The use of cues for attention in ancient Greek art: aspects that influence concentration in the work of art and its elements

The goal of this study is to identify cues for the cognitive process of attention in ancient Greek art, aiming to find confirmation of its possible use by ancient Greek audiences and artists. Evidence of cues that trigger attention’s psychological dispositions was searched through content analysis of image reproductions of ancient Greek sculpture and fine vase painting from the archaic to the Hellenistic period - ca. 7th -1st cent. BC. Through this analysis, it was possible to observe the presence of cues that trigger orientation to the work of art (i.e. amplification, contrast, emotional salience, simplification, symmetry), of a cue that triggers a disseminate attention to the parts of the work (i.e. distribution of elements) and of cues that activate selective attention to specific elements in the work of art (i.e. contrast of elements, salient color, central positioning of elements, composition regarding the flow of elements and significant objects). Results support the universality of those dispositions, probably connected with basic competencies that are hard-wired in the nervous system and in the cognitive processes.

The conflict between realism and abstraction in the field of spanish art as an iteration of la "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes"

Based on the analysis model favored by the study of the conditions in which the seventeenth century Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes took place, we examine the case of confrontation between realism and abstraction, which occurred in the context of Spanish art in the nineties of the twentieth century. Connections are established with other aesthetic conflicts which are considered part of a genealogy whose most explicit antecedent could be placed in the before mentioned complaint, such as the confrontation between realism and abstraction in the American art scene, which occurred in the fifties of the last century, and the more recent controversy on pluralism and the end of art.

Oppositional Political Identity in the Song Culture of the Vormärz and the 1848 Revolution in Germany

Historically political song has often been perceived negatively, as a disturbance of the peace, summed up by the legendary line from Goethe’s Faust: “Politisches Lied – ein garstiges Lied”. In the period in Germany of the Vormärz (from 1815 up to the revolution of March 1848), however, we see how this perception may be changing as it increasingly becomes a means of self-expression in public life. This was the era of restauration, in which broader sections of German society are striving for political emancipation from the princes and kings. A whole host of political themes emerge in the songs (Freiheitslieder) of that period in which a new oppositional political consciousness is reflected. The themes range from freedom of speech, freedom from censorship, and the need for democratic and national self-determination to critiques of injustice and hunger, and parodies of political convention and opportunism. Sources of reception give indications about the social and political milieus in which these songs circulated. Such sources include broadsheets, handwritten manuscripts, song collections, commemoration events, advertisements in political press, memoires, police reports and general literature of the time. In many cases we see how these songs reflect the emerging social and political identities of those who sing them. One also sees the use of well known melodies in the popular dissemination of these songs. An intertextual function of music often becomes apparent in the practice of contrefacture whereby melodies with particular semantic associations are used to either underline the message or parody the subject of the song.

Rationale for and implementation of age-neutral HRM in divergent institutional contexts–examples from Britain and Germany

Owing to demographic change as well as international and national pressures,
organisations will have to abandon oftentimes prevalent youth-centric HRM practices in favour of age-neutral HRM that is inclusive of the entire workforce, regardless of age. In order to do so, organisations turn to ‘best practice’ guides. These, however, do not tend to differentiate recommendations by country and/or sector. Based on research in eight case study organisations in the chemical, steel and retail sectors as well as in public schools in Germany and Britain, this chapter argues that the rationale for and the implementation of age-neutral HRM practices differ by national institutional and sectoral context as well as by the relative influence of social partners. Hence, organisations planning to implement age-neutral HRM should take organisational, institutional and sectoral peculiarities into account when doing so.

Notions of Conflict and 'New' Citizens' Inclusion:Post-Cosmopolitan Contestations in Germany

This chapter argues that there is a gap between symbolic exclusion from the national community when it comes to the inclusion of new German citizens of Turkish or Kurdish background, and a broad claim to be a cosmopolitan society, at large. While focusing on narratives of minority key political activists in Berlin, and analysing individual stories on the background of contemporary populist xenophobic debates and hate crime of the 1990s, the chapter illustrates both, individual success and vulnerability due to institutionalised forms of anti- Muslim and anti-Turks segments in Germany.

Civil defence pedagogies and narratives of democracy: disaster education in Germany

‘Disaster education’ is a fledgling area of study in lifelong education. Many countries educate their populations for disasters, to mitigate potential damage and loss of life, as well as contribute to national security. In this paper, which draws on interview data from the German Federal Office for Civil Defence and Disaster Assistance and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, archival research, analysis of websites and promotional materials as well as relevant academic literature, I examine disaster education and preparedness for national emergencies in Germany. I argue that it is not generally extended to the general public, rather confined to trained experts, decentralised, localised and exclusive. Theorising disaster education as a ‘civil defence pedagogy’ (Preston, 2008), a type of public pedagogy, which contributes to shaping narratives of national identity, I argue that it is unlikely that Germany will develop a more inclusive, universal, formalised, nor high-profile campaign in disaster education in the foreseeable future. This, I suggest, is due to narratives of the German democratic nation state as secure, federal, peaceful and unified, which originated at the founding of West Germany in 1949, and continue to shape contemporary political narratives.

Le rôle des collections dans la légitimation de l'art marginal : le cas de la collection d'art pathologique Prinzhorn

Au 20e siècle en France et en Allemagne, l’art moderne prend son essor. Certains, comme Francastel, qualifient cet art de destruction d’un espace plastique classique. Cette destruction devient un vecteur de création chez plusieurs artistes qui, suite aux deux grandes guerres, remettent en question leur état « civilisé » et se tournent vers le « primitif » pour offrir une autre voie, loin de tout processus civilisateur. Cette admiration pour les peuples primitifs ainsi que pour les productions artistiques d’enfants, d’amateurs et de « fous » est visible chez plusieurs collectionneurs d’art. En constituant des collections d’art marginal, ces derniers défendaient une idéologie qui propose une autre forme de culture en remplacement d’une civilisation dépassée. Grâce à leurs collections, la libre expression se positionna contre le rationalisme occidental. On compte, parmi ces collectionneurs, le psychiatre Hans Prinzhorn, le marchand d’art Wilhelm Udhe et les artistes André Breton, Jean Dubuffet et Arnulf Rainer. Chacun d’eux a eu un impact sur la construction du récit de l’art moderne et de l’art contemporain. Leurs collections ont chacune sa spécificité et offrent des vocabulaires différents pour parler de productions artistiques marginales, c’est-à-dire se développant « hors culture ». C’est par l’analyse des terminologies employées par les collectionneurs, principalement la dénomination d’art pathologique, que nous tracerons un portrait de la construction historique de l’art marginal en lien avec l’art moderne

A Shine of Truth in the "universal delusional context of reification" (Theodor W. Adorno)

“A Shine of Truth in the ‘universal delusional context of reification’ (Theodor W. Adorno)” comprend sept chapitres, un prologue et un épilogue. Chaque partie se construit à deux niveaux : (1) à partir des liens qui se tissent entre les phrases contiguës ; et (2) à partir des liens qui se tissent entre les phrases non contiguës. Les incipit des paragraphes forment l’argument principal de la thèse. Le sujet de la thèse, Schein (apparence, illusion, clart��) est abordé de manière non formaliste, c’est à dire, de manière que la forme donne d’elle-même une idée de la chose : illusion comme contradiction imposée. Bien que le sujet de la thèse soit l’illusion, son but est la vérité. Le Chapitre I présente une dialectique de perspectives (celles de Marx, de Lukács, de Hegel, de Horkheimer et d'Adorno) pour arriver à un critère de vérité, compte tenu du contexte d’aveuglement universel de la réification ; c’est la détermination de la dissolution de l’apparence. Le Chapitre II présente le concept d’apparence esthétique—une apparence réversible qui s’oppose à l’apparence sociale générée par l’industrie de la culture. Le Chapitre III cherche à savoir si la vérité en philosophie et la vérité en art sont deux genres distincts de vérités. Le Chapitre IV détermine si l’appel à la vérité comme immédiateté de l’expression, fait par le mouvement expressionniste du 20e siècle, est nouveau, jugé à l’aune d’un important antécédent à l’expressionisme musical : « Der Dichter spricht » de Robert Schumann. Le Chapitre V se penche sur la question à savoir si le montage inorganique est plus avancé que l’expressionisme. Le Chapitre VI reprend là où Peter Bürger clôt son essai Theorie de l’avant-garde : ce chapitre cherche à savoir à quel point l’oeuvre d’art après le Dada et le Surréalisme correspond au modèle hégélien de la « prose ». Le Chapitre VII soutient que Dichterliebe, op. 48, (1840), est une oeuvre d’art vraie. Trois conclusions résultent de cette analyse musicale détaillée : (1) en exploitant, dans certains passages, une ambigüité dans les règles de l’harmonie qui fait en sorte tous les douze tons sont admis dans l’harmonie, l’Opus 48 anticipe sur Schoenberg—tout en restant une musique tonale ; (2) l’Opus 48, no 1 cache une tonalité secrète : à l'oeil, sa tonalité est soit la majeur, soit fa-dièse mineur, mais une nouvelle analyse dans la napolitaine de do-dièse majeur est proposée ici ; (3) une modulation passagère à la napolitaine dans l’Opus 48, no 12 contient l’autre « moitié » de la cadence interrompue à la fin de l’Opus 48, no 1. Considérés à la lumière de la société fausse, l’Allemagne des années 1930, ces trois aspects anti-organiques témoignent d’une conscience avancée. La seule praxis de vie qu’apporte l’art, selon Adorno, est la remémoration. Mais l’effet social ultime de garder la souffrance vécue en souvenir est non négligeable : l’émancipation universelle.

[Ressenya del llibre The Desert is no lady: southwestern landscapes in women's writing and art, de Vera Norwood i Janice Monk (ed.)]

Ressenya del llibre The Desert is no lady: southwestern landscapes in women's writing and art, obra on s’interrelacionen tres temes que són paisatge, gènere (en aquest cas, la dona) i literatura (i, per extensió, un quart que és l’art)

The fractured lives of German Bohemian children, born 1933-40 in the area known as Sudetenland: a memory study, Nablonz-Neugablonz

At the Paris Peace Conferences of 1918-1919, new states aspiring to be nation-states were created for 60 million people, but at the same time 25 million people found themselves as ethnic minorities. This change of the old order in Europe had a considerable impact on one such group, more than 3 million Bohemian German-speakers, later referred to as Sudeten Germans. After the demise of the Habsburg Empire In 1918, they became part of the new state of Czechoslovakia. In 1938, the Munich Agreement – prelude to the Second World War – integrated them into Hitler’s Reich; in 1945-1946 they were expelled from the reconstituted state of Czechoslovakia. At the centre of this War Child case study are German children from the Northern Bohemian town and district, formerly known as Gablonz an der Neisse, famous for exquisite glass art, now Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Republic. After their expulsion they found new homes in the post-war Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, testimonies have been drawn upon of some Czech eyewitnesses from the same area, who provided their perspective from the other side, as it were. It turned out to be an insightful case study of the fate of these communities, previously studied mainly within the context of the national struggle between Germans and Czechs. The inter-disciplinary research methodology adopted here combines history and sociological research to demonstrate the effect of larger political and social developments on human lives, not shying away from addressing sensitive political and historical issues, as far as these are relevant within the context of the study. The expellees started new lives in what became Neugablonz in post-war Bavaria where they successfully re-established the industries they had had to leave behind in 1945-1946. Part 1 of the study sheds light on the complex Czech-German relationship of this important Central European region, addressing issues of democracy, ethnicity, race, nationalism, geopolitics, economics, human geography and ethnography. It also charts the developments leading to the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia after 1945. What is important in this War Child study is how the expellees remember their history while living as children in Sudetenland and later. The testimony data gained indicate that certain stereotypes often repeated within the context of Sudeten issues such as the confrontational nature of inter-ethnic relations are not reflected in the testimonies of the respondents from Gablonz. In Part 2 the War Child Study explores the memories of the former Sudeten war children using sociological research methods. It focuses on how they remember life in their Bohemian homeland and coped with the life-long effects of displacement after their expulsion. The study maps how they turned adversity into success by showing a remarkable degree of resilience and ingenuity in the face of testing circumstances due to the abrupt break in their lives. The thesis examines the reasons for the relatively positive outcome to respondents’ lives and what transferable lessons can be deduced from the results of this study.

Catalog of Paintings Exhibited in the Colby College Art Museum May 8 -22- 1974

This catalog describes paintings by the author, completed as his Senior Scholar Project in art and exhibited in the Colby College Art Museum. Images of the paintings are not available.