A Machine for Feeling: Ping's Posthuman Affect

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
Alys Moody
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Affective Quality ◽  
Contemporary Perspective ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Natural Emotion ◽  
Archival Quality ◽  
Historical Moment

Beckett's famous claim that his writing seeks to ‘work on the nerves of the audience, not the intellect’ points to the centrality of affect in his work. But while his writing's affective quality is widely acknowledged by readers of his work, its refusal of intellect has made it difficult to take fully into account in scholarly work on Beckett. Taking Beckett's 1967 short prose text Ping as a case study, this essay is an attempt to take the affective qualities of Beckett's writing seriously and to consider the implications of his affectively dense writing for his texts’ relationship to history. I argue that Ping's affect emerges from the rhythms of its prose, producing a highly ‘speakable’ text in which affect precedes interpretation. In Ping, however, this affective rhythmic patterning is portrayed as mechanical, the product of the machinic ‘ping’ that punctuates the text and the text's own mechanical rhythms, demanding the active involvement of the reader. The essay concludes by arguing that Ping's mechanised affect is a specifically historical feeling. Arising from a specifically twentieth-century anxiety about technology's tendency to evacuate ‘natural’ emotion in favour of inhuman affect, it participates in a tradition of affectively resonant but curiously blank or indifferent performances of cyborg embodiment. Read in this historical light, Ping's implication of the reader in the production of its mechanised affect grants it, from our contemporary perspective, an archival quality. At the same time, it asks us to broaden the way in which we understand the Beckettian text's relationship to history, pointing to the existence of a more complex and recursive relationship between literature, its historical moment, and our contemporary moment of reading. Such a post-archival historicism sees texts as generated by but not bound to their historical moments of composition, and understands the moment of reception as an integral, if shifting, part of the text's history.

Dancing the Symphonic: Beethoven-Bochsa's Symphonie Pastorale, 1829

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Q. DAVIES
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Contextual Meaning ◽  
Musical Forms

Abstract . On 22 June 1829, the legendary French harpist, convicted forger and escaped felon, Robert Nicolas Charles Bochsa performed his most infamous musical offense: a rendition of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony with stage action. Since Grove, this surprisingly early reworking of the Sixth as a ballet-pantomime has not gone down well in the literature. As the twentieth century unfurled, the moment steadily receded into obscurity, losing all cultural and contextual meaning to the point where it is now remembered (if at all) as a lesson in the rogue potential of performance——a pockmark on the historical map. This article will reverse the general slide into amnesia by first excavating this vanished but important moment of the musical past, and then recuperating its seriousness. Enough evidence from the 1820s and 30s suggests that Bochsa's Symphonie (performed at London's King's Theatre) was representative of much more than itself. Far from historically inexplicable, it can be read as an extreme manifestation of a strongly defined ballet-concert exchange that characterized the artistic trends of the late 1820s. By taking on abstract and ““musical”” forms, dance was becoming more concertlike. Concerts, meanwhile, were developing balletic traits in their increasing use of picturesque effects, and their growing fascination for the visual or bodily aspects of musical performance. A rapprochement took place that reshaped the nature of listening and figured the emerging concept of the musical work in a curiously plastic, objective way——as the case study exemplifies.

scholarly journals Hacia Arts & Architecture La revolución editorial de John Entenza (1938-1945)

2018 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Daniel Díez Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Intellectual Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Siglo Xx

Resumen En enero de 1945 Arts & Architecture puso en marcha el programa CaseStudy House, un experimento ideado por John Entenza que les reservaríaa él y a su revista un lugar importante en la historia de la arquitectura moderna del siglo XX. Desde que asumió la dirección de Arts & Architectureen 1940, Entenza supo rodearse de creadores y artistas como Alvin Lustig,Ray y Charles Eames, Herbert Matter o Julius Shulman, que contribuyerona elevar el estándar gráfico de su publicación y le confirieron una identidadinnovadora que respaldaba visualmente el discurso intelectual vanguardista de compromiso con la arquitectura y el diseño modernos que defendía en sus páginas. Este artículo analiza los orígenes, las estrategias de trasformación y los nombres propios que hicieron realidad una revista que, cincuenta años después de su desaparición en 1967, sigue resultando tan atractiva y radical como cuando se editaba.AbstractIn January 1945 Arts & Architecture launched the Case Study House program, an experiment devised by John Entenza that would reserve for him and his magazine an important place in the history of modern architecture of the twentieth century. From the moment he took over the direction of Arts & Architecture in 1940, Entenza knew how to seduce creators and artists such as Alvin Lustig, Ray and Charles Eames, Herbert Matter and Julius Shulman, who contributed to raise the graphic standard of his publication and gave it an innovative identity that visually supported the avant-garde intellectual discourse of commitment to modern architecture and design that it defended in its pages. This article analyzesthe origins, the strategies of transformation and the proper names that made the magazine a reality that, fifty years after its disappearance in 1967, continues to be as attractive and radical as when it was published.

scholarly journals When a Coterie Becomes a Generation: Intellectual Sociability and the Narrative of Generational Change in Sayyid Qutb’s Egypt

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-210
Author(s):  
Giedrė Šabasevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Cultural Renewal ◽  
Sayyid Qutb ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
Intellectual Networks ◽  
The Moment ◽  
New Generation

AbstractDeparting from the case study of Egyptian intellectuals, focusing particularly on Sayyid Qutb, this chapter explores the relationship between narratives of generational change and cultural renewal. It argues that the observation of intellectual sociability is a productive angle from which to understand the conditions under which generational claims result in the effective reshuffling of the intellectual leadership, aesthetic norms, and principles of intellectual authority. The biography of Qutb (1906–1966), a poet and literary critic who abandoned his literary activity in the mid-1950s to pursue a career in Islamic activism—allows us to observe how the generational narrative articulates with his shifting intellectual networks. As a public intellectual, Qutb was at the forefront of two literary confrontations in early- to mid-twentieth century Egypt in which he made generational claims in order to place himself in the literary tradition that emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, and later to cut himself off from that tradition by announcing the emergence of a new generation dedicated to political Islam. At the core of these competing uses of generational rhetoric, this chapter argues, is Qutb’s shifting relationship with the senior literary generation, some of whom he had considered his mentors. Departing from the case study, the chapter then argues that collectives defined as generational tend to emerge in tandem with the reshuffling of social bonds that a writer maintains with his seniors, switching from a bond of transmission to one of confrontation. The change announced in the generational narrative is effective when followed by the concrete action of shifting one’s intellectual solidarities from masters to peers, as this is the moment when the masters are abandoned to history and peers are promoted as the new literary generation. Depending on the particular set of relationships in which a writer finds himself, the notion of generation may act as a narrative of either change or tradition.

Educational Book and Book Publishing of Moscow Student Community at the Beginning of XX century: Libraries, Publishers, Book Trade

2015 ◽  
pp. 110-116
Author(s):  
A. V. Zaitseva
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Book Trade ◽  
Library Service ◽  
Technical School ◽  
Student Community ◽  
Publishing Houses ◽  
Trading Activities ◽  
The Moment

The article focuses on the libraries and the publishing and book trading organizations established by Moscow students in the early twentieth century. These organizations were founded to make the textbooks more available, cheaper and less deficient than they were at the moment. As the resource of the textbooks, libraries of compatriots’ associations were widespread. At the Moscow University students publishing commissions (parts of benefit societies) printed lecture notes and examination programs. Library, publishing, and trading activities were tightly bound in these societies. In the Moscow Technical School and the Moscow Women High Courses the libraries and publishing houses functioned independently of each other and of economical organizations of students. The students Library of textbooks at the Moscow Agricultural Institute was really unique, as it combined library service with book publishing for a while. Book trade was usually managed by publishers. Besides students organizations within educational institutes, there functioned a cooperative bookstore and a publishing house at the same time, common for all Moscow students. A dream, that never came true, was a Students House and united library collections of textbooks in it. In spite of many complications, the cooperation was successful, and due to it, access to the textbooks was facilitated for many students.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Powers
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Twentieth Century America

The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s topic within this historical timeline, it proceeds to explain the development of the project, the focus on live theatre, the choice of productions, and the reasons for them. It defines terms, provides disclaimers, explains the methodology used, clarifies the topic, situates it within its historical moment, summarizes each of the chapters, describes the development of the ‘democratic turn’ in Greek drama, and finally speculates on the reasons for the appeal of Greek drama to artists working with under-represented communities.

Poe and His Global Advocates

2018 ◽  
pp. 596-617
Author(s):  
Emron Esplin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South America ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Original Works ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Global Reputation

This essay explores Edgar Allan Poe’s extraordinary relationships with various literary traditions across the globe, posits that Poe is the most influential US writer on the global literary scene, and argues that Poe’s current global reputation relies at least as much on the radiance of the work of Poe’s literary advocates—many of whom are literary stars in their own right—as it does on the brilliance of Poe’s original works. The article briefly examines Poe’s most famous French advocates (Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Valéry); glosses the work of his advocates throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas; and offers a concise case study of Poe’s influence on and advocacy from three twentieth-century writers from the Río de la Plata region of South America (Quiroga, Borges, and Cortázar). The essay concludes by reading the relationships between Poe and his advocates through the ancient definition of astral or stellar influence.

scholarly journals APPLICATION OF DOMAIN INTEGRATED DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR BIO-INSPIRED DESIGN- A CASE STUDY OF SUTURE PIN DESIGN

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 487-496
Author(s):  
Pavan Tejaswi Velivela ◽  
Nikita Letov ◽  
Yuan Liu ◽  
Yaoyao Fiona Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Reaction Force ◽  
Integrated Design ◽  
Total Deformation ◽  
Insertion Force ◽  
Force Reaction ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Work Done

AbstractThis paper investigates the design and development of bio-inspired suture pins that would reduce the insertion force and thereby reducing the pain in the patients. Inspired by kingfisher's beak and porcupine quills, the conceptual design of the suture pin is developed by using a unique ideation methodology that is proposed in this research. The methodology is named as Domain Integrated Design, which involves in classifying bio-inspired structures into various domains. There is little work done on such bio-inspired multifunctional aspect. In this research we have categorized the vast biological functionalities into domains namely, cellular structures, shapes, cross-sections, and surfaces. Multi-functional bio-inspired structures are designed by combining different domains. In this research, the hypothesis is verified by simulating the total deformation of tissue and the needle at the moment of puncture. The results show that the bio-inspired suture pin has a low deformation on the tissue at higher velocities at the puncture point and low deformation in its own structure when an axial force (reaction force) is applied to its tip. This makes the design stiff and thus require less force of insertion.

Improvement of environmental health and hygiene practices - case study in the Northern Province

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 109-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Mathegana ◽  
L. K. Chauke ◽  
F. A.O. Otieno
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Northern Province ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Proper Training ◽  
The Government ◽  
Better Than

The primary purpose of an improved water supply and sanitation is the achievement of acceptable health and hygiene standards as well as the sustainable improvement of the environment. Many governments recognize this and so they budget for large sums of money to improve these services to the communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the different gaps in environmental health and hygiene practices with the aim of suggesting a strategy of improving this in the Northern Province of South Africa. To do this, 231 households and 30 schools were surveyed. Workshops and visits to different government departments were also used. This paper reports the results from this study which indicate that the situation in schools was not any better than that in households, with more than 90% of the villages still dependent on the unimproved pit latrines and 56,6% relying on standpipes which were (70% of the time) non-operational. The main problems identified seem to those associated with implementation and maintenance. The study concludes that with proper training of the water committees and their active involvement with the government and NGOs, environmental health and hygiene problems can be minimized or eliminated.

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