Race and the digital face: Facial (mis)recognition in Gemini Man

Author(s):  
Tanine Allison

Ang Lee’s 2019 film Gemini Man features the most realistic digital human to grace the cinematic screen, specifically a computer-generated version of young Will Smith who battles his more aged self throughout the film. And for the first time in film history, this photorealistic digital human is Black. This essay explores why this groundbreaking achievement has not been acknowledged or celebrated by the film's production or publicity teams. I argue that Will Smith’s particular “post-racial” identity mediates contemporary concerns related to the racialized implications of facial recognition and other digital imaging technologies, as well as to the future of the film industry in the digital age. In the second half of the essay, I examine how the appearance of Will Smith in deepfake parody videos illustrates how race circulates on screens of various media formats. I conclude with a call to use digital visual effects, deepfake tools, and other advanced technologies to further racial justice instead of repeating the problematic usage of the past.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabet Björklund

Swedish filmmaker Jan Halldoff’s fiction film Korridoren (The Corridor) premiered in 1968 to a mainly positive Swedish reception. Shot at Karolinska Hospital and criticizing the Swedish healthcare system, the film became much debated and can furthermore be seen as a turning point in Swedish film history regarding the portrayal of medical institutions and professionals. In this article, the film and its reception are analysed in relation to the Swedish debate on abortion at the time. While the film is clearly critical of Swedish welfare society, the way it depicts abortion is more conservative. Highlighting this as well as the role of actual medical professionals in the film, the article demonstrates how the film relates to representations of abortion in the past and discusses connections between the film industry and medicine at this historical moment.


Helia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Araslanova ◽  
Tatiana Antonova ◽  
Ekaterina Lepeshko ◽  
Tatiana Usatenko ◽  
Svetlana Saukova ◽  
...  

Abstract Over the past two decades, there was observed a widespread of rust on sunflower in some regions of Russia. The identification of the racial structure of Puccinia helianthi populations in Russia has not been done since the early 80s of the last century. At that time, races 100 and 300 were identified. In our recent study, in addition to these races, new biotypes: 700, 710, 722, 772 were identified for the first time. The purpose of this study is to determine the racial identity of 160 P. helianthi isolates collected from 2018 to 2020 in the Rostov, Saratov, and Krasnodar regions. We used eight standard differentiating lines of sunflower: SM-90, SM 29, R-386, HАR-1, HАR-2, HAR-3, HAR-4, HAR-5. Sunflower variety VNIIMK 8883 was used as a differentiator susceptible to all races of the pathogen. In addition to the six races mentioned above, we identified 11 more new races for the first time: 304, 351, 352, 364, 704, 736, 740, 741, 745, 760, 762. Race 700 prevailed among the isolates collected in the Rostov region in 2020; we also identified single specimens of races 760, 762. Thus, 17 races of P. helianthi were found on sunflower in three regions of the Russian Federation. Other races may be also present here, so further research is required.


2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 255-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Bačík ◽  
Michal Klobučník

Abstract The Tour de France, a three week bicycle race has a unique place in the world of sports. The 100th edition of the event took place in 2013. In the past of 110 years of its history, people noticed unique stories and duels in particular periods, celebrities that became legends that the world of sports will never forget. Also many places where the races unfolded made history in the Tour de France. In this article we tried to point out the spatial context of this event using advanced technologies for distribution of historical facts over the Internet. The Introduction briefly displays the attendance of a particular stage based on a regional point of view. The main topic deals with selected historical aspects of difficult ascents which every year decide the winner of Tour de France, and also attract fans from all over the world. In the final stage of the research, the distribution of results on the website available to a wide circle of fans of this sports event played a very significant part (www.tdfrance.eu). Using advanced methods and procedures we have tried to capture the historical and spatial dimensions of Tour de France in its general form and thus offering a new view of this unique sports event not only to the expert community, but for the general public as well.


Author(s):  
E. W. Nikdel

With the advent of online distribution and the rise of multiple media devices, claims of the cinema’s imminent death have surfaced with greater intensity than ever before. Of course, with an ever-widening array of platforms these accounts have placed a newfound emphasis on the cinema as a distinctive physical space, one that plays host to a very particular and much cherished cultural activity. This article considers the substance of these claims by tracing a very particular historical route. Firstly, be revisiting Baudry’s notion of the dispositif, this article detects the importance of the physical environment in the process of film consumption. Secondly, I relate this emphasis on the physical to the traditional notion of the cinephile, a practice that ritualises the cinema experience. Many accounts across the spectrum of film history will attest to the profound ways in which the physical experience of the cinema summons a rich emotional response. Lastly, I consider how the cinema and the collective nature of film consumption provides an authentic trace to the past and a very certain time and place in history. In turn, despite competition from cheaper and more convenient platforms, this article will endeavour to show how the cinema retains its place at the centre of contemporary film culture. KEYWORDS Cinema, dispositif, cinephilia, cultural memory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
D. A. Abgadzhava ◽  
A. S. Vlaskina

War is an essential part of the social reality inherent in all stages of human development: from the primitive communal system to the present, where advanced technologies and social progress prevail. However, these characteristics do not make our society more peaceful, on the contrary, according to recent research and reality, now the number of wars and armed conflicts have increased, and most of the conflicts have a pronounced local intra-state character. Thus, wars in the classical sense of them go back to the past, giving way to military and armed conflicts. Now the number of soldiers and the big army doesn’t show the opponents strength. What is more important is the fact that people can use technology, the ideological and informational base to win the war. According to the history, «weak» opponent can be more successful in conflict if he has greater cohesion and ideological unity. Modern wars have already transcended the political boundaries of states, under the pressure of certain trends, they are transformed into transnational wars, that based on privatization, commercialization and obtaining revenue. Thus, the present paper will show a difference in understanding of terms such as «war», «military conflict» and «armed conflict». And also the auteurs will tell about the image of modern war and forecasts for its future transformation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Tina Magazzini

Contemporary European societies are increasingly diverse. Migration both within and to Europe has contributed over the past decades to the rise of new religious, racial, ethnic, social, cultural and economic inequality. Such transformations have raised questions about the (multi-level) governance of diversity in Europe, thus determining new challenges for both scholars and policy-makers. Whilst the debate around diversity stemming from migration has become a major topic in urban studies, political science and sociology in Europe, Critical Race Studies and Intersectionality have become central in US approaches to understanding inequality and social injustice. Among the fields where ‘managing diversity’ has become particularly pressing, methodological issues on how to best approach minorities that suffer from multiple discrimination represent some of the hottest subjects of concern. Stemming from the interest in putting into dialogue the existing American scholarship on CRT and anti-discrimination with the European focus on migrant integration, this paper explores the issue of integration in relation to intersectionality by merging the two frames. In doing so, it provides some observations about the complementarity of a racial justice approach for facing the new diversity-related challenges in European polity. In particular, it illustrates how Critical Race Studies can contribute to the analysis of inequality in Europe while drawing on the integration literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1204
Author(s):  
Nadia Delavarpour ◽  
Cengiz Koparan ◽  
John Nowatzki ◽  
Sreekala Bajwa ◽  
Xin Sun

The incorporation of advanced technologies into Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) platforms have enabled many practical applications in Precision Agriculture (PA) over the past decade. These PA tools offer capabilities that increase agricultural productivity and inputs’ efficiency and minimize operational costs simultaneously. However, these platforms also have some constraints that limit the application of UAVs in agricultural operations. The constraints include limitations in providing imagery of adequate spatial and temporal resolutions, dependency on weather conditions, and geometric and radiometric correction requirements. In this paper, a practical guide on technical characterizations of common types of UAVs used in PA is presented. This paper helps select the most suitable UAVs and on-board sensors for different agricultural operations by considering all the possible constraints. Over a hundred research studies were reviewed on UAVs applications in PA and practical challenges in monitoring and mapping field crops. We concluded by providing suggestions and future directions to overcome challenges in optimizing operational proficiency.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1893-1893
Author(s):  
I. Manor ◽  
G. Yazpan

ADHD is a well-known, chronic disorder that persists in adulthood. During the past 20 years its existence in adults is becoming clearer, yet its dynamic aspects are rarely discussed. The treatment of adults is vital, as much as that of children; however the literature discussing it, especially its non-pharmacological aspect, is scarce.We describe the results of our treatment with drama-therapy of two groups of adults with ADHD. These groups included 11 adults (from both groups), men and women, from most socioeconomic strata, aged ≥ 60 yrs., who were diagnosed as suffering from ADHD and were treated for it for the first time in their life. Drama-therapy was selected as we believed it to be a useful method with associative, distracted ADHD patients, since it enabled the use of transitional space through non-verbal images and acts.This presentation discusses the basic themes with which patients began therapy. Interestingly, all patients, however different, shared the same themes that were built on self doubt and the pre-presumption of disappointment. The impairment related to ADHD, that was felt, but not understood, led to a strong experience of heavy losses, which we tried to define separately: of a clear path, of control, of the inner perception of borders and of the loss of an integrative inner self. All these losses were accumulated in the transitional space in a place we named “Nowhere land”.We would like to present these themes of losses and of becoming lost and to discuss their meaning.


Exchange ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-57

AbstractMons. Antonio Batista Fragoso has been bishop of Crateus in Northeast Brazil for the past ten years. Eighty percent of the 360,000 people in his diocese are impoverished peasants who engage in rudimentary farming. At least half of the peasants are landless. It is among these people that Bishop Fragoso has encouraged the formation of small grassroots Christian communities that are responsible for a profound change in the patterns of Christian living in his diocese. The following is LP's translation of excerpts from a talk that Bishop Fragoso gave to his fellow bishops and priests in Managua in October, 1980. This is the first time it has appeared in English. (Editor Latinamerica Press)


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Reich ◽  
Dajie Zhang ◽  
Tomas Kulvicius ◽  
Sven Bölte ◽  
Karin Nielsen-Saines ◽  
...  

AbstractThe past decade has evinced a boom of computer-based approaches to aid movement assessment in early infancy. Increasing interests have been dedicated to develop AI driven approaches to complement the classic Prechtl general movements assessment (GMA). This study proposes a novel machine learning algorithm to detect an age-specific movement pattern, the fidgety movements (FMs), in a prospectively collected sample of typically developing infants. Participants were recorded using a passive, single camera RGB video stream. The dataset of 2800 five-second snippets was annotated by two well-trained and experienced GMA assessors, with excellent inter- and intra-rater reliabilities. Using OpenPose, the infant full pose was recovered from the video stream in the form of a 25-points skeleton. This skeleton was used as input vector for a shallow multilayer neural network (SMNN). An ablation study was performed to justify the network’s architecture and hyperparameters. We show for the first time that the SMNN is sufficient to discriminate fidgety from non-fidgety movements in a sample of age-specific typical movements with a classification accuracy of 88%. The computer-based solutions will complement original GMA to consistently perform accurate and efficient screening and diagnosis that may become universally accessible in daily clinical practice in the future.


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