Sky View

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

AMS dating of rock art in the Laura Region, Cape York Peninsula, Australia - protocols and results of recent research

The authors describe rock art dating research in Australia using the oxalate method While the array of dates obtained (which range from c. 1200 to c. 25000 BP) show a satisfactory correlation with other archaeological data, there are mismatches which suggest that some motifs were often imitated by later artists, and/or that the mineral accretions continued to form periodically, perhaps continuously, as a regional phenomenon over a long period of time.

Who wants to live forever?

For millennia, human civilization has been fascinated with overcoming death. Immortality, eternal youth or at least the prospect of reaching biblical age have had a strong lure for religion, art and popular beliefs. Life after death, which is, in essence, eternal life, is the one central element of nearly all religions since Ancient Egypt. If we believe the Old Testament, some of the patriarchs lived for several hundreds of years. In the medieval ages, the fountain of youth was a popular myth, often illustrated in paintings, such as Lucas Cranach's The Fountain of Youth (Fig 1). And society today has not lost its fascination with immortality, as seen in Hollywood movies such as the Highlander films (1986–2000), The 6th Day (2000) or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and novels such as H. Rider Haggard's She. But for the first time, modern science may provide the knowledge and tools to interfere with the ageing processes and fulfil this age-old dream. This possibility has triggered an intense debate among scientists and ethicists about the potential of anti-ageing therapies and their ethical and social consequences. Given that anti-ageing therapies could dramatically change the social fabric of modern societies, it is quite astonishing that these debates have neglected the views of the larger public.

Raman microscopic investigation of paint samples from the Rosalila building, Copan, Honduras

Micro-Raman spectroscopy was applied to the study of multiple layered wall paints from the Rosalila temple, Copan, Honduras, which dates to the Middle Classic period (A.D. 520 to 655). Samples of red, green and grey paint and a thick white overcoating were analysed. The paint pigments have been identified as hematite, celadonite or green earth and a combined carbon/mica mixture. By combining Raman spectroscopy with micro-ATR infrared spectroscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), a detailed study has been made of the materials and processes used to make the stucco and paints. The use of green earth as a green pigment on Maya buildings has not been reported before. The combination of carbon and muscovite mica to create a reflective paint is also a novel finding.

O Sagrado na Dança Ritual Indígena Brasileira: Bororo, um estudo de caso

Na história da religião, nem sempre a dança foi considerada elemento de expressão do sagrado. O objetivo dessa pesquisa é compreender a importância da dança nos rituais sagrados de uma cultura indígena. O povo Bororo, sociedade indígena encontrada em Mato Grosso, foi selecionado especificamente para compor o estudo de caso. Assim, são abordados dados gerais sobre a vida, os costumes e a religiosidade dessa etnia. O estudo mostra breve panorama da religião e do ritual sagrado Bororo e, principalmente, descreve esses rituais e suas respectivas danças. Foi realizada ainda uma investigação sobre a centralidade do corpo nessa cultura por meio do estudo da indumentária, ornamentos, pinturas e marcas de caráter provisório ou permanente.

Zwei Wege zur 'Aufhellung der Finsternisse in der Welt'. Zum untergründigen Wechselverhältnis von Literatur & Malerei bei Thomas Bernhard & Francis Bacon:for subterranean exchange relationship between literature and painting in Thomas Bernhard & Francis Bacon

This chapter undertakes the first examination of the role the fine arts play in Thomas Bernhard’s prose works. Though not as prominent as the role of music, painting and the fine arts play a crucial role in Frost and Alte Meister; these two novels coincidentally also happen to be the first and last novels written by Bernhard. This chapter takes its cue from the positive role awarded to Francis Bacon in the novel Das Kalkwerk. Comparing and contrasting the relation and influence between the art of Bacon and the literature of Bernhard, I am able to demonstrate a number of surprising analogies. Following a brief biographical synopsis, I focus on four aesthetic operations that are crucial to both artists. Using the key terms of ‘middle way’, ‘variation’, ‘vibration’ and ‘mediation’, I am able to uncover surprising similarities between the novels and the paintings. These hidden connections are further confirmed by looking at the two artists’ shared major motifs, namely the slaughterhouse, the scream, the relation between animals and humans, and pain. This bleak outlook on the state of human civilisation that these two major artists of the end of the 20th century share, embodies both a warning and a prophesy for the 21st century.

Model thrombi formed under flow reveal the role of factor XIII-mediated cross-linking in resistance to fibrinolysis

Background: Activated factor XIII (FXIIIa), a transglutaminase, introduces fibrin-fibrin and fibrin-inhibitor cross-links, resulting in more mechanically stable clots. The impact of cross-linking on resistance to fibrinolysis has proved challenging to evaluate quantitatively. Methods: We used a whole blood model thrombus system to characterize the role of cross-linking in resistance to fibrinolytic degradation. Model thrombi, which mimic arterial thrombi formed in vivo, were prepared with incorporated fluorescently labeled fibrinogen, in order to allow quantification of fibrinolysis as released fluorescence units per minute. Results: A site-specific inhibitor of transglutaminases, added to blood from normal donors, yielded model thrombi that lysed more easily, either spontaneously or by plasminogen activators. This was observed both in the cell/platelet-rich head and fibrin-rich tail. Model thrombi from an FXIII-deficient patient lysed more quickly than normal thrombi; replacement therapy with FXIII concentrate normalized lysis. In vitro addition of purified FXIII to the patient's preprophylaxis blood, but not to normal control blood, resulted in more stable thrombi, indicating no further efficacy of supraphysiologic FXIII. However, addition of tissue transglutaminase, which is synthesized by endothelial cells, generated thrombi that were more resistant to fibrinolysis; this may stabilize mural thrombi in vivo. Conclusions: Model thrombi formed under flow, even those prepared as plasma 'thrombi', reveal the effect of FXIII on fibrinolysis. Although very low levels of FXIII are known to produce mechanical clot stability, and to achieve ?-dimerization, they appear to be suboptimal in conferring full resistance to fibrinolysis.

Analysis of the Distributions of Color Characteristics in Art Painting Images

In this paper we study some of the characteristics of the art painting image color semantics. We analyze the color features of differ- ent artists and art movements. The analysis includes exploration of hue, saturation and luminance. We also use quartile’s analysis to obtain the dis- tribution of the dispersion of defined groups of paintings and measure the degree of purity for these groups. A special software system “Art Paint- ing Image Color Semantics” (APICSS) for image analysis and retrieval was created. The obtained result can be used for automatic classification of art paintings in image retrieval systems, where the indexing is based on color characteristics.

Online Access to the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum

Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum project aims at building a repertoire of medieval and early modern Bulgarian texts for saints in combination with ethnological data and some visual sources. A basic project task is to produce an accessible on-line digital repository of this valuable cultural heritage treasure. The paper presents the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum environment, its architecture, functional specification, application modeling process and software implementation. The paper also discusses the specifics of the ―Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum‖ project and its knowledge domain. The paper also presents the integration between the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum and the Bulgarian Iconographical Digital Library, a digital library keeping rare specimens, private collections of Orthodox icons, wall- paintings and other iconographical objects, selected from difficult-to-access storages, distant churches, chapels, and monasteries, objects in a risk environment or unstable conditions.

Establishing Correspondences between Attribute Spaces and Complex Concept Spaces Using Meta-PGN Classifier

In this paper, we present one approach for extending the learning set of a classification algorithm with additional metadata. It is used as a base for giving appropriate names to found regularities. The analysis of correspondence between connections established in the attribute space and existing links between concepts can be used as a test for creation of an adequate model of the observed world. Meta-PGN classifier is suggested as a possible tool for establishing these connections. Applying this approach in the field of content-based image retrieval of art paintings provides a tool for extracting specific feature combinations, which represent different sides of artists' styles, periods and movements.

Digital Library of Collections from Cultural Institutions in Plovdiv

This report presents the project outcomes for digital presentation of historical artefacts from the region of Plovdiv, related to the Balkan War (1912-1913). The selected collections include digitized periodicals, postcards, photographs, museum objects and paintings by Bulgarian artists. Problems related to the digitization, creation, storage and visualization of digital objects from the funds of these cultural institutions are also discussed. The content of this digital library is expected to be completed with other collections at cultural institutions in Plovdiv. The idea is as a next step to integrate the project with the other digital libraries. The project website „Digital library of collections from cultural institutions in Plovdiv” is also presented here - http://plovdivartefacts.com/ (Figure 1).

The Impact of Chinese Culture on European Landscape Design

The English garden design style and the landscape garden movement became the most emblematic cultural achievement of England in the 18th-19th century. The natural garden style proved to be the symbol of the liberal philosophy and the enlightened way of thinking. But the English landscape garden, which can be seen as an idealized view of nature, is inspired by the classical landscape paintings and is also influenced by the classic Chinese gardens, which had recently been described by European travellers. The interest for Chinese culture, architecture and garden design spread around the British island and inspired the talented garden designers. The gardens of Chambers created a new section in the picturesque landscape gardens, the so called anglo-chinoiseric gardens where eastern, mainly Chinese architectural motives and garden elements have been used in most cases without integrating the Chinese nature philosophy. This first, more or less formal effects of Chinese garden design on European landscape architecture were overwritten by garden designers and horticulturalist during the gardenesque period of the early 19th century when great variety in plant design was taken into the focus of landscape architecture.

Ecfrasis: Escritura y pintura en el costumbrismo argentino

This dissertation examines the discursive practice of Argentine costumbrista texts from a novel perspective. In (re)reading the works of selected prominent writers from the late colonial period to the end of the Nineteenth Century, including those of Alonso Carrió de la Vandera, Emeric Essex Vidal, León Pallière, Lucio Vicente López, Lucio V. Mansilla, and Pastor Obligado we focus on the presence of ekphrastic enunciations with a view toward linking the plastic, painterly dimensions of the prose to parallel representations by artists of the same period. Thus the costumbristas are studied in tandem with the watercolors, oil paintings and lithographic compositions of artists such as Carlos Enrique Pellegrim, César Hipólito Bacle, Raymond Monvoisin and Hipólito Moulin. The resulting comparative study of the two arts---the verbal and the pictorial---illustrates the notion described by W. J. T. Mitchell that a literary text may well "represent a work of visual or graphic art." And thus, it provides us with visual, spatial motifs that enhance its powers of representation. ^ In developing our focus on ekphrastic representations we have followed the theoretic studies of Murray Krieger, Jean H. Hagstrum, James Hefferman, John Hollander, W. J. T. Mitchell, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Wendy Steiner among others, all of whom in various ways take their cue from Horace's Ut pictura poesis and the notion that poetry, that is literary discourse, can be likened to a panting and that in both arts there is a refractive quality that makes literature a spoken vehicle of expression and painting a silent, complementary voice. ^ In studying the literary and plastic discourses comparatively what becomes evident is that they share cultural and ideological concerns that center around the notion of self-definition, national identity, and the relation of the individual to the incipient national community (Benedict Anderson). These concerns are highlighted via the depiction of customs, mores, dress, work habits, professions, and social classes. In late colonial literature and painting and especially in the Nineteenth Century, which constitutes the defining period of Argentine political independence, the confluence of the two disciplinary discourses addresses, and underscores the issues of socio-political empowerment in the new Argentine nation. ^

Écfrasis y Lecturas Icono-textuales en las "Leyendas" de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

The relationship between literature and the visual arts is ancient and it has been studied from different conceptual frames. Scholars agree that both have a descriptive function and therefore share the common goal of portraying a fictional or nonfictional reality. Based on this correspondence between two different modes of artistic expression, the Roman poet Horace coined the well-known simile ut pictura poesis --as is painting so is in poetry-- which in turn functions as the theoretical underpinning of ekphrasis, a rhetorical device through which one medium of art tries to describe the essence and form of another medium of art, with the purpose of enhancing the original work described. Spanish post-romantic poet and writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) mastered this rhetorical strategy by expertly weaving all of his artistic interests into his prose. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze how Bécquer makes his readers both see and hear through his prose. My semiotic research encompasses the various forms of ekphrasis used by Bécquer in the “Leyendas”. It shows how both images and symbols produce in readers sensory experiences that enhance their role as active participants in the creation of meaning. Thus, Bécquer´s prose is like a painting which not only tells a story, but also reflects reality through the eyes of the reader’s imagination. By using these ekphrastic strategies in his collection of short stories, Bécquer makes words, paintings, and music converge and collide with iconography, visual culture, and intertextuality. These components must be read, seen, heard, and understood to be more than just complementary to the text, but rather crucial elements, equal in importance to verbal expression. This analysis shows how Bécquer’s “Leyendas” not only tackle notions such as fantasy, figuration, and imagination, but also the importance of the reader´s gaze. Bécquer integrates processes such as imaginative action, iconization and visualization, into a semantic web whereby the reader creates his own particular hermeneutic image.

Fibonacci Series, Golden Proportions, and the Human Biology

Pythagoras, Plato and Euclid’s paved the way for Classical Geometry. The idea of shapes that can be mathematically defined by equations led to the creation of great structures of modern and ancient civilizations, and milestones in mathematics and science. However, classical geometry fails to explain the complexity of non-linear shapes replete in nature such as the curvature of a flower or the wings of a Butterfly. Such non-linearity can be explained by fractal geometry which creates shapes that emulate those found in nature with remarkable accuracy. Such phenomenon begs the question of architectural origin for biological existence within the universe. While the concept of a unifying equation of life has yet to be discovered, the Fibonacci sequence may establish an origin for such a development. The observation of the Fibonacci sequence is existent in almost all aspects of life ranging from the leaves of a fern tree, architecture, and even paintings, makes it highly unlikely to be a stochastic phenomenon. Despite its wide-spread occurrence and existence, the Fibonacci series and the Rule of Golden Proportions has not been widely documented in the human body. This paper serves to review the observed documentation of the Fibonacci sequence in the human body.