Postcards from the mind

Gesture ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Peter de Ruiter

In this paper, I compare three different assumptions about the relationship between speech, thought and gesture. These assumptions have profound consequences for theories about the representations and processing involved in gesture and speech production. I associate these assumptions with three simplified processing architectures. In the Window Architecture, gesture provides us with a ‘window into the mind’. In the Language Architecture, properties of language have an influence on gesture. In the Postcard Architecture, gesture and speech are planned by a single process to become one multimodal message. The popular Window Architecture is based on the assumption that gestures come, as it were, straight out of the mind. I argue that during the creation of overt imagistic gestures, many processes, especially those related to (a) recipient design, and (b) effects of language structure, cause an observable gesture to be very different from the original thought that it expresses. The Language Architecture and the Postcard Architecture differ from the Window Architecture in that they both incorporate a central component which plans gesture and speech together, however they differ from each other in the way they align gesture and speech. The Postcard Architecture assumes that the process creating a multimodal message involving both gesture and speech has access to the concepts that are available in speech, while the Language Architecture relies on interprocess communication to resolve potential conflicts between the content of gesture and speech.

2006 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Crawford

Long before Australia's first commercial television broadcasts in 1956, advertising agencies and advertisers had been preparing themselves for what they believed would be the greatest ever selling medium. The creation of a new outlet for advertisements was not the industry's sole cause of excitement. Having dominated commercial radio, the advertising industry looked forward to extending its influence. These dreams, however, were only partially fulfilled. While television enabled the industry to broadcast its commercial messages in a more effective way, legislation prevented it from controlling television in the way that it had with radio. This would have a significant impact on the relationship between the two industries. By examining television's impact on the advertising industry, this paper demonstrates that the medium of TV not only altered the face of advertising; it also caused a fundamental change in the structure and operation of Australia's advertising industry.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Jaulin

No major citizenship reform has been adopted in Lebanon since the creation of the Lebanese citizenship in 1924. Moreover, access to citizenship for foreign residents does not depend on established administrative rules and processes, but instead on ad hoc political decisions. The Lebanese citizenship regime is thus characterized by immobilism and discretion. This paper looks at the relationship between citizenship regime and confessional democracy, defined as a system of power sharing between different religious groups. It argues that confessional democracy hinders citizenship reform and paves the way to arbitrary naturalization practices, and that, in turn, the citizenship regime contributes to the resilience of the political system. In other words, the citizenship regime and the political system are mutually reinforcing.


1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Suely Maria De Paula e Silva Lobo

This dissertation is addressed to undergraduate students of the modern English novel. It presents a study of the relationship space/character in Muriel Spark's novels Robinson (1958) and The Mandelbaum Gate (1965). The analysis of this relationship shows to what extent geographical places are representative of the characters' inner spaces. It dwells on the several ways this relationship is effected and on their adequacy as an important element of characterportrayal. The analysis likewise stresses the multiple devices used by the writer to build up a sort of narrative which, at the same time, provides factual inferration and encourages analysis at the symbolic level. It also demonstrates how the two levels run parallel to each other and the way the literal underprops the symbolic.


Author(s):  
Giulio Argenio

In May 1950 L. R. Hubbard published in a science fiction magazine “Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science”, which would later form the basis of Scientology. Emerging from the technocratic mindset typically associated with the periodical, the article considered the human brain as a computer in need of rewiring, giving birth to a peculiar kind of utopian thinking whose aim was not the creation of a ‘new man’, but the return to an original perfection of the mind. Through an examination of this text and its context, I propose to investigate the relationship between engineering culture and literary fictions, trying to understand how the mind-computer analogy shaped the vision of a regenerated society.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Asuncion L. Magsino

As a counterargument to the Cartesian split that has impacted both speculative and practical fields of knowledge and culture, we propose Peirce’s doctrine of synechism to show the continuity in the semiotic activity that moves from the body as an Interpretant to the emergence of another Interpretant called the “self.” Biosemiotics, a nascent field of interdisciplinary research that tackles inquiries about signs, communication, and information involving living organisms is used as the framework in the discussion. The main question of whether a non-material “self” can emerge from a material body is tackled in many stages. First, the biosemiotic continuum is established in the natural biological processes that takes place in the body. These processes can be taken as an autonomous semiotic system generating the “language” of the body or the Primary Modeling System (PMS). Second, synechism is also observed in the relationship between the mind and the body and this is evident in any physician’s clinical practice. The patient creates a Secondary Modeling System (SMS) of how she perceives what the body communicates to her regarding its state or condition. Finally, the question about whether the emergence of “self” is synechistic as well is tackled. There is one organ from which emerges an Interpretant that is capable of generating a dialog between a Subject, that is the “self,” with its Object, and that is the brain. It is the primordial seat of specifically human activities like thought and language. The recent theory on quantum consciousness supports the doctrine synechism between the body as Interpretant to the “self” as Interpretant. This synechism is crucial for the creation of Secondary Models of “reality” that will, in turn, determine the creation of Tertiary Models more familiarly called culture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139
Author(s):  
Zinaida Bolea

Abstract Creation is a fundamental definition of genius, and we are wondering if those minds that created totalitarian systems, could remain in human history through destructive impact on millions of people’s minds, and could they possibly be included in genius category. Certainly, we could support the idea of the participation of these people in the creation process – in the creation of ideology of a new world, of a new Human etc. At the same time, the Real Human is perceived only as an object that can be manipulated, overwhelmed, dominated, controlled, destroyed etc., “love” and “investment” of the evil genius being dedicated to a non-existent Ideal Human. We are trying to understand what are the pillars of the relationship with the Others, and the dictators’ great seduction capacity. In the condition of the incapacity and inability of these personalities to appreciate humanity, most of them were able to provoke admiration. In the context of these paradoxical relations, becomes noticeable the responsibility of understanding the way perverse mind speaks with our minds in a way that we became available consciously or unconsciously to join in this destructive creation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (129) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Renato Alves De Oliveira

O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar que a questão referente aos dois princípios metafísicos constitutivos da antropologia cristã, o corpo/matéria e a alma/espírito, e a forma de conceber a relação entre eles encontra-se presentes no subsolo das novas antropologias materialistas, mas com um novo verniz através da relação entre a mente e o cérebro. Para a antropologia cristã, a existência do binômio corpo-alma é uma questão resolvida. As discussões se concentram na forma de conceber a relação entre ambos os princípios. Analogamente, para algumas antropologias materialistas atuais, a existência da mente e do cérebro é uma questão fechada. Os confrontos encontram-se na forma de conceber as relações entre a mente e o cérebro: há uma identificação ou distinção entres ambas as realidades? A mente seria uma qualidade emergente do cérebro? ABSTRACT: The purpose of this article is to show that the question concerning the two constituent metaphysical principles of Christian anthropology, body/matter and soul/spirit, and the way of conceiving the relationship between them is presente in the basement of the new materialist anthropologies, but with a new varnish through the relationship between mind and brain. For Christian anthropology, the existence of the binomial soul/body is a settled issue. The discussions focus on how to design the relationship between the two principles. Similarly, for some current materialistic anthropologies, the existence of the mind and the brain is a closed question. The clashes are the way of conceiving the relationship between mind and brain: Is there an identification or a distinction between the two realities? Would be the mind an emergent quality of the brain?


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Desti Yuwastina ◽  
Kyrychenko Volodymyr

<p><em>Ondel-ondel</em>, initially believed to have fearsome characteristics and magical ability to ward evil spirits off, is still performed in various areas in Jakarta on particular occasions. <em>Ondel-ondel</em> was originally an ancient artwork named <em>barongan</em>. This research aims to seek a theoretical explanation of the <em>ondel</em>-<em>ondel</em> phenomenon by examining the relationship between the media and local culture. Several defining features of postmodernism are incorporated to reframe <em>ondel-ondel</em> as a form of entertainment, along with the interplay between the tradition and technology-assisted media. This paper seeks to reveal the actual meaning of <em>ondel-ondel</em> for locals and non-locals during their encounters with <em>ondel-ondel</em>. The research found (1) that<em> ondel-ondel</em> is an attempt to reinvent the way people seek entertainment in the face of changes brought about by modernity and (2) that the presence of<em> ondel-ondel</em> communicated in the virtual space generates digital traces in the form of messages contributing to the creation and the re-creation of <em>ondel-ondel</em> itself. </p>


Edward Lear ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 78-106
Author(s):  
James Williams

This chapter is about Lear’s experiences as a traveller, and how they shaped him as a writer. It considers the way his poems and paintings are animated by dramas of arrival, departure, and being left behind. It considers, using evidence from Lear’s travel writing, the relationship between the experience of being a foreigner, and hearing unfamiliar languages, and the creation of nonsense words. It concludes with an extended close reading of “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò”.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-41
Author(s):  
Jessica Collier

This short article explores the relationship between sexual perversion, as defined by Estela Welldon and illustrated by the late architect and author, Martin Frishman, and the work of the nineteenth-century artist, Aubrey Beardsley. It primarily argues that in both the acting out of sexual perversion and the creation of illustrations considered perverse, there is a shared desire to transform the experience of shame into the experience of fame. In the perpetrating of a perverse sexual offence, the assault can be regarded as an uncontrollable compelling urge for immediate action. Despite knowing this action is wrong, the offender cannot resist the impulse. The action of the assault offers immediate relief from unbearable anxiety and ultimately transfigures shame, however briefly, into fame. In the creation of sexualised and scandalous drawings, it is argued that the feeling of shame is sublimated, and the desire for fame is achieved without the destructive and perverse use of violence. It contemplates how Beardsley’s provocative drawings, in particular his illustrations for Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata, may have influenced the aesthetic of Frishman’s images explaining perversion as a manic defence against depression. Lastly, it considers the way in which unconscious societal prejudice may lead to confusion between sexual perversion and sexual difference.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document