From Crisis to Compensation: Reinventing Identity and Place in the Sideshow and the Laboratory

Examining the ambivalent place of the sideshow and the laboratory within Victorian culture and its reimaginings, this essay explores the contradiction between the narratively orchestrating role and peripheral location of the sideshow in Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels (2015) and the laboratory in NBC’s Dracula (2013–2014), reading these neo-Victorian spaces as heterotopias, relational places simultaneously belonging to and excluded from the dominant social order. These spaces’ impacts on individual identity illustrate this uneasy relationship. Both the sideshow and the laboratory constitute sites of resignification, emerging as “crisis heterotopias” or sites of passage: in Parry’s novel, the sideshow allows the Church twins to embrace their unique identities, surpassing the limitations of their physical resemblance; in Dracula, laboratory experiments reverse Dracula’s undead condition. Effecting reinvention, these spaces reconfigure the characters’ senses of belonging, propelling them to places beyond their confines, and thus projecting the latter’s heterotopic qualities onto the city. Potentially harmful, yet opening up urban space to include identities which are considered aberrant, these relocations envision the city as a “heterotopia of compensation”: an alternative, possibly idealized, space that reifies the sideshow’s and the laboratory’s attempts to achieve greater extroversion and visibility for their liminal occupants, thus fostering neo-Victorianism’s outreach efforts to support the disempowered.

The Metaphysical Quality that gives a Visual Identity Mark its Sway.

Addressing a specific aspect of visual communication, the focus of this paper is to examine the connection between elemental nature-inspired archetypal symbols and contemporary Visual Identity Marks, for example the archetypal Solar Cross to the BP VIM, Helios, by establishing the existence of a contextual relevance and relationship. It furthermore analyses the fundamental influence of these archetypal symbols upon the viewer/user (internal and external audiences), no matter what level of sophistication the viewer’s/user’s society has achieved. To build an appreciation of the continuity and effectiveness of the use of elemental nature-inspired archetypal symbols within a contemporary context, areas of expertise not traditionally utilised within visual communication, such as sociology, archaeology, theology and folklore were engaged. While being defined as “a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art or mythology” (Random House Dictionary, 2012), an archetypal symbol also possesses a metaphysical quality. This metaphysical quality enables the symbol to act as a galvanising and motivating force, which re-enforces individual and group identity, and ultimately transmit a sense of the sacred and the institutional within a mutable world. The archetypal (natural) symbol is the response of the psyche reflecting the ‘internal truth’. The VIM (cultural) symbol is a vehicle to maintain power for financial or political profits as well as sustain group coherency, and individual identity. Encoded within both a ‘natural’, and a ‘cultural’ symbol, is a deep spiritual quality tapping into a deeper symbolic language which evolved from humanity relating back to nature. Drawing upon notions of individual interpretation, the paper analyses the very idea of personal and/or subjective mental constructs related to visual identity marks.

Analysis of Compounds with Oenological Interest in Somatic Variants of Grapevines

Grapevine varieties can be identified genetically by microsatellite markers. However, these molecular markers are not available to discriminate between somatic mutations that give rise to clones. Therefore, the study of compounds with oenological interest could be used to identify variability in grapevine somatic variants. In this research, sugars (glucose, fructose), acids (tartaric and malic acid) and polyphenols (22 phenolic compounds, including 13 anthocyanins) were analyzed in grape berries of two somatic variants known with different names—‘Graciano’ and ‘Tintilla de Rota’—cultivated in the same vineyard under warm climate conditions. The organic acid results show significant differences between the performance of the two accessions. Regarding phenolic compound (excluding anthocyanins) content, significant differences were observed between the two accessions. Kaempferol, caftaric acid and epicatechin were the compounds responsible for the reported differences. Differences in anthocyanin content showed opposite behavior between ‘Tintilla de Rota’ and ‘Graciano’. In this sense, ‘Graciano’ accession showed an increase in all forms of anthocyanins, with a remarkable increment of peonidin 3-O-glucoside. Principal component analysis of polyphenolic compounds revealed clearly distinguished behaviors concerning these compounds, besides showing similar tendencies between the two accessions during the ripening stage. These results could allow for the discrimination of the two accessions into somatic variants highlighting their individual identity.

Too Big to Fail

This chapter explores the importance of magnitude as a theme in Laurie Anderson’s work, particularly Big Science. It begins by tracing histories of the titular phrase and then investigates the semiotics of bigness. Particularly with reference to individual identity, big systems, big edifices, and big collections of data all suggest superhuman states of consciousness. Accordingly, big knowledge systems such as linguistics, artificial intelligence, and the occult are all discussed. The chapter then reconciles their superhuman scale (and the attendant kinds of awareness it implies) with the paradoxical fact that such tokens of bigness are themselves human-made. Throughout, it draws connections between these notions and the album.

My Grandfather’s Face: A Black Contemplative Educator’s Discovery of Unknown Relatives through DNA

This narrative essay offers an exploration of the power and importance of family origin stories as a grounding aspect of collective and individual identity for Black people. The author, drawing on his experience as a Black queer contemplative scholar and college professor, gives attention to the question of whether the truth is necessary or beneficial in the creation of family narratives and what each successive generation is allowed to know. This question is explored through the story of the unintended positive and negative consequences the author experienced as a result of submitting DNA to Ancestry.com.

Marivauder à l’écart du monde : langage et identité

In most French dictionaries, the word marivaudage is defined as a style named after the characteristics and excesses of Marivaux’s style, which expresses sentiment in a refined and stylized manner. The verb marivauder refers to the imitation of Marivaux’s refinements, often with negative connotations. This article, however, Marivaux’s complete works, including novels, journals and plays, to reveal new meanings of reads these two terms by examining the close relationship between marivaudage, language and identity. As a result, marivaudage also comes to indicate a form of reflection that analyzes individual identity and marivauder comes to refers to the process of self-knowledge.

Dentist’s Role and Responsible in Identification and Investigation

Background: A dentist is responsible for promoting oral health and disease prevention to make the world a better place in terms of oral health. Besides, the dentist also plays an important role in the forensic field and law enforcement. Forensic odontology is an area of dentistry that deals with the proper management and investigation of dental evidence, which aids in identifying people and the presentation of dental evidence in the interest of justice. Purpose: This article discussed the role and responsibilities of dentists in human identification. Review: The world continues to deteriorate as time passes with much criminality and disasters that cannot be prevented. In many cases, the identification process can be done through the unique characteristics of dentition. Various information such as age, sex, and ethnicity are recorded in the tooth. Forensic dentists are responsible to manage and evaluate tooth evidence. Conclusion: Forensic odontology plays an essential role in determining individual identity. The unique features of dentition provide accurate results in identification if all procedures are correctly employed. With the advancement of science and technology, dentistry may now assist in the identification and investigation of forensic cases.