The Theatre of the Senses: Introductory Words and a Short Conversation for the Symposium

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2021-2) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Enrique Vargas ◽  
Barbara Pia Jenič ◽  
Tomaž Toporišič
Keyword(s):  
Coffee Plantations ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Symbolic Powers ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Over Time

What happens to us when we enter a Teatro de los Sentidos (Theatre of the Senses) experience? Why do we need to play? Where does our need to play come from? Why is sensory theatre relevant today? For what strange reasons do humans like to play getting lost and finding themselves in the dark? I want to share with you the reasons why Teatro de los Sentidos has been significant to me ever since I became aware of inventing myself and inventing it in my childhood games, imagining forbidden labyrinths in Colombian coffee plantations, until today, at my eighty years of age. It is clear that a lot of primal and parallel knowledge has developed over time in all cultures. Myths, celebrations, imagination, poetry, symbolic powers ... resonate differently, each according to historical circumstances. Let us ask ourselves together: what potential does sensorial theatre have today? (Enrique Vargas: Some questions before the symposium.)

Literature and the Senses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Dugan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Study ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Culture And Language ◽  
Sensory Studies

Sensory studies is an interdisciplinary field connecting insights from history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, literature, and art to the scientific study of human perception. Though research in this field draws upon a wide variety of methodologies and focuses on different historical periods and geographical areas, it is unified through a core tenet: that the human sensorium is as much a cultural, historical, and aesthetic phenomenon as it is an environmental and a biological one. Social mores, geographies, religious beliefs, and individual abilities shape perception in uniquely cultural ways. Put more succinctly, sensory studies, as a field, argues for the cultural study of the senses and the sensuous study of culture. And language is squarely at the center of scholarly questions about perception; literary studies thus provides useful methodological tools for understanding not only how we represent visceral experiences (such as sensation) to others through language but also how these strategies have changed over time. The study of literature and the senses emphasizes the important role of language in representing visceral experience and the important role of aesthetics and history in shaping literary representations.

Poetics or Homiletics? Hearing and Feeling the New Testament in Erasmus’ Paraphrases

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Reinier Leushuis
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Affective Response ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Over Time

Abstract One of the unique homiletic challenges of the Erasmian paraphrase is the transmission of faith in divine matters from the page to the reader’s mind. By which form of imitation is the acquisition of faith by the disciples and their communities not only cognitively understood by, but also imitated in the reader’s mind? Constituting what can be called a poetics of Erasmus’ paraphrastic writing, questions of literary imitation and transmission are exemplified in his enrichment of the sensorial and emotional aspects of the biblical narrative. This essay examines instances where the biblical text highlights the disciples’ witnessing of Jesus both in earthly life and as a risen but living presence. Such instances lead to paraphrastic developments that exemplify reader-oriented imitation by instrumentalizing the senses, in particular hearing and touch, to steer the reader’s inner affective response, and thus to facilitate the acquisition of faith. Although sight is not neglected, I argue that in this process hearing and feeling (both as touch and emotion) are poetically and homiletically privileged to lodge the holy Word in the innermost affective sanctuary of a community of readers and listeners over time who, unlike the witnessing disciples, can no longer see, hear, and touch Christ.

ENIAC and Its Contemporaries Meet the “Stored Program Concept”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Haigh ◽  
Mark Priestley ◽  
Crispin Rope
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Theoretical Computer Science ◽  
Theoretical Computer ◽  
Modern Computer ◽  
Initial Implementation ◽  
Previous Discussion ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Desk Calculator ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Over Time

Having explored ENIAC’s actual use and the programs it ran the authors shift to a more abstract analytical level. Previous discussion of the invention of the modern computer has focused on the “stored program concept” as the crucial innovation setting modern computers apart from their more limited predecessors. The authors explore the origins of this phrase and its changing meaning over time. They look in detail at a 1944 document produced by J. Presper Eckert and sometimes claimed as a first statement of this concept, showing that it actually describes an electronic desk calculator. The authors summarize ENIAC’s capabilities after conversion and to compare these on both practical and theoretical levels with the 1945 EDVAC design and with several other early computers. This supports a balanced appraisal of the senses in which the converted ENIAC did and did not constitute an initial implementation of the key ideas from the 1945 design. The chapter argues for an appraisal of early computers better grounded in the historical realities of documented use, and against a widespread fixation on the notion of “universality” based on a school of theoretical computer science that gained prominence years later.

scholarly journals Evolution of Public Knowledge About Dementia Causes and Symptoms: A Gender Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 56-57
Author(s):  
Pedro Santos ◽  
Constanca Paul ◽  
Cláudia Silva
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
Brain Changes ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The research objective is to monitor the evolution of public knowledge about dementia causes and symptoms, over a three-year period and by gender. The survey was made available at the Directorate-General of Health website and disseminated by email to relevant health and social stakeholders and through social networks, in 2015 and 2018. Respondents (n=1478 and 1716, respectively), included mostly women (79.4% and 83.3%). In both years, respondents showed a higher knowledge on symptoms than on causes. Total knowledge about symptoms and combined knowledge scores were higher in 2018 compared to 2015 (p=.012 and p=.0.2), respectively). “Neurological brain changes" were considered the main causes of dementia, by both genders in 2015 and in 2018 (>80% of respondents), with an increase in relative frequency being observed only for women (p=.039). “Psychiatric disease” and "drug consumption" are now less regarded as causes of dementia by both genders, with significant change over time also among women (p=.006 p=.001). On the contrary, in the last survey more women (+3.7%; p=.049) and men (+9.3%; p=.022) considered “stress” as main cause of dementia. “Confusion and disorientation”, “wandering and getting lost”, “difficulty managing and paying bills”, ”difficulty remembering things from the day before”, and “difficulty managing daily tasks”, were considered the most common symptoms, but only the last two significantly increased in 2018 (p=.018 and p=.000). Women knowledge increased regarding more causes and more symptoms compared to men. These findings will help to inform public debate and decision-making on gender-based policies to address awareness and stigma about dementia.

scholarly journals The Topicality of the Learning Organization: is the Concept Still Relevant Today?

2019 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
Siu Loon Hoe
Keyword(s):  
Learning Organization ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Innovation Capacity ◽  
Culture Performance ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Over Time

This chapter introduces the current level of interest in the learning organization and usefulness of the concept at the present time. It reviews authors who have recently and explicitly commented on the topicality of the learning organization, offers a qualitative content analysis of recent journal publications on learning organizations justifying the need for the concept, and uses quantitative research using print media indicators and Google Trends to identify the number of publications related to the learning organization over time. The results suggest that while the level of interest in the learning organization among scientific researchers has grown, the level of interest among casual researchers has declined. There is also relatively more interest in the concept outside of the United States and among healthcare and education organizations. The justifications for the usefulness of the concept today are mainly based on its role in improving organizational culture, performance, and innovation capacity.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
Evan A. Kutzler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Sensory History ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Over Time

This final section explores the prospects and limitations of sensory history as a method for assessing the past. The importance of the senses to individual prisoners did not end in 1865 and memoirs were an important continuation of prison experience. That individual sensory experiences change over time reflects the process of historical memory—a continual construction and reconstruction of the past. The centrality of context to perception makes sensory history an exceptional way to historicize experience; however, this also limits the reconstruction of past sensory experiences. MacKinlay Kantor's novel about a Civil War prison written in the 1950s, for example, says more about the sensory worlds of the twentieth century than the nineteenth century. The importance of sensory history as a methodology is that the senses are subjective and radically contingent on time and place.

scholarly journals Comparison between a wax/volatile oil mixture and vegetable butters in a long-lasting make-up formula: A rheological and structural study compared to product performance

OCL ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Charlène Hubert ◽  
Cristelle Meriadec ◽  
Pascal Panizza ◽  
Franck Artzner ◽  
Hélène de Clermont-Gallerande
Keyword(s):  
Structural Organization ◽  
Volatile Oil ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Volatile Oils ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
X Ray Scattering ◽  
Film Forming ◽  
Over Time

The long-lasting make-up was created to avoid migration of the product on the skin throughout the day. Currently, the formulation technology most commonly used to obtain it is based on the use of film-forming agents with volatile oils. However, with the growing trend in natural cosmetics, petroleum-based volatile compounds are increasingly being abandoned. The objective of this study is to determine whether a mixture of plant-based butters can be chosen to replace a mixture of volatile oil and synthetic wax in a long-lasting eyeshadow. Initial comparisons were made between two jojoba butters and a wax/volatile oil mixture in order to identify the best candidate to replace the latter. Then, the best candidate was incorporated into formula and finished formulas were compared using sensory evaluation, rheology and X-ray scattering. The results show that it is possible to preserve texture, rheological properties and structural organization of a formula by replacing a wax/oil mixture with vegetable butters. However, this does not mean that the formulas will behave the same on the eyelids over time. This work illustrates the real complexity faced by formulators when they must replace one raw material with another while guaranteeing the durability of all the product’s properties. This challenge is more relevant today as consumer demand for products based on natural ingredients is growing.

scholarly journals Vaucanson’s Automata as Devices of Enlightenment

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Joan B. Landes
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Urban Culture ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Low Culture ◽  
Material Bodies ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Dynamic Organization

<p>Residing at the interstices of high and low culture, pleasure and utility, wonder and technique, Vaucanson's automata belonged to what historian Michael R. Lynn refers to as &lsquo;a growing web of interconnections between Enlightenment, science, and commerce in Parisian urban culture'. While the wider public attraction to automata during the eighteenth-century has been noted, it is also necessary to address the nature of this appeal, which is derived from the automata's simulation of the workings of human and animal bodies. Vaucanson was one of a number of astonishingly brilliant eighteenth-century mechanicians, who attempted to design material bodies capable of artificially replicating life. Their ingenious machines were indeed devices of Enlightenment, that is, philosophically animated experimental objects. The aim of these devices was to approximate what contemporaries like Diderot referred to as a &lsquo;sentient being' with a particular spatial and dynamic organization. Over time, then, automata makers were challenged to imitate not just the body's mechanics but also the workings of the senses, to capture emotion as well as motion.</p>

The Reformation of the Senses in Early Evangelical Culture

2018 ◽  
pp. 105-132
Author(s):  
Jacob M. Baum
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Evangelical Culture ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Church ◽  
Over Time

This chapter begins part 2 of the study by considering the origins of the mythology of a de-sensualized Protestantism. Analysis of evangelical print culture in the first half of the 1520s reveals that those who moved to break with the Church of Rome produced unprecedented numbers of vernacular pamphlets laying out criticisms of traditional religion and visions for a new alternative. Consistently, evangelicals told the story of a new, de-sensualized form of Christianity, in contrast to the old, hypersensual religion. This narrative of change over time obscured the complexity of late medieval religion yet nonetheless became central to early Protestant identity in a few short years, and over the course of the sixteenth century it became a generalized assumption in religious discourse and fostered the sensibility that some had indeed profoundly changed.

scholarly journals “It Feels Right to Me”

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-64
Author(s):  
Ann Cvetkovich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Graphic Narrative ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Fixed Condition ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
Over Time

Focusing in particular on how affect theory has been informed by art practice, this article develops the concept of the “sovereignty of the senses” through queer and feminist installation projects by Rachael Shannon and Zoe Leonard, as well as Alison Bechdel’s account of retreat from the social in her graphic narrative memoir Are You My Mother? (2012). Aiming to articulate notions of sovereignty, democracy, and freedom in affective and sensory terms, it conceives of sovereignty as an embodied practice and something that must be learned and experienced collectively over time rather than a fixed condition of a discrete individual or nation. It explores tensions between Indigenous notions of sovereignty and queer notions of the antisocial or non-sovereign, as well as recent discussions of the commons as an affective category, to offer an anti-racist and decolonial account of queer feminist affect theory and cultural politics.

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