Between Sound and Sight: Framing the Exotic in Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction

Roysten Abel’s The Manganiyar Seduction is perhaps the most popular performance of Indian folk music on the global festival market today. This performance of Rajasthani folk music is an apt exemplification of an auto-exoticism framed as cultural commodity. Its mise en scéne of musicians framed, literally, by illuminated red square boxes ‘theatricalises’ Rajasthan’s folk culture of orality and renders such a tradition the quality of strangeness that borders on theatre and music, contemporary and traditional. The ‘dazzling’ union of the Manganiyar’s music and scenography of Amsterdam’s red light district engendered an exotic seduction that garnered raving reviews on its global tour. This paper then examines the production’s performative interstices: the in betweenness of sound and sight where aural tradition is ‘spectacularised’, and the shifting convergences of tradition and cultural consumption. It further interrogates the role of reception in the construction of such ‘exotic’ spectacles.

IMAGING OF SURFACE-PLASMON PROPAGATION AND EDGE INTERACTION USING A PHOTON SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE

We report the direct imaging of surface plasmon propagation on thin silver films using the photon scanning tunneling microscope. It is found that the surface plasmon remains tightly confined in the original launch direction with insignificant scattering to other momentum states. A propagation length of 13.2 mum is measured at lambda = 632.8 nm. We also present images showing the interaction of a surface plasmon with the edge of the metal film supporting it. The most remarkable feature is the absence of a specularly reflected beam.

Dynamics of intense laser propagation in underdense plasma: Polarization dependence

We present a comprehensive numerical study of the dynamics of an intense laser pulse as it propagates through an underdense plasma in two and three dimensions. By varying the background plasma density and the polarization of the laser beam, significant differences are found in terms of energy transport and dissipation, in agreement with recently reported experimental results. Below the threshold for relativistic self-focusing, the plasma and laser dynamics are observed to be substantially insensitive to the initial laser polarization, since laser transport is dominated by ponderomotive effects. Above this threshold, relativistic effects become important, and laser energy is dissipated either by plasma heating (p-polarization) or by trapping of electromagnetic energy into plasma cavities (s-polarization) or by a combination of both (circular polarization). Besides the fundamental interest of this study, the results presented are relevant to applications such as plasma-based accelerators, x-ray lasers, and fast-ignition inertial confinement fusion. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4737151]

A novel three-dimensional culture system for isolation and clonal propagation of neural stem cells using a thermo-reversible gelation polymer

In the present study, we examined the possible utility of a three-dimensional culture system using a thermo-reversible gelation polymer to isolate and expand neural stem cells (NSCs). The polymer is a synthetic biologically inert polymer and gelates at temperatures higher than the gel-sol transition point ( approximately 20 degrees C). When fetal mouse brain cells were inoculated into the gel, spherical colonies were formed ( approximately 1% in primary culture and approximately 9% in passage cultures). The spheroid-forming cells were positive for expression of the NSC markers nestin and Musashi. Under conditions facilitating spontaneous neural differentiation, the spheroid-forming cells expressed genes characteristic to astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and neurons. The cells could be successively propagated at least to 80 poly-D-lysines over a period of 20 weeks in the gel culture with a growth rate higher than that observed in suspension culture. The spheroids formed by fetal mouse brain cells in the gel were shown to be of clonal origin. These results indicate that the spheroid culture system is a convenient and powerful tool for isolation and clonal expansion of NSCs in vitro.

Creating a Circus of Words, Music, and Sound: From Roaratorio to Owenvarragh

This article documents the creation of a work by the authors based on a score written by the composer John Cage entitled 'Owenvarragh: A Belfast Circus on The Star Factory.' The article is part of a documentary portfolio in the journal which also includes a volume of the poetry created by Dowling in accordance with the instructions of the Cage score, and a series of documentary videos on the creation of the work and its first performance. Cage's score is based on his work 'Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegan's Wake' (1979) and it provides a set of detailed instructions for the musical realisation of a literary work. The article documents this first fully realised version of the score since Cage first produced 'Roaratorio' in 1979. The work, which was motivated by the Cage centenary year in 2012, musically realises Carson's book 'The Star Factory' (1998), a novelestic autobiography of Carson's Belfast childhood. The score required the creation of a fixed media piece based on over 300 field recordings of the sounds and places mentioned in the book, a volume of poetry created from the book which is recited to form the rhythmic spine of the work, and the arrangement of a performance including these two components along with live musical performance by the authors in collaboration with three other musicians under their direction, and a video installation created for the work. The piece has been performed three times: in association with the Sonorities 2012 Festival at Queen's University of Belfast (March 2012), at The Belfast Festival at Queen's (October 2012), and in the Rymer Auditoium of the University of York (June 2013).

Additional information:

The work which the article documents was conceived by Monaghan and Dowling, and the project was initiated by Monaghan after a she received a student prize to support its development and first performance. Elements of the project will be included in her PhD dissertation for which Dowling is a supervisor. Monaghan created the fixed media piece based on over 300 field recordings, the largest single aspect of realising Cage's score. Dowling was responsible for initiating the collaboration with Ciaran Carson, and for two other components: the creation of a volume of poetry derived from the literary work which is recited in the performance, and the creation of and supervision of the technical work on a video which accompanies the piece. The co-authors consulted closely during the work on these large components from May 2011 until March 2012 when the first performance took place. The co-authors also shared in numerous other artistic and organisational aspects of the production, including the arrangement and performnance of the music, musical direction to other performers, and marketing.