT is an acronym for Non-Fungible Token. An NFT is “a cryptographic digital asset that can be uniquely identified within its smart contract” (Myers, Proof of Work 316). The word Non-Fungible indicates that this token is unique and therefore cannot be substituted for a similar token. An example of something being fungible is being able to swap coins of the same denomination. The coins are different tokens but can be easily swapped and are worth the same as each other. Hackl, Lueth, and Bartolo define an NFT as “a digital asset that is unique and singular, backed by blockchain technology to ensure authenticity and ownership. An NFT can be bought, sold, traded, or collected” (7). Blockchain For the newcomer, blockchain can seem impenetrable and based on a type of esoterica or secret knowledge known only to an initiate of a certain type of programming (Cassino 22). The origins of blockchain can be found in the research article “How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”, published by the Journal of Cryptology in 1991 by Haber, a cryptographer, and Stornetta, a physicist. They were attempting to answer “epistemological problems of how we trust what we believe to be true in a digital age” (Franceschet 310). Subsequently, in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote The White Paper, a document that describes the radical idea of Bitcoin or “Magic Internet Money” (Droitcour). As defined by Myers (Proof of Work 314), a blockchain is “a series of blocks of validated transactions, each linked to its predecessor by its cryptographic hash”. They go on to say that “Bitcoin’s innovation was not to produce a blockchain, which is essentially just a Merkle list, it was to produce a blockchain in a securely decentralised way”. In other words, blockchain is essentially a permanent record and secure database of information. The secure and permanent nature of blockchain is comparable to a chapter of the Akashic records: a metaphysical idea described as an infinite database where information on everything that has ever happened is stored. It is a mental plane where information is recorded and immutable for all time (Nash). The information stored in this infinite database is available to people who are familiar with the correct rituals and spells to access this knowledge. Blockchain Smart Contracts Blockchain smart contracts are written by a developer and stored on the blockchain. They contain the metadata required to set out the terms of the contract. IBM describes a smart contract as “programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met”. There are several advantages of using a smart contract. Blockchain is a permanent and transparent record, archived using decentralised peer-to-peer Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). This technology safeguards the security of a decentralised digital database because it eliminates the intermediary and reduces the chance of fraud, gives hackers fewer opportunities to access the information, and increases the stability of the system (Srivastava). They go on to say that “it is an emerging and revolutionary technology that is attracting a lot of public attention due to its capability to reduce risks and fraud in a scalable manner”. Despite being a dry subject, blockchain is frequently associated with magic. One example is Faustino, Maria, and Marques describing a “quasi-religious romanticism of the crypto-community towards blockchain technologies” (67), with Satoshi represented as King Arthur. The set of instructions that make up the blockchain smart contracts and NFTs tell the program, database, or computer what needs to happen. These instructions are similar to a recipe or spell. This “sourcery” is what Chun (19) describes when talking about the technological magic that mere mortals are unable to comprehend. “We believe in the power of code as a set of magical symbols linking the invisible and visible, echoing our long cultural tradition of logos, or language as an underlying system of order and reason, and its power as a kind of sourcery” (Finn 714). NFTs as a Conceptual Medium In a “massively distributed electronic ritual” (Myers, Proof of Work 100), NFTs became better-known with the sale of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Christie’s for US$69,346,250. Because of the “thousandfold return” (Wang et al. 1) on the rapidly expanding market in October 2021, most people at that time viewed NFTs and cryptocurrencies as the latest cash cow; some artists saw them as a method to become financially independent, cut out the gallery intermediary, and be compensated on resales (Belk 5). In addition to the financial considerations, a small number of artists saw the conceptual potential of NFTs. Rhea Myers, a conceptual artist, has been using the blockchain as a conceptual medium for over 10 years. Myers describes themselves as “an artist, hacker and writer” (Myers, Bio). A recent work by Myers, titled Is Art (Token), made in 2023 as an Ethereum ERC-721 Token (NFT), is made using a digital image with text that says “this token is art”. The word ‘is’ is emphasised in a maroon colour that differentiates it from the rest in dark grey. The following is the didactic for the artwork. Own the creative power of a crypto artist. Is Art (Token) takes the artist’s power of nomination, of naming something as art, and delegates it to the artwork’s owner. Their assertion of its art or non-art status is secured and guaranteed by the power of the blockchain. Based on a common and understandable misunderstanding of how Is Art (2014) works, this is the first in a series of editions that inscribe ongoing and contemporary concerns onto this exemplar of a past or perhaps not yet realized blockchain artworld. (Myers, is art editions). This is a simple example of their work. A lot of Myers’s work appears to be uncomplicated but hides subtle levels of sophistication that use all the tools available to conceptual artists by questioning the notion of what art is—a hallmark of conceptual art (Goldie and Schellekens 22). Sol LeWitt, in Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, was the first to use the term, and described it by saying “the idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product”. According to Bailey, the most influential American conceptual artists of the 1960s were Lucy Lippard, Sol LeWitt, and Joseph Kosuth, “despite deriving from radically diverse insights about the reason for calling it ‘Conceptual Art’” (8). Instruction-Based Art Artist Claudia Hart employs the instructions used to create an NFT as a medium and artwork in Digital Combines, a new genre the artist has proposed, that joins physical, digital, and virtual media together. The NFT, in a digital combine, functions as a type of glue that holds different elements of the work together. New media rely on digital technology to communicate with the viewer. Digital combines take this one step further—the media are held together by an invisible instruction linked to the object or installation with a QR code that magically takes the viewer to the NFT via a “portal to the cloud” (Hart, Digital Combine Paintings). QR codes are something we all became familiar with during the on-and-off lockdown phase of the pandemic (Morrison et al. 1). Denso Wave Inc., the inventor of the Quick Response Code or QR Code, describes them as being a scannable graphic that is “capable of handling several dozen to several hundred times more information than a conventional bar code that can only store up to 20 digits”. QR Codes were made available to the public in 1994, are easily detected by readers at nearly any size, and can be reconfigured to fit a variety of different shapes. A “QR Code is capable of handling all types of data, such as numeric and alphabetic characters, Kanji, Kana, Hiragana, symbols, binary, and control codes. Up to 7,089 characters can be encoded in one symbol” (Denso Wave). Similar to ideas used by the American conceptual artists of the 1960s, QR codes and NFTs are used in digital combines as conceptual tools. Analogous to Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings, the instruction is the medium and part of the artwork. An example of a Wall Drawing made by Sol LeWitt is as follows: Wall Drawing 11A wall divided horizontally and vertically into four equal parts. Within each part, three of the four kinds of lines are superimposed.(Sol LeWitt, May 1969; MASS MoCA, 2023) The act or intention of using an NFT as a medium in art-making transforms it from being solely a financial contract, which NFTs are widely known for, to an artistic medium or a standalone artwork. The interdisciplinary artist Sue Beyer uses Machine Learning and NFTs as conceptual media in her digital combines. Beyer’s use of machine learning corresponds to the automatic writing that André Breton and Philippe Soupault of the Surrealists were exploring from 1918 to 1924 when they wrote Les Champs Magnétiques (Magnetic Fields) (Bohn 7). Automatic writing was popular amongst the spiritualist movement that evolved from the 1840s to the early 1900s in Europe and the United States (Gosden 399). Michael Riffaterre (221; in Bohn 8) talks about how automatic writing differs from ordinary texts. Automatic writing takes a “total departure from logic, temporality, and referentiality”, in addition to violating “the rules of verisimilitude and the representation of the real”. Bohn adds that although “normal syntax is respected, they make only limited sense”. An artificial intelligence (AI) hallucination, or what Chintapali (1) describes as “distorted reality”, can be seen in the following paragraph that Deep Story provided after entering the prompt ‘Sue Beyer’ in March 2022. None of these sentences have any basis in truth about the person Sue Beyer from Melbourne, Australia. Suddenly runs to Jen from the bedroom window, her face smoking, her glasses shattering. Michaels (30) stands on the bed, pale and irritated. Dear Mister Shut Up! Sue’s loft – later – Sue is on the phone, looking upset. There is a new bruise on her face. There is a distinction between AI and machine learning. According to ChatGPT 3.5, “Machine Learning is a subset of AI that focuses on enabling computers to learn and make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed. It involves the development of algorithms and statistical models that allow machines to automatically learn from data, identify patterns, and make informed decisions or predictions”. Using the story generator Deep Story, Beyer uses the element of chance inherent in Machine Learning to create a biography on herself written by the alien other of AI. The paragraphs that Deep Story produces are nonsensical statements and made-up fantasies of what Beyer suspects AI wants the artist to hear. Like a psychic medium or oracle, providing wisdom and advice to a petitioner, the words tumble out of the story generator like a chaotic prediction meant to be deciphered at a later time. This element of chance might be a short-lived occurrence as machine learning is evolving and getting smarter exponentially, the potential of which is becoming very evident just from empirical observation. Something that originated in early modernist science fiction is quickly becoming a reality in our time. A Metamodern Spell Casting Metamodernism is an evolving term that emerged from a series of global catastrophes that occurred from the mid-1990s onwards. The term tolerates the concurrent use of ideas that arise in modernism and postmodernism without discord. It uses oppositional aspects or concepts in art-making and other cultural production that form what Dember calls a “complicated feeling” (Dember). These ideas in oscillation allow metamodernism to move beyond these fixed terms and encompass a wide range of cultural tendencies that reflect what is known collectively as a structure of feeling (van den Akker et al.). The oppositional media used in a digital combine oscillate with each other and also form meaning between each other, relating to material and immaterial concepts. These amalgamations place “technology and culture in mutual interrogation to produce new ways of seeing the world as it unfolds around us” (Myers Studio Ltd.). The use of the oppositional aspects of technology and culture indicates that Myers’s work can also be firmly placed within the domain of metamodernism. Advancements in AI over the years since the pandemic are overwhelming. In episode 23 of the MIT podcast Business Lab, Justice stated that “Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of digital in many ways, across many types of technologies.” They go on to say that “this is where we are starting to experience such a rapid pace of exponential change that it’s very difficult for most people to understand the progress” (MIT Technology Review Insights). Similarly, in 2021 NFTs burst forth in popularity in reaction to various conditions arising from the pandemic meta-crisis. A similar effect was seen around cryptocurrencies after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007-2008 (Aliber and Zoega). “The popularity of cryptocurrencies represents in no small part a reaction to the financial crisis and austerity. That reaction takes the form of a retreat from conventional economic and political action and represents at least an economic occult” (Myers, Proof of Work 100). When a traumatic event occurs, like a pandemic, people turn to God, spirituality (Tumminio Hansen), or possibly the occult to look for answers. NFTs took on the role of precursor, promising access to untold riches, esoteric knowledge, and the comforting feeling of being part of the NFT cult. Similar to the effect of what Sutcliffe (15) calls spiritual “occultures” like “long-standing occult societies or New Age healers”, people can be lured by “the promise of secret knowledge”, which “can assist the deceptions of false gurus and create opportunities for cultic exploitation”. Conclusion NFTs are a metamodern spell casting, their popularity borne by the meta-crisis of the pandemic; they are made using magical instruction that oscillates between finance and conceptual abstraction, materialism and socialist idealism, financial ledger, and artistic medium. The metadata in the smart contract of the NFT provide instruction that combines the tangible and intangible. This oscillation, present in metamodern artmaking, creates and maintains a liminal space between these ideas, objects, and media. The in-between space allows for the perpetual transmutation of one thing to another. These ideas are a work in progress and additional exploration is necessary. An NFT is a new medium available to artists that does not physically exist but can be used to create meaning or to glue or hold objects together in a digital combine. Further investigation into the ontological aspects of this medium is required. The smart contract can be viewed as a recipe for the spell or incantation that, like instruction-based art, transforms an object from one thing to another. The blockchain that the NFT is housed in is a liminal space. The contract is stored on the threshold waiting for someone to view or purchase the NFT and turn the objects displayed in the gallery space into a digital combine. Alternatively, the intention of the artist is enough to complete this alchemical process. References Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. Caesar’s Druids: Story of an Ancient Priesthood. New Haven: Yale UP, 2010. Aliber, Robert Z., and Gylfi Zoega. “A Retrospective on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.” The 2008 Global Financial Crisis in Retrospect: Causes of the Crisis and National Regulatory Responses. Eds. Robert Z. Aliber and Gylfi Zoega. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. , 1–15. 9 June 2023 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12395-6_1>. Belk, Russell. “The Digital Frontier as a Liminal Space.” Journal of Consumer Psychology (2023): 1–7. Bailey, Robert. “Introduction: A Theory of Conceptualism.” Durham: Duke UP, 2017. 1–36. 28 July 2023 <https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1938/chapter/234969/IntroductionA-Theory-of-Conceptualism>. Bever, Edward. “Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.2 (2009): 263–293. 27 July 2023 <https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/6/article/315257>. Beyer, S. “Digital Combines.” Sue Beyer | Visual artist, 2023. 22 July 2023 <https://www.suebeyer.com.au/combines.html>. ———. “Digital Combines: A Metamodern Oscillation of Oppositional Objects and Concepts in Contemporary Interdisciplinary Art Practice.” International Journal of Contemporary Humanities 6 (2022). Bohn, Willard. One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry: Theory and Practice. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Brugué, Lydia, and Auba Llompart. Contemporary Fairy-Tale Magic: Subverting Gender and Genre. Boston: Brill, 2020. Cassino, Dan. “Crypto, Meme Stocks, and Threatened Masculinity.” Contexts 22.2 (2023): 18–23. ChatGPT 3.5. “ML vs AI.” Chat.openai.com, 18 June 2023. <https://chat.openai.com/share/4e425ff8-8610-4960-99d1-16e0451d517a>. Chintapali, Rohit. “Simplest Guardrail for AI Hallucinations? Be Skeptical, Double Check Outcomes & Don’t Anthropomorphise AI.” Business World 24 Mar. 2023. 28 June 2023 <https://www.proquest.com/docview/2790033991/abstract/9FD03495815D4956PQ/1>. Christie’s. “Beeple (b. 1981), EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS.” Christie’s, 2023. 7 June 2023 <https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924>. Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. Programmed Visions: Software and Memory. Cambridge: MIT P, 2011. Davis, E. “TechGnosis: Magic, Memory and the Angels of Information.” Magic. Ed. J. Sutcliffe. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2021. 114–121 ———. TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information. 2nd ed. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015. DeepStory.ai. “DeepStory.” DeepStory, 2023. 18 June 2023 <https://www.deepstory.ai/#!/>. Dember, G. “What Is Metamodernism and Why Does It Matter?” The Side View, 2020. 22 July 2023 <https://thesideview.co/journal/what-is-metamodernism-and-why-does-it-matter/>. Denso Wave Inc. “History of QR Code.” QRcode.com, n.d. 27 June 2023 <https://www.qrcode.com/en/history/>. Droitcour, Brian. “The Outland Review, Vol. 01.” Outland, 4 May 2023. 20 July 2023 <https://outland.art/the-outland-review-vol-01-julian-opie-taproot-wizards/>. Faustino, Sandra, Inês Faria, and Rafael Marques. “The Myths and Legends of King Satoshi and the Knights of Blockchain.” Journal of Cultural Economy 15.1 (2022): 67–80. 23 July 2023 <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2021.1921830>. Finn, Ed. What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing. EPub Version 1.0. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2017. Franceschet, Massimo. “The Sentiment of Crypto Art.” CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Aachen: RWTH Aachen, n.d. 310–318. 25 Nov. 2022 <https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2989/long_paper10.pdf>. Goldie, Peter, and Elisabeth Schellekens. Who’s Afraid of Conceptual Art? Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2009. Gordon, Melton J. “Magic.” Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Ed Melton J. Gordon. 5th ed. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2001. 956–960. 21 July 2023 <https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3403802897/GVRL?sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=00061628>. Gosden, Chris. The History of Magic: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present. London: Penguin, 2020. Haber, S., and W.S. Stornetta. “How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document.” Journal of Cryptology 3.2 (1991): 99–111. Hackl, Cathy, Dirk Lueth, and Tommaso di Bartolo. Navigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World. Ed. John Arkontaky. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2022. Hart, Claudia. “Digital Combine Paintings – Claudia Hart.” Claudia Hart, 2021. 15 Nov. 2022 <https://claudiahart.com/Digital-Combine-Paintings>. ———. “The Ruins Timeline – Claudia Hart.” Claudia Hart, 2020. 3 June 2023 <https://claudiahart.com/The-Ruins-timeline>. IBM. “What Are Smart Contracts on Blockchain?” IBM, n.d. 5 June 2023 <https://www.ibm.com/topics/smart-contracts>. LeWitt, Sol. “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.” Art Forum (1967): n.p. 28 July 2023 <http://arteducation.sfu-kras.ru/files/documents/lewitt-paragraphs-on-conceptual-art1.pdf>. ———. “Wall Drawing 11.” Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. MASS MoCA, 2023. 16 June 2023 <https://massmoca.org/event/walldrawing11/>. MIT Technology Review Insights. “Embracing the Rapid Pace of AI.” Business Lab, 20 May 2021. 28 July 2023 <https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/19/1025016/embracing-the-rapid-pace-of-ai/>. Morrison, Benjamin A., et al. “Life after Lockdown: The Experiences of Older Adults in a Contactless Digital World.” Frontiers in Psychology 13 (2023): 1–14. 28 July 2023 <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1100521>. Myers, Rhea. “Bio.” rhea.art, n.d. 1 July 2023 <https://rhea.art/bio>. ———. “is art editions.” rhea.art, 2023. 22 July 2023 <https://rhea.art/is-art-editions>. ——— [@rheaplex]. “My Little Penny: Bitcoin is Magic.” Tweet. Twitter, 2014. 8 June 2023 <https://twitter.com/rheaplex/status/439534733534298112>. ———. Proof of Work: Blockchain Provocations 2011-2021. UK: Urbanomic Media, 2023. Myers Studio Ltd. “The Home Base of Rhea and Seryna Myers.” Myers Studio, 2021. 17 Nov. 2022 <http://myers.studio/>. Nash, Alex. “The Akashic Records: Origins and Relation to Western Concepts.” Central European Journal for Contemporary Religion 3 (2020): 109–124. Otto, Bernd-Christian, and Michael Stausberg. Defining Magic: A Reader. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Riffaterre, Michael. Text Production. Trans. Terese Lyons. New York: Columbia UP, 1983. Rosengren, Karl S., and Anne K. Hickling. “Metamorphosis and Magic: The Development of Children’s Thinking about Possible Events and Plausible Mechanisms.” Imagining the Impossible. Ed. Karl S. Rosengren, Carl N. Johnson, and Paul L. Harris, 75–98. Cambridge UP, 2000. Srivastava, N. “What Is Blockchain Technology, and How Does It Work?” Blockchain Council, 23 Oct. 2020. 17 Nov. 2022 <https://www.blockchain-council.org/blockchain/what-is-blockchain-technology-and-how-does-it-work/>. Sutcliffe, J., ed. Magic. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2021. Thacker, Eugene. “Foreword (2015): ‘We Cartographers of Old…’” TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information. Kindle Edition. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015. Location 111-169. Tumminio Hansen, D. “Do People Become More Religious in Times of Crisis?” The Conversation, 2021. 9 June 2023 <http://theconversation.com/do-people-become-more-religious-in-times-of-crisis-158849>. Van den Akker, R., A. Gibbons, and T. Vermeulen. Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. Umar, Zaghum, et al. “Covid-19 Impact on NFTs and Major Asset Classes Interrelations: Insights from the Wavelet Coherence Analysis.” Finance Research Letters 47 (2022). 27 July 2023 <https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1544612322000496>. Wang, Qin, et al. “Non-Fungible Token (NFT): Overview, Evaluation, Opportunities and Challenges.” arXiv, 24 Oct. 2021. 28 July 2023 <http://arxiv.org/abs/2105.07447>. Yeats, W.B. “Magic.” Essays and Introductions. Ed. W.B. Yeats. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1961. 28–52. 27 July 2023 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00618-2_3>.

Introduction Many people interpret the word ‘cult’ through specific connotations, including, but not limited to, a community of like-minded people on the edge of civilization, often led by a charismatic leader, with beliefs that are ‘other’ to societal ‘norms’. Cults are often perceived as deviant, regularly incorporating elements of crime, especially physical and sexual violence. The adoption by some cults of a special uniform or dress code has been readily picked up by popular culture and has become a key ‘defining’ characteristic of the nature of a cult. In this article, we use the semiotic framework of myth, as discussed by Barthes, to demonstrate how cult uniforms become semiotic myths of popular culture. Narratively, the myth of the cult communicates violence, deviance, manipulation, and brainwashing. The myth of on-screen cults has derived itself from a reflexive pop culture foundation. From popular culture inspiring cults to cults inspiring popular culture and back again, society generates its cult myth through three key mechanisms: medicalisation, deviance amplification, and convergence. This means we are at risk of misrepresenting the true nature of cults, creating a definition incongruent with reality. This article traces the history of cults, the expectations of cult behaviour, and the semiotics of uniforms to start the discussion on why society is primed to accept a confusion between nature and the semiotic messaging of “what-goes-without-saying” (Barthes Mythologies 11). Semiotics and Myth Following the basic groundwork of de Saussure in the early 1900s, semiotics is the study of signs and how we use signs to derive meaning from the external world (de Saussure). Barthes expanded on this with his series of essays in Mythologies, adding a layer of connotation that leads to myth (Barthes Mythologies). Connotation, as described by Barthes, is the interaction between signs, feelings, and values. The connotations assigned to objects and concepts become a system of communication that is a message, the message becomes myth. The myth is not defined by the object or concept, but by the way society collectively understands it and all its connotations (Barthes Elements of Semiology 89-91). For scholars like Barthes, languages and cultural artifacts lend themselves to myth because many of our concepts are vague and abstract. Because the concept is vague, it is easy to impose our own values and ideologies upon it. This also means different people can interpret the same concept in different ways (Barthes Mythologies 132). The concept of a cult is no exception. Cults mean different things to different people and the boundaries between cults and religious or commercial organisations are often contested. As a pop culture artifact, the meaning of cults has been generated through repeated exposure in different media and genres. Similarly, pop culture (tv, films, news, etc.) often has the benefit of fiction, which separates itself from the true nature of cults (sensu Barthes Mythologies). Yet, through repeated exposure, we begin to share a universal meaning for the term and all the behaviours understood within the myth. Our repeated exposure to the signs of cults in pop culture is the combined effect of news media and fiction slowly building upon itself in a reflexive manner. We hear news reports of cults behaving in obscure ways, followed by a drama, parody, critique, or satire in a fictitious story. The audience then begins to see the repeated narrative as evidence to the true nature of cults. Over time the myth of the cult naturalises into the zeitgeist as concretely as any other sign, word, or symbol. Once the myth is naturalised, it is better used as a narrative device when affixed to a universally recognised symbol, such as the uniform. The uniform becomes an efficient device for communicating meaning in a short space of time. We argue that the concept of cult as myth has entered a collective understanding, and so, it is necessary to reflect on the mechanisms that drove the correlations which ultimately created the myth. Barthes’s purpose for analysing myth was “to track down, in the decorative display of what-goes-without-saying, the ideological abuse which, in my view, is hidden there” (Barthes Mythologies 11). For this reason, we must briefly look at the history of cults and their relationship with crime. A Brief History of Cults ‘Cult’ derives from the Latin root, cultus, or cultivation, and initially referred to forms of religious worship involving special rituals and ceremonies directed towards specific figures, objects, and/or divine beings. Early to mid-twentieth century sociologists adopted and adapted the term to classify a kind of religious organisation and later to signal new forms of religious expression not previously of primary or singular interest to the scholar of religion (Campbell; Jackson and Jobling; Nelson). The consequences were such that ‘cult’ came to carry new weight in terms of its meaning and reception, and much like other analytical concepts developed an intellectual significance regarding religious innovation it had not previously possessed. Unfortunately, this was not to last. By the early 1990s, ‘cult’ had become a term eschewed by scholars as pejorative, value-laden, and disparaging of its supposed subject matter; a term denuded of technical and descriptive meaning and replaced by more value-neutral alternatives (Dillon and Richardson; Richardson; Chryssides and Zeller). Results from well-published surveys (Pfeifer; Olson) and our own experience in teaching related subject matter revealed predominantly negative attitudes towards the term ‘cult’, with the inverse true for the alternative descriptors. Perhaps more importantly, the surveys revealed that for the public majority, knowledge of ‘cults’ came via media reportage of particularly the sensational few, rather than from direct experience of new religions or their members more generally (Pfeifer). For example, the Peoples Temple, Branch Davidian, and Heaven’s Gate groups featured heavily in news and mass media. Importantly, reporting of each of the tragic events marking their demise (in 1978, 1993, and 1997 respectively) reinforced a burgeoning stereotype and escalated fears about cults in our midst. The events in Jonestown, Guyana (Peoples Temple), especially, bolstered an anticult movement of purported cult experts and deprogrammers offering to save errant family members from the same fate as those who died [there]. The anticult movement portrayed all alleged cults as inherently dangerous and subject only to internal influences. They figured the charismatic leader as so powerful that he could take captive the minds of his followers and make them do whatever he wanted. (Crockford 95) While the term ‘new religious movement’ (NRM) has been used in place of cults within the academic sphere, ‘cult’ is still used within popular culture contexts precisely because of the connotations it inspires, with features including charismatic leaders, deprogrammers, coercion and mind-control, deception, perversion, exploitation, deviance, religious zealotry, abuse, violence, and death. For this reason, we still use the word cult to mean the myth of the cult as represented by popular culture. Representations of Cults and Expectations of Crime Violence and crime can be common features of some cults. Most NRMs “stay within the boundaries of the law” and practice their religion peacefully (Szubin, Jensen III, and Gregg 17). Unfortunately, it is usually those cults that are engaged in violence and crime that become newsworthy, and thus shape public ‘knowledge’ about the nature of cults and drive public expectations. Two of America’s most publicised cults, Charles Manson and the Manson Family and the Peoples Temple, are synonymous with violence and crime. Prior to committing mass suicide by poison in Jonestown, the Peoples Temple accumulated many guns as well as killing Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his party. Similarly, Charles Manson and the Manson Family stockpiled weapons, participated in illegal drug use, and murdered seven people, including Hollywood actor Sharon Tate. The high-profile victims of both groups ensured ongoing widespread media attention and continuous popular culture interest in both groups. Other cults are more specifically criminal in nature: for example, the Constanzo group in Matamoros, while presenting as a cult, are also a drug gang, leading to many calling these groups narco-cults (Kail 56). Sexual assault and abuse are commonly associated with cults. There have been numerous media reports worldwide on the sexual abuse of (usually) women and/or children. For example, a fourteen-year-old in the Children of God group alleged that she was raped when she disobeyed a leader (Rudin 28). In 2021, the regional city of Armidale, Australia, became national news when a former soldier was arrested on charges of “manipulating a woman for a ‘cult’ like purpose” (McKinnell). The man, James Davis, styles himself as the patriarch of a group known as the ‘House of Cadifor’. Police evidence includes six signed “slavery contracts”, as well as 70 witnesses to support the allegation that Mr Davis subjected a woman to “ongoing physical, sexual and psychological abuse and degradation” as well as unpaid prostitution and enslavement (McKinnell). Cults and Popular Culture The depiction of cults in popular culture is attracting growing attention. Scholars Lynn Neal (2011) and Joseph Laycock (2013) have initiated this research and identified consistent stereotypes of 'cults’ being portrayed throughout popular media. Neal found that cults began to be featured in television shows as early as the 1950s and 1960s, continually escalating until the 1990s before dropping slightly between 2000 and 2008 (the time the research was concluded). Specifically, there were 10 episodes between 1958-1969; 19 in the 1970s, which Neal attributes to the “rise of the cult scare and intense media scrutiny of NRMs” (97); 25 in the 1980s; 72 in the 1990s; and 59 between 2000 and 2008. Such academic research has identified that popular culture is important in the formation of the public perception, and social definition, of acceptable and deviant religions (Laycock 81). Laycock argues that representations of cults in popular culture reinforces public narratives about cults in three important ways: medicalisation, deviance amplification, and convergence. Medicalisation refers to the depiction of individuals becoming brainwashed and deprogrammed. The medicalisation of cults can be exacerbated by the cult uniform and clinical, ritualistic behaviours. Deviance amplification, a term coined by Leslie Wilkins in the 1960s, is the phenomenon of ‘media hype’, where the media selects specific examples of deviant behaviour, distorting them (Wilkins), such that a handful of peripheral cases appears representative of a larger social problem (Laycock 84). Following the deviance amplification, there is then often a 'moral panic' (a term coined by Stanley Cohen in 1972) where the problem is distorted and heightened within the media. Cults are often subject to deviance amplification within the media, leading to moral panics about the ‘depraved’, sexual, criminal, and violent activities of cults preying on and brainwashing innocents. Convergence “is a rhetorical device associated with deviance amplification in which two or more activities are linked so as to implicitly draw a parallel between them” (Laycock 85). An example of convergence occurred when the Branch Davidians were compared to the Peoples Temple, ultimately leading the FBI “to end the siege through an aggressive ‘dynamic entry’ in part because they feared such a mass suicide” (Laycock 85). The FBI transferred responsibility for the deaths to ‘mass suicide’, which has become the common narrative of events at Waco. Each of the three mechanisms have an important role to play in the popular culture presentation of cults to audiences. Popular media sources, fictional or not, are incentivised to present the most diabolical cult to the audience – and this often includes the medicalised elements of brainwashing and manipulation. This presentation reinforces existing deviance amplification and moral panics around the depraved activities of cults, and in particular sexual and criminal activities. And finally, convergence acts as a 'cultural script’ where the portrayal of these types of characteristics (brainwashing, criminal or violent behaviour, etc.) is automatically associated with cults. As Laycock argues, “in this way, popular culture has a unique ability to promote convergence and, by extension, deviance amplification” (85). The mechanisms of medicalisation, deviance amplification and convergence are important to the semiotic linking of concepts, signs, and signifiers in the process of myth generation. In efficiently understanding the message of the myth, the viewer must have a sign they can affix to it. In the case of visual mediums this must be immediate and certain. As many of the convergent properties of cults are behavioural (acts of violence and depravity, charismatic leaders, etc.), we need a symbol that audiences can understand immediately. Uniforms achieve this with remarkable efficiency. Upon seeing a still, two-dimensional image of people wearing matching garb it can be made easily apparent that they are part of a cult. Religious uniforms are one of the first visual images one conjures upon hearing the word cult: “for most people the word ‘cult’ conjures up ‘60s images of college students wearing flowing robes, chanting rhythmically and spouting Eastern philosophy” (Salvatore cited in Petherick 577; italics in original). The impact is especially pronounced if the clothes are atypical, anachronistic, or otherwise different to the expected clothes of the context. This interpretation then becomes cemented through the actions of the characters. In Rick and Morty, season 1, episode 10, Morty is imprisoned with interdimensional versions of himself. Despite some morphological differences, each Morty is wearing his recognisable yellow top and blue pants. While our Morty’s back is turned, five hooded, robed figures in atypical garb with matching facial markings approach Morty. The audience is immediately aware that this is a cult. The comparison between the uniform of Morty and the Morty cult exemplifies the use of cult uniform in the myth of Cults. The cult is then cemented through chanting and a belief in the “One true Morty” (Harmon et al.). Semiotics, Clothes, and Uniforms The semiotics of clothes includes implicit, explicit, and subliminal signs. The reasons we choose to wear what we wear is governed by multiple factors both within our control and outside of it: for instance, our body shape, social networks and economic status, access to fashion and choice (Barthes The Fashion System; Hackett). We often choose to communicate aspects of our identity through what we wear or what we choose not to wear. Our choice of clothing communicates aspects of who we are, but also who we want to be (Hackett; Simmel; Veblen) Uniforms are an effective and efficient communicative device. Calefato’s classification of uniforms is not only as those used by military and working groups, but also including the strictly coded dress of subcultures. Unlike other clothes which can be weakly coded, uniforms differentiate themselves through their purposeful coded signalling system (Calefato). To scholars such as Jennifer Craik, uniforms intrigue us because they combine evident statements as well as implied and subliminal communications (Craik). Theories about identity predict that processes similar to the defining of an individual are also important to group life, whereby an individual group member's conceptualisation of their group is derived from the collective identity (Horowitz; Lauger). Collective identities are regularly emphasised as a key component in understanding how groups gain meaning and purpose (Polletta and Jasper). The identity is generally constructed and reinforced through routine socialisation and collective action. Uniforms are a well-known means of creating collective identities. They restrict one’s clothing choices and use boundary-setting rituals to ensure commitment to the group. In general, the more obvious the restriction, the easier it is to enforce. Demanding obvious behaviours from members, unique to the community, simultaneously generates a differentiation between the members and non-members, while enabling self-enforcement and peer-to-peer judgments of commitment. Leaders of religious movements like cults and NRMs will sometimes step back from the punitive aspects of nonconformity. Instead, it falls to the members to maintain the discipline of the collective (Kelley 109). This further leads to a sense of ownership and therefore belonging to the community. Uniforms are an easy outward-facing signal that allows for ready discrimination of error. Because they are often obvious and distinctive dress, they constrain and often stigmatise members. In other collective situations such as with American gangs, even dedicated members will deny their gang affiliation if it is advantageous to do so (Lauger Real Gangstas). While in uniform, individuals cannot hide their membership, making the sacrifice more costly. Members are forced to take one hundred percent of the ownership and participate wholly, or not at all. Through this mechanism, cults demonstrate the medicalisation of the members. Leaders may want their members to be unable to escape or deny affiliation. Similarly, their external appearances might invite persecution and therefore breed resilience, courage, and solidarity. It is, in essence, a form of manipulation (see for instance Iannaccone). Alternatively, as Melton argues, members may want to be open and proud of their organisation, as displayed through them adopting their uniforms (15). The uniform of cults in popular media is a principal component of medicalisation, deviance amplification, and convergence. The uniform, often robes, offers credence to the medicalisation aspect: members of cults are receiving ‘treatment’ — initially, negative treatment while being brainwashed, and then later helpful/saving treatment when being deprogrammed, providing they survive a mass suicide attempt and/or, criminal, sexual, or violent escapades. Through portraying cult members in a distinctive uniform, there is no doubt for the audience who is receiving or in need of treatment. Many of the cults portrayed on screen can easily communicate the joining of a cult by changing the characters' dress. Similarly, by simply re-dressing the character, it is communicated that the character has returned to normal, they have been saved, they are a survivor. In Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, while three of the four ‘Mole women’ integrate back into society, Gretchen Chalker continues to believe in their cult; as such she never takes of her cult uniform. In addition, the employment of uniforms for cult members in popular culture enables an instant visual recognition of ‘us’ and ‘them’, or ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, and reinforces stereotypical notions of social order and marginalised, deviant (religious) groups (Neal 83). The clothing differences are obvious in The Simpsons season 9, episode 13, “Joy of Sect”: ‘Movementarian’ members, including the Simpsons, don long flowing robes. The use of cult uniform visualises their fanatical commitment to the group. It sets them apart from the rest of Springfield and society (Neal 88-89). The connection between uniforms and cults derives two seemingly paradoxical meanings. Firstly, it reduces the chances of the audience believing that the cult employed ‘deceptive recruiting’ techniques. As Melton argues, because of the association our society has with uniforms and cults, “it is very hard for someone to join most new religions, given their peculiar dress and worship practices, without knowing immediately its religious nature” (14). As such, within popular media, the presence of the uniform increases the culpability of those who join the cult. Contrarily, the character in uniform is a sign that the person has been manipulated and/or brainwashed. This reduces the culpability of the cult member. However, the two understandings are not necessarily exclusive. It is possible to view the cult member as a naïve victim, someone who approached the cult as an escape from their life but was subsequently manipulated into behaving criminally. This interpretation is particularly powerful because it indicates cults can prey on anyone, and that anyone could become a victim of a cult. This, in turn, heightens the moral panic surrounding cults and NRMs. The on-screen myth of the cult as represented by its uniform has a basis in the real-life history of NRMs. Heaven’s Gate members famously died after they imbibed fatal doses of alcohol and barbiturates to achieve their ‘final exit’. Most members were found laid out on beds covered in purple shrouds, all wearing matching black shirts, black pants, and black and white Nike shoes. The famous photos of Warren Jeffs’s polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the subject of Netflix’s Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, depict multiple women in matching conservative dresses with matching hairstyles gathered around a photo of Jeffs. The image and uniform are a clear influence on the design of Unbreakable’s ‘Mole women’. A prime example of the stereotype of cult uniforms is provided by the Canadian comedy program The Red Green Show when the character Red tells Harold “cults are full of followers, they have no independent thought, they go to these pointless meetings ... they all dress the same” (episode 165). The statement is made while the two main characters Red and Harold are standing in matching outfits. Blurring Nature and Myth Importantly, the success of these shows very much relies on audiences having a shared conception of NRMs and the myth of the cult. This is a curious combination of real and fictional knowledge of the well-publicised controversial events in history. Fictional cults frequently take widely held perspectives of actual religious movements and render them either more absurd or more frightening (Laycock 81). Moreover, the blurring of fictional and non-fictional groups serves to reinforce the sense that all popular culture cults and their real-world counterparts are the same; that they all follow a common script. In this, there is convergence between the fictional and the real. The myth of the cult bleeds from the screen into real life. The Simpsons’ “The Joy of Sect” was televised in the year following the suicide of the 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate group, and the storyline in part was influenced by it. Importantly, as a piercing, satirical critique of middle-class America, the “Joy of Sect” not only parodied traditional and non-traditional religion generally (as well as the ‘cult-like’ following of mass media such as Fox); scholars have shown that it also parodied the ‘cult’ stereotype itself (Feltmate). While Heaven’s Gate influenced to a greater or lesser extent each of the TV shows highlighted thus far, it was also the case that the group incorporated into its eschatology aspects of popular culture linked primarily to science fiction. For example, group members were known to have regularly watched and discussed episodes of Star Trek (Hoffmann and Burke; Sconce), adopting aspects of the show’s vernacular in “attempts to relate to the public” (Gate 163). Words such as ‘away-team’, ‘prime-directive’, ‘hologram’, ‘Captain’, ‘Admiral’, and importantly ‘Red-Alert’ were adopted; the latter, often signalling code-red situations in Star Trek episodes, appeared on the Heaven’s Gate Website in the days just prior to their demise. Importantly, allusions to science fiction and Star Trek were incorporated into the group’s self-styled ‘uniform’ worn during their tragic ritual-suicide. Stitched into the shoulders of each of their uniforms were triangular, Star Trek-inspired patches featuring various celestial bodies along with a tagline signalling the common bond uniting each member: “Heaven’s Gate Away Team” (Sconce). Ironically, with replica patches readily for sale online, and T-shirts and hoodies featuring modified though similar Heaven’s Gate symbolism, this ‘common bond’ has been commodified in such a way as to subvert its original meaning – at least as it concerned ‘cult’ membership in the religious context. The re-integration of cult symbols into popular culture typifies the way we as a society detachedly view the behaviours of cults. The behaviour of cults is anecdotally viewed through a voyeuristic lens, potentially exacerbated by the regular portrayals of cults through parody. Scholars have demonstrated how popular culture has internationally impacted on criminological aspects of society. For instance, there was a noted, international increase in unrealistic expectations of jurors wanting forensic evidence during court cases after the popularity of forensic science in crime dramas (Franzen; Wise). After the arrest of James Davis in Armidale, NSW, Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Davis was the patriarch of the “House of Cadifor” and he was part of a “cult” (both reported in inverted commas). The article also includes an assumption from Davis's lawyer that, in discussing the women of the group, “the Crown might say ‘they’ve been brainwashed’”. Similarly, the article references the use of matching collars by the women (Mitchell). Nine News reported that the “ex-soldier allegedly forced tattooed, collared sex slave into prostitution”, bringing attention to the clothing as part of the coercive techniques of Davis. While the article does not designate the House of Cadifor as a cult, they include a quote from the Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough, “Mr Davis' group has cult-like qualities”, and included the keyword ‘cults’ for the article. Regrettably, the myth of cults and real-world behaviours of NRMs do not always align, and a false convergence is drawn between the two. Furthermore, the consistent parodying and voyeuristic nature of on-screen cults means we might be at fault of euphemising the crimes and behaviours of those deemed to be part of a ‘cult’. Anecdotally, the way Armidale locals discussed Davis was through a lens of excitement and titillation, as if watching a fictional story unfold in their own backyard. The conversations and news reporting focussed on the cult-like aspects of Davis and not the abhorrence of the alleged crimes. We must remain mindful that the cinematic semiology of cults and the myth as represented by their uniform dress and behaviours is incongruent with the nature of NRMs. However, more work needs to be done to better understand the impact of on-screen cults on real-world attitudes and beliefs. Conclusion The myth of the cult has entered a shared understanding within today’s zeitgeist, and the uniform of the cult stands at its heart as a key sign of the myth. Popular culture plays a key role in shaping this shared understanding by following the cultural script, slowly layering fact with fiction, just as fact begins to incorporate the fiction. The language of the cult as communicated through their uniforms is, we would argue, universally understood and purposeful. The ubiquitous representation of cults portrays a deviant group, often medicalised, and subject to deviance amplification and convergence. When a group of characters is presented to the audience in the same cult dress, we know what is being communicated to us. Fictional cults in popular culture continue to mirror the common list of negative features attributed to many new religious movements. Such fictional framing has come to inform media-consumer attitudes in much the same way as news media, reflecting as they do the cultural stock of knowledge from which our understandings are drawn, and which has little grounding in the direct or immediate experience of the phenomena in question. In short, the nature of NRMs has become confused with the myth of the cult. More research is needed to understand the impact of the myth of the cult. However, it is important to ensure “what-goes-without-saying” is not obfuscating, euphemising, or otherwise misrepresenting nature. References Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. London: Jonathon Cape, 1967. ———. The Fashion System. U of California P, 1990. ———. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. Calefato, Patrizia. "Clothing as Jargon: On the Sociosemiotics of the Uniform." Zeitschrift für Semiotik 27.3 (2005): 241-52. Campbell, Bruce. "A Typology of Cults." Sociological Analysis 39.3 (1978): 228-40. Chryssides, George D., and Benjamin E. Zeller. "Opposition to NRMs." The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements. Eds. George D. Chryssides and Benjamin E. Zeller. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. 163-78. "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind." Rick and Morty. Dir. Stephen Sandoval. Cartoon Network. 7 Apr. 2014. Cohen, Stanley. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Routledge, 2011. Craik, Jennifer. "The Cultural Politics of the Uniform." Fashion Theory 7.2 (2003): 127-47. Crockford, Susannah. "How Do You Know When You’re in a Cult? The Continuing Influence of Peoples Temple and Jonestown in Contemporary Minority Religions and Popular Culture." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 22.2 (2018): 93-114.. “Cult Visit, The.” The Red and Green Show. S&S Production. 1998. De Saussure, Ferdinand. "Nature of the Linguistic Sign." Course in General Linguistics 1 (1916): 65-70. Dillon, Jane, and James Richardson. "The ‘Cult' Concept: A Politics of Representation Analysis." SYZYGY: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture 3 (1994): 185-97. Feltmate, David. "The Humorous Reproduction of Religious Prejudice: 'Cults' and Religious Humour in the Simpsons, South Park, and King of the Hill." The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 24.2 (2012): 201-16. Franzen, R. "CSI Effect on Potential Jurors Has Some Prosecutors Worried." San Diego Union-Tribune 16 (2002). Hackett, Lisa J. "‘Biography of the Self’: Why Australian Women Wear 1950s Style Clothing." Fashion, Style & Popular Culture 9.1-2 (2022): 1-2. Heavens Gate. How and When "Heaven's Gate" May Be Entered: An Anthology of Our Materials. Mill Spring, NC: Wild Flower P, 1997. Hoffmann, Bill, and Cathy Burke. Heaven's Gate: Cult Suicide in San Diego. HarperCollins, 1997. Horowitz, Ruth. Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community. Rutgers UP, 1983. Iannaccone, Laurence R. "Why Strict Churches Are Strong." American Journal of Sociology 99.5 (1994): 1180-211. Jackson, John A., and R. Jobling. "Toward an Analysis of Contemporary Cults." A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain. Ed. David Martin. London: SCM, 1968. "The Joy of Sect." The Simpsons. Dir. S.D. Moore. Fox, 1998. Kail, Tony M. Narco-Cults: Understanding the Use of Afro-Caribbean and Mexican Religious Cultures in the Drug Wars. CRC Press, 2017. Kelley, Dean M. Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. Lauger, Timothy R. "Gangs, Identity, and Cultural Performance." Sociology Compass 14.4 (2020): e12772. ———. Real Gangstas: Legitimacy, Reputation, and Violence in the Intergang Environment. Ithaca, NY: Rutgers UP, 2012. McKinnell, Jamie. "Alleged Sex 'Cult' Leader James Davis's Trial Will Hear from 70 Witnesses, Court Hears." ABC News 2021. Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. Routledge, 2014. Mitchell, Georgina. "James Davis Refused Bail over ‘Holding Woman as Slave, Coercing Her into Sex Work’." The Sydney Morning Herald 17 Mar. 2021. <https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/james-davis-refused-bail-over-holding-woman-as-slave-coercing-her-into-sex-work-20210317-p57bn7.html>. Nelson, Geoffrey K. "The Spiritualist Movement and the Need for a Redefinition of Cult." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 8.1 (1969): 152-60. Nine News. "Ex-Soldier Allegedly Forced Tattooed, Collared Sex Slave into Prostitution." Nine News Mar. 2021. <https://www.9news.com.au/national/james-davis-house-of-cadifor-alleged-slave-forced-into-sex/48738435-74cd-403d-acc9-e998f7cad08c>. Olson, Paul J. "The Public Perception of 'Cults' and 'New Religious Movements'." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45.1 (2006): 97-106. Petherick, Wayne. "Chapter 20 – Cults." The Psychology of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior. Eds. Wayne Petherick and Grant Sinnamon. Academic Press, 2017. 565-88. Pfeifer, Jeffrey E. "The Psychological Framing of Cults: Schematic Representations and Cult Evaluations." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 22.7 (1992): 531-44. Polletta, Francesca, and James M. Jasper. "Collective Identity and Social Movements." Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 283-305. Richardson, James T. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative." Review of Religious Research 34.4 (1993): 348-56.. Rudin, Marcia R. "The Cult Phenomenon: Fad or Fact." NYU Rev. L. & Soc. Change 9 (1979): 17. Salvatore, D. "Soul Searching: Cults Targeting an Older Pool of Recruits." Ladies Home Journal, Chicago Sun Times 1987. Sconce, Jeffrey. "Star Trek, Heaven’s Gate, and Textual Transcendence." Cult Television (2004): 199-222. Simmel, Georg. "Fashion." International Quarterly 10.1 (1904): 136. Szubin, Adam, Carl J. Jensen III, and Rod Gregg. "Interacting with Cults: A Policing Model." FBI L. Enforcement Bull. 69 (2000): 16. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Netflix, 2020. Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. London: Allen & Unwin, 1924. Wilkins, Leslie T. Social Deviance: Social Policy, Action and Research. Routledge, 2013. Wise, Jenny. "Providing the CSI Treatment: Criminal Justice Practitioners and the CSI Effect." Current Issues in Criminal Justice 21.3 (2010): 383-99.

Oral history means many things. It is a record of oral tradition, compiled of stories handed down from one generation to the next, as well as the recording of personal history or experiences. It can involve a formal interview examining a particular topic, such as the history of the space telescope, or a moment in time, such as the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island commercial nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979. A kind of oral history can also occur informally, when family members share stories around a kitchen table or when a high school student interviews his grandmother about immigrating to the United States. The task of categorizing oral history has become even more challenging in the digital age. It is possible to define online oral history, as resources are available via the Internet that are related to the collecting, cataloging, preserving, or sharing of oral history.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a class of manufacturing processes where material is deposited in a layer-by-layer fashion to fabricate a three-dimensional part directly from a computer-aided design model. With a current market share of 44%, thermoplastic-based additive manufacturing such as fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a prevailing technology. A key challenge for AM parts (especially for parts made by FDM) in engineering applications is the weak inter-layer adhesion. The lack of bonding between filaments usually results in delamination and mechanical failure. To address this challenge, this study embedded carbon nanotubes into acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastics via a filament extrusion process. The vigorous response of carbon nanotubes to microwave irradiation, leading to the release of a large amount of heat, is used to melt the ABS thermoplastic matrix adjacent to carbon nanotubes within a very short time period. This treatment is found to enhance the inter-layer adhesion without bulk heating to deform the 3D printed parts. Tensile and flexural tests were performed to evaluation the effects of microwave irradiation on mechanical properties of the specimens made by FDM. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images were taken to characterize the fracture surfaces of tensile test specimens. The actual carbon nanotube contents in the filaments were measured by conducting thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The effects of microwave irradiation on the electrical resistivity of the filament were also reported.

The development of a new family of PE materials with significantly improved processability and long term strength at high temperatures is discussed. These polymers form the basis for a new ISO class of polyethylene materials: PE-RT (Polyethylene of Raised Temperature resistance) for hot and cold water as well as industrial pipe applications. These materials have a unique molecular structure and crystalline microstructure, which provides excellent Long Term Hydrostatic Strength at high temperature without crosslinking the material. PE-RT type materials are successfully used in domestic hot and cold water piping systems for most applications. The easy processing and outstanding material properties made these resins also attractive for use in many industrial applications, where larger dimensions are required and regular Polyethylene cannot be used or has temperature limitations. They also compete against high end engineering plastics, offering significant cost savings. These materials provide significant process advantages to the converters, allowing high line speed pipe production and providing excellent flexibility and ease of installation for the application. A recently developed PE-RT type material offers still higher long-term strength at high temperature and further improved processability. This combination makes this resin particularly suitable for high temperature applications. An example of the latter is in larger diameter cooling water pipes in power plants. Pipes based on these materials can be connected via heat welding or by the use of mechanical fittings. Furthermore this material can be used in industrial applications, were traditional Polyethylene is limited by the temperature resistance and metallic materials suffer from corrosion. The excellent weldability of these materials provides various opportunities to connect also larger dimensions in industrial applications. Another example of this is the use in multi-layer structured oil pipelines on-shore and off-shore. This paper presents the material science and product design concepts that govern the high long-term hydrostatic strength at high temperatures. By controlling the molecular structure, the melt rheology and solid state properties can be influenced. This results in a unique balance of processability and hydrostatic strength. Further discussed are the product features and benefits of PE-RT materials. The paper shows examples of the application range for this type of products, using applications in the domestic pipes market as a reference study.

This paper reports an easy, low cost, and low temperature hermetic packaging technology utilizing eutectic SnPb solder and Cr/Ni/Cu bonding pad. We investigate the bonding results of silicon-silicon as well as silicon-glass and glass-glass bonding. Most hermetic packaging technologies require a bonding temperature higher than 300°C. Because some devices are sensitive to temperature that decreases their functionalities, two localized heating technology have been proposed. One technology generates heat via built-in-microheaters on the silicon substrate. Another localized heating technology utilizes microwave as a heating source [1]. However, both technologies require high cost and cannot be implemented for mass production. Furthermore, local heating creates a large temperature gradient. The stress causes crack on the substrates, thus limiting the selection of substrate materials. We choose eutectic tin-lead with the melting temperature of 183°C. Metal thin films we choose is also similar to the under bump metallurgy used for flip chip technology. The advantage of solder is its metal property. With a width of a few micrometers, metal can block moisture for over a decade. In addition, solder is known to pertain self-aligning property in flip chip technology. Other kind of solders can also be applied for hermetic packaging as well. Shie et al have tested In-Sn as bonding using the reflow temperature as low as 120 °C [2]. Seong-A Kim et. al have tested Au-Sn solder line at 400°C [3,4]. Due to the difference in melting points, the application of Sn-Pb, Au-Sn and In-Sn can be different. Bonding characteristic of our design is investigated on three different setups: silicon-silicon, silicon-glass, and glass-glass samples. (Fig.1) This experiment consists of three different setups: silicon-to-silicon bonding, silicon-to-glass bonding, and glass-to-glass bonding. These three different setups utilize the same bonding method. The design includes square patterns and circle patterns of 500 μm width as shown in Figure 2. Schematic process flow of sample fabrication is demonstrated in Figure 3. Substrate and cap have identical size with the pattern of square of 1 cm in width or circle of 1 cm in diameter. The bonding pad is composed of three layers of metal from bottom to top: 500 Å of chromium, 2000 Å of nickel and 6000 Å of copper.(Fig.3b) Eutectic SnPb solder is reflowed on square or circle patterns on a hot plate at room ambient.(Fig.3d) Sample pairs are then bonded on a hot plate at 200°C for about 1.5 minutes for silicon-silicon and silicon glass bonding and 3 minutes for glass-glass bonding.(Fig.3e) Before placing the sample pairs on the hot plate, for glass-glass and glass-silicon bonding, we align a pair of chips of matched pattern by visual alignment. For silicon-silicon bonding, we align two chips along the dividing lines. Figure 4a and 4b show a glass and a silicon sample after solder reflow respectively. Sample pairs after bonding process are seen in Figure 5a through 5c. Figures 6a through 6c show the cross-sectional picture of the joint. Figures 6b and 6c are enlarged pictures of left and right side of the joints respectively. The average misalignment is 11.2 μm and 13.6 μm for square and circle samples respectively. Bonding strength of the three setups ranges from 3 MPa to 10 MPa. For leakage rate test, a 3 mm hole in diameter was drilled under the sealed area on the substrate side, followed by connecting a glass pipe to the hole by frit glass. The setup can be pumped down to the order of 10−8 torr.

Communication Action Zones in Art and Technology, in portuguese Zonas de Ações Comunicacionais em Arte e Tecnologia – ZACAT – is a master's research developed in Brazil, made before and during the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, which causes the New Coronavirus disease. This artistic and academic work includes a set of sound and visual poetics based on an investigation of artistic communicational practices of an activist character, with the mediation of several questions about the current Brazilian history. Firstly, through diversified strategies and proposals for different interlocutors, with experiments in 2019, in different spaces in the city of Santa Maria, state of Rio Grande do Sul - streets, museums, art galleries, university, school, social networks, radio wave space. Subsequently, as a result of the world scenario presented from 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the poetic undergoes significant transformations. In addition to the artistic and communicational strategies undergoing changes in approach, the Santa Maria space moves to that of the Clube Naturista Colina do Sol (CNCS), a naturist community located in the municipality of Taquara, also in Rio Grande do Sul. Not urbanized and immersed with the wild environment the least interfered by human action, which provides other forms of listening and connection, in addition to the relationship with the body, communication and technology, such as the use of online virtual reality platforms to share the work carried out. To approach the construction of this research, studies on methodology by the researcher and artist Sandra Rey (1953) are used. As a theoretical foundation, reference is made to the idea of micropolitics, a concept that refers to philosophers Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and to art critic Suely Rolnik (1948). Activist artistic practices are based on the experiences of Brazilian collectives from the 1990’s to the present, as seen under the historiography of Art Activism from the 1950’s, with Italian autonomist philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben (1942) and Franco Berardi (1949). To support the notion of Art and Communication, authors such as Mario Costa (1936), Fred Forest (1933), Mônica Tavares, Priscila Arantes, Christine Mello and Giselle Beiguelman are based on. The concept of device emerges from theoretical research and mediates artistic practices, having as reference Agamben, Foucault, Vilém Flusser (1920-1991) and Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989). From performances, through installations, through audio, video and face-to-face interactivity experiments or via virtual networks, this research seeks to give visibility to everyday micropolitics, with their memories, affections, formalized or ephemeral life impulses in moments of encounters. And how the artistic works can unfold in different contexts, in front of different audiences and under challenging conditions in terms of a larger historical context.