scholarly journals Mathematics in Motion: A Comparative Analysis of the Stage Works of Schlemmer and Kandinsky at the Bauhaus

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Salazar Sutil

This essay looks at the seminal work of Bauhaus practitioners Wassily Kandinksy and Oskar Schlemmer in terms of their multidisciplinary approach to the performing arts, and the dance in particular. Whilst their contribution has been widely recognized in terms of a cross-pollination of ideas from the fine arts to the performing arts, this essay also addresses the influence that compositional methods, based on techniques derived from figural drawing, as well as the study of form and geometry, might have had in their choreographic practice. I argue that despite stylistic similarities, these works present a divergent approach to the question of a geometrized motion design, which Schlemmer called ‘mathematics in motion’. I discuss the concept of ‘abstract dance’ promoted by Kandinsky, in terms of a visualistic method, where movement is rendered both as a succession of still images and as an imaginary process. Schlemmer, on the other hand, promoted a synthesis of abstract and physical, as part of a model for live performance known as ‘balletic mathematics’. I expand on this distinction in terms of a differential sense schematic approach to movement, one being visual, the other proprioceptive. Landmark works produced by these artists during the Bauhaus years (1922–1933) are called upon as case studies, including Kandinsky's Dance Curves (after Gret Palucca), and Schlemmer's renowned Stäbetanz.

BJHS Themes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 199-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIN-HSIEN WU

AbstractGiven that purely scientific accounts of ‘environmental performance’ and ‘development’ cannot fully explain the environment and its interactions with people, this paper investigates how nature has been historically and sociopolitically defined in different societies. The analyses and observations presented in this paper are based on a critical literature review and on case studies of two ‘coal capitals’, one in Guizhou in China and the other in Jharkhand in India. The study examines the historical representations of environmental campaigns (particularly from the 1950s to the 1990s) in the two countries, and discusses how historical, sociopolitical and ideological factors have affected conceptualizations of nature and how they are reflected nowadays in people's narratives concerning the environment. The paper concludes that the Chinese pattern of development, as well as of knowledge construction, reflects a greater intention of homogenizing the public with the language of development deployed by the centralized power; meanwhile, the Indian pattern allows a greater space for the representation of conflicts, including people's struggles against the state. The comparative analysis enriches our understanding of people's responses to official perceptions of the environment endorsed by modern science and governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-92
Author(s):  
Răzvan Dragoş

AbstractSince Antiquity, there have been biunivocal links between theater, technology and visual arts, each of these branches being, if not decisively influenced by the others, at least stimulated. Technology was put at the service of theater either as a logistical part or in “main” roles, sometimes in competition with the actor, in other words with the man. In the first case we are dealing with elevators, cranes, light or sound devices and so on. In the second, with automatic machines, largely autonomous. Applied arts, costumes, scenery, stage props and everything related to scenography are largely synonymous with the performing arts. On the other hand, the technicalartistic commands and requirements coming from the theater have always been a step forward for those directions. Technology and art have also influenced each other, if we take into account, for example, Leonardo da Vinci’s utopian sketches, endowed rather with artistic qualities, but at the same time often functional as stage props. This article points out the idea written above through several representative case studies for the subject approached in a historically evolutionary perspective, relating them to the philosophical concepts or social phenomena behind them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Ulug'bek Kuryazov ◽  

The article examines the works of scholars in the study of the history of fine arts, in particular miniatures of the Amir Temur era and temurids. Special attention is paid to the history of the creativity of Mirak Nakkosh and the outstanding miniaturist Kamoliddin Behzod. A comparative analysis of several miniature works is given. As well as analyzed some miniatures stored in the collections of museums and libraries of the world


Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts

This chapter presents a model of the interaction of media outlets, politicians, and the public with an emphasis on the tension between truth-seeking and narratives that confirm partisan identities. This model is used to describe the emergence and mechanics of an insular media ecosystem and how two fundamentally different media ecosystems can coexist. In one, false narratives that reinforce partisan identity not only flourish, but crowd-out true narratives even when these are presented by leading insiders. In the other, false narratives are tested, confronted, and contained by diverse outlets and actors operating in a truth-oriented norms dynamic. Two case studies are analyzed: the first focuses on false reporting on a selection of television networks; the second looks at parallel but politically divergent false rumors—an allegation that Donald Trump raped a 13-yearold and allegations tying Hillary Clinton to pedophilia—and tracks the amplification and resistance these stories faced.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110227
Author(s):  
Yingzi Wang ◽  
Thoralf Klein

This paper examines the changes and continuities in TV representations of Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary history and interprets them within the broader context of China’s political, economic and cultural transformations since the 1990s. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three state-sponsored TV dramas produced between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, it traces how the state-sanctioned revolutionary narratives have changed over time in response to the Party’s propaganda imperatives on the one hand, and to the market-oriented production environment on the other. The paper argues that while recent TV productions in the new century have made increasing concessions to audience taste by adopting visually stimulating depictions and introducing fictional characters as points of identification for the audience, the revolutionary narratives were still aligned with the Party’s propaganda agenda at different times. This shows the ongoing competition between ideological and commercial interests in Chinese TV production during the era of market reforms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-338
Author(s):  
Victor Lieberman

AbstractInsisting on a radical divide between post-1750 ideologies in Europe and earlier political thought in both Europe and Asia, modernist scholars of nationalism have called attention, quite justifiably, to European nationalisms’ unique focus on popular sovereignty, legal equality, territorial fixity, and the primacy of secular over universal religious loyalties. Yet this essay argues that nationalism also shared basic developmental and expressive features with political thought in pre-1750 Europe as well as in rimland—that is to say outlying—sectors of Asia. Polities in Western Europe and rimland Asia were all protected against Inner Asian occupation, all enjoyed relatively cohesive local geographies, and all experienced economic and social pressures to integration that were not only sustained but surprisingly synchronized throughout the second millennium. In Western Europe and rimland Asia each major state came to identify with a named ethnicity, specific artifacts became badges of inclusion, and central ethnicity expanded and grew more standardized. Using Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain as case studies, this essay reconstructs these centuries-long similarities in process and form between “political ethnicity,” on the one hand, and modern nationalism, on the other. Finally, however, this essay explores cultural and material answers to the obvious question: if political ethnicities in Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain were indeed comparable, why did the latter realm alone generate recognizable expressions of nationalism? As such, this essay both strengthens and weakens claims for European exceptionalism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riikka Nissi ◽  
Melisa Stevanovic

Abstract The article examines how the aspects of the social world are enacted in a theater play. The data come from a videotaped performance of a professional theater, portraying a story about a workplace organization going through a personnel training program. The aim of the study is to show how the core theme of the play – the teaming up of the personnel – is constructed in the live performance through a range of interactional means. By focusing on four core episodes of the play, the study on the one hand points out to the multiple changes taking place both within and between the different episodes of the play. On the other hand, the episodes of collective action involving the semiotic resources of singing and dancing are shown to represent the ideals of teamwork in distinct ways. The study contributes to the understanding of socially and politically oriented theater as a distinct, pre-rehearsed social setting and the means and practices that it deploys when enacting the aspects of the contemporary societal issues.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bobby Lim-Ho Kong ◽  
Hyun-Seung Park ◽  
Tai-Wai David Lau ◽  
Zhixiu Lin ◽  
Tae-Jin Yang ◽  
...  

AbstractIlex is a monogeneric plant group (containing approximately 600 species) in the Aquifoliaceae family and one of the most commonly used medicinal herbs. However, its taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships at the species level are debatable. Herein, we obtained the complete chloroplast genomes of all 19 Ilex types that are native to Hong Kong. The genomes are conserved in structure, gene content and arrangement. The chloroplast genomes range in size from 157,119 bp in Ilex graciliflora to 158,020 bp in Ilex kwangtungensis. All these genomes contain 125 genes, of which 88 are protein-coding and 37 are tRNA genes. Four highly varied sequences (rps16-trnQ, rpl32-trnL, ndhD-psaC and ycf1) were found. The number of repeats in the Ilex genomes is mostly conserved, but the number of repeating motifs varies. The phylogenetic relationship among the 19 Ilex genomes, together with eight other available genomes in other studies, was investigated. Most of the species could be correctly assigned to the section or even series level, consistent with previous taxonomy, except Ilex rotunda var. microcarpa, Ilex asprella var. tapuensis and Ilex chapaensis. These species were reclassified; I. rotunda was placed in the section Micrococca, while the other two were grouped with the section Pseudoaquifolium. These studies provide a better understanding of Ilex phylogeny and refine its classification.


Author(s):  
Martin Lundsteen ◽  
Miquel Fernández González

AbstractRecent studies have argued for more nuanced understandings of zero tolerance (ZT) policing, rendering it essential to analyze the significance and actual workings of the policies in practice, including the context in which they are introduced. This article aims to accomplish this through a comparison of two case studies in Catalonia: one in the neighborhood of Raval in Barcelona and one in Salt—a municipality in the comarca (or county) of Girona. We identify a transformation in the use of ZT policies in Catalonia and a contradiction between their social effects and proclaimed objectives. This article attempts to address how specific sociocultural groups gain power and privilege from these policies. The main argument is that a set of commonsensical ideas have become hegemonic, which allows and naturalizes certain sociocultural practices in urban space, while persecuting others, fundamentally pitting two categories against each other: the desired civil citizen and the undesirable and uncivil stranger.


Urban History ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lee

ABSTRACTThis article addresses a range of conceptual issues relating to the history of European port cities in order to construct a framework for comparative research. Port cities played a key role in European urban development and their growth was often determined by common factors. Particular attention is paid to the demography of port cities, their specific labour markets and the dominant ideology of merchant capital. The article establishes a basis for analysing case studies of individual port cities and for exploring their location within the overall process of European urbanization.


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