scholarly journals Pressing “rewind” and “forward” to negotiate a transcultural position

MODOS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-195
Author(s):  
Franziska Koch

The transcultural artistic strategies formulated in the Fluxus network during the 1960s, spanning Europe, East Asia, and the USA, are an important reference when searching for ways how to write art history in a global way. These strategies challenged national framings of art informed by the Eurocentric legacy of modernism. In this paper, I focus on Nam June Paik’s (self)positioning in negotiation with the taxonomic mechanisms of the Guggenheim Museum New York in 1994. I will analyze the conditions and limits of his cultural mediation. The first part of my chapter shows how Paik drew a fine-grained picture of Japanese experimental art as a Korean who had studied in Tokyo during the 1950s and then re-visited in the 1960s. In his version, Paik employs transcultural discursive strategies directed towards rewriting art history in ways that take account of multiple agencies and cultural entanglements. The second part of my study analyzes the resulting institutional conflict between Paik and Guggenheim’s Japanese survey show, Scream against the sky, to which he contributed an essay but declined to participate with his work. This paper articulates the transcultural (counter-) potential of artists who work(ed) across borders, especially at moments when Western canonization was a double-edged sword.

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILIA MARÍA DURÁN-ALMARZA

The Dominican American community in New York is perhaps one of the best examples of how processes of transculturation are affecting traditional definitions of ethnic identification. Given the intense economic, social and cultural transnational exchanges between the island and the USA from the 1960s, Dominicanyorks have been challenging the illusion of homogeneity in the definition of Americanness for decades, creating transnational social networks that transcend traditional national and ethnographic boundaries. The theatrical works of Josefina Báez, a Dominican American performer living in New York, and Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso, a Dominican poet and playwright who lived and worked in the US metropolis for decades before moving back to the Dominican Republic, lyrically explore issues of diaspora, identity and migration and the impact these phenomena might have in the lives of migrant Dominican women. Presenting diasporic experiences from two differing but interconnected locales – New York and the Dominican Republic – these plays offer two complementary views on the ways in which ethnicity, race, social class, age and geopolitical location interact in the formation of transcultural identities, thus contributing to develop a hemispheric approach to the study of identity formation in the Americas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1149-1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Berryman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to bring the work of Seth Siegelaub (1941–2013) to the attention of document studies. Siegelaub was a pioneer of the conceptual art movement in New York in the 1960s, active as an Art Dealer, Curator and Publisher. He is remembered by art history for his exhibition catalogues, which provided a material base for intangible works of art. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a comparative approach to examine the documents of conceptual art, especially the exhibition catalogues produced by Siegelaub between 1968 and 1972. Drawing on literature from document theory and art history and criticism, it examines several of Siegelaub’s key exhibition catalogues and books. Findings Siegelaub’s theories of information have much in common with the documentalist tradition. Siegelaub’s work is important, not just for its potential to contribute to the literature of document theory. It also provides a point of dialogue between art history and information studies. Originality/value To date, the common ground between art and documentation has been explored almost exclusively from the perspective of art history. This paper is among the first to examine conceptual art from the perspective of document theory. It demonstrates potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration.


Author(s):  
Laura E.B. Key

Willard Maas (1906–71) was an American filmmaker and poet. He was known for his experimental style of filmmaking and was considered part of an avant-garde group of artists who worked in opposition to the commercial film industry. The types of films he made were sometimes referred to as "film poems" for their unconventional style, blurring the traditional distinction between the media of film and poetry. Maas was a literature professor by trade, working at Wagner College in New York City. Along with his wife, fellow filmmaker and artist Marie Menken, Maas was prominent in the New York art scene from the 1940s to the 1960s. Maas and Menken were founder members of the Gryphon Group, a set of like-minded artists who worked together on postwar experimental art and film projects. The couple was well-known for holding avant-garde salons at their Brooklyn apartment. Maas and Menken’s tempestuous relationship was well recorded, and they are cited as inspiration for the characters of George and Martha in Edward Albee’s play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Maas’s film credits as director include Geography of the Body (1943, with Marie Menken and George Barker), The Mechanics of Love (1955, with Ben Moore), Image in the Snow (1943–8), and Narcissus (1956, with Ben Moore).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Cottrell

Abstract Coleophora deauratella is a moth species native to Europe, eastern Siberia and the Middle East. It was introduced into North America in the 1960s, becoming a significant pest of Trifolium pratense seed crops in Ontario, Canada in 1989. Based on a study of genetic diversity from a limited number of European populations of C. deauratella, the most probable source of North American populations was found to be Switzerland; further sampling within Europe may improve geographical resolution of the source population. Within North America, C. deauratella has been identified as an invasive in Alberta and Ontario in Canada and Oregon and New York in the USA. It has been an invasive pest in New Zealand since its discovery there in 2015, where it has devastated T. pratense crops.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. i14-i18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amita Toprani ◽  
Martha Robinson ◽  
James K Middleton III ◽  
Ali Hamade ◽  
Thomas Merrill

BackgroundPreventing child falls from windows is easily accomplished by installing inexpensive window-limiting devices but window falls remain a common cause of child injuries. This article describes the history and evolution of the New York City (NYC) window guard rule,which requires building owners to install window guards in apartments housing children aged ≤10 years. The NYC window guard rule was the first directive of its kind in the USA when it was adopted in 1976, and it has led to a dramatic and long-lasting reduction in child window fall-related injuries and deaths.MethodsData about the history of the window guard rule were obtained by reviewing programmatic records, correspondence, legal decisions and the published literature. In addition, key informant interviews were conducted with programme staff.Results and DiscussionThis article describes each stage of policy development, starting with epidemiological studies defining the scope of the problem in the 1960s and pilot-testing of the window guard intervention. We describe the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the rule. In addition, we show how the rule was modified over time and document the rule’s impact on window fall incidence in NYC. We describe litigation that challenged the rule’s constitutionality and discuss the legal arguments used by opponents of the rule. Finally, we discuss criminal and tort liability as drivers of compliance and summarise lessons learnt.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
S.E. Wilmer

Fluxus was the brain-child of a Lithuanian-born artist named George Maciunas whose family fled to Germany in the Second World War, where they eventually became displaced persons and later emigrated to the USA. Maciunas studied art and architecture in Pittsburgh and New York before working as an architect and graphic artist and founded the Fluxus movement at the beginning of the 1960s. During his student years, he became fascinated by nomadic art in Asia and Eastern Europe that would later influence his life’s work. This essay considers the relationship between his interest in nomadism and the nature of the Fluxus movement that spread across the world, breaking down barriers between art and life, privileging concrete and conceptual art, and staging unusual events. It applies Braidotti’s notion of the nomadic subject to Maciunas’ encouragement of radical styles of performance art, such as Yoko Ono’s minimalist conceptual work and Joseph Beuys’s Tatar-influenced use of fat and felt.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Michelle Ann Abate ◽  
Sarah Bradford Fletcher

Since its release in 1963, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are has been viewed from a psychological perspective as a literary representation of children's inner emotional struggles. This essay challenges that common critical assessment. We make a case that Sendak's classic picturebook was also influenced by the turbulent era of the 1960s in general and the nation's rapidly escalating military involvement in Vietnam in particular. Our alternative reading of Sendak's text reveals a variety of both visual and verbal elements that recall the conflict in South East Asia and considers the significance of the book's geo-political engagement.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Göran Gunner

Authors from the Christian Right in the USA situate the September 11 attack on New York and Washington within God's intentions to bring America into the divine schedule for the end of the world. This is true of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and other leading figures in the ‘Christian Coalition’. This article analyses how Christian fundamentalists assess the roles of the USA, the State of Israel, Islam, Iraq, the European Union and Russia within what they perceive to be the divine plan for the future of the world, especially against the background of ‘9/11’. It argues that the ideas of the Christian Right and of President George W. Bush coalesce to a high degree. Whereas before 9/11 many American mega-church preachers had aspirations to direct political life, after the events of that day the President assumes some of the roles of a mega-religious leader.


Author(s):  
Sultan Ayoub Meo ◽  
Abdulelah Adnan Abukhalaf ◽  
Omar Mohammed Alessa ◽  
Abdulrahman Saad Alarifi ◽  
Waqas Sami ◽  
...  

In recent decades, environmental pollution has become a significant international public problem in developing and developed nations. Various regions of the USA are experiencing illnesses related to environmental pollution. This study aims to investigate the association of four environmental pollutants, including particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and Ozone (O3), with daily cases and deaths resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection in five regions of the USA, Los Angeles, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Florida. The daily basis concentrations of PM2.5, CO, NO2, and O3 were documented from two metrological websites. Data were obtained from the date of the appearance of the first case of (SARS-CoV-2) in the five regions of the USA from 13 March to 31 December 2020. Regionally (Los Angeles, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Florida), the number of cases and deaths increased significantly along with increasing levels of PM2.5, CO, NO2 and O3 (p < 0.05), respectively. The Poisson regression results further depicted that, for each 1 unit increase in PM2.5, CO, NO2 and O3 levels, the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections significantly increased by 0.1%, 14.8%, 1.1%, and 0.1%, respectively; for each 1 unit increase in CO, NO2, and O3 levels, the number of deaths significantly increased by 4.2%, 3.4%, and 1.5%, respectively. These empirical estimates demonstrate an association between the environmental pollutants PM2.5, CO, NO2, and O3 and SARS-CoV-2 infections, showing that they contribute to the incidence of daily cases and daily deaths in the five different regions of the USA. These findings can inform health policy decisions about combatting the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in these USA regions and internationally by supporting a reduction in environmental pollution.


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