Postmodernism, culture and feminism: the aesthetics of space and performance in Rock Follies and Rock Follies of '77

This article discusses the aesthetic and spatial representational strategies of the popular studio-based musical television drama serials Rock Follies and Rock Follies of ���77. It analyses how the texts��� themes relating to women and the entertainment industry are mediated through their postmodern ironic mode and representation of fantastic spaces. Rock Follies��� distinctive stylised aesthetic and mode of caricature are analysed with reference to the visual intentions and ���voice��� of the writer, Howard Schuman. Through considering the programmes��� various spatial strategies, the article draws attention to the importance of visual and performance style in their postmodern discourse on culture, fantasy, gender and subjectivity. Analysis of the spaces of musical performance, characters��� domestic environments and simulated entertainment spaces reveals how a dialectic is established between the escapist imaginative pleasures of fantasy and the manipulative and exploitative practices of the culture industry. The shift from the optimism of the first series, when the LittleLadies first form, to the darker mood of the second series, in which they are increasingly divided by industry pressures, is traced through changes in the aesthetics of space and characterisation. As a space of artifice, performance and electronic visual manipulation that facilitates the texts��� reflexive representation of culture and feminised fantasy, the studio���s unique aesthetic strengths emerge through this case study.

Rotational aesthetics: Michael Bay and contemporary cinema���s machine movement

Digital imaging technologies enable a mastery of the visual that in recent mainstream cinema frequently manifests as certain kinds of spatial reach, orientation and motion. In such a context Michael Bay���s Transformers franchise can be framed as a digital re-tooling of a familiar fantasy of vehicular propulsion, US car culture writ large in digitally crafted spectacles of diegetic speed, the vehicular chase film ���2.0���. Movement is central to these films, calling up Scott Bukatman���s observation that in spectacular visual media ���movement has become more than a tool of bodily knowledge; it has become an end in itself��� (2003: 125). Not all movements and not all instances of vehicular propulsion are the same however. How might we evaluate what is at stake in a film���s assertion of movement as an end in itself, and the form that assertion takes, its articulations of diegetic velocity, corporeality, and spatial penetration? Deploying an attentiveness towards the specificity of aesthetic detail and affective impact in Bay���s delineation of movement, this essay suggests that the franchise poses questions about the relationship of human movement to machine movement that exceed their narrative basis. Identifying a persistent rotational trope in the franchise that in its audio-visual articulation combines oddly anachronistic elements (evoking the mechanical rather than the digital), the article argues that the films prioritise certain fantasies of transformation and spatial penetration, and certain modes of corporeality, as one response to contemporary debates about digital technologisation, sustainable energy, and cinematic spectacle. In this way the franchise also represents a particular moment in a more widely discernible preoccupation in contemporary cinema with what we might call a ���rotational aesthetics��� of action, a machine movement made possible by the digital, but which invokes earlier histories and fantasies of animation, propulsion, mechanization and mechanization to particular ends.

William Gaddis's aesthetics of recognitions

William Gaddis���s The Recognitions (1955) is a selfreflexive novel that portrays Wyatt Gwyon���s trajectory from childhood to maturity, as he rejects and searches for originality. The present work bestows an analysis of William Gaddis���s The Recognitions focusing on the problematization of originality and authorship proposed by the novel by means of the central issues of forgery and plagiarism, which bring with them two larger and more important sister-notions: authorship and originality. The novel questions the prevailing demand for originality and discusses the possibility of being original. It formulates an aesthetics of recognitions defended in the novel and used by the author in the making of this text. In order to do that, this work provides a view on the different concepts associated with the terms originality and original, as well as some of the main infringements related to them in contemporary society. It also offers an account of the development of the concepts of originality and authorship in Western society, showing the growing importance of the figure of the author and the parallel development of the concepts of plagiarism and copyright. The next three chapters are dedicated to attempt to provide an account of William Gaddis���s The Recognitions focusing on the main artist characters and an analysis of the novel in the light of the theoretical and historical background provided. The first of these chapters focuses on Wyatt���s trajectory and his visions of art. The second identifies and analyses Wyatt���s mirrors in the narrative, which reinforce the self-reflective structure of the novel. And the third chapter exemplifies and analyses Wyatt���s aesthetics of recognitions, which turns out to be Gaddis���s own aesthetics in the making of his fiction.

Factors to Achieve Aesthetics in All-Ceramic Restorations

The demand for aesthetic restorations has increased during the last years. Dental ceramics are a successful alternative for some cases because of aesthetics and biocompatibility. Therefore, the aim of this literature review was to present the factors necessary to fabricate all-ceramic restorations with aesthetics similar to natural dentition. A search of English-language peer-review literature was completed using MEDLINE database from 1975 to 2009 including the keywords "aesthetic," "metal-free crown," "all-ceramic," and "color." It was observed that several factors influence aesthetics of all-ceramic restorations. Color scale, light source during color evaluation, characteristic of core material, color of supporting tooth, presence of root post, and type of cement are clinical factors that may influence color of the restorations. Laboratorial factors as technique for ceramic condensation, thickness, temperature, and number of firing cycles also influence the result of these crowns. Although several clinical and laboratorial factors influence aesthetics of all-ceramic restorations, the aesthetic success and longevity of these restorations depend on the integration with surrounding periodontal tissue.

Some deviations of form: a little essay on psychoanalysis, art and aesthetics

This work intends to investigate the use of psychoanalytical theory within the aesthetic and critical contemporary art field. To this purpose, it focuses on two philosophers who have become significant in our time: the art critic Hal Foster and the art historian Georges Didi-Huberman. This study aims to show how far the concepts generated in psychoanalytic praxis allowed interpretations that disrupt the traditional aesthetics field. This type of analysis is possible once we abandon the paradigm of ���applied psychoanalysis���, which is still current in non-clinical setting. Finally, the proposal wants to argue that the category of the amorphous may clarify certain aesthetic experiences that range from the modernity of art through postmodernity.

Optimizing maxillary aesthetics of a severe compromised tooth through orthodontic movement and dental implants

Treatment of severe compromised tooth in the maxillary anterior area still poses great challenge to the clinicians. Several treatment modalities have been proposed to restore the function and aesthetics in teeth with advanced periodontal disease. The present study aims to report a case of traumatic injury of a left-maxillary central incisor with ridge preservation, orthodontic movement, and implant therapy. A 45-year-old woman underwent the proposed treatment for her left central incisor: basic periodontal therapy, xenogenous bone graft, and guided bone regeneration (GBR). Six months after the graft procedure, orthodontic movement by means of alignment and leveling was made and a coronal displacement of the gingival margin and vertical bone apposition could be observed after 13 months of active movement. Afterwards, a dental implant was placed followed by a connective tissue graft and immediate provisionalization of the crown. In conclusion, orthodontic movement was effective to improve the gingival tissue and alveolar bone prior to implant placement favoring the aesthetic results. Six years postoperatively, the results revealed height and width alveolar bone gain indicating that the treatment proposed was able to restore all the functional and aesthetic parameters.