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Frey, Marsha L. « Jeremy Black, editor. Knights Errant and True Englishmen : British Foreign Policy, 1660–1800. Edinburgh : John Donald Publishers, Inc.1989. Pp. ix, 183. £20.00. » Albion 22, no 1 (1990) : 125–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4050277.
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Byers, Philip. « “We Are Doing Everything That Our Resources Will Allow” : The Black Church and Foundation Philanthropy, 1959–1979 ». Religions 9, no 8 (1 août 2018) : 234. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel9080234.
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Contemporary wealth inequality has prompted a renewed and increased interest in the role that external funding plays in civil society. While observers frequently consider how big philanthropy influences education, politics, and social services, few historical treatments of the postwar era have addressed the interaction between foundation philanthropy and American religion. Black Christianity stands as one clear example of this oversight. Numerous studies of black life in the twentieth-century have engaged the tensions between internal prerogatives and external influences without applying those questions to black churches. This article begins that exploration by focusing on Lilly Endowment, Inc.—the most consistent twentieth-century source of foundation support for religion—and analyzing its interactions with a series of summer seminars for black ministers hosted at Virginia Union University. Though contextual changes in the latter twentieth century altered the nature of Lilly Endowment’s relationship with its recipients, two decades of collaboration reveal how black Christians exerted substantial influence over the trajectory of Lilly Endowment’s growing program in religious giving.
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Anella*, Louis B., Keith Reed, P. I. Erickson et Janet C. Cole. « Evaluation of 48 Rose Cultivars for Low Maintenance Landscapes in Oklahoma ». HortScience 39, no 4 (juillet 2004) : 756E—756. http://dx.doi.org/10.21273/hortsci.39.4.756e.
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Although roses have long been an important landscape plant, there is a growing interest in the use of low-maintenance roses that do not require heavy pruning or spraying. Poulsen Roser Pacific, Inc. of Central Point, Oregon, provided three plants of 48 cultivars for a trial in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The plants were produced in Oregon by grafting cultivars on seedling Rosa multiflora rootstock. Two-year-old plants were shipped bare-root to Stillwater, Oklahoma where they were planted in the field in early April, 2001. The plants were placed in three randomized complete blocks (rows) with 90 cm spacing between plants and 240 cm spacing between rows. The plants were drip irrigated as needed. During the 2002 growing season the roses were evaluated weekly for flower number, black spot, and overall quality. Four rose cultivars from Poulsen's Town and Country® series of landscape roses, Martha's Vineyard™ (`Poulans'), followed by Madison™ (`Poulrijk'), Kent™ (`Poulcov'), and Tumbling Waters™ (`Poultumb'), had the highest average flower number. Martha's Vineyard™, Kent™, and Tumbling Waters™ also rated highest among the cultivars tested for overall plant quality and black spot resistance. Other roses in the top grouping (Waller-Duncan K-ratio t test) for black spot resistance and overall quality were: Ragtime™ (`Poultieme', a climber from the Courtyard® series), Sophia Renaissance® (`Poulen002', Renaissance® series), Nashville™ (`Poulbico', Town and Country® series), Redwood™ (`Poultry', National Parks® series), Julia Renaissance® (`Poulheart', Renaissance® series), Santa Barbara™ (`Pouloesy', Town and Country® series), and Everglades™ (`Poulege', National Parks® series).
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Neparidze, Natalia, Krystal W. Lau, Xiaoliang Wang, Amy J. Davidoff, Scott F. Huntington, Omer Hassan Jamy, Gregory Calip et al. « Racial Disparities in Telemedicine Uptake during the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Patients with Hematologic Malignancies in the United States ». Blood 138, Supplement 1 (5 novembre 2021) : 1973. http://dx.doi.org/10.1182/blood-2021-153787.
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Abstract Background/objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted healthcare visit trends, propelling healthcare systems to reduce in-person visits and hospital admissions and increasingly rely on telemedicine; whether there are differences in these trends across racial groups is unknown. This study investigated potential racial disparities in visits during the pandemic for patients with documented active treatment for hematologic malignancies. Methods: We used the nationwide Flatiron Health electronic health record (EHR)-derived de-identified database to select patients with confirmed diagnosis of AML, DLBCL, FL, MCL, CLL or MM, at least 18 years old at initial diagnosis, and documented race in the EHR as Black/African American or White were included. Patients were categorized into treatment types within lines of therapy: Orals (orals + outpatient infusions with orals) vs. Inpatient treatments (chemotherapy, hematopoietic transplants & CAR-T cell therapy). Monthly visit rates were calculated as the number of visits (telemedicine or in-person [in-clinic treatment administration, vitals, and/or labs]) per active patient per 30-day standardized month, except for months in which the patient was considered not active (e.g. no documented therapy, surveillance). We used time-series forecasting methods on pre-pandemic monthly visit rate data (March 2016 - February 2020) to estimate projected counterfactual monthly visit rates (expected rates if the pandemic did not occur) between March 2020 - February 2021 for all diseases combined, for each disease, each treatment type, and each race. Differences between projected and actual monthly visit rates during the pandemic period were considered significant and related due to the pandemic if the actual visit rate was outside of the 95% prediction interval (PI) surrounding the projected estimate. We used cross-correlation analysis to test for significant differences in visit rates between Black and White patients. Results: The analysis included 17,621 patients (2,225 Black, 15,396 White): 3,041 AML, 2,715 DLBCL, 1,558 FL, 1,511 MCL, 3,813 CLL and 5,244 MM (1,166 Black, 4078 White). Across all diseases and treatment categories, Black patients had no significant reductions in in-person visit rates throughout the pandemic period compared to the projected rates. There was, however, an 18% statistically significant reduction (95% PI 9.9% - 25%) in in-person visit rates for White patients on orals during early pandemic months (March - May 2020) from a projected visit rate of 2.0 (95% PI 1.8 - 2.2) visits per patient per month to an actual visit rate of 1.61. There was no significant reduction in in-person visit rates for White patients on inpatient treatments. Telemedicine uptake was significantly higher for White patients compared with Black patients for all diseases combined across all treatment categories (Figure A & B) (t = 9.5, p < 0.01), AML inpatient treatments (t = 2.4, p = 0.04), MM orals (Figure C) (t = 6.0, p < 0.01) and MM inpatient treatments (Figure D) (t = 2.3, p = 0.04). Conclusions: A tradeoff in reductions in in-person visits and uptake of telemedicine use was observed overall. White patients had significantly higher telemedicine uptake compared with Black patients for both oral and inpatient treatments. In-person visit rates for Black patients were unchanged regardless of treatment category. These in-person visit rates reflect documented telemedicine use disparities, which requires further study into possible compound causes, including economic and societal factors. Figure. Trends over time in telemedicine visit rates for White patients (blue line) and Black patients (black line) Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Neparidze: Eidos Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; GlaxoSmithKline: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding. Lau: Flatiron Health Inc: Current Employment; Roche: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Wang: Flatiron Health: Current Employment; Roche: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Davidoff: Amgen: Consultancy; AbbVie: Other: Family member consultancy. Huntington: Bayer: Honoraria; Servier: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Thyme Inc: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy; SeaGen: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Flatiron Health Inc.: Consultancy; DTRM Biopharm: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy. Calip: Flatiron Health Inc: Current Employment; Roche: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Pfizer: Research Funding. Shah: AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Epizyme: Research Funding. Stephens: Adaptive: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy; CSL Behring: Consultancy; Novartis: Research Funding; Karyopharm: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; JUNO: Research Funding; Mingsight: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Beigene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; TG Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Epizyme: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Arqule: Research Funding. Miksad: Flatiron Health Inc: Current Employment, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company; Roche: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Parikh: Onc.AI: Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company; Humana: Honoraria, Research Funding; Flatiron Health Inc: Honoraria; Thyme Care: Honoraria; Nanology: Honoraria; GNS Healthcare: Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company. Takvorian: Genentech: Consultancy; Pfizer: Research Funding. Seymour: Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Roche: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Flatiron Health Inc: Current Employment; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.
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Gilewski, Marian. « The ripple-curry amplifier in photonic applications ». Photonics Letters of Poland 14, no 4 (31 décembre 2022) : 86–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.4302/plp.v14i4.1187.
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This paper discusses the new design of a amplifier for the miniature MEMS-type spectrometer. The application problem of the new amplifier was the correct conditioning of the sensor's photoelectric pulses. The processed signal was a sequence of pulses that had variable both frequency and amplitude value. Thus, such a broadband amplifier should have the functionality of automatic gain control. This paper describes the concept of the new circuit, develops its detailed application, and then performs validation tests. Measurement results of the new circuit are discussed in the final section of the paper. Full Text: PDF ReferencesC. Ortolani, Flow Cytometry Today. Detectors and Electronics, (Springer 2022). pp. 97-119, CrossRef D. Maes, L. Reis, S. Poelman, E. Vissers, V. Avramovic, M. Zaknoune, G. Roelkens, S. Lemey, E. Peytavit, B. Kuyken, "High-Speed Photodiodes on Silicon Nitride with a Bandwidth beyond 100 GHz", Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Optica Publishing Group, (2022). CrossRef R. Das, Y. Xie, A.P. Knights, "All-Silicon Low Noise Photonic Frontend For LIDAR Applications", 2022 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), IEEE Xplore (2022). CrossRef FEMTO Messtechnik GmbH, Variable Gain Photoreceiver - Fast Optical Power Meter Series OE-200, DirectLink M. Nehir, C. Frank, S. Aßmann, E.P. Achterberg, "Improving Optical Measurements: Non-Linearity Compensation of Compact Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Spectrometers", Sensors 19(12), 2833 (2019). CrossRef F. Thomas,; R. Petzold, C. Becker, U. Werban, "Application of Low-Cost MEMS Spectrometers for Forest Topsoil Properties Prediction", Sensors 21(11), 3927 (2021). CrossRef M. Muhiyudin, D. Hutson, D. Gibson, E. Waddell, S. Song, S. Ahmadzadeh, "Miniaturised Infrared Spectrophotometer for Low Power Consumption Multi-Gas Sensing", Sensors 20(14), 3843 (2020). CrossRef S. Maruyama, T Hizawa, K. Takahashi, K. Sawada, "Optical-Interferometry-Based CMOS-MEMS Sensor Transduced by Stress-Induced Nanomechanical Deflection", Sensors 18(1), 138 (2018). CrossRef S. Merlo, P. Poma, E. Crisà, D. Faralli, M. Soldo, "Testing of Piezo-Actuated Glass Micro-Membranes by Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry", Sensors 17(3), 8 (2017). CrossRef M.S. Wei, F. Xing, B. Li, Z. You, "Investigation of Digital Sun Sensor Technology with an N-Shaped Slit Mask", Sensors 11(10), 9764 (2011). CrossRef Z. Yang, T. Albrow-Owen, W. Cai, T. Hasan, "Miniaturization of optical spectrometers", Science 371, 6528 (2021). CrossRef Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. Fingertip size, ultra-compact spectrometer head integrating MEMS and image sensor technologies. DirectLink Microchip Technology Inc, MCP6291/1R/2/3/4/5 1.0 mA 10 MHz Rail-to-Rail Op Amp, CrossRef Microchip Technology Inc. MCP6021/1R/2/3/4 Rail-to-Rail Input/Output 10 MHz Op Amps, CrossRef
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Huang, Liping, Jennifer L. Nguyen, Johnna Perdrizet, Tamuno Alfred et Adriano Arguedas. « 101. PCV13 Pediatric Vaccination Disparity and Impact Due to COVID-19 Pandemic in the US ». Open Forum Infectious Diseases 8, Supplement_1 (1 novembre 2021) : S63—S64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab466.101.
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Abstract Background Existing disparities in vaccination rates across different social and demographic groups in the US may have been exacerbated during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID) pandemic, leaving some children at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases. This study examined sociodemographic and risk factors of PCV13 infant primary series vaccination completion, before and during COVID. Methods Retrospective data from the Optum’s de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database were used to create 3 cohorts: C1, Pre-COVID; C2, During COVID; C3, Cross-COVID (Figure 1). C1 and C3 (C1&3) were combined and compared with C2 for primary dosing completion before and during COVID according to infant/caregiver characteristics. Full completion (FC) was defined as receipt of 3 doses of PCV13 within 8 months of birth. Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare FC vs. partial completion or no vaccine. Descriptive analyses were used to compare FC before and during COVID within subgroups. Figure 1: Study population and inclusion criteria Results A total of 132,183 and 16,522 infants with at least 8 months of follow up time were enrolled in C1&3 and C2, respectively. FC was significantly higher before COVID-19 (adjusted odds ratio = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.07-1.17). Adjusting for COVID, FC was significantly lower in infants who were Black, with co-morbidities or risk factors, living in households with >1 children or no children, household annual income < &99k, residing in a neighborhood with median education of high school or below, and whose primary caregiver was aged <25 years (Table 1). Comparing FC before and during COVID, the % decline relative to pre-COVID was > 2% among infants who were White, residing in the Mountain, New England or Pacific regions, in a household with 2 children, >&100k annual income, employer-based insurance or HMO, and median neighborhood education of bachelor degree plus (Table 2). Table 1. Multivariable binomial logistic regression results for PCV13 full primary dosing completion vs. not full completion (partial or no vaccine), N=144,799* Table 2. Primary dosing full completion rate pre-COVID vs. during COVID by social, demographic, and clinical risk factors Conclusion Health inequities in PCV13 primary series completion existed prior to COVID-19 and have remained during the pandemic. Our results, however, suggest that during the pandemic, groups traditionally considered to have better healthcare access (Whites, higher income, more education) had more impact on vaccine uptake. Further research is needed to confirm these trends as COVID mitigation measures subside. Disclosures Liping Huang, MD, MA, MS, Pfizer Inc (Employee) Jennifer L Nguyen, ScD, MPH, Pfizer Inc. (Employee) Johnna Perdrizet, MPH, Pfizer Inc (Employee) Tamuno Alfred, PhD, Pfizer Inc. (Employee) Adriano Arguedas, MD, Pfizer (Employee)
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Harper, Eugene P., Justin Oring, Harry Powers, Courtney E. Sherman, Benjamin Wilke, Jane Hata, Aziza Nassar, Julio C. Mendez et Claudia R. Libertin. « 317. Case Series of Echinococcus Infections at Mayo Clinic Florida ». Open Forum Infectious Diseases 7, Supplement_1 (1 octobre 2020) : S230—S231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaa439.513.
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Abstract Background Echinococcus multilocularis is a destructive zoonotic cestode with low human incidence. Hydatid disease classically presents with hepatic or lung involvement with infrequent extrahepatic bone destruction. Diagnosis is challenging due to its latency and mimicry. Fig.1: Case 1 - X-ray imaging of the pelvis shows osseous destruction of the iliac crest secondary to known osteomyelitis status post left ilium debridement. Fig.2: Case 1 - Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrates extensive osteomyelitis throughout left ilium. Stable scattered focal fluid collections seen throughout the left lower quadrant. Methods CASE 1: A 57 year-old Albanian male with diabetes, latent TB, and left iliac lytic lesion presented with 4 weeks of left flank pain and was treated with 6 weeks of IV Ceftriaxone and Flagyl. 2 years later he returned with flank pain and purulent lumbar drainage. Hip x-ray suggested chronic osteomyelitis, with left psoas fluid collections on CT. Bartonella, Q fever, Brucella, HIV, AFB and fungal serologies were negative. Hemipelvis debridement revealed structures concerning for hydatid disease. Echinococcus IgG was equivocal. Histopathology was consistent with Echinococcus multilocularis species, and albendazole was started. On follow-up, he presented with left hip tenderness and toe extensor weakness. Labs showed mild leukocytosis. CT revealed progressive destruction of the left iliac with sacroiliac extension concerning for abscess. CASE 2: A 36 year-old female presented with lung and liver cysts, progressive dyspnea, and non-productive cough. She lived in Africa, Asia, and Europe and consumed local street food and unpasteurized milk. Hobbies included spelunking and swimming in freshwater lakes. She had exposure to stray animals, but denied bites or scratches. Over 4 years dyspnea progressed to orthopnea. MR abdomen revealed a 10x6x12cm liver cyst and chest CT showed 2 fluid-attenuating lesions in the LLL and RLL, measuring 4.9 x 6.0 cm and 6.8 x 4.3 cm respectively. Echinococcus, Bartonella, Q fever, Brucella, HIV, AFB and fungal serologies were negative. Schistosomiasis serology was equivocal. Fig. 3: Case 2 - MRI abdomen demonstrating 10x6x12cm liver cyst Fig. 4: Case 2 - Chest CT showed 2 dominant fluid attenuating lesions within the LLL and RLL. The larger lesion in RLL measures 6.8 x 4.3 cm. The left lower lobe lesion measures 4.9 x 6.0 cm. Results Patient 1 underwent type I hemipelvectomy. Patient 2 underwent pulmonary segmentectomy and liver lobectomy. Both were continued on albendazole. Fig. 5: Case 1 - Photo taken during debridement of left ileac and hip. Note presence of white cysts discovered intraoperatively. Fig. 6: Case 1 - Histopathologic slides (H&E stain) demonstrating hooks and scolices consistent with Echinococcus multilocularis. A. Hooklet (100x magnification). B. Hydatid cyst with black-staining structures suggestive of degenerating hooklets. C. Zoomed detail of cyst wall. D. Degenerating hydatid cyst and hooklets. Conclusion Equivocal IgG serology does not exclude infection. History and clinical presentation are key to diagnosis, but histopathology remains the gold standard. Hydatid bone infection progresses insidiously and frequently recurs, depending upon excision and debridement. Finally, echinococcosis demands aggressive long-term therapy and surveillance. Disclosures Claudia R. Libertin, MD, Pfizer, Inc. (Grant/Research Support, Research Grant or Support)
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KITLV, Redactie. « Book Reviews ». New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 64, no 3-4 (1 janvier 1990) : 149–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/13822373-90002021.
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-Mohammed F. Khayum, Michael B. Connolly ,The economics of the Caribbean Basin. New York: Praeger, 1985. xxiii + 355 pp., John McDermott (eds)-Susan F. Hirsch, Herome Wendell Lurry-Wright, Custom and conflict on a Bahamian out-island. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1987. xxii + 188 pp.-Evelyne Trouillot-Ménard, Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique, 1,000 proverbes créoles de la Caraïbe francophone. Paris: Editions Caribéennes, 1987. 114 pp.-Sue N. Greene, Amon Saba Saakana, The colonial legacy in Caribbean literature. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. 1987. 128 pp.-Andrew Sanders, Cees Koelewijn, Oral literature of the Trio Indians of Surinam. In collaboration with Peter Riviére. Dordrecht and Providence: Foris Publications, 1987. (Caribbean Series 6, KITLV/Royal Institute of Linguistics anbd Anthropology). xiv + 312 pp.-Janette Forte, Nancie L. Gonzalez, Sojouners of the Caribbean: ethnogenesis and ethnohistory of the Garifuna. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988. xi + 253 pp.-Nancie L. Gonzalez, Neil L. Whitehead, Lords of the Tiger Spirit: a history of the Caribs in colonial Venezuela and Guyana 1498-1820. Dordrecht and Providence: Foris Publications, 1988. (Caribbean Series 10, KITLV/Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology.) x + 250 pp.-N.L. Whitehead, Andrew Sanders, The powerless people. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1987. iv + 220 pp.-Russell Parry Scott, Kenneth F. Kiple, The African exchange: toward a biological history of black people. Durham: Duke University Press, 1987. vi + 280 pp.-Colin Clarke, David Dabydeen ,India in the Caribbean. London: Hansib Publishing Ltd., 1987. 326 pp., Brinsley Samaroo (eds)-Juris Silenieks, Edouard Glissant, Caribbean discourse: selected essays. Translated and with an introduction by J. Michael Dash. Charlottesville, Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1989. xlvii + 272 pp.-Brenda Gayle Plummer, J. Michael Dash, Haiti and the United States: national stereotypes and the literary imagination. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. xv + 152 pp.-Evelyne Huber, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Haiti: state against nation: the origins and legacy of Duvalierism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990. 282 pp.-Leon-Francois Hoffman, Alfred N. Hunt, Hiati's influence on Antebellum America: slumbering volcano of the Caribbean. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. xvi + 196 pp.-Brenda Gayle Plummer, David Healy, Drive to hegemony: the United States in the Caribbean, 1898-1917. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. xi + 370 pp.-Anthony J. Payne, Jorge Heine ,The Caribbean and world politics: cross currents and cleavages. New York and London: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1988. ix + 385 pp., Leslie Manigat (eds)-Anthony P. Maingot, Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner, The Caribbean in world affairs: the foreign policies of the English-speaking states. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1989. vii + 244 pp.-Edward M. Dew, H.F. Munneke, De Surinaamse constitutionele orde. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Ars Aequi Libri, 1990. v + 120 pp.-Charles Rutheiser, O. Nigel Bolland, Colonialism and resistance in Belize: essays in historical sociology. Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize: Cubola Productions / Institute of Social and Economic Research / Society for the Promotion of Education and Research, 1989. ix + 218 pp.-Ken I. Boodhoo, Selwyn Ryan, Trinidad and Tobago: the independence experience, 1962-1987. St. Augustine, Trinidad: ISER, 1988. xxiii + 599 pp.-Alan M. Klein, Jay Mandle ,Grass roots commitment: basketball and society in Trinidad and Tobago. Parkersburg, Iowa: Caribbean Books, 1988. ix + 75 pp., Joan Mandle (eds)-Maureen Warner-Lewis, Reinhard Sander, The Trinidad Awakening: West Indian literature of the nineteen-thirties. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988. 168 pp.
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Powell, Megan, Amy C. Sherman, Julia Klopfer, Michaël Desjardins, Chi-An Cheng, Yasmeen Senussi, Saee Ratnaparkhi et al. « 24. Longitudinal Assessment of Immune Responses to COVID-19 Vaccines in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients ». Open Forum Infectious Diseases 8, Supplement_1 (1 novembre 2021) : S16—S17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab466.024.
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Abstract Background mRNA vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) illicit strong humoral and cellular responses and have high efficacy for preventing and reducing the risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Since solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients were excluded from the phase 3 trials, the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine remains unknown. Understanding the serological responses to COVID vaccines among SOT recipients is essential to better understand vaccine protection for this vulnerable population. Methods In this prospective cohort study, a subset of SOT recipients who were part of our center’s larger antibody study were enrolled prior to receipt of two doses of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer, Inc) vaccine for high resolution immunophenotyping. To date, plasma has been collected for 10 participants on the day of their first dose (baseline), day of their second dose, and 28 days post second dose. 23 healthy participants planning to receive either BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 (ModernaTX, Inc) were also enrolled, providing plasma at the same timepoints. Ultrasensitive single-molecule array (Simoa) assays were used to detect SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S), S1, receptor-binding domain (RBD) and Nucleocapsid (N) IgG antibodies. Results Participant demographics and SOT recipient characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Low titers of anti-N IgG at all timepoints indicate no natural infection with COVID-19 during the study (Fig 1A). There were significantly lower magnitudes for anti-S (p< 0.0001), anti-S1 (p< 0.0001), and anti-RBD (p< 0.0001) IgG titers on the day of dose 2 and day 28 post second dose for SOT recipients compared to healthy controls (Fig 1B,C,D). Using the internally validated threshold of anti-S IgG >1.07 based on pre-pandemic controls, only 50% of the SOT sub-cohort responded to vaccine after series completion (Fig 2). There was a positive trend between months from transplant and anti-S IgG titer (Fig 3). Table 1: Demographics Figure 1: Anti-N, Anti-S, Anti-S1, Anti-RBD and Anti-N Ig G for healthy v. SOT cohort Black error bars denote median and 95% CI. The dotted line on panel B denotes an internally validated cutoff of 1.07; anti-S IgG titers greater than 1.07 denote a positive response. Figure 3: Time from Transplant v. anti-S IgG Titer SOT recipients further out from transplant tend to have a higher anti-S IgG response. The dotted line denotes an internally validated cutoff, with anti-S IgG titers greater than 1.07 indicating a positive response. Conclusion SOT recipients had a significantly decreased humoral response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines compared to the healthy cohort, with those further out from transplant more likely to respond. Further research is needed to evaluate T-cell responses and clinical efficacy to maximize the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response among SOT recipients. Disclosures Ann E. Woolley, MD, MPH, COVAX (Consultant) David Walt, PhD, Quanterix Corporation (Board Member, Shareholder)
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Stiefel, Matthias, W. F. Wertheim, Matthias Stiefel, K. A. Adelaar, James T. Collins, J. G. Casparis, Antoinette M. Barrett Jones et al. « Book Reviews ». Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 142, no 2 (1986) : 342–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22134379-90003365.
Texte intégralRésumé :
- Matthias Stiefel, W.F. Wertheim, Matthias Stiefel, Rejoinder to Duller’s review in BKI 142-I, with comments by H.J. Duller., W.F. Wertheim (eds.) - K.A. Adelaar, James T. Collins, The historical relationship of the languages of central Maluku, Indonesia, Pacific Linguistics Series D, No. 47, 1983. - J.G. de Casparis, Antoinette M. Barrett Jones, Early tenth-century Java from the inscriptions. A study of economic, social and administrative conditions in the first quarter of the century, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde No. 107, Dordrecht/Cinnaminson 1984. XI + 204 pp. - P.J. Drooglever, L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, deel 11a, Nederlands-Indië I, eerste en tweede helft, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden 1984, 1199 pp., kaarten, foto’s. - David T. Hill, Julie Southwood, Indonesia: Law, propaganda and terror, with foreword by W.F. Wertheim, Zed press, 1983, 272 pp., Patrick Flanagan (eds.) - V.J.H. Houben, C.Ch. van den Haspel, Overwicht in overleg. Hervormingen van justitie, grondgebruik en bestuur in de Vorstenlanden op Java 1880-1930, VKI 111, Dordrecht: Foris publications, 1985. - Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, J. van Goor, Imperialisme in de marge. De afronding van Nederlands-Indië, Utrecht 1985. - Harry A. Poeze, Hansje Galesloot, De Nederlandse vakbondsperiodieken van het IISG; Systematisch overzicht. Amsterdam: Stichting Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, 1985, xiv + 241 pp., Tom van der Meer (eds.) - Harry A. Poeze, Frits G.P. Jacquet, Sources of the history of Asia and Oceania in the Netherlands. Part II: Sources 1796-1949. München etc.: Saur, 1983, 547 pp. - Harry A. Poeze, Mies Campfens, De Nederlandse archieven van het Internationaal Instituut voor sociale geschiedenis te Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1984, 294 pp. - Harry A. Poeze, Henk Hondius, Inventaris van het archief van de Sociaal-Democratische arbeiders partij (SDAP) 1894-1946. Amsterdam: Stichting Internationaal Instituut voor sociale geschiedenis, 1985, xxviii + 210 pp., Margreet Schrevel (eds.) - Jan van der Putten, Slamet Modiwirjo, Panglipur Ati (ed. Johan Sarmo & Hein Vruggink), Uitgegeven door de afdeling cultuurstudies van het Ministerie van Volksmobilisatie en cultuur (Suriname), 1983. - Jan van der Putten, Saleman Siswowitono, Dongèng Kancil; Het verhaal van kantjil (ed. J.J. Sarmo & H.D. Vruggink), Een uitgave van de afdeling cultuur studies van het Ministerie van cultuur, Jeugd en Sport (Suriname), 1983. - Jan van der Putten, Pamin Asmawidjaja, Djoko miskin; De arme jongeling (ed. J.J. Sarmo & H.D. Vruggink), Een uitgave van de afdeling cultuur studies van het Ministerie van cultuur, jeugd en sport (Suriname), 1983. - Jan van der Putten, Johan J. Sarmo, Cikal; Kalawarti Jawa-Suriname, Wonny Karijopawiro (redactie), Nummers 1 tot en met 4 (1: 1982; 2: mei 1983; 3: oktober 1983; 4: maart 1984)., Sari Kasanpawiro, Hein Vruggink (eds.) - S.C. van Randwijck, Th. van den End, De Gereformeerde Zendingsbond (1901-1961) Nederland-Tanah Toraja, een bronnenpublicatie, bewerkt door Dr. Th. van den End, 782 pp., 1985. - R. Roolvink, Judith Nagata, The reflowering of Malaysian Islam - Modern religious radicals and their roots, University of Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1984, xxv + 267 pp., 2 appendixes, index. - Roger Tol, Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, Vocabulary building in Indonesian: an advanced reader. Ohio University, Monographs in international studies, Southeast Asia series No. 64, 1984. XVII, 647 pp. - R.S. Wassing, Annegret Haake, Javanische Batik. Methode, Symbolik, Geschichte (Javanese Batik. Method, symbolism, history), Hannover: Verlag M. + H. Schaper (Textilkunst-Fach-schrifte), 1984. Bound, 128 pp., 24 colour ills., black and white ills., drawings. - R.S. Wassing, Inger McCabe Elliott, Batik. Fabled cloth of Java, New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1984. Bound, 240 pp., 128 colour ills., black and white ills., drawings. - R.S. Wassing, Alit Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata, Bloemen van het heelal. De Kleurrijke wereld van de textiel op Java (Flowers of the Universe. The colourful world of textiles in Java), Amsterdam: A.W. Sijthoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij B.V., 1984. Bound, 166 pp., 55 colour ills., numerous black and white ills., drawings. - Colin Yallop, Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Towards a description of contemporary Indonesian: Preliminary studies, Part I; John W.M. Verhaar (ed.), Towards a description of contemporary Indonesian: Preliminary studies, Part II; NUSA Linguistic studies of Indonesian and other languages in Indonesia, vols 18 and 19, Jakarta, 1984, 64 and 74 pp., John W.M. Verhaar (eds.)
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Solomon, Paul A., Dena Vallano, Melissa Lunden, Brian LaFranchi, Charles L. Blanchard et Stephanie L. Shaw. « Mobile-platform measurement of air pollutant concentrations in California : performance assessment, statistical methods for evaluating spatial variations, and spatial representativeness ». Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 13, no 6 (30 juin 2020) : 3277–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3277-2020.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Abstract. Mobile-platform measurements provide new opportunities for characterizing spatial variations in air pollution within urban areas, identifying emission sources, and enhancing knowledge of atmospheric processes. The Aclima, Inc., mobile measurement and data acquisition platform was used to equip four Google Street View cars with research-grade instruments, two of which were available for the duration of this study. On-road measurements of air quality were made during a series of sampling campaigns between May 2016 and September 2017 at high (i.e., 1 s) temporal and spatial resolution at several California locations: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the northern San Joaquin Valley (including nonurban roads and the cities of Tracy, Stockton, Manteca, Merced, Modesto, and Turlock). The results demonstrate that the approach is effective for quantifying spatial variations in air pollutant concentrations over measurement periods as short as 2 weeks. Measurement accuracy and precision are evaluated using results of weekly performance checks and periodic audits conducted through the sampler inlets, which show that research instruments located within stationary vehicles are capable of reliably measuring nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), methane (CH4), black carbon (BC), and particle number (PN) concentration, with bias and precision ranging from < 10 % for gases to < 25 % for BC and PN at 1 s time resolution. The quality of the mobile measurements in the ambient environment is examined by comparisons with data from an adjacent (< 9 m) stationary regulatory air quality monitoring site and by paired collocated vehicle comparisons, both stationary and driving. The mobile measurements indicate that United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) classifications of two Los Angeles stationary regulatory monitors' scales of representation are appropriate. Paired time-synchronous mobile measurements are used to characterize the spatial scales of concentration variations when vehicles were separated by < 1 to 10 km. A data analysis approach is developed to characterize spatial variations while limiting the confounding influence of diurnal variability. The approach is illustrated using data from San Francisco, revealing 1 km scale differences in mean NO2 and O3 concentrations up to 117 % and 46 %, respectively, of mean values during a 2-week sampling period. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, spatial variations up to factors of 6 to 8 occur at sampling scales of 100–300 m, corresponding to 1 min averages.
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Mikhael, Joseph, Anne Jacobson, Jeffrey D. Carter et Tamar Sapir. « Understanding Root Causes Contributing to Real-World Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care : Insights from a Mixed-Methods Study Utilizing Tethered Patient-Provider Surveys and Chart Reviews ». Blood 136, Supplement 1 (5 novembre 2020) : 9–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1182/blood-2020-136750.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Background Multiple myeloma (MM) is the most common hematologic malignancy among Black patients, who experience a 2-fold increase in MM risk and earlier age of onset compared with non-Black patients. Relative to other groups, Black patients are less likely to undergo autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), receive timely access to novel therapies (e.g., immunomodulatory drugs, proteasome inhibitors), and enroll in clinical trials (Ailawadhi Blood Adv 2019). However, when Black patients with MM do undergo ASCT or receive novel therapies, their clinical outcomes match those observed in other patient groups, with some data suggesting a possible survival advantage (Fillmore Blood 2019). Therefore, in the absence of a clear biologic rationale for different treatment patterns, it is necessary to examine structural and other barriers to optimal care. In this ongoing quality improvement (QI) initiative, we are assessing and attempting to address the root causes of disparities in care delivery among patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) MM in 2 large oncology systems. Methods Building on the design of our prior QI programs (Hussein ASCO 2020), this multicomponent initiative includes patient and provider surveys (n = 70), baseline and follow-up audits of electronic medical records (EMRs) (n = 400), and small-group, team-based audit-feedback (AF) sessions. Patient-Provider Surveys: 30 hematology/oncology healthcare providers (HCPs) and 40 patients with relapsed/refractory MM (20 African American [AA] and 20 non-AA patients, including Hispanic and non-Hispanic White patients) will complete 30-item and 35-item surveys, respectively. In addition to assessing MM treatment experiences, survey questions will evaluate health literacy, medication adherence, cancer beliefs, patient-HCP communication, and awareness of health disparities. With multiple shared questions, the surveys are designed to reveal alignments and discordances in attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and practices regarding MM care (a) between patients and HCPs and (b) between AA and non-AA patient subgroups. In addition, HCPs' self-reported practice behaviors will be compared against documented practice patterns in the EMR audit. EMR Audits: Variables for the baseline EMR audit include patient/disease characteristics, treatment history, clinical practice metrics, and patient-centered measures (e.g., shared decision-making) documented for 100 AA and 100 non-AA adults with R/R MM and ≥2 clinic visits within the past year. Six months after the AF sessions, the follow-up EMR audit of 100 AA and 100 non-AA patients will assess changes in EMR documentation and practice behavior. Team-Based AF Sessions: HCP cohorts within each oncology system will participate in 1-hour live small-group AF sessions scheduled as part of each system's grand rounds series. Hematology/oncology teams will (a) assess system-specific practice gaps identified via the patient-provider surveys and baseline EMR audit, (b) prioritize areas for improvement, and (c) develop action plans for addressing root causes. Additional surveys completed before and after the AF sessions will measure changes in participants' beliefs and confidence in care delivery. Results Two large oncology systems in Chicago and Washington, DC, are enrolled. Preliminary HCP (n = 6) and patient (n = 9) survey data suggest discordant beliefs about patients' primary MM treatment concerns. HCPs overestimated how many patients are concerned about notfeeling confident that their treatment plan is the best for their cancer (83% vs 11%) and underestimated how many are concerned about lack of reliable transportation (0% vs 33%), difficulty communicating with their care team (0% vs 33%), meeting responsibilities at work and home (0% vs 11%), and treatment cost (0% vs 11%). Full findings from the baseline EMR audit (n = 200) and patient and HCP surveys (n = 70), as well as outcomes from the 2 small-group AF sessions (scheduled for September 2020), will be presented. Conclusions Factors contributing to racial disparities in MM care are complex. QI programs are critical tools for understanding and addressing system-specific barriers to optimal care for all patients with MM. Study Sponsor Statement The study reported in this abstract was funded by independent educational grants from AbbVie, Inc. and Celgene Corporation, who had no role in the study design, execution, analysis, or reporting. Disclosures Mikhael: Amgen, Celgene, GSK, Janssen, Karyopharm, Sanofi, Takeda: Honoraria.
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Konopleva, Marina, Juliana M. Benito, Karine G. Harutyunyan, Isabel Marzo, LaKiesha Debose, Oscar Gonzalo, Ping Zhou et al. « Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Is a Bcl-2 Dependent Disease : Proteomic Profiling and Pre-Clinical Efficacy Of a Selective Bcl-2 Antagonist ABT-199 ». Blood 122, no 21 (15 novembre 2013) : 3919. http://dx.doi.org/10.1182/blood.v122.21.3919.3919.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Abstract The expression of Bcl-2 family proteins is perturbed in multiple types of cancers, including leukemias, and is associated with disease progression and resistance to chemotherapy. ABT-199 (GDC-0199) is a new BH3 mimetic that was developed to specifically target Bcl-2 while sparing Bcl-XL, hence avoiding thrombocytopenia intrinsic to 1st generation BH3 mimetics like ABT-737 (Souers et al., Nat Med, 2013). In this study, we report proteomic profiling of Bcl-2 family members in a large series of ALL patients (pts) and pre-clinical activity of ABT-199. Expression of 20 pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins was studied in 186 newly diagnosed ALL using reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA). Supervised clustering demonstrated distinct differences in 11 proteins in ALL with different cytogenetic and FAB characteristics (Fig. 1, p<0.005, false discovery rate <0.2%). Among these, pts with Burkitt's leukemia/lymphoma (n=9) expressed low levels of Bcl-2 and Bax while maintaining high expression of Bim, caspases and PARP. In contrast, t(4;11) pts expressed higher levels of Bcl-2, Bax and Bim. No significant differences in Bcl-XL or Mcl-1 levels were found in different ALL subtypes. Figure 1 RPPA profiling of apoptosis regulators in ALL. Heatmap of differentially expressed proteins based on cytogenetics and immunophenotype. Black box, Burkitt's leukemia; red box, t(4;11). Figure 1. RPPA profiling of apoptosis regulators in ALL. Heatmap of differentially expressed proteins based on cytogenetics and immunophenotype. Black box, Burkitt's leukemia; red box, t(4;11). The potential of ABT-199 to disrupt interactions between Bcl-2 and different pro-apoptotic proteins was studied using Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC, J Biol Chem 288:4935, 2013). The coding sequences for human Bcl-2, Bim, Bak, Bax and Noxa were subcloned into BiFC plasmids containing Venus fragments and transfected into HeLa cells. Approximately 60-70% of transfected cells were positive for Venus fluorescence due to association between Bcl-2 and Bim, Noxa, Bax or Bak. ABT-199 (2.5 µM, 24 hrs) significantly reduced Venus signal, indicating an inhibition of the interactions of Bcl-2 with these proteins, most potently with the multidomain proteins Bax and Bak (95%±18% and 85%±15% inhibition, respectively). ABT-199 rapidly induced apoptotic cell death in ALL cell lines and in primary ALL samples. Pre-B ALL cells (Nalm-6, REH, SEMK2 and RS4;11) were sensitive to ABT-199 and ABT-737 (IC50 0.007-1.4µM (199) and 0.035-0.7µM (737)). Notably, ABT-199 was more cytotoxic than ABT-737 against MLL-rearranged SEMK2 and RS4;11 cells, consistent with the notion of the greater Bcl-2 dependency of these cells. Lentiviral silencing of Bcl-XL sensitized REH cells to apoptosis by ABT-199 and ABT-737. T-ALL cells (PF-382, MOLT-4, P-12) expressed lower levels of Bcl-2 and were uniformly less sensitive to ABT-199 compared to ABT-737 (IC50 3.7±1.1µM vs 0.7±0.3µM, p=0.01). Burkitt's lymphoma cells Ramos and Raji had low Bcl-2 and high Mcl-1 expression, and were resistant to both agents (IC50>4µM). Next, the cytotoxic activity of ABT-199 was tested against a panel of 12 genetically diverse primary ALL samples, including 6 from pts with relapsed or refractory disease. Ten out of twelve samples (83%) were exquisitely sensitive to both agents, with IC50 values of 0.0001-0.14µM for ABT-199 and 0.0004-0.3µM for ABT-737. One of the four Ph+ samples was resistant to both agents, and one of the two T-ALL was less sensitive to ABT-199 compared to ABT-737. Two samples with t(4;11) were highly sensitive to ABT-199. All primary ALL samples tested (n=7) expressed high levels of Bcl-2, and no significant correlation between sensitivity and expression of Bcl-2 family members was found. Importantly, three human-derived xenografts from pediatric pre-B-ALL samples (1345, 1809, 0398) were very sensitive to ABT-199 (IC50 3nM, 0.1nM and 2.3nM, respectively). Finally, anti-leukemia activity of ABT-199 was tested in MLL-rearranged patient-derived xenograft NSG mice. Treatment with ABT-199 at 100mg/kg/d by oral gavage days 13-23 significantly reduced leukemia tumor burden as determined by bioluminescence imaging (average 70% reduction in BLI signal in 4 ABT-treated mice compared to 4 control animals at 9 weeks, p=0.03). In summary, proteomic profiling and patterns of sensitivity to Bcl-2 inhibition indicate that ALL, with exception of Burkitt's lymphoma, represents a Bcl-2 dependent disease. These results provide strong rationale for introducing ABT-199, which recently showed impressive efficacy in CLL trials, into the clinical armamentarium of ALL therapy. Disclosures: Konopleva: AbbVie, Inc: Research Funding. Leverson:AbbVie, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership.
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Weiss, William W., Xina Xie, Jason Weiss, Vishu Subramanian, Archie R. Taylor et Fred J. Edens. « Artificial Intelligence Used to Evaluate 23 Single-Well Surfactant-Soak Treatments ». SPE Reservoir Evaluation & ; Engineering 9, no 03 (1 juin 2006) : 209–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/89457-pa.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Summary Following a series of laboratory imbibition-cell experiments, field tests were conducted to determine the effectiveness of surfactant-soak treatments as a single-well enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) technique. The tests were conducted in the dolomite interval of the Phosphoria formation. Artificial intelligence was applied to analyze the mixed test results. The analysis suggested that the gamma ray log can be used to predict results and that a minimum amount of surfactant is required to improve production. Introduction Water imbibition as a recovery process was tested in the Spraberry field during the 1950s (Elkins and Skov 1962, 1963). This early work was followed by a test of the process in Cottonwood Creek field during the 1960s (Willingham and McCaleb 1967). Around the time of these field tests, a patent was issued (Graham et al. 1957) that suggested surfactants could enhance the imbibition recovery process. A later patent (Stone et al. 1970) implied that a Spraberry field test was designed, but results were not reported. Forty years later, researchers (Spindler et al. 2000; Standnes and Austad 2000; Chen et al. 2000) returned to the subject of wettability alteration. One description of a field test of the surfactant-soak process has been published (Chen et al. 2000). A great deal of effort was expended during the 1970s and 1980s in designing systems and field testing surfactant fluids with ultralow interfacial tensions (IFTs) as a flooding EOR process. Maintaining the integrity of the chemical slug from the injection well to the producing wells was fraught with problems. However, slug-integrity problems are diminished in single-well EOR applications. Recent laboratory work focused on the easily performed and interpreted imbibition-cell experiments. These experiments (with and without surfactants) and the reported success of pressure pulsing at Cottonwood Creek prompted further laboratory testing with reservoir rock and fluids (Xie 2002; Xie et al. 2004). This recent work indicated that a nonionic surfactant could substantially increase recovery from Phosphoria wells in the Cottonwood Creek field. The shallow-shelf carbonate reservoir is characterized as a steeply dipping, algal reef of the Phosphoria formation producing sour, 27°API, black oil from a dolomitized interval. Thickness of the dolomite varies from 20 to 100 ft. The average porosity is ~10% with ~1.0 md matrix permeability. The connate-water saturation is ~10%. Pan American Petroleum reported the low-pressure and low-temperature reservoir to be naturally fractured and oil-wet (Willingham and McCaleb 1967). Their description was based on laboratory core studies. Tests performed in the 1990s generated U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) wettability values of -0.1, -0.12, -0.18, and -0.26. The Cottonwood Creek field is located in the Bighorn basin of Wyoming, as shown in Fig. 1, and is operated by Continental Resources Inc.
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Goja, Bojan. « Maestro di Pico i iluminacije u inkunabuli De Civitate Dei (Nicolas Jenson, Venecija, 1475.) u samostanu Sv. Duje u Kraju na Pašmanu ». Ars Adriatica, no 4 (1 janvier 2014) : 235. http://dx.doi.org/10.15291/ars.497.
Texte intégralRésumé :
The Franciscan Monastery of St Domnius at Kraj on the island of Pašman houses an incunable edition of Augustine’s The City of God (De Civitate Dei) which was printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson in 1475. The incunable features beautiful Renaissance multi-coloured illuminations painted in tempera, sepia, ink and water colours while gold foils and gold dust were used on fol. 17 (the page number is not original but was subsequently added in pencil; this folio contains the beginning of Book 1) and a number of other folios. The illumination on fol. 17 consists of two phytomorphic initials, a decorative border and independent figural scenes while a number of other folios are decorated with phytomorphic initials of the littera notabilior type, the height of which corresponds to two lines, painted in red or blue. The top and left margin of the first page of Book 1 are filled with a decorative border terminating in trilobes on each end. The ornamental scheme of the border consists of a band made up of five thin lines which undulates in a spiral and thus forms circles. These are filled with flowers, leaves and berries painted in blue, green and cyclamen purple but also with gold stylized burdock flowers (Lat. Arctium lappa; some scholars call them gold dots, that is, bottoni dorati). The remaining fields are filled with bent scrolls. In the upper left corner of the frame is a goldfinch. The initial I, composed of phytomorphic motifs in blue, green and cyclamen purple and their shades, is painted against a gold background of the rectangular field situated at the beginning of the text column on the left-hand side. Inside the decorative border, placed at the height which corresponds to the centre of the initial, is a medallion with the bust of St Augustine depicted in the open sky with elongated white clouds and no other details. The illusion of the spatial depth was achieved through the use of tonal gradations: the shades of blue are darker at the top and lighter in the lower half of the sky. St Augustine is dressed in a white robe and a red cloak with a black hood. He is wearing a white mitre with a horizontal and perpendicular band highlighted with gold dust. The shadows and folds of his clothes were articulated with black and white lines. His right hand is pointing to the open book which was painted at the height of his chest. The fingers on his right hand are elongated and thin. St Augustine’s gold nimbus was painted as a full circle the left half of which was outlined in white and the right half in black. St Augustine is directing his gentle and sad gaze upwards. His head is slightly bent. His round and bony head is marked by the large round eyes with prominent sclera and dark circles underneath while the arched eyebrows are thinner at their ends. The nose is small and the mouth is turned downwards. The plasticity of the face and its complexion were articulated with white and pink shades. The trimmed dark beard is depicted with short lines in lighter and darker shades. The ornamental frame which fills the top margin corresponds to the one in the left margin but was decorated more modestly because the miniaturist placed the scroll bearing the printer’s name and the scroll identifying the text as belonging to Book 1 at the centre of the frame which left only the beginning and the end of the frame to be decorated. The scroll with the printer’s name is emphasized by a golden burdock flower at the top of the frame and a golden teasel flower (Lat. Dipsacus fullonum) at the bottom. The lower margin features two symmetrical angels, rendered in a somewhat imprecise drawing, who kneel on the ground painted in the shades of green and brown. The physiognomy of the angels is similar to that of St Augustine. Their round heads have small eyes and noses, shaded circles under the eyes and arched eyebrows. The mouths are depicted as thin lines with pronounced ends and are further accentuated by a dot beneath the lower lip. The plasticity of their faces was achieved through the tonal gradation of pink and white. The angels’ hair, ochre in colour and highlighted with gold dust, is thick and short and covers the tops of their heads like a helmet. The outspread wings were painted in dark and light shades of blue. Two wide red scrolls with white highlights emerge symmetrically from behind the angels at their waist height. Wavy tendrils and gold stylized teasel flowers extend from the red scroll. The angels hold a laurel wreath between them. The colour of the circular field inside the wreath is cyclamen purple. The wreath is formed by three rows of leaves which are bound by four regularly spaced ties. The leaves’ edges and tips were painted in light and dark shades of green. Inside the wreath is a Renaissance crest surrounded by thin white wiggly tendrils with sprouting leaves. The shield, in the shape of a horse’s head, is divided horizontally into the dark blue upper half and the red lower half. It features a gold lion with his mouth wide open who is facing right and holding a tree with his front paws. The tree’s pyramidal top is decorated with small dots indicating leaves and fruit. The shield’s right half is outlined in white and the left one in black. The second text column on the first page of Book 1 is decorated with the painted initial letter G. It consists of phytomorphic motifs in blue, red, yellow and cyclamen purple and their shades. Two small leaves are attached to the initial on its left-hand side. As is the case with the crest, the initial was additionally decorated with elegant white tendrils sprouting leaves and highlighted with gold dust. The background is also gold while the rectangular field around the initial is outlined in a thin black line. Two wavy tendrils and two gold stylized teasel flowers emerge from the corners of the frame on the left-hand side while a green leaf appears at the centre. Apart from these illuminations and initials on fol. 17, the incunable contains other initials, one for the beginning of each of the remaining twenty one book, and all of them consist of blue, green and cyclamen pink phytomorphic motifs painted against a gold background inside a black rectangular frame. The plasticity of these initials was achieved through tonal gradation and the use of yellow while thin white undulating tendrils with variations in width and highlights in gold dust enriched the decoration. Some sentences in the text were emphasized by numerous initials in red or blue of the littera notabilior type the height of which corresponds to two lines of the text. The illuminations of this incunable edition of the De Civitate Dei belong to north Italian or Venetian Renaissance painting and they demonstrate numerous significant similarities with the works of the well-known Venetian miniaturist whom the scholarly literature identified as Maestro del Plinio di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Maestro del Plinio di Pico or, more commonly, Maestro di Pico). The attribution of the illuminations in this incunable to Maestro di Pico, who may have been helped by his workshop and assistants especially during the painting of the decorative frame and initials, is based on the figure of St Augustine and the angels who support the crest. Their features display the same typology which characterizes the works of Maestro di Pico. Identical angels appear in the bottom margin of Brunetto Latini’s Il Tesoro (Gerardus de Lisa, Treviso, 1474; Cambridge, Mass., Harvard, Houghton Library, Inc. 6459, c. 7). The figure of St Augustine shows pronounced similarities with the figure of a Dominican monk, set inside the initial O of the littera historiata type, in Nicolaus de Auximo’s Supplementum (Franciscus Renner et Nicolaus de Frankofordia, Venice, 1474; Biblioteca Marciana, Inc. Ven. 494, c.2). Identical angels and putti can be found in the bottom margins of Strabo’s Geographica (Minneapolis, Univ. of Minnesotta Library, Ms. 1460/f St., c.1), and in two copies of Pliny’s Historia Naturalis (Venice, N. Jenson, 1472, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Vèlins 498 and Venice, N. Jenson, 1472, San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, n. 2289). A beautiful comparative example is the Biblia Latina (Franciscus Renner & Nicolaus de Frankfordia, 1475, Dallas, Texas, Southern Methodist University, Bridwell Library) and its first page which has a similar composition to that in the incunable from Kraj. The figure of St Jerome, depicted inside a littera historiata provides a plethora of specific Morellian details which are essential for the attribution of the illuminations in the incunable from Kraj to Maestro di Pico. Striking similarities in the depictions of saints, phytomorphic initials and decorative frames can also be found in two psalters (one in Venice, Biblioteca Querini Stampaglia, Inc. 6, the other in Siena, Biblioteca S. Bernardino del Convento dell’Osservanza) and in the first page of the Psalms in a breviary from Paris (Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève, OE XV 147 Rés). Similar saints and angels all of which belong to the same figural typology were used to decorate three copies from the Commissioni series made for Doge Agostino Barbarigo (Commissione del doge Agostino Barbarigo a Girolamo Capello, 1487, Venice, Bib. Del Museo Correr, MS Cl. III. 33 (fig. 15); Commissione del doge Agostino Barbarigo a Paolo di Canale, 1489, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Lat. 4729, c.2, and Commissione del doge Agostino Barbarigo a Tommaso Loredano, 1490, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Lat. 4730, c.1). Further parallels can be found in the illuminations of a breviary from Augsburg (c. 1480, Universitätsbibl., Cod. I.2.2o 35) the first page of which has a lettera istoriata with the figure of St Paul whose physiognomy closely resembles that of St Augustine in the incunabule from Kraj, while the bottom margin features centrally placed angels which are identical to those at Kraj. Equally important comparative material is found in three Paduan incunables (Biblioteca del Seminario Vescovile) which contain illuminations attributed to Maestro di Pico. The distinctive features of the angels, putti and saints as well as the type of decoration used in the margins of these incunables also demonstrate striking similarities with the illuminations from Kraj. Other examples include Lattanzi’s Opera (Giovanni da Colonia and Johannes Manthen, Venice, 1478; Forc. M. 3.2), Jacopo da Varagine’s Legenda aurea (Gabriele di Pietro, Venice, 1477, with a likely contribution of his workshop; Forc. M. 2.22) and Cipriano’s Opera (Vindelino da Spira, Venice, 1471; Forc. K. 2.12). On the basis of the comparative analyses outlined above and the similarities which have been noted, it can be concluded that the illuminations in the incunable of St Augustine’s De Civitate Dei (Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1475), housed in the Monastery of St Domnius at Kraj, were painted by the well-known Venetian Renaissance miniaturist Maestro di Pico. Regardless of the possible input of his workshop and assistants during the painting process of the decorative frame and initials, these illuminations help expand the catalogue of Maestro di Pico’s works and represent valuable contribution to the painting in Renaissance Dalmatia.
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David, Kevin A., Melissa Pulitzer, Joan Guitart, Maria Estela Martinez-Escala, Shamir Geller, Yaqun Wang, N. Nora Bennani et al. « Characteristics, Treatment Patterns, and Outcomes in Primary Cutaneous Gamma Delta T Cell Lymphoma (PCGDTCL) : A Real World Multi-Institutional Analysis of a Rare Malignancy ». Blood 134, Supplement_1 (13 novembre 2019) : 4028. http://dx.doi.org/10.1182/blood-2019-130223.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Background: PCGTCL is a rare disorder, accounting for < 1% of all lymphomas. In part given the rarity, timely and accurate diagnosis (dx) remains challenging. Moreover, PCGTCL is typically characterized by a highly aggressive course. We conducted a multi-institutional, retrospective analysis to delineate pathology, patient (pt) characteristics, treatment patterns & outcomes of PCGDTCL in the modern era. Methods: We collected detailed information on pts with PCGDTCL dx between 2000 - 2017 across 10 academic centers. Pathologic data, including IHC & flow characteristics on de-identified pathology reports, were reviewed centrally by an expert dermatopathologist (MP). A pathologic tier was assigned to each case based on fidelity to the following pre-defined minimum criteria: flow cytometric evidence of gamma and/or delta protein-expressing lymphoma or histopathologic evidence of gamma and/or delta protein expression & at least 50% atypical lymphocytes positive for gamma/delta immunostain (IHC) with tissue representative of entire lesion. The presence of >25% CD30 positivity of malignant lymphocytes was an exclusion criterion. Further, PCR evidence of TCR gamma monoclonality or TCR beta/betaF1 negativity alone were inadequate for inclusion with confirmation of gamma/delta phenotype (especially IHC) being key for inclusion. A clinical tier was also assigned to each case based on group consensus. A composite score was derived by combining pathologic & clinical tiers, with those fitting a pre-determined score threshold included in the primary analysis. Univariate (UVA) associations were derived via Cox model for associations with survival. Results: Collectively, all centers submitted a total of 80 cases that were dx & treated locally as PCGDTCL. 48 (60%) cases met pre-defined criteria for inclusion of bona fide dx of PCGTCL. 26 (33%) cases had insufficient composite scores and were grouped in a 2nd tier & 6 cases had incomplete follow-up data and were unsuitable for analysis. The most common reason for placement in the 2nd tier was negativity for gamma/delta IHC or lack of documentation of such testing (n=16). Among the top tier of 48 veritable cases, 32 pts (67%) were male, 39 (81%) white & 4 (8%) black. Median age was 62 years (range 20-88). 19 (40%) pts had B symptoms at dx; ECOG performance status (PS) 0 in 12 pts (25%) & 1-3 in 22 cases (45%) (unknown 29%); anemia was present in 21 pts (44%) & LDH increased in 22 (46%). Bone marrow was involved in only 3 pts (6%) & hemophagocytic syndrome was present at dx in 6 pts (12%). Frontline therapy was heterogeneous (Table 1) with the most common therapies being bexarotene alone in 8 pts; UV therapy in 6 pts; and CHOP in 4 pts. Furthermore, there was inclusion of etoposide in 12 pts (25%), anthracyclines in 9 (19%) & platinum agents in 3 pts (6%). The overall response to 1st line therapy was 40% (19% complete response) with stable disease in 10%, progression in 35% & unknown in 15%. Seven pts (15%) received consolidative stem cell transplantation (SCT), which was allogeneic in all but 1 case. The 2-year PFS for the 48 bona fide pts was 39% (95% CI 0.26-0.59) (Fig 1A) & 2-year OS was 36% (95% CI 0.23-.56) (Fig 1B). The 26 cases in the 2nd tier had overall similar 2-year PFS of 41% (95% CI 0.15-67) and OS of 37% (95% CI 0.22-0.62). In terms of impact of therapy, use of consolidative SCT in 1st remission was associated with improved survival (P=0.02) (Fig 1C). No other therapeutic variable had significance. In UVA for baseline factors, PS (P=0.006) (Fig 1D) and increased vs. normal LDH (P=0.05) were significantly associated with OS. Median OS for pts with normal LDH was 25 months vs 12 months with increased LDH. Median OS for pts with ECOG PS 0 was not reached vs approximately 14 months for ECOG PS 1-3. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this series represents one of the largest reported to date of PCGDTCL. Accurate diagnosis and classification of PCGDTCL need ongoing analysis and delineation. Using strict criteria, only 60% of cases across 10 academic centers were confirmed as bona fide PCGDTCL. Analysis of these pts treated in the modern era demonstrated modest survival. In addition, we identified several prognostic factors, in particular LDH and ECOG PS, associated with patient outcome. Furthermore, the incorporation of allogeneic SCT in 1st remission may contribute to improved long-term survival. Enhanced treatment options and continued collaboration are critically needed in this rare disease. Disclosures Bennani: Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board. Landsburg:Takeda: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; Triphase: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Triphase: Research Funding; Curis, INC: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Speakers Bureau; Curis, INC: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Haun:Karger, Inc.: Other: Royalties: Textbook. William:Techspert: Consultancy; Guidepoint Global: Consultancy; Defined Health: Consultancy; Celgene Corporation: Consultancy; Kyowa Kirin, Inc.: Consultancy. Mehta-Shah:Kiowa Hakka Kirin: Consultancy; Celgene: Research Funding; Roche/Genentech: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Verastem Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Innate Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Wilcox:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Millenium/Takeda: Research Funding; CTI Biopharma: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding. Feldman:AbbVie: Honoraria, Other: Travel expenses, Speakers Bureau; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel expenses, Speakers Bureau; Eisai: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Research Funding; Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Research Funding; Portola Pharma: Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Viracta: Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Honoraria, Other: Travel expenses, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Cell Medica: Research Funding; Amgen: Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kite Pharma: Honoraria, Other: Travel expenses, Speakers Bureau; Corvus: Research Funding. Evens:Tesaro: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria; Verastem: Consultancy, Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Horwitz:Affimed: Consultancy; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Astex: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Portola: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astex: Consultancy; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Portola: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; Miragen: Consultancy; Miragen: Consultancy; Portola: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Mundipharma: Consultancy; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Aileron: Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Miragen: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Affimed: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Affimed: Consultancy; Astex: Consultancy; Trillium: Research Funding; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Astex: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Miragen: Consultancy; Portola: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Affimed: Consultancy; Trillium: Research Funding; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding.
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Schweizer, K. W. « Earl A. Reitan. Politics, War, and Empire : The Rise of Britain to a World Power, 1688-1792. (The European History Series.) Arlington Heights, Ill. : Harlan Davidson, Inc.1994. Pp. ix, 185. $11.95 paper. ISBN 0-88295-899-2. - Jeremy Black. The Politics of Britain, 1688-1800. (New Frontiers in History.) Manchester : Manchester University Press ; distributed by St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y. 1993. Pp. vii, 167. $59.95. ISBN 0-7190-3760-3. » Albion 26, no 3 (1994) : 516–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4052626.
Texte intégral
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Lan, Luu Thi Phuong, Ellwood Brooks B., Tomkin Jonathan H., Nestell Galina P., Nestell Merlynd K., Ratcliffe Kenneth T., Rowe Harry et al. « Correlation and high-resolution timing for Paleo-tethys Permian-Triassic boundary exposures in Vietnam and Slovenia using geochemical, geophysical and biostratigraphic data sets ». VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES 40, no 3 (4 juin 2018) : 253–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.15625/0866-7187/40/3/12617.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Two Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) successions, Lung Cam in Vietnam, and Lukač in Slovenia, have been sampled for high-resolution magnetic susceptibility, stable isotope and elemental chemistry, and biostratigraphic analyses. These successions are located on the eastern (Lung Cam section) and western margins (Lukač section) of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during PTB time. Lung Cam, lying along the eastern margin of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean provides an excellent proxy for correlation back to the GSSP and out to other Paleo-Tethyan successions. This proxy is tested herein by correlating the Lung Cam section in Vietnam to the Lukač section in Slovenia, which was deposited along the western margin of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the PTB interval. It is shown herein that both the Lung Cam and Lukač sections can be correlated and exhibit similar characteristics through the PTB interval. Using time-series analysis of magnetic susceptibility data, high-resolution ages are obtained for both successions, thus allowing relative ages, relative to the PTB age at ~252 Ma, to be assigned. Evaluation of climate variability along the western and eastern margins of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean through the PTB interval, using d18O values indicates generally cooler climate in the west, below the PTB, changing to generally warmer climates above the boundary. A unique Black Carbon layer (elemental carbon present by agglutinated foraminifers in their test) below the boundary exhibits colder temperatures in the eastern and warmer temperatures in the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean.ReferencesBalsam W., Arimoto R., Ji J., Shen Z, 2007. Aeolian dust in sediment: a re-examination of methods for identification and dispersal assessed by diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry. International Journal of Environment and Health, 1, 374-402.Balsam W.L., Otto-Bliesner B.L., Deaton B.C., 1995. Modern and last glacial maximum eolian sedimentation patterns in the Atlantic Ocean interpreted from sediment iron oxide content. Paleoceanography, 10, 493-507.Berggren W.A., Kent D.V., Aubry M-P., Hardenbol J., 1995. Geochronology, Time Scales and Global Stratigraphic Correlation. SEPM Special Publication #54, Society for Sedimentary Geology, Tulsa, OK, 386p.Berger A., Loutre M.F., Laskar J., 1992. Stability of the astronomical frequencies over the Earth's history for paleoclimate studies. Science, 255, 560-566.Bloemendal J., deMenocal P., 1989. Evidence for a change in the periodicity of tropical climate cycles at 2.4 Myr from whole-core magnetic susceptibility measurements. Nature, 342, 897-900.Chen J., Shen S-j., Li X-h., Xu Y-g., Joachimski M.M., Bowring S.A., Erwin D.H., Yuan D-x., Chen B., Zhang H., Wang Y., Cao C-q, Zheng Q-f., Mu L., 2016. High-resolution SIMS oxygen isotope analysis on conodont apatite from South China and implications for the end-Permian mass extinction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 448, 26-38.Da Silva A-C., Boulvain F., 2002. Sedimentology, magnetic susceptibility and isotopes of a Middle Frasnian carbonate platform: Tailfer Section, Belgium. Facies, 46, 89-102.Da Silva A.-C., Boulvain F., 2005. Upper Devonian carbonate platform correlations and sea level variations recorded in magnetic susceptibility. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 240, 373-388.Dettinger M.D., Ghil M., Strong C.M., Weibel W., Yiou P., 1995. Software expedites singular-spectrum analysis of noisy time series. EOS. Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 76, 12-21.Dinarès-Turell J., Baceta J.I., Bernaola G., Orue-Etxebarria X., Pujalte V., 2007. Closing the Mid-Palaeocene gap: Toward a complete astronomically tuned Palaeocene Epoch and Selandian and Thanetian GSSPs at Zumaia (Basque Basin, W Pyrenees). Earth Planetary Science Letters, 262, 450-467.Ellwood B.B., García-Alcalde J.L., El Hassani A., Hladil J., Soto F.M., Truyóls-Massoni M., Weddige K., Koptikova L., 2006. Stratigraphy of the Middle Devonian Boundary: Formal Definition of the Susceptibility Magnetostratotype in Germany with comparisons to Sections in the Czech Republic, Morocco and Spain. Tectonophysics, 418, 31-49.Ellwood B.B., Wang W.-H., Tomkin J.H., Ratcliffe K.T., El Hassani A., Wright A.M., 2013. Testing high resolution magnetic susceptibility and gamma gradiation methods in the Cenomanian-Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) GSSP and near-by coeval section. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 378, 75-90.Ellwood B.B., Wardlaw B.R., Nestell M.K., Nestell G.P., Luu Thi Phuong Lan, 2017. Identifying globally synchronous Permian-Triassic boundary levels in successions in China and Vietnam using Graphic Correlation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 485, 561-571.Ghil M., Allen R.M., Dettinger M.D., Ide K., Kondrashov D., Mann M.E., Robertson A., Saunders A., Tian Y., Varadi F., Yiou P., 2002. Advanced spectral methods for climatic time series. Reviews of Geophysics, 40, 3.1-3.41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000RG000092.Gradstein F.M., Ogg J.G., Smith A.G., 2004. A geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge University Press, England, 589p.Hartl P., Tauxe L., Herbert T., 1995. Earliest Oligocene increase in South Atlantic productivity as interpreted from “rock magnetics” at Deep Sea drilling Site 522. Paleoceanography, 10, 311-326.Imbrie J., Hays J.D., Martinson D.G., McIntyre A., Mix A.C., Morley J.J., Pisias N.G., Prell W.L., Shackleton N.J., 1984. The Orbital Theory of Pleistocene Climate: Support from a Revised Chronology of the Marine Delta 18O Record. In Berger A.L., Imbrie J., Hays J., Kukla G., Saltzman B. (Eds.), Milankovitch and Climate, Part I, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 269-305.Mead G.A., Yauxe L., LaBrecque J.L., 1986. Oligocene paleoceanography of the South Atlantic: paleoclimate implications of sediment accumulation rates and magnetic susceptibility. Paleoceanography, 1, 273-284.Salvador A., (Ed.), 1994. International Stratigraphic Guide: The International Union of Geological Sciences and The Geological Society of America, Inc., 2nd Edition, 214p.Scotese C.R., 2001. Atlas of Earth History, Volume 1, Paleogeography, PALEOMAP Project, Arlington, Texas, 52p.Scotese C.R., 2013. Map Folio 49, Permo-Triassic Boundary (251 Ma), PALEOMAP PaleoAtlas for ArcGIS, Triassic and Jurassic Paleogeographic, Paleoclimatic and Plate Tectonic Reconstructions, PALEOMAP Project, Evanston, IL, 3.Shackleton N.J., Crowhurst S.J., Weedon G.P., Laskar J., 1999. Astronomical calibration of Oligocene-Miocene time. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, A357, 1907-1929.Shaw A.B., 1964. Time in Stratigraphy. New York, Mc Graw Hill, 365p.Shen S.-Z., Crowley J.L., Wang Y., Bowring S.A., Erwin D.H., Henderson C.M., Ramezani J., Zhang H., Shen Y.,Wang X.-D., Wang W., Mu L., Li W.-Z., Tang Y.-G., Liu X.-L., Liu X.-L., Zeng Y., Jiang Y.-F., Jin Y.-G., 2011a. High-precision geochronologic dating constrains probable causes of Earth’s largest mass extinction. Science, 334, 1367-1372. Doi:10.1126/science.1213454.Swartzendruber L.J., 1992. Properties, units and constants in magnetism. Journal of Magnetic Materials, 100, 573-575.Weedon G.P., Jenkyns H.C., Coe A.L., Hesselbo S.P., 1999. Astronomical calibration of the Jurassic time-scale from cyclostratigraphy in British mudrock formations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, A357, 1787-1813.Weedon G.P., Shackleton N.J., Pearson P.N., 1997. The Oligocne time scale and cyclostratigraphy on the Ceara Rise, western equatorial Atlantic. In: Schackleton N.J., Curry W.B., Richter C., and Bralower T.J. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, 154, 101-114.Whalen M.T., Day J.E., 2008. Magnetic Susceptibility, Biostratigraphy, and Sequence Stratigraphy: Insights into Devonian Carbonate Platform Development and Basin Infilling, Western Alberta. Papers on Phanerozoic Reef Carbonates in Honor of Wolfgang Schlager. SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Special Publication, 89, 291-314.
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Masese, Rita V., Dominique Bulgin, Liliana Preiss, Mitchell Knisely, Eleanor Stevenson, Jane S. Hankins, Marsha Treadwell et al. « Predictors of Maternal Morbidity Among Participants Enrolled in the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium Registry ». Blood 136, Supplement 1 (5 novembre 2020) : 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1182/blood-2020-140743.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Introduction Pregnancy in sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with an exacerbation of SCD-related complications and an increased risk of maternal complications. The increased risk is partly due to physiologic adaptations in pregnancy, which include increased metabolic demands and a hypercoagulable state. The maternal death rate for SCD is 629 per 100,000 deliveries, compared to 12 per 100,000 deliveries in black women and 6 per 100,000 deliveries in the general population (Raider et al., 2016). Studies on maternal and perinatal outcomes of patients with SCD present inconsistent and conflicting results. Some studies have reported an increase in maternal complications such as pre-eclampsia, acute chest syndrome and thromboembolic events, while other studies have reported no significant risk in adverse maternal outcomes. The inconsistent findings reported in prior studies may be attributed to small sample sizes and single-centered sites. Our study aims to determine the prevalence and predictors of maternal morbidity among participants enrolled in the SCD Implementation Consortium (SCDIC) registry, which is the largest, most geographically diverse SCD participant sample in the United States. Methods This cross-sectional study included women enrolled in the SCDIC registry who had at least one pregnancy event. The SCDIC is composed of eight academic SCD centers across the United States and one data-coordinating center. Participants were enrolled in the SCDIC registry if they were 18 to 45 years of age and had a confirmed diagnosis of SCD. Enrolled participants completed a series of surveys that collected sociodemographic information, SCD and pregnancy history and data abstractions of participants' medical records was completed. Medical complications queried during pregnancy included: vaso-occlusive episodes, acute chest syndrome, blood transfusion requirement, preeclampsia, maternal diabetes and deep venous thrombosis. Descriptive analysis of sociodemographic, clinical and maternal characteristics was conducted. Bivariate analysis was performed using Chi-Square test, Mann-Whitney U test, t-test, and logistic regressions, as appropriate. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all analysis. Results The study sample included 743 women who had at least one pregnancy event, and a total of 1066 live births. Almost all women (96.3%) were African American, with a median age of 21 years (inter-quartile range of 19 to 23 years) at first birth. The majority had Hb SS SCD genotype (69.5%; 513 of the 738 with SCD genotype data). Of all reported pregnancies, participants did not use hydroxyurea during conception (78%), and pregnancy (84.5%). Only 2.7 % of the women reported using fertility drugs or assisted reproductive procedures. Seventy five percent of the pregnancies that ended in live births had maternal complications. The leading complications were vaso-occlusive episodes (61.2%), pregnancy requiring blood transfusion(s) (33.2%), preeclampsia (15.4%), deep venous thrombosis (5.6%) and acute chest syndrome (7.7%). When the pregnancies were stratified by SCD genotype, women with Hb SS had a higher occurrence of acute chest syndrome (63.4% vs. 26.7%), transfusion requirement (70.8% vs. 21%) and preeclampsia (66.7% vs 22.4%). In the univariate logistic regressions, multiparous women, with a history of adverse maternal outcomes in a previous pregnancy, had higher odds of vaso-occlusive episodes (OR: 3.42; 95% CI: 2.42-4.94) acute chest syndrome (OR:4.99; 95% CI:2.56- 9.48), transfusion requirement (OR:3.86; 95% CI:2.64- 5.69), and pre-eclampsia (OR:3.36; 95% CI:2.05-5.45). Conclusion In this large multicenter registry, we found pregnant women with SCD have significant maternal complications. Early antenatal care by healthcare providers knowledgeable about risk factors for adverse maternal outcomes in SCD is essential improve maternal and fetal outcomes and reduce the maternal death rate for SCD. Disclosures Hankins: Novartis: Research Funding; Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; MJH Life Sciences: Consultancy, Patents & Royalties; UptoDate: Consultancy; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: Honoraria, Research Funding; LINKS Incorporate Foundation: Research Funding; American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: Honoraria. Treadwell:Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy; UpToDate: Honoraria. King:Amphivena Therapeutics: Research Funding; Bioline: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Cell Works: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy; Magenta Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novimmune: Research Funding; RiverVest: Consultancy; Tioma Therapuetics: Consultancy; WUGEN: Current equity holder in private company. Gordeuk:CSL Behring: Consultancy, Research Funding; Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Imara: Research Funding; Ironwood: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy. Kanter:SCDAA Medical and Research Advisory Board: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AGIOS: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BEAM: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy; GLG: Honoraria; Jeffries: Honoraria; Cowen: Honoraria; Wells Fargo: Honoraria; NHLBI Sickle Cell Advisory Board: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Medscape: Honoraria; Guidepoint Global: Honoraria; bluebird bio, inc: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sanofi: Consultancy. Glassberg:Pfizer: Research Funding; Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy; Eli Lilly and Company: Research Funding. Shah:Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Alexion: Speakers Bureau; CSL Behring: Consultancy; Bluebird Bio: Consultancy; Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau.
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Van Bueren, Truus. « Gegevens over enkele epitafen uit het Sint Jansklooster te Haarlem ». Oud Holland - Quarterly for Dutch Art History 103, no 3 (1989) : 121–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/187501789x00103.
Texte intégralRésumé :
AbstractIn 1625 the Monastery of St. John's in Haarlem, which housed the local Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers), was dissolved. The property, including a large collection of paintings, passed to the City of Haarlem, which claimed all the monasteries in the district of Haarlen as compensation for damage sustairted during the siege and rebellion against Spain. In the monastery's archives, now in the Haarlem Municipal Archives, memorial panels are menizoned fourteen times. Nine of thern occur in three inventories of 1573, one in a testament of 1574 and the rest in the Commander's accounts of 1572, 1573 and 1574. In the case of six of the thirteen items there is no description of the representation at all; one is simply said to depict a number of persons. Four of the six other items are Passion representations. Like The Last Judgment, such themes are in keeping with the functiort of a memorial panel. The description of one epitaph as 'in laudem artis musiccs' is not sufficiently clear to give an idea of the representation. More information is available as to the patrons or commemorated persons. All of them seem to have been members of the Order of St. John: four panels were memorials to commanders, three to ordinary hospitallers and one painting commemorated the founder of the monastery. All were priests. Nothing in the archives suggests that the church contained memorials to non-members of the order. This must nonetheless have been the case: a 'Liber- memoriarum' compiled in 1570 indicates that numerous memorial services were held for the laity, many of whom apparently chose St. John's as their last resting-place. It is thus highly likely that memorials for these worshippers were placed in the church. A 1572 inventory of St. John's Monastery makes no mention of memorial panels, probably because the contents of the church were not listed. After the monastery had been destroyed during the siege of Haarlem, three inventories were drawn up: one of the ruined monastery, one of the items - mainly paintings which were moved to Utrecht, and one of the property taken to the Sint Adriaansdoelen, the temporary home of the order after the destruction of the monastery. Only in these three inventories are epitaphs mentioned. The inventories of 1580 and 1606 were drawn up by order of the City, the claimant to the mortastery's propery. They make no mention of private possessions, not even those of the members of the Order. The 1625 inventory, drawn up after the death of the last inmate, only mentiorts the painting that was bought by the convent to be placed on the grave of its founder. Epitaphs which were not orderend by the convent were probably regarded as private property, and passed to the heirs prior to 1625. Exact dates cannot be ascertained. The author has identified two epitaphs and a painting coming from St. John's. It is not clear whether the small painting of Mary, her cousin Elizabeth and Commander Jan Willem Jansz. (1484-1514) (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar) is (part of) an epitaph or a devotional painting (ill. 2). The 1572 inventory mentions a picture of Jan Willem. It is not described, but the painting in Weimar is a likely candidate because of its small size (72 x 50). The 1573 inventory of the property in the Adriaansdoelen lists a wing of the epitaph of 'Heer Jan', but again, the representation is not described. The 17thcentury genealogist Opt Straeten van der Moelen described the four family coats of arms on the painting, but said nothing about the representation or where he saw it. It was possible to identify the Hospitaller in the Weimar work because of the armorial shield hanging on a tree behind the kneeling figure. The arms correspond with what Opt Straeten van der Moelen described as the arms of the Hospitaller's father, and with a wax impression of Jan Willem Jansz.'s arms (ill. 1) on a document of 1494, now in the Haarlem Municipal Archive. The date and painter of the picture are not known. In the series of portraits of the Commanders of St. John's Monastery in Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum) is a second portrait of Jan Willem. In this, the seventeenth portrait in the series (ill. 3), he is grey-haired, in contrast to the Weimar painting, in which he is depicted with black hair. Jan Willem Jansz. was born in about 1450. In 1484 he was elected Commander of the order, a function which he held until his death in 1514. The Bowes Museum, Durham, owns a triptych of an Entombment (ills. 4 and 5). On the middle panel is a kneeling Knight Hospitaller; on each of the side panels are four persons, arranged in pairs. One of them, on the right wing, is another member of the Order. Coats of arms can be seen on the prie-dieu's behind which three of the four couples kneel, and on the back of the panels (ill. 6). Comparison of these arms with the one on the seal of Philips van Hogesteyn, Commander of the Order frorn 1571 to 1574, suggests that this is his epitaph (ill. 7). The memorial panel is mentioned in the 1573 inventory of property in the Adriaansdoelen. In 1570, before becoming prior of the monastery, Philips had a 'Liber memoriarum' compiled which contained the names of his grandparents and parents. His grandmother came from the Van Arkel family, whose arms bore two opposing embattled bars. This coal of arms facilitated identification of the couples on the left wing. The grandparents are kneeling behind the last prie-dieu - the Van Arkel arms are on the heraldic left of the shield. In front of them are Philips van Hogesteyn's parents. It is harder to establish the identity of the people on the right wing, but the couple kneeling behind the prie-dieu are very likely Philips' brother and sister-in-law. The woman behind them could be his sister. The brother and sister are mentioned in his will, which he made in 1568. However, it is not clear who the Hospitaller on this panel is. It could be an unknown member of the family, but it is also possible that Philips van Hogesteyn was depicted in the triplych twice, first simply as a member of the family on one wing and again, later on in life, on the middle panel as the most important patron. Besides this painted epitaph, an elegy on Philips van Hogesteyn, written bij Cornelys Schonaeus, headmaster of the Latin school in Haarlem, has been preserved. This poem only mentions the effigy of the late Philips in front of the 'worthy reader' - not a word about his family. The 1572 inventory lists two separate portraits of Philips. It is not known where he was buried, nor has it been possible to establish whether his epitaph, with or without the elegy, or a portrait plus an elegy were ever placed on his grave. The painter is not mentioned by name anywhere either. Philips van Hogesteyn took holy orders in 1553. Assuming that he was 17 years old when he joined the Order of St. John, he would have entered the monastery in 1544. If this assumption is correct and he is portrayed twice on the triplych, it could have been painted any time from 1544 on. The reason for the commission must remain unanswered. In the Catharijneconvent Museum in Utrechl is a triptych with a Crucifixion. On the left wing is a kneeling man in a chasuble and stole, and on the right wing a Hospitaller (ill. 8). Today the outsides of the panels are empty. In the catalogue of an exhibition of North-Netherlandish painting and sculpture before 1575, held in 1913, however, the vestiges of the armorial shields -- four on each panel - are mentioned. Apparently this is an epitaph for a member of the Oem van Wijngaarden family, brought to Utrecht in 1573. The Hospitaller is Tieleman Oem van Wijngaarden, who was living in St. John's Monastery in Haarlem at the beginning of the 16th century and died in 1518 person on the right-hand panel appears to be Dirk van Raaphorst -- also known as Dirk van Noordwijk. The Utrecht triptych is identified here as the Van Wijngaarden epitaph from St. John's Monastery despite the fact that the description of shield I on the right-hand panel does not point towards the Oem van Wijngaarden family. Thanks to the fourth shield on the same panel, still in fairly good condition in 1913, it was possible, by dint of invenstigating Tieleman's family, to establish him as the person portrayed on the right-hand panel (see Appendix II). Dirk van Raaphorst of Noordwijk was a canon of St. Pancras' Church in Leiden. He probably owed the name 'van Raaphorst of Noordwijk' to the fact that he was called after his maternal grandfather. For the same reason, the armorial shields on the back of the lefthand panel are not arranged in the usual manner but inverted, i being the mother's arms, II the father's (see also Appendix III). Dirk van Noordwijk was a nephew of Tieleman Oem van Wijngaarden (see Appendix IV). He died in 1502. In 15 18 Tieleman was buried in the same grave in the church of St. John's Monastery. This memorial panel, too, prompts several questions. It is not clear why distant relatives, whose deaths moreover were sixteen years apart, were commemorated on the same panel. Neither the painter nor the dale of the triptych is known. However, perhaps the source of Tieleman's portrait can be established (fig.9). The features in this portrait bear a marked resemblance to those in the portrait of the Hospitaller on the Van Wijngaarden epitaph in Utrecht. Despite publications on individual North-Netherlandish memorial panels, no scholarly examination of the total number of known pieces has yet been initiated. The author is preparing such an examination, which may yield more insight into the customs pertaining to the corramemoration of the dead and the place accupied by memorial panels.
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Grahame, J. A. K., R. A. Butlin, James G. Cruickshank, E. A. Colhoun, A. Farrington, Gordon L. Davies, I. E. Jones et al. « Reviews of Books ». Irish Geography 5, no 2 (4 janvier 2017) : 106–508. http://dx.doi.org/10.55650/igj.1965.1015.
Texte intégralRésumé :
NORTHERN IRELAND FROM THE AIR. Edited by R. Common, Belfast : Queen's University Geography Department, 1964. 104 pp., 44 plates, 1 folding map. 10 × 8 ins. 25s.THE CANALS OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND, by W. A. McCutcheon. Dawlish : David and Charles, and London : Macdonald and Co., 1965. 180 pp. 8 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. 36s.ULSTER AND OTHER IRISH MAPS c.1600. Edited by G. A. Hayes‐McCoy. Dublin : Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1964. 13 × 19 in. xv + 36 pp., 23. plates. £ 6.SOILS OF COUNTY WEXFORD. Edited by P. Ryan and M. J. Gardiner. Prepared and published by An Foras Talúntais (The Agricultural Institute), Dublin 1964. 171 pp. and three fold‐in maps. 30s.THE GEOGRAPHY OF SOIL, by Brian T. Bunting. London : Hutchinson's University Library, 1965. pp. 213. 14 figs. 12 tables. 7 1/2 × 5 in. 15s.THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF LANDFORMS. Vol. I : GEOMORPHOLOGY BEFORE DAVIS. Richard J. Chorley, Anthony J. Dunn and Robert P. Beckinsale. London : Methuen, 1964. 678 pp. 84s.A DICTIONARY OF GEOGRAPHY, by F. J. Monkhouse. London : Edward. Arnold Ltd., 1965. 344 pp. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. 35s.LA REGION DE L'OUEST, by Pierre Flatrès. Collection ‘France de Demain ‘. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1964. 31s. 6d.THE BRITISH ISLES : A SYSTEMATIC GEOGRAPHY. Edited by J. Wreford Watson and J. B. Sissons. Edinburgh : Thomas Nelson, 1964. 452 pp. 45s.SCANDINAVIAN LANDS, by Roy Millward. London : Macmillan, 1964. Pp. 448. 9 × 6 in. 45s.MERSEYSIDE, by R. Kay Gresswell and R. Lawton. British Landscapes Through Maps, No. 6. The Geographical Association, Sheffield, 1964. 36 pp. + 16 plates. 7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in. 5s.WALKING IN WICKLOW, by J. B. Malone. Dublin : Helicon Ltd., 1964. 172 pp. 7 × 4 #fr1/2> in. 7s.GREYSTONES 1864–1964. A parish centenary, 1964. 23 pp. 8 #fr1/4> × 5 1/2 in. 2s. 6d. Obtainable from the A.P.C.K., 37 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.DINNSEANCHAS. Vol. I, No. I. June 1964. An Cumann Logainmneacha, Baile Atha Cliath. Pp. 24. 5s.JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS OF IRELAND. Vol. I, Dublin. 1964.MAP READING FOR THE INTERMEDIATE CERTIFICATE, by Michael J. Turner. A. Folens : Dublin. 1964. 92 pp.MAP OF CORK CITY, 1: 15,000. Dublin : Ordnance Survey Office, 1964. 32 × 24 in. On paper, flat, 4s., or folded and covered, 5s.IRELAND, by T. W. Freeman. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. Third edition, 1965. 5 1/2 × 8 #fr1/2> in. Pp. xx + 560. 65s.THE PLANNING AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DUBLIN REGION. PRELIMINARY REPORT. By Myles Wright. Dublin : Stationery Office, 1965. Pp.55. 8 ins. × 11 3/4 ins. 10s 6d.LIMERICK REGIONAL PLAN. Interim Report on the Limerick—Shannon— Ennis District by Nathaniel Litchfield. The Stationery Office, Dublin 1965. 8 × 12 ins. ; Pp. 83 ; 10s. 6d.ANTRIM NEW TOWN. Outline Plan. Belfast : H. M. Stationery Office, 1965. 10 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. 15s.HEPORT OF THE DEPUTY KEEPER OF THE RECORDS 1954–1959. Belfast : Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Cmd. 490. 138 pp. 10s.ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, by Ronald Hope. London : George Philip and Son Ltd., 4th edition, 1965. pp. 296. 15s. 6d.CLIMATE, SOILS AND VEGETATION, by D. C. Money. London : University Tutorial Press, 1965. pp. 272. 18s.TECHNIQUES IN GEOMORPHOLOGY, by Cuchlaine A. M. King. 9 × 5 1/2 in. 342 pp. London : Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., 1966. 40s.BRITISH GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RESEARCH GROUP PUBLICATIONS :— 1. RATES OF EROSION AND WEATHERING IN THE BRITISH ISLES. Occasional Publication No. 2, 1965. Pp. 46. 13 × 8 in. 7s. 6d.2. DEGLACIATION. Occasional Publication No. 3, 1966. Pp. 37. 13 × 8 in. 7s.RECHERCHES DE GÉOMORPHOLOGIE EN ÉCOSSE DU NORD‐OUEST. By A. Godard. Publication de la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg, 1965. 701 pp. 482 reís.ARTHUR'S SEAT: A HISTORY OF EDINBURGH'S VOLCANO, by G. P. Black. Edinburgh & London : Oliver & Boyd, 1966. 226 pp. 7 1/2 × 5 in. 35s.OFFSHORE GEOGRAPHY OF NORTHWESTERN EUROPE. The Political and Economic Problems of Delimitation and Control, by Lewis M. Alexander. London : Murray, 1966. 35s.GEOGRAPHICAL PIVOTS OF HISTORY. An Inaugural Lecture, by W. Kirk. Leicester University Press, 1965. 6s.THE GEOGRAPHY OF FRONTIERS AND BOUNDARIES, by J. R. V. Prescott. London : Hutchinson, 1965. 15s.THE READER'S DIGEST COMPLETE ATLAS OF THE BRITISH ISLES.. London : Reader's Digest Assoc., 1965. 230 pp. 15 1/4 × 10 1/2 in. £5. 10. 0.ULSTER DIALECTS. AN INTRODUCTORY SYMPOSIUM. Edited by G. B. Adams, Belfast : Ulster Folk Museum, 1964. 201 pp. 9 1/2 × 6 1/2 in. 20s.ULSTER FOLKLIFE, Volume 11. Belfast: The Ulster Folk Museum, 1965. Pp. 139. 9 1/2 × 7 in. 15s.GEOGRAPHICAL ABSTRACTS published and edited by K. M. Clayton, F. M Yates, F. E. Hamilton and C. Board.Obtainable from Geo. Abstracts, Dept. of Geography, London School of Economics, Aldwych, London, W.C.2. Subscription rates as below.THE CLIMATE OF LONDON. T. J. Chandler. London : Hutchinson and Co., 1965. 292 pp., 86 figs., 93 tables. 70/‐.MONSOON LANDS, Part I, by R. T. Cobb and L. J. M. Coleby. London : University Tutorial Press Ltd., 1966, constituting Book Six (Part 1 ) of the Advanced Level Geography Series. 303 pp. 8 1/4 × 5 1/4 in. 20s.PREHISTORIC AND EARLY CHRISTIAN IRELAND. A GUIDE, by Estyn Evans. London : B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1966. xii + 241 pp. 45s.A REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY OF IRELAND, by G. Fahy. Dublin : Browne and Nolan Ltd. No date. 238 pp. 12s.THE CANALS OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND, by V. T. H. and D. R. Delany. Newton Abbot : David and Charles, 1966. 260 pp. + 20 plates. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. 50s.THE COURSE OF IRISH HISTORY. Edited by T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin. Cork : The Mercier Press. 1967. 404 pp. 5 3/4 × 7 3/4 ins. Paperback, 21s. Hard cover, 40s.NORTH MUNSTER STUDIES. Edited by E. Rynne. Limerick : The Thomond Archaeological Society, 1967. 535 pp. 63s.SOILS OF COUNTY LIMERICK, by T. F. Finch and Pierce Ryan. Dublin: An Foras Talúntais, 1966. 199 pp. and four fold‐in maps. 9 1/2 × 7 1/4 in. 30s.THE FORESTS OF IRELAND. Edited by H. M. Fitzpatrick. Dublin : Society of Irish Foresters. No date. 153 pp. 9 3/4 × 7 1/4 in. 30s.PLANNING FOR AMENITY AND TOURISM. Specimen Development Plan Manual 2–3, Donegal. Dublin : An Foras Forbartha (The National Institute for Physical Planning and Construction Research), 1966. 110 pp. 8 × 11 in. 12s. 6d.NEW DIMENSIONS IN REGIONAL PLANNING. A CASE STUDY OF IRELAND, by Jeremiah Newman. Dublin : An Foras Forbartha, 1967. 128 pp. 8 1/2 × 6 in. 25s.TRAFFIC PLANNING FOR SMALLER TOWNS. Dublin : An Foras Forbartha (The National Institute for Regional Planning and Construction Research), 1966. 35 pp. 8 1/4 × 10 3/4 in. No price.LATE AND POST‐GLACIAL SHORELINES AND ICE LIMITS IN ARGYLL AND NORTH‐EAST ULSTER, by F. M. Synge and N. Stephens. Institute of British Geographers Transactions No. 59, 1966, pp. 101–125.QUATERNARY CHANGES OF SEA‐LEVEL IN IRELAND, by A. R. Orme. Institute of British Geographers Transactions No. 39, 1966, pp. 127–140.LIMESTONE PAVEMENTS (with special reference to Western Ireland), by Paul W. Williams. Institute of British Geographers Transactions No. 40, 1966, pp. 155–172. 50s. for 198 pages.IRISH SPELEOLOGY. Volume I, No. 2, 1966. Pp. 18. 10 × 8 in. 5s., free to members of the Irish Speleological Association.THE GEOGRAPHER'S CRAFT, by T. W. Freeman. Manchester University Press, 1967. pp.204. 8 1/4 × 5 in. 25s.GEOGRAPHY AS HUMAN ECOLOGY. Edited by S. R. Eyre and G. R. J. Jones. London : Edward Arnold Ltd., 1966. 308 pp. 45s.LOCATIONAL ANALYSIS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, by Peter Haggett. London : Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., 1965. 339 pp. 9 × 5 1/2 in. 40s.AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY, by Leslie Symons. London : G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1967. 283 pp. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 ins. 30s.THE GEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND, edited by Gordon Y. Craig. Edinburgh and London : Oliver & Boyd, 1965. Pp. 556. 9 3/4 × 7 1/2 in. 105s.MORPHOLOGY OF THE EARTH, by Lester C. King. Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, 2nd ed., 1967. 726 pp. 9 1/2 × 7 in. £5. 5. 0.INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK OF CARTOGRAPHY, V, 1965. Edited by Eduard Imhof. London : George Philip and Son Ltd., 1965. 222 pp. + 9 plates. 9 3/4 × 6 1/2 in. 47s. 6d.IRISH FOLK WAYS, by E. Estyn Evans. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967. 324 pp. 16s.A HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL IRELAND, by A.J.Otway‐Ruthven. London: Ernest Benn Limited. New York : Barnes and Noble Inc., 1968. xv + 454 pp. 70s.IRISH AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, ITS VOLUME AND STRUCTURE, by Raymond D. Crotty. Cork University Press, 1966. 384 pp. 42s.PLANNING IN IRELAND. Edited by F. Rogerson and P. O hUiginn. Dublin : The Irish Branch of the Town Planning Institute and An Foras Forbartha, 1907. 199 pp.THE SHELL GUIDE TO IRELAND, by Lord Killanin and Michael V. Duignan. London : Ebury Press and George Rainbird (distributed by Michael Joseph) : 2nd edition, 1967. 512 pp. 50s.THE CLIMATE OF NORTH MUNSTER, by P. K. Rohan. Dublin : Department of Transport and Power, Meteorological Service, 1968. 72 pp. 10s. 6d.SOILS OF COUNTY CARLOW, by M.J. Conry and Pierce Ryan. Dublin : An Foras Talúntais, 1967. 204 pp. and four fold‐in maps. 30s.MOURNE COUNTRY, by E. Estyn Evans. Dundalk : Dundalgan Press (W. Tempest) Ltd., 2nd ed., 1967. 244 pp. 63s.THE DUBLIN REGION. Advisory Plan and Final Report, by Myles Wright. Dublin : The Stationery Office, 1967. Part One, pp. 64. 20s. Part Two, pp. 224. 80s.BELFAST : THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRIAL CITY. Edited by J. C. Beckett and R. E. Glasscock. London : The British Broadcasting Corporation, 1967. 204 pp. 25s.REPORT ON SKIBBEREEN SOCIAL SURVEY, by John Jackson. Dublin : Human Sciences Committee of the Irish National Productivity Committee, 1967. 63 pp. 12s. 6d.AN OUTLINE PLAN FOR GALWAY CITY, by Breandan S. MacAodha. Dublin : Scepter Publishers Ltd., 1966. 15 pp.COASTAL PASSENGER STEAMERS AND INLAND NAVIGATIONS IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND, by D.B. McNeill. Belfast : The Transport Museum (Transport Handbook No. 6), 1965 (issued in 1967). 44 pp. (text) + 12 pp. (plates). 3s. 6d.CANALIANA, the annual bulletin of Robertstown Muintir na Tire. Robertstown, Co. Kildare : Muintir na Tire, n.d. (issued in 1967). 60 pp. 2s. 6d.CONACRE IN IRELAND, by Breandan S. MacAodha (Social Sciences Research Centre, Galway). Dublin : Scepter Publishers Ltd., 1967, 15 pp. No price.PROCESSES OF COASTAL DEVELOPMENT, by V.P. Zenkovich, edited by J.A. Steers, translated by D.G. Fry. 738 pp. Edinburgh and London : Oliver and Boyd, 1967. £12. 12s.CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS. 20th International Geographical Congress. Edited by J. Wreford Watson. London : Nelson, 1967. 401 pp. 70s.REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY, by Roger Minshull. London : Hutchinson University Library, 1967. 168 pp. 10s. 6d.ATMOSPHERE, WEATHER AND CLIMATE, by R.G. Barry and R.J. Chorley. London : University Paperback, Methuen, 1967. 25s.THE EVOLUTION OF SCOTLAND'S SCENERY, by J.B. Sissons. Edinburgh and London : Oliver and Boyd, 1967. 259 pp. 63s.WEST WICKLOW. BACKGROUND FOR DEVELOPMENT, by F.H.A. Aalen, D.A. Gillmor and P.W. Williams. Dublin : Geography Department, Trinity College, 1966. 323 pp. Unpublished : copy available in the Society's Library.
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Wooster, Casey, et Laura Marion. « Resilience : Centering Black Heritage in St. Augustine ». SOURCE : The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries 4, no 1 (5 octobre 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.32473/sourceuf.v4i1.129010.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Social unrest, isolation, and uncertainty marked 2020. Governor’s House Library along with other educators and interpreters of history bore witness to our nation’s reckoning with issues of racial inequalities in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Through a series of community conversations last summer, "Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine" emerged as collaboration across cultural heritage and educational institutions. These discussions yielded a group effort to better center the many contributions the Black community made and continues to make in St. Augustine.
The Resilience project is a year-long effort manifesting throughout 2021 in a variety of programming formats, including lectures, exhibits, digital humanities projects, and special tours. These initiatives, taken on by individual libraries, archives, and museums, work together to tell the important story of Black St. Augustinians and their many contributions to our city and culture throughout our 455- year history.
This article will explore Governor’s House Library’s participation in this initiative, the project’s successes and challenges, and the ways in which we can foster meaningful community and support while we are physically apart.
Governor's House Library is managed jointly by UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc., and the UF George A. Smathers Libraries.
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Wooster, Casey, et Laura Marion. « Resilience : Centering Black Heritage in St. Augustine ». SOURCE : The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries 4, no 1 (5 octobre 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.32473/sourceuf.v4i1.129010.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Social unrest, isolation, and uncertainty marked 2020. Governor’s House Library along with other educators and interpreters of history bore witness to our nation’s reckoning with issues of racial inequalities in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Through a series of community conversations last summer, "Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine" emerged as collaboration across cultural heritage and educational institutions. These discussions yielded a group effort to better center the many contributions the Black community made and continues to make in St. Augustine.
The Resilience project is a year-long effort manifesting throughout 2021 in a variety of programming formats, including lectures, exhibits, digital humanities projects, and special tours. These initiatives, taken on by individual libraries, archives, and museums, work together to tell the important story of Black St. Augustinians and their many contributions to our city and culture throughout our 455- year history.
This article will explore Governor’s House Library’s participation in this initiative, the project’s successes and challenges, and the ways in which we can foster meaningful community and support while we are physically apart.
Governor's House Library is managed jointly by UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc., and the UF George A. Smathers Libraries.
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Sher, Lawrence, Charu Sabharwal, Nicholas Kitchin, Justice Kofi Boakya-Appiah, Xia Xu, Emmanuel Walter, Yvonne A. Maldonado et al. « 362. Safety and Immunogenicity of a Variant-adapted Bivalent (Original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine Given as a Booster (Dose 4) to Toddlers and Children 6 Months to < ; 5 Years of Age Who Previously Received Original BNT162b2 as a 3-Dose Primary Series ». Open Forum Infectious Diseases 10, Supplement_2 (27 novembre 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofad500.432.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Abstract Background A variant-adapted bivalent BNT162b2 vaccine (bivalent BNT162b2) comprised of original SARS-CoV-2 and Omicron BA.4/BA.5 spike proteins was developed to improve protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Bivalent BNT162b2 is authorized by the US FDA from 6 months (mo) old; for children 6 mo to < 5 years (y), it is authorized as a 3-dose primary series and as a fourth dose (first booster). Methods This substudy is part of a phase 1/2/3 master study (NCT05543616) investigating safety and immunogenicity of bivalent BNT162b2. The group reported here is open label and evaluates a fourth dose (first booster) with bivalent BNT162b2 3 μg in children 6 mo to < 5 y who previously received 3 original BNT162b2 3 μg doses. Reactogenicity (7 day), and 1 mo safety and immunogenicity for a subset of 60 participants were assessed. Descriptive immunogenicity endpoints included SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and ancestral strain neutralization responses post dose 4. A comparator group for immunogenicity included 60 participants, matched by age and SARS-CoV-2 infection status, from the initial pediatric study (NCT04816643) who received 3 original BNT162b2 3 μg doses without a booster. Results Of children 6 mo to < 5 y old (6 mo to < 2 y, n = 24; 2 y to < 5 y, n = 36) who received bivalent BNT162b2 as a fourth dose, 50% were male, 58% White, 5% Black, 15% Asian, 22% multiracial, 25% Hispanic/Latino; 28.3% had evidence of past SARS-CoV-2 infection. Median time from dose 3 of original BNT162b2 to bivalent BNT162b2 was 6.5 mo. Bivalent BNT162b2 was generally well tolerated with mostly mild to moderate reactogenicity and minimal fever (Figure), few reported adverse events (AEs), no serious AEs, and no new safety signals identified. Bivalent BNT162b2 elicited higher neutralizing titers against Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and similar titers against ancestral strain 1 mo post dose 4 compared with original BNT162b2 1 mo post dose 3 (Table). Robust immune responses were observed regardless of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection status. Conclusion A booster (dose 4) of bivalent BNT162b2 had a similar safety profile to original BNT162b2 and induced robust Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and ancestral strain neutralizing titers in children 6 mo to < 5 y. These descriptive data reinforce the importance of a variant-adapted bivalent COVID-19 booster dose in this age group. Disclosures Lawrence Sher, MD, Pfizer Inc: Clinical Investigator Charu Sabharwal, MD, MPH, Pfizer Inc: Employee|Pfizer Inc: Stocks/Bonds Nicholas Kitchin, MD, Pfizer Inc: Employee|Pfizer Inc: Stocks/Bonds Justice Kofi Boakya-Appiah, MD, Pfizer Inc: Employee|Pfizer Inc: Stocks/Bonds Xia Xu, PhD, Pfizer Inc: Employee|Pfizer Inc: Stocks/Bonds Emmanuel Walter, MD, Clinetic: Clinical Investigator|Iliad Biotechnologies: Advisor/Consultant|Moderna: Clinical Investigator|Najit Technologies: Clinical Investigator|Pfizer Inc: Clinical Investigator|Sequiris: Clinical Investigator|Vaxcyte: Advisor/Consultant Yvonne A. Maldonado, MD, Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Site Investigator, DSMB member Flor M. Munoz, MD, MSc, CDC respiratory virus surveillance: Grant/Research Support|Gilead: Grant/Research Support|Moderna, sanofi, aztra zeneca, Merck, GSK: Advisor/Consultant|NIH: DSMB|NIH COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer, Dynavax, Monderna, Meissa, NIH: DSMB Janet A. Englund, MD, Ark Biopharma: Advisor/Consultant|AstraZeneca: Advisor/Consultant|AstraZeneca: Grant/Research Support|GlaxoSmithKline: Grant/Research Support|Meissa Vaccines: Advisor/Consultant|Merck: Grant/Research Support|Moderna: Advisor/Consultant|Moderna: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Advisor/Consultant|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Sanofi Pasteur: Advisor/Consultant Kawsar R. Talaat, MD, Intralytix: Advisor/Consultant|Merck: Advisor/Consultant|NIAID: DSMB|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Pfizer contract with institution|Sanofi: Grant/Research Support|Takeda: Advisor/Consultant Satoshi Kamidani, MD, CDC: Grant/Research Support|Emergent BioSolutions: Grant/Research Support|NIH: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer Inc: Grant/Research Support Grant C. Paulsen, MD, Moderna: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support Lisa Moyer, BS, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Vrunda Parikh, PharmD, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Hua Ma, PhD, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Xingbin Wang, PhD, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Kenneth Koury, PhD, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Annaliesa S. Anderson, PhD, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Kena A. Swanson, Ph.D., Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds Alejandra C. Gurtman, M.D, Pfizer: Employee|Pfizer: Stocks/Bonds William C. Gruber, MD, Pfizer, Inc.: Employee|Pfizer, Inc.: Stocks/Bonds
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ANDERSON, JULIE D., MICHELLE A. HANSON, LESIA F. LYSNE, LYNN E. EBERLY, ELIZABETH R. SEAQUIST, DAN KNIGHTS, LISA S. CHOW, QI WANG et ANNE BANTLE. « 49-LB : A Low Biologically Available Glucose Diet Reduces Hemoglobin A1c in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus—A Randomized Controlled Trial ». Diabetes 72, Supplement_1 (20 juin 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/db23-49-lb.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Introduction: The Low Biologically Available Glucose (LoBAG) diet was designed to improve glycemic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). This study tested the effectiveness of the diet in free-living participants with T2D. Methods: A 12-week randomized controlled trial in participants with T2D compared the LoBAG30 diet (30% low starch carbohydrate, 30% protein, 40% fat) to a control diet (55% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 30% fat). Participants were taking metformin at a stable dose or no glucose-lowering medication. Diets were prescribed to be weight neutral and participants were asked to keep physical activity level constant. Diet instruction and dietitian support were provided to both study groups; food was not provided. The primary outcome was hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) at the end of the intervention, compared between groups. Results: Forty-eight participants were enrolled (30 female/18 male; 77% white, 15% Black/African American, 2% Asian, 2% American Indian, 4% not reported; 15% Hispanic/Latino). The majority (88%) took metformin. Baseline characteristics were mean (SD) age 57.4 (10.4) years, HbA1c 7.7 (0.6) %, weight 101.5 (19.7) kg, and BMI 35.4 (5.9) kg/m2 with no significant differences between groups. Thirty-eight participants completed the entire intervention; 4/10 non-completers were withdrawn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. HbA1c decreased in both groups over 12 weeks: mean (SD) -1.0 (0.8) % for the LoBAG diet (p<0.01) and -0.6 (0.7) % for control (p<0.01). The final HbA1c was 6.6 (0.6) % in the LoBAG diet group versus 7.2 (0.8) % for control (p=0.01 for comparison between groups). Both groups lost weight: -6.0 (6.9) kg with the LoBAG diet versus -4.3 (3.5) kg for control (p=0.34 for comparison between groups). Conclusion: Participants with T2D consuming the LoBAG diet had greater reduction in HbA1c over 12 weeks than those consuming a control diet. The LoBAG diet is an effective option for dietary management of blood glucose in patients with T2D. Disclosure J. D. Anderson: None. M. A. Hanson: None. L. F. Lysne: None. L. E. Eberly: None. E. R. Seaquist: Consultant; Zucara Therapeutics. D. Knights: None. L. S. Chow: Research Support; Dexcom, Inc. Q. Wang: None. A. Bantle: None. Funding University of Minnesota Department of Medicine; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR002494, KL2TR002492); National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K23DK115906)
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Morsi, Rami Z., Sonam Thind, Ahmad Chahine, Jehad Zakaria, Harsh Desai, Sachin A. Kothari, Atman P. Shah et al. « The use of PK Papyrus covered coronary stent for carotid reconstruction : an initial institutional experience ». Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, 3 janvier 2024, jnis—2023–021226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnis-2023-021226.
Texte intégralRésumé :
BackgroundThe use of covered stent grafts for the treatment of carotid rupture is increasingly being used given their ability to preserve the parent artery while simultaneously occluding the fistula or rupture point.MethodsThis case series describes the technical feasibility of using, and the performance of, the PK Papyrus covered coronary stent (Biotronik, Inc., Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA) in six patients with carotid rupture, including carotid cavernous fistulas, between July 2021 and October 2023 in a single-center institution in the USA.ResultsThe median decade of life was 5 (IQR 3) with a 1:1 male-to-female ratio. The majority were black patients (n=5/6, 83.3%). The most common disease pathology was carotid cavernous fistula (n=4/6, 66.7%), followed by traumatic carotid rupture (n=2/6, 33.3%). All the stent embolization procedures were successfully treated with the PK Papyrus covered coronary stent. None of the patients had any recurrence or re-treatment. The number of stents required ranged from 1 to 3. A balloon guide catheter was used in 66.7% of cases (n=4/6). In-hospital mortality was 0.0% (n=0/6). No in-stent thrombosis was observed, but there was one case of cangrelor-associated hemorrhagic stroke conversion. Transfemoral access was used in all cases with one access site complication. Median follow-up time was 1.8 months (IQR 3.5).ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the largest case series in the USA demonstrating the feasibility and safety of using the PK Papyrus covered coronary stent for the treatment of carotid rupture, including carotid cavernous fistulas.
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Burns, Alex. « 'This Machine Is Obsolete' ». M/C Journal 2, no 8 (1 décembre 1999). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1805.
Texte intégralRésumé :
'He did what the cipher could not, he rescued himself.' -- Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (23) On many levels, the new Nine Inch Nails album The Fragile is a gritty meditation about different types of End: the eternal relationship cycle of 'fragility, tension, ordeal, fragmentation' (adapted, with apologies to Wilhelm Reich); fin-de-siècle anxiety; post-millennium foreboding; a spectre of the alien discontinuity that heralds an on-rushing future vastly different from the one envisaged by Enlightenment Project architects. In retrospect, it's easy for this perspective to be dismissed as jargon-filled cyber-crit hyperbole. Cyber-crit has always been at its best too when it invents pre-histories and finds hidden connections between different phenomena (like the work of Greil Marcus and early Mark Dery), and not when it is closer to Chinese Water Torture, name-checking the canon's icons (the 'Deleuze/Guattari' tag-team), texts and key terms. "The organization of sound is interpreted historically, politically, socially ... . It subdues music's ambition, reins it in, restores it to its proper place, reconciles it to its naturally belated fate", comments imagineer Kodwo Eshun (4) on how cyber-crit destroys albums and the innocence of the listening experience. This is how official histories are constructed a priori and freeze-dried according to personal tastes and prior memes: sometimes the most interesting experiments are Darwinian dead-ends that fail to make the canon, or don't register on the radar. Anyone approaching The Fragile must also contend with the music industry's harsh realities. For every 10 000 Goth fans who moshed to the primal 'kill-fuck-dance' rhythms of the hit single "Closer" (heeding its siren-call to fulfil basic physiological needs and build niche-space), maybe 20 noted that the same riff returned with a darker edge in the title track to The Downward Spiral, undermining the glorification of Indulgent hedonism. "The problem with such alternative audiences," notes Disinformation Creative Director Richard Metzger, "is that they are trying to be different -- just like everyone else." According to author Don Webb, "some mature Chaos and Black Magicians reject their earlier Nine Inch Nails-inspired Goth beginnings and are extremely critical towards new adopters because they are uncomfortable with the subculture's growing popularity, which threatens to taint their meticulously constructed 'mysterious' worlds. But by doing so, they are also rejecting their symbolic imprinting and some powerful Keys to unlocking their personal history." It is also difficult to separate Nine Inch Nails from the commercialisation and colossal money-making machine that inevitably ensued on the MTV tour circuit: do we blame Michael Trent Reznor because most of his audience are unlikely to be familiar with 'first-wave' industrial bands including Cabaret Voltaire and the experiments of Genesis P. Orridge in Throbbing Gristle? Do we accuse Reznor of being a plagiarist just because he wears some of his influences -- Dr. Dre, Daft Punk, Atari Teenage Riot, Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), Tom Waits's Bone Machine (1992), David Bowie's Low (1977) -- on his sleeve? And do we accept no-brain rock critic album reviews who quote lines like 'All the pieces didn't fit/Though I really didn't give a shit' ("Where Is Everybody?") or 'And when I suck you off/Not a drop will go to waste' ("Starfuckers Inc") as representative of his true personality? Reznor evidently has his own thoughts on this subject, but we should let the music speak for itself. The album's epic production and technical complexity turned into a post-modern studio Vision Quest, assisted by producer Alan Moulder, eleventh-hour saviour Bob Ezrin (brought in by Reznor to 'block-out' conceptual and sonic continuity), and a group of assault-technicians. The fruit of these collaborations is an album where Reznor is playing with our organism's time-binding sense, modulating strange emotions through deeply embedded tonal angularities. During his five-year absence, Trent Reznor fought diverse forms of repetitious trauma, from endogenous depression caused by endless touring to the death of his beloved grandmother (who raised him throughout childhood). An end signals a new beginning, a spiral is an open-ended and ever-shifting structure, and so Reznor sought to re-discover the Elder Gods within, a shamanic approach to renewal and secular salvation utilised most effectively by music PR luminary and scientist Howard Bloom. Concerned with healing the human animal through Ordeals that hard-wire the physiological baselines of Love, Hate and Fear, Reznor also focusses on what happens when 'meaning-making' collapses and hope for the future cannot easily be found. He accurately captures the confusion that such dissolution of meaning and decline of social institutions brings to the world -- Francis Fukuyama calls this bifurcation 'The Great Disruption'. For a generation who experienced their late childhood and early adolescence in Reagan's America, Reznor and his influences (Marilyn Manson and Filter) capture the Dark Side of recent history, unleashed at Altamont and mutating into the Apocalyptic style of American politics (evident in the 'Star Wars'/SDI fascination). The personal 'psychotic core' that was crystallised by the collapse of the nuclear family unit and supportive social institutions has returned to haunt us with dystopian fantasies that are played out across Internet streaming media and visceral MTV film-clips. That such cathartic releases are useful -- and even necessary (to those whose lives have been formed by socio-economic 'life conditions') is a point that escapes critics like Roger Scruton, some Christian Evangelists and the New Right. The 'escapist' quality of early 1980s 'Rapture' and 'Cosmocide' (Hal Lindsey) prophecies has yielded strange fruit for the Children of Ezekiel, whom Reznor and Marilyn Manson are unofficial spokes-persons for. From a macro perspective, Reznor's post-human evolutionary nexus lies, like J.G. Ballard's tales, in a mythical near-future built upon past memory-shards. It is the kind of worldview that fuses organic and morphogenetic structures with industrial machines run amok, thus The Fragile is an artefact that captures the subjective contents of the different mind produced by different times. Sonic events are in-synch but out of phase. Samples subtly trigger and then scramble kinaesthetic-visceral and kinaesthetic-tactile memories, suggestive of dissociated affective states or body memories that are incapable of being retrieved (van der Kolk 294). Perhaps this is why after a Century of Identity Confusion some fans find it impossible to listen to a 102-minute album in one sitting. No wonder then that the double album is divided into 'left' and 'right' discs (a reference to split-brain research?). The real-time track-by-track interpretation below is necessarily subjective, and is intended to serve as a provisional listener's guide to the aural ur-text of 1999. The Fragile is full of encrypted tones and garbled frequencies that capture a world where the future is always bleeding into a non-recoverable past. Turbulent wave-forms fight for the listener's attention with prolonged static lulls. This does not make for comfortable or even 'nice' listening. The music's mind is a snapshot, a critical indicator, of the deep structures brewing within the Weltanschauung that could erupt at any moment. "Somewhat Damaged" opens the album's 'Left' disc with an oscillating acoustic strum that anchor's the listener's attention. Offset by pulsing beats and mallet percussion, Reznor builds up sound layers that contrast with lyrical epitaphs like 'Everything that swore it wouldn't change is different now'. Icarus iconography is invoked, but perhaps a more fitting mythopoeic symbol of the journey that lies ahead would be Nietzsche's pursuit of his Ariadne through the labyrinth of life, during which the hero is steadily consumed by his numbing psychosis. Reznor fittingly comments: 'Didn't quite/Fell Apart/Where were you?' If we consider that Reznor has been repeating the same cycle with different variations throughout all of his music to date, retro-fitting each new album into a seamless tapestry, then this track signals that he has begun to finally climb out of self-imposed exile in the Underworld. "The Day the World Went Away" has a tremendously eerie opening, with plucked mandolin effects entering at 0:40. The main slashing guitar riff was interpreted by some critics as Reznor's attempt to parody himself. For some reason, the eerie backdrop and fragmented acoustic guitar strums recalls to my mind civil defence nuclear war films. Reznor, like William S. Burroughs, has some powerful obsessions. The track builds up in intensity, with a 'Chorus of the Damned' singing 'na na nah' over apocalyptic end-times imagery. At 4:22 the track ends with an echo that loops and repeats. "The Frail" signals a shift to mournful introspectiveness with piano: a soundtrack to faded 8 mm films and dying memories. The piano builds up slowly with background echo, holds and segues into ... "The Wretched", beginning with a savage downbeat that recalls earlier material from Pretty Hate Machine. 'The Far Aways/Forget It' intones Reznor -- it's becoming clear that despite some claims to the contrary, there is redemption in this album, but it is one borne out of a relentless move forward, a strive-drive. 'You're finally free/You could be' suggest Reznor studied Existentialism during his psychotherapy visits. This song contains perhaps the ultimate post-relationship line: 'It didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, did it?' It's over, just not the way you wanted; you can always leave the partner you're with, but the ones you have already left will always stain your memories. The lines 'Back at the beginning/Sinking/Spinning' recall the claustrophobic trapped world and 'eternal Now' dislocation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder victims. At 3:44 a plucked cello riff, filtered, segues into a sludge buzz-saw guitar solo. At 5:18 the cello riff loops and repeats. "We're in This Together Now" uses static as percussion, highlighting the influence of electricity flows instead of traditional rock instrument configurations. At 0:34 vocals enter, at 1:15 Reznor wails 'I'm impossible', showing he is the heir to Roger Waters's self-reflective rock-star angst. 'Until the very end of me, until the very end of you' reverts the traditional marriage vow, whilst 'You're the Queen and I'm the King' quotes David Bowie's "Heroes". Unlike earlier tracks like "Reptile", this track is far more positive about relationships, which have previously resembled toxic-dyads. Reznor signals a delta surge (breaking through barriers at any cost), despite a time-line morphing between present-past-future. At 5:30 synths and piano signal a shift, at 5:49 the outgoing piano riff begins. The film-clip is filled with redemptive water imagery. The soundtrack gradually gets more murky and at 7:05 a subterranean note signals closure. "The Fragile" is even more hopeful and life-affirming (some may even interpret it as devotional), but this love -- representative of the End-Times, alludes to the 'Glamour of Evil' (Nico) in the line 'Fragile/She doesn't see her beauty'. The fusion of synths and atonal guitars beginning at 2:13 summons forth film-clip imagery -- mazes, pageants, bald eagles, found sounds, cloaked figures, ruined statues, enveloping darkness. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Pilgrimage" utilises a persistent ostinato and beat, with a driving guitar overlay at 0:18. This is perhaps the most familiar track, using Reznor motifs like the doubling of the riff with acoustic guitars between 1:12-1:20, march cries, and pitch-shift effects on a 3:18 drumbeat/cymbal. Or at least I could claim it was familiar, if it were not that legendary hip-hop producer and 'edge-of-panic' tactilist Dr. Dre helped assemble the final track mix. "No, You Don't" has been interpreted as an attack on Marilyn Manson and Hole's Courntey Love, particularly the 0:47 line 'Got to keep it all on the outside/Because everything is dead on the inside' and the 2:33 final verse 'Just so you know, I did not believe you could sink so low'. The song's structure is familiar: a basic beat at 0:16, guitars building from 0:31 to sneering vocals, a 2:03 counter-riff that merges at 2:19 with vocals and ascending to the final verse and 3:26 final distortion... "La Mer" is the first major surprise, a beautiful and sweeping fusion of piano, keyboard and cello, reminiscent of Symbolist composer Debussy. At 1:07 Denise Milfort whispers, setting the stage for sometime Ministry drummer Bill Reiflin's jazz drumming at 1:22, and a funky 1:32 guitar/bass line. The pulsing synth guitar at 2:04 serves as anchoring percussion for a cinematic electronica mindscape, filtered through new layers of sonic chiaroscuro at 2:51. 3:06 phase shifting, 3:22 layer doubling, 3:37 outgoing solo, 3:50-3:54 more swirling vocal fragments, seguing into a fading cello quartet as shadows creep. David Carson's moody film-clip captures the end more ominously, depicting the beauty of drowning. This track contains the line 'Nothing can stop me now', which appears to be Reznor's personal mantra. This track rivals 'Hurt' and 'A Warm Place' from The Downward Spiral and 'Something I Can Never Have' from Pretty Hate Machine as perhaps the most emotionally revealing and delicate material that Reznor has written. "The Great Below" ends the first disc with more multi-layered textures fusing nostalgia and reverie: a twelve-second cello riff is counter-pointed by a plucked overlay, which builds to a 0:43 washed pulse effect, transformed by six second pulses between 1:04-1:19 and a further effects layer at 1:24. E-bow effects underscore lyrics like 'Currents have their say' (2:33) and 'Washes me away' (2:44), which a 3:33 sitar riff answers. These complexities are further transmuted by seemingly random events -- a 4:06 doubling of the sitar riff which 'glitches' and a 4:32 backbeat echo that drifts for four bars. While Reznor's lyrics suggest that he is unable to control subjective time-states (like The Joker in the Batman: Dark Knight series of Kali-yuga comic-books), the track constructions show that the Key to his hold over the listener is very carefully constructed songs whose spaces resemble Pythagorean mathematical formulas. Misdirecting the audience is the secret of many magicians. "The Way Out Is Through" opens the 'Right' disc with an industrial riff that builds at 0:19 to click-track and rhythm, the equivalent of a weaving spiral. Whispering 'All I've undergone/I will keep on' at 1:24, Reznor is backed at 1:38 by synths and drums coalescing into guitars, which take shape at 1:46 and turn into a torrential electrical current. The models are clearly natural morphogenetic structures. The track twists through inner storms and torments from 2:42 to 2:48, mirrored by vocal shards at 2:59 and soundscapes at 3:45, before piano fades in and out at 4:12. The title references peri-natal theories of development (particularly those of Stanislav Grof), which is the source of much of the album's imagery. "Into the Void" is not the Black Sabbath song of the same name, but a catchy track that uses the same unfolding formula (opening static, cello at 0:18, guitars at 0:31, drums and backbeat at 1:02, trademark industrial vocals and synth at 1:02, verse at 1:23), and would not appear out of place in a Survival Research Laboratories exhibition. At 3:42 Reznor plays with the edge of synth soundscapes, merging vocals at 4:02 and ending the track nicely at 4:44 alone. "Where Is Everybody?" emulates earlier structures, but relies from 2:01 on whirring effects and organic rhythms, including a flurry of eight beat pulses between 2:40-2:46 and a 3:33 spiralling guitar solo. The 4:26 guitar solo is pure Adrian Belew, and is suddenly ended by spluttering static and white noise at 5:13. "The Mark Has Been Made" signals another downshift into introspectiveness with 0:32 ghostly synth shimmers, echoed by cello at 1:04 which is the doubled at 1:55 by guitar. At 2:08 industrial riffs suddenly build up, weaving between 3:28 distorted guitars and the return of the repressed original layer at 4:16. The surprise is a mystery 32 second soundscape at the end with Reznor crooning 'I'm getting closer, all the time' like a zombie devil Elvis. "Please" highlights spacious noise at 0:48, and signals a central album motif at 1:04 with the line 'Time starts slowing down/Sink until I drown'. The psychic mood of the album shifts with the discovery of Imagination as a liberating force against oppression. The synth sound again is remarkably organic for an industrial album. "Starfuckers Inc" is the now infamous sneering attack on rock-stardom, perhaps at Marilyn Manson (at 3:08 Reznor quotes Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'). Jungle beats and pulsing synths open the track, which features the sound-sculpting talent of Pop Will Eat Itself member Clint Mansell. Beginning at 0:26, Reznor's vocals appear to have been sampled, looped and cut up (apologies to Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs). The lines 'I have arrived and this time you should believe the hype/I listened to everyone now I know everyone was right' is a very savage and funny exposure of Manson's constant references to Friedrich Nietzsche's Herd-mentality: the Herd needs a bogey-man to whip it into submission, and Manson comes dangerous close to fulfilling this potential, thus becoming trapped by a 'Stacked Deck' paradox. The 4:08 lyric line 'Now I belong I'm one of the Chosen Ones/Now I belong I'm one of the Beautiful Ones' highlights the problem of being Elect and becoming intertwined with institutionalised group-think. The album version ditches the closing sample of Gene Simmons screaming "Thankyou and goodnight!" to an enraptured audience on the single from KISS Alive (1975), which was appropriately over-the-top (the alternate quiet version is worth hearing also). "The danger Marilyn Manson faces", notes Don Webb (current High Priest of the Temple of Set), "is that he may end up in twenty years time on the 'Tonight Show' safely singing our favourite songs like a Goth Frank Sinatra, and will have gradually lost his antinomian power. It's much harder to maintain the enigmatic aura of an Evil villain than it is to play the clown with society". Reznor's superior musicianship and sense of irony should keep him from falling into the same trap. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "The Big Come Down" begins with a four-second synth/static intro that is smashed apart by a hard beat at 0:05 and kaleidoscope guitars at 0:16. Critics refer to the song's lyrics in an attempt to project a narcissistic Reznor personality, but don't comment on stylistic tweaks like the AM radio influenced backing vocals at 1:02 and 1:19, or the use of guitars as a percussion layer at 1:51. A further intriguing element is the return of the fly samples at 2:38, an effect heard on previous releases and a possible post-human sub-text. The alien mythos will eventually reign over the banal and empty human. At 3:07 the synths return with static, a further overlay adds more synths at 3:45 as the track spirals to its peak, before dissipating at 3:1 in a mesh of percussion and guitars. "Underneath It All" opens with a riff that signals we have reached the album's climatic turning point, with the recurring theme of fragmenting body-memories returning at 0:23 with the line 'All I can do/I can still feel you', and being echoed by pulsing static at 0:42 as electric percussion. A 'Messiah Complex' appears at 1:34 with the line 'Crucify/After all I've died/After all I've tried/You are still inside', or at least it appears to be that on the surface. This is the kind of line that typical rock critics will quote, but a careful re-reading suggests that Reznor is pointing to the painful nature of remanifesting. Our past shapes us more than we would like to admit particularly our first relationships. "Ripe (With Decay)" is the album's final statement, a complex weaving of passages over a repetitive mesh of guitars, pulsing echoes, back-beats, soundscapes, and a powerful Mike Garson piano solo (2:26). Earlier motifs including fly samples (3:00), mournful funeral violas (3:36) and slowing time effects (4:28) recur throughout the track. Having finally reached the psychotic core, Reznor is not content to let us rest, mixing funk bass riffs (4:46), vocal snatches (5:23) and oscillating guitars (5:39) that drag the listener forever onwards towards the edge of the abyss (5:58). The final sequence begins at 6:22, loses fidelity at 6:28, and ends abruptly at 6:35. At millennium's end there is a common-held perception that the world is in an irreversible state of decay, and that Culture is just a wafer-thin veneer over anarchy. Music like The Fragile suggests that we are still trying to assimilate into popular culture the 'war-on-Self' worldviews unleashed by the nineteenth-century 'Masters of Suspicion' (Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche). This 'assimilation gap' is evident in industrial music, which in the late 1970s was struggling to capture the mood of the Industrial Revolution and Charles Dickens, so the genre is ripe for further exploration of the scarred psyche. What the self-appointed moral guardians of the Herd fail to appreciate is that as the imprint baseline rises (reflective of socio-political realities), the kind of imagery prevalent throughout The Fragile and in films like Strange Days (1995), The Matrix (1999) and eXistenZ (1999) is going to get even darker. The solution is not censorship or repression in the name of pleasing an all-saving surrogate god-figure. No, these things have to be faced and embraced somehow. Such a process can only occur if there is space within for the Sadeian aesthetic that Nine Inch Nails embodies, and not a denial of Dark Eros. "We need a second Renaissance", notes Don Webb, "a rejuvenation of Culture on a significant scale". In other words, a global culture-shift of quantum (aeon or epoch-changing) proportions. The tools required will probably not come just from the over-wordy criticism of Cyber-culture and Cultural Studies or the logical-negative feeding frenzy of most Music Journalism. They will come from a dynamic synthesis of disciplines striving toward a unity of knowledge -- what socio-biologist Edward O. Wilson has described as 'Consilience'. Liberating tools and ideas will be conveyed to a wider public audience unfamiliar with such principles through predominantly science fiction visual imagery and industrial/electronica music. The Fragile serves as an invaluable model for how such artefacts could transmit their dreams and propagate their messages. For the hyper-alert listener, it will be the first step on a new journey. But sadly for the majority, it will be just another hysterical industrial album promoted as selection of the month. References Bester, Alfred. The Stars My Destination. London: Millennium Books, 1999. Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. Van der Kolk, Bessel A. "Trauma and Memory." Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. Eds. Bessel A. van der Kolk et al. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. Nine Inch Nails. Downward Spiral. Nothing/Interscope, 1994. ---. The Fragile. Nothing, 1999. ---. Pretty Hate Machine. TVT, 1989. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Alex Burns. "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php>. Chicago style: Alex Burns, "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Alex Burns. (1999) 'This machine is obsolete': a listeners' guide to Nine Inch Nails' The fragile. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]).
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Keogh, Luke. « The First Four Wells : Unconventional Gas in Australia ». M/C Journal 16, no 2 (8 mars 2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.617.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Unconventional energy sources have become increasingly important to the global energy mix. These include coal seam gas, shale gas and shale oil. The unconventional gas industry was pioneered in the United States and embraced following the first oil shock in 1973 (Rogers). As has been the case with many global resources (Hiscock), many of the same companies that worked in the USA carried their experience in this industry to early Australian explorations. Recently the USA has secured significant energy security with the development of unconventional energy deposits such as the Marcellus shale gas and the Bakken shale oil (Dobb; McGraw). But this has not come without environmental impact, including contamination to underground water supply (Osborn, Vengosh, Warner, Jackson) and potential greenhouse gas contributions (Howarth, Santoro, Ingraffea; McKenna). The environmental impact of unconventional gas extraction has raised serious public concern about the introduction and growth of the industry in Australia. In coal rich Australia coal seam gas is currently the major source of unconventional gas. Large gas deposits have been found in prime agricultural land along eastern Australia, such as the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales and the Darling Downs in Queensland. Competing land-uses and a series of environmental incidents from the coal seam gas industry have warranted major protest from a coalition of environmentalists and farmers (Berry; McLeish). Conflict between energy companies wanting development and environmentalists warning precaution is an easy script to cast for frontline media coverage. But historical perspectives are often missing in these contemporary debates. While coal mining and natural gas have often received “boosting” historical coverage (Diamond; Wilkinson), and although historical themes of “development” and “rushes” remain predominant when observing the span of the industry (AGA; Blainey), the history of unconventional gas, particularly the history of its environmental impact, has been little studied. Few people are aware, for example, that the first shale gas exploratory well was completed in late 2010 in the Cooper Basin in Central Australia (Molan) and is considered as a “new” frontier in Australian unconventional gas. Moreover many people are unaware that the first coal seam gas wells were completed in 1976 in Queensland. The first four wells offer an important moment for reflection in light of the industry’s recent move into Central Australia. By locating and analysing the first four coal seam gas wells, this essay identifies the roots of the unconventional gas industry in Australia and explores the early environmental impact of these wells. By analysing exploration reports that have been placed online by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines through the lens of environmental history, the dominant developmental narrative of this industry can also be scrutinised. These narratives often place more significance on economic and national benefits while displacing the environmental and social impacts of the industry (Connor, Higginbotham, Freeman, Albrecht; Duus; McEachern; Trigger). This essay therefore seeks to bring an environmental insight into early unconventional gas mining in Australia. As the author, I am concerned that nearly four decades on and it seems that no one has heeded the warning gleaned from these early wells and early exploration reports, as gas exploration in Australia continues under little scrutiny. Arrival The first four unconventional gas wells in Australia appear at the beginning of the industry world-wide (Schraufnagel, McBane, and Kuuskraa; McClanahan). The wells were explored by Houston Oils and Minerals—a company that entered the Australian mining scene by sharing a mining prospect with International Australian Energy Company (Wiltshire). The International Australian Energy Company was owned by Black Giant Oil Company in the US, which in turn was owned by International Royalty and Oil Company also based in the US. The Texan oilman Robert Kanton held a sixteen percent share in the latter. Kanton had an idea that the Mimosa Syncline in the south-eastern Bowen Basin was a gas trap waiting to be exploited. To test the theory he needed capital. Kanton presented the idea to Houston Oil and Minerals which had the financial backing to take the risk. Shotover No. 1 was drilled by Houston Oil and Minerals thirty miles south-east of the coal mining town of Blackwater. By late August 1975 it was drilled to 2,717 metres, discovered to have little gas, spudded, and, after a spend of $610,000, abandoned. The data from the Shotover well showed that the porosity of the rocks in the area was not a trap, and the Mimosa Syncline was therefore downgraded as a possible hydrocarbon location. There was, however, a small amount of gas found in the coal seams (Benbow 16). The well had passed through the huge coal seams of both the Bowen and Surat basins—important basins for the future of both the coal and gas industries. Mining Concepts In 1975, while Houston Oil and Minerals was drilling the Shotover well, US Steel and the US Bureau of Mines used hydraulic fracture, a technique already used in the petroleum industry, to drill vertical surface wells to drain gas from a coal seam (Methane Drainage Taskforce 102). They were able to remove gas from the coal seam before it was mined and sold enough to make a profit. With the well data from the Shotover well in Australia compiled, Houston returned to the US to research the possibility of harvesting methane in Australia. As the company saw it, methane drainage was “a novel exploitation concept” and the methane in the Bowen Basin was an “enormous hydrocarbon resource” (Wiltshire 7). The Shotover well passed through a section of the German Creek Coal measures and this became their next target. In September 1976 the Shotover well was re-opened and plugged at 1499 meters to become Australia’s first exploratory unconventional gas well. By the end of the month the rig was released and gas production tested. At one point an employee on the drilling operation observed a gas flame “the size of a 44 gal drum” (HOMA, “Shotover # 1” 9). But apart from the brief show, no gas flowed. And yet, Houston Oil and Minerals was not deterred, as they had already taken out other leases for further prospecting (Wiltshire 4). Only a week after the Shotover well had failed, Houston moved the methane search south-east to an area five miles north of the Moura township. Houston Oil and Minerals had researched the coal exploration seismic surveys of the area that were conducted in 1969, 1972, and 1973 to choose the location. Over the next two months in late 1976, two new wells—Kinma No.1 and Carra No.1—were drilled within a mile from each other and completed as gas wells. Houston Oil and Minerals also purchased the old oil exploration well Moura No. 1 from the Queensland Government and completed it as a suspended gas well. The company must have mined the Department of Mines archive to find Moura No.1, as the previous exploration report from 1969 noted methane given off from the coal seams (Sell). By December 1976 Houston Oil and Minerals had three gas wells in the vicinity of each other and by early 1977 testing had occurred. The results were disappointing with minimal gas flow at Kinma and Carra, but Moura showed a little more promise. Here, the drillers were able to convert their Fairbanks-Morse engine driving the pump from an engine run on LPG to one run on methane produced from the well (Porter, “Moura # 1”). Drink This? Although there was not much gas to find in the test production phase, there was a lot of water. The exploration reports produced by the company are incomplete (indeed no report was available for the Shotover well), but the information available shows that a large amount of water was extracted before gas started to flow (Porter, “Carra # 1”; Porter, “Moura # 1”; Porter, “Kinma # 1”). As Porter’s reports outline, prior to gas flowing, the water produced at Carra, Kinma and Moura totalled 37,600 litres, 11,900 and 2,900 respectively. It should be noted that the method used to test the amount of water was not continuous and these amounts were not the full amount of water produced; also, upon gas coming to the surface some of the wells continued to produce water. In short, before any gas flowed at the first unconventional gas wells in Australia at least 50,000 litres of water were taken from underground. Results show that the water was not ready to drink (Mathers, “Moura # 1”; Mathers, “Appendix 1”; HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 21-24). The water had total dissolved solids (minerals) well over the average set by the authorities (WHO; Apps Laboratories; NHMRC; QDAFF). The well at Kinma recorded the highest levels, almost two and a half times the unacceptable standard. On average the water from the Moura well was of reasonable standard, possibly because some water was extracted from the well when it was originally sunk in 1969; but the water from Kinma and Carra was very poor quality, not good enough for crops, stock or to be let run into creeks. The biggest issue was the sodium concentration; all wells had very high salt levels. Kinma and Carra were four and two times the maximum standard respectively. In short, there was a substantial amount of poor quality water produced from drilling and testing the three wells. Fracking Australia Hydraulic fracturing is an artificial process that can encourage more gas to flow to the surface (McGraw; Fischetti; Senate). Prior to the testing phase at the Moura field, well data was sent to the Chemical Research and Development Department at Halliburton in Oklahoma, to examine the ability to fracture the coal and shale in the Australian wells. Halliburton was the founding father of hydraulic fracture. In Oklahoma on 17 March 1949, operating under an exclusive license from Standard Oil, this company conducted the first ever hydraulic fracture of an oil well (Montgomery and Smith). To come up with a program of hydraulic fracturing for the Australian field, Halliburton went back to the laboratory. They bonded together small slabs of coal and shale similar to Australian samples, drilled one-inch holes into the sample, then pressurised the holes and completed a “hydro-frac” in miniature. “These samples were difficult to prepare,” they wrote in their report to Houston Oil and Minerals (HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 10). Their program for fracturing was informed by a field of science that had been evolving since the first hydraulic fracture but had rapidly progressed since the first oil shock. Halliburton’s laboratory test had confirmed that the model of Perkins and Kern developed for widths of hydraulic fracture—in an article that defined the field—should also apply to Australian coals (Perkins and Kern). By late January 1977 Halliburton had issued Houston Oil and Minerals with a program of hydraulic fracture to use on the central Queensland wells. On the final page of their report they warned: “There are many unknowns in a vertical fracture design procedure” (HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 17). In July 1977, Moura No. 1 became the first coal seam gas well hydraulically fractured in Australia. The exploration report states: “During July 1977 the well was killed with 1% KCL solution and the tubing and packer were pulled from the well … and pumping commenced” (Porter 2-3). The use of the word “kill” is interesting—potassium chloride (KCl) is the third and final drug administered in the lethal injection of humans on death row in the USA. Potassium chloride was used to minimise the effect on parts of the coal seam that were water-sensitive and was the recommended solution prior to adding other chemicals (Montgomery and Smith 28); but a word such as “kill” also implies that the well and the larger environment were alive before fracking commenced (Giblett; Trigger). Pumping recommenced after the fracturing fluid was unloaded. Initially gas supply was very good. It increased from an average estimate of 7,000 cubic feet per day to 30,000, but this only lasted two days before coal and sand started flowing back up to the surface. In effect, the cleats were propped open but the coal did not close and hold onto them which meant coal particles and sand flowed back up the pipe with diminishing amounts of gas (Walters 12). Although there were some interesting results, the program was considered a failure. In April 1978, Houston Oil and Minerals finally abandoned the methane concept. Following the failure, they reflected on the possibilities for a coal seam gas industry given the gas prices in Queensland: “Methane drainage wells appear to offer no economic potential” (Wooldridge 2). At the wells they let the tubing drop into the hole, put a fifteen foot cement plug at the top of the hole, covered it with a steel plate and by their own description restored the area to its “original state” (Wiltshire 8). Houston Oil and Minerals now turned to “conventional targets” which included coal exploration (Wiltshire 7). A Thousand Memories The first four wells show some of the critical environmental issues that were present from the outset of the industry in Australia. The process of hydraulic fracture was not just a failure, but conducted on a science that had never been tested in Australia, was ponderous at best, and by Halliburton’s own admission had “many unknowns”. There was also the role of large multinationals providing “experience” (Briody; Hiscock) and conducting these tests while having limited knowledge of the Australian landscape. Before any gas came to the surface, a large amount of water was produced that was loaded with a mixture of salt and other heavy minerals. The source of water for both the mud drilling of Carra and Kinma, as well as the hydraulic fracture job on Moura, was extracted from Kianga Creek three miles from the site (HOMA, “Carra # 1” 5; HOMA, “Kinma # 1” 5; Porter, “Moura # 1”). No location was listed for the disposal of the water from the wells, including the hydraulic fracture liquid. Considering the poor quality of water, if the water was disposed on site or let drain into a creek, this would have had significant environmental impact. Nobody has yet answered the question of where all this water went. The environmental issues of water extraction, saline water and hydraulic fracture were present at the first four wells. At the first four wells environmental concern was not a priority. The complexity of inter-company relations, as witnessed at the Shotover well, shows there was little time. The re-use of old wells, such as the Moura well, also shows that economic priorities were more important. Even if environmental information was considered important at the time, no one would have had access to it because, as handwritten notes on some of the reports show, many of the reports were “confidential” (Sell). Even though coal mines commenced filing Environmental Impact Statements in the early 1970s, there is no such documentation for gas exploration conducted by Houston Oil and Minerals. A lack of broader awareness for the surrounding environment, from floral and faunal health to the impact on habitat quality, can be gleaned when reading across all the exploration reports. Nearly four decades on and we now have thousands of wells throughout the world. Yet, the challenges of unconventional gas still persist. The implications of the environmental history of the first four wells in Australia for contemporary unconventional gas exploration and development in this country and beyond are significant. Many environmental issues were present from the beginning of the coal seam gas industry in Australia. Owning up to this history would place policy makers and regulators in a position to strengthen current regulation. The industry continues to face the same challenges today as it did at the start of development—including water extraction, hydraulic fracturing and problems associated with drilling through underground aquifers. Looking more broadly at the unconventional gas industry, shale gas has appeared as the next target for energy resources in Australia. Reflecting on the first exploratory shale gas wells drilled in Central Australia, the chief executive of the company responsible for the shale gas wells noted their deliberate decision to locate their activities in semi-desert country away from “an area of prime agricultural land” and conflict with environmentalists (quoted in Molan). Moreover, the journalist Paul Cleary recently complained about the coal seam gas industry polluting Australia’s food-bowl but concluded that the “next frontier” should be in “remote” Central Australia with shale gas (Cleary 195). It appears that preference is to move the industry to the arid centre of Australia, to the ecologically and culturally unique Lake Eyre Basin region (Robin and Smith). Claims to move the industry away from areas that might have close public scrutiny disregard many groups in the Lake Eyre Basin, such as Aboriginal rights to land, and appear similar to other industrial projects that disregard local inhabitants, such as mega-dams and nuclear testing (Nixon). References AGA (Australian Gas Association). “Coal Seam Methane in Australia: An Overview.” AGA Research Paper 2 (1996). Apps Laboratories. “What Do Your Water Test Results Mean?” Apps Laboratories 7 Sept. 2012. 1 May 2013 ‹http://appslabs.com.au/downloads.htm›. Benbow, Dennis B. “Shotover No. 1: Lithology Report for Houston Oil and Minerals Corporation.” November 1975. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports. Company Report 5457_2. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines 4 June 2012. 1 May 2013 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=5457&COLLECTION_ID=999›. Berry, Petrina. “Qld Minister Refuses to Drink CSG Water.” news.com.au, 22 Apr. 2013. 1 May 2013 ‹http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/qld-minister-refuses-to-drink-csg-water/story-e6frfku9-1226626115742›. Blainey, Geofrey. The Rush That Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining. Carlton: Melbourne University Publishing, 2003. Briody, Dan. The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money. Singapore: Wiley, 2004. Cleary, Paul. Mine-Field: The Dark Side of Australia’s Resource Rush. Collingwood: Black Inc., 2012. Connor, Linda, Nick Higginbotham, Sonia Freeman, and Glenn Albrecht. “Watercourses and Discourses: Coalmining in the Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales.” Oceania 78.1 (2008): 76-90. Diamond, Marion. “Coal in Australian History.” Coal and the Commonwealth: The Greatness of an Australian Resource. Eds. Peter Knights and Michael Hood. 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Jackson. “Methane Contamination of Drinking Water Accompanying Gas-Well Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.20 (2011): 8172-8176. Perkins, T.K., and L.R. Kern. “Widths of Hydraulic Fractures.” Journal of Petroleum Technology 13.9 (1961): 937-949. Porter, Seton M. “Carra # 1:Testing Report, Methane Drainage of the Baralaba Coal Measures, A.T.P. 226P, Central Queensland, Australia.” Oct. 1977. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports. Company Report 6054_7. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 21 Feb. 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6054&COLLECTION_ID=999›. ———. “Kinma # 1: Testing Report, Methane Drainage of the Baralaba Coal Measures, A.T.P. 226P, Central Queensland, Australia.” Oct. 1977. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports. Company Report 6190_16. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 21 Feb. 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6190&COLLECTION_ID=999›. ———. “Moura # 1: Testing Report: Methane Drainage of the Baralaba Coal Measures: A.T.P. 226P, Central Queensland, Australia.” Oct. 1977. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports. Company Report 6190_15. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 21 Feb. 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6190&COLLECTION_ID=999›. QDAFF (Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry). “Interpreting Water Analysis for Crop and Pasture.” 1 Aug. 2012. 1 May 2013 ‹http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/ 26_4347.htm›. Robin, Libby, and Mike Smith. “Prologue.” Desert Channels: The Impulse To Conserve. Eds. Libby Robin, Chris Dickman and Mandy Martin. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing, 2010. XIII-XVII. Rogers, Rudy E. Coalbed Methane: Principles and Practice. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hill, 1994. 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Queensland Digital Exploration Reports. Company Report 6190_15. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 21 Feb. 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6190&COLLECTION_ID=999›. WHO (World Health Organization). International Standards for Drinking-Water. 3rd Ed. Geneva, 1971. Wilkinson, Rick. A Thirst for Burning: The Story of Australia's Oil Industry. Sydney: David Ell Press, 1983. Wiltshire, M.J. “A Review to ATP 233P, 231P (210P) – Bowen/Surat Basins, Queensland for Houston Oil Minerals Australia, Inc.” 19 Jan. 1979. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports Database. Company Report 6816. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 21 Feb. 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6816&COLLECTION_ID=999›. Wooldridge, L.C.P. “Methane Drainage in the Bowen Basin – Queensland.” 25 Aug. 1978. Queensland Digital Exploration Reports Database. Company Report 6626_1. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Resources and Mines. 31 May 2012 ‹https://qdexguest.deedi.qld.gov.au/portal/site/qdex/search?REPORT_ID=6626&COLLECTION_ID=999›.
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Thomas, Brennan. « The Transformative Magic of Education in Walt Disney’s <em>The Sword in the Stone</em> ; ». M/C Journal 26, no 5 (2 octobre 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2993.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Introduction The Disney brand has become synonymous with magic through its numerous depictions of spells, curses, prophecies, and pixie dust. Thus, it is ironic that in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Studio’s founding (“Disney History”), the final film released during Walt Disney’s life, The Sword in the Stone (celebrating its 60th anniversary) remains stuck in obscurity (Aronstein 129) despite being steeped in magic and wizardry. The Sword in the Stone is regarded as “one of the most obscure [films] in the Disney animated canon” (Booker 38). Although it performed moderately well during its debut in 1963, its 1983 re-release and home video sales failed to renew public interest. To date, The Sword in the Stone has no games, comic series, or even Disneyland merchandise (Aronstein 129). The film is hardly a technical marvel; its sketchy animation style and blue-slate backgrounds create a dingy, unfinished look (Beck 272), while its simplistic storyline and anachronistic humour have been criticised for being ill-matched with its Arthurian subject matter (Gossedge 115). Despite these flaws, The Sword in the Stone offers the studio’s most fully rendered representation of Disney magic as benevolent forces sourced in learning and discipline that enable good-hearted protagonists to prepare for future leadership roles. By approaching the film as a didactic text separate from its Arthurian origins, I will demonstrate how The Sword in the Stone defines magic, not by nebulous spells or hexes, but by its facilitation of societal advancement and transformative powers via the educated mind. Young Arthur’s Humble Beginnings Based loosely on T.H. White’s 1938 novel of the same name (Valle 224), The Sword in the Stone takes place in medieval Europe, with most of its action occurring in a rotting castle and surrounding wolf-infested forests. In this threatening world, magic takes many forms, from powerful acts of “sorcery” to comical displays of “Latin business”. The first allusion to magic occurs during the film’s opening song, which establishes its setting (“when England was young”) and primary conflict (“the good king had died, and no one could decide who was rightful heir”). Without a ruler, England will be destroyed by civil war unless miraculous forces intervene on its behalf. This ‘miracle’ is the eponymous sword in the stone that the rightful ruler of England will free. The sword is destined for King Arthur, but as he is only an orphaned child living in obscurity at the film’s beginning, no one manages to retrieve the sword in his stead, and so the ‘miracle’ seemingly fails. The film’s off-screen narrator describes this leaderless period as “a dark age … where the strong preyed upon the weak”. As a force that trumps brute strength, magic is prized by those who can wield it, particularly the wizard Merlin. Magic is regarded with suspicion by the majority who cannot practice it (Valle 234), though they still recognise its legitimacy. Even Arthur’s practical stepfather, Sir Ector, begs Merlin not to practice any “black magic” on his family after Merlin creates an indoor “wizard blizzard” to prove his seriousness in tutoring Arthur. Merlin is a far cry from the mysterious soothsayer of Arthurian legend. He has been Disneyfied into a caricature of the famed wizard, appearing more like an eccentric academic than an all-seeing mystic (Beck 272). Susan Aronstein describes him as “the reification of Disney’s post-World War II rebranding of itself as a leader in education in the wake of a postwar shift in American child rearing” (130)—a playful pedagogue who makes learning fun for Arthur and audiences. After meeting Arthur in the woods near his home, Merlin becomes determined to rectify the boy’s educational deficiencies. It is not yet clear whether Merlin knows who Arthur is or will become; Merlin merely repeats to his owl companion, Archimedes, that the boy needs an education—specifically, a modern education. In addition to presenting Arthur with evidence of his travels to the future, such as helicopter models, Merlin rattles off a litany of subjects common to twentieth-century American curricula (English, science, mathematics) but hardly the sort of fare pages of Arthur’s status would study in fifth-century England. Because Arthur’s royal lineage is unknown to him, he aspires to be a squire for his soon-to-be-knighted stepbrother and so must learn the rules of jousting and horsemanship when not otherwise preoccupied with page duties. These include scrubbing pots and pans, cleaning floors, and fetching anything his stepfather requests. While Arthur is not resistant to Merlin’s attempts to teach him, he struggles to balance Merlin’s demands on his time with Sir Ector’s (Pinsky 85). Young Arthur’s gangly stature conveys how stretched the boy is between his indentured servitude to Ector and Merlin’s insistence upon his liberation through education. Arthur is constantly in motion, scurrying from one task to the next to please all parties involved and often failing to do so. Each time Merlin’s instruction causes the boy to miss Sir Ector’s call, Arthur is punished with additional duties (Holcomb et al.). Merlin’s Instructive Magic Merlin uses magic to bridge the gap between Arthur’s responsibilities to his present and his future. The word “magic” is spoken fifteen times in the film, six by Merlin himself. The wizard first utters the word after packing his entire house (furniture and all) into a carpet bag. Arthur is impressed, but Merlin warns him that magic is no panacea: “don’t you get any foolish ideas that magic will solve all your problems”. Even Merlin struggles to convince Sir Ector to let him tutor Arthur and to prevent predatory animals from killing the boy during their adventures together. Magic has limits. It cannot penetrate the minds of humans nor quell the instincts of wild animals. Its impact seems restricted to the physical world. Merlin primarily uses magic for physical transformation; his lessons centre on changing Arthur into different animals to enable the future king to experience life from others’ perspectives. Merlin turns Arthur into a fish, a squirrel, and a bird, with each animal’s situation representing increasingly complex problems that Arthur must overcome. Each lesson also corresponds with one or more levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: (1) safety and survival, (2) love and belonging, and (3) self-esteem and self-actualisation (Lester 15). As a perch swimming around the castle moat, Arthur learns to use his intellect to evade a toothy pike that nearly eats him alive. As a squirrel, Arthur observes the heartbreak of unrequited love, foreshadowing his complicated love triangle with Guinevere and Lancelot (Grellner 125). In avian form, Arthur experiences a much-needed boost in his self-worth after Sir Ector strips him of his squire-in-training status. In flight, Arthur seems most in his element. After struggling with the logistics of swimming as a fish and navigating trees as a squirrel, Arthur soars over the countryside, even showing off his acrobatics to Archimedes flying alongside him. Although Arthur relishes these experiences, he does not seem to grasp their broader implications. He describes his first magical lesson as “so much fun” (despite having nearly died) and pauses only momentarily at the end of his second lesson to reflect on the emotional damage he causes a heartbroken female squirrel who falls madly in love with him. Still, Arthur faces mortal danger with each lesson, so one could argue that by transforming the young boy into different animals, Merlin is honing Arthur’s problem-solving skills (Holcomb et al.). Madam Mim’s Destructive Magic When Arthur is turned into a bird, his third lesson takes an unexpected turn. After narrowly escaping a hawk, Arthur flies into the forest and falls down the chimney of a rival magician named Mad Madam Mim. After introducing herself, Mim insists to Arthur that she has far more magic “in one little finger” than Merlin possesses in his entire repertoire. She displays her powers by killing plants, changing sizes, and making herself monstrous or lovely according to her whims. Mim’s demonstrations suggest a breezy familiarity with magic that Merlin lacks. Whereas Merlin sometimes forgets the “Latin business” needed to invoke spells, Mim effortlessly transitions from one transformation to another without any spell use. The source of her power soon becomes apparent. “Black sorcery is my dish of tea”, she croons to Arthur. Compared to Merlin’s Latin-based magic, Mim’s “black sorcery” is easier to master and well-suited to her undisciplined lifestyle. Mim’s cottage is filthy and in disrepair, yet she is playing solitaire (and cheating) when Arthur stumbles into her fireplace. This anachronism (since playing cards would not be introduced to Europeans until the fourteenth century; DeBold) characterises, through visual shorthand, Mim’s idle hands as the Devil’s workshop; she also possesses a modern dartboard that she throws Arthur against. Unlike Merlin’s domicile, Mim’s cottage contains no books, scientific instruments, or other props of study, indicating that there is no deeper understanding behind her magic. As Latin is the root language of science and law, it seems fitting that Latin is not part of Mim’s repertoire. She simply points a finger at an unfortunate subject, and it bends to her will—or dies. Efficient though Mim’s magic may be, its power is fleeting. Mim briefly changes herself into a beautiful young woman. But she concedes that her magic is “only skin deep” and turns herself back into “an ugly old creep”. Evidently, her magic’s potency does not last long, nor is it capable of improving her situation, as she continues living in her broken-down cottage as a bored, friendless hermit. Her black magic may be easy to master but cannot impart meaningful change. And so, while Merlin can use his magic to improve Arthur’s life, Mim’s magic can only serve the status quo described at the film’s beginning: the strong preying upon the weak. Although Mim lives outside the feudal social hierarchy, she uses her magic to terrorise any unfortunate creatures who wander into her clutches, including Arthur. When Arthur (still in bird form) states that he prefers the benevolence and usefulness of Merlin’s magic, an infuriated Mim transforms herself into a hungry cat and chases Arthur around the cottage until Merlin arrives to save the boy. Merlin then challenges Mim to a wizard’s duel, during which he and Mim attack each other in animal forms ranging from foxes and caterpillars to tigers, goats, and elephants. Each time Mim transforms, she does so seamlessly, requiring no momentary pause to recall a spell, unlike Merlin, who stumbles across the Latin phrases necessary to change himself into something faster or bigger. But after Merlin transforms into a walrus and squashes a clucking chicken Mim, the momentum shifts in his favour. Her magic becomes tinged with rage that causes her to make mistakes, including biting herself as a snake and ramming herself into a tree in rhinoceros form. Merlin’s disciplined playing style is nearly errorless. Although he becomes frightened when Mim transforms into a fire-breathing dragon, Merlin continues to play sensibly and courageously. His final winning move is to transform himself into a measle-like germ that incapacitates Mim with violent sneezing and cold flashes (Perciaccante and Coralli 1171). Arthur is astonished by the brilliant manoeuvring of his mentor, who manages to win the duel fairly “by dint of his knowledge and study” (Pinsky 86). After stating the lesson’s summative point for Merlin—“knowledge and wisdom is the real power”—Arthur vows to redouble his efforts to complete his education. Education: The Film’s Real Magic The lesson for viewers is simple enough: an education has a magical impact on one’s life. Put more succinctly, education is magic. Merlin defeats Mim because of his greater knowledge and cleverer use of spells. Arthur will overcome his low social status and ascend to the throne by becoming literate and sharpening his intellect. But as with Merlin’s acquisition of magical knowledge through intense study, Arthur’s royal ascension must be earned. He must learn the literal ABCs of language acquisition to gain others’ shared knowledge, as illustrated by a scene in which Archimedes painstakingly teaches Arthur how to write the alphabet in preparation for reading an enormous stack of books. Merlin cannot magically impart such knowledge to the future king; Arthur must learn it through sustained effort. He also must learn to make informed decisions rather than respond to panic or anger as Mim does during her duel with Merlin. Herein lies the distinction between Mim’s and Merlin’s magic: transformative impact. Mim’s black magic has locked her into her chosen fate. By using her powers to amuse herself or cause others harm, Mim perpetuates her outcast status as the stereotypical witch to be feared (Valle 234). While her cottage contains anachronistic elements such as playing cards (suggesting that she, like Merlin, has time-travelled), it contains no evidence of the modern advances that Merlin shares with Arthur, like aeroplane models, nor anything that might improve their feudal society. Merlin’s magic, by contrast, facilitates immediate changes to Arthur’s world and offers the promise of technological advancements in the centuries to come. To reduce the boy’s workload, for instance, Merlin magically conjures up a factory-style assembly line of brushes, tubs, and mops to wash dishes and scrub kitchen floors. Merlin also shares his knowledge of humankind’s future achievements with Arthur to advance his education, providing him with models, maps, globes, and hundreds of books. To become a proper king, Arthur must learn how to use such information to others’ advantage, not just his own. As Caroline Buts and Jose Luis Buendia Sierra observe of magic’s paradox, “using the wand without knowing properly the rules may sometimes lead to catastrophic situations” (509). This point is reaffirmed in the film’s final sequence, which takes place in London on New Year’s Day at a jousting tournament, the winner of which will be crowned king of England. Arthur, now a squire to his recently knighted stepbrother, forgets to bring his stepbrother’s sword to the tournament grounds. He attempts to replace the missing weapon with the sword in the stone when he spots the aging relic in a nearby churchyard. As Arthur pulls out the sword, angelic choral music swells, signalling that the rightful ruler of England has fulfilled the prophecy. After some scepticism from the assembled masses, Sir Ector and the other knights and spectators bow to the befuddled twelve-year-old. The film’s final scene shows a panic-stricken Arthur conceding that he does not know how to rule England and crying out for Merlin. When the wizard blows in from his most recent trip to the twentieth century, he confirms that he has known all along who Arthur is and assures the boy that he will become a great king. Arthur seems ready to put in the work, recognising that his knowledge and wisdom will improve the lives of England’s inhabitants. Conclusion Magic is thus portrayed as an intervening force that either facilitates or stymies societal progress. Good magic ensures that intelligent, educated individuals such as Arthur become great leaders, while those who would attain positions of power through brute force are thwarted from doing so. At the film’s conclusion, Arthur has not been fully transformed into a great leader because his education is far from finished; he has only learned enough to realise that he knows too little to rule effectively. Yet, from the Socratic perspective, such self-awareness is the germination for attaining true wisdom (Tarrant 263). Arthur also already knows that he will not be able to learn how to rule well through trickery or shortcuts, even with a powerful magician by his side. But the film’s closing scene reiterates this point with Merlin promising Arthur that he will succeed. “Why, they might even make a motion picture about you!” he exclaims in a clever fourth-wall joke (Gellner 120). The Sword in the Stone’s mere existence proves that Arthur will acquire the knowledge and wisdom necessary to become a truly great monarch. The fledgling pupil will live long and rule well, not because of pixie dust or magic spells, but because of his willingness to learn and to be transformed by his education into a wise and fair ruler. References Aronstein, Susan. “‘Higitus Figitus!’ Of Merlin and Disney Magic.” It’s the Disney Version! Popular Cinema and Literary Classics. Eds. Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 129-139. Beck, Jerry. The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago: A Capella, 2005. Booker, M. Keith. Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Buts, Caroline, and Jose Luis Buendia Sierra. “The Sword in the Stone.” European State Aid Law Quarterly 16.4 (2017): 509-511. 10 June 2023 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26694185>. DeBold, Elizabeth. “Fortune’s Fools: Early Tarot Cards.” The Collation: Folger Shakespeare Library 2 Feb. 2021. 5 June 2023 <https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/fortunes-fools-early-tarot-cards/>. “Disney History.” D23, 2023. <https://d23.com/disney-history/>. Gossedge, Rob. “The Sword in the Stone: American Translatio and Disney’s Antimedievalism.” The Disney Middle Ages: A Fairy-Tale and Fantasy Past. Eds. Tison Pugh and Susan Aronstein. Palgrave Macmillan: 2012. 115–131. Grellner, Alice. “Two Films That Sparkle: The Sword in the Stone and Camelot.” Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays. Rev. ed. Ed. Kevin J. Harty. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. 118-126. Holcomb, Jeanne, Kenzie Latham, and Daniel Fernandez-Baca. “Who Cares for the Kids? Caregiving and Parenting in Disney Films.” Journal of Family Issues 36.14 (2015): 1957–81. DOI: 10.1177/0192513X13511250. Lester, David. “Measuring Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health 113.1 (2013): 15-17. 20 May 2023 <https://doi.org/10.2466/02.20.PR0.113x16z1>. Perciaccante, Antonio, and Alessia Coralli. “The Virus Defeating Madam Mim.” American Journal of Infection Control 45.10 (2017): 1171. 1 June 2023 <http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.07.017>. Pinsky, Mark I. The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004. The Sword in the Stone. Dir. Wolfgang Reitherman. Perf. Karl Swenson and Rickie Sorensen. Buena Vista, 1963. Tarrant, Harold. “Socratic Method and Socratic Truth.” A Companion to Socrates. Eds. Sara Ahbel-Rappe and Rachana Kamtekar. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. 254-272. Valle, Maria Luiza Cyrino. "The New Matter of Britain: T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone." Estudos Germânicos 5.1 (1984): 224-265.
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Rolls, Alistair. « The Re-imagining Inherent in Crime Fiction Translation ». M/C Journal 18, no 6 (7 mars 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1028.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Introduction When a text is said to be re-appropriated, it is at times unclear to what extent this appropriation is secondary, repeated, new; certainly, the difference between a reiteration and an iteration has more to do with emphasis than any (re)duplication. And at a moment in the development of crime fiction in France when the retranslation of now apparently dated French translations of the works of classic American hardboiled novels (especially those of authors like Dashiell Hammett, whose novels were published in Marcel Duhamel’s Série Noire at Gallimard in the decades following the end of the Second World War) is being undertaken with the ostensible aim of taking the French reader back (closer) to the American original, one may well ask where the emphasis now lies. In what ways, for example, is this new form of re-production, of re-imagining the text, more intimately bound to the original, and thus in itself less ‘original’ than its translated predecessors? Or again, is this more reactionary ‘re-’ in fact really that different from those more radical uses that cleaved the translation from its original text in those early, foundational years of twentieth-century French crime fiction? (Re-)Reading: Critical Theory and Originality My juxtaposition of the terms ‘reactionary’ and ‘radical’, and the attempted play on the auto-antonymy of the verb ‘to cleave’, are designed to prompt a re(-)read of the analysis that so famously took the text away from the author in the late-1960s through to the 1990s, which is to say the critical theory of poststructuralism and deconstruction. Roland Barthes’s work (especially 69–77) appropriated the familiar terms of literary analysis and reversed them, making of them perhaps a re-appropriation in the sense of taking them into new territory: the text, formerly a paper-based platform for the written word, was now a virtual interface between the word and its reader, the new locus of the production of meaning; the work, on the other hand, which had previously pertained to the collective creative imaginings of the author, was now synonymous with the physical writing passed on by the author to the reader. And by ‘passed on’ was meant ‘passed over’, achevé (perfected, terminated, put to death)—completed, then, but only insofar as its finite sequence of words was set; for its meaning was henceforth dependent on its end user. The new textual life that surged from the ‘death of the author’ was therefore always already an afterlife, a ‘living on’, to use Jacques Derrida’s term (Bloom et al. 75–176). It is in this context that the re-reading encouraged by Barthes has always appeared to mark a rupture a teasing of ‘reading’ away from the original series of words and the ‘Meaning’ as intended by the author, if any coherence of intention is possible across the finite sequence of words that constitute the written work. The reader must learn to re-read, Barthes implored, or otherwise be condemned to read the same text everywhere. In this sense, the ‘re-’ prefix marks an active engagement with the text, a reflexivity of the act of reading as an act of transformation. The reader whose consumption of the text is passive, merely digestive, will not transform the words (into meaning); and crucially, that reader will not herself be transformed. For this is the power of reflexive reading—when one reads text as text (and not ‘losing oneself’ in the story) one reconstitutes oneself (or, perhaps, loses control of oneself more fully, more productively); not to do so, is to take an unchanged constant (oneself) into every textual encounter and thus to produce sameness in ostensible difference. One who rereads a text and discovers the same story twice will therefore reread even when reading a text for the first time. The hyphen of the re-read, on the other hand, distances the reader from the text; but it also, of course, conjoins. It marks the virtual space where reading occurs, between the physical text and the reading subject; and at the same time, it links all texts in an intertextual arena, such that the reading experience of any one text is informed by the reading of all texts (whether they be works read by an individual reader or works as yet unencountered). Such a theory of reading appears to shift originality so far from the author’s work as almost to render the term obsolete. But the thing about reflexivity is that it depends on the text itself, to which it always returns. As Barbara Johnson has noted, the critical difference marked by Barthes’s understandings of the text, and his calls to re-read it, is not what differentiates it from other texts—the universality of the intertext and the reading space underlines this; instead, it is what differentiates the text from itself (“Critical Difference” 175). And while Barthes’s work packages this differentiation as a rupture, a wrenching of ownership away from the author to a new owner, the work and text appear less violently opposed in the works of the Yale School deconstructionists. In such works as J. Hillis Miller’s “The Critic as Host” (1977), the hyphenation of the re-read is less marked, with re-reading, as a divergence from the text as something self-founding, self-coinciding, emerging as something inherent in the original text. The cleaving of one from and back into the other takes on, in Miller’s essay, the guise of parasitism: the host, a term that etymologically refers to the owner who invites and the guest who is invited, offers a figure for critical reading that reveals the potential for creative readings of ‘meaning’ (what Miller calls the nihilistic text) inside the transparent ‘Meaning’ of the text, by which we recognise one nonetheless autonomous text from another (the metaphysical text). Framed in such terms, reading is a reaction to text, but also an action of text. I should argue then that any engagement with the original is re-actionary—my caveat being that this hyphenation is a marker of auto-antonymy, a link between the text and otherness. Translation and Originality Questions of a translator’s status and the originality of the translated text remain vexed. For scholars of translation studies like Brian Nelson, the product of literary translation can legitimately be said to have been authored by its translator, its status as literary text being equal to that of the original (3; see also Wilson and Gerber). Such questions are no more or less vexed today, however, than they were in the days when criticism was grappling with translation through the lens of deconstruction. To refer again to the remarkable work of Johnson, Derrida’s theorisation of textual ‘living on’—the way in which text, at its inception, primes itself for re-imagining, by dint of the fundamental différance of the chains of signification that are its DNA—bears all the trappings of self-translation. Johnson uses the term ‘self-différance’ (“Taking Fidelity” 146–47) in this respect and notes how Derrida took on board, and discussed with him, the difficulties that he was causing for his translator even as he was writing the ‘original’ text of his essay. If translation, in this framework, is rendered impossible because of the original’s failure to coincide with itself in a transparently meaningful way, then its practice “releases within each text the subversive forces of its own foreignness” (Johnson, “Taking Fidelity” 148), thereby highlighting the debt owed by Derrida’s notion of textual ‘living on’—in (re-)reading—to Walter Benjamin’s understanding of translation as a mode, its translatability, the way in which it primes itself for translation virtually, irrespective of whether or not it is actually translated (70). In this way, translation is a privileged site of textual auto-differentiation, and translated text can, accordingly, be considered every bit as ‘original’ as its source text—simply more reflexive, more aware of its role as a conduit between the words on the page and the re-imagining that they undergo, by which they come to mean, when they are re-activated by the reader. Emily Apter—albeit in a context that has more specifically to do with the possibilities of comparative literature and the real-world challenges of language in war zones—describes the auto-differentiating nature of translation as “a means of repositioning the subject in the world and in history; a means of rendering self-knowledge foreign to itself; a way of denaturalizing citizens, taking them out of the comfort zone of national space, daily ritual, and pre-given domestic arrangements” (6). In this way, translation is “a significant medium of subject re-formation and political change” (Apter 6). Thus, translation lends itself to crime fiction; for both function as highly reflexive sites of transformation: both provide a reader with a heightened sense of the transformation that she is enacting on the text and that she herself embodies as a reading subject, a subject changed by reading. Crime Fiction, Auto-Differention and Translation As has been noted elsewhere (Rolls), Fredric Jameson made an enigmatic reference to crime fiction’s perceived role as the new Realism as part of his plenary lecture at “Telling Truths: Crime Fiction and National Allegory”, a conference held at the University of Wollongong on 6–8 December 2012. He suggested, notably, that one might imagine an author of Scandi-Noir writing in tandem with her translator. While obvious questions of the massive international marketing machine deployed around this contemporary phenomenon come to mind, and I suspect that this is how Jameson’s comment was generally understood, it is tempting to consider this Scandinavian writing scenario in terms of Derrida’s proleptic considerations of his own translator. In this way, crime fiction’s most telling role, as one of the most widely read contemporary literary forms, is its translatability; its haunting descriptions of place (readers, we tend, perhaps precipitously, to assume, love crime fiction for its national, regional or local situatedness) are thus tensely primed for re-location, for Apter’s ‘subject re-formation’. The idea of ‘the new Realism’ of crime, and especially detective, fiction is predicated on the tightly (self-)policed rules according to which crime fiction operates. The reader appears to enter into an investigation alongside the detective, co-authoring the crime text in real (reading) time, only for authorial power to be asserted in the unveiling scene of the denouement. What masquerades as the ultimately writerly text, in Barthes’s terms, turns out to be the ultimate in transparently meaningful literature when the solution is set in stone by the detective. As such, the crime novel is far more dependent on descriptions of the minutiae of everyday life (in a given place in time) than other forms of fiction, as these provide the clues on which its intricate plot hinges. According to this understanding, crime fiction records history and transcribes national allegories. This is not only a convincing way of understanding crime fiction, but it is also an extremely powerful way of harnessing it for the purposes of cultural history. Claire Gorrara, for example, uses the development of French crime fiction plots over the course of the second half of the twentieth century to map France’s coming to terms with the legacy of the Second World War. This is the national allegory written in real time, as the nation heals and moves on, and this is crime fiction as a reaction to national allegory. My contention here, on the other hand, is that crime fiction, like translation, has at its core an inherent, and reflexive, tendency towards otherness. Indeed, this is because crime fiction, whose origins in transnational (and especially Franco-American) literary exchange have been amply mapped but not, I should argue, extrapolated to their fullest extent, is forged in translation. It is widely considered that when Edgar Allan Poe produced his seminal text “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) he created modern crime fiction. And yet, this was made possible because the text was translated into French by Charles Baudelaire and met with great success in France, far more so indeed than in its original place of authorship. Its original setting, however, was not America but Paris; its translatability as French text preceded, even summoned, its actualisation in the form of Baudelaire’s translation. Furthermore, the birth of the great armchair detective, the exponent of pure, objective deduction, in the form of C. Auguste Dupin, is itself turned on its head, a priori, because Dupin, in this first Parisian short story, always already off-sets objectivity with subjectivity, ratiocination with a tactile apprehension of the scene of the crime. He even goes as far as to accuse the Parisian Prefect of Police of one-dimensional objectivity. (Dupin undoes himself, debunking the myth of his own characterisation, even as he takes to the stage.) In this way, Poe founded his crime fiction on a fundamental tension; and this tension called out to its translator so powerfully that Baudelaire claimed to be translating his own thoughts, as expressed by Poe, even before he had had a chance to think them (see Rolls and Sitbon). Thus, Poe was Parisian avant la lettre, his crime fiction a model for Baudelaire’s own prose poetry, the new voice of critical modernity in the mid-nineteenth century. If Baudelaire went on to write Paris in the form of Paris Spleen (1869), his famous collection of “little prose poems”, both as it is represented (timelessly, poetically) and as it presents itself (in real time, prosaically) at the same time, it was not only because he was spontaneously creating a new national allegory for France based on its cleaving of itself in the wake of Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s massive programme of urbanisation in Paris in the 1800s; it was also because he was translating Poe’s fictionalisation of Paris in his new crime fiction. Crime fiction was born therefore not only simultaneously in France and America but also in the translation zone between the two, in the self-différance of translation. In this way, while a strong claim can be made that modern French crime fiction is predicated on, and reacts to, the auto-differentiation (of critical modernity, of Paris versus Paris) articulated in Baudelaire’s prose poems and therefore tells the national allegory, it is also the case, and it is this aspect that is all too often overlooked, that crime fiction’s birth in Franco-American translation founded the new French national allegory. Re-imagining America in (French) Crime Fiction Pierre Bayard has done more than any other critic in recent years to debunk the authorial power of the detective in crime fiction, beginning with his re-imagining of the solution to Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and continuing with that of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1998 and 2008, respectively). And yet, even as he has engaged with poststructuralist re-readings of these texts, he has put in place his own solutions, elevating them away from his own initial premise of writerly engagement towards a new metaphysics of “Meaning”, be it ironically or because he has fallen prey himself to the seduction of detectival truth. This reactionary turn, or sting-lessness in the tail, reaches new heights (of irony) in the essay in which he imagines the consequences of liberating novels from their traditional owners and coupling them with new authors (Bayard, Et si les œuvres changeaient d’auteur?). Throughout this essay Bayard systematically prefers the terms “work” and “author” to “text” and “reader”, liberating the text not only from the shackles of traditional notions of authorship but also from the terminological reshuffling of his and others’ critical theory, while at the same time clinging to the necessity for textual meaning to stem from authorship and repackaging what is, in all but terminology, Barthes et al.’s critical theory. Caught up in the bluff and double-bluff of Bayard’s authorial redeployments is a chapter on what is generally considered the greatest work of parody of twentieth-century French crime fiction—Boris Vian’s pseudo-translation of black American author Vernon Sullivan’s novel J’irai cracher sur vos tombes (1946, I Shall Spit on Your Graves). The novel was a best seller in France in 1946, outstripping by far the novels of the Série Noire, whose fame and marketability were predicated on their status as “Translations from the American” and of which it appeared a brazen parody. Bayard’s decision to give credibility to Sullivan as author is at once perverse, because it is clear that he did not exist, and reactionary, because it marks a return to Vian’s original conceit. And yet, it passes for innovative, not (or at least not only) because of Bayard’s brilliance but because of the literary qualities of the original text, which, Bayard argues, must have been written in “American” in order to produce such a powerful description of American society at the time. Bayard’s analysis overlooks (or highlights, if we couch his entire project in a hermeneutics of inversion, based on the deliberate, and ironic, re-reversal of the terms “work” and “text”) two key elements of post-war French crime fiction: the novels of the Série Noire that preceded J’irai cracher sur vos tombes in late 1945 and early 1946 were all written by authors posing as Americans (Peter Cheyney and James Hadley Chase were in fact English) and the translations were deliberately unfaithful both to the original text, which was drastically domesticated, and to any realistic depiction of America. While Anglo-Saxon French Studies has tended to overlook the latter aspect, Frank Lhomeau has highlighted the fact that the America that held sway in the French imaginary (from Liberation through to the 1960s and beyond) was a myth rather than a reality. To take this reasoning one logical, reflexive step further, or in fact less far, the object of Vian’s (highly reflexive) novel, which may better be considered a satire than a parody, can be considered not to be race relations in the United States but the French crime fiction scene in 1946, of which its pseudo-translation (which is to say, a novel not written by an American and not translated) is metonymic (see Vuaille-Barcan, Sitbon and Rolls). (For Isabelle Collombat, “pseudo-translation functions as a mise en abyme of a particular genre” [146, my translation]; this reinforces the idea of a conjunction of translation and crime fiction under the sign of reflexivity.) Re-imagined beneath this wave of colourful translations of would-be American crime novels is a new national allegory for a France emerging from the ruins of German occupation and Allied liberation. The re-imagining of France in the years immediately following the Second World War is therefore not mapped, or imagined again, by crime fiction; rather, the combination of translation and American crime fiction provide the perfect storm for re-creating a national sense of self through the filter of the Other. For what goes for the translator, goes equally for the reader. Conclusion As Johnson notes, “through the foreign language we renew our love-hate intimacy with our mother tongue”; and as such, “in the process of translation from one language to another, the scene of linguistic castration […] is played on center stage, evoking fear and pity and the illusion that all would perhaps have been well if we could simply have stayed at home” (144). This, of course, is just what had happened one hundred years earlier when Baudelaire created a new prose poetics for a new Paris. In order to re-present (both present and represent) Paris, he focused so close on it as to erase it from objective view. And in the same instance of supreme literary creativity, he masked the origins of his own translation praxis: his Paris was also Poe’s, which is to say, an American vision of Paris translated into French by an author who considered his American alter ego to have had his own thoughts in an act of what Bayard would consider anticipatory plagiarism. In this light, his decision to entitle one of the prose poems “Any where out of the world”—in English in the original—can be considered a Derridean reflection on the translation inherent in any original act of literary re-imagination. Paris, crime fiction and translation can thus all be considered privileged sites of re-imagination, which is to say, embodiments of self-différance and “original” acts of re-reading. References Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006. Barthes, Roland. Le Bruissement de la langue. Paris: Seuil, 1971. Baudelaire, Charles. Le Spleen de Paris. Trans. Louise Varèse. New York: New Directions, 1970 [1869]. Bayard, Pierre. Qui a tué Roger Ackroyd? Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1998. ———. L’Affaire du chien des Baskerville. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2008. ———. Et si les œuvres changeaient d’auteur? Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2010. Benjamin, Walter. “The Task of the Translator.” Illuminations. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968. 69–82. Bloom, Harold, et al. Deconstruction and Criticism. New York: The Seabury Press, 1979. Collombat, Isabelle. “Pseudo-traduction: la mise en scène de l’altérité.” Le Langage et l’Homme 38.1 (2003): 145–56. Gorrara, Claire. French Crime Fiction and the Second World War: Past Crimes, Present Memories. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2012. Johnson, Barbara. “Taking Fidelity Philosophically.” Difference in Translation. Ed. Joseph F. Graham. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. 142–48. ———. “The Critical Difference.” Critical Essays on Roland Barthes. Ed. Diana Knight. New York: G.K. Hall, 2000. 174–82. Lhomeau, Frank. “Le roman ‘noir’ à l’américaine.” Temps noir 4 (2000): 5–33. Miller, J. Hillis. “The Critic as Host.” Critical Inquiry 3.3 (1977): 439–47. Nelson, Brian. “Preface: Translation Lost and Found.” Australian Journal of French Studies 47.1 (2010): 3–7. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Vintage Books, [1841]1975. 141–68. Rolls, Alistair. “Editor’s Letter: The Undecidable Lightness of Writing Crime.” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 3.1 (2014): 3–8. Rolls, Alistair, and Clara Sitbon. “‘Traduit de l’américain’ from Poe to the Série Noire: Baudelaire’s Greatest Hoax?” Modern and Contemporary France 21.1 (2013): 37–53. Vuaille-Barcan, Marie-Laure, Clara Sitbon, and Alistair Rolls. “Jeux textuels et paratextuels dans J’irai cracher sur vos tombes: au-delà du canular.” Romance Studies 32.1 (2014): 16–26. Wilson, Rita, and Leah Gerber, eds. Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship. Melbourne: Monash UP, 2012.
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Luckhurst, Mary, et Jen Rae. « Diversity Agendas in Australian Stand-Up Comedy ». M/C Journal 19, no 4 (31 août 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1149.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Stand-up is a global phenomenon. It is Australia’s most significant form of advocatorial theatre and a major platform for challenging stigma and prejudice. In the twenty-first century, Australian stand-up is transforming into a more culturally diverse form and extending the spectrum of material addressing human rights. Since the 1980s Australian stand-up routines have moved beyond the old colonial targets of England and America, and Indigenous comics such as Kevin Kopinyeri, Andy Saunders, and Shiralee Hood have gained an established following. Additionally, the turn to Asia is evident not just in trade agreements and the higher education market but also in cultural exchange and in the billing of emerging Asian stand-ups at mainstream events. The major cultural driver for stand-up is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), Australia’s largest cultural event, now over 30 years old, and an important site for dissecting constructs of democracy and nationhood. As John McCallum has observed, popular humour in post-World War II Australia drew on widespread feelings of “displacement, migration and otherness—resonant topics in a country of transplanted people and a dispossessed indigenous population arguing over a distinct Australian identity” (205–06). This essay considers the traditional comic strategies of first and second generation immigrant stand-ups in Australia and compares them with the new wave of post 9/11 Asian-Australian and Middle-Eastern-Australian stand-ups whose personas and interrogations are shifting the paradigm. Self-identifying Muslim stand-ups challenge myths of dominant Australian identity in ways which many still find confronting. Furthermore, the theories of incongruity, superiority, and psychological release re-rehearsed in traditional humour studies, by figures such as Palmer (1994) and Morreall (2009), are predicated on models of humour which do not always serve live performance, especially stand-up with its relational dependence on audience interaction.Stand-ups who immigrated to Australia as children or whose parents immigrated and struggled against adversity are important symbols both of the Australian comedy industry and of a national self-understanding of migrant resilience and making good. Szubanski and Berger hail from earlier waves of European migrants in the 1950s and 1960s. Szubanski has written eloquently of her complex Irish-Polish heritage and documented how the “hand-me-down trinkets of family and trauma” and “the culture clash of competing responses to calamity” have been integral to the development of her comic success and the making of her Aussie characters (347). Rachel Berger, the child of Polish holocaust survivors, advertises and connects both identities on her LinkedIn page: “After 23 years as a stand-up comedian, growing up with Jewish guilt and refugee parents, Rachel Berger knows more about survival than any idiot attending tribal council on reality TV.”Anh Do, among Australia’s most famous immigrant stand-ups, identifies as one of the Vietnamese “boat people” and arrived as a toddler in 1976. Do’s tale of his family’s survival against the odds and his creation of a persona which constructs the grateful, happy immigrant clown is the staple of his very successful routine and increasingly problematic. It is a testament to the power of Do’s stand-up that many did not perceive the toll of the loss of his birth country; the grinding poverty; and the pain of his father’s alcoholism, violence, and survivor guilt until the publication of Do’s ironically titled memoir The Happiest Refugee. In fact, the memoir draws on many of the trauma narratives that are still part of his set. One of Do’s most legendary routines is the story of his family’s sea journey to Australia, told here on ABC1’s Talking Heads:There were forty of us on a nine metre fishing boat. On day four of the journey we spot another boat. As the boat gets closer we realise it’s a boatload of Thai pirates. Seven men with knives, machetes and guns get on our boat and they take everything. One of the pirates picks up the smallest child, he lifts up the baby and rips open the baby’s nappy and dollars fall out. And the pirate decides to spare the kid’s life. And that’s a good thing cos that’s my little brother Khoa Do who in 2005 became Young Australian of the Year. And we were saved on the fifth day by a big German merchant ship which took us to a refugee camp in Malaysia and we were there for around three months before Australia says, come to Australia. And we’re very glad that happened. So often we heard Mum and Dad say—what a great country. How good is this place? And the other thing—kids, as you grow up, do as much as you can to give back to this great country and to give back to others less fortunate.Do’s strategy is apparently one of genuflection and gratitude, an adoption of what McCallum refers to as an Australian post-war tradition of the comedy of inadequacy and embarrassment (210–14). Journalists certainly like to bill Do as the happy clown, framing articles about him with headlines like Rosemary Neill’s “Laughing through Adversity.” In fact, Do is direct about his gallows humour and his propensity to darkness: his humour, he says, is a means of countering racism, of “being able to win people over who might have been averse to being friends with an Asian bloke,” but Neill does not linger on this, nor on the revelation that Do felt stigmatised by his refugee origins and terrified and shamed by the crippling poverty of his childhood in Australia. In The Happiest Refugee, Do reveals that, for him, the credibility of his routines with predominantly white Australian audiences lies in the crafting of himself as an “Aussie comedian up there talking about his working-class childhood” (182). This is not the official narrative that is retold even if it is how Do has endeared himself to Australians, and ridding himself of the happy refugee label may yet prove difficult. Suren Jayemanne is well known for his subtle mockery of multiculturalist rhetoric. In his 2016 MICF show, Wu-Tang Clan Name Generator, Jayemanne played on the supposed contradiction of his Sri Lankan-Malaysian heritage against his teenage years in the wealthy suburb of Malvern in Melbourne, his private schooling, and his obsession with hip hop and black American culture. Jayemanne’s strategy is to gently confound his audiences, leading them slowly up a blind alley. He builds up a picture of how to identify Sri Lankan parents, supposedly Sri Lankan qualities such as an exceptional ability at maths, and Sri Lankan employment ambitions which he argues he fulfilled in becoming an accountant. He then undercuts his story by saying he has recently realised that his suburban background, his numerical abilities, his love of black music, and his rejection of accountancy in favour of comedy, in fact prove conclusively that he has, all along, been white. He also confesses that this is a bruising disappointment. Jayemanne exposes the emptiness of the conceits of white, brown, and black and of invented identity markers and plays on his audiences’ preconceptions through an old storyteller’s device, the shaggy dog story. The different constituencies in his audiences enjoy his trick equally, from quite different perspectives.Diana Nguyen, a second generation Vietnamese stand-up, was both traumatised and politicised by Pauline Hanson when she was a teenager. Hanson described Nguyen’s community in Dandenong as “yellow Asian people” (Filmer). Nguyen’s career as a community development worker combating racism relates directly to her activity as a stand-up: migrant stories are integral to Australian history and Nguyen hypothesises that the “Australian psyche of being invaded or taken over” has reignited over the question of Islamic fundamentalism and expresses her concern to Filmer about the Muslim youths under her care.Nguyen’s alarm about the elision of Islamic radicalism with Muslim culture drives an agenda that has led the new generation of self-identified Muslim stand-ups since 9/11. This post 9/11 world is described by Wajahat as gorged with “exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslim [. . . ] and perpetuated by negative discrimination and the marginalisation and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life in western societies.” In Australia, Aamer Rahman, Muhamed Elleissi, Khaled Khalafalla, and Nazeem Hussain typify this newer, more assertive form of second generation immigrant stand-up—they identify as Muslim (whether religious or not), as brown, and as Australian. They might be said to symbolise a logical response to Ghassan Hage’s famous White Nation (1998), which argues that a white supremacism underlies the mindset of the white elite in Australia. Their positioning is more nuanced than previous generations of stand-up. Nazeem Hussain’s routines mark a transformation in Australian stand-up, as Waleed Aly has argued: “ethnic comedy” has hitherto been about the parading of stereotypes for comfortable, mainstream consumption, about “minstrel characters” [. . .] but Hussain interrogates his audiences in every direction—and aggravates Muslims too. Hussain’s is the world of post 9/11 Australian Muslims. It’s about more than ethnic stereotyping. It’s about being a consistent target of political opportunism, where everyone from the Prime Minister to the Foreign Minister to an otherwise washed-up backbencher with a view on burqas has you in their sights, where bombs detonate in Western capitals and unrelated nations are invaded.Understandably, a prevalent theme among the new wave of Muslim comics, and not just in Australia, is the focus on the reading of Muslims as manifestly linked with Islamic State (IS). Jokes about mistaken identity, plane crashes, suicide bombing, and the Koran feature prominently. English-Pakistani Muslim, Shazia Mirza, gained comedy notoriety in the UK in the wake of 9/11 by introducing her routine with the words: “My name’s Shazia Mirza. At least that’s what it says on my pilot’s licence” (Bedell). Stand-ups Negin Farsad, Ahmed Ahmed, and Dean Obeidalla are all also activists challenging prevailing myths about Islam, skin colour and terrorism in America. Egyptian-American Ahmed Ahmed acquired prominence for telling audiences in the infamous Axis of Evil Comedy Tour about how his life had changed much for the worse since 9/11. Ahmed Ahmed was the alias used by one of Osama Bin Laden’s devotees and his life became on ongoing struggle with anti-terrorism officials doing security checks (he was once incarcerated) and with the FBI who were certain that the comedian was among their most wanted terrorists. Similarly, Obeidalla, an Italian-Palestinian-Muslim, notes in his TEDx talk that “If you have a Muslim name, you are probably immune to identity theft.” His narration of a very sudden experience of becoming an object of persecution and of others’ paranoia is symptomatic of a shared understanding of a post 9/11 world among many Muslim comics: “On September 10th 2001 I went to bed as a white American and I woke up an Arab,” says Obeidalla, still dazed from the seismic shift in his life.Hussain and Khalafalla demonstrate a new sophistication and directness in their stand-up, and tackle their majority white audiences head-on. There is no hint of the apologetic or deferential stance performed by Anh Do. Many of the jokes in their routines target controversial or taboo issues, which up until recently were shunned in Australian political debate, or are absent or misrepresented in mainstream media. An Egyptian-Australian born in Saudi Arabia, Khaled Khalafalla arrived on the comedy scene in 2011, was runner-up in RAW, Australia’s most prestigious open mic competition, and in 2013 won the best of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for Devious. Khalafalla’s shows focus on racist stereotypes and identity and he uses a range of Middle Eastern and Indian accents to broach IS recruitment, Muslim cousin marriages, and plane crashes. His 2016 MICF show, Jerk, was a confident and abrasive routine exploring relationships, drug use, the extreme racism of Reclaim Australia rallies, controversial visa checks by Border Force’s Operation Fortitude, and Islamophobia. Within the first minute of his routine, he criticises white people in the audience for their woeful refusal to master Middle Eastern names, calling out to the “brown woman” in the audience for support, before lining up a series of jokes about the (mis)pronunciation of his name. Khalafalla derives his power on stage by what Oliver Double calls “uncovering.” Double contends that “one of the most subversive things stand-up can do is to uncover the unmentionable,” subjects which are difficult or impossible to discuss in everyday conversation or the broadcast media (292). For instance, in Jerk Khalafalla discusses the “whole hating halal movement” in Australia as a metaphor for exposing brutal prejudice: Let me break it down for you. Halal is not voodoo. It’s just a blessing that Muslims do for some things, food amongst other things. But, it’s also a magical spell that turns some people into fuckwits when they see it. Sometimes people think it’s a thing that can get stuck to your t-shirt . . . like ‘Oh fuck, I got halal on me’ [Australian accent]. I saw a guy the other day and he was like Fuck halal, it funds terrorism. And I was like, let me show you the true meaning of Islam. I took a lamb chop out of my pocket and threw it in his face. And, he was like Ah, what was that? A lamb chop. Oh, I fucking love lamb chops. And, I say you fool, it’s halal and he burst into flames.In effect, Khalafalla delivers a contemptuous attack on the white members of his audience, but at the same time his joke relies on those same audience members presuming that they are morally and intellectually superior to the individual who is the butt of the joke. Khalafalla’s considerable charm is a help in this tricky send-up. In 2015 the Australian Department of Defence recognised his symbolic power and invited him to join the Afghanistan Task Force to entertain the troops by providing what Doran describes as “home-grown Australian laughs” (7). On stage in Australia, Khalafalla constructs a persona which is an outsider to the dominant majority and challenges the persecution of Muslim communities. Ironically, on the NATO base, Khalafalla’s act was perceived as representing a diverse but united Australia. McCallum has pointed to such contradictions, moments where white Australia has shown itself to be a “culture which at first authenticates emigrant experience and later abrogates it in times of defiant nationalism” (207). Nazeem Hussain, born in Australia to Sri Lankan parents, is even more confrontational. His stand-up is born of his belief that “comedy protects us from the world around us” and is “an evolutionary defence mechanism” (8–9). His ground-breaking comedy career is embedded in his work as an anti-racism activist and asylum seeker supporter and shaped by his second-generation migrant experiences, law studies, community youth work, and early mentorship by American Muslim comic trio Allah Made Me Funny. He is well-known for his pioneering television successes Legally Brown and Salam Café. In his stand-up, Hussain often dwells witheringly on the failings and peculiarities of white people’s attempts to interact with him. Like all his routines, his sell-out show Fear of the Brown Planet, performed with Aamer Rahman from 2004–2008, explored casual, pathologised racism. Hussain deliberately over-uses the term “white people” in his routines as a provocation and deploys a reverse racism against his majority white audiences, knowing that many will be squirming. “White people ask me how can Muslims have fun if they don’t drink? Muslims have fun! Of course we have fun! You’ve seen us on the news.” For Hussain stand-up is “fundamentally an art of protest,” to be used as “a tool by communities and people with ideas that challenge and provoke the status quo with a spirit of counterculture” (Low 1–3). His larger project is to humanise Muslims to white Australians so that “they see us firstly as human beings” (1–3). Hussain’s 2016 MICF show, Hussain in the Membrane, both satirised media hype and hysterical racism and pushed for a better understanding of the complex problems Muslim communities face in Australia. His show also connected issues to older colonial traditions of racism. In a memorable and beautifully crafted tirade, Hussain inveighed against the 2015 Bendigo riots which occurred after local Muslims lodged an application to Bendigo council to build a mosque in the sleepy Victorian town. [YELLING in an exaggerated Australian accent] No we don’t want Muslims! NO we don’t want Muslims—to come invade Bendigo by application to the local council! That is the most bureaucratic invasion of all times. No place in history has been invaded by lodging an application to a local council. Can you see ISIS running around chasing town planners? Of course not, Muslims like to wait 6–8 months to invade! That’s a polite way to invade. What if white people invaded that way? What a better world we’d be living in. If white people invaded Australia that way, we’d be able to celebrate Australia Day on the same day without so much blood on our hands. What if Captain Cook came to Australia and said [in a British accent] Awe we would like to apply to invade this great land and here is our application. [In an Australian accent] Awe sorry, mate, rejected, but we’ll give you Bendigo.As Waleed Aly sees it, the Australian cultural majority is still “unused to hearing minorities speak with such assertiveness.” Hussain exposes “a binary world where there’s whiteness, and then otherness. Where white people are individuals and non-white people (a singular group) are not” (Aly). Hussain certainly speaks as an insider and goes so far as recognising his coloniser’s guilt in relation to indigenous Australians (Tan). Aly well remembers the hate mail he and Hussain received when they worked on Salam Café: “The message was clear. We were outsiders and should behave as such. We were not real Australians. We should know our place, as supplicants, celebrating the nation’s unblemished virtue.” Khalafalla, Rahman, Elleissi, and Hussain make clear that the new wave of comics identify as Muslim and Australian (which they would argue many in the audiences receive as a provocation). They have zero tolerance of racism, their comedy is intimately connected with their political activism, and they have an unapologetically Australian identity. No longer is it a question of whether the white cultural majority in Australia will anoint them as worthy and acceptable citizens, it is a question of whether the audiences can rise to the moral standards of the stand-ups. The power has been switched. For Hussain laughter is about connection: “that person laughs because they appreciate the point and whether or not they accept what was said was valid isn’t important. What matters is, they’ve understood” (Low 5). ReferencesAhmed, Ahmed. “When It Comes to Laughter, We Are All Alike.” TedXDoha (2010). 16 June 2016 <http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxDoha-Ahmed-Ahmed-When-it-Co>.Aly, Waleed. “Comment.” Sydney Morning Herald 24 Sep. 2013."Anh Do". Talking Heads with Peter Thompson. ABC1. 4 Oct. 2010. Radio.Bedell, Geraldine. “Veiled Humour.” The Guardian (2003). 8 Aug. 2016 <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/apr/20/comedy.artsfeatures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other>.Berger, Rachel. LinkedIn [Profile page]. 14 June 2016 <http://www.linkedin.com/company/rachel-berger>.Do, Anh. The Happiest Refugee. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2010. Doran, Mark. "Service with a Smile: Entertainers Give Troops a Taste of Home.” Air Force 57.21 (2015). 12 June 2016 <http://www.defence.gov.au/Publications/NewsPapers/Raaf/editions/5721/5721.pdf>.Double, Oliver. Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.Filmer, Natalie. "For Dandenong Comedian and Actress Diana Nguyen The Colour Yellow has a Strong Meaning.” The Herald Sun 3 Sep. 2013.Hage, Ghassan. White Nation: Fantasies of a White Supremacy in a Multicultural Age. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1998.Hussain, Nazeem. Hussain in the Membrane. Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2016.———. "The Funny Side of 30.” Spectrum. The Age 12 Mar. 2016.Khalafalla, Khaled. Jerk. Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2016.Low, Lian. "Fear of a Brown Planet: Fight the Power with Laughter.” Peril: Asian Australian Arts and Culture (2011). 12 June 2016 <http://peril.com.au/back-editions/edition10/fear-of-a-brown-planet-fight-the-power-with-laughter>. McCallum, John. "Cringe and Strut: Comedy and National Identity in Post-War Australia.” Because I Tell a Joke or Two: Comedy, Politics and Social Difference. Ed. Stephen Wagg. New York: Routledge, 1998. Morreall, John. Comic Relief. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.Neill, Rosemary. "Laughing through Adversity.” The Australian 28 Aug. 2010.Obeidalla, Dean. "Using Stand-Up to Counter Islamophobia.” TedXEast (2012). 16 June 2016 <http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxEast-Dean-Obeidalla-Using-S;TEDxEast>.Palmer, Jerry. Taking Humour Seriously. London: Routledge, 1994. Szubanski, Magda. Reckoning. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2015. Tan, Monica. "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Allahu Akbar! Nazeem Hussain's Bogan-Muslim Army.” The Guardian 29 Feb. 2016. "Uncle Sam.” Salam Café (2008). 11 June 2016 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeQPAJt6caU>.Wajahat, Ali, et al. "Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.” Center for American Progress (2011). 11 June 2016 <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/report/2011/08/26/10165/fear-inc>.
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Beyer, Sue. « Metamodern Spell Casting ». M/C Journal 26, no 5 (2 octobre 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2999.
Texte intégralRésumé :
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. 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Landay, Lori. « Digital Transformations ». M/C Journal 4, no 2 (1 avril 2001). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1899.
Texte intégralRésumé :
In the age of digital transformations of images, communications, and storytelling, Marshall McLuhan's insight that "the medium is the message" can be augmented with the corollary that the media is the mix. Digital forms of narrative are not only characterized by their mixed, hybrid forms and content, but their recombinations 1 draw the spectator into the mix in unforeseen ways. By mixing varying degrees of non-linearity and interactivity in what are ultimately animations, digital narratives create new kinds of digital spectatorship. The examples I'll explore here are three films, Conceiving Ada, Gamer, and Time Code. In different yet interconnected ways, each privileges the mix of media over content, or rather, foregrounds the mix as content. These digital narratives divert the reader/spectator/ participant from the traditional ways of making meaning--or at least sense--of narrative. One way to illuminate the examples is to explore how they mix linearity and interactivity. In teaching The Theory and Practice of Digital Narrative, my students and I developed a model for analyzing how different works create new modes of storytelling, and fresh relations of looking at and within the frame.2 Extending some of the terms that Janet Murray develops in Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, the diagram posits an x axis of linearity and a y axis of agency.3 Click here for an animated version of this graph. The linearity axis spans narratives from most linear (one plot line that progresses chronologically through time and space to one outcome through a series of cause and effect occurrences represented from a singular point of view) to non-linear (narratives that could be circular, rhizome-shaped, achronological, synchronic, multiple plotlines, multiple points of view, multidimensional).4 The agency axis spans media that call for very little active participation from the reader/spectator/listener to media that demands a high level of interaction. Of course, all "reading" is in some way active, both in the physical acts of seeing and turning pages/clicking a mouse 5 and in comprehending, imagining, remembering, and making meaning. Nevertheless, there is a distinction between page-turning and making choices in a hypermedia work, and Murray uses the term agency to suggest an "active creation of belief" (as opposed to Coleridge's "willing suspension of belief"). Digital environments require that belief be created and reinforced; as William Gibson posited in Neuromancer, the imagined place of cyberspace is a "consensual hallucination," a social agreement to act as if the places in cyberspace exist. The willing creation of belief is a social agreement that relies on a like-minded community. The more self-reflexive and unconventional the narrative, the more it calls for the will to believe. These examples of digital cinema "interpellate," or hail, their spectators as willing agents in the common project of the creation of belief. The subjectivity that these films seek to create for their viewers is one of being an active, technologically-savvy spectator. Instead of encouraging participation in, to use Guy Debord's phrase, the society of the spectacle, these digital narratives perform a Brechtian function in a distinctly technological manner that derives from the mix of media that is digital cinema. The term "digital cinema" has acquired many meanings, ranging from movies shot on digital video in a manner we associate with film (i.e.: single camera) to digital exhibition of media in digitally-equipped movie theaters and streaming video on the web. Lev Manovich defines digital cinema as "a particular case of animation which uses live action footage as one of its many elements."6 Manovich's historical argument suggests commonalities between the earliest moving images and current developments in digital media; animation was marginalized in the development of cinema, and although some of its techniques were adopted by the avant garde, only now animation returns at the very center of digital cinema.7 Lynn Hershman Leeson's film Conceiving Ada explores digital media in both form and content. In the film Emmy, a contemporary computer software engineer, uses technology to make contact with Ada Lovelace, who invented the first computer language in Victorian England. The narrative moves between Emmy in the present day and Ada in the past as Emmy figures out how to send a software agent into the past to retrieve information. Although the plot doesn't really make sense scientifically, it resonates emotionally; despite the 150 years separating their lives, Emmy and Ada face some of the same issues as women working with technology. Instead of building sets, Leeson developed a technique of blending live action footage shot against a blue screen with digitized photographs of Victorian inns. As she explains in the technical notes of the DVD of the film (and also on the Conceiving Ada website): I felt it important to use the technology Ada pioneered. Virtual sets and digital sound . . . provided environments in which she moves freely through time, becomes liberated and, ultimately, moves into visibility. The actors and filmmaker collaborated in what amounts to a consensual hallucination: On the set, these images were maneuvered through several computers where mattes were added and images were put into perspective or enlarged. They were then laid onto digital videotape while the actors were performing. Actors could reference their location through a monitor that showed them their "virtual" environment. . . . The immediacy of shooting live action while simultaneously manipulating digitized backgrounds in real time was, remarkably, exhilarating. By mixing past and present, fact and fiction, personal and professional, digital and analog, live action and animation, Conceiving Ada tells its powerful story in both form and content. Although it is not immediately obvious that the sets are virtual rather than actual, much of the story takes place in front of and inside Emmy's computer equipment. There are many shots of Emmy gazing into the computer, trying to make her programs work, and when she does make contact with Ada, she can see her memories and talk with her on the computer screen. The film frame often encompasses the computer screen, so we too see the graphic interfaces Emmy designs and animates. By mixing some of the techniques of video art with film style and the malleability of the digital image, Leeson extends her trailblazing career in many directions at once in a work that is a mix about mix. A representation of intense digital interactivity, Conceiving Ada's heroines, creators, and spectators use technology, and specifically digital imaging technology, to create agency. Like Conceiving Ada, Time Code is also an example of digital cinema that calls attention to the digital techniques used in its production, and enlists its spectators as accomplices in creating the narrative. Time Code is itself the product of improvisation, and uses digital technology to capture "real time." Director Mike Figgis divides the screen into four frames; each quadrant contains a continuous 90-minute take of an unscripted, improvised performance, all shot simultaneously with four Sony Dvcam DSR-130s; the film was blocked out on music paper. Figgis describes his movie as a "black comedy about a 90-minute slice of life in Hollywood," and it takes filmmaking as one of its subjects along with jealousy, infidelity, and a fin-de-siecle philosophical and artistic exhaustion. The audio mix of the theatrical release of the film shifts its emphasis between the quadrants, thus directing the spectator's attention to a certain quadrant. Choosing to focus on a quadrant is a kind of spectator-editing. Looking at the entire frame means seeing a new kind of animation, created by multiple screens, encompassing multiple points of view. (See Time Code clip here.) The film folds in on itself self-reflexively. The plot centers around the intersecting lives of four characters involved personally and/or professionally with Red Mullet, Inc., a movie studio (which is the real-life name of Figgis's production company; see www.red-mullet.com), and becomes increasingly Brechtian as the movie builds to the climactic scene in which a hot young independent filmmaker pitches a movie that, like the one we are watching, splits the screen and follows the interactions between four characters. In what could be taken as a manifesto for digital cinema that counters the "chastity" of DOGME 95 with the passionate embrace of technology, the filmmaker announces, "Montage has created a fake reality. . . . Technology has arrived, digital video has arrived, and is demanding new expressions, new sensations. . . . It's time to say again: Art, Technology: a new union." She shows the studio executives storyboards of how four cameras will follow four characters, who are really four aspects of the same character at different points in their lives. But the filmmaker's passionate and theoretical speech is undercut by the context of black comedy that infuses the film: artistic praxis clashes with business practice, and all the plotlines peak as Stellan Skarsgard's Alex bursts into laughter and exclaims, "This is the most pretentious crap I've ever heard. . . . Do you think anybody around this table has a clue about what you're talking about?" Figgis assumes his audience does, that Bauhaus, Soviet montage, and Guy Debord are not as foreign to his spectators as they are to the executives; the filmmakers both within and outside the frames show their theoretical orientation. Time Code is the first major work of digital cinema. It creates a new kind of animation based on subjectivity and point of view, and calls for an active creation of belief from the spectator-editor who takes in and ultimately creates the narrative of the film. The DVD extends the spectator's agency even further. Among its special features is a documentary about how the film was shot 15 times, all four cameras operating simultaneously around the actors' improvisation. Figgis chose the fifteenth version for the theatrical release, but also includes the first version on the DVD. Because the making of the film, and how it uses digital technology, is so central to the spectator's experience, the director's commentary and interviews with the cast reinforce the spectator as an active creator of belief and meaning in the film. Moreover, by including a special audio mixing feature, the DVD gives the medium a new level of interactivity. Using the remote control of a DVD player, the spectator/participant can switch between the audio of the different quadrants. Because the audio is a major aspect of directing the spectator's attention (in addition to visual elements such as movement and stasis), being able to make choices in the audio mix is, to use the music metaphor that the film is based on conceptually, to become the conductor of the film.8 The medium is the mix. Like Time Code and Conceiving Ada, the new French film Gamer is also a particularly digital mix. Gamer moves between live action and digital environments as its main character Tony gets the idea for, designs, and then is swindled out of a computer game. The first time the film environment switches to the game environment is when the hero is in a car chase and his car morphs into a game graphic of a car. The shift between a reality created by conventional film style and the unconventional use of game graphics style reveals the main character's subjectivity, for his reality (and other characters' as well) are constructed through their interaction in the playing and making of games. Gamer is aesthetically and viscerally ambitious in the range of live action and computer graphic interfaces it moves between. The adrenalized state of game-playing mixes with a fictionalized account of game design. Gamer succeeds in creating an immersive text about two differently immersive mediums, film and computer games. When the film depicts how live action can be made digital, and both shows and denies the indexicality of the digital image, it explores the nature of digital cinema in a way that is complementary to the projects of Conceiving Ada and Time Code. In addition to fostering new relations of looking, these digital narratives make forays into nonlinearity. Conceiving Ada and Gamer both have discursive plots that revise the conventions of the linear plot, moving between nested narrative frames in time, space, and subjectivity. Time Code is in one way relentlessly linear, but its synchronic depiction of multiple physical and emotional points of view ruptures the cinematic conventions of time and space constructed by the dominant style of continuity editing. Taken separately, these three films hover around the center point of my diagram, raising the issues of agency and linearity that will continue to be at the center of digital narrative. Taken together the films offer a model of digital transformation that points the way to what is bound to be a medium that increasingly involves its audience in thinking about and then participating in increasingly immersive, nonlinear, and interactive experiences. Notes 1. In the “renew” issue of M/C, David Marshall suggests that one of the areas Cultural Studies can look to is how the culture industries that produce “recombinant culture,” make efforts “to incorporate new technologies into different forms in order to reconstitute audiences in ways that in their distinctiveness produce value that is exchangeable as capital.” This essay is part of a larger work that attempts to open up some of the avenues suggested by Marshall. P. David Marshall. "Renewing Cultural Studies." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.6 (2000). [22 February 2001] . 2. This diagram is a work in progress. My students and I have had much discussion about what to term the bottom of the agency axis. “Passive” seems too simple, yet other terms we’ve come up with such as structured, controlled, limited, voyeuristic, or (my favorite) enslaved don’t seem to work. Special thanks to my students Elliott Davis, Tom Mannino, and John O’Connell, for such discussions. 3. Janet H. Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, MIT Press, 1999, esp. 128. 4. For an interesting discussion and diagramming of story shapes, see Katherine Phelps, “Story Shapes for Digital Media.” [3/7/01] < http://www.glasswings.com.au/modern/shapes/>. Steven Johnson’s assertion that the hyperlink is the “first significant new form of punctuation to emerge in centuries” is an intriguing one for thinking about the connections possible in hypermedia. (Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate (San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997), 110-111). 6. Lev Manovich, “What Is Digital Cinema?” http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~manovich/text/digital-cinema.html 7. In a footnote, Manovich makes an interesting point on avant-garde strategies such as collage, painting on film, combining print with animation and live action footage, and combining many images in a single frame: “what used to be exceptions for traditional cinema became the normal, intended techniques of digital filmmaking, embedded in technology design itself.” Innovative forays into the mix of digital media like my examples illuminate not only the emergence of exceptional techniques but also of innovative narrative and spectatorial strategies. 8. Figgis is using the quadrant method once again in a new film, Hotel, which recently finished production in Florence. During the filming, there was a brilliant site that every day had a new page with the four-quadrant split. In addition to quicktimes of footage of the shoot and the actors in the hotel where the film is set, there were some of the cleverest animations I have ever seen on the web. Unfortunately the site shut down after the shoot finished, but it will be up again in May, most likely at www.filmfour.com/hotel, but check www.red-mullet.com as well.
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O'Rourke, Polly, et Gregory Colflesh. « P600 Dominance Predicts Comprehension of Garden-Path Sentences ». LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts, 13 avril 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/exabs.v0i0.3008.
Texte intégralRésumé :
<h1 align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. Introduction.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Research using the event-related potential (ERP) technique has provided many important insights into the neural mechanisms associated with language comprehension. The integration of lexico-semantic information is associated with an increased centro-parietal negativity between 300-500 ms known as the N400 (Kutas & Federmeier, 2011; Kutas & Hillyard 1980). Morphosyntactic integration is associated with an early left anterior negativity (LAN) maximal around 200-500 ms, followed by a late posterior positivity (P600) maximal between 500 and 800 ms (see Kutas, Van Petten & Kluender (2005) for review). The P600, in absence of early negativity, is also elicited by well-formed sentences that present increased difficulty due to temporary ambiguity (i.e. garden-paths; Gouvea, Phillips, Kazanina & Poeppel, 2010; Osterhout, Holcomb & Swinney, 1994). The use of ERP as a means of indexing the different neural mechanisms associated with language processing is contingent on the assumption that all neurologically normal, native speakers show consistent responses to sentence stimuli such that the grand averaged ERPs reflect effects that are manifest uniformly across individuals. This notion was recently challenged by Tanner and Van Hell (2014). In their innovative study, they showed that, although in the grand mean syntactic violations elicited a classic biphasic LAN/P600 response, most participants either showed an N400 or a P600 rather than a biphasic response. Given the topographical distribution of the effects for each group, they concluded that the LAN often found for syntactic violations in grand mean analyses is the result of the distributed negativity in some subjects being neutralized or minimized by the right lateralized positivity in the others such that only the left anterior negativity remains. Response dominance did not, however, predict acceptability judgment accuracy, nor did it correlate with measures of working memory (WM) and executive control. </span></span></h1><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The individual differences in N400/P600 response dominance observed by Tanner and Van Hell (2014) lead to interesting questions regarding other contexts which tend to elicit these potentials. Garden-path sentences are known to elicit P600 effects in absence of early effects but there is some variability (Friederici, Mecklinger, Spencer, Steinhauer & Donchin, 2001; Gouvea et al., 2010; Horberg, Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Kallionen, 2013; Matzke, Mai, Nager, Russeler & Munte, 2002; Vos, Gunter, Schriefers & Friederici, 2001). This variablity could suggest the possibility of individual differences in response profiles, as Tanner and Van Hell (2014) found for syntactic violations. </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">One known source of variability in garden-path effects for both P600s and comprehension accuracy is working memory capacity (WMC). High WMC individuals show greater P600 effects for garden-path sentences compared to low WMC individuals (Friederici, Steinhauer, Mecklinger, & Meyer, 1998). High WMC individuals also show reduced garden-path effects in comprehension accuracy such that they have better comprehension accuracy for garden-paths (Just & Carpenter, 1992). Lower comprehension accuracy in low WMC individuals indicates they are more likely to arrive at “Good Enough” interpretations (Ferreira, Bailey & Ferraro, 2002) in which the faithful interpretation of the sentence is not adopted. </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In the current study we applied the RDI analysis to the ERPs associated with garden-path sentences in order to determine (1) if participants’ N400/P600 dominance for garden-path sentences will fall into a continuum such that there will be a continuous distribution of N400 and P600 effect magnitudes with negative correlations between them, (2) if response dominance will predict comprehension accuracy, and (3), if so, is that effect reducible to individual differences in WMC.</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></p><p align="left"><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2. Methods.</span></strong></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2.1. Participants.<strong> </strong>Data were collected from 62 right handed participants, 25 of which were excluded due to eligibility issues, technical issues, noncompliance, or excessive artifacts. As a result, 37 participants (20 female) between the ages of 18 and 35 (<em>M</em> = 21.6, <em>SD</em> = 3.21) were included in the analysis. All participants were right-handed, neurologically normal, native speakers of English with normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and none had had started learning a second language before age 12.</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2.2. Sentence Stimuli<strong> </strong>This experiment used the same control and garden-path sentences as O’Rourke & Colflesh (2014) (based on Gouvea et al., 2010). See sentences (1) and (2) for examples of garden-path and control sentences, respectively.</span></p><ol><li><p>The patient met the doctor and the nurse with the white dress <span style="text-decoration: underline;">showed</span> the chart during the meeting.</p></li><li><p>The patient met the doctor while the nurse with the white dress <span style="text-decoration: underline;">showed</span> the chart during the meeting.</p></li></ol><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">There were 36 sentences per condition and an additional 288 sentences including fillers and conditions not presented herein. Fifty percent of the sentences were followed by a yes/no comprehension question. </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2.3. Complex Span Tasks. As indices of WMC, three complex span tasks were used in the current study: reading span (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; Unsworth, Heitz, Schrock & Engle, 2005), operation span (Unsworth, et al., 2005), and symmetry span (Unsworth, Redick, Heitz, Broadway, & Engle, 2009). In the reading span task participants were presented with a series of sentences and asked to indicate, via button press, if the sentence they read made sense. After each sentence they were then presented with a letter that they were to remember for later recall. At the end of the sequence, they had to recall the letters in serial order. Their score reflects the total number of letters recalled in the correct serial position out of a total of 75 items. Operation span was identical to reading span as described above except instead of making sense judgments on sentences, participants had to read math problems involving two operations, one addition/subtraction and one multiplication/division, and verify if the solution provided was correct. Symmetry Span (Engle, 2005) is a complex span task like the aforementioned tasks, but it uses visuospatial stimuli. Participants were presented with a series of 8x8 black and white grids and asked to indicate, via button press, whether the design was vertically symmetrical. After each symmetry judgment they were presented with a 4x4 grid with a square filled in red that they were asked to remember for later recall. At the end of the sequence, participants had to recall the position of the red squares, in the order in which they appeared. The maximum score was 42.</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2.5. Procedure.<strong> </strong>Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was recorded using the Electrical Geodesics Inc. (EGI) Hydrocel 256 channel system while participants performed the sentence processing task. Sentences were presented word-by-word and participants responded to the comprehension questions with a button press. Data was collected over two sessions. Upon completion of the sentence processing task, participants performed the working memory assessments.</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2.6. Data Analysis. Upon completion of pre-processing and averaging, ERPs were computed for each individual for each experimental condition for a 1500 ms interval time-locked to the presentation of the critical verb (“showed” in the examples above) relative to a 200 ms pre-stimulus baseline. The following time windows were considered in the analysis of P600 effects: 300-500, 500-700 and 700-900 ms. The analyses were performed on midline and dorsal and electrodes. The midline electrodes were divided into anterior (FPZ, AFZ, FZ, FCZ, CZ) and posterior (CPZ, 90, PZ, POZ, OZ) sections. The dorsal electrodes were grouped by anterior-posterior (AP) location and hemisphere: Left anterior (FP1, AF3, F1, F3, FC3, C3), right anterior (FP2, AF4, F2, F4, FC4, C3), left posterior (CP3, CP1, P1, P3, P1, PO3, O1) and right posterior (CP4, CP1, P4, P2, PO4, O2). Sentence type effects in the ERP data were assessed in the dorsal regions with multiple three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (Sentence Type x AP x Hemisphere) and in the midline electrodes with a two-way ANOVA (Sentence Type x AP). RDI was then calculated using Tanner & Van Hell (2014)’s formula, using the same centro-parietal region of interest and time windows. Participants were divided into groups according to response dominance (N400 or P600). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was run with garden-path comprehension accuracy as the dependent variable, RDI group as the independent variable and average, standardized WM score (average z-score for the three measures) as the covariate.</span></p><p align="left"><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">3. Results. </span></strong></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">3.1. Sentence Type Effects.<strong> </strong>Accuracy for garden-path sentences (<em>M</em> = 68.3%, <em>SD</em> = 14.4) was significantly lower than control sentences (<em>M</em> = 73.6%, <em>SD</em> = 11.4; <em>F</em>(1,36) = 6.13, <em>p</em> < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .15). In the ERP data, garden-path sentences (compared to controls) showed a significant interaction of Type and AP over midline sites in the 500-700 and 700-900 ms time windows (<em>F</em>(1,36) = 4.18, <em>p</em> < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .10 and <em>F</em>(1,36) = 6.02, <em>p</em> < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .14, respectively) such that garden-paths elicited greater positivity than control sentences over posterior sites. Simple comparisons showed significant effects of type in posterior areas in both the 500-700 (<em>F</em>(1,36) = 4.14, <em>p</em> < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .10) and 700-900 time windows (<em>F</em>(1,36) = 4.93, <em>p</em> < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .12). There were no effects in the anterior sites. </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">3.2. RDI Analysis.<strong> </strong>Analysis of N400 and P600 effect magnitudes for garden path sentences showed a strong negative correlation (<em>r</em>(32) = -.90; <em>p</em> < .001). The data suggest a continuum between strong N400 and P600 dominance. Participants were divided into groups based on RDI values (negative values indicating N400 dominance and positive indicating P600 dominance). A total of 18 participants were N400 dominant and 19 were P600 dominant. </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Prior to running the ANCOVA, it was necessary to determine that the covariates affected the dependent variable equally across the two groups. In the entire sample, there was a significant correlation between average complex span score and garden-path comprehension accuracy (<em>r</em>(32) = .52, p < .01). Each RDI group showed positive correlations (N400 dominant, <em>r</em>(14) = .63; P600 dominant, <em>r</em>(16) = .48). Using a Fisher transformation (Fisher, 1915), the difference between the group correlations was not significant (<em>z</em> = .6, <em>p</em> > .50). </span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The ANCOVA showed that there was a significant effect of Response Dominance on GP Comprehension Accuracy after controlling for WMC, F(1,31) = 4.45, p < .05, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> =.13) such that P600 dominant individuals had greater accuracy. Complex span performance accounted for a significant amount of variance (F(1,31) = 13.8, p < .005, <em>η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup></em> = .31).</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>4. Discussion. </strong>The current study found evidence of distinct neural response profiles which were not apparent in the grand averaged data in neurologically normal, native English speakers during the processing of garden-path sentences and this individual differences measure predicted comprehension performance. The key finding of the current study is the effect of response dominance on behavioral performance. Response dominance emerged as an effective predictor of comprehension accuracy such that P600 dominant participants had better comprehension accuracy for garden-path sentences. The results of the ANCOVA show that response dominance is not a proxy for WMC but rather a distinct individual difference measure. This suggests that cognitive capacity alone does not limit the individual’s ability to resolve garden-paths. Response dominance may, instead, indicate the engagement of specific parsing strategies. The results of the current study extend the utility of Tanner and Van Hell (2014)’s RDI as an individual difference to the processing of the garden-path sentences showing that individuals in the sample exhibited distinct response profiles (either N400 or P600 dominant). While future research will reveal the neurocognitive underpinnings of response dominance, the findings of the current study establish this individual difference measure as a means of predicting behavior from neural activity. </span></p>
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Warner, Kate. « Relationships with the Past : How Australian Television Dramas Talk about Indigenous History ». M/C Journal 20, no 5 (13 octobre 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1302.
Texte intégralRésumé :
In recent years a number of dramas focussing on Indigenous Australians and Australian history have appeared on the ABC, one of Australia's two public television channels. These dramas have different foci but all represent some aspects of Australian Indigenous history and how it interacts with 'mainstream' representations of Australian history. The four programs I will look at are Cleverman (Goalpost Pictures, 2016-ongoing), Glitch (Matchbox Films, 2015-ongoing), The Secret River (Ruby Entertainment, 2015) and Redfern Now (Blackfella Films, 2012), each of which engages with the past in a unique way.Clearly, different creators, working with different plots and in different genres will have different ways of representing the past. Redfern Now and Cleverman are both produced by Indigenous creators whereas the creators of The Secret River and Glitch are white Australians. Redfern Now and The Secret River are in a realist mode, whereas Glitch and Cleverman are speculative fiction. My argument proceeds on two axes: first, speculative genres allow for more creative ways of representing the past. They give more freedom for the creators to present affective representations of the historical past. Speculative genres also allow for more interesting intellectual examinations of what we consider to be history and its uncertainties. My second axis argues, because it is hard to avoid when looking at this group of texts, that Indigenous creators represent the past in different ways than non-Indigenous creators. Indigenous creators present a more elliptical vision. Non-Indigenous creators tend to address historical stories in more overt ways. It is apparent that even when dealing with the same histories and the same facts, the understanding of the past held by different groups is presented differently because it has different affective meanings.These television programs were all made in the 2010s but the roots of their interpretations go much further back, not only to the history they represent but also to the arguments about history that have raged in Australian intellectual and popular culture. Throughout most of the twentieth century, indigenous history was not discussed in Australia, until this was disturbed by WEH Stanner's reference in the Boyer lectures of 1968 to "our great Australian silence" (Clark 73). There was, through the 1970s and 80s, increased discussion of Indigenous history, and then in the 1990s there was a period of social and cultural argument known locally as the 'History Wars'. This long-running public disagreement took place in both academic and public arenas, and involved historians, other academics, politicians, journalists and social commentators on each side. One side argued that the arrival of white people in Australia led to frontier wars, massacre, attempted genocide and the ongoing oppression of Indigenous people (Reynolds). The other posited that when white people arrived they killed a few Aborigines but mostly Aboriginal people were killed by disease or failure to 'defend' their culture (Windschuttle). The first viewpoint was revisionist from the 1960s onwards and the second represented an attempt at counter-revision – to move the understanding of history back to what it was prior to the revision. The argument took place not only among historians, but was taken up by politicians with Paul Keating, prime minister 1993-1996, holding the first view and John Howard, prime minister 1996-2007, aggressively pursuing the second. The revisionist viewpoint was championed by historians such as Henry Reynolds and Lyndall Ryan and academics and Aboriginal activists such as Tony Birch and Aileen Moreton Robinson; whereas the counter-revisionists had Keith Windschuttle and Geoffrey Blainey. By and large the revisionist viewpoint has become dominant and the historical work of the counter-revisionists is highly disputed and not accepted.This argument was prominent in Australian cultural discourse throughout the 1990s and has never entirely disappeared. The TV shows I am examining were not made in the 1990s, nor were they made in the 2000s - it took nearly twenty years for responses to the argument to make the jump from politicians' speeches and opinion pieces to television drama. John Ellis argues that the role of television in popular discourse is "working through," meaning contentious issues are first raised in news reports, then they move to current affairs, then talk shows and documentaries, then sketch comedy, then drama (Ellis). Australian Indigenous history was extensively discussed in the news, current affairs and talk shows in the 1990s, documentaries appeared somewhat later, notably First Australians in 2008, but sketch comedy and drama did not happen until in 2014, when Black Comedy's programme first aired, offering sketches engaging often and fiercely with indigenous history.The existence of this public discourse in the political and academic realms was reflected in film before television. Felicity Collins argues that the "Blak Wave" of Indigenous film came to exist in the context of, and as a response to, the history wars (Collins 232). This wave of film making by Indigenous film makers included the works of Rachel Perkins, Warwick Thornton and Ivan Sen – whose films chronicled the lives of Indigenous Australians. There was also what Collins calls "back-tracking films" such as Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) and The Tracker (2010) made by white creators that presented arguments from the history wars for general audiences. Collins argues that both the "blak wave" and the "back track" created an alternative cultural sphere where past injustices are acknowledged. She says: "the films of the Blak Wave… cut across the history wars by turning an Indigenous gaze on the colonial past and its afterlife in the present" (Collins 232). This group of films sees Indigenous gazes relate the past and present whereas the white gaze represents specific history. In this article I examine a similar group of representations in television programs.History is not an innocent discourse. In western culture 'history' describes a certain way of looking at the past that was codified in the 19th century (Lloyd 375). It is however not the only way to look at the past, theorist Mark Day has described it as a type of relation with the past and argues that other understandings of the past such as popular memory and mythology are also available (Day). The codification of history in the 19th century involved an increased reliance on documentary evidence, a claim to objectivity, a focus on causation and, often though not always, a focus on national, political history. This sort of history became the academic understanding of history – which claims to be, if not objective, at least capable of disinterest; which bases its arguments on facts and which can establish its facts through reference to documentary records (Froeyman 219). Aileen Moreton-Robinson would call this "white patriarchal knowledge" that seeks to place the indigenous within its own type of knowledge production ("The White Man's Burden" 414). The western version of history tends to focus on causation and to present the past as a coherent narrative leading to the current point in time. This is not an undisputed conception of history in the western academy but it is common and often dominant.Post-colonialist analyses of history argue that western writing about non-western subjects is biased and forces non-westerners into categories used to oppress them (Anderson 44). These categories exist ahistorically and deny non-westerners the ability to act because if history cannot be perceived then it is difficult to see the future. That is to say, because non-western subjects in the past are not seen as historical actors, as people whose actions effected the future, then, in the present, they are unable to access to powerful arguments from history. Historians' usual methodology casts Indigenous people as the 'subjects' of history which is about them, not by them or for them (Tuhiwai Smith 7, 30-32, 144-5). Aboriginal people are characterised as prehistoric, ancient, timeless and dying (Birch 150). This way of thinking about Indigenous Australia removes all agency from Aboriginal actors and restoring agency has been a goal of Aboriginal activists and historians. Aileen Moreton Robinson discusses how Aboriginal resistance is embodied through "oral history (and) social memory," engaging with how Aboriginal actors represent themselves and are represented in relation to the past and historical settings is an important act ("Introduction" 127).Redfern Now and Cleverman were produced through the ABC's Indigenous Department and made by Indigenous filmmakers, whereas Glitch and The Secret River are from the ABC drama department and were made by white Australians. The different programs also have different generic backgrounds. Redfern Now and The Secret River are different forms of realist texts; social realism and historical realism. Cleverman and Glitch, however, are speculative fiction texts that can be argued to be in the mode of magical realism, they "denaturalise the real and naturalise the marvellous" they are also closely tied ideas of retelling colonial stories and "resignify(ing) colonial territories and pasts" (Siskind 834-5).Redfern Now was produced by Blackfella Films for the ABC. It was, with much fanfare, released as the first drama made for television, by Aboriginal people and about Aboriginal people (Blundell). The central concerns of the program are issues in the present, its plots and settings are entirely contemporary. In this way it circumvents the idea and standard representation of Indigenous Australians as ancient and timeless. It places the characters in the program very much in the present.However, one episode "Stand Up" does obliquely engage with historical concerns. In this episode a young boy, Joel Shields, gets a scholarship to an expensive private school. When he attends his first school assembly he does not sing the national anthem with the other students. This leads to a dispute with the school that forms the episode's plot. As punishment for not singing Joel is set an assignment to research the anthem, which he does and he finds the song off-putting – with the words 'boundless plains to share' particularly disconcerting. His father supports him saying "it's not our song" and compares Joel singing it to a "whitefella doing a corrobboree". The national anthem stands metaphorically for the white hegemony in Australia.The school itself is also a metaphor for hegemony. The camerawork lingers on the architecture which is intended to imply historical strength and imperviousness to challenge or change. The school stands for all the force of history white Australia can bring to bear, but in Australia, all architecture of this type is a lie, or at least an exaggeration – the school cannot be more than 200 years old and is probably much more recent.Many of the things the program says about history are conveyed in half sentences or single glances. Arguably this is because of its aesthetic mode – social realism – that prides itself on its mimicry of everyday life and in everyday life people are unlikely to set out arguments in organised dot-point form. At one point the English teacher quotes Orwell, "those who control the past control the future", which seems overt but it is stated off-screen as Joel walks into the room. This seeming aside is a statement about history and directly recalls central arguments of the history wars, which make strong political arguments about the effects of the past, and perceptions of the past, on the present and future. Despite its subtlety, this story takes place within the context of the history wars: it is about who controls the past. The subtlety of the discussion of history allows the film makers the freedom to comment on the content and effects of history and the history wars without appearing didactic. They discuss the how history has effected the present history without having to make explicit historical causes.The other recent television drama in the realist tradition is The Secret River. This was an adaptation of a novel by Kate Grenville. It deals with Aboriginal history from the perspective of white people, in this way it differs from Redfern Now which discusses the issues from the perspective of Aboriginal people. The plot concerns a man transported to Australia as a convict in the early 19th century. The man is later freed and, with his family, attempts to move to the Hawksbury river region. The land they try to settle is, of course, already in use by Aboriginal people. The show sets up the definitional conflict between the idea of settler and invader and suggests the difference between the two is a matter of perspective. Of the shows I am examining, it is the most direct in its representation of historical massacre and brutality. It represents what Felicity Collins described as a back-tracking text recapitulating the colonial past in the light of recovered knowledge. However, from an Indigenous perspective it is another settler tale implying Aboriginal people were wiped out at the time of colonisation (Godwin).The Secret River is told entirely from the perspective of the invaders. Even as it portrays their actions as wrong, it also suggests they were unavoidable or inevitable. Therefore it does what many western histories of Indigenous people do – it classifies and categorises. It sets limits on interpretation. It is also limited by its genre, as a straightforward historical drama and an adaptation, it can only tell its story in a certain way. The television series, like the book before it, prides itself on its 'accurate' rendition of an historical story. However, because it comes from such a very narrow perspective it falls into the trap of categorising histories that might have usefully been allowed to develop further.The program is based on a novel that attracted controversy of its own. It became part of ongoing historiographical debate about the relationship between fiction and history. The book's author Kate Grenville claimed to have written a kind of affectively accurate history that actual history can never convey because the emotions of the past are hidden from the present. The book was critiqued by historians including Inge Clendinnen, who argued that many of the claims made about its historical accuracy were largely overblown (Clendinnen). The book is not the same as the TV program, but the same limitations identified by Clendinnen are present in the television text. However, I would not agree with Clendinnen that formal history is any better. I argue that the limitation of both these mimetic genres can be escaped in speculative fiction.In Glitch, Yurana, a small town in rural Victoria becomes, for no apparent reason, the site of seven people rising from the dead. Each person is from a different historical period. None are Indigenous. They are not zombies but simply people who used to be dead. One of the first characters to appear in the series is an Aboriginal teenager, Beau, we see from his point of view the characters crawling from their graves. He becomes friendly with one of the risen characters, Patrick Fitzgerald, who had been the town's first mayor. At first Fitzgerald's story seems to be one of working class man made good in colonial Australia - a standard story of Australian myth and historiography. However, it emerges that Fitzgerald was in love with an Aboriginal woman called Kalinda and Beau is his descendant. Fitzgerald, once he becomes aware of how he has been remembered by history, decides to revise the history of the town – he wants to reclaim his property from his white descendants and give it to his Indigenous descendants. Over the course of the six episodes Fitzgerald moves from being represented as a violent, racist boor who had inexplicably become the town's mayor, to being a romantic whose racism was mostly a matter of vocabulary. Beau is important to the plot and he is a sympathetic character but he is not central and he is a child. Indigenous people in the past have no voice in this story – when flashbacks are shown they are silent, and in the present their voices are present but not privileged or central to the plot.The program demonstrates a profoundly metaphorical relationship with the past – the past has literally come to life bringing with it surprising buried histories. The program represents some dominant themes in Australian historiography – other formerly dead characters include a convict-turned-bush-ranger, a soldier who was at Gallipoli, two Italian migrants and a girl who died as a result of sexual violence – but it does not engage directly with Indigenous history. Indigenous people's stories are told only in relation to the stories of white people. The text's magical realism allows a less prescriptive relationship with the past than in The Secret River but it is still restricted in its point of view and allows only limited agency to Aboriginal actors.The text's magical realism allows for a thought-provoking representation of relationships with the past. The town of Yurana is represented as a place deeply committed to the representation and glorification of its past. Its main street contains statues of its white founders and war memorials, one of its main social institutions is the RSL, its library preserves relics of the past and its publican is a war history buff. All these indicate that the past is central to the town's identity. The risen dead however dispute and revise almost every aspect of this past. Even the history that is unmentioned in the town's apparent official discourse, such as the WWII internment camp and the history of crimes, is disputed by the different stories of the past that the risen dead have to tell. This indicates the uncertainty of the past, even when it seems literally set in stone it can still be revised. Nonetheless the history of Indigenous people is only revised in ways that re-engage with white history.Cleverman is a magical realist text profoundly based in allegory. The story concerns the emergence into a near future society of a group of people known as the "Hairies." It is never made clear where they came from or why but it seems they appeared recently and are unable to return. They are an allegory for refugees. Hairypeople are part of many Indigenous Australian stories, the show's creator, Ryan Griffen, stated that "there are different hairy stories throughout Australia and they differ in each country. You have some who are a tall, some are short, some are aggressive, some are friendly. We got to sort of pick which ones will fit for us and create the Hairies for our show" (Bizzaca).The Hairies are forced to live in an area called the Zone, which, prior to the arrival of the Hairy people, was a place where Aboriginal people lived. This place might be seen as a metaphor for Redfern but it is also an allegory for Australia's history of displacing Aboriginal people and moving and restricting them to missions and reserves. The Zone is becoming increasingly securitised and is also operating as a metaphor for Australia's immigration detention centres. The prison the Hairy characters, Djukura and Bunduu, are confined to is yet another metaphor, this time for both the over-representation of Aboriginal people in prison and the securitisation of immigration detention. These multiple allegorical movements place Australia's present refugee policies and historical treatment of Aboriginal people within the same lens. They also place the present, the past and the future within the same narrative space.Most of the cast is Aboriginal and much of the character interaction is between Aboriginal people and Hairies, with both groups played by Indigenous actors. The disadvantages suffered by Indigenous people are part of the story and clearly presented as affecting the behaviour of characters but within the story Aboriginal people are more advantaged than Hairies, as they have systems, relationships and structures that Hairy people lack. The fact that so much of the interaction in the story is between Indigenous people and Hairies is important: it can be seen to be an interaction between Aboriginal people and Aboriginal mythology or between Indigenous past and present. It demonstrates Aboriginal identities being created in relation to other Aboriginal identities and not in relation to white people, where in this narrative, Aboriginal people have an identity other than that allowed for in colonialist terms.Cleverman does not really engage with the history of white invasion. The character who speaks most about this part of Aboriginal history and whose stated understanding of himself is based on that identity is Waruu. But Waruu is also a villain whose self-identity is also presented as jealous and dishonest. However, despite only passing mentions of westernised history the show is deeply concerned with a relationship with the past. The program engages with Aboriginal traditions about the past that have nothing to do with white history. It presents a much longer view of history than that of white Australia. It engages with the Aboriginal tradition of the Cleverman - demonstrated in the character of Uncle Jimmy who passes a nulla nulla (knob-headed hardwood club), as a symbol of the past, to his nephew Koen and tells him he is the new Cleverman. Cleverman demonstrates a discussion of Australian history with the potential to ignore white people. It doesn't ignore them, it doesn't ignore the invasion but it presents the possibility that it could be ignored.There is a danger in this sort of representation of the past that Aboriginal people could be relegated to the type of ahistorical, metahistorical myths that comprise colonialist history's representation of Indigenous people (Birch). But Cleverman's magical realist, near future setting tends to undermine this. It grounds representation in history through text and metaphor and then expands the definition.The four programs have different relationships with the past but all of them engage with it. The programs are both restrained and freed by the genres they operate in. It is much easier to escape the bounds of formal history in the genre of magical realism and both Glitch and Cleverman do this but have significantly different ways of dealing with history. "Stand up" and The Secret River both operate within more formally realist structures. The Secret River gives us an emotional reading of the past and a very affective one. However, it cuts off avenues of interpretation by presenting a seemingly inevitable tragedy. Through use of metaphor and silence "Stand up" presents a much more productive relationship with the past – seeing it as an ongoing argument rather than a settled one. Glitch engages with the past as a topic that is not settled and that can therefore be changed whereas Cleverman expands our definition of past and understanding of the past through allegory.It is possible to draw further connections. Those stories created by Indigenous people do not engage with the specifics of traditional dominant Australian historiography. However, they work with the assumption that everyone already knows this historiography. They do not re-present the pain of the past, instead they deal with it in oblique terms with allegory. Whereas the programs made by non-Indigenous Australians are much more overt in their representation of the sins of the past, they overtly engage with the History Wars in specific historical arenas in which those wars were fought. The non-Indigenous shows align themselves with the revisionist view of history but they do so in a very different way than the Indigenous shows.ReferencesAnderson, Ian. "Introduction: The Aboriginal Critique of Colonial Knowing." Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians. Ed. Michele Grossman. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2003.Birch, Tony. "'Nothing Has Changed': The Making and Unmaking of Koori Culture." Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians. Ed. Michele Grossman. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2003.Bizzaca, Chris. "The World of Cleverman." Screen Australia 2016.Blundell, Graeme. "Redfern Now Delves into the Lives of Ordinary People." The Australian 26 Oct. 2013: News Review.Clark, Anna. History's Children: History Wars in the Classroom. Sydney: New South, 2008.Clendinnen, Inga. “The History Question: Who Owns the Past?” The Quarterly Essay. Melbourne: Black Inc., 2006.Collins, Felicity. "After Dispossession: Blackfella Films and the Politics of Radical Hope." The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Politics. Eds. Yannis Tzioumakis and Claire Molloy. New York: Routledge, 2016.Day, Mark. "Our Relations with the Past." Philosophia 36.4 (2008): 417-27.Ellis, John. Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty. London: I.B. Tauris, 2000.Froeyman, Anton. "The Ideal of Objectivity and the Public Role of the Historian: Some Lessons from the Historikerstreit and the History Wars." Rethinking History 20.2 (2016): 217-34.Godwin, Carisssa Lee. "Shedding the 'Victim Narrative' for Tales of Magic, Myth and Superhero Pride." The Conversation 2016.Lloyd, Christopher. "Historiographic Schools." A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography Ed. Tucker, Aviezer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. "Introduction: Resistance, Recovery and Revitalisation." Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians. Ed. Michele Grossman. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2003.———. "The White Man's Burden." Australian Feminist Studies 26.70 (2011): 413-31.Reynolds, Henry. The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of Australia. 2nd ed. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin Books, 1995.Siskind, Mariano. "Magical Realism." The Cambridge History of Postcolonial Literature. Vol. 2. Ed. Ato Quayson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 833-68.Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. London: Zed Books, 2012.Windschuttle, Keith. The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. Paddington, NSW: Macleay Press, 2002.
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Ellis, Katie. « Complicating a Rudimentary List of Characteristics : Communicating Disability with Down Syndrome Dolls ». M/C Journal 15, no 5 (12 octobre 2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.544.
Texte intégralRésumé :
Apparently some people upon coming across [Down Syndrome dolls] were offended. […] Still, it’s curious, and telling, what gives offense. Was it the shock of seeing a doll not modeled on the normative form that caused such offense? Or the assumption that any representation of Down Syndrome must naturally intend ridicule? Either way, it would seem that we might benefit from an examination of such reactions—especially as they relate to instances of the idealisation of the human form that dolls […] represent. (Faulkner) IntroductionWhen Joanne Faulkner describes public criticism of dolls designed to look like they have Down Syndrome, she draws attention to the need for an examination of the way discourses of disability are communicated. She calls, in particular, for an interrogation of people’s reactions to the disruption of the idealised human form that most dolls adopt. The case of Down Syndrome dolls is fascinating, yet critical discussion of these dolls from a disability or cultural studies perspective is conspicuously lacking. To address this lack, this paper draws upon theories of the cultural construction of disability, beauty, and normalcy (Garland-Thompson, Kumari Campbell, Wendell), to explore the way ideas about disability are communicated and circulated. The dominant discourse of disability is medical, where people are diagnosed or identified as disabled if they meet certain criteria, or lists of physical impairments. These lists have a tendency to subsume the disparate qualities of disability (Garland-Thompson) and remove people considered disabled from the social and cultural world in which they live (Snyder and Mitchell 377). While Down Syndrome dolls, produced by Downi Creations and Helga’s European Speciality Toys (HEST) in the US and Europe respectively, are reflective of such lists, they also perform the cultural function of increasing the visibility of disability in society. In addition, the companies distributing these dolls state that they are striving for greater inclusion of people with Down Syndrome (Collins, Parks). However, the effect of the dominance of medicalised discourses of disability can be seen in the public reaction to these dolls. This paper seeks also to bring an interrogation of disability into dialogue with a critical analysis of the discursive function of lists.The paper begins with a consideration of lists as they have been used to define disability and organise knowledge within medicine, and the impact this has had on the position of disability within society. In order to differentiate itself from medical discourses, the emerging social model also relied on lists during the 1980s and 1990s. However, these lists also decontextualised disability by ignoring certain factors for political advantage. The social model, like medicine, tended to ignore the diversity of humanity it was apparently arguing for (Snyder and Mitchell 377). The focus then shifts to the image of Down Syndrome dolls and the ensuing negative interpretation of them focusing, in particular, on reader comments following a Mail Online (Fisher) article. Although the dolls were debated across the blogosphere on a number of disability, special needs parenting, and Down Syndrome specific blogs, people commenting on The Mail Online—a UK based conservative tabloid newspaper—offer useful insights into communication and meaning making around disability. People establish meanings about disability through communication (Hedlund 766). While cultural responses to disability are influenced by a number of paradigms of interpretation such as superstition, religion, and fear, this paper is concerned with the rejection of bodies that do not ascribe to cultural standards of beauty and seeks to explore this paradigm alongside and within the use of lists by the various models of disability. This paper interrogates the use of lists in the way meanings about disability are communicated through the medical diagnostic list, the Down Syndrome dolls, and reactions to them. Each list reduces the disparate qualities and experiences of disability, yet as a cultural artefact, these dolls go some way towards recognising the social and cultural world that medicalised discourses of disability ignore. Drawing on the use of lists within different frameworks of disability, this paper contrasts the individual, or medical, model of disability (that being disabled is a personal problem) with the social model (that exclusion due to disability is social oppression). Secondly, the paper compares the characteristics of Down Syndrome dolls with actual characteristics of Down Syndrome to conclude that these features aim to be a celebrated, not stigmatised, aspect of the doll. By reasserting alternative notions of the body, the dolls point towards a more diverse society where disability can be understood in relation to social oppression. However, these aims of celebration have not automatically translated to a more diverse understanding. This paper aims to complicate perceptions of disability beyond a rudimentary list of characteristics through a consideration of the negative public response to these dolls. These responses are an example of the cultural subjugation of disability.Lists and the Creation of Normative Cultural ValuesFor Robert Belknap, lists are the dominant way of “organizing data relevant to human functioning” (8). While lists are used in a number of ways and for a variety of purposes, Belknap divides lists into two categories—the practical and the literary. Practical lists store meanings, while literary lists create them (89). Belknap’s recognition of the importance of meaning making is particularly relevant to a cultural interrogation of disability. As Mitchell and Snyder comment:Disability’s representational “fate” is not so much dependant upon a tradition of negative portrayals as it is tethered to inciting the act of meaning-making itself. (6)Disability unites disparate groups of people whose only commonality is that they are considered “abnormal” (Garland-Thompson). Ableism—the beliefs, processes, and practices which produce the ideal body—is a cultural project in which normative values are created in an attempt to neutralise the fact that all bodies are out of control (Kumari Campbell). Medical models use diagnostic lists and criteria to remove bodies from their social and cultural context and enforce an unequal power dynamic (Snyder and Mitchell 377).By comparison, the social model of disability shifts the emphasis to situate disability in social and cultural practices (Goggin and Newell 36). Lists have also been integral to the formation of the social model of disability as theorists established binary oppositions between medical and social understandings of disability (Oliver 22). While these lists have no “essential meaning,” through discourse they shape human experience (Liggett). Lists bring disparate items together to structure meaning and organisation. According to Hedlund, insights into the experience of disability—which is neither wholly medical nor wholly social—can be found in the language we use to communicate ideas about disability (766). For example, while the recent production of children’s dolls designed to reflect a list of the physical features of Down Syndrome (Table 2) may have no inherent meaning, negative public reception reveals recognisable modes of understanding disability. Down Syndrome dolls are in stark contrast to dolls popularly available which assume a normative representation. For Blair and Shalmon (15), popular children’s toys communicate cultural standards of beauty. Naomi Wolf describes beauty as a socially constructed normative value used to disempower women in particular. The idealisation of the human form is an aspect of children’s toys that has been criticised for perpetuating a narrow conception of beauty (Levy 189). Disability is likewise subject to social construction and is part of a collective social reality beyond diagnostic lists (Hedlund 766).Organising Knowledge: The Social vs. Medical Model of DisabilityDisability has long been moored in medical cultures and institutions which emphasise a sterile ideal of the body based on a diagnosis of biological difference as deviance. For example, in 1866, John Langdon Down sought to provide a diagnostic classification system for people with, what would later come to be called (after him), Down Syndrome. He focused on physical features:The hair is […] of a brownish colour, straight and scanty. The face is flat and broad, and destitute of prominence. The cheeks are roundish, and extended laterally. The eyes are obliquely placed, and the internal canthi more than normally distant from one another. The palpebral fissure is very narrow. The forehead is wrinkled transversely from the constant assistance which the levatores palpebrarum derive from the occipito-frontalis muscle in the opening of the eyes. The lips are large and thick with transverse fissures. The tongue is long, thick, and is much roughened. The nose is small. The skin has a slight dirty yellowish tinge, and is deficient in elasticity, giving the appearance of being too large for the body. (Down)These features form what Belknap would describe as a “pragmatic” list (12). For Belknap, scientific classification, such as the description Langdon Down offers above, introduces precision and validation to the use of lists (167). The overt principle linking these disparate characteristics together is the normative body from which these features deviate. Medicalised discourses, such as Down’s list, have been linked with the institutionalisation of people with this condition and their exclusion from the broader community (Hickey-Moody 23). Such emphasis on criteria to proffer diagnosis removes and decontextualises bodies from the world in which they live (Snyder and Mitchell 370). This world may in fact be the disabling factor, rather than the person’s body. The social model emerged in direct opposition to medicalised definitions of disability as a number of activists with disabilities in the United Kingdom formed The Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) and concluded that people with disability are disabled not by their bodies but by a world structured to exclude their bodies (Finkelstein 13). By separating disability (socially created) from impairment (the body), disability is understood as society’s unwillingness to accommodate the needs of people with impairments. The British academic and disability activist Michael Oliver was central to the establishment of the social model of disability. Following the activities of the UPIAS, Oliver (re)defined disability as a “form of social oppression,” and created two lists (reproduced below) to distinguish between the social and individual (or medical) models of disability. By utilising the list form in this way, Oliver both provided a repository of information regarding the social model of disability and contextualised it in direct opposition to what he describes as the individual model. These lists present the social model as a coherent discipline, in an easy to understand format. As Belknap argues, the suggestion of order is a major tool of the list (98). Oliver’s list suggests a clear order to the emerging social model of disability—disability is a problem with society, not an individual. However, this list was problematic because it appeared to disregard impairment within the experience of disability. As the “impersonal became political” (Snyder and Mitchell 377), impairment became the unacknowledged ambiguity in the binary opposition the social model was attempting to create (Shakespeare 35). Nevertheless, Oliver’s lists successfully enforced a desired order to the social model of disability. The individual modelThe social modelPersonal tragedy theorySocial oppression theoryPersonal problemSocial problemIndividual treatmentSocial actionMedicalisationSelf helpProfessional dominanceIndividual and collective responsibilityExpertiseExperienceAdjustmentAffirmationIndividual identityCollective identityPrejudiceDiscriminationAttitudesBehaviourCareRightsControlChoicePolicyPoliticsIndividual adaptation Social changeTable 1 The Individual v Social Model of Disability (Oliver)The social model then went through a period of “lists,” especially when discussing media and culture. Positive versus negative portrayals of disability were identified and scholars listed strategies for the appropriate representation of disability (Barnes, Barnes Mercer and Shakespeare). The representations of impairment or the physical markers of disability were discouraged as the discipline concerned itself with establishing disability as a political struggle against a disabling social world. Oliver’s lists arrange certain “facts” about disability. Disability is framed as a social phenomenon where certain aspects are emphasised and others left out. While Oliver explains that these lists were intended to represent extreme ends of a continuum to illustrate the distinction between disability and impairment (33), these are not mutually exclusive categories (Shakespeare 35). Disability is not simply a list of physical features, nor is it a clear distinction between individual/medical and social models. By utilising lists, the social model reacts to and attempts to move beyond the particular ordering provided by the medical model, but remains tied to a system of classification that imposes order on human functioning. Critical analysis of the representation of disability must re-engage the body by moving beyond binaries and pragmatic lists. While lists organise data central to human functioning, systems of meaning shape the organisation of human experience. Down Syndrome dolls, explored in the next section, complicate the distinction between the medical and social models.Down Syndrome DollsThese dolls are based on composites of a number of children with Down Syndrome (Hareyan). Helga Parks, CEO of HEST, describes the dolls as a realistic representation of nine physical features of Down Syndrome. Likewise, Donna Moore of Downi Creations employed a designer to oversee the production of the dolls which boast 13 features of Down Syndrome (Velasquez). These features are listed in the table below. HEST Down Syndrome Dolls Downi CreationsSmall ears set low on head with a fold at the topSmall ears with a fold at the topEars set low on the headSmall mouthSmall mouthProtruding tongueSlightly protruding tongueShortened fingers Shortened fingersPinkie finger curves inwardAlmond shaped eyesAlmond-shaped eyesHorizontal crease in palm of handHorizontal crease in palm of handGap between first and second toeA gap between the first and second toesShortened toesFlattened back of headFlattened back of headFlattened bridge across nose Flattened bridge across noseOptional: An incision in the chest to indicate open-heart surgery Table 2: Down Syndrome Dolls (Parks, Velasquez) Achieving the physical features of Down Syndrome is significant because Parks and Moore wanted children with the condition to recognise themselves:When a child with Down’s syndrome [sic.] picks up a regular doll, he doesn’t see himself, he sees the world’s perception of “perfect.” Our society is so focused on bodily perfection. (Cresswell)Despite these motivations, studies show that children with Down Syndrome prefer to play with “typical dolls” that do not reflect the physical characteristics of Down Syndrome (Cafferty 49). According to Cafferty, it is possible that children prefer typical dolls because they are “more attractive” (49). Similar studies of diverse groups of children have shown that children prefer to play with dolls they perceive as fitting into social concepts of beauty (Abbasi). Deeply embedded cultural notions of beauty—which exclude disability (see Morris)—are communicated from childhood (Blair & Shalmon 15). Notions of bodily perfection dominate children’s toys and Western culture in general as Cresswell comments above. Many bodies, not just those deemed “disabled,” do not conform to these cultural standards. Cultural ideals of beauty and an idealisation of the human body according to increasingly narrow parameters are becoming conflated with conceptions of normality (Wendell 86). Recognition of disability as subject to cultural rejection allows us to see “beauty and normalcy [as] a series of practices and positions [taken] in order to avoid the stigmatization of ugliness and abnormality” (Garland-Thompson). The exaggerated features of the doll problematise the idea that people with disability should strive to appear as nondisabled as possible and in turn highlights that some people, such as those with Down Syndrome, cannot “pass” as nondisabled and must therefore navigate a life and community that is not welcoming. While lists of the features of Down Syndrome store associated medicalised meanings, the discussion of the dolls online (the medium through which they are sold) provides insight into the cultural interpretation of disability and the way meaning is made. The next section of the paper considers a selection of negative responses to the Down Syndrome dolls that followed an article published in Mail Online (Fisher). What Causes Offence? Prior to Down Syndrome dolls, the majority of “disability dolls” were constructed through their accessories rather than through the dolls’ physical form and features. Wheelchairs, white canes, guide dogs and harnesses, plastic walkers, leg braces, and hearing aids could be purchased for use with dolls. Down Syndrome dolls look different as the features of impairment are embedded in the dolls’ construction. While accessories have a more temporary feel about them, the permanence of the impairments attributed to the doll was problematic for some who felt it projected a negative image of disability. Listed below are several negative comments following an article published in Mail Online (Fisher):What a grim world we are living in. No longer are dollies for play, for make believe, or for fun. Now it all about self image and psychological “help.” We “disabled” know we are “disabled”—we don’t need a doll to remind us of that! Stop making everything PC; let children be children and play and laugh once again!I think it’s sick and patronising.Who on earth are those education “experts?” Has nobody told them that you don’t educate children by mirroring their defects/weaknesses/negative traits but by doing exactly the opposite, mirroring back the BEST in them?The Downs Syndrome doll looks like they took the physical traits and presented them in an exaggerated way to make them more noticeable. That doll does not look attractive to me at all. If someone has a child that WANTS such a doll, fine. I can’t really see how it would help many of them, it would be like a huge sign saying “You are different.”The terminology used (grim, sick, patronising, defect, weak, negative, unattractive, different) to describe disability in these posts is significant. These descriptions are ideological categories which disadvantage and devalue “bodies that do not conform to certain cultural standards” (Garland-Thompson). Implicit and explicit in all of these comments is the sense that disability and Downs Syndrome in particular is undesirable, unattractive even. When listed together, like Belknap’s literary lists, they are not random or isolated interpretations; they form part of a larger system of meaning making around disability.These responses are informed by the notion that in order to gain equality in society, people with disability must suppress their difference and focus instead on how they are really just like everybody else. However, this focus ignores barriers to inclusion, such as in the rejection of bodies that do not ascribe to cultural standards of beauty. An increasing visibility of impairment in popular culture such as children’s toys advances an understanding of disability as diversity through difference and not something inherently bad. ConclusionPeter Laudin of Pattycake Doll, a company which sells Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Disabled dolls, has found that children “love all dolls unconditionally whether it’s special needs or not” (Lee Adam). He suggests that the majority of the negative responses to the Down Syndrome dolls stem from prejudice (Lee Adam). Dolls popularly available idealise the human form and assume a normative representation. While this has been criticised for communicating damaging standards of beauty from childhood (Levy, Blair and Shalmon), critiques about disability are not as widely understood. The social and medical models of disability focus attention on certain aspects of disability through lists; however, the reduction of diagnostic criteria in the form of a list (whether medical or social) decontextualises disability from the social and cultural world. Thus, the list form, while useful, has elided the disparate qualities of disability. As Belknap argues, lists “ask us to make them meaningful” (xv). Although the dolls discussed in this paper have been criticised for stereotyping and emphasising the difference between children with disability and those without, an inclusion of the physical features of Down Syndrome is consistent with recent moves within critical disability studies to re-engage the body (Shakespeare 35). As Faulkner notes in the epigraph to this paper, an examination of negative reactions to these dolls reveals much about the cultural position of people with disability. References Abbasi, Jennifer. “Why 6-Year Old Girls Want to be Sexy.” Live Science 16 July (2012). 30 Aug. 2012 ‹http://www.livescience.com/21609-self-sexualization-young-girls.html›. Barnes, Colin. Disabling Imagery and the Media: An Exploration of the Principles for Media Representations of Disabled People. Krumlin Halifax: Ryburn Publishing, 1992. 5 Aug. 2012 http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Barnes/disabling%20imagery.pdf.Barnes, Colin, Geoff Mercer, and Tom Shakespeare. Exploring Disability: A Sociological Introduction. Malden: Polity Press, 1999.Belknap, Robert. The List: The Uses and Pleasures of Cataloguing. New Haven: Yale U P, 2004.Blair, Lorrie, and Maya Shalmon. “Cosmetic Surgery and the Cultural Construction of Beauty.” Art Education 58.3 (2005): 14-18.Cafferty, Diana De Rosa. A Doll Like Me: Do Children with Down Syndrome Prefer to Play with Dolls That Have the Physical Features Associated with Down Syndrome? MS thesis. U of California, 2012. Campbell, Fiona Kumari. Contours of Ableism: The Production of Disability and Abledness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.Collins, Allyson. “Dolls with Down Syndrome May Help Kids.” ABC News. 27 Jun. 2008. 4 Oct. 2012 ‹http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/story?id=5255393&page=1#.UGzQXK6T-XP›. Cresswell, Adam. “Dolls with Disability Divide Opinion.” The Australian 12 Jul. 2008. 26 Dec. 2008 ‹http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24000338-23289,00.html›.Down, John Langdon. “Observations on an Ethnic Classification of Idiots.” Neonatology on the Web. 1866. 3 Aug. 2012 ‹http://www.neonatology.org/classics/down.html›.Faulkner, Joanne “Disability Dolls.” What Sorts of People? 26 Jun. 2008. 29 Aug. 2012 ‹http://whatsortsofpeople.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/disability-dolls/›.Finkelstein, Vic. “Representing Disability.” Disabling Barriers—Enabling Environments. Ed. John Swain, et al. Los Angeles: Sage, 2004. 13-20.Fisher, Lorraine. “Parents’ Fury at ‘Down's Syndrome Dolls’ Designed to Help Children Deal with Disability.” Mail Online 7 Jul. 2008. 26 Dec. 2008. ‹http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1032600/Parents-fury-Downs-Syndrome-dolls-designed-help-children-deal-disability.html›. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Re-Shaping, Re-Thinking, Re-Defining: Feminist Disability Studies.” The Free Library 1 Jan. 2008. 3 Aug. 2012. ‹http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Re-shaping, Re-thinking, Re-defining: Feminist Disability Studies.-a084377500›.Goggin, Gerard and Christopher Newell. Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid. Sydney: U of New South Wales, 2005.Hareyan, Armen. “Using Dolls to Reduce the Stigma of Down Syndrome.” EMax Health. 4 Dec. 2008. Jan 2009 ‹http://www.emaxhealth.com/7/22865.html›.Hedlund, Marianne. “Disability as a Phenomenon: A Discourse of Social and Biological Understanding.” Disability & Society. 15.5 (2000): 765-80.Hickey-Moody, Anna. Unimaginable Bodies. Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2009.Lee Adams, William. “New Dolls on the Block.” Time Magazine 19 Mar. 2009. 13 Dec. 2009. ‹http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886457,00.html›.Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Collingwood: Black Inc. 2010.Liggett, Helen. “Stars are not Born: An Interpretive Approach to the Politics of Disability” in Disability Studies: Past Present and Future. Ed. Len Barton and Mike Oliver. Leeds: The Disability Press, 1997. 178-194.Mitchell, David and Sharon Snyder. Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse. Ann Arbor, The U of Michigan P, 2000.Morris, Jenny “A Feminist Perspective.” Framed. Ed. Ann Pointon & Chris Davies. London: British Film Institute, 1997. 21-30. Oliver, Michael. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996.Parks, Helga. “New Doll Is Child’s Best Friend.” HEST Press Release, 2005. Shakespeare, Tom. Disability Rights and Wrongs. London: Routledge, 2006.Snyder, Sharon, and David Mitchell. “Re-Engaging the Body: Disability Studes and the Resistance to Embodiment.” Public Culture 13.3 (2001): 367-89.Velasquez, Leticia. “Downi Creations.” 2007. 4 Dec. 2009. ‹http://cause-of-our-joy.blogspot.com/2007/08/downi-creations.html›.Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York: Routledge, 1996.Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002 [1991].
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Poletti, Anna, et Julie Rak. « “We’re All Born Naked and the Rest Is” Mediation : Drag as Automediality ». M/C Journal 21, no 2 (25 avril 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1387.
Texte intégralRésumé :
This essay originates out of our shared interest in genres and media forms used for identity practices that do not cohere into a narrative or a fixed representation of who someone is. It takes the current heightened visibility of drag as a mode of performance that explicitly engages with identity as a product materialized—but not completed—by the ongoing process of performance. We consider the new drag, which we define below, as a form of playing with identity that combines bodily practices (comportment and use of voice) and adornment (make-up, clothing, wigs, and accessories) with an array of media (photography, live performance, social media and television). Given the limited space available, we will not be engaging with the propositions made during earlier feminist and queer thinking that drag is not inherently subversive and may reinscribe gender and race norms through their hyperbolic recitation (Butler 230-37; hooks 145-56). While we think there is much to be gained from revisiting these critiques in light of the changes in conceptualisations of gender in queer subcultures, we are not interested in framing drag as subversive or resistant in relation to the norms of masculinity and femininity. Instead, we follow Eve Sedgwick’s interest in reparative practices adopted by queer-identified subjects who must learn to survive in a hostile culture (“Paranoid”) and trace two lines of analysis we identify in drag’s new found visibility that demonstrate the reparative potential of automedia.At time of writing, RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) has truly hit the big time. Pop icon Christina Aguilera was a guest judge for the first episode of its tenth season (Daw “Christina”), and the latest episode of RuPaul’s All-Stars season three spin-off show was the most-watched of any show in its network’s history (Crowley). RuPaul Charles, the producer and star of RPDR, has just been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, decades after he began his career as a drag performer (Daw “RuPaul”). Drag queens are finally becoming part of American mainstream media and drag as an art form and a cultural practice is on its way to becoming part of discourse about gender and identity around the world, via powerful systems of digital mediation and distribution. RPDR’s success is a good way to think about how drag, a long-standing performance art form, is having a “break out” moment in popular culture. We argue here that RPDR is doing this within an automedia framework.What does automedia mean in the context of drag on television and social media? We understand automedia to be about the mediation of identity when identity is both a product of representation and a process that is continually becoming, expressed in the double meaning of the word “life” as biography and as process (Poletti “Queer Collages” 362; Poletti and Rak 6-7). In this essay we build on our shared interest in developing a critical mode that can respond to forms of automedia that explore “the possibility of identity in the absence of narration” (Rak 172). What might artists who work with predominantly non-narrative forms such as drag performance show us about the ongoing interconnection between technologies and subjectivities as they represent and think through what “life” looks like, on stage and off?Automedia names life as a process and a product that has the potential to queer temporality and normative forms of identification, what Jack Halberstam has called “queer time” (1). We understand Halberstam’s evocation of queer time as suitable for being thought through automedia because of their characterisation of queer as “a form of self-description in the past decade or so … [that] has the potential to open up new life narratives and alternative relations to time and space” (2). Queer time, Halberstam explains, comes from the collapse of the past and shaky relation to futurity gay men experienced during the height of the American AIDs crisis, but they also see queer time, significantly, as exceeding the terms of its arrival. Queer time could be about the “potentiality of a life unscripted by the conventions of family, inheritance, and child rearing” (2). Queer time, then, evokes the possibility of making a life narrative that does not have to follow a straight line or stay “on script,” and does not have to feature conventional milestones or touchstones in its unfolding. If queer time can be thought alongside automedia, within drag performances that are not about straight lives, narrative histories and straight time can come into view.Much has been written about drag as a performance that creates a public, for example, as part of a queer world-building project that shoots unpredictably through spaces beyond performance locations (Berlant and Warner 558). Halberstam’s shift to thinking of queer time as an opening of new life narratives and a different relation to time has similar potential when considering the work of RPDR as automedia, because the shift of drag performance away from clubs, parades and other queer spaces to television and the internet is accompanied by a concern, manifested in the work of RuPaul himself, with drag history and the management of drag memory. We argue that a concern with the relationship between time and identity in RPDR is an attempt to open up, through digital networked media, a queer understanding of time that is in relation to drag of the past, but not always in a linear way. The performances of season nine winner Sasha Velour, and Velour’s own preoccupation with drag history in her performances and art projects, is an indicator of the importance of connecting the twin senses of “life” as process and product found in automedia to performance and narration.The current visibility of drag in popular culture is characterised by a shifting relationship between drag and media: what was once a location-based, temporally specific form of performance which occurred in bars, has been radically changed through the increased contact between the media forms of performance, television and social media. While local drag queens are often the celebrities (or “superstars”) of their local subcultural scene, reality television (in the form of RPDR) and social media (particularly Instagram) have radically increased the visibility of some drag queens, turning them into international celebrities with hundreds of thousands of fans. These queens now speak to audiences far beyond their local communities, and to audiences who may not have any knowledge of the queer subcultures that have nurtured generations of drag performers. Under the auspices of RPDR, drag queens have gained a level of cultural visibility that produces fascinating, and complex, encounters between subcultural identity practices and mainstream media tropes. Amongst her many tasks—being fierce, flawless, hilarious, and able to turn out a consummate lip sync performance—the newly visible drag queen is also a teacher. Enacting RuPaul’s theory of identity from his song title—“We’re all born naked and the rest is drag” (“Born”)—drag queens who in some way embody or make use of RuPaul’s ideas have the potential to advance a queer perspective on identity as a process in keeping with Judith Butler’s influential theory of identity performativity (Butler 7-16). In so doing they can provide fresh insights into the social function of media platforms and their genres in the context of queer lives. They are what we call “new” drag queens, because of their access to technology and digital forms of image distribution. They can refer to classic drag queen performance culture, and they make use of classic drag performance as a genre, but their transnational media presence and access to more recent forms of identification to describe themselves, such as trans, genderqueer or nonbinary, mark their identity presentations and performance presences as a departure from other forms of drag.While there is clearly a lot to be said about drag’s “break out,” in this essay we focus on two elements of the “new media” drag that we think speak directly, and productively, to the larger question of how cultural critics can understand the connection between identity and mediation as mutually emergent phenomena. As a particularly striking practitioner of automediality, the new drag queen draws our attention to the way that drag performance is an automedial practice that creates “queer time” (Halberstam), making use of the changing status of camp as a practice for constructing, and mediating identity. In what follows we examine the statements about drag and the autobiographical statements presented by RuPaul Charles and Sasha Velour (the winner of RPDR Season Nine) to demonstrate automediality as a powerful practice for queer world-making and living.No One Ever Wins Snatch Game: RuPaul and TimeAs we have observed at the opening of this essay, queer time is an oppositional practice, a refusal of those who belong to queer communities to fall into step with straight ideas about history, futurity, reproduction and the heteronormative idea of family, and a way to understand how communities mark occasions, conceptualize the history and traditions of subcultures. Queer time has the potential to rethink daily living and history differently and to tell accounts of lives in a different way, to “open up new life narratives,” as Halberstam says (2). RuPaul Charles’s own life story could be understood as a way to open up new life narratives literally by constructing what a queer life and career could mean in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. His 1995 memoir, Lettin It All Hang Out, details RuPaul’s early career in 1980s Atlanta, Georgia and in New York as an often-difficult search for what would make him a star. RuPaul did not at first conceptualize himself as a drag star, but as a punk musician in Atlanta and then as part of the New York Club Kid community, which developed when New York clubs were in danger of closing because of fear of the AIDS epidemic (Flynn). RuPaul became adept at self-promotion and image-building while he was part of these rebellious punk and dance club subcultures that refused gender and lifestyle norms (Lettin 62-5). It might seem to be an unusual beginning for a drag star, but as RuPaul writes, “I always knew I was going to be star [but] I never thought it was going to be as a drag queen” (Lettin 64). There was no narrative of mainstream success that RuPaul—a gay, gender non-binary African-American man from the American Midwest—could follow.Since he was a drag performer too, RuPaul eventually “had an epiphany. Why couldn’t I [he] become a mainstream pop star in drag? Who said it couldn’t be done?” (Workin’ It 159). And he decided that rather than look for a model of success to follow, he would queer the mainstream model for success. As he observes, “I looked around at my favorite stars and realized that they were drag queens too. In fact every celebrity is a drag queen” (Lettin 129). Proceeding from the idea that all people are in fact drag artists—the source of RuPaul’s aformentioned catch-phrase and song title “We’re all born naked and the rest is drag” (“Born”), RuPaul moved the show business trajectory into queer time, making the “formula” for success the labour required of drag queens to create personae, entertain, promote themselves and make a successful living (and a life) in dangerous work environments—a process presented in his song “Supermodel” and its widely-cited lyric “You better work!” (“Supermodel”). The video for “Supermodel” shows RuPaul in his persona as Supermodel of the World, “working” as a performer and a member of the public in New York to underscore the different kinds of labour that is involved, and that this labour is necessary for anyone to become successful (“Supermodel” video).When RuPaul’s Drag Race began in 2010, RuPaul modelled the challenges in the show on his own career in an instance of automedia, where the non-narrative aspects of drag performance and contest challenges were connected to the performance of RuPaul’s own story. According to one of RuPaul’s friends who produces the show: “The first season, all the challenges were ‘Ru did this, so you did this.’ It was Ru’s philosophy” (Snetiker). As someone who was without models for success, RuPaul intends for RPDR to provide a model for others to follow. The goal of the show is the replication of RuPaul’s own career trajectory: the winners of RPDR are each crowned “America’s Next Drag Superstar,” because they have successfully learned from RuPaul’s own experiences so that they too can develop their careers as drag artists. This pattern has persisted on RPDR, where the contestants are often asked to participate in challenges that reflect RuPaul’s own struggles to become a star as a way to “train” them to develop their careers. Contestants have, like RuPaul himself, starred in low-budget films, played in a punk band, marketed their own perfume, commemorated the work of the New York Club Kids, and even planned the design and marketing of their own memoirs.RPDR contestants are also expected to know popular culture of the past and present, and they are judged on how well they understand their own “herstory” of the drag communities and queer culture. Snatch Game, a popular segment where contestants have to impersonate celebrities on a queer version of the Match Game series, is a double test. To succeed, contestants must understand how to impersonate celebrities past and present within a camp aesthetic. But the segment also tests how well drag queens understand the genre of game show television, a genre that no longer exists on television (except in the form of Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy), and that many of the RPDR contestants are not old enough to have seen, performing witty taglines and off-the-cuff jokes they hope will land in a very tight time frame. Sasha Velour, the winner of season nine, won praise for her work in the Snatch Game segment in episode six because, acting on advice from RuPaul, she played Marlene Dietrich and not her first choice, queer theorist Judith Butler (RuPaul’s). Sasha Velour was able to make Dietrich, a queer icon known for her film work in the 1920-1940s, humorous in the game show context, showing that she understands queer history, and that she is a skilful impersonator who understands how to navigate a genre that is part of RuPaul’s own life story. The queer time of RuPaul’s narrative is transmitted to a skill set future drag stars need to use: a narrative of a life becomes part of performance. RPDR is, in this sense, automedia in action as queens make their personae “live,” perform part of RuPaul’s “life” story, and get to “live” on the show for another week if they are successful. The point of Snatch Game is how well a queen can perform, how good she is at entertaining and educating audiences, and how well she deals with an archaic genre, that of the television game show. No one ever “wins” Snatch Game because that is not the point of it. But those who win the Snatch Game challenge often go on to win RPDR, because they have demonstrated improvisational skill, comic timing, knowledge of RuPaul’s own life narrative touchstones and entertained the audience.Performative Agency: The Drag Performance as Resource for Queer LivingVelour’s embodied performance in the Snatch Game of the love and knowledge of popular culture associated with camp, and its importance to the art of drag, highlights the multifaceted use of media as a resource for identity practices that characterizes drag as a form of automedia. Crucially, it exemplifies the complex way that media forms are heavily cited and replayed in new combinations in order to say something real about the ways of living of a specific artist or person. Sasha Velour’s impersonation of Dietrich is not one in which Velour’s persona disappears: indeed, she is highly commended by RuPaul, and fans, because her embodiment of Dietrich in the anachronous media environment of the Snatch Game works to further Velour’s unique persona and skill as a drag artist. Velour queers time with her Dietrich in order to demonstrate her unique sensibility and identity. Thus, reality TV, silent film, cabaret, improvisation and visual presentation are brought together in an embodied performance that advances Velour’s specific form of drag and is taken as a strong marker of who Sasha Velour is.But what exactly is Sasha Velour doing when she clarifies her identity by dressing as Marlene Dietrich and improvises the diva’s answers to questions on a game show? This element of drag is clearly connected to the aesthetics of camp that have a long tradition in gay and queer culture. Original theories of camp theorized it as a practice of taste and interpretation (Sontag)—camp described a relationship to the objects of popular culture that was subversive because it celebrated the artificiality of aesthetic forms, and was therefore ironizing. However, this understanding of camp does not adequately describe its role in postmodern culture or how some queer subcultures cultivate the use media forms for identity practices (O’Neill 21). In her re-casting of camp, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argues:we need to [think of camp] not in terms of parody or even wit, but with more of an eye of its visceral, operatic power: the startling outcrops of overinvested erudition; the prodigal production of alternative histories; the ‘over’-attachment to fragmentary, marginal, waste, lost, or leftover cultural products; the richness of affective variety; and the irrepressible, cathartic fascination with ventriloquist forms of relation. (Sedgwick The Weather 66)This reframing of camp emphasises affect, attachment and forms of relation as ongoing processes for the making of queer life (a process), rather than as elements of queer identity (a product). For Sedgwick camp is a practice or process that mediates queerness in the context of a hostile mainstream media culture that does not connect queer ways of living with flourishing or positive outcomes (Sedgwick “Paranoid Reading” 28). In O’Neill’s account, camp does not involve attachment to the diva as a fixed identity whose characteristics can be adopted in irony or impersonation in which the individual disappears (16). Rather, it is the diva’s labour—her way of marshalling her talent to produce compelling performances, which come to be the hallmark of her career and identity—that is the site of queer identification. What RuPaul wittily refers to as a drag queen’s “charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent” (the acronym is important), O’Neill refers to as the diva’s “performative agency”—the primary “power to perform” (16, emphasis in original). This is the positive power of camp as form of automediation for queer world making: media forms provide resources that queer subjects can draw on in assembling a performance of identity as modes of embodiment and ways of being that can be cited (the specific posture of Dietrich, for example, which Velour mimics) and in terms of the affect required to marshal the performance itself.When she was crowned the winner of season nine of RPDR, Sasha Velour emphasised the drag queen’s performative agency itself as a resource for queer identity practices. After being announced the winner, Velour said: “Let’s change shit up. Let’s get all inspired by all this beauty, all this beauty, and change the motherfucking world” (Queentheban). This narrative of the world-changing power of the beauty of drag refers to the visibility of the new drag queens, who through television and social media now have thousands of fans across the world. Yet, this narrative of the collective potential of drag is accompanied by Velour presenting her own autobiographical narrative that posits drag as an automedial practice whose “richness of affective variety” has been central to her coming to terms with the death of her mother from cancer. In interviews and in her magazine about drag (Velour: The Drag Magazine) Velour narrates the evolution of her drag and her identity as a “bald queen” whose signature look includes a clean-shaven head which is often unadorned or revealed in her performances as directly linked to her mother’s baldness brought on by treatment for cancer (WBUR).In an autobiographical photo-essay titled “Gone” published in Velour, Velour poses in a series of eight photographs which are accompanied by handwritten text reflecting on the role of drag in Velour’s grieving for her mother. In the introduction, the viewer is told that the “books and clothes” used in the photos belonged to Velour’s mother, Jane. The penultimate image shows Velour lying on grass in drag without a wig, looking up at the camera and is accompanied by nineteen statements elucidating what drag is, all of which are in keeping with Sedgwick’s reframing of camp practices as reparative strategies for queer lives: “Drag is for danger / Drag is for safety / Drag is for remembering / Drag is for recovering.” Affect, catharsis, and operatic power are narrated and visually rendered in the photo-essay, presenting drag as a highly personal form of automediation for Velour. The twentieth line defining drag appears on the final page, accompanied by a photograph of Velour from behind, her arms thrown back and tensile: “Drag is for dressing up / And this is my mother’s dress.”Taken together, Velour’s generic and highly personal descriptions of drag as a process and product that empowers individual and collective queer lives define drag as a form of automedia in which identity and living are a constant process of creativity and invention “where ideas about the self and what it means to live are tested, played with, rejected, and embraced” (Rak 177).Velour’s public statements and autobiographical works foreground how the power, investment, richness and catharsis encapsulated in drag performance offers an important antidote to the hostility to queer ways of being embodied by an assimilationist gay politics. In a recent interview, Velour commented on the increased visibility of her drag beyond her localised performances in “dive bars” in New York:When Drag Race came on television I feel like the gay community in general was focussed on […] dare I say, a kind of assimilation politics, showing straight people and the world at large that we are just like everyone else and I think drag offered a radical different saying [sic] and reminded people that there’s been this grand tradition of queer people and gay people saying ‘actually we’re fabulously different and this is why.’ (PopBuzz)Velour suggests that in its newly visible forms outside localised queer cultures, drag as a media spectacle offers an important alternative to the pressure for queer people to assimilate to dominant forms of living, those practices, forms of attachment and relation Halberstam associates with straight time.ConclusionThe queer time and performative agency enacted in drag provides a compelling example of non-narrative forms of identity work in which identity is continuously emerging through labour, innovation, and creativity (or—in RuPaul’s formulation—charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent). This creativity draws on popular culture as a resource and site of history for queer identities, an evocation of queer time. The queer time of drag as a performance genre has an increasing presence in media forms such as television, social media and print media, bringing autobiographical performances and narratives by drag artists into new venues. This multiple remediation of drag recasts queer cultural practices beyond localised subcultural contexts into the broader media cultures in order to amplify and celebrate queerness as a form of difference, and differing, as automediality.ReferencesBerlant, Lauren, and Michael Warner. “Sex in Public.” Critical Inquiry 24.2 (Winter 1998): 547-566.Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. 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Losh, Elizabeth. « Artificial Intelligence ». M/C Journal 10, no 5 (1 octobre 2007). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2710.
Texte intégralRésumé :
On the morning of Thursday, 4 May 2006, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held an open hearing entitled “Terrorist Use of the Internet.” The Intelligence committee meeting was scheduled to take place in Room 1302 of the Longworth Office Building, a Depression-era structure with a neoclassical façade. Because of a dysfunctional elevator, some of the congressional representatives were late to the meeting. During the testimony about the newest political applications for cutting-edge digital technology, the microphones periodically malfunctioned, and witnesses complained of “technical problems” several times. By the end of the day it seemed that what was to be remembered about the hearing was the shocking revelation that terrorists were using videogames to recruit young jihadists. The Associated Press wrote a short, restrained article about the hearing that only mentioned “computer games and recruitment videos” in passing. Eager to have their version of the news item picked up, Reuters made videogames the focus of their coverage with a headline that announced, “Islamists Using US Videogames in Youth Appeal.” Like a game of telephone, as the Reuters videogame story was quickly re-run by several Internet news services, each iteration of the title seemed less true to the exact language of the original. One Internet news service changed the headline to “Islamic militants recruit using U.S. video games.” Fox News re-titled the story again to emphasise that this alert about technological manipulation was coming from recognised specialists in the anti-terrorism surveillance field: “Experts: Islamic Militants Customizing Violent Video Games.” As the story circulated, the body of the article remained largely unchanged, in which the Reuters reporter described the digital materials from Islamic extremists that were shown at the congressional hearing. During the segment that apparently most captured the attention of the wire service reporters, eerie music played as an English-speaking narrator condemned the “infidel” and declared that he had “put a jihad” on them, as aerial shots moved over 3D computer-generated images of flaming oil facilities and mosques covered with geometric designs. Suddenly, this menacing voice-over was interrupted by an explosion, as a virtual rocket was launched into a simulated military helicopter. The Reuters reporter shared this dystopian vision from cyberspace with Western audiences by quoting directly from the chilling commentary and describing a dissonant montage of images and remixed sound. “I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters,” a narrator’s voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults. Then came a recording of President George W. Bush’s September 16, 2001, statement: “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while.” It was edited to repeat the word “crusade,” which Muslims often define as an attack on Islam by Christianity. According to the news reports, the key piece of evidence before Congress seemed to be a film by “SonicJihad” of recorded videogame play, which – according to the experts – was widely distributed online. Much of the clip takes place from the point of view of a first-person shooter, seen as if through the eyes of an armed insurgent, but the viewer also periodically sees third-person action in which the player appears as a running figure wearing a red-and-white checked keffiyeh, who dashes toward the screen with a rocket launcher balanced on his shoulder. Significantly, another of the player’s hand-held weapons is a detonator that triggers remote blasts. As jaunty music plays, helicopters, tanks, and armoured vehicles burst into smoke and flame. Finally, at the triumphant ending of the video, a green and white flag bearing a crescent is hoisted aloft into the sky to signify victory by Islamic forces. To explain the existence of this digital alternative history in which jihadists could be conquerors, the Reuters story described the deviousness of the country’s terrorist opponents, who were now apparently modifying popular videogames through their wizardry and inserting anti-American, pro-insurgency content into U.S.-made consumer technology. One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular “Battlefield 2” from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc of Redwood City, California. Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as “mods,” to video games. “Millions of people create mods on games around the world,” he said. “We have absolutely no control over them. It’s like drawing a mustache on a picture.” Although the Electronic Arts executive dismissed the activities of modders as a “mustache on a picture” that could only be considered little more than childish vandalism of their off-the-shelf corporate product, others saw a more serious form of criminality at work. Testifying experts and the legislators listening on the committee used the video to call for greater Internet surveillance efforts and electronic counter-measures. Within twenty-four hours of the sensationalistic news breaking, however, a group of Battlefield 2 fans was crowing about the idiocy of reporters. The game play footage wasn’t from a high-tech modification of the software by Islamic extremists; it had been posted on a Planet Battlefield forum the previous December of 2005 by a game fan who had cut together regular game play with a Bush remix and a parody snippet of the soundtrack from the 2004 hit comedy film Team America. The voice describing the Black Hawk helicopters was the voice of Trey Parker of South Park cartoon fame, and – much to Parker’s amusement – even the mention of “goats screaming” did not clue spectators in to the fact of a comic source. Ironically, the moment in the movie from which the sound clip is excerpted is one about intelligence gathering. As an agent of Team America, a fictional elite U.S. commando squad, the hero of the film’s all-puppet cast, Gary Johnston, is impersonating a jihadist radical inside a hostile Egyptian tavern that is modelled on the cantina scene from Star Wars. Additional laughs come from the fact that agent Johnston is accepted by the menacing terrorist cell as “Hakmed,” despite the fact that he utters a series of improbable clichés made up of incoherent stereotypes about life in the Middle East while dressed up in a disguise made up of shoe polish and a turban from a bathroom towel. The man behind the “SonicJihad” pseudonym turned out to be a twenty-five-year-old hospital administrator named Samir, and what reporters and representatives saw was nothing more exotic than game play from an add-on expansion pack of Battlefield 2, which – like other versions of the game – allows first-person shooter play from the position of the opponent as a standard feature. While SonicJihad initially joined his fellow gamers in ridiculing the mainstream media, he also expressed astonishment and outrage about a larger politics of reception. In one interview he argued that the media illiteracy of Reuters potentially enabled a whole series of category errors, in which harmless gamers could be demonised as terrorists. It wasn’t intended for the purpose what it was portrayed to be by the media. So no I don’t regret making a funny video . . . why should I? The only thing I regret is thinking that news from Reuters was objective and always right. The least they could do is some online research before publishing this. If they label me al-Qaeda just for making this silly video, that makes you think, what is this al-Qaeda? And is everything al-Qaeda? Although Sonic Jihad dismissed his own work as “silly” or “funny,” he expected considerably more from a credible news agency like Reuters: “objective” reporting, “online research,” and fact-checking before “publishing.” Within the week, almost all of the salient details in the Reuters story were revealed to be incorrect. SonicJihad’s film was not made by terrorists or for terrorists: it was not created by “Islamic militants” for “Muslim youths.” The videogame it depicted had not been modified by a “tech-savvy militant” with advanced programming skills. Of course, what is most extraordinary about this story isn’t just that Reuters merely got its facts wrong; it is that a self-identified “parody” video was shown to the august House Intelligence Committee by a team of well-paid “experts” from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major contractor with the federal government, as key evidence of terrorist recruitment techniques and abuse of digital networks. Moreover, this story of media illiteracy unfolded in the context of a fundamental Constitutional debate about domestic surveillance via communications technology and the further regulation of digital content by lawmakers. Furthermore, the transcripts of the actual hearing showed that much more than simple gullibility or technological ignorance was in play. Based on their exchanges in the public record, elected representatives and government experts appear to be keenly aware that the digital discourses of an emerging information culture might be challenging their authority and that of the longstanding institutions of knowledge and power with which they are affiliated. These hearings can be seen as representative of a larger historical moment in which emphatic declarations about prohibiting specific practices in digital culture have come to occupy a prominent place at the podium, news desk, or official Web portal. This environment of cultural reaction can be used to explain why policy makers’ reaction to terrorists’ use of networked communication and digital media actually tells us more about our own American ideologies about technology and rhetoric in a contemporary information environment. When the experts come forward at the Sonic Jihad hearing to “walk us through the media and some of the products,” they present digital artefacts of an information economy that mirrors many of the features of our own consumption of objects of electronic discourse, which seem dangerously easy to copy and distribute and thus also create confusion about their intended meanings, audiences, and purposes. From this one hearing we can see how the reception of many new digital genres plays out in the public sphere of legislative discourse. Web pages, videogames, and Weblogs are mentioned specifically in the transcript. The main architecture of the witnesses’ presentation to the committee is organised according to the rhetorical conventions of a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, the arguments made by expert witnesses about the relationship of orality to literacy or of public to private communications in new media are highly relevant to how we might understand other important digital genres, such as electronic mail or text messaging. The hearing also invites consideration of privacy, intellectual property, and digital “rights,” because moral values about freedom and ownership are alluded to by many of the elected representatives present, albeit often through the looking glass of user behaviours imagined as radically Other. For example, terrorists are described as “modders” and “hackers” who subvert those who properly create, own, legitimate, and regulate intellectual property. To explain embarrassing leaks of infinitely replicable digital files, witness Ron Roughead says, “We’re not even sure that they don’t even hack into the kinds of spaces that hold photographs in order to get pictures that our forces have taken.” Another witness, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and International Affairs, Peter Rodman claims that “any video game that comes out, as soon as the code is released, they will modify it and change the game for their needs.” Thus, the implication of these witnesses’ testimony is that the release of code into the public domain can contribute to political subversion, much as covert intrusion into computer networks by stealthy hackers can. However, the witnesses from the Pentagon and from the government contractor SAIC often present a contradictory image of the supposed terrorists in the hearing transcripts. Sometimes the enemy is depicted as an organisation of technological masterminds, capable of manipulating the computer code of unwitting Americans and snatching their rightful intellectual property away; sometimes those from the opposing forces are depicted as pre-modern and even sub-literate political innocents. In contrast, the congressional representatives seem to focus on similarities when comparing the work of “terrorists” to the everyday digital practices of their constituents and even of themselves. According to the transcripts of this open hearing, legislators on both sides of the aisle express anxiety about domestic patterns of Internet reception. Even the legislators’ own Web pages are potentially disruptive electronic artefacts, particularly when the demands of digital labour interfere with their duties as lawmakers. Although the subject of the hearing is ostensibly terrorist Websites, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California) bemoans the difficulty of maintaining her own official congressional site. As she observes, “So we are – as members, I think we’re very sensitive about what’s on our Website, and if I retained what I had on my Website three years ago, I’d be out of business. So we know that they have to be renewed. They go up, they go down, they’re rebuilt, they’re – you know, the message is targeted to the future.” In their questions, lawmakers identify Weblogs (blogs) as a particular area of concern as a destabilising alternative to authoritative print sources of information from established institutions. Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) compares the polluting power of insurgent bloggers to that of influential online muckrakers from the American political Right. Hastings complains of “garbage on our regular mainstream news that comes from blog sites.” Representative Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico) attempts to project a media-savvy persona by bringing up the “phenomenon of blogging” in conjunction with her questions about jihadist Websites in which she notes how Internet traffic can be magnified by cooperative ventures among groups of ideologically like-minded content-providers: “These Websites, and particularly the most active ones, are they cross-linked? And do they have kind of hot links to your other favorite sites on them?” At one point Representative Wilson asks witness Rodman if he knows “of your 100 hottest sites where the Webmasters are educated? What nationality they are? Where they’re getting their money from?” In her questions, Wilson implicitly acknowledges that Web work reflects influences from pedagogical communities, economic networks of the exchange of capital, and even potentially the specific ideologies of nation-states. It is perhaps indicative of the government contractors’ anachronistic worldview that the witness is unable to answer Wilson’s question. He explains that his agency focuses on the physical location of the server or ISP rather than the social backgrounds of the individuals who might be manufacturing objectionable digital texts. The premise behind the contractors’ working method – surveilling the technical apparatus not the social network – may be related to other beliefs expressed by government witnesses, such as the supposition that jihadist Websites are collectively produced and spontaneously emerge from the indigenous, traditional, tribal culture, instead of assuming that Iraqi insurgents have analogous beliefs, practices, and technological awareness to those in first-world countries. The residual subtexts in the witnesses’ conjectures about competing cultures of orality and literacy may tell us something about a reactionary rhetoric around videogames and digital culture more generally. According to the experts before Congress, the Middle Eastern audience for these videogames and Websites is limited by its membership in a pre-literate society that is only capable of abortive cultural production without access to knowledge that is archived in printed codices. Sometimes the witnesses before Congress seem to be unintentionally channelling the ideas of the late literacy theorist Walter Ong about the “secondary orality” associated with talky electronic media such as television, radio, audio recording, or telephone communication. Later followers of Ong extend this concept of secondary orality to hypertext, hypermedia, e-mail, and blogs, because they similarly share features of both speech and written discourse. Although Ong’s disciples celebrate this vibrant reconnection to a mythic, communal past of what Kathleen Welch calls “electric rhetoric,” the defence industry consultants express their profound state of alarm at the potentially dangerous and subversive character of this hybrid form of communication. The concept of an “oral tradition” is first introduced by the expert witnesses in the context of modern marketing and product distribution: “The Internet is used for a variety of things – command and control,” one witness states. “One of the things that’s missed frequently is how and – how effective the adversary is at using the Internet to distribute product. They’re using that distribution network as a modern form of oral tradition, if you will.” Thus, although the Internet can be deployed for hierarchical “command and control” activities, it also functions as a highly efficient peer-to-peer distributed network for disseminating the commodity of information. Throughout the hearings, the witnesses imply that unregulated lateral communication among social actors who are not authorised to speak for nation-states or to produce legitimated expert discourses is potentially destabilising to political order. Witness Eric Michael describes the “oral tradition” and the conventions of communal life in the Middle East to emphasise the primacy of speech in the collective discursive practices of this alien population: “I’d like to point your attention to the media types and the fact that the oral tradition is listed as most important. The other media listed support that. And the significance of the oral tradition is more than just – it’s the medium by which, once it comes off the Internet, it is transferred.” The experts go on to claim that this “oral tradition” can contaminate other media because it functions as “rumor,” the traditional bane of the stately discourse of military leaders since the classical era. The oral tradition now also has an aspect of rumor. A[n] event takes place. There is an explosion in a city. Rumor is that the United States Air Force dropped a bomb and is doing indiscriminate killing. This ends up being discussed on the street. It ends up showing up in a Friday sermon in a mosque or in another religious institution. It then gets recycled into written materials. Media picks up the story and broadcasts it, at which point it’s now a fact. In this particular case that we were telling you about, it showed up on a network television, and their propaganda continues to go back to this false initial report on network television and continue to reiterate that it’s a fact, even though the United States government has proven that it was not a fact, even though the network has since recanted the broadcast. In this example, many-to-many discussion on the “street” is formalised into a one-to many “sermon” and then further stylised using technology in a one-to-many broadcast on “network television” in which “propaganda” that is “false” can no longer be disputed. This “oral tradition” is like digital media, because elements of discourse can be infinitely copied or “recycled,” and it is designed to “reiterate” content. In this hearing, the word “rhetoric” is associated with destructive counter-cultural forces by the witnesses who reiterate cultural truisms dating back to Plato and the Gorgias. For example, witness Eric Michael initially presents “rhetoric” as the use of culturally specific and hence untranslatable figures of speech, but he quickly moves to an outright castigation of the entire communicative mode. “Rhetoric,” he tells us, is designed to “distort the truth,” because it is a “selective” assembly or a “distortion.” Rhetoric is also at odds with reason, because it appeals to “emotion” and a romanticised Weltanschauung oriented around discourses of “struggle.” The film by SonicJihad is chosen as the final clip by the witnesses before Congress, because it allegedly combines many different types of emotional appeal, and thus it conveniently ties together all of the themes that the witnesses present to the legislators about unreliable oral or rhetorical sources in the Middle East: And there you see how all these products are linked together. And you can see where the games are set to psychologically condition you to go kill coalition forces. You can see how they use humor. You can see how the entire campaign is carefully crafted to first evoke an emotion and then to evoke a response and to direct that response in the direction that they want. Jihadist digital products, especially videogames, are effective means of manipulation, the witnesses argue, because they employ multiple channels of persuasion and carefully sequenced and integrated subliminal messages. To understand the larger cultural conversation of the hearing, it is important to keep in mind that the related argument that “games” can “psychologically condition” players to be predisposed to violence is one that was important in other congressional hearings of the period, as well one that played a role in bills and resolutions that were passed by the full body of the legislative branch. In the witness’s testimony an appeal to anti-game sympathies at home is combined with a critique of a closed anti-democratic system abroad in which the circuits of rhetorical production and their composite metonymic chains are described as those that command specific, unvarying, robotic responses. This sharp criticism of the artful use of a presentation style that is “crafted” is ironic, given that the witnesses’ “compilation” of jihadist digital material is staged in the form of a carefully structured PowerPoint presentation, one that is paced to a well-rehearsed rhythm of “slide, please” or “next slide” in the transcript. The transcript also reveals that the members of the House Intelligence Committee were not the original audience for the witnesses’ PowerPoint presentation. Rather, when it was first created by SAIC, this “expert” presentation was designed for training purposes for the troops on the ground, who would be facing the challenges of deployment in hostile terrain. According to the witnesses, having the slide show showcased before Congress was something of an afterthought. Nonetheless, Congressman Tiahrt (R-KN) is so impressed with the rhetorical mastery of the consultants that he tries to appropriate it. As Tiarht puts it, “I’d like to get a copy of that slide sometime.” From the hearing we also learn that the terrorists’ Websites are threatening precisely because they manifest a polymorphously perverse geometry of expansion. For example, one SAIC witness before the House Committee compares the replication and elaboration of digital material online to a “spiderweb.” Like Representative Eshoo’s site, he also notes that the terrorists’ sites go “up” and “down,” but the consultant is left to speculate about whether or not there is any “central coordination” to serve as an organising principle and to explain the persistence and consistency of messages despite the apparent lack of a single authorial ethos to offer a stable, humanised, point of reference. In the hearing, the oft-cited solution to the problem created by the hybridity and iterability of digital rhetoric appears to be “public diplomacy.” Both consultants and lawmakers seem to agree that the damaging messages of the insurgents must be countered with U.S. sanctioned information, and thus the phrase “public diplomacy” appears in the hearing seven times. However, witness Roughhead complains that the protean “oral tradition” and what Henry Jenkins has called the “transmedia” character of digital culture, which often crosses several platforms of traditional print, projection, or broadcast media, stymies their best rhetorical efforts: “I think the point that we’ve tried to make in the briefing is that wherever there’s Internet availability at all, they can then download these – these programs and put them onto compact discs, DVDs, or post them into posters, and provide them to a greater range of people in the oral tradition that they’ve grown up in. And so they only need a few Internet sites in order to distribute and disseminate the message.” Of course, to maintain their share of the government market, the Science Applications International Corporation also employs practices of publicity and promotion through the Internet and digital media. They use HTML Web pages for these purposes, as well as PowerPoint presentations and online video. The rhetoric of the Website of SAIC emphasises their motto “From Science to Solutions.” After a short Flash film about how SAIC scientists and engineers solve “complex technical problems,” the visitor is taken to the home page of the firm that re-emphasises their central message about expertise. The maps, uniforms, and specialised tools and equipment that are depicted in these opening Web pages reinforce an ethos of professional specialisation that is able to respond to multiple threats posed by the “global war on terror.” By 26 June 2006, the incident finally was being described as a “Pentagon Snafu” by ABC News. From the opening of reporter Jake Tapper’s investigative Webcast, established government institutions were put on the spot: “So, how much does the Pentagon know about videogames? Well, when it came to a recent appearance before Congress, apparently not enough.” Indeed, the very language about “experts” that was highlighted in the earlier coverage is repeated by Tapper in mockery, with the significant exception of “independent expert” Ian Bogost of the Georgia Institute of Technology. If the Pentagon and SAIC deride the legitimacy of rhetoric as a cultural practice, Bogost occupies himself with its defence. In his recent book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, Bogost draws upon the authority of the “2,500 year history of rhetoric” to argue that videogames represent a significant development in that cultural narrative. Given that Bogost and his Watercooler Games Weblog co-editor Gonzalo Frasca were actively involved in the detective work that exposed the depth of professional incompetence involved in the government’s line-up of witnesses, it is appropriate that Bogost is given the final words in the ABC exposé. As Bogost says, “We should be deeply bothered by this. We should really be questioning the kind of advice that Congress is getting.” Bogost may be right that Congress received terrible counsel on that day, but a close reading of the transcript reveals that elected officials were much more than passive listeners: in fact they were lively participants in a cultural conversation about regulating digital media. After looking at the actual language of these exchanges, it seems that the persuasiveness of the misinformation from the Pentagon and SAIC had as much to do with lawmakers’ preconceived anxieties about practices of computer-mediated communication close to home as it did with the contradictory stereotypes that were presented to them about Internet practices abroad. In other words, lawmakers found themselves looking into a fun house mirror that distorted what should have been familiar artefacts of American popular culture because it was precisely what they wanted to see. References ABC News. “Terrorist Videogame?” Nightline Online. 21 June 2006. 22 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2105341>. Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: Videogames and Procedural Rhetoric. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. Game Politics. “Was Congress Misled by ‘Terrorist’ Game Video? We Talk to Gamer Who Created the Footage.” 11 May 2006. http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/285129.html#cutid1>. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006. julieb. “David Morgan Is a Horrible Writer and Should Be Fired.” Online posting. 5 May 2006. Dvorak Uncensored Cage Match Forums. http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,130.0.html>. Mahmood. “Terrorists Don’t Recruit with Battlefield 2.” GGL Global Gaming. 16 May 2006 http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=3090>. Morgan, David. “Islamists Using U.S. Video Games in Youth Appeal.” Reuters online news service. 4 May 2006 http://today.reuters.com/news/ArticleNews.aspx?type=topNews &storyID=2006-05-04T215543Z_01_N04305973_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY- VIDEOGAMES.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc= NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2>. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London/New York: Methuen, 1982. Parker, Trey. Online posting. 7 May 2006. 9 May 2006 http://www.treyparker.com>. Plato. “Gorgias.” Plato: Collected Dialogues. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1961. Shrader, Katherine. “Pentagon Surfing Thousands of Jihad Sites.” Associated Press 4 May 2006. SonicJihad. “SonicJihad: A Day in the Life of a Resistance Fighter.” Online posting. 26 Dec. 2005. Planet Battlefield Forums. 9 May 2006 http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/topic.asp?fid=13670&tid=1806909&p=1>. Tapper, Jake, and Audery Taylor. “Terrorist Video Game or Pentagon Snafu?” ABC News Nightline 21 June 2006. 30 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Technology/story?id=2105128&page=1>. U.S. Congressional Record. Panel I of the Hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Subject: “Terrorist Use of the Internet for Communications.” Federal News Service. 4 May 2006. Welch, Kathleen E. Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and the New Literacy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
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Losh, Elizabeth. "Artificial Intelligence: Media Illiteracy and the SonicJihad Debacle in Congress." M/C Journal 10.5 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/08-losh.php>. APA Style
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Rogers, Ian, Dave Carter, Benjamin Morgan et Anna Edgington. « Diminishing Dreams ». M/C Journal 25, no 2 (25 avril 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2884.
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Introduction In a 2019 report for the International Journal of Communication, Baym et al. positioned distributed blockchain ledger technology, and what would subsequently be referred to as Web3, as a convening technology. Riffing off Barnett, a convening technology “initiates and serves as the focus of a conversation that can address issues far beyond what it may ultimately be able to address itself” (403). The case studies for the Baym et al. research—early, aspirant projects applying the blockchain concept to music publishing and distribution—are described in the piece as speculations or provocations concerning music’s commercial and social future. What is convened in this era (pre-2017 blockchain music discourse and practice) is the potential for change: a type of widespread, broadly discussed, reimagination of the 21st-century music industries, productive precisely because near-future applications suggest the realisation of what Baym et al. call dreams. In this article, we aim to examine the Web3 music field as it lies some years later. Taking the latter half of 2021 as our subject, we present a survey of where music then resided within Web3, focussing on how the dreams of Baym et al. have morphed and evolved, and materialised and declined, in the intervening years. By investigating the discourse and functionality of 2021’s current crop of music NFTs—just one thread of music Web3’s far-reaching aspiration, but a potent and accessible manifestation nonetheless—we can make a detailed analysis of concept-led application. Volatility remains throughout the broader sector, and all of the projects listed here could be read as conditionally short-term and untested, but what they represent is a series of clearly evolved case studies of the dream, rich precisely because of what is assumed and disregarded. WTF Is an NFT? Non-fungible tokens inscribe indelible, unique ledger entries on a blockchain, detailing ownership of, or rights associated with, assets that exist off-chain. Many NFTs take the form of an ERC-721 smart-contract that functions as an indivisible token on the Ethereum blockchain. Although all ERC-721 tokens are NFTs, the inverse is not true. Similar standards exist on other blockchains, and bridges allow these tokens to be created on alternative networks such as Polygon, Solana, WAX, Cardano and Tezos. The creation (minting) and transfer of ownership on the Ethereum network—by far the dominant chain—comes with a significant and volatile transaction cost, by way of gas fees. Thus, even a “free” transaction on the main NFT network requires a currency and time investment that far outweighs the everyday routines of fiat exchange. On a technical level, the original proposal for the ERC-721 standard refers to NFTs as deeds intended to represent ownership of digital and physical assets like houses, virtual collectibles, and negative value assets such as loans (Entriken et al.). The details of these assets can be encoded as metadata, such as the name and description of the asset including a URI that typically points to either a file somewhere on the Internet or a file hosted via IPFS, a decentralised peer-to-peer hosting network. As noted in the standard, while the data inscribed on-chain are immutable, the asset being referred to is not. Similarly, while each NFT is unique, multiple NFTs could, in theory, point to a single asset. In this respect ERC-721 tokens are different from cryptocurrencies and other tokens like stable-coins in that their value is often contingent on their accurate and ongoing association with assets outside of the blockchain on which they are traded. Further complicating matters, it is often unclear if and how NFTs confer ownership of digital assets with respect to legislative or common law. NFTs rarely include any information relating to licencing or rights transfer, and high-profile NFTs such as Bored Ape Yacht Club appear to be governed by licencing terms held off-chain (Bored Ape Yacht Club). Finally, while it is possible to inscribe any kind of data, including audio, into an NFT, the ERC-721 standard and the underpinning blockchains were not designed to host multimedia content. At the time of writing, storing even a low-bandwidth stereo audio file on the ethereum network appears cost-prohibitive. This presents a challenge for how music NFTs distinguish themselves in a marketplace dominated by visual works. The following sections of this article are divided into what we consider to be the general use cases for NFTs within music in 2021. We’ve designated three overlapping cases: audience investment, music ownership, and audience and business services. Audience Investment Significant discourse around NFTs focusses on digital collectibles and artwork that are conceptually, but not functionally, unique. Huge amounts of money have changed hands for specific—often celebrity brand-led—creations, resulting in media cycles of hype and derision. The high value of these NFTs has been variously ascribed to their high novelty value, scarcity, the adoption of NFTs as speculative assets by investors, and the lack of regulatory oversight allowing for price inflation via practices such as wash-trading (Madeline; Das et al.; Cong et al.; Le Pennec, Fielder, and Ante; Fazil, Owfi, and Taesiri). We see here the initial traditional split of discourse around cultural activity within a new medium: dual narratives of utopianism and dystopianism. Regardless of the discursive frame, activity has grown steadily since stories reporting the failure of Blockchain to deliver on its hype began appearing in 2017 (Ellul). Early coverage around blockchain, music, and NFTs echoes this capacity to leverage artificial scarcity via the creation of unique digital assets (cf Heap; Tomaino). As NFTs have developed, this discourse has become more nuanced, arguing that creators are now able to exploit both ownership and abundance. However, for the most part, music NFTs have essentially adopted the form of digital artworks and collectibles in editions ranging from 1:1 or 1:1000+. Grimes’s February 2021 Mars NFT pointed to a 32-second rotating animation of a sword-wielding cherubim above the planet Mars, accompanied by a musical cue (Grimes). Mars sold 388 NFTs for a reported fixed price of $7.5k each, grossing $2,910,000 at time of minting. By contrast, electronic artists Steve Aoki and Don Diablo have both released 1:1 NFT editions that have been auctioned via Sotheby’s, Superrare, and Nifty Gateway. Interestingly, these works have been bundled with physical goods; Diablo’s Destination Hexagonia, which sold for 600 Eth or approximately US$1.2 million at the time of sale, proffered ownership of a bespoke one-hour film hosted online, along with “a unique hand-crafted box, which includes a hard drive that contains the only copy of the high-quality file of the film” (Diablo). Aoki’s Hairy was much less elaborate but still promised to provide the winner of the $888,888 auction with a copy of the 35-second video of a fur-covered face shaking in time to downbeat electronica as an Infinite Objects video print (Aoki). In the first half of 2021, similar projects from high-profile artists including Deadmau5, The Weekend, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Blondie, and 3Lau have generated an extraordinary amount of money leading to a significant, and understandable, appetite from musicians wanting to engage in this marketplace. Many of these artists and the platforms that have enabled their sales have lauded the potential for NFTs to address an alleged poor remuneration of artists from streaming and/or bypassing “industry middlemen” (cf. Sounds.xyz); the millions of dollars generated by sales of these NFTs presents a compelling case for exploring these new markets irrespective of risk and volatility. However, other artists have expressed reservations and/or received pushback on entry into the NFT marketplace due to concerns over the environmental impact of NFTs; volatility; and a perception of NFT markets as Ponzi schemes (Poleg), insecure (Goodin), exploitative (Purtill), or scammy (Dash). As of late 2021, increased reportage began to highlight unauthorised or fraudulent NFT minting (cf. TFL; Stephen), including in music (Newstead). However, the number of contested NFTs remains marginal in comparison to the volume of exchange that occurs in the space daily. OpenSea alone oversaw over US$2.5 billion worth of transactions per month. For the most part, online NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Solanart oversee the exchange of products on terms not dissimilar to other large online retailers; the space is still resolutely emergent and there is much debate about what products, including recently delisted pro-Nazi and Alt-Right-related NFTs, are socially and commercially acceptable (cf. Pearson; Redman). Further, there are signs this trend may impact on both the willingness and capacity of rightsholders to engage with NFTs, particularly where official offerings are competing with extant fraudulent or illegitimate ones. Despite this, at the time of writing the NFT market as a whole does not appear prone to this type of obstruction. What remains complicated is the contested relationship between NFTs, copyrights, and ownership of the assets they represent. This is further complicated by tension between the claims of blockchain’s independence from existing regulatory structures, and the actual legal recourse available to music rights holders. Music Rights and Ownership Baym et al. note that addressing the problems of rights management and metadata is one of the important discussions around music convened by early blockchain projects. While they posit that “our point is not whether blockchain can or can’t fix the problems the music industries face” (403), for some professionals, the blockchain’s promise of eliminating the need for trust seemed to provide an ideal solution to a widely acknowledged business-to-business problem: one of poor metadata leading to unclaimed royalties accumulating in “black boxes”, particularly in the case of misattributed mechanical royalties in the USA (Rethink Music Initiative). As outlined in their influential institutional research paper (partnered with music rights disruptor Kobalt), the Rethink Music Initiative implied that incumbent intermediaries were benefiting from this opacity, incentivising them to avoid transparency and a centralised rights management database. This frame provides a key example of one politicised version of “fairness”, directly challenging the interest of entrenched powers and status quo systems. Also present in the space is a more pragmatic approach which sees problems of metadata and rights flows as the result of human error which can be remedied with the proper technological intervention. O’Dair and Beaven argue that blockchain presents an opportunity to eliminate the need for trust which has hampered efforts to create a global standard database of rights ownership, while music business researcher Opal Gough offers a more sober overview of how decentralised ledgers can streamline processes, remove inefficiencies, and improve cash flow, without relying on the moral angle of powerful incumbents holding on to control accounts and hindering progress. In the intervening two years, this discourse has shifted from transparency (cf. Taghdiri) to a practical narrative of reducing system friction and solving problems on the one hand—embodied by Paperchain, see Carnevali —and ethical claims reliant on the concept of fairness on the other—exemplified by Resonate—but with, so far, limited widespread impact. The notion that the need for b2b collaboration on royalty flows can be successfully bypassed through a “trustless” blockchain is currently being tested. While these earlier projects were attempts to either circumvent or fix problems facing the traditional rights holders, with the advent of the NFT in particular, novel ownership structures have reconfigured the concept of a rights holder. NFTs promise fans an opportunity to not just own a personal copy of a recording or even a digitally unique version, but to share in the ownership of the actual property rights, a role previously reserved for record labels and music publishers. New NFT models have only recently launched which offer fans a share of IP revenue. “Collectors can buy royalty ownership in songs directly from their favorite artists in the form of tokens” through the service Royal. Services such as Royal and Vezt represent potentially massive cultural shifts in the traditional separation between consumers and investors; they also present possible new headaches and adventures for accountants and legal teams. The issues noted by Baym et al. are still present, and the range of new entrants into this space risks the proliferation, rather than consolidation, of metadata standards and a need to put money into multiple blockchain ecosystems. As noted in RMIT’s blockchain report, missing royalty payments … would suggest the answer to “does it need a blockchain?” is yes (although further research is needed). However, it is not clear that the blockchain economy will progress beyond the margins through natural market forces. Some level of industry coordination may still be required. (18) Beyond the initial questions of whether system friction can be eased and standards generated without industry cooperation lie deeper philosophical issues of what will happen when fans are directly incentivised to promote recordings and artist brands as financial investors. With regard to royalty distribution, the exact role that NFTs would play in the ownership and exploitation of song IP remains conceptual rather than concrete. Even the emergent use cases are suggestive and experimental, often leaning heavily on off-chain terms, goodwill and the unknown role of existing legal infrastructure. Audience and Business Services Aside from the more high-profile NFT cases which focus on the digital object as an artwork providing a source of value, other systemic uses of NFTs are emerging. Both audience and business services are—to varying degrees—explorations of the utility of NFTs as a community token: i.e. digital commodities that have a market value, but also unlock ancillary community interaction. The music industries have a longstanding relationship with the sale of exclusivity and access tailored to experiential products. Historically, one of music’s most profitable commodities—the concert ticket—contains very little intrinsic value, but unlocks a hugely desirable extrinsic experience. As such, NFTs have already found adoption as tools of music exclusivity; as gateways into fan experiences, digital communities, live events ticketing and closed distribution. One case study incorporating almost all of these threads is the Deathbats club by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. Conceived of as the “ultimate fan club”, Deathbats is, according to the band’s singer M. Shadows, “every single thing that [fans] want from us, which is our time, our energy” (Chan). At the time of writing, the Deathbats NFT had experienced expected volatility, but maintained a 30-day average sale price well above launch price. A second affordance provided by music NFTs’ ability to tokenise community is the application of this to music businesses in the form of music DAOs: decentralised autonomous organisations. DAOs and NFTs have so far intersected in a number of ways. DAOs function as digital entities that are owned by their members. They utilise smart contracts to record protocols, votes, and transactions on the blockchain. Bitcoin and Ethereum are often considered the first DAOs of note, serving as board-less venture capital funds, also known as treasuries, that cannot be accessed without the consensus of their members. More recently, DAOs have been co-opted by online communities of shared interests, who work towards an agreed goal, and operate without the need for leadership. Often, access to DAO membership is tokenised, and the more tokens a member has, the more voting rights they possess. All proposals must pass before members, and have been voted for by the majority in order to be enacted, though voting systems differ between DAOs. Proposals must also comply with the DAO’s regulations and protocols. DAOs typically gather in online spaces such as Discord and Zoom, and utilise messaging services such as Telegram. Decentralised apps (dapps) have been developed to facilitate DAO activities such as voting systems and treasury management. Collective ownership of digital assets (in the form of NFTs) has become commonplace within DAOs. Flamingo DAO and PleasrDAO are two well-established and influential examples. The “crypto-backed social club” Friends with Benefits (membership costs between $5,000 and $10,000) serves as a “music discovery platform, an online publication, a startup incubator and a kind of Bloomberg terminal for crypto investors” (Gottsegen), and is now hosting its own curated NFT art platform with work by the likes of Pussy Riot. Musical and cross-disciplinary artists and communities are also exploring the potential of DAOs to empower, activate, and incentivise their communities as an extension of, or in addition to, their adoption and exploration of NFTs. In collaboration with Never Before Heard Sounds, electronic artist and musical pioneer Holly Herndon is exploring ideological questions raised by the growing intelligence of AI to create digital likeness and cloning through voice models. Holly+ is a custom voice instrument that allows users to process pre-existing polyphonic audio through a deep neural network trained by recordings of Holly Herndon’s voice. The output is audio-processed through Holly Herndon’s distinct vocal sound. Users can submit their resulting audio to the Holly+ DAO, to whom she has distributed ownership of her digital likeness. DAO token-holders steward which audio is minted and certified as an NFT, ensuring quality control and only good use of her digital likeness. DAO token-holders are entitled to a percentage of profit from resales in perpetuity, thereby incentivising informed and active stewardship of her digital likeness (Herndon). Another example is LA-based label Leaving Records, which has created GENRE DAO to explore and experiment with new levels of ownership and empowerment for their pre-existing community of artists, friends, and supporters. They have created a community token—$GENRE—for which they intend a number of uses, such as “a symbol of equitable growth, a badge of solidarity, a governance token, currency to buy NFTs, or as a utility to unlock token-gated communities” (Leaving Records). Taken as a whole, the spectrum of affordances and use cases presented by music NFTs can be viewed as a build-up of interest and capital around the technology. Conclusion The last half of 2021 was a moment of intense experimentation in the realms of music business administration and cultural expression, and at the time of writing, each week seemed to bring a new high-profile music Web3 project and/or disaster. Narratives of emancipation and domination under capitalism continue to drive our discussions around music and technology, and the direct link to debates on ecology and financialisation make these conversations particularly polarising. High-profile cases of music projects that overstep norms of existing IP rights, such as Hitpiece’s attempt to generate NFTs of songs without right-holders’ consent, point to the ways in which this technology is portrayed as threatening and subversive to commercial musicians (Blistein). Meanwhile, the Water and Music research DAO promises to incentivise a research community to “empower music-industry professionals with the knowledge, network and skills to do more collaborative and progressive work with technology” through NFT tokens and a DAO organisational structure (Hu et al.). The assumption in many early narratives of the ability of blockchain to provide systems of remuneration that musicians would embrace as inherently fairer is far from the reality of a popular discourse marked by increasing disdain and distrust, currently centred on NFTs as lacking in artistic merit, or even as harmful. We have seen all this talk before, of course, when jukeboxes and player pianos, film synchronisation, radio, recording, and other new communication technologies steered new paths for commercial musicians and promised magical futures. All of these innovations were met with intense scrutiny, cries of inauthentic practice, and resistance by incumbent musicians, but all were eventually sustained by the emergence of new forms of musical expression that captured the interest of the public. On the other hand, the road towards musical nirvana passes by not only the more prominent corpses of the Digital Audio Tape, SuperAudio, and countless recording formats, but if you squint and remember that technology is not always about devices or media, you can see the Secure Download Music Initiative, PressPlay, the International Music Registry, and Global Repertoire Databases in the distance, wondering if blockchain might correct some of the problems they dreamed of solving in their day. The NFT presents the artistic and cultural face of this dream of a musical future, and of course we are first seeing the emergence of old models within its contours. While the investment, ownership, and service phenomena emerging might not be reminiscent of the first moment when people were able to summon a song recording onto their computer via a telephone modem, it is important to remember that there were years of text-based chat rooms before we arrived at music through the Internet. It is early days, and there will be much confusion, anger, and experimentation before music NFTs become either another mundane medium of commercial musical practice, or perhaps a memory of another attempt to reach that goal. References Aoki, Steve. “Hairy.” Nifty Gateway 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://niftygateway.com/marketplace/collection/0xbeccd9e4a80d4b7b642760275f60b62608d464f7/1?page=1>. Baym, Nancy, Lana Swartz, and Andrea Alarcon. "Convening Technologies: Blockchain and the Music Industry." International Journal of Communication 13.20 (2019). 13 Feb. 2022 <https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8590>. 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Chan, Anna. “How Avenged Sevenfold Is Reinventing the Fan Club with Deathbats Club NFTs”. NFT Now. 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://avengedsevenfold.com/news/nft-now-avenged-sevenfold-reinventing-fan-club-with-deathbats-club/>. Cong, Lin William, Xi Li, Ke Tang, and Yang Yang. “Crypto Wash Trading.” SSRN 2021. 15 Feb. 2022 <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3530220>. Das, Dipanjan, Priyanka Bose, Nicola Ruaro, Christopher Kruegel, and Giovanni Vigna. "Understanding Security Issues in the NFT Ecosystem." ArXiv 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.08893>. Dash, Anil. “NFTs Weren’t Supposed to End like This.” The Atlantic 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/>. Diablo, Don. “Destination Hexagonia.” SuperRare 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/d%CE%BEstination-h%CE%BExagonia-by-don-diablo-23154>. Entriken, William, Dieter Shirley, Jacob Evans, and Nastassia Sachs. “EIP-721: Non-Fungible Token Standard.” Ethereum Improvement Proposals, 2022. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.08893>. Fashion Law, The. “From Baby Birkins to MetaBirkins, Brands Are Facing Issues in the Metaverse.” 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.thefashionlaw.com/from-baby-birkins-to-metabirkins-brands-are-being-plagued-in-the-metaverse/>. Fazli, Mohammah Amin, Ali Owfi, and Mohammad Reza Taesiri. "Under the Skin of Foundation NFT Auctions." ArXiv 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.12321>. Friends with Benefits. “Pussy Riot Drink My Blood”. 2021. 28 Jan. 2022 <https://gallery.fwb.help/pussy-riot-drink-my-blood>. Gough, Opal. "Blockchain: A New Opportunity for Record Labels." International Journal of Music Business Research 7.1 (2018): 26-44. Gottsegen, Will. “What’s Next for Friends with Benefits.” Yahoo! Finance 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/next-friends-benefits-204036081.html>. Heap, Imogen. “Blockchain Could Help Musicians Make Money Again.” Harvard Business Review 2017. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://hbr.org/2017/06/blockchain-could-help-musicians-make-money-again>. Herndon, Holly. Holly+ 2021. 1 Feb. 2022 <https://holly.mirror.xyz>. Hu, Cherie, Diana Gremore, Katherine Rodgers, and Alexander Flores. "Introducing $STREAM: A New Tokenized Research Framework for the Music Industry." Water and Music 2021. 14 Feb. 2022 <https://www.waterandmusic.com/introducing-stream-a-new-tokenized-research-framework-for-the-music-industry/>. Leaving Records. “Leaving Records Introducing GENRE DAO.” Leaving Records 2021. 12 Jan. 2022 <https://leavingrecords.mirror.xyz/>. LePenne, Guénolé, Ingo Fiedler, and Lennart Ante. “Wash Trading at Cryptocurrency Exchanges.” Finance Research Letters 43 (2021). Gottsegen, Will. “What’s Next for Friend’s with Benefits?” Coin Desk 2021. 28 Jan. 2021 <https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/culture-week/2021/12/16/whats-next-for-friends-with-benefits>. Goodin, Dan. “Really Stupid ‘Smart Contract’ Bug Let Hacker Steal $31 Million in Digital Coin.” ARS Technica 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/12/hackers-drain-31-million-from-cryptocurrency-service-monox-finance/>. Grimes. “Mars.” Nifty Gateway 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://niftygateway.com/itemdetail/primary/0xe04cc101c671516ac790a6a6dc58f332b86978bb/2>. Newstead, Al. “Artists Outraged at Website Allegedly Selling Their Music as NFTS: What You Need to Know.” ABC Triple J 2022. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/news/musicnews/hitpiece-explainer--artists-outraged-at-website-allegedly-selli/13739470>. O’Dair, Marcus, and Zuleika Beaven. "The Networked Record Industry: How Blockchain Technology Could Transform the Record Industry." Strategic Change 26.5 (2017): 471-80. Pearson, Jordan. “OpenSea Sure Has a Lot of Hitler NFTs for Sale.” Vice: Motherboard 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgx9j/opensea-sure-has-a-lot-of-hitler-nfts-for-sale>. Poleg, Dror. In Praise of Ponzis. 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.drorpoleg.com/in-praise-of-ponzis/>. Purtill, James. “Artists Report Discovering Their Work Is Being Stolen and Sold as NFTs.” ABC News: Science 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-03-16/nfts-artists-report-their-work-is-being-stolen-and-sold/13249408>. Rae, Madeline. “Analyzing the NFT Mania: Is a JPG Worth Millions.” SAGE Business Cases 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://sk-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/cases/analyzing-the-nft-mania-is-a-jpg-worth-millions>. Redman, Jamie. “Political Cartoonist Accuses NFT Platforms Opensea, Rarible of Being 'Tools for Political Censorship'.” Bitcoin.com 2021. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://news.bitcoin.com/political-cartoonist-accuses-nft-platforms-opensea-rarible-of-being-tools-for-political-censorship/>. Rennie, Ellie, Jason Potts, and Ana Pochesneva. Blockchain and the Creative Industries: Provocation Paper. Melbourne: RMIT University. 2019. Resonate. "Pricing." 2022. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://resonate.is/pricing/>. Rethink Music Initiative. Fair Music: Transparency and Payment Flows in the Music Industry. Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship, 2015. Royal. "How It Works." 2022. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://royal.io/>. Stephen, Bijan. “NFT Mania Is Here, and So Are the Scammers.” The Verge 2021. 15 Feb. 2022 <https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/20/22334527/nft-scams-artists-opensea-rarible-marble-cards-fraud-art>. Sound.xyz. Sound.xyz – Music without the Middleman. 2021. 14 Feb. 2022 <https://sound.mirror.xyz/3_TAJe4y8iJsO0JoVbXYw3BM2kM3042b1s6BQf-vWRo>. Taghdiri, Arya. "How Blockchain Technology Can Revolutionize the Music Industry." Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law 10 (2019): 173–195. Tomaino, Nick. “The Music Industry Is Waking Up to Ethereum: In Conversation with 3LAU.” SuperRare 2020. 16 Feb. 2022 <https://editorial.superrare.com/2020/10/20/the-music-industry-is-waking-up-to-ethereum-in-conversation-with-3lau/>.
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Lund, Curt. « For Modern Children ». M/C Journal 24, no 4 (12 août 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2807.
Texte intégralRésumé :
“...children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents...” — Stephen Kline, The Making of Children’s Culture We live in a world saturated by design and through design artefacts, one can glean unique insights into a culture's values and norms. In fact, some academics, such as British media and film theorist Ben Highmore, see the two areas so inextricably intertwined as to suggest a wholesale “re-branding of the cultural sciences as design studies” (14). Too often, however, everyday objects are marginalised or overlooked as objects of scholarly attention. The field of material culture studies seeks to change that by focussing on the quotidian object and its ability to reveal much about the time, place, and culture in which it was designed and used. This article takes on one such object, a mid-century children's toy tea set, whose humble journey from 1968 Sears catalogue to 2014 thrift shop—and subsequently this author’s basement—reveals complex rhetorical messages communicated both visually and verbally. As material culture studies theorist Jules Prown notes, the field’s foundation is laid upon the understanding “that objects made ... by man reflect, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, the beliefs of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased or used them, and by extension the beliefs of the larger society to which they belonged” (1-2). In this case, the objects’ material and aesthetic characteristics can be shown to reflect some of the pervasive stereotypes and gender roles of the mid-century and trace some of the prevailing tastes of the American middle class of that era, or perhaps more accurately the type of design that came to represent good taste and a modern aesthetic for that audience. A wealth of research exists on the function of toys and play in learning about the world and even the role of toy selection in early sex-typing, socialisation, and personal identity of children (Teglasi). This particular research area isn’t the focus of this article; however, one aspect that is directly relevant and will be addressed is the notion of adult role-playing among children and the role of toys in communicating certain adult practices or values to the child—what sociologist David Oswell calls “the dedifferentiation of childhood and adulthood” (200). Neither is the focus of this article the practice nor indeed the ethicality of marketing to children. Relevant to this particular example I suggest, is as a product utilising messaging aimed not at children but at adults, appealing to certain parents’ interest in nurturing within their child a perceived era and class-appropriate sense of taste. This was fuelled in large part by the curatorial pursuits of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, coupled with an interest and investment in raising their children in a design-forward household and a desire for toys that reflected that priority; in essence, parents wishing to raise modern children. Following Prown’s model of material culture analysis, the tea set is examined in three stages, through description, deduction and speculation with each stage building on the previous one. Figure 1: Porcelain Toy Tea Set. Description The tea set consists of twenty-six pieces that allows service for six. Six cups, saucers, and plates; a tall carafe with spout, handle and lid; a smaller vessel with a spout and handle; a small round bowl with a lid; a larger oval bowl with a lid, and a coordinated oval platter. The cups are just under two inches tall and two inches in diameter. The largest piece, the platter is roughly six inches by four inches. The pieces are made of a ceramic material white in colour and glossy in texture and are very lightweight. The rim or edge of each piece is decorated with a motif of three straight lines in two different shades of blue and in different thicknesses, interspersed with a set of three black wiggly lines. Figure 2: Porcelain Toy Tea Set Box. The set is packaged for retail purposes and the original box appears to be fully intact. The packaging of an object carries artefactual evidence just as important as what it contains that falls into the category of a “‘para-artefact’ … paraphernalia that accompanies the product (labels, packaging, instructions etc.), all of which contribute to a product’s discourse” (Folkmann and Jensen 83). The graphics on the box are colourful, featuring similar shades of teal blue as found on the objects, with the addition of orange and a silver sticker featuring the logo of the American retailer Sears. The cover features an illustration of the objects on an orange tabletop. The most prominent text that confirms that the toy is a “Porcelain Toy Tea Set” is in an organic, almost psychedelic style that mimics both popular graphics of this era—especially album art and concert posters—as well as the organic curves of steam that emanate from the illustrated teapot’s spout. Additional messages appear on the box, in particular “Contemporary DESIGN” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. Along the edges of the box lid, a detail of the decorative motif is reproduced somewhat abstracted from what actually appears on the ceramic objects. Figure 3: Sears’s Christmas Wishbook Catalogue, page 574 (1968). Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears) is well-known for its over one-hundred-year history of producing printed merchandise catalogues. The catalogue is another important para-artefact to consider in analysing the objects. The tea set first appeared in the 1968 Sears Christmas Wishbook. There is no date or copyright on the box, so only its inclusion in the catalogue allows the set to be accurately dated. It also allows us to understand how the set was originally marketed. Deduction In the deduction phase, we focus on the sensory aesthetic and functional interactive qualities of the various components of the set. In terms of its function, it is critical that we situate the objects in their original use context, play. The light weight of the objects and thinness of the ceramic material lends the objects a delicate, if not fragile, feeling which indicates that this set is not for rough use. Toy historian Lorraine May Punchard differentiates between toy tea sets “meant to be used by little girls, having parties for their friends and practising the social graces of the times” and smaller sets or doll dishes “made for little girls to have parties with their dolls, or for their dolls to have parties among themselves” (7). Similar sets sold by Sears feature images of girls using the sets with both human playmates and dolls. The quantity allowing service for six invites multiple users to join the party. The packaging makes clear that these toy tea sets were intended for imaginary play only, rendering them non-functional through an all-capitals caution declaiming “IMPORTANT: Do not use near heat”. The walls and handles of the cups are so thin one can imagine that they would quickly become dangerous if filled with a hot liquid. Nevertheless, the lid of the oval bowl has a tan stain or watermark which suggests actual use. The box is broken up by pink cardboard partitions dividing it into segments sized for each item in the set. Interestingly even the small squares of unfinished corrugated cardboard used as cushioning between each stacked plate have survived. The evidence of careful re-packing indicates that great care was taken in keeping the objects safe. It may suggest that even though the set was used, the children or perhaps the parents, considered the set as something to care for and conserve for the future. Flaws in the glaze and applique of the design motif can be found on several pieces in the set and offer some insight as to the technique used in producing these items. Errors such as the design being perfectly evenly spaced but crooked in its alignment to the rim, or pieces of the design becoming detached or accidentally folded over and overlapping itself could only be the result of a print transfer technique popularised with decorative china of the Victorian era, a technique which lends itself to mass production and lower cost when compared to hand decoration. Speculation In the speculation stage, we can consider the external evidence and begin a more rigorous investigation of the messaging, iconography, and possible meanings of the material artefact. Aspects of the set allow a number of useful observations about the role of such an object in its own time and context. Sociologists observe the role of toys as embodiments of particular types of parental messages and values (Cross 292) and note how particularly in the twentieth century “children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents” (Kline 96). Throughout history children’s toys often reflected a miniaturised version of the adult world allowing children to role-play as imagined adult-selves. Kristina Ranalli explored parallels between the practice of drinking tea and the play-acting of the child’s tea party, particularly in the nineteenth century, as a gendered ritual of gentility; a method of socialisation and education, and an opportunity for exploratory and even transgressive play by “spontaneously creating mini-societies with rules of their own” (20). Such toys and objects were available through the Sears mail-order catalogue from the very beginning at the end of the nineteenth century (McGuire). Propelled by the post-war boom of suburban development and homeownership—that generation’s manifestation of the American Dream—concern with home décor and design was elevated among the American mainstream to a degree never before seen. There was a hunger for new, streamlined, efficient, modernist living. In his essay titled “Domesticating Modernity”, historian Jeffrey L. Meikle notes that many early modernist designers found that perhaps the most potent way to “‘domesticate’ modernism and make it more familiar was to miniaturise it; for example, to shrink the skyscraper and put it into the home as furniture or tableware” (143). Dr Timothy Blade, curator of the 1985 exhibition of girls’ toys at the University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Gallery—now the Goldstein Museum of Design—described in his introduction “a miniaturised world with little props which duplicate, however rudely, the larger world of adults” (5). Noting the power of such toys to reflect adult values of their time, Blade continues: “the microcosm of the child’s world, remarkably furnished by the miniaturised props of their parents’ world, holds many direct and implied messages about the society which brought it into being” (9). In large part, the mid-century Sears catalogues capture the spirit of an era when, as collector Thomas Holland observes, “little girls were still primarily being offered only the options of glamour, beauty and parenthood as the stuff of their fantasies” (175). Holland notes that “the Wishbooks of the fifties [and, I would add, the sixties] assumed most girls would follow in their mother’s footsteps to become full-time housewives and mommies” (1). Blade grouped toys into three categories: cooking, cleaning, and sewing. A tea set could arguably be considered part of the cooking category, but closer examination of the language used in marketing this object—“little hostesses”, et cetera—suggests an emphasis not on cooking but on serving or entertaining. This particular category was not prevalent in the era examined by Blade, but the cultural shifts of the mid-twentieth century, particularly the rapid popularisation of a suburban lifestyle, may have led to the use of entertaining as an additional distinct category of role play in the process of learning to become a “proper” homemaker. Sears and other retailers offered a wide variety of styles of toy tea sets during this era. Blade and numerous other sources observe that children’s toy furniture and appliances tended to reflect the style and aesthetic qualities of their contemporary parallels in the adult world, the better to associate the child’s objects to its adult equivalent. The toy tea set’s packaging trumpets messages intended to appeal to modernist values and identity including “Contemporary Design” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. The use of this coded marketing language, aimed particularly at parents, can be traced back several decades. In 1928 a group of American industrial and textile designers established the American Designers' Gallery in New York, in part to encourage American designers to innovate and adopt new styles such as those seen in the L’ Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925) in Paris, the exposition that sparked international interest in the Art Deco or Art Moderne aesthetic. One of the gallery founders, Ilonka Karasz, a Hungarian-American industrial and textile designer who had studied in Austria and was influenced by the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, publicised her new style of nursery furnishings as “designed for the very modern American child” (Brown 80). Sears itself was no stranger to the appeal of such language. The term “contemporary design” was ubiquitous in catalogue copy of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, used to describe everything from draperies (1959) and bedspreads (1961) to spice racks (1964) and the Lady Kenmore portable dishwasher (1961). An emphasis on the role of design in one’s life and surroundings can be traced back to efforts by MoMA. The museum’s interest in modern design hearkens back almost to the institution’s inception, particularly in relation to industrial design and the aestheticisation of everyday objects (Marshall). Through exhibitions and in partnership with mass-market magazines, department stores and manufacturer showrooms, MoMA curators evangelised the importance of “good design” a term that can be found in use as early as 1942. What Is Good Design? followed the pattern of prior exhibitions such as What Is Modern Painting? and situated modern design at the centre of exhibitions that toured the United States in the first half of the nineteen-fifties. To MoMA and its partners, “good design” signified the narrow identification of proper taste in furniture, home decor and accessories; effectively, the establishment of a design canon. The viewpoints enshrined in these exhibitions and partnerships were highly influential on the nation’s perception of taste for decades to come, as the trickle-down effect reached a much broader segment of consumers than those that directly experienced the museum or its exhibitions (Lawrence.) This was evident not only at high-end shops such as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. Even mass-market retailers sought out well-known figures of modernist design to contribute to their offerings. Sears, for example, commissioned noted modernist designer and ceramicist Russel Wright to produce a variety of serving ware and decor items exclusively for the company. Notably for this study, he was also commissioned to create a toy tea set for children. The 1957 Wishbook touts the set as “especially created to delight modern little misses”. Within its Good Design series, MoMA exhibitions celebrated numerous prominent Nordic designers who were exploring simplified forms and new material technologies. In the 1968 Wishbook, the retailer describes the Porcelain Toy Tea Set as “Danish-inspired china for young moderns”. The reference to Danish design is certainly compatible with the modernist appeal; after the explosion in popularity of Danish furniture design, the term “Danish Modern” was commonly used in the nineteen-fifties and sixties as shorthand for pan-Scandinavian or Nordic design, or more broadly for any modern furniture design regardless of origin that exhibited similar characteristics. In subsequent decades the notion of a monolithic Scandinavian-Nordic design aesthetic or movement has been debunked as primarily an economically motivated marketing ploy (Olivarez et al.; Fallan). In the United States, the term “Danish Modern” became so commonly misused that the Danish Society for Arts and Crafts called upon the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to legally restrict the use of the labels “Danish” and “Danish Modern” to companies genuinely originating in Denmark. Coincidentally the FTC ruled on this in 1968, noting “that ‘Danish Modern’ carries certain meanings, and... that consumers might prefer goods that are identified with a foreign culture” (Hansen 451). In the case of the Porcelain Toy Tea Set examined here, Sears was not claiming that the design was “Danish” but rather “Danish-inspired”. One must wonder, was this another coded marketing ploy to communicate a sense of “Good Design” to potential customers? An examination of the formal qualities of the set’s components, particularly the simplified geometric forms and the handle style of the cups, confirms that it is unlike a traditional—say, Victorian-style—tea set. Punchard observes that during this era some American tea sets were actually being modelled on coffee services rather than traditional tea services (148). A visual comparison of other sets sold by Sears in the same year reveals a variety of cup and pot shapes—with some similar to the set in question—while others exhibit more traditional teapot and cup shapes. Coffee culture was historically prominent in Nordic cultures so there is at least a passing reference to that aspect of Nordic—if not specifically Danish—influence in the design. But what of the decorative motif? Simple curved lines were certainly prominent in Danish furniture and architecture of this era, and occasionally found in combination with straight lines, but no connection back to any specific Danish motif could be found even after consultation with experts in the field from the Museum of Danish America and the Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum (personal correspondence). However, knowing that the average American consumer of this era—even the design-savvy among them—consumed Scandinavian design without distinguishing between the various nations, a possible explanation could be contained in the promotion of Finnish textiles at the time. In the decade prior to the manufacture of the tea set a major design tendency began to emerge in the United States, triggered by the geometric design motifs of the Finnish textile and apparel company Marimekko. Marimekko products were introduced to the American market in 1959 via the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based retailer Design Research (DR) and quickly exploded in popularity particularly after would-be First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy appeared in national media wearing Marimekko dresses during the 1960 presidential campaign and on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. (Thompson and Lange). The company’s styling soon came to epitomise a new youth aesthetic of the early nineteen sixties in the United States, a softer and more casual predecessor to the London “mod” influence. During this time multiple patterns were released that brought a sense of whimsy and a more human touch to classic mechanical patterns and stripes. The patterns Piccolo (1953), Helmipitsi (1959), and Varvunraita (1959), all designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi offered varying motifs of parallel straight lines. Maija Isola's Silkkikuikka (1961) pattern—said to be inspired by the plumage of the Great Crested Grebe—combined parallel serpentine lines with straight and angled lines, available in a variety of colours. These and other geometrically inspired patterns quickly inundated apparel and decor markets. DR built a vastly expanded Cambridge flagship store and opened new locations in New York in 1961 and 1964, and in San Francisco in 1965 fuelled in no small part by the fact that they remained the exclusive outlet for Marimekko in the United States. It is clear that Marimekko’s approach to pattern influenced designers and manufacturers across industries. Design historian Lesley Jackson demonstrates that Marimekko designs influenced or were emulated by numerous other companies across Scandinavia and beyond (72-78). The company’s influence grew to such an extent that some described it as a “conquest of the international market” (Hedqvist and Tarschys 150). Subsequent design-forward retailers such as IKEA and Crate and Barrel continue to look to Marimekko even today for modern design inspiration. In 2016 the mass-market retailer Target formed a design partnership with Marimekko to offer an expansive limited-edition line in their stores, numbering over two hundred items. So, despite the “Danish” misnomer, it is quite conceivable that designers working for or commissioned by Sears in 1968 may have taken their aesthetic cues from Marimekko’s booming work, demonstrating a clear understanding of the contemporary high design aesthetic of the time and coding the marketing rhetoric accordingly even if incorrectly. Conclusion The Sears catalogue plays a unique role in capturing cross-sections of American culture not only as a sales tool but also in Holland’s words as “a beautifully illustrated diary of America, it’s [sic] people and the way we thought about things” (1). Applying a rhetorical and material culture analysis to the catalogue and the objects within it provides a unique glimpse into the roles these objects played in mediating relationships, transmitting values and embodying social practices, tastes and beliefs of mid-century American consumers. Adult consumers familiar with the characteristics of the culture of “Good Design” potentially could have made a connection between the simplified geometric forms of the components of the toy tea set and say the work of modernist tableware designers such as Kaj Franck, or between the set’s graphic pattern and the modernist motifs of Marimekko and its imitators. But for a much broader segment of the population with a less direct understanding of modernist aesthetics, those connections may not have been immediately apparent. The rhetorical messaging behind the objects’ packaging and marketing used class and taste signifiers such as modern, contemporary and “Danish” to reinforce this connection to effect an emotional and aspirational appeal. These messages were coded to position the set as an effective transmitter of modernist values and to target parents with the ambition to create “appropriately modern” environments for their children. 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Chavdarov, Anatoliy V. « Special Issue No. – 10, June, 2020 Journal > ; Special Issue > ; Special Issue No. – 10, June, 2020 > ; Page 5 “Quantative Methods in Modern Science” organized by Academic Paper Ltd, Russia MORPHOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL FEATURES OF THE GENUS GAGEA SALISB., GROWING IN THE EAST KAZAKHSTAN REGION Authors : Zhamal T. Igissinova,Almash A. Kitapbayeva,Anargul S. Sharipkhanova,Alexander L. Vorobyev,Svetlana F. Kolosova,Zhanat K. Idrisheva, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00041 Abstract : Due to ecological preferences among species of the genus GageaSalisb, many plants are qualified as rare and/or endangered. Therefore, the problem of rational use of natural resources, in particular protection of early spring plant species is very important. However, literary sources analysis only reveals data on the biology of species of this genus. The present research,conducted in the spring of 2017-2019, focuses on anatomical and morphological features of two Altai species : Gagealutea and Gagea minima ; these features were studied, clarified and confirmed by drawings and photographs. The anatomical structure of the stem and leaf blade was studied in detail. The obtained research results will prove useful for studies of medicinal raw materials and honey plants. The aforementioned species are similar in morphological features, yet G. minima issmaller in size, and its shoots appear earlier than those of other species Keywords : Flora,gageas,Altai species,vegetative organs., Refference : I. Atlas of areas and resources of medicinal plants of Kazakhstan.Almaty, 2008. II. Baitenov M.S. Flora of Kazakhstan.Almaty : Ġylym, 2001. III. DanilevichV. G. ThegenusGageaSalisb. of WesternTienShan. PhD Thesis, St. Petersburg,1996. IV. EgeubaevaR.A., GemedzhievaN.G. The current state of stocks of medicinal plants in some mountain ecosystems of Kazakhstan.Proceedings of the international scientific conference ‘”Results and prospects for the development of botanical science in Kazakhstan’, 2002. V. Kotukhov Yu.A. New species of the genus Gagea (Liliaceae) from Southern Altai. Bot. Journal.1989;74(11). VI. KotukhovYu.A. ListofvascularplantsofKazakhstanAltai. Botan. Researches ofSiberiaandKazakhstan.2005;11. VII. KotukhovYu. The current state of populations of rare and endangered plants in Eastern Kazakhstan. Almaty : AST, 2009. VIII. Kotukhov Yu.A., DanilovaA.N., AnufrievaO.A. Synopsisoftheonions (AlliumL.) oftheKazakhstanAltai, Sauro-ManrakandtheZaisandepression. BotanicalstudiesofSiberiaandKazakhstan. 2011;17 : 3-33. IX. Kotukhov, Yu.A., Baytulin, I.O. Rareandendangered, endemicandrelictelementsofthefloraofKazakhstanAltai. MaterialsoftheIntern. scientific-practical. conf. ‘Sustainablemanagementofprotectedareas’.Almaty : Ridder, 2010. X. Krasnoborov I.M. et al. The determinant of plants of the Republic of Altai. Novosibirsk : SB RAS, 2012. XI. Levichev I.G. On the species status of Gagea Rubicunda. Botanical Journal.1997;6:71-76. XII. Levichev I.G. A new species of the genus Gagea (Liliaceae). Botanical Journal. 2000;7 : 186-189. XIII. Levichev I.G., Jangb Chang-gee, Seung Hwan Ohc, Lazkovd G.A.A new species of genus GageaSalisb.(Liliaceae) from Kyrgyz Republic (Western Tian Shan, Chatkal Range, Sary-Chelek Nature Reserve). Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity.2019 ; 12 : 341-343. XIV. Peterson A., Levichev I.G., Peterson J. Systematics of Gagea and Lloydia (Liliaceae) and infrageneric classification of Gagea based on molecular and morphological data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.2008 ; 46. XV. Peruzzi L., Peterson A., Tison J.-M., Peterson J. Phylogenetic relationships of GageaSalisb.(Liliaceae) in Italy, inferred from molecular and morphological data matrices. Plant Systematics and Evolution ; 2008 : 276. XVI. Rib R.D. Honey plants of Kazakhstan. Advertising Digest, 2013. XVII. Scherbakova L.I., Shirshikova N.A. Flora of medicinal plants in the vicinity of Ust-Kamenogorsk. Collection of materials of the scientific-practical conference ‘Unity of Education, Science and Innovation’. Ust-Kamenogorsk : EKSU, 2011. XVIII. syganovA.P. PrimrosesofEastKazakhstan. Ust-Kamenogorsk : EKSU, 2001. XIX. Tsyganov A.P. Flora and vegetation of the South Altai Tarbagatay. Berlin : LAP LAMBERT,2014. XX. Utyasheva, T.R., Berezovikov, N.N., Zinchenko, Yu.K. ProceedingsoftheMarkakolskStateNatureReserve. Ust-Kamenogorsk, 2009. XXI. Xinqi C, Turland NJ. Gagea. Flora of China.2000;24 : 117-121. XXII. Zarrei M., Zarre S., Wilkin P., Rix E.M. Systematic revision of the genus GageaSalisb. (Liliaceae) in Iran.BotJourn Linn Soc.2007;154. XXIII. Zarrei M., Wilkin P., Ingroille M.J., Chase M.W. A revised infrageneric classification for GageaSalisb. (Tulipeae ; Liliaceae) : insights from DNA sequence and morphological data.Phytotaxa.2011:5. View | Download INFLUENCE OF SUCCESSION CROPPING ON ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF NO-TILL CROP ROTATIONS Authors : Victor K. Dridiger,Roman S. Stukalov,Rasul G. Gadzhiumarov,Anastasiya A. Voropaeva,Viktoriay A. Kolomytseva, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00042 Abstract : This study was aimed at examining the influence of succession cropping on the economic efficiency of no-till field crop rotations on the black earth in the zone of unstable moistening of the Stavropol krai. A long-term stationary experiment was conducted to examine for the purpose nine field crop rotation patterns different in the number of fields (four to six), set of crops, and their succession in crop rotation. The respective shares of legumes, oilseeds, and cereals in the cropping pattern were 17 to 33, 17 to 40, and 50 to 67 %. It has been established that in case of no-till field crop cultivation the economic efficiency of plant production depends on the set of crops and their succession in rotation. The most economically efficient type of crop rotation is the soya-winter wheat-peas-winter wheat-sunflower-corn six-field rotation with two fields of legumes : in this rotation 1 ha of crop rotation area yields 3 850 grain units per ha at a grain unit prime cost of 5.46 roubles ; the plant production output return and profitability were 20,888 roubles per ha and 113 %, respectively. The high production profitabilities provided by the soya-winter wheat-sunflower four-field and the soya-winter-wheat-sunflower-corn-winter wheat five-field crop rotation are 108.7 and 106.2 %, respectively. The inclusion of winter wheat in crop rotation for two years in a row reduces the second winter wheat crop yield by 80 to 100 %, which means a certain reduction in the grain unit harvesting rate to 3.48-3.57 thousands per ha of rotation area and cuts the production profitability down to 84.4-92.3 %. This is why, no-till cropping should not include winter wheat for a second time Keywords : No-till technology,crop rotation,predecessor,yield,return,profitability, Refference : I Badakhova G. Kh. and Knutas A. V., Stavropol Krai : Modern Climate Conditions [Stavropol’skiykray : sovremennyyeklimaticheskiyeusloviya]. Stavropol : SUE Krai Communication Networks, 2007. II Cherkasov G. N. and Akimenko A. S. Scientific Basis of Modernization of Crop Rotations and Formation of Their Systems according to the Specializations of Farms in the Central Chernozem Region [Osnovy moderniz atsiisevooborotoviformirovaniyaikh sistem v sootvetstvii so spetsi-alizatsiyeykhozyaystvTsentral’nogoChernozem’ya]. Zemledelie. 2017 ; 4 : 3-5. III Decree 330 of July 6, 2017 the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia “On Approving Coefficients of Converting to Agricultural Crops to Grain Units [Ob utverzhdeniikoeffitsiyentovperevoda v zernovyyee dinitsysel’s kokhozyaystvennykhkul’tur]. IV Dridiger V. K., About Methods of Research of No-Till Technology [O metodikeissledovaniytekhnologii No-till]//Achievements of Science and Technology of AIC (Dostizheniyanaukiitekhniki APK). 2016 ; 30 (4) : 30-32. V Dridiger V. K. and Gadzhiumarov R. G. Growth, Development, and Productivity of Soya Beans Cultivated On No-Till Technology in the Zone of Unstable Moistening of Stavropol Region [Rost, razvitiyeiproduktivnost’ soiprivozdelyvaniipotekhnologii No-till v zone ne-ustoychivog ouvlazhneniyaStavropol’skogokraya]//Oil Crops RTBVNIIMK (Maslichnyyekul’turyNTBVNIIMK). 2018 ; 3 (175) : 52–57. VI Dridiger V. K., Godunova E. I., Eroshenko F. V., Stukalov R. S., Gadzhiumarov, R. G., Effekt of No-till Technology on erosion resistance, the population of earthworms and humus content in soil (Vliyaniyetekhnologii No-till naprotivoerozionnuyuustoychivost’, populyatsiyudozhdevykhcherveyisoderzhaniyegumusa v pochve)//Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences. 2018 ; 9 (2) : 766-770. VII Karabutov A. P., Solovichenko V. D., Nikitin V. V. et al., Reproduction of Soil Fertility, Productivity and Energy Efficiency of Crop Rotations [Vosproizvodstvoplodorodiyapochv, produktivnost’ ienergeticheskayaeffektivnost’ sevooborotov]. Zemledelie. 2019 ; 2 : 3-7. VIII Kulintsev V. V., Dridiger V. K., Godunova E. I., Kovtun V. I., Zhukova M. P., Effekt of No-till Technology on The Available Moisture Content and Soil Density in The Crop Rotation [Vliyaniyetekhnologii No-till nasoderzhaniyedostupnoyvlagiiplotnost’ pochvy v sevoob-orote]// Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences. 2017 ; 8 (6) : 795-99. IX Kulintsev V. V., Godunova E. I., Zhelnakova L. I. et al., Next-Gen Agriculture System for Stavropol Krai : Monograph [SistemazemledeliyanovogopokoleniyaStavropol’skogokraya : Monogtafiya]. Stavropol : AGRUS Publishers, Stavropol State Agrarian University, 2013. X Lessiter Frank, 29 reasons why many growers are harvesting higher no-till yields in their fields than some university scientists find in research plots//No-till Farmer. 2015 ; 44 (2) : 8. XI Rodionova O. A. Reproduction and Exchange-Distributive Relations in Farming Entities [Vosproizvodstvoiobmenno-raspredelitel’nyyeotnosheniya v sel’skokhozyaystvennykhorganizatsiyakh]//Economy, Labour, and Control in Agriculture (Ekonomika, trud, upravleniye v sel’skomkhozyaystve). 2010 ; 1 (2) : 24-27. XII Sandu I. S., Svobodin V. A., Nechaev V. I., Kosolapova M. V., and Fedorenko V. F., Agricultural Production Efficiency : Recommended Practices [Effektivnost’ sel’skokhozyaystvennogoproizvodstva (metodicheskiyerekomendatsii)]. Moscow : Rosinforagrotech, 2013. XIII Sotchenko V. S. Modern Corn Cultivation Technologies [Sovremennayatekhnologiyavozdelyvaniya]. Moscow : Rosagrokhim, 2009. View | Download DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF AUTONOMOUS PORTABLE SEISMOMETER DESIGNED FOR USE AT ULTRALOW TEMPERATURES IN ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT Authors : Mikhail A. Abaturov,Yuriy V. Sirotinskiy, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00043 Abstract : This paper is concerned with solving one of the issues of the general problem of designing geophysical equipment for the natural climatic environment of the Arctic. The relevance of the topic has to do with an increased global interest in this region. The paper is aimed at considering the basic principles of developing and the procedure of testing seismic instruments for use at ultralow climatic temperatures. In this paper the indicated issue is considered through the example of a seismic module designed for petroleum and gas exploration by passive seismoacoustic methods. The seismic module is a direct-burial portable unit of around 5 kg in weight, designed to continuously measure and record microseismic triaxial orthogonal (ZNE) noise in a range from 0.1 to 45 Hz during several days in autonomous mode. The functional chart of designing the seismic module was considered, and concrete conclusions were made for choosing the necessary components to meet the ultralow-temperature operational requirements. The conclusions made served for developing appropriate seismic module. In this case, the components and tools used included a SAFT MP 176065 xc low-temperature lithium cell, industrial-spec electronic component parts, a Zhaofeng Geophysical ZF-4.5 Chinese primary electrodynamic seismic sensor, housing seal parts made of frost-resistant silicone materials, and finely dispersed silica gel used as water-retaining sorbent to avoid condensation in the housing. The paper also describes a procedure of low-temperature collation tests at the lab using a New Brunswick Scientific freezing plant. The test results proved the operability of the developed equipment at ultralow temperatures down to -55°C. In addition, tests were conducted at low microseismic noises in the actual Arctic environment. The possibility to detect signals in a range from 1 to 10 Hz at the level close to the NLNM limit (the Peterson model) has been confirmed, which allows monitoring and exploring petroleum and gas deposits by passive methods. As revealed by this study, the suggested approaches are efficient in developing high-precision mobile seismic instruments for use at ultralow climatic temperatures. The solution of the considered instrumentation and methodical issues is of great practical significance as a constituent of the generic problem of Arctic exploration. Keywords : Seismic instrumentation,microseismic monitoring,Peterson model,geological exploration,temperature ratings,cooling test, Refference : I. AD797 : Ultralow Distortion, Ultralow Noise Op Amp, Analog Devices, Inc., Data Sheet (Rev. K). Analog Devices, Inc. URL : https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/AD797.pdf(Date of access September 2, 2019). II. Agafonov, V. M., Egorov, I. V., and Shabalina, A. S. Operating Principles and Technical Characteristics of a Small-Sized Molecular–Electronic Seismic Sensor with Negative Feedback [Printsipyraboty I tekhnicheskiyekharakteristikimalogabaritnogomolekulyarno-elektronnogoseysmodatchika s otritsatel’noyobratnoysvyaz’yu]. SeysmicheskiyePribory (Seismic Instruments). 2014 ; 50 (1) : 1–8. DOI : 10.3103/S0747923914010022. III. Antonovskaya, G., Konechnaya, Ya.,Kremenetskaya, E., Asming, V., Kvaema, T., Schweitzer, J., Ringdal, F. Enhanced Earthquake Monitoring in the European Arctic. 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L., Lyasch, Y. F., Chirkin, I. A., Rizanov, E. G., LeRoy, S. D., Koligaev, S. O. Long-term monitoring of microseismic emissions : Earth tides, fracture distribution, and fluid content. SEG, APPG Interpretation. 2016 : 4 (2) : T191–T204. XIX. Laverov, N. P., Bogoyavlenskiy, V. I., Bogoyavlenskiy, I. V. Fundamental Aspects of Rational Management of the Petroleum and Gas Resources of the Arctic and the Russian Continental Shelf : Strategy, Prospects, and Problems [Fundamental’nyyeaspektyratsional’nogoosvoyeniyaresursovneftiigazaArktiki I shel’faRossii : strategiya, perspektivyi problem].Arktika : ekologiya I ekonomika [Arctic : Ecology and Economy]. 2016 ; 2 (22) : 4-13. XX. Lee, P. Low Noise Amplifier Selection Guide for Optimal Noise Performance, Analog Devices, Inc., AN-940 Application Note. Analog Devices, Inc. URL : https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/application-notes/AN-940.pdf(Date of access September 2, 2019). XXI. Markatis, N., Polychronopoulou, K., Tselentis, Ak. Passive seismic tomography : A passive concept actively evolving. First Break. 2012 ; 30 (7) : 83-90. XXII. Matveev, I. V. and Matveeva, N. V. Portable seismic recorder “SEISAR-5” with very low energy consumption for autonomous work in harsh climatic conditions [Portativnyyseysmicheskiyregistrator «Seysar-5» s ochen’ nizkimenergopotrebleniyemdlyaavtonomnoyraboty v slozhnykhklimatic heskikhusloviyakh]. Nauka I tekhnologicheskierazrabotki (Science and Technological Developments). 2017 ; 96 (3) : 33-40. [Special Issue “Applied Geophysics : New Developments and Results. Part 1. Seismology and Seismic Exploration]. DOI : 10.21455/std2017.3-3. XXIII. Mishra, R. The Temperature Ratings of Electronic Parts.Electronics Cooling magazine. URL : http://www.electronics-cooling.com/2004/02/the-temperature-ratings-of-electronic-parts(Date of access September 2, 2019). XXIV. Moore, Sue E. ; Stabeno, Phyllis J. ; Van Pelt, Thomas I. 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View | Download COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OF TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH FOOT PATHOLOGY WHO UNDERWENT WEIL OPEN OSTEOTOMY BY CLASSICAL METHOD AND WITHOUT STEOSYNTHESIS Authors : Yuriy V. Lartsev,Dmitrii A. Rasputin,Sergey D. Zuev-Ratnikov,Pavel V.Ryzhov,Dmitry S. Kudashev,Anton A. Bogdanov, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00044 Abstract : The article considers the problem of surgical correction of the second metatarsal bone length. The article analyzes the results of treatment of patients with excess length of the second metatarsal bones that underwent osteotomy with and without osteosynthesis. The results of treatment of patients who underwent metatarsal shortening due to classical Weil-osteotomy with and without osteosynthesis were analyzed. The first group consisted of 34 patients. They underwent classical Weil osteotomy. The second group included 44 patients in whomosteotomy of the second metatarsal bone were not by the screw. When studying the results of the treatment in the immediate postoperative period, weeks 6, 12, slightly better results were observed in patients of the first group, while one year after surgical treatment the results in both groups were comparable. One year after surgical treatment, there were 2.9% (1 patient) of unsatisfactory results in the first group and 4.5% (2 patients) in the second group. Considering the comparability of the results of treatment in remote postoperative period, the choice of concrete method remains with the operating surgeon. Keywords : Flat feet,hallux valgus,corrective osteotomy,metatarsal bones, Refference : I. A novel modification of the Stainsby procedure : surgical technique and clinical outcome [Text] / E. Concannon, R. MacNiocaill, R. Flavin [et al.] // Foot Ankle Surg. – 2014. – Dec., Vol. 20(4). – P. 262–267. II. Accurate determination of relative metatarsal protrusion with a small intermetatarsal angle : a novel simplified method [Text] / L. Osher, M.M. Blazer, S. Buck [et al.] // J. Foot Ankle Surg. – 2014. – Sep.-Oct., Vol. 53(5). – P. 548–556. III. Argerakis, N.G. The radiographic effects of the scarf bunionectomy on rearfoot alignment [Text] / N.G. Argerakis, L.Jr. Weil, L.S. Sr. Weil // Foot Ankle Spec. – 2015. – Apr., Vol. 8(2). – P. 89–94. IV. Bauer, T. Percutaneous forefoot surgery [Text] / T. Bauer // Orthop. Traumatol. Surg. Res. – 2014. – Feb., Vol. 100(1 Suppl.). – P. S191–S204. V. Biomechanical Evaluation of Custom Foot Orthoses for Hallux Valgus Deformity [Text] // J. Foot Ankle Surg. – 2015. – Sep.-Oct., Vol.54(5). – P. 852–855. VI. Chopra, S. Characterization of gait in female patients with moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity [Text] / S. Chopra, K. Moerenhout, X. Crevoisier // Clin. Biomech. (Bristol, Avon). – 2015. – Jul., Vol. 30(6). – P. 629–635. VII. Computer assisted planning and custom-made surgical guide for malunited pronation deformity after first metatarsophalangeal joint arthrodesis in rheumatoid arthritis : a case report [Text] / M. Hirao, S. Ikemoto, H. Tsuboi [et al.] // Comput. Aided Surg. – 2014. – Vol. 19(1-3). – P. 13–19. VIII. Correlation between static radiographic measurements and intersegmental angular measurements during gait using a multisegment foot model [Text] / D.Y. Lee, S.G. Seo, E.J. Kim [et al.] // Foot Ankle Int. – 2015. – Jan., Vol.36(1). – P. 1–10. IX. Correlative study between length of first metatarsal and transfer metatarsalgia after osteotomy of first metatarsal [Text] : [Article in Chinese] / F.Q. Zhang, B.Y. Pei, S.T. Wei [et al.] // Zhonghua Yi XueZaZhi. – 2013. – Nov. 19, Vol. 93(43). – P. 3441–3444. X. Dave, M.H. Forefoot Deformity in Rheumatoid Arthritis : A Comparison of Shod and Unshod Populations [Text] / M.H. Dave, L.W. Mason, K. Hariharan // Foot Ankle Spec. – 2015. – Oct., Vol. 8(5). – P. 378–383. XI. Does arthrodesis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint correct the intermetatarsal M1M2 angle ? Analysis of a continuous series of 208 arthrodeses fixed with plates [Text] / F. Dalat, F. Cottalorda, M.H. Fessy [et al.] // Orthop. Traumatol. Surg. Res. – 2015. – Oct., Vol. 101(6). – P. 709–714. XII. Dynamic plantar pressure distribution after percutaneous hallux valgus correction using the Reverdin-Isham osteotomy [Text] : [Article in Spanish] / G. Rodríguez-Reyes, E. López-Gavito, A.I. Pérez-Sanpablo [et al.] // Rev. Invest. Clin. – 2014. – Jul., Vol. 66, Suppl. 1. – P. S79-S84. XIII. Efficacy of Bilateral Simultaneous Hallux Valgus Correction Compared to Unilateral [Text] / A.V. Boychenko, L.N. Solomin, S.G. Parfeyev [et al.] // Foot Ankle Int. – 2015. – Nov., Vol. 36(11). – P. 1339–1343. XIV. Endolog technique for correction of hallux valgus : a prospective study of 30 patients with 4-year follow-up [Text] / C. Biz, M. Corradin, I. Petretta [et al.] // J. OrthopSurg Res. – 2015. – Jul. 2, № 10. – P. 102. XV. First metatarsal proximal opening wedge osteotomy for correction of hallux valgus deformity : comparison of straight versus oblique osteotomy [Text] / S.H. Han, E.H. Park, J. Jo [et al.] // Yonsei Med. J. – 2015. – May, Vol. 56(3). – P. 744–752. XVI. Long-term outcome of joint-preserving surgery by combination metatarsal osteotomies for shortening for forefoot deformity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis [Text] / H. Niki, T. Hirano, Y. Akiyama [et al.] // Mod. Rheumatol. – 2015. – Sep., Vol. 25(5). – P. 683–638. XVII. Maceira, E. Transfer metatarsalgia post hallux valgus surgery [Text] / E. Maceira, M. Monteagudo // Foot Ankle Clin. – 2014. – Jun., Vol. 19(2). – P.285–307. XVIII. Nielson, D.L. Absorbable fixation in forefoot surgery : a viable alternative to metallic hardware [Text] / D.L. Nielson, N.J. Young, C.M. Zelen // Clin. Podiatr. Med. Surg. – 2013. – Jul., Vol. 30(3). – P. 283–293 XIX. Patient’s satisfaction after outpatient forefoot surgery : Study of 619 cases [Text] / A. Mouton, V. Le Strat, D. Medevielle [et al.] // Orthop. Traumatol. Surg. Res. – 2015. – Oct., Vol. 101(6 Suppl.). – P. S217–S220. XX. Preference of surgical procedure for the forefoot deformity in the rheumatoid arthritis patients–A prospective, randomized, internal controlled study [Text] / M. Tada, T. Koike, T. Okano [et al.] // Mod. Rheumatol. – 2015. – May., Vol. 25(3). – P.362–366. XXI. Redfern, D. Percutaneous Surgery of the Forefoot [Text] / D. Redfern, J. Vernois, B.P. Legré // Clin. Podiatr. Med. Surg. – 2015. – Jul., Vol. 32(3). – P. 291–332. XXII. Singh, D. Bullous pemphigoid after bilateral forefoot surgery [Text] / D. Singh, A. Swann // Foot Ankle Spec. – 2015. – Feb., Vol. 8(1). – P. 68–72. XXIII. Treatment of moderate hallux valgus by percutaneous, extra-articular reverse-L Chevron (PERC) osteotomy [Text] / J. Lucas y Hernandez, P. Golanó, S. Roshan-Zamir [et al.] // Bone Joint J. – 2016. – Mar., Vol. 98-B(3). – P. 365–373. XXIV. Weil, L.Jr. Scarf osteotomy for correction of hallux abducto valgus deformity [Text] / L.Jr. Weil, M. Bowen // Clin. Podiatr. Med. Surg. – 2014. – Apr., Vol.31(2). – P. 233–246. View | Download QUANTITATIVE ULTRASONOGRAPHY OF THE STOMACH AND SMALL INTESTINE IN HEALTHYDOGS Authors : Roman A. Tcygansky,Irina I. Nekrasova,Angelina N. Shulunova,Alexander I.Sidelnikov, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00045 Abstract : Purpose.To determine the quantitative echogenicity indicators (and their ratio) of the layers of stomach and small intestine wall in healthy dogs. Methods. A prospective 3-year study of 86 healthy dogs (aged 1-7 yrs) of different breeds and of both sexes. Echo homogeneity and echogenicity of the stomach and intestines wall were determined by the method of Silina, T.L., et al. (2010) in absolute values of average brightness levels of ultrasound image pixels using the 8-bit scale with 256 shades of gray. Results. Quantitative echogenicity indicators of the stomach and the small intestine wall in dogs were determined. Based on the numerical values characterizing echogenicity distribution in each layer of a separate structure of the digestive system, the coefficient of gastric echogenicity is determined as 1:2.4:1.1 (mucosa/submucosa/muscle layers, respectively), the coefficient of duodenum and jejunum echogenicity is determined as 1:3.5:2 and that of ileum is 1:1.8:1. Clinical significance. The echogenicity coefficient of the wall of the digestive system allows an objective assessment of the stomach and intestines wall and can serve as the basis for a quantitative assessment of echogenicity changes for various pathologies of the digestive system Keywords : Ultrasound (US),echogenicity,echogenicity coefficient,digestive system,dogs,stomach,intestines, Refference : I. Agut, A. Ultrasound examination of the small intestine in small animals // Veterinary focus. 2009.Vol. 19. No. 1. P. 20-29. II. Bull. 4.RF patent 2398513, IPC51A61B8 / 00 A61B8 / 14 (2006.01) A method for determining the homoechogeneity and the degree of echogenicity of an ultrasound image / T. Silina, S. S. Golubkov. – No. 2008149311/14 ; declared 12/16/2008 ; publ. 09/10/2010 III. Choi, M., Seo, M., Jung, J., Lee, K., Yoon, J., Chang, D., Park, RD. Evaluation of canine gastric motility with ultrasonography // J. of Veterinary Medical Science. – 2002. Vol. 64. – № 1. – P. 17-21. IV. Delaney, F., O’Brien, R.T., Waller, K.Ultrasound evaluation of small bowel thickness compared to weight in normal dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2003 Vol. 44, № 5. Р 577-580. V. Diana, A., Specchi, S., Toaldo, M.B., Chiocchetti, R., Laghi, A., Cipone, M. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of the small bowel in healthy cats // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. – 2011. – Vol. 52, № 5. – Р. 555-559. VI. Garcia, D.A.A., Froes, T.R. Errors in abdominal ultrasonography in dogs and cats // J. of Small Animal Practice. – 2012. Vol. 53. – № 9. – P. 514-519. VII. Garcia, D.A.A., Froes, T.R. Importance of fasting in preparing dogs for abdominal ultrasound examination of specific organs // J. of Small Animal Practice. – 2014. Vol. 55. – № 12. – P. 630-634. VIII. Gaschen, L., Granger, L.A., Oubre, O., Shannon, D., Kearney, M., Gaschen, F. The effects of food intake and its fat composition on intestinal echogenicity in healthy dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2016. Vol. 57. № 5. P. 546-550 IX. Gaschen, L., Kircher, P., Stussi, A., Allenspach, K., Gaschen, F., Doherr, M., Grone, A. Comparison of ultrasonographic findings with clinical activity index (CIBDAI) and diagnosis in dogs with chronic enteropathies // Veterinary radiology and ultrasound. – 2008. – Vol. 49. – № 1. – Р. 56-64. X. Gil, E.M.U. Garcia, D.A.A. Froes, T.R. In utero development of the fetal intestine : Sonographic evaluation and correlation with gestational age and fetal maturity in dogs // Theriogenology. 2015. Vol. 84, №5. Р. 681-686. XI. Gladwin, N.E. Penninck, D.G., Webster, C.R.L. Ultrasonographic evaluation of the thickness of the wall layers in the intestinal tract of dogs // American Journal of Veterinary Research. 2014. Vol. 75, №4. Р. 349-353. XII. Gory, G., Rault, D.N., Gatel, L, Dally, C., Belli, P., Couturier, L., Cauvin, E. Ultrasonographic characteristics of the abdominal esophagus and cardia in dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2014. Vol. 55, № 5. P. 552-560. XIII. Günther, C.S. Lautenschläger, I.E., Scholz, V.B. Assessment of the inter- and intraobserver variability for sonographical measurement of intestinal wall thickness in dogs without gastrointestinal diseases | [Inter-und Intraobserver-Variabilitätbei der sonographischenBestimmung der Darmwanddicke von HundenohnegastrointestinaleErkrankungen] // Tierarztliche Praxis Ausgabe K : Kleintiere – Heimtiere. 2014. Vol. 42 №2. Р. 71-78. XIV. Hanazono, K., Fukumoto, S., Hirayama, K., Takashima, K., Yamane, Y., Natsuhori, M., Kadosawa, T., Uchide, T. Predicting Metastatic Potential of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in dog by ultrasonography // J. of Veterinary Medical Science. – 2012. Vol. 74. – № 11. – P. 1477-1482. XV. Heng, H.G., Lim, Ch.K., Miller, M.A., Broman, M.M.Prevalence and significance of an ultrasonographic colonic muscularishyperechoic band paralleling the serosal layer in dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2015. Vol. 56 № 6. P. 666-669. XVI. Ivančić, M., Mai, W. Qualitative and quantitative comparison of renal vs. hepatic ultrasonographic intensity in healthy dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2008. Vol. 49. № 4. Р. 368-373. XVII. Lamb, C.R., Mantis, P. Ultrasonographic features of intestinal intussusception in 10 dogs // J. of Small Animal Practice. – 2008. Vol. 39. – № 9. – P. 437-441. XVIII. Le Roux, A. B., Granger, L.A., Wakamatsu, N, Kearney, M.T., Gaschen, L.Ex vivo correlation of ultrasonographic small intestinal wall layering with histology in dogs // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound.2016. Vol. 57. № 5. P. 534-545. XIX. Nielsen, T. High-frequency ultrasound of Peyer’s patches in the small intestine of young cats / T. Nielsen [et al.] // Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. – 2015. – Vol. 18, № 4. – Р. 303-309. XX. PenninckD.G. Gastrointestinal tract. In Nyland T.G., Mattoon J.S. (eds) : Small Animal Diagnostic Ultrasound. Philadelphia : WB Saunders. 2002, 2nd ed. Р. 207-230. XXI. PenninckD.G. Gastrointestinal tract. In : PenninckD.G.,d´Anjou M.A. Atlas of Small Animal Ultrasonography. Blackwell Publishing, Iowa. 2008. Р. 281-318. XXII. Penninck, D.G., Nyland, T.G., Kerr, L.Y., Fisher, P.E. Ultrasonographic evaluation of gastrointestinal diseases in small animals // Veterinary Radiology. 1990. Vol. 31. №3. P. 134-141. XXIII. Penninck, D.G.,Webster, C.R.L.,Keating, J.H. The sonographic appearance of intestinal mucosal fibrosis in cats // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. – 2010. – Vol. 51, № 4. – Р. 458-461. XXIV. Pollard, R.E.,Johnson, E.G., Pesavento, P.A., Baker, T.W., Cannon, A.B., Kass, P.H., Marks, S.L. Effects of corn oil administered orally on conspicuity of ultrasonographic small intestinal lesions in dogs with lymphangiectasia // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2013. Vol. 54. № 4. P. 390-397. XXV. Rault, D.N., Besso, J.G., Boulouha, L., Begon, D., Ruel, Y. Significance of a common extended mucosal interface observed in transverse small intestine sonograms // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. 2004. Vol. 45. №2. Р. 177-179. XXVI. Sutherland-Smith, J., Penninck, D.G., Keating, J.H., Webster, C.R.L. Ultrasonographic intestinal hyperechoic mucosal striations in dogs are associated with lacteal dilation // Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. – 2007. Vol. 48. – № 1. – P. 51-57. View | Download EVALUATION OF ADAPTIVE POTENTIAL IN MEDICAL STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF SEASONAL DYNAMICS Authors : Larisa A. Merdenova,Elena A. Takoeva,Marina I. Nartikoeva,Victoria A. Belyayeva,Fatima S. Datieva,Larisa R. Datieva, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00046 Abstract : The aim of this work was to assess the functional reserves of the body to quantify individual health ; adaptation, psychophysiological characteristics of the health quality of medical students in different seasons of the year. When studying the temporal organization of physiological functions, the rhythm parameters of physiological functions were determined, followed by processing the results using the Cosinor Analysis program, which reveals rhythms with an unknown period for unequal observations, evaluates 5 parameters of sinusoidal rhythms (mesor, amplitude, acrophase, period, reliability). The essence of desynchronization is the mismatch of circadian rhythms among themselves or destruction of the rhythms architectonics (instability of acrophases or their disappearance). Desynchronization with respect to the rhythmic structure of the body is of a disregulatory nature, most pronounced in pathological desynchronization. High neurotism, increased anxiety reinforces the tendency to internal desynchronization, which increases with stress. During examination stress, students experience a decrease in the stability of the temporary organization of the biosystem and the tension of adaptive mechanisms develops, which affects attention, mental performance and the quality of adaptation to the educational process. Time is shortened and the amplitude of the “initial minute” decreases, personal and situational anxiety develops, and the level of psychophysiological adaptation decreases. The results of the work are priority because they can be used in assessing quality and level of health. Keywords : Desynchronosis,biorhythms,psycho-emotional stress,mesor,acrophase,amplitude,individual minute, Refference : I. Arendt, J., Middleton, B. Human seasonal and circadian studies in Antarctica (Halley, 75_S) – General and Comparative Endocrinology. 2017 : 250-259. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2017.05.010). II. BalandinYu.P. A brief methodological guide on the use of the agro-industrial complex “Health Sources” / Yu.P. Balandin, V.S. Generalov, V.F. Shishlov. Ryazan, 2007. III. Buslovskaya L.K. Adaptation reactions in students at exam stress/ L.K. Buslovskaya, Yu.P. Ryzhkova. Scientific bulletin of Belgorod State University. Series : Natural Sciences. 2011;17(21):46-52. IV. Chutko L. S. Sindromjemocionalnogovygoranija – Klinicheskie I psihologicheskieaspekty./ L.S Chutko. Moscow : MEDpress-inform, 2013. V. Eroshina K., Paul Wilkinson, Martin Mackey. The role of environmental and social factors in the occurrence of diseases of the respiratory tract in children of primary school age in Moscow. Medicine. 2013:57-71. VI. Fagrell B. “Microcirculation of the Skin”. The physiology and pharmacology of the microcirculation. 2013:423. VII. Gurova O.A. Change in blood microcirculation in students throughout the day. New research. 2013 ; 2 (35):66-71. VIII. Khetagurova L.G. – Stress/Ed. L.G. Khetagurov. Vladikavkaz : Project-Press Publishing House, 2010. IX. Khetagurova L.G., Urumova L.T. et al. Stress (chronomedical aspects). International Journal of Experimental Education 2010 ; 12 : 30-31. X. Khetagurova L.G., Salbiev K.D., Belyaev S.D., Datieva F.S., Kataeva M.R., Tagaeva I.R. Chronopathology (experimental and clinical aspects/ Ed. L.G. Khetagurov, K.D. Salbiev, S.D.Belyaev, F.S. Datiev, M.R. Kataev, I.R. Tagaev. Moscow : Science, 2004. XI. KlassinaS.Ya. Self-regulatory reactions in the microvasculature of the nail bed of fingers in person with psycho-emotional stress. Bulletin of new medical technologies, 2013 ; 2 (XX):408-412. XII. Kovtun O.P., Anufrieva E.V., Polushina L.G. Gender-age characteristics of the component composition of the body in overweight and obese schoolchildren. Medical Science and Education of the Urals. 2019 ; 3:139-145. XIII. Kuchieva M.B., Chaplygina E.V., Vartanova O.T., Aksenova O.A., Evtushenko A.V., Nor-Arevyan K.A., Elizarova E.S., Efremova E.N. A comparative analysis of the constitutional features of various generations of healthy young men and women in the Rostov Region. Modern problems of science and education. 2017 ; 5:50-59. XIV. Mathias Adamsson1, ThorbjörnLaike, Takeshi Morita – Annual variation in daily light expo-sure and circadian change of melatonin and cortisol consent rations at a northern latitude with large seasonal differences in photoperiod length – Journal of Physiological Anthropology. 2017 ; 36 : 6 – 15. XV. Merdenova L.A., Tagaeva I.R., Takoeva E.A. Features of the study of biological rhythms in children. The results of fundamental and applied research in the field of natural and technical sciences. Materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference. Belgorod, 2017, pp. 119-123. XVI. Ogarysheva N.V. The dynamics of mental performance as a criterion for adapting to the teaching load. Bulletin of the Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2014;16:5 (1) : S.636-638. XVII. Pekmezovi T. Gene-environment interaction : A genetic-epidemiological approach. Journal of Medical Biochemistry. 2010;29:131-134. XVIII. Rapoport S.I., Chibisov S.M. Chronobiology and chronomedicine : history and prospects/Ed. S.M. Chibisov, S.I. Rapoport ,, M.L. Blagonravova. Chronobiology and Chronomedicine : Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) Press. Moscow, 2018. XIX. Roustit M., Cracowski J.L. “Non-invasive assessment of skin microvascular function in humans : an insight into methods” – Microcirculation 2012 ; 19 (1) : 47-64. XX. Rud V.O., FisunYu.O. – References of the circadian desinchronosis in students. Ukrainian Bulletin of Psychoneurology. 2010 ; 18(2) (63) : 74-77. XXI. Takoeva Z. A., Medoeva N. O., Berezova D. T., Merdenova L. A. et al. Long-term analysis of the results of chronomonitoring of the health of the population of North Ossetia ; Vladikavkaz Medical and Biological Bulletin. 2011 ; 12(12,19) : 32-38. XXII. Urumova L.T., Tagaeva I.R., Takoeva E.A., Datieva L.R. – The study of some health indicators of medical students in different periods of the year. Health and education in the XXI century. 2016 ; 18(4) : 94-97. XXIII. Westman J. – Complex diseases. In : Medical genetics for the modern clinician. USA : Lippincott Williams & ; Wilkins, 2006. XXIV. Yadrischenskaya T.V. Circadian biorhythms of students and their importance in educational activities. Problems of higher education. Pacific State University Press. 2016 ; 2:176-178. View | Download TRIADIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Authors : Stanislav A.Kudzh,Victor Ya. Tsvetkov, DOI : https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00047 Abstract : The present study of comparison methods based on the triadic model introduces the following concepts : the relation of comparability and the relation of comparison, and object comparison and attributive comparison. The difference between active and passive qualitative comparison is shown, two triadic models of passive and active comparison and models for comparing two and three objects are described. Triadic comparison models are proposed as an alternative to dyadic comparison models. Comparison allows finding the common and the different ; this approach is proposed for the analysis of the nomothetic and ideographic method of obtaining knowledge. The nomothetic method identifies and evaluates the general, while the ideographic method searches for unique in parameters and in combinations of parameters. Triadic comparison is used in systems and methods of argumentation, as well as in the analysis of consistency/inconsistency. Keywords : Comparative analysis,dyad,triad,triadic model,comparability relation,object comparison,attributive comparison,nomothetic method,ideographic method, Refference : I. 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F., PrakkenH., WaltonD. The Carneades model of argument and burden of proof. Artificial Intelligence 10(15) (2007) 875{896. VIII. GrenzS.J. The social god and the relational self : A Triad theology of the imago Dei. Westminster : John Knox Press, 2001. IX. HermansH.J. M.On the integration of nomothetic and idiographic research methods in the study of personal meaning.Journal of Personality 56(4) (1988) 785{812. X. JamiesonK. G., NowakR. Active ranking using pairwise comparisons.Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (2011) 2240{2248. XI. JongsmaC.Poythress’s triad logic : a review essay. Pro Rege 42(4) (2014) 6{15. XII. KärkkäinenV.M. Trinity and Religious Pluralism : The Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology of Religions. London : Routledge, 2017. XIII. KudzhS. A., TsvetkovV.Ya. Triadic systems. Russian Technology Magazine 7(6) (2019) 74{882. XIV. NelsonK.E.Some observations from the perspective of the rare event cognitive comparison theory of language acquisition.Children’s Language 6 (1987) 289{331. XV. NiskanenA., WallnerJ., JärvisaloM.Synthesizing argumentation frameworks from examples. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 66 (2019) 503{554. XVI. PührerJ.Realizability of three-valued semantics for abstract dialectical frameworks.Artificial Intelligence 278 (2020) 103{198. XVII. SwansonG.Frameworks for comparative research : structural anthropology and the theory of action. In : Vallier, Ivan (Ed.). Comparative methods in sociology : essays on trends and applications.Berkeley : University of California Press, 1971 141{202. XVIII. TsvetkovV.Ya.Worldview model as the result of education.World Applied Sciences Journal 31(2) (2014) 211{215. XIX. TsvetkovV. Ya. Logical analysis and variable scales. Slavic Forum 4(22) (2018) 103{109. XX. Wang S. et al. Transit traffic analysis zone delineating method based on Thiessen polygon. Sustainability 6(4) (2014) 1821{1832. View | Download DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY OF CREATING WEAR-RESISTANT CERAMIC COATING FOR ICE CYLINDER ». JOURNAL OF MECHANICS OF CONTINUA AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES spl10, no 1 (28 juin 2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.spl.10/2020.06.00048.
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