Proximal Relations in the Cinema of Tom Kalin

The case studies of Tom Kalin’s Swoon (1992) and Savage Grace (2007) are the basis of Chapter 2’s return to cinema’s biomedical history, as well as to psychoanalytic models of suturing, to excavate queer filmmakers’ disruption of normative models of spectatorship. By examining the modes of looking and investigating already established by the studio-era scientist biopics, this second chapter argues that queer filmmakers returned to this observational mode in the midst of a health crisis. Kalin’s films are concerned with the biopic’s premise of proximity, being close to a historically or socially significant individual, but in such a way that puts forth alternative modes of vision and inspection. The biopic’s promise of closeness to an individual follows the Hollywood cinema’s conventions of cinematic suturing; the spectators identify with the narration of the biopic’s subject and locate themselves in the depicted cinematic world.

Legitimation in documentary: modes of representation and legitimating strategies in The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan

This article synthesizes modes of representation in documentary films with strategies of legitimation. It develops a framework of documentary legitimation, where each of the six modes recognized by Bill Nichols in Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary (1991) and Introduction to Documentary (2017) – expository, participatory, observational, performative, reflexive and poetic modes – tends to highlight certain legitimating strategies. For instance, the expository mode mainly legitimates through voice-of-God commentary, expert speeches and expository intertitles, the participatory mode legitimates through witness testimony and the observational mode legitimates through audience observation, and so on. The proposed framework is applied to a case study of a documentary entitled The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN). Analysis demonstrates how legitimation of the Wuhan lockdown during the early outbreak of COVID-19 is realized by adopting different representation modes and legitimating strategies. The article illustrates how an interdisciplinary approach may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of legitimation and its realization.

Aperture shapes and the effectiveness of ground-based large and extremely large telescopes

ABSTRACT Aperture shapes in modern large and forthcoming extremely large telescopes (ELTs), with effective light-gathering sizes more than D ∼ 10 m, differ significantly from the desirable circular one. They deliver specific point spread functions, which may also differ notably from that of the fine structure of the classical Airy pattern. The optical power of such a telescope can be changed notably compared with a circular aperture with the same area. The presence of atmospheric optical turbulence complicates the effect additionally and makes it seeing- and wavelength-dependent. So, what is the impact of a non-circular pupil on telescope exploitation? It concerns the efficiency, which is an important point, especially for instruments of such a class. In this research an attempt is made to assess the values of these changes in the context of the Keck, HDRT, GMT, TMT and ELT telescopes. Relative performance characteristics (integral contrast and signal-to-noise ratio, S/N) of the telescopes, working in the seeing-limited regime, under a range of plausible turbulence conditions, for a wide (from UV to mid-IR) spectral region are obtained. The partial role of central obscuration is assessed. The effect of adaptive optics implementation in this context is also analysed. It is shown that, for instance, maximal S/N degradation due to the non-circularity of the pupil shape can be as much as $\sim 6~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (TMT) to $30~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (HDRT), depending on the telescope and observational mode. The numbers are comparable with or may even substantially exceed the losses that could be caused by the other parameters (e.g. residual wave-front error, optical transmittance) relevant to the quality of the optical system.

Intermediale Strategien in Jakob Brossmanns Lampedusa im Winter (2015) und Gianfranco Rosis Fuocoammare (2016)

With Lampedusa in Winter ( A / CH / I 2015) and Fire at Sea (I/F 2016), the Italian and Austrian filmmakers Jakob Brossmann and Gianfranco Rosi more or less simultaneously pursue similar projects: for their cinematic long term observations, both films center on the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa, a focus of mass media interest due to current migration processes and the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Both rely on visual traditions of (neo-)realistic cinema in order to avoid documentary cinema's frequently didactic approach Instead of techniques such as voice-over narration and interviews (expository mode), Brossmann and Rossi most notably employ indirect address and contrastive mon tage, thus enabling the audience to experience ’authentic‘ impressions of everyday life on the island (observational mode). At the same time, however, the films themselves are inevitably part of the hype surrounding Lampedusa as the very symbol of the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean The article analyses how, by means of different intermedial references, the two films situate Lampedusa between everyday life and emergency, between cinematic traditions of the Italian post-war era and their anthropological and metamedial transgression

Using negative-latency gravitational wave alerts to detect prompt radio bursts from binary neutron star mergers with the Murchison Widefield Array

ABSTRACT We examine how fast radio burst (FRB)-like signals predicted to be generated during the merger of a binary neutron star (BNS) may be detected in low-frequency radio observations triggered by the aLIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. The rapidity, directional accuracy, and sensitivity of follow-up observations with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) are considered. We show that with current methodology, the rapidity criterion fails for triggered MWA observations above 136 MHz for BNS mergers within the aLIGO/Virgo horizon, for which little dispersive delay is expected. A calculation of the expected reduction in response time by triggering on ‘negative latency’ alerts from aLIGO/Virgo observations of gravitational waves generated by the BNS inspiral is presented. This allows for observations up to 300 MHz where the radio signal is expected to be stronger. To compensate for the poor positional accuracy expected from these alerts, we propose a new MWA observational mode that is capable of viewing one-quarter of the sky. We show the sensitivity of this mode is sufficient to detect an FRB-like burst from an event similar to GW 170817 if it occurred during the ongoing aLIGO/Virgo third science run (O3).

Troubling representations of Black masculinity in the documentary film Raising Bertie

In this paper we undertake a critical reading of the documentary Raising Bertie (2016). Directed by Margaret Byrne, the film tells the story of three poor, young Black American males living in Bertie County. In the paratextual material associated with the film, Byrne demonstrates reflexivity about stereotyping, revealing she engaged authentically with participants over a period of six years. Further, she begins the film by signalling the critical importance of situating the boys’ lives in a long history of discrimination and disadvantage. However, this focus on context soon disappears, and an observational mode of filmmaking is engaged. As a result, the type of negative images of Black masculinity that have had considerable currency in popular culture are reproduced and overstated in the film. Raising Bertie’s images of Black males as violent and criminal, and as absent and passive, are not effectively embedded in any broader narratives of disadvantage. Despite the director’s intentions, the film risks positioning rural Black males as responsible for their own plight. Poverty is racialised and individualised. The problem the film presents becomes one of troublesome Black masculinity, rather than one of a racialised, economically and geographically unjust world.

Sprawczość w fabryce porcelany

Ethnography of a porcelain factory is one of the main components of a research project called “People from the porcelain factory”. The project is carried out in the porcelain factory in Ćmielów, Poland, owned by PolskieFabrykiPorcelany “Ćmielów” i “Chodzież” S.A. The project consists of anthropological research (design anthropology and workplace anthropology) and an artistic intervention in the field. The intervention entails manufacturing Human Trace tableware set and exhibiting it both in the factory and outside, to the audience interested in design. The fieldwork in the factory allowed the author to interact with various actors of manufacturing process – both in a more observational mode of ethnography and a more participatory one during the tableware production. Witnessing the process of material transformation of raw material into a porcelain vessel was also fascinating. The article points at the role of different modes of knowing and various skills necessary for porcelain ware production and focuses on evaluation of different ways of knowing, skills and cognition.

Calibration and Standardisation

One of the great challenges in time-domain astronomy is the problem of combining data obtained at various epochs with very different instruments. These problems are mostly discussed from within a specific observational mode, for example photometry, spectroscopy or imaging. This Workshop explored by example diverse pitfalls of time-domain calibration by discussing calibration and standardisation problems across various types of variables.

First Results for CCD Observations with the 70 cm Meniscus Telescope

From the middle of 1993, a ST-6 CCD Camera (375 × 242 array with 23 × 27 microns pixel size) was mounted at the Newtonian focus (f/3) of the 70 cm meniscus telescope of the Abastumani Observatory. The photometer is now equipped with various sets of narrow-band interference, intermediate and wide band standard niters. Some pilot observations were carried out in direct imaging mode and in combination with an 8° objective prism (166 Å mm−1 at Hγ). Spectrophotometric standard stars with absolute calibrations were observed in the 8° mode to determine the CCD spectral response. Some other observations were performed with a prism-interference filter combination to estimate the observational mode efficiency.

Tem Study of Twinning and Magnetic Domains in Terfenol-D

This paper reports the results of detailed TEM observations on [211] oriented single crystal samples of Terfenol-D. Domain structures are interpreted in terms of recent micromagnetic models developed by James and Kinderlehrer. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy was performed on a JOEL 120CX equipped with a low field objective lens. We also report for the first time energy-filtered magnetic domain images, recorded using a Gatan Imaging Filter on a JOEL 40000EX high resolution TEM. This observational mode allows for enhanced resolution and improved image contrast.