Conversions of Relief: on the perception of depth in drawings

Of the many ways in which depth can be intimated in drawings, perspective has undoubtedly been one of the most frequently examined. But there is also an equally rich history associated with other forms of pictorial representation. Alternatives to perspective became particularly significant in the early twentieth century as artists and architects, intent on throwing off the conventions of their predecessors, looked to new ways of depicting depth. In architecture, this tendency was exemplified by Modernism’s preference for parallel projection – most notably axonometric and oblique. The use of these techniques gave architects the opportunity to convey a new and uniquely modern form of spatial expression. At once shallow and yet expansive, a key feature of these drawings was their ability to support perceptual ambiguity. This paper will consider the philosophy and science of vision, out of which these preoccupations emerged. In this context, the nineteenth-century discovery of stereopsis and the invention of the stereoscope will be used to illustrate the way in which attempts to test the limits of spatial perception led to an opening up of visual experience; and provided a definition of visual experience that could encompass the representational ambiguities later exploited by the early twentieth-century avant-garde.

Modulation of a cytoskeletal calpain-like protein induces major transitions in trypanosome morphology

Individual eukaryotic microbes, such as the kinetoplastid parasite Trypanosoma brucei, have a defined size, shape, and form yet transition through life cycle stages, each having a distinct morphology. In questioning the structural processes involved in these transitions, we have identified a large calpain-like protein that contains numerous GM6 repeats (ClpGM6) involved in determining T. brucei cell shape, size, and form. ClpGM6 is a cytoskeletal protein located within the flagellum along the flagellar attachment zone (FAZ). Depletion of ClpGM6 in trypomastigote forms produces cells with long free flagella and a shorter FAZ, accompanied by repositioning of the basal body, the kinetoplast, Golgi, and flagellar pocket, reflecting an epimastigote-like morphology. Hence, major changes in microbial cell form can be achieved by simple modulation of one or a few proteins via coordinated association and positioning of membrane and cytoskeletal components.

Alienation and Digital Labour – a Depth-Hermeneutic Inquiry into Online Commodification and the Unconscious

At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986).