Williams, Walker, and Shine: Blackbody Blackface, or the Importance of Being Surface

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Post
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Black Skin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Status ◽  
Kara Walker

At the turn of the last century, Bert Williams and George Walker performed as a minstrel duo in which only Williams wore burnt cork. By mixing the surfaces of blacking and their own black skin, Williams and Walker offered an aesthetic critique of the subject/object status of the black body—animating the inanimate substance of burnt cork while objectifying animate black skin. Examples from portrait photography and the visual art of Whitfield Lovell and Kara Walker support arguments about the agency of surface.

From Casimir Forces to Black-Body Radiation: Quantum and Thermal Fluctuations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro W. Rodriguez ◽  
Adolfo Plasencia
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Thermal Fluctuations ◽  
Black Body Radiation ◽  
Casimir Forces ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Virtual Photons ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Relationship Of

This dialogue with physicist Alejandro W. Rodríguez is in two parts. The first part, which took place in the MIT campus, reflects on how theory has been overtaking experimentation in recent developments in science. It also addresses the subject of the Casimir forces and their effects by using devices which benefit from them in everyday life. Later, Alejandro explains why the vacuum is not empty; and, what are the "virtual photons". In the second part, Alejandro explains his current research in the Department of Electrical Engineering of Princeton University, focusing on the black body; and quantum and thermal processes of electromagnetic fluctuations at the nanoscale, where the rules of quantum mechanics now hold sway. He is now studying quantum fluctuations and how the forces and energy exchanged between objects work. This all-important area is the current driving force for development in the field of thermovoltaic energy and thermal panels for capturing light; an area with a revolutionary potential capable of changing the existing relationship of humans with energy, technology and the environment, in other words, with the planet.

Traditional and Modern Art

2017 ◽  
pp. 52-72
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Comprehensive Manner ◽  
Textual Traditions ◽  
Classical Greek Philosophy ◽  
Definition Of

In visual arts both the subject matter and the techniques form traditions extending sometimes through millennia, recording the human evolution and humanity in far more direct ways than, for instance, textual traditions can ever do. In short, visual arts open a rare window to the essence of humanity itself. Visual art is testing in a comprehensive manner the human capabilities to experience the world. Modern art has further opened up the whole definition of visual arts and freed even greater number of possibilities. Anything can be presented as visual art, if the audience is ready to accept it as art and “sees” it as art. I also discuss the basis of art as we inderstand it. Life imitates art and art imitates life. Which one is the copy then? The concept of mimêsis is one of the most frequently misunderstood concepts of classical Greek philosophy. In spite of breaks in tradition and misunderstandings, what is most important, is that in European art traditions the idea of liberal art as a means of expressing and shaping in a creative way ideas has kept alive and strives.

Health Humanities in Post-Graduate Medical Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan D. Peterkin ◽  
Anna Skorzewska
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Interprofessional Education ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Postgraduate Medical Education ◽  
Health Humanities ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Arts and humanities education is widespread in undergraduate but almost nonexistent in postgraduate medical education where it is arguably more helpful. This book fills that gap. It covers a wide range of arts and humanities subjects including film, theatre, narrative, visual art, history, ethics, and social sciences. Each chapter provides not only 1) a literature review of the relevant subject in postgraduate medical education and, where helpful, undergraduate medical education but 2) a theoretical discussion of the subject as it relates to medicine and medical education 3) challenges to implementing arts and humanities programming and 4) appendices with a number of different and relevant resources as well as sample lesson plans. There is a chapter on the use of humanities in interprofessional education, a domain whose importance has recently gained prominence. Finally there are also chapters guiding the medical humanities educator on evaluating the impact of their programs, an ever-present challenge, and on the thorny issue of how to fund programs in medical humanities.

LILIANE KARNOUK, Contemporary Egyptian Art (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995). Pp. 137.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-306
Author(s):  
Jessica Winegar
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
English Language ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Islamic Art ◽  
American University ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American University In Cairo

Studies of contemporary visual art in the Middle East are scarce compared with the vast literature on historical Islamic arts. In the past ten years, however, several notable books and articles have featured this important but under-recognized realm of visual culture in the region. These recent works often examine the ways in which art reflects social trends such as nationalism and struggles for religious identity. Karnouk's book is a worthy introduction to the world of contemporary art in Egypt, and is the first major English-language book of its kind on the subject (see also Wijdan Ali, Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity [Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997]). Contemporary Egyptian Art is a sequel to Karnouk's earlier Modern Egyptian Art: The Emergence of a National Style (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1988), in which she outlined the prominent artists and styles of the first half-century of the modern art movement within the context of Egyptian nationalism. This recent book picks up from the 1952 revolution and presents the major trends in art since that time while offering possible socio-political explanations for these trends.

scholarly journals Visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience: Renaissance discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Chumachenko
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Da Vinci ◽  
Leonardo Da Vinci ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Marsilio Ficino ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Pietro Aretino

The purpose of the article consists of exploring visual arts in the context of Renaissance discourse as a form of individualization of collective experience. The methodology consists of the application of analytical method – to determine the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience in the works of the Renaissance theorists: Alberti, G. Vasari, Marsilio Ficino, Lorenzo Valla, Pietro Pomponazzi; Renaissance artists – Giotto, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Titian; formalization method – to clarify visual art within the subject field of art history in the context of the culture of the Renaissance; method of comparative studies – for analyzing approaches to understanding the visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the essence of visual art is a form of individualization of collective experience in the context of the Renaissance discourse. Conclusions. The article explores visual art in the context of the Renaissance discourse as a form of individualization of collective experience. Clarified the meaning of the concept of visual art and painting in the framework of the subject field of art history (concepts of A. Gabrichevsky, M. Kagan, V. Vlasov, A. Hildebrand). In the socio-cultural development of the Renaissance, there is an intensive process of individualization of the artist, and there is also a tendency to intensively turn to samples of ancient art, which testifies to the visual art as the brightest form of individualization of collective experience. In the context of comparative analysis, the concepts of Cennino D'Andrea Cennini, G. Vasari, Alberti, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filarete, Piero Della Francesco, Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Peleren, Albrecht Dürer, Pietro Aretino, who described all the advantages of painting based on color, are considered; the Venetian artist Paolo Pino, author of Dialogue on Painting; Lodovico Dolci, author of Dialogue on Painting; the Tuscan writer A. Doni, who in his dialogue "About drawing" explained the priority of the Florentine tradition, in which the emphasis was on drawing, and not on coloring. Key words: visual art, renaissance, painting, collective experience, individualization

Who is the contemporary artist? Social representation of the artist among visual art students

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126
Author(s):  
Karolina Pietras
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Art Students ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Practical Implications

Abstract The paper presents the application of semantic field analysis to the reconstruction of the social representation of the contemporary artist among visual arts students. 124 students from the Faculty of Art of the Pedagogical University of Cracow and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow answered an openended question: Who is the artist in our time? The narrative material was used to reconstruct the equivalents, opposites, attributes, associations, activities of the subject and activities on the subject which constitute the semantic field of the concept “contemporary artist”. The conclusions, practical implications and direction for future studies are presented.

Representation, Replication, Reproduction: The Legacy of Charles V in Sculpted Rulers' Portraits of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Charles V ◽  
The Past ◽  
Basic Functions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Victoria And Albert Museum ◽  
Wax Sculpture

All rulers' portraits are, in several senses, forms of representation. In the first and most obvious instance, all portraits epitomize one of the basic functions of visual art as imitation (mimesis). Portraits represent a person by providing his or her likeness. The Renaissance sculptor Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576), a contemporary of the artists discussed here, pointed to this basic mimetic function when he defined one of the fundamental forms of artistic imitation as ritrarre, using a verb related to the Italian word for portrait, ritratto. Because they are works in three dimensions, sculpted portraits may approach this end even more directly, as seen in the sculpted heritage of Charles V that is the subject of this paper. In any case, hyperrealist works of the 1970s and wax sculpture of the past, including a small wax sculpture of Emperor Rudolf II with a favorite hound (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) (see Figure 1), demonstrate that sculpture may make the effort to portray individuals as close to life as possible.

Liszt und die bildende Kunst — systematische Überlegungen

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Dorothea Redepenning
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Franz Liszt ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Symphonic Poems ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Bildende Kunst

The question how visual art absorbs music has been the subject of much investigation. The reverse question, namely how music absorbs visual art, has until now received little attention. Franz Liszt was perhaps the first to be inspired by visual art in his compositions. The starting point was his encounter with the art of Italy (Sposalizio and Il penseroso in book II of Années de pèlerinage), later followed symphonic poems (Hunnenschlacht based on Kaulbach and Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe probably based on Zichy); his Totentanz for piano and orchestra was inspired by Orcagna and Holbein. In Liszt it is a matter of the poetic content of music and the unification of the arts, where in principle music can be connected not just to literature, but to all branches of the arts. Linked with literature, it reflects the forms and structures of literature. The question is, therefore, whether all this is valid for visual art as well. Does Liszt just compose a ”story,“ or does he also take over the structures of art? And what influence did these works have on later composers?

The Composer's Eye: Focalizing Judith in the Cantatas by Jacquet de La Guerre and Brossard

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-45
Author(s):  
Michele Cabrini
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Musical Representations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Artemisia Gentileschi ◽  
Compositional Approaches

ABSTRACTWith its intense drama and marked eroticism, the story of Judith's slaying of Holofernes was often represented in baroque visual art and music. The overwhelming majority of musical representations are found in oratorios, with only three cantatas known to have been devoted to the subject. The oratorio's dramatic framework was suited for emphasizing Judith's multifaceted figure through character depiction, contrast and conflict, while the cantata's epic nature and lack of direct character intervention made staging conflict in that genre more difficult. Yet precisely because of these limitations, the cantata constitutes a revealing case study for exploring the strategies composers employed to give agency to Judith.This article focuses on the baroque cantata settings of the Judith story by Sébastien de Brossard and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (both from about 1708, both based on a text by La Motte). To illustrate their differing perspectives on Judith, I employ the concept of focalization – used in literary theory to mean point of view or filtered perspective – as a theoretical framework. The well-known Judith paintings by Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi (the so-called Uffizi Judith) provide a lucid example of focalization through the differing perspectives of the two maidservants and offer a valuable methodological tool for understanding the two differing compositional approaches. Whereas Brossard follows La Motte's narrative dutifully by emphasizing swiftness of action at the expense of character depiction, Jacquet de La Guerre bypasses it through instrumental accompaniments and independent symphonies that give voice to Judith, despite a text that downplays her character.

scholarly journals THERMODYNAMIC q-DISTRIBUTIONS THAT AREN’T

1994 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
STAMATIS VOKOS ◽  
COSMAS ZACHOS
Keyword(s):  
Energy Distribution ◽  
Critical Frequency ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Distribution Functions ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Cavity Size ◽  
Free Distribution ◽  
Planck Distribution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Body Energy

Bosonic q-oscillators commute with themselves and so their free distribution is Planckian. In a cavity, their emission and absorption rates may grow or shrink – and even diverge – but they nevertheless balance to yield the Planck distribution via Einstein’s equilibrium method, (a careless application of which might produce spurious q-dependent distribution functions). This drives home the point that the black-body energy distribution is not a handle for distinguishing q-excitations from plain oscillators. A maximum cavity size is suggested by the inverse critical frequency of such emission/absorption rates at a given temperature, or a maximum temperature at a given frequency. To remedy fragmentation of opinion on the subject, we provide some discussion, context, and references.

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