Awa Surfers: Riding the syncretic dynamics of sound art and traditional Japanese indigo

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-163
Author(s):  
Norbert Herber

Awa-ai is the indigo plant and dye made famous hundreds of years ago in Japan by the people living and working in the region now known as Tokushima Prefecture. This article explores the core concepts that link the aged traditions of indigo production, processing and dyeing with contemporary sound practice, and outlines the facets of a collaboration in which disparate fields not only coexisted, but used their technological and cultural differences to strengthen one another. Live field recordings, audio interviews and the sounds of Awa indigo production and practice were used in a large-scale, transcontinental installation which featured over 200 pieces of indigo-dyed cloth and multichannel, interactive sound. The collaborative nature of this project allowed the artists involved to understand and conceptualise their work in new ways, and can serve as an example for the ways in which syncretic exploration energises creative thinking and output.

Author(s):  
Elias Markstedt ◽  
Lena Wängnerud ◽  
Maria Solevid ◽  
Monika Djerf-Pierre

The rationale for this study is that self-categorising rating scales are becoming increasingly popular in large-scale survey research moving beyond binary ways of measuring gender. We are referring here to the use of rating scales that are similar to graded scales capturing left–right or liberal–conservative political ideology, that is, scales that do not include predefinitions of the core concepts (femininity/masculinity, as compared to left/right or liberal/conservative). Yet, previous studies including such non-binary gender measures have paid little attention to potential effects of survey designs. Using an experimental set-up, we are able to show that sequencing of gender measurements influences the answers received. Men were especially affected by our treatments and rated themselves as significantly ‘less masculine’ when prompted to reason about the meaning of gender prior to self-categorisation on scales measuring degrees of femininity and masculinity. Moreover, self-categorising seems to trigger more biological understandings of gender than anticipated in theory.<br /><br />Key messages<ul><li>Sequencing of gender measurements influences answers received in a survey.</li><li>Men rate themselves as ‘less masculine’ when prompted to reason about gender prior to answering gender scales.</li><li>Self-categorising gender scales trigger more biological understandings of gender than anticipated in theory.</li></ul>


Author(s):  
Scott Guggenheim

AbstractMichael Cernea’s key insight was that the core concepts of sociology and anthropology—social organization, culture, participation, and symbolic construction—could improve the quality and effectiveness of development. His key achievement was in the fact that he and the people he inspired were able to bridge the gap between analyst and practitioner to show that these anthropological and sociological concepts really could make a difference in how development affected the poor. In this article, I’ll do my best to use describe my own journey from naïve graduate student to World Bank team leader for the Kecamatan Development Program, one of the world’s earliest and largest community development programs.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Layne ◽  
Abigail Gewirtz ◽  
Chandra Ghosh Ippen ◽  
Renee Dominguez ◽  
Robert Abramovitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Core ◽  

2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-83
Author(s):  
Pascal Schneider ◽  
Jean-Pierre Sorg

In and around the state-owned forest of Farako in the region of Sikasso, Mali, a large-scale study focused on finding a compromise allowing the existential and legitimate needs of the population to be met and at the same time conserving the forest resources in the long term. The first step in research was to sketch out the rural socio-economic context and determine the needs for natural resources for autoconsumption and commercial use as well as the demand for non-material forest services. Simultaneously, the environmental context of the forest and the resources available were evaluated by means of inventories with regard to quality and quantity. According to an in-depth comparison between demand and potential, there is a differentiated view of the suitability of the forest to meet the needs of the people living nearby. Propositions for a multipurpose management of the forest were drawn up. This contribution deals with some basic elements of research methodology as well as with results of the study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 345-350
Author(s):  
Ali Hajro

The Current and future leaders live in a turbulent and chaotic environment, where the real power of acting derives from the recognition of the concept of change and looking for options. In this type of environment a lot of competence is necessary for the leaders to survive. The aim of this study case was to explore i.e. gain a clearer picture of the position of the leader, their characteristics, functions, levels, the core and the factors affecting the leader and their leadership. To see what type of leader the people want simply to draw conclusions about the characteristics, qualities and techniques of a leader and their leadership. So that in the end, to have empirical proof of the leader. The set goal in this study case is today’s leaders in everyday process, starting from the very beginning of their work, to serve as an example in developing inter-personal skills at the same time as treating people with dignity and respect. In other words, they have to possess leadership skills, characteristics and the necessary actions. This research aims at finding out the real attributes that is the profile of a leader and their leadership running an organization regardless if it is economic, political, and military or some other non-governmental organization. The values are more than a set of rules, they are not only behavior code, and they say what a leader should be every day in every action that they take. The values shade the leaders’ identity and the organization that they run.


Author(s):  
Leif Wenar

Article 1 of both of the major human rights covenants declares that the people of each country “shall freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.” This chapter considers what conditions would have to hold for the people of a country to exercise this right—and why public accountability over natural resources is the only realistic solution to the “resource curse,” which makes resource-rich countries more prone to authoritarianism, civil conflict, and large-scale corruption. It also discusses why cosmopolitans, who have often been highly critical of prerogatives of state sovereignty, have good reason to endorse popular sovereignty over natural resources. Those who hope for more cosmopolitan institutions should see strengthening popular resource sovereignty as the most responsible path to achieving their own goals.


Jumping, climbing and suspensory locomotion are specialized locomotor mechanisms used on land and in the air. Jumping is used for rapid launches from substrates. Climbing and suspensory movements enable locomotion up, under and through vertically-structured habitats, such as forests. Elastic energy storage is particularly important for jumping and catapult systems and we address the core concepts of power amplification that are exemplified in nature’s extreme jumpers. We examine the diverse mechanisms of attachment that characterize animals that can grasp and adhere to a diversity of structures. We conclude the chapter by examining the integration of biological capabilities with engineering innovations in these systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
Laura Cervi ◽  
Fernando García ◽  
Carles Marín Lladó

During a global pandemic, the great impact of populist discourse on the construction of social reality is undeniable. This study analyzes the fantasmatic dimension of political discourse from Donald Trump’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s Twitter accounts between 1 March and 31 May. To do so, it applies a Clause-Based Semantic Text Analysis (CBSTA) methodology that categorizes speech in Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) triplets. The study findings show that in spite of the Coronavirus pandemic, the main beatific and horrific subjects remain the core populist signifiers: the people and the elite. While Bolsonaro’s narrative was predominantly beatific, centered on the government, Trump’s was mostly horrific, centered on the elite. Trump signified the pandemic as a subject and an enemy to be defeated, whereas Bolsonaro portrayed it as a circumstance. Finally, both leaders defined the people as working people, therefore their concerns about the pandemic were focused on the people’s ability to work.


Author(s):  
Yusuf Cinar ◽  
Peter Pocta ◽  
Desmond Chambers ◽  
Hugh Melvin

This work studies the jitter buffer management algorithm for Voice over IP in WebRTC. In particular, it details the core concepts of WebRTC’s jitter buffer management. Furthermore, it investigates how jitter buffer management algorithm behaves under network conditions with packet bursts. It also proposes an approach, different from the default WebRTC algorithm, to avoid distortions that occur under such network conditions. Under packet bursts, when the packet buffer becomes full, the WebRTC jitter buffer algorithm may discard all the packets in the buffer to make room for incoming packets. The proposed approach offers a novel strategy to minimize the number of packets discarded in the presence of packet bursts. Therefore, voice quality as perceived by the user is improved. ITU-T Rec. P.863, which also confirms the improvement, is employed to objectively evaluate the listening quality.


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