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.

Foucault's heraclitism and the concept of history

Deleuze states that Foucault would have created a new relationship between men and history, a relationship other than that established by the philosophers of history. In order to specify the steps Foucault took to accomplish this invention, I shall support, according to Deleuze, Foucault s Heraclitism as the basis for a genuine Foucaultian concept of history. After outlining the risks taken by Foucault s concept of history, I observe this concept at work through the three periods that perform his thought: Archeology, Genealogy and Aesthetics of Existence. The main characters that embody his concept of history through these periods are: a) the discontinuous profile of history; b) the denaturalization of would-be unhistorical objects; c) the historical dimension of body; d) the eddies of subjectivation in history. We shall focus our inspection on the turn made along Foucault s work when he takes into a new account the theme of subjectivity, mostly in the last two volumes of the History of Sexuality. Thus, our attention turns to the subjectivity defined as a process, in order to investigate individual identity as the result of history.

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.

Eliciting Euphoria Online: The Aesthetics of “ASMR” Video Culture

“Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” (ASMR) is a term that has emerged online to describe a mysterious tingling sensation that some people experience in response to particular audiovisual and interpersonal “triggers.” Initially coalescing via discussion threads on health forums, ASMR culture quickly began using platforms like YouTube and Reddit to exchange trigger videos. This paper frames the emergence of ASMR video culture as an example of how bodies and algorithms are conspiring to bring into being new cultural forms that can seem literally inexplicable on first encounter. Treating videos as “inputs,” judged not as messages to be understood or interpreted but by their ability to elicit particular affective and somatic “outputs,” ASMR communities cultivate a quasi-cybernetic relationship with the moving image, using video as a vehicle for “feeling out” phenomena that seem to thwart linguistic articulation and rational comprehension.

Amateurism and the Aesthetics of Lego Stop-Motion on YouTube

Do the “democratization” of media and the proliferation of online participatory culture undermine the aesthetic hegemony of professional filmmakers? This article is a case study of both more and less popular animated Lego videos, also called “brickfilms,” that asks how amateur videos adhere to and/or depart from professionalized aesthetic standards. It addresses the definitions of professionalism and amateurism and proposes that the dichotomy between democratization and ongoing elitism is insufficient to describe the complex dialogue between professional film aesthetics and amateur production—a dialogue that is diverse but nonetheless follows certain patterns. These patterns link Lego videos to silent era cinema as well as contemporary professional live-action and stop-motion animation. Furthermore, a mixture of parody, pastiche, and homage suggest that amateur work has a variety of affective relationships to professional work. Ultimately, amateur filmmaking indicates a negotiation of professional standards rather than slavish adherence.