scholarly journals Visualising Anthropocene Extinctions: Mapping affect in the works of Naeemah Naeemaei

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-91
Author(s):  
Linda Williams
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Anthropogenic Forcing ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Immanent Critique ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Global Imaginary

While many writers have advocated the importance of narrative as a means of engaging with the problem of extinction, this paper considers what the qualities of visual aesthetics bring to this field. In addressing this question, the discussion turns to the problem of the ethical limits of art raised by Adorno and takes a theoretical turn away from posthumanism to consider how visual responses can redirect attention back to human agency. The focus of visual analysis is on five paintings by the contemporary Iranian artist Naeemeh Naeemaei. Neither exclusively Western nor overtly internationalist in their approach, these artworks refer to the effects of both hunting and the erosion of trans-national habitats as causes of extinction, yet they also show how human affective responses to extinction can extend across geo-political borders to a more global imaginary. As such, Naeemaei’s artworks are regarded as a form of immanent critique of anthropogenic forcing. Her works adapt older traditions in Persian humanism and art to show not only how the human dominion of nonhuman animals has led to extinction, but also how this leads to an almost incalculable sense of human loss. I argue that Naeemaei’s affective imagery of loss is not simply yet another example of how the lifeworld of animals can only be understood from an anthropocentric worldview, but instead points to our inability to yet fully register the immeasurable losses of extinction and what this yet unchartered grief might imply for potential human agency.

How brand visual aesthetics foster a transnational imagined community

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (11) ◽  
pp. 2268-2292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Buschgens ◽  
Bernardo Figueiredo ◽  
Kaleel Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Brand Building ◽  
Transnational Communities ◽  
Middle Eastern Art ◽  
Critical Visual Analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how visual aesthetic referents used in branding can help foster a transnational imagined community (TIC). The authors use brands embedded with Middle Eastern visual aesthetics as a research context. As such, the study aims to examine how Middle Eastern non-figurative art is used by non-Middle Eastern brands to foster an imagined Middle Easternness. Design/methodology/approach Through a critical visual analysis, the authors apply a visual social semiotic approach to Middle Eastern art canons to better understand the dimensions of transnational imagined communities. Findings The study finds and discusses six sub-dimensions of Middle Easternness, which compose two overarching dimensions of TIC, namely, temporal and spatial. These sub-dimensions provide brand managers and designers with six different ways to foster transnational imagined communities through the use of visual aesthetic referents in branding. Research limitations/implications This research identifies the specific visual sub-dimensions of brands that enable transnational communities to be imagined. Practical implications Understanding the visual aesthetic sub-dimensions in this study provides brand managers with practical tools that can help develop referents that foster transnational imagined communities in brand building to achieve competitive advantage and reach a transnational segment. Originality/value Prior studies have primarily focussed on how visual aesthetics help in understanding issues related to national identity. In contrast, this paper examines the use of visual aesthetics in branding from a transnational perspective.

On the Empirical Aesthetics of Plating

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Spence
Keyword(s):  
Oblique Effect ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Made In ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

Plating food beautifully has traditionally been seen as more of an art than a science. However, in recent years, a growing body of research in the field of empirical aesthetics has started to demonstrate that the art of beautiful plating can, in fact, be studied scientifically. What is more, the results of such research are now providing actionable insights concerning how to deliver the most aesthetically pleasing dishes. In fact, there is an intriguing parallel here between the visual aesthetics of painting and plating. It turns out that a number (but by no means all) of the aesthetic rules worked out previously for painting, such as balance, harmony, and the aesthetic oblique effect, also influence people’s judgments of aesthetic plating in much the same way. And while people undoubtedly do generally find larger portions of food more attractive, a number of the preferences that people have been demonstrated to exhibit appear to be “disinterested” (in the Kantian sense), thus qualifying them as genuinely aesthetic judgments. Recent chef/scientist collaborations that have started to deliberately elicit different kinds of affective responses from diners (such as, for example, surprise, “the aesthetic aha,” and perhaps even a sense of awe) are also discussed briefly. While questions concerning the cross-cultural generalizability of many of the findings summarized here remain (awaiting further research), progress is undoubtedly being made in this new and intriguing field of empirical aesthetics.

scholarly journals Neuronal Adaptation Caused by Sequential Visual Stimulation in the Frontal Eye Field

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 1923-1935 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Patrick Mayo ◽  
Marc A. Sommer
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Similar Amount ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Neuronal Adaptation ◽  
Retinal Input ◽  
Eye Field

Images on the retina can change drastically in only a few milliseconds. A robust description of visual temporal processing is therefore necessary to understand visual analysis in the real world. To this end, we studied subsecond visual changes and asked how prefrontal neurons in monkeys respond to stimuli presented in quick succession. We recorded the visual responses of single neurons in the frontal eye field (FEF), a prefrontal area polysynaptically removed from the retina that is involved with higher level cognition. For comparison, we also recorded from small groups of neurons in the superficial superior colliculus (supSC), an area that receives direct retinal input. Two sequential flashes of light at varying interstimulus intervals were presented in a neuron's receptive field. We found pervasive neuronal adaptation in FEF and supSC. Visual responses to the second stimulus were diminished for up to half a second after the first stimulus presentation. Adaptation required a similar amount of time to return to full responsiveness in both structures, but there was significantly more neuronal adaptation overall in FEF. Adaptation was not affected by saccades, although visual responses to single stimuli were transiently suppressed postsaccadically. Our FEF and supSC results systematically document subsecond visual adaptation in prefrontal cortex and show that this adaptation is comparable to, but stronger than, adaptation found earlier in the visual system.

scholarly journals Learning to assess visual aesthetics of food images

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kekai Sheng ◽  
Weiming Dong ◽  
Haibin Huang ◽  
Menglei Chai ◽  
Yong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Ranking Systems ◽  
Analysis Task ◽  
Large Scale Dataset ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Food Images

AbstractDistinguishing aesthetically pleasing food photos from others is an important visual analysis task for social media and ranking systems related to food. Nevertheless, aesthetic assessment of food images remains a challenging and relatively unexplored task, largely due to the lack of related food image datasets and practical knowledge. Thus, we present the Gourmet Photography Dataset (GPD), the first large-scale dataset for aesthetic assessment of food photos. It contains 24,000 images with corresponding binary aesthetic labels, covering a large variety of foods and scenes. We also provide a non-stationary regularization method to combat over-fitting and enhance the ability of tuned models to generalize. Quantitative results from extensive experiments, including a generalization ability test, verify that neural networks trained on the GPD achieve comparable performance to human experts on the task of aesthetic assessment. We reveal several valuable findings to support further research and applications related to visual aesthetic analysis of food images. To encourage further research, we have made the GPD publicly available at https://github.com/Openning07/GPA.

scholarly journals Composition and Topographic Organization of Signals Sent From the Frontal Eye Field to the Superior Colliculus

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1979-2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc A. Sommer ◽  
Robert H. Wurtz
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Sampling Bias ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Topographic Organization ◽  
Specific Subset ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Movement Field

The frontal eye field (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) contribute to saccadic eye movement generation, and much of the FEF's oculomotor influence may be mediated through the SC. The present study examined the composition and topographic organization of signals flowing from FEF to SC by recording from FEF neurons that were antidromically activated from rostral or caudal SC. The first and most general result was that, in a sample of 88 corticotectal neurons, the types of signals relayed from FEF to SC were highly diverse, reflecting the general population of signals within FEF rather than any specific subset of signals. Second, many neurons projecting from FEF to SC carried signals thought to reflect cognitive operations, namely tonic discharges during the delay period of a delayed-saccade task (delay signals), elevated discharges during the gap period of a gap task (gap increase signals), or both. Third, FEF neurons discharging during fixation were found to project to the SC, although they did not project preferentially to rostral SC, where similar fixation neurons are found. Neurons that did project preferentially to the rostral SC were those with foveal visual responses and those pausing during the gap period of the gap task. Many of the latter neurons also had foveal visual responses, presaccadic pauses in activity, and postsaccadic increases in activity. These two types of rostral-projecting neurons therefore may contribute to the activity of rostral SC fixation neurons. Fourth, conduction velocity was used as an indicator of cell size to correct for sampling bias. The outcome of this correction procedure suggested that among the most prevalent neurons in the FEF corticotectal population are those carrying putative cognitive-related signals, i.e., delay and gap increase signals, and among the least prevalent are those carrying presaccadic burst discharges but lacking peripheral visual responses. Fifth, corticotectal neurons carrying various signals were biased topographically across the FEF. Neurons with peripheral visual responses but lacking presaccadic burst discharges were biased laterally, neurons with presaccadic burst discharges but lacking peripheral visual responses were biased medially, and neurons carrying delay or gap increase signals were biased dorsally. Finally, corticotectal neurons were distributed within the FEF as a function of their visual or movement field eccentricity and projected to the SC such that eccentricity maps in both structures were closely aligned. We conclude that the FEF most likely influences the activity of SC neurons continuously from the start of fixation, through visual analysis and cognitive manipulations, until a saccade is generated and fixation begins anew. Furthermore, the projection from FEF to SC is highly topographically organized in terms of function at both its source and its termination.

Learning to Be Affected: Subjectivity, Sense, and Sensibility in Animal Rights Activism

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Hansson ◽  
Kerstin Jacobsson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Sense And Sensibility ◽  
Animal Rights Activism

Abstract Becoming an animal rights activist is not just a process of identity change and re-socialization but also implies, as this article suggests, a “re-engineering” of affective cognitive repertoires and processes of “sensibilization” in relation to nonhuman animals. Activists thereby develop their mental responsiveness and awareness and refine their embodied sensitivity and capacity for sensing. The article proposes a theoretical perspective for understanding these processes. Empirically, this article examines the development of affective dispositions informing activists’ subjectivity and embodied sensibilities. It looks at the ways in which visceral, bodily, or affective responses are cultivated to reinforce activist commitments. First, the analysis identifies “micro-shocks” and “re-shocking” experiences as mechanisms for sustaining commitment. Second, “emphatic identification” and “embodied simulation” are highlighted as mechanisms for nurturing empathy towards animals. Finally, it identifies the role of “affective meat encounters” and the cultivation of disgust as mechanisms for nurturing sensibilities. The analysis is based on a case study of animal rights activists in Sweden.

Using the research on intergroup conflict in nonhuman animals to help inform patterns of human intergroup conflict

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Ridley ◽  
Melanie O. Mirville
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Animal Groups ◽  
Interesting Article ◽  
Nonhuman Animals

Abstract There is a large body of research on conflict in nonhuman animal groups that measures the costs and benefits of intergroup conflict, and we suggest that much of this evidence is missing from De Dreu and Gross's interesting article. It is a shame this work has been missed, because it provides evidence for interesting ideas put forward in the article.

Comparative Effects of High-Tech Visual Scene Displays and Low-Tech Isolated Picture Symbols on Engagement From Students With Multiple Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Holyfield ◽  
Sydney Brooks ◽  
Allison Schluterman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Multiple Disabilities ◽  
Visual Scene ◽  
Future Research ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Difference

Purpose Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an intervention approach that can promote communication and language in children with multiple disabilities who are beginning communicators. While a wide range of AAC technologies are available, little is known about the comparative effects of specific technology options. Given that engagement can be low for beginning communicators with multiple disabilities, the current study provides initial information about the comparative effects of 2 AAC technology options—high-tech visual scene displays (VSDs) and low-tech isolated picture symbols—on engagement. Method Three elementary-age beginning communicators with multiple disabilities participated. The study used a single-subject, alternating treatment design with each technology serving as a condition. Participants interacted with their school speech-language pathologists using each of the 2 technologies across 5 sessions in a block randomized order. Results According to visual analysis and nonoverlap of all pairs calculations, all 3 participants demonstrated more engagement with the high-tech VSDs than the low-tech isolated picture symbols as measured by their seconds of gaze toward each technology option. Despite the difference in engagement observed, there was no clear difference across the 2 conditions in engagement toward the communication partner or use of the AAC. Conclusions Clinicians can consider measuring engagement when evaluating AAC technology options for children with multiple disabilities and should consider evaluating high-tech VSDs as 1 technology option for them. Future research must explore the extent to which differences in engagement to particular AAC technologies result in differences in communication and language learning over time as might be expected.

A Pilot Study of Early Storybook Reading With Babies With Hearing Loss

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 3397-3412
Author(s):  
Michelle I. Brown ◽  
David Trembath ◽  
Marleen F. Westerveld ◽  
Gail T. Gillon
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Storybook Reading ◽  
Book Selection ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Parent Child

Purpose This pilot study explored the effectiveness of an early storybook reading (ESR) intervention for parents with babies with hearing loss (HL) for improving (a) parents' book selection skills, (b) parent–child eye contact, and (c) parent–child turn-taking. Advancing research into ESR, this study examined whether the benefits from an ESR intervention reported for babies without HL were also observed in babies with HL. Method Four mother–baby dyads participated in a multiple baseline single-case experimental design across behaviors. Treatment effects for parents' book selection skills, parent–child eye contact, and parent–child turn-taking were examined using visual analysis and Tau-U analysis. Results Statistically significant increases, with large to very large effect sizes, were observed for all 4 participants for parent–child eye contact and parent–child turn-taking. Limited improvements with ceiling effects were observed for parents' book selection skills. Conclusion The findings provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of an ESR intervention for babies with HL for promoting parent–child interactions through eye contact and turn-taking.

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