Edward FitzGerald

Edward FitzGerald (b. 1809–d. 1883) was an English poet and translator, best remembered today for a single work, his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859). FitzGerald was born into an extremely wealthy family in Suffolk. After graduating from Cambridge, where he had spent perhaps the happiest years of his life and formed a number of lifelong friendships, FitzGerald returned to Suffolk. There he lived very modestly, either in a cottage on the outskirts of his family’s estate or in rented lodgings in a nearby town, occupying himself with reading and writing. In the early 1850s he began to translate from Spanish, publishing Six Dramas of Calderon in 1853. The very free and unliteral method of translation he used in this work would mark all of his later translations as well, which included works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the Persian poet Jámí. But it was his translation, or adaptation, of certain rubáiyát (quatrains) attributed to the 12th-century Persian polymath Omar Khayyám that caused a worldwide sensation. The first edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which FitzGerald published anonymously (like his other works), in 1859, consisted of seventy-five quatrains. At first no one noticed or purchased the small, pamphlet-like book, but a few years later it was discovered by chance by members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, who became passionately devoted to it. A second edition of 110 quatrains was published in 1868 and began to draw attention in North America as well as in Britain. Two more editions followed, each varying fairly significantly from the others, before FitzGerald’s death in 1883, by which time the poem was known throughout the world. It was translated into numerous languages, and Omar Khayyám clubs were founded in many cities. Critics have attributed this popularity to the poem’s frank embrace of a skeptical, resigned, epicurean view of life, which caught the spirit of a doubting, world-weary age. Its very success—by 1900 the Rubáiyát was the most popular and most frequently reprinted poem in English—led to its being dismissed and ignored by literary critics for much of the 20th century. But a critical revival began in the late 1990s, as scholars started to reappraise the poem’s cultural significance as well as its literary achievement.

Surface damage from perpendicular and oblique bullet impacts in stone

Controlled experiments were conducted to investigate the surface damage caused by perpendicular and oblique impacts of bullets into sandstone and limestone targets. Individual bullets fired in conditions simulating modern rifles at typical combat distances excavated craters with diameters from 22 to 74 mm and depths from 4 to 24 mm. Limestone target craters were up to twice as large and deep as those in sandstone. These craters have a complex shape consisting of a central excavation surrounded by a shallow dish, compared to the simple bowl shape of most sandstone impacts. Radial fractures extending to the edge of the target block were common in limestone targets. Impacts at an angle of 45° to the surface in both rock types result in asymmetric craters. Two common types of ammunition were compared: the steel-tipped NATO projectile generally produced larger and deeper craters than the projectile that is commonly fired from AK-47 rifles, despite having approximately half the mass of the latter. These results characterise the sort of damage that can be expected at many sites of cultural significance involved in contemporary conflict zones, and have important implications for their conservation.

Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art

From a small community of pioneering artists who experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) in the 1970s, AI art has expanded, gained visibility, and attained socio-cultural relevance since the second half of the 2010s. Its topics, methodologies, presentational formats, and implications are closely related to a range of disciplines engaged in the research and application of AI. In this paper, I present a comprehensive framework for the critical exploration of AI art. It comprises the context of AI art, its prominent poetic features, major issues, and possible directions. I address the poetic, expressive, and ethical layers of AI art practices within the context of contemporary art, AI research, and related disciplines. I focus on the works that exemplify poetic complexity and manifest the epistemic or political ambiguities indicative of a broader milieu of contemporary culture, AI science/technology, economy, and society. By comparing, acknowledging, and contextualizing both their accomplishments and shortcomings, I outline the prospective strategies to advance the field. The aim of this framework is to expand the existing critical discourse of AI art with new perspectives which can be used to examine the creative attributes of emerging practices and to assess their cultural significance and socio-political impact. It contributes to rethinking and redefining the art/science/technology critique in the age when the arts, together with science and technology, are becoming increasingly responsible for changing ecologies, shaping cultural values, and political normalization.

The Cultural Significance of “WAP”

For an assignment which asked students to analyze a digital phenomenon/controversy.

Poetizing Everyday Life in the Works by Wilhelm Genazino

Increased interest in everyday life and routine explains a new and relevant perception of the creative agenda of contemporary German writer Wilhelm Genazino (1943-2018), known as “poetizing everyday life”. The article, thus, aims to offer a comprehensive view into the poetics of the German novelist to identify ways in which everyday life is poetized, which is an example of linguistic mastery, narrative skill, and philosophical generalization. A close reading method is used to analyze specific scenes from the novels (An Umbrella for One Day, Happiness in Unhappy Times, The Foolishness of Love, If We Were Animals), in which the characters actively practice the “extended gaze”, theoretically validated in W. Genazino’s essay, to reveal a system of special ties important to their inner world behind the routine situations and worn clothes. The writer believes that in such a way, characters experience an epiphany, which provokes further musing about art and the mystery of everyday life. In this connection, it is established that Genazino’s characters manage to avoid the negative influences of society by distancing from it via self-invented aesthetic processes. They are constantly searching for individual vision. It is also noted that the writer focuses on prolonged disappearance scenes, works with time accumulated in objects, and projects distancing from one’s own self to clothes. The extended gaze which the protagonists use to watch their own portrayals helps them overcome identity crisis and generate art, which promises salvation, through simple observance. It is concluded that W. Genazino talks about the aesthetic link between the subject and object perceived as individual “cultural significance”. It enables the protagonists to discard the routine and enter a space outside the limits they have themselves created. Everyday objects and familiar situations have the capacity to stimulate memories and boost creative perception. Their fleeting nature provides for compensatory narration, which means dropping the inessential and petty and is, consequently, perceived as a productive narration. Everyday reality emerges as something that may be perceived as visible existence, which upon some consideration may reveal unique dimensions and gain particular significance based on intermediary space between what is perceived by the eye and the invisible, actualized by the inner vision. Such reflexive vision transcends the limits of things, transforming them and constituting new reality. Such is the underlying principle that the writer used to recreate everyday life in his works.

THE MALAY CULTURAL LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE ISLAMIC ARISTOCRAT TOWN IN KELANTAN, MALAYSIA

The Malay cultural landscape has become an integral part of examining the cultural significance in Malaysia. Thus, the main objective of the study is to determine the impact of the visual characteristics of the built cultural landscape in conserving and preserving Kota Bharu as an aristocratic area in this modern era. Kota Bharu is one of the Islamic cities in Malaysia. This study embarks into a quantitative study using a mixed-method. A significant implication is to propose a significant model to value the Malay cultural heritage and preserve the culture and spirit among the Kelantanese Malay population who live in the modern era.

Body Exposure and Embalming in the Tibetan Empire and Beyond: A Study of the btol Rite

The paper puts forward a new interpretation of the problematic word btol that is sparsely attested in Old Tibetan sources. The philological analysis is supported by a lexicological survey of potential cognates; taken together these allow us to sketch the word family of btol, and thus to better understand the underlying semantics of the word. It is argued that the term denoted a rite within a funeral ceremony; to be specific, the rite of exposure of the deceased’s body before it was interred. In order to contextualise the rite and to assess its cultural significance, this paper also discusses certain funeral customs of later periods.