The Mind's Eye: George G. Simpson's Use of Visual Language

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léo Laporte
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Abstract Theory ◽  
Adaptive Landscapes ◽  
Statistical Inferences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Productive Thinking ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Taxonomic Categories

Late in life, the American paleontologist George G. Simpson (1902-1984) remarked that "I compose my writing visually —I think visually, then translate that into words … I visualize at least as much as I verbalize, perhaps more. Even in abstract theory I often visualize first & then describe in words what I saw mentally." In much of his most significant theoretical work, Simpson did indeed use just such visual language to translate his more original concepts and interpretations regarding, for example, statistical inferences about evolving lineages, relationships of spedation to higher taxonomic categories, ratio diagrams of morphological dimensions, and species-density contouring. Simpson's most interesting and innovative visualizations had to do with organism-environment relationships, including adaptive landscapes, prospective and realized functions of organisms and environments, and especially the adaptive grid upon which he summarized his argument for variable rates and patterns of evolution —"tempo and mode" —in response to differing ecological opportunities available to animal and plant species. "There [is] much evidence that truly productive thinking in whatever area of cognition takes place in the realm of imagery." — Rudolf Arnheim "Acceptance of the conceptual importance of visual modes of discourse will require a rather fundamental change of intellectual values within the history of science" — Martin Rudwick "A diagram is no proof! A diagram is no proof!"—Francis Toner

scholarly journals Matrices of ‘Love and Theft’: Joan Baez Imitates Bob Dylan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
MIMI HADDON
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
First Century ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Third ◽  
Bob Dylan ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Asymmetrical Power ◽  
American Popular Music

Abstract This article uses Joan Baez's impersonations of Bob Dylan from the mid-1960s to the beginning of the twenty-first century as performances where multiple fields of complementary discourse converge. The article is organized in three parts. The first part addresses the musical details of Baez's acts of mimicry and their uncanny ability to summon Dylan's predecessors. The second considers mimicry in the context of identity, specifically race and asymmetrical power relations in the history of American popular music. The third and final section analyses her imitations in the context of gender and reproductive labour, focusing on the way various media have shaped her persona and her relationship to Dylan. The article engages critical theoretical work informed by psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory, and Marxist feminism.

Workhorse Models

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pol Antràs
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Central Unit ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Rich

This chapter provides a succinct account of the rich intellectual history of the field of international trade and offers an overview of its modern workhorse models. This field has experienced a true revolution in recent years. Firms rather than countries or industries are now the central unit of analysis. The workhorse trade models used by most researchers both in theoretical work as well as in guiding empirical studies were published in the 2000s. While these benchmark frameworks ignore contractual aspects, they constitute the backbone of the models developed later in this volume, so the chapter provides a basic understanding of their key features.

Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 8-32
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wiggins
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Company Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Company ◽  
History Of Race

Chapter 1 focuses on the early history of race-based insurance. When the Newark-based Prudential Insurance Company of America incorporated in 1875, it revolutionized the American insurance industry by offering policies to the working class for an affordable three cents per week. What made the Prudential doubly unique was that the company insured not simply industrial laborers, but also African American laborers. The company was not in the progressive vanguard, though. Rather, the Northern upstart, in contrast to its Southern competitors, simply had not thought to craft a company policy to explicitly ban African Americans from purchasing life insurance. Just five years after becoming the first insurer to cover black lives, the Prudential began to charge differential, race-based premiums and commenced a public relations effort to defend its discriminatory practices. This foundational chapter traces how the theoretical work of scientific racism became embedded in the business practices of American insurers.

scholarly journals A different kind of story: Pedagogy of hope at The Ration Shed Museum, Cherbourg

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207
Author(s):  
Carly Smith
Keyword(s):  
Observational Data ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
History Of ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Pedagogy Of Hope

AbstractIn recounting the history of Cherbourg as an Aboriginal settlement, the Ration Shed Museum presents some traumatic narratives. It paints a picture of violent geographic and cultural dislocation, crude living conditions, forced labour and administrative oppression by infusing historical artefacts with the personal recollections of Cherbourg residents. The intent behind the Ration Shed Museum itself, however, is something quite different: its curators want to tell a story that speaks of hope for this community’s future, and to work towards some form of reconciliation. They do this by actively engaging with the ‘terrible gift’ of the past in the present, and by providing spaces for encounters that can lead to open discussions of difficult social issues and celebrations of contemporary Cherbourg life. This article draws on ethnographic interviews and observational data alongside the theoretical work of Roger I. Simon and Andrea Witcomb to describe how the Ration Shed Museum engages its community and visitors in a dual process of both understanding Cherbourg’s history and reframing traumatic narratives to enact a pedagogy of hope.

The Problem of the Attractor

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 45-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Deterministic Chaos ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Complexity Science ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Lorenz Attractor ◽  
Complexity Sciences ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
History Of

Contemporary complexity sciences claim a literal, non-metaphorical applicability to physical, economic, social and cultural events. They envision the development of a general social or historical physics. Conversely, in the social sciences and humanities, complexity sciences have been typically treated as a source of new metaphors or tropes to be used in theory-building. Can there be a critical social or historical physics that is not a world-view and that does not treat science as a source of metaphors? The Lorenz attractor figures centrally in the history of complexity science as a popular image of ‘deterministic chaos’ and the ‘butterfly effect’, as an indication of how far complexity science has progressed in the last two decades, and, as this article argues, as an event whose multiplicity of interpretations attests to the problem it raises, the problem of generality associated with complexity. Via the Lorenz attractor, the article examines three attempts to treat complexity non-metaphorically in recent theoretical work (Delanda; Massumi; Stengers). In these accounts, the attractor performs several different functions. It forms part of a re-engineered concept of multiplicity, it helps conceptualize feeling or sensitivity, and it raises the general problem of practice in theory-building.

“Choose yourself?”

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Jolynna Sinanan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Caribbean Island ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Town

Abstract Social media is often assumed to espouse ego-centred networking. Yet by comparing posts to Facebook and Instagram, it becomes apparent that the experience and aspirations of the individual are often embedded in structures of family and other institutions that have been historically determined. This article locates images posted by women to two social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, within the Caribbean island of Trinidad’s wider history of the significance of visibility and visuality. What individuals choose to make visible and its consequences form a visual language in which Trinidadians are entirely fluent. By extension, images are used to communicate forms of differentiated identity that are made visible through social media. The material gathered was based on 15 months of ethnographic research in a semi-urban town in Trinidad where, generally, uses of social media are expressive of a place-based sense of identity. The town is simultaneously a place that urban dwellers look down on and villagers look up to. Visual content posted to Facebook and Instagram reveal that while individuals seek to craft and shape images and aesthetics according to their own tastes, this must be done in a socially acceptable way; that is, placing emphasis on group conformity is far more of a social value than expressing individual distinction. Social media in this context communicates the imagination of oppositional futures and a divergence of lifestyles for young women: those who identify with being locally-oriented and those who identify with being globally-oriented.

Deviation Forces From the Wedge Penetration Failure of Anisotropic Rock

1973 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 1093-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. B. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Time History ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Drill String ◽  
Triaxial Tests ◽  
Maximum Deviation ◽  
Anisotropic Rock ◽  
Green River ◽  
Rock Interaction ◽  
Confining Pressures ◽  
History Of

Deviation of boreholes is caused by drill string flexibility and the interaction between the drill bit and the formation being drilled. While work has been devoted to the analysis of drill string mechanics, less work has been directed toward the understanding of bit rock interaction. This paper presents the results from some experimental work on the deviation forces and chip volumes generated by the wedge penetration of anisotropic rock. The single blow wedge penetration tests were conducted on blocks of Green River shale cut to simulate formation dip angles from 0 to 90 deg. During the tests, the time history of the force required to penetrate the rock, together with the deviation forces perpendicular and parallel to the strike of the formation were recorded. Tests were conducted using wedges with 30 and 60 deg included wedge angles at atmospheric and 10,000 psi confining pressures. In conjunction with these tests, triaxial tests were performed to determine the failure characteristics of this particular rock. Results from these tests showed that appreciable deviation forces were generated by the 30 and the 60 deg wedges at both confining pressures. Maximum deviation forces were generated in the 30 deg dip region and in the 60 deg dip region, with the deviation forces tending to zero at 0 deg, 90 deg, and in the region of 45 deg. The results are in general agreement with field observations. The volumes generated correlate with the measured forces as well as field experience. Predominant chip volumes were created on the updip side of the tooth at low dip angles and on the downdip side of the tooth at high dip angles for both tooth geometries. Published predictions on the advantages of 60 deg teeth for deviation control were found to be in disagreement with experimental results. When combined with the measured rock failure properties, the theoretical work upon which the above predictions were based did predict deviation forces in qualitative agreement with the experimentally determined values.

Gangs, Schools, and Social Change: An Institutional Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 673 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Hagedorn
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Gang Members ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Neighborhood Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Understanding gangs and schools requires us to go beyond neighborhood-level analysis because spatial analyses tend to downplay or ignore social movements as key to fundamental change. This article supplements a traditional ecological approach with an institutional analysis of both schools and gangs. A history of Chicago gangs reveals that gangs are not one thing; at times they have played positive roles within schools and taken part in social movements. The author’s personal experiences with gangs and schools in Milwaukee and Chicago are presented as evidence documenting the mutability of gangs, the damaging consequences of some educational policies, and the importance of including gang members in social movements. The current Black Lives Matter movement presents opportunities for nonincremental, disruptive change and the potential inclusion of gangs and gang members in a broader strategy to create a better society.

scholarly journals Transcultured Architecture: Mudéjar’s Epic Journey Reinterpreted

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 137-151
Author(s):  
Ila Nicole Sheren
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
New World ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Medieval Spain ◽  
Fernando Ortiz ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Architecture ◽  
Art And Architecture

The Mudéjar phenomenon is unparalleled in the history of architecture. This style of architecture and ornamentation originated with Arab craftsmen living in reconquered medieval Spain. Embraced by Spanish Christians, Mudéjar traveled over the course of the next four centuries, becoming part of the architectural history of Latin America, especially present-day Mexico and Peru. The style’s transmission across different religions and cultures attests to its ability to unify disparate groups of people under a common visual language. How, then, did mudejar managto gain popularity across reconquered Spain, so much so that it spread to the New World colonies? In this article, I argue that art and architecture move more fluidly than ideologies across boundaries, physical and political. The theory of transculturation makes it possible to understand how an architectural style such as Mudéjar can be generated from a cultural clash and move to an entirely different context. Developed in 1947 by Cuban scholar and theorist Fernando Ortíz, transculturation posited means by which cultures mix to create something entirely new. This process is often violent, the result of intense conflict and persecution, and one culture is almost always defeated in the process. The contributions of both societies, however, coexist in the final product, whether technological, artistic, or even agricultural. I argue that mudejar in Latin America is a product of two separate transculturations: the adoption of Arab design and ornamentation by Spanish Christians, and the subsequent transference of these forms to the New World through the work of indigenous laborers.

scholarly journals Andrei Bely's Concept of the “Self-Conscious Soul”: Synthesis of his Early Reception of Kant with Steiner's Teachings and Esoteric Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-218
Author(s):  
A. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
The Self ◽  
Critical Philosophy ◽  
Rudolf Steiner ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cognitive Principles ◽  
The Universe

This article deals with the connection between the anthroposophical practice of meditation and the concept of self-conscious soul, which is developed in the main theoretical work of Andrei Bely, “The History of the Becoming of Self-conscious Soul.” After a brief review of the esoteric practice, in which Bely was introduced by Rudolf Steiner in the years 1912-1914, it examines the topography of the meditative space, according to the descriptions given by Bely in the “Krizisy”. Relevant sources of Steiner on the higher stages of knowledge are involved, from which the concept of Bely differs in a few points. It is considered, how the inner experience of Bely is reflected in the cognitive principles of the self-conscious soul, which he understands as a reflection of the higher cognitive abilities at the lower level of the soul. It is shown, that the cognitive principles of the self-conscious soul, which Bely names “composition of space”, “theme in the variations of time” and “symbol”, are a synthesis of the esoteric practice of Bely with his early reception of the critical philosophy of Kant. He fuses them into a gradational model of multi-stage deepening of knowledge into the construction of the universe and the human cultural evolution. This process is carried out with the creative participation of the cognizing subject and culminates in his deification.

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