The Machine Aesthetic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Emison
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Live Performance ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The Social ◽  
Location Shooting

Film was allied with live performance because of its movement and also because many actors started in vaudeville. Hollywood often reproduced Broadway plays, prompting critics to try to define what might be specifically cinematographic, such as a facility for shifting from one layer of consciousness to another. Film allowed for a new kind of experience of dramatic art, more remote than theater in some ways but also endowed with new resources such as the close-up, location shooting, and a broad public sometimes apt for unaccustomed themes and treatments. Urban anonymity and the social effects of an increasingly mechanized environment were recurrent themes. The displacement of silent film by talkies was widely lamented, often on the grounds that silent film was just coming into its own as an art form, an early instance of questioning the reliability of technological progress.

Interactional means of teaming up: enacting the features of contemporary working life in a theater performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riikka Nissi ◽  
Melisa Stevanovic
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Live Performance ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Workplace Organization ◽  
The One

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.

Wealth and preferences for redistribution: The effects of financial assets and home equity in 31 countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 002071522098808
Author(s):  
Liza G Steele
Keyword(s):  
Household Wealth ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
Unemployment Benefits ◽  
Home Equity ◽  
Income Equality ◽  
Financial Wealth ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
The Social

How does wealth affect preferences for redistribution? In general, social scientists have largely neglected to study the social effects of wealth. This neglect was partially due to a dearth of data on household wealth and social outcomes, and also to greater scholarly interest in how wealth has been accumulated rather than the social effects of wealth. While we would expect household wealth to be an important component of attitudes toward inequality and social welfare policies, research in this area is scarce. In this study, the relationship between wealth and preferences for redistribution is examined in cross-national global and comparative perspective using data on 31 countries from the 2009 wave of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), the first wave of that study to include measures of wealth. The findings presented compare the effects of two types of wealth—financial assets and home equity—and demonstrate that there are differences in effects by asset type and by redistributive policy in question. Financial wealth is more closely associated with attitudes about income equality, while home equity is more closely associated with attitudes about unemployment benefits. Moreover, while the upper categories of financial wealth have the largest negative effects on support for income equality, it is the middle categories of home equity that are most strongly associated with opposition to unemployment benefits. Effects also differ by country, but not in patterns that theories of comparative welfare states nor political economy would adequately explain.

Nicht nur Slapstick: Stummfilme als unterschätzte Zeugen der Medizingeschichte

2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (25) ◽  
pp. 1818-1827
Author(s):  
Dennis Henkel ◽  
Eelco M. Wijdicks ◽  
Axel Karenberg
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Short Film ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Illegal Abortion ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Short Films

AbstractMedicine in silent film has a long history. Although the silent era in cinema was dominated by burlesques (using escaped “lunatics”) a number of themes emerged after systematic review. The cinematic representation of medicine coincided with the discovery of X-rays. During this “roentgenomania”, short films were produced showing groundbreaking X-ray images, which fitted perfectly into needs of dramatic cinema. But soon the “cinema of narration” evolved: Starting just after the turn of the century, the short film “The Country Doctor” was able to address complex interplay between duties and limitations of the medical profession. This was followed by numerous feature films on infectious diseases, which often used tuberculosis as a centerpiece of its story. Directors often took advantage of the well-known stereotype of the omnipotent physician. But in certain medical fields, such as psychiatry or surgery, a more ambivalent figure of the doctor was portrayed, f. e. in “Hands of Orlac” (1924). Silent cinema also offered interesting ideas on the healing powers of the medium itself: in “The Mystery of the Kador Cliffs” (1912) a film screening could cure the patient of fears after reenactment. Finally, a closer look at the early era of film echoes how social conflicts where dramatized, especially in the case of nationwide birth control. How illegal abortion kept the society on its edge, was most clearly shown in the adaption of the scandalous play “Cyankali” (1930).In addition to discussing various topics in the cinematic representation of medicine, this brief overview shows that silent movies were a new and true art form, representing an exceptional resource for historians of film and medicine.

On self-extraction

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevarez Encinias
Keyword(s):  
Live Performance ◽  
Art Form ◽  
And Performance ◽  
At Home

Written under a pandemic stay-at-home order, this article conceives of flamenco choreography and performance as an artisanal craft, likening several of the tradition’s practices to the act of making a coffee. Drawing upon historical descriptions of the art form, theoretical debates from the postmodern shift in dance-making and personal anecdote, the article scrutinizes the notion of ‘self-expression’ and confronts flamenco’s enduring reputation as a dance of extravagant emotion, passion, spontaneity and authenticity. The article experiments with experiential and poetic modes of address to ruminate broadly on artisanship as a creative model for dance-makers, and proposes an interdisciplinary frame-of-mind for choreographers, from a time when traditional live performance was on pause.

The Engineer in Society

1968 ◽  
Vol 183 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Steel Industry ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
Iron And Steel Industry ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Iron And Steel ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Economic

The paper is in three parts. The first concerns the social and economic implications of technological progress with particular reference to electric power generation, the iron and steel industry and transportation. The second part relates to the fundamental principles of money as a means of payment and a measure of value; also explains the controlling factors which regulate the purchasing power of money. In the third part the author suggests what might be achieved if, by more modern economic policies, redundant resources were to be transformed into national assets and increased gross national product.

scholarly journals A WELL-TOLD STORY… WILL COVID-19 TEACH US TO LISTEN TO A CITY?

Muzealnictwo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Michał Niezabitowski
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Prose Poems ◽  
Strong Bond ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Programme ◽  
At Home

As a result of the pandemic, in March 2020, world museology was cut off from the direct contact with their public. Owing to the introduced regulations, Polish museums were closed down on three occasions (14 March – 4 May 2020, 15 Oct 2020 – 31 Jan 2021, and 20 March – 4 May 2021). When searching for new forms of activity, in 2020, museums made an enormous technological progress, and mastered numerous new competences allowing them to move in cyberspace with ease. The pace at which they introduced various ‘online’ formats is worthy of appreciation. Presently, the time has come to ask whether the effectiveness in reaching the public via such means truly contributed to consolidating a strong bond with them. In order to get the answer to this, it is necessary to critically assess the museum efforts, which will not be possible without researching into the Polish public over that period. Wishing to voice my opinion in the critical discourse on the museums’ activity during the pandemic, I have decided to share my experience from a selected activity of the Museum of Krakow: I have presented the effects of the social Programme titled ‘Stay at Home and Tell Krakow’ (#zostanwdomuiopowiedzkrakow). The Museum created this programme convinced that a city dweller, exposed to the oppression of the pandemic will feel the urge to share his or her experience. Apparently, the appeal made by the Museum of Krakow was eagerly responded to. The Museum received ‘stories’ about the pandemic in different formats: prose, poems, diaries, visual arts, and even musical pieces and artifacts. The results of the ‘Stay at Home and Tell Krakow’ Programme are currently hard to sum up, however, what seems a valuable and worth analysing experience is the focus of residents’ attention on the Museum which they considered an institution trustworthy enough to entrust it their private, often intimate reflections on living through that challenging period.

scholarly journals Environmental Politics in the Himalayas: A Retrospective Overview of People’s Resistance to Protect their Rights Over Natural Resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
Narayan Jena ◽  
Swagatika Parida
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Local People ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Colonial Time ◽  
The Social ◽  
Primary Materials

This paper attempts to examine the fundamental reasons behind the constant battle of the local people of Uttarakhand over the Himalayan resources since the colonial time. It analyses both the social effects of the deliberate shifting of ownership of natural resources from the local people to government agencies and the ecological impact of dramatic conversion of natural forest into protected areas or reserve forests. Secondly, it questions the validity of such structural changes made by the governments to limit or restrict the local people’s access to the resources of the region. Here, the primary materials for this paper have been derived from the responses of the local people on the government’s shifting and developmental paradigm to substantiate the argument.

scholarly journals Messianism and UFO Sightings as Counterfactual Strategies of Enchantment of the World

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109
Author(s):  
Piotr Urbanowicz
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
New World ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
World Order ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
New World Order ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

Summary In this text, I argue that there are numerous affinities between 19th century messianism and testimonies of UFO sightings, both of which I regarded as forms of secular millennialism. The common denominator for the comparison was Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment of the world” in the wake of the Industrial Revolution which initiated the era of the dominance of rational thinking and technological progress. However, the period’s counterfactual narratives of enchantment did not repudiate technology as the source of all social and political evil—on the contrary, they variously redefined its function, imagining a possibility of a new world order. In this context, I analysed the social projects put forward by Polish Romantics in the first half of the 19th century, with emphasis on the role of technology as an agent of social change. Similarly, the imaginary technology described by UFO contactees often has a redemptive function and is supposed to bring solution to humanity’s most dangerous problems.

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