Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa’s history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa’s history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.

A new teaching category at the Spanish University of Franco’s regime: the appearance on the scene of the senior lecturer

The Law of 17 July 1965 on the structure of university faculties and their teaching staff placed the figure of the university senior lecturer on stage. During the sixties, the gestation process, adoption and subsequent integration of the new figure in the academic pyramid did not escape controversy, leading to a complex phenomenon to which, however, non comprehensive studies have been devoted to reveal: how, when, why and under which conditions this teacher appeared in the Spanish University of Franco’s regime. This paper aims to provide an overview of the process of materialization of the senior lecturer, the legislative framework that definitely established this new educational category and the provisions that were in charge of regulating the processes to get tenure. Also, the first approved aggregate endowments and their distribution among universities, colleges and studies will be discussed. Finally, it was a first approach to the possible motivations that led to the creation of this new educational category in a university afflicted by serious problems waiting for a solution that had been delayed sine die. Asimismo, se analizarán las primeras dotaciones de agregados aprobadas y la distribución de las mismas por universidades, facultades y estudios. Para terminar, se realiza un primer acercamiento a las posibles motivaciones que condujeron a la creación de esta nueva figura docente en una universidad aquejada de graves problemas que esperaban a una solución que venía demorándose sine die.

Social Networks Usage Profile: Descriptive study with students in the University of Murcia

Telematic tools are very important for our lives in the present era and moreover this idea is made more evident if we analyse young people behaviours. However, it seems that the possibilities that these tools allow subjects from a professional point of view, beyond the purely playful aspects, are still not fully exploited both by subjects, neither by educational institutions where they learn. Our work studies the uses of social media in the context of university students. In order to this we have designed a research based on quantitative methodology with a survey. We have applied a questionnaire to students in the University of Murcia. The questionnaire was answered by 487 students in the first half of 2014. The survey results confirm our hypothesis that social networks are part of the basic and habitual tools of communication between the youth of our university and eminently used for leisure purposes, and that the tools used for more academic activities are those allowing greater control of privacy.

Sporting with the Classics: The Latin Poetry of William Dillingham

Sporting with the Classics: The Latin Poetry of William Dillingham (2010) (back cover)

Dana Sutton, University of California:
‘The great merit of Estelle Haan's study is that she is willing to take Dillingham seriously as a poet. Her reproduction of his work, together with an English translation and very detailed studies of his individual poems have the combined effect of rescuing an interesting poet from near-total oblivion. This, in my opinion, is the finest thing a neo-Latin scholar can do, and Haan accomplishes her task with the same skill, sensitivity, and eloquence that have distinguished her studies of other neo-Latin poets of this period (Joseph Addison and Vincent Bourne). It is impossible not to react to this volume with extreme respect and appreciation’.

Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester:
‘Nothing substantial has ever been published on Dillingham, but with this volume we have a new corpus of poetry that intersects with the work of many other seventeenth-century neo-Latin and vernacular poets. Professor Haan’s scholarship is here (as always) placed at the service of the poet, and she leads the reader gently through the work of a new poet. Professor Haan is the most eminent and able neo-Latinist of her generation, and her scholarship never fails; sometimes it dazzles as in the chapters on the hangman's stone and on Renaissance topiary. Her research is always up-to-date, and her translations have a gracefulness that other laborers in the vineyard can only envy’.

From the "pólis" to the modern state: an approach to the problem of politics in Heidegger

This paper starts off asking whether a strictly political approach may be deduced based on Martin Heidegger’ ontological analyses of modernity. His interpretation of the Greek phenomenon of the polis is discussed along with the distinction established therein between this form of community and the modern state, founded according to Heidegger on the metaphysical essence of modernity. To clarify this question regard is had to the proclamation of values observed by Heidegger in the different forms of state organization arising in the age of technical consummation of metaphysics. In this connection, his vision of nihilism is studied and a hypothesis is finally offered as to the form of state that would be consistent with a renunciation of the values required, in his view, by the manifestation of the entity in modernity as a wholly producible object.

The Paradox of art criticism: Jacques Derrida in front of the Greco, Henri Michaux before René Magritte

This paper analyzes the rethinking of art criticism during French post-structuralism and deconstruction in the second half of the XX century. From Michel Foucault to Gilles Deleuze, from Jacques Derrida to Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, the article develops several conceptions and functions of art criticism by means of paradox, paying special attention to Henri Michaux’s essay on René Magritte En rêvant à partir de peintures énigmatiques [Dreams like Enigmatic Paintings].

Museums and youth: between misunderstanding and disappointment. Youth perceptions and arguments about the cultural consumption of museums in Chile

Young people are less explored in museum audience research; this is a paradoxical situation when considering its strategic location in the cultural reproduction and if considering the high performing cultural consumption compared with other sectors. The phenomenon of museums consumption by young Chileans who are self recognized as public and non-public museums is explored from a qualitative approach. It was conducted with focus groups in the three largest cities in Chile (Santiago, Valparaíso and Concepción). They identify the museum as a cultural institution in full force. However, in questioning museums activity youth reveal the specificity of their cultural matrix. This is referred to a social temporality based on the fragment, the discourse of familiarity, proximity and instead of breaking and critical. They claim a museum aesthetic / historical experience based on pleasure and enjoyment. An overview is proposed to further clarify the youth cultural consumption to characterize more precisely the place of the museum in the set, to design more effective policies museums.

The use of ICT in the course “Photography” in university education. First results of a teaching innovation project at the University of Murcia

The new pedagogical framework arisen since the Bologna Declaration,the Prague Communiquéand the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), encourages, significantly, the use of new Communication and Information Technology to evolve teaching methodologies. The different ways teachers relate to learners have undergone a staggering change from which educational initiatives have emerged. Many of them are based on contents’ democratization through the use of ICT. The current article is intended to show the results obtained until the 2012/2013 academic course, since the implementation of the teaching innovation project entitled “The use of ICT for the students’ autonomous learning in the university education of the course Photography. Elaboration of a virtual classroom and results’ analysis related to the acquisition of skills and competencies” that has been developed in the course called Draw with light: Photography, belonging to the Fine Arts Degree at the University of Murcia.

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.

Vis-á-Vis-á-Vis. The Three-dimensional and artistic view of a problem

ANPO (A Non-predefined Outcome) is an an art-making methodology that employs structuralist theory of language (Saussure, Lacan, Foucault) combined with Hegel’s dialectic and the theory of creation of space by Lefebvre to generate spaces of dialogue and conversation between community members and different stakeholders. These theories of language are used to find artistic ways of representing a topic that community members have previously chosen. The topic is approached in a way that allows a visual, aural, performative and gustative form. To achieve this, the methodology is split in four main steps: step 1 ‘This is not a chair’, Step 2 ‘The topic’, Step 3 ‘ Vis-á-vis-á-vis’ and step 4. ‘Dialectical representation’ where the defined topic is used to generate artistic representations.The step 1 is a warm up exercise informed by the Rene Magritte painting ‘This is not a Pipe’. This exercise aims to help the participants to see an object as something else than an object but as a consequence of social implications. Step 2, participants choose a random topic and vote for it. The artist/facilitator does not predetermine the topic, participants are the one who propose it and choose it. Step 3, will be analysed in this publication and finally step 4, the broken down topic is taken to be represented and analysed in different ways.