14 research outputs found
Recycling mittelalterlicher Skulpturen im Zeitalter des Barock. Die Schreinfiguren aus dem Retabel der ehem. Peterskapelle auf dem Bisemberg (Montorge) bei Freiburg i. Ue.
No full text”The most wonderful summer of my life”: Walter Bosshard’s journeys in Inner Mongolia
No full textSpecial Issue: Travelling to the Heart of Asia: A History of Western Encounters with Mongolia:
This paper focuses on the Mongolian journeys of one of the most important representatives of modern photo-journalism, the Swiss journalist and author Walter Bosshard (1892–1975). From 1934 to 1936 he undertook five journeys in Inner Mongolia from which he brought back roughly 2,000 photos, of which only 131 have been published in his travel report Kühles Grassland Mongolei (“Fresh grasslands of Mongolia”) of 1938. The book gained wide popularity among Swiss and German readers and some of its photographs have achieved iconic status in modern ethnographic photography. The paper provides a description of Bosshard’s Mongolian journeys and introduces his travel report, analysing the discursive modes of his representation of the Mongolians
The Beginning and the End of the Universe in the Closed Friedman Model
No full textHow to define space-time singularities is a serious problem in general relativity. Schmidt's b-boundary construction was commonly regarded as leading to the best (and very elegant) definition of singularities: space-time is said to be singular if it contains at least one b-incomplete curve. Unfortunately, Bosshard (1976) and Johnson (1977) demonstrated that the b-boundary of the closed Friedman universe consists of the single point. This means that the initial and final singularieties (i.e., the beginning and the end of the Friedman world) coincide. So far no remedy to cure this disaster was known. In the present paper, the author reviews the results obtained by himself and W. Sasin (1994) which clarify the problem. The closed Friedman space-time together with its singularities is not smooth manifold but it turns out to be a structured space which is a strong generalization of the manifold concept. Consequently, if the problem is considered within the correct category, i.e. the category of structured spaces, the patologies dissapear. If one remains within the space-time everything is all right. It is only if one attempts to „touch” the singularity (to extend the differential structure from the inside of space-time to the singularity) when the beginning and the end of the universe coalesce. From the perspective of the Demiurg creating the closed Friedman universe the cosmic history is but a single point. The methodological significance of this result is briefly discussed
Realismo psíquico en una novela inédita de Gamaliel Churata
No full textThe thesis, divided into three parts, seeks to bring readers and literary critics closer to the work of an author of fundamental importance for understanding the thought of the South American Andean region. The main objective is to write an introductory study to accompany the critical edition of the unpublished novel Limeños de la sierra Metafísica del tiempo (1969). After introducing Gamaliel Churata, the text first sets out the main critical context surrounding his writing, determining that, despite the existence of deep, broad and competent readings of his books (Aramayo 1979, Badini 1991, Bosshard 2007, Monasterios 2015, et al.), there are still gaps in interpretation, with particular attention to the last phase of his literary production between 1957 (after the publication of El pez de oro) until 1969. It is precisely in this period that Churata sets out and deepens his linguistic, philosophical and ontological proposal that he himself calls psychic realism (González 2009). It was also during this period that he wrote the novel Limeños de la sierra Metafísica del tiempo, still unpublished.
Precisely to enter into a detailed reading of this new realism, in the first chapter entitled “The Philosopher of the Earth,” I propose Churata as an innovator of humanistic practices based on the knowledge of nature and its possible laws. This occurs from his literary work in stories such as El gamonal (1927) where the land is treated from an economic and social point of view –Marxist, we could say–; the same one he adopted in his work as a surveyor in the highlands before his exile in La Paz, Bolivia, where he lived for more than thirty years. The proposal of a philosophy of the earth is in turn based also on a theoretical framework defined in Aymara as Yanak Uywaña, by Elvira Espejo Ayca, which could be translated as “Mutual breeding of knowledge and arts,” in which a de-hierarchization between the human being and his environment is practiced (plants, animals and raw materials of the work of art, such as wool in the fabric). To complete this approach, I rely on the work Churata did in support of the Bolivian Agrarian Reform of 1953, little known until now. After analyzing his epistemological contributions, it is highlighted how the Aymara and Quechua civilizations had a strong influence on Churata's thought, along with Bolivian social phenomena, together with concepts such as jata, ajayu watan and hallpa kamaska, necessary to understand his main works.
The second chapter of the thesis focuses on the interpretation and questioning of the concept of "dialectic of psychic realism." Therefore, always following the premises raised by Churata, I will focus on three passages of dialectical history. In this triad of passages that have influenced global thought, I conduct a brief dialogue between specific dialectical passages (Plato, Hegel, and Marx) with Churata, in order to analyze the relevance, scope, or possible paradigmatic changes in the work of the author of Resurrección de los muertos (2010). After establishing what psychic realism consists of, the third chapter finally focuses on the interpretation of the novel Limeños de la sierra Metafísica del tiempo from this new epistemological lens, to offer a careful and commented philological edition. In Limeños de la sierra, the ontological principles of ajayu watan and jata, among others, operate like nowhere else in Gamaliel Churata's narrative. This leads me to suggest that the novel is equivalent, in its narrative, to an aesthetic manifesto, as has happened many times in the history of art, when a philosophical and/or aesthetic movement (surrealism, psychologism, existentialism, etc.) is presented through a specific work. The novel functions as a kind of staging to propose a different vision of reality based on this first reading
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics' resources: focus on curated databases
No full textThe SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (www.isb-sib.ch) provides world-class bioinformatics databases, software tools, services and training to the international life science community in academia and industry. These solutions allow life scientists to turn the exponentially growing amount of data into knowledge. Here, we provide an overview of SIB's resources and competence areas, with a strong focus on curated databases and SIB's most popular and widely used resources. In particular, SIB's Bioinformatics resource portal ExPASy features over 150 resources, including UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, ENZYME, PROSITE, neXtProt, STRING, UniCarbKB, SugarBindDB, SwissRegulon, EPD, arrayMap, Bgee, SWISS-MODEL Repository, OMA, OrthoDB and other databases, which are briefly described in this article
Accountability in Complex Organizations: World Bank Responses to Civil Society
No full textCivil society actors have been pushing for greater accountability of the World Bank for at least three decades. This paper outlines the range of accountability mechanisms currently in place at the World Bank along four basic levels: (1) staff, (2) project, (3) policy, and (4) board governance. We argue that civil society organizations have been influential in pushing for greater accountability at the project and policy levels, particularly through the establishment and enforcement of social and environmental safeguards and complaint and response mechanisms. But they have been much less successful in changing staff incentives for accountability to affected communities, or in improving board accountability through greater transparency in decision making, more representative vote allocation, or better parliamentary scrutiny. In other words, although civil society efforts have led to some gains in accountability with respect to Bank policies and projects, the deeper structural features of the institution - the incentives staff face and how the institution is governed- remain largely unchanged.
Identità e architettura
No full textAnche per l’architettura la cultura contemporanea riconosce nella questione identitaria uno dei fattori fondanti del dibattito tra posizioni. Riconoscere nell’architettura una capacità identitaria equivale ad attribuirle un valore rappresentativo del soggetto che la realizza e istintivamente siamo portati a considerarla come un valore da salvaguardare e tutelare. Tuttavia, fatti salvi i casi monumentali o iconici che impongono la conservazione filologica, il resto delle architetture, paesaggi, spazi, insiemi urbani eccetera, può considerarsi oggetto di una valorizzazione processuale che guardi all’identità come concetto dinamico, in grado di muoversi col tempo, dunque all’identità di un luogo o di un’architettura come ricerca costante e alla sua configurazione formale come concetto in divenire. La casa Malaparte sull’isola di Capri è un caso emblematico di vero e proprio transfer identitario tra il proprietario/coautore e la casa stessa. Ma la questione identitaria, nelle stesse parole di Curzio Malaparte, sembra avvalorarsi nella diluizione dell’autorialità individuale in quella collettiva. Malaparte è cosciente di quanto la sua casa sia autenticamente legata ai caratteri identitari dell’architettura locale. In seguito, in ambito critico nazionale e internazionale, il suo tratto identitario si estende dal soggetto individuale ai nostri caratteri nazionali. Molti infatti l'hanno identificata come un prodotto eminente dell’architettura moderna italiana in grado di ricondurre il modo di progettare e di costruire nell’alveo di un rapporto tra un’architettura e il luogo geografico e storico. Esempio di come sia possibile declinare la modernità in chiave locale e specifica, distaccandosi dalla tensione universalistica della stessa modernità. La ricerca e il dibattito del secondo dopoguerra riconoscono nel continuismo storico e nel radicamento geografico, il senso profondo di una correzione di ottica dell’architettura. Assumono un valore di riferimento le forme ormai acquisite e indiscutibili della tradizione ovvero dell’inerzia culturale dell’uomo, che condiziona il persistere delle forme oltre le stesse ragioni che le hanno determinate. Si susseguono iniziative di ricerca che approfondiscono la conoscenza dei caratteri tipologici e formali delle architetture storiche delle diverse circostanze geografiche. A testimonianza di un sentire diffuso e prolungato, si possono citare la mostra ideata e curata da Pagano e Daniel per la VI Triennale di Milano del 1936, l’Inquérito sull’architettura popolare portoghese negli anni 1955-61, la mostra sull’architettura anonima di Bernard Rudofsky al MoMa di New York del 1964 e la stessa ricerca portata avanti e pubblicata nel 1979 da Aldo Rossi con Max Bosshard e Eraldo Consolascio sull’architettura tradizionale del Canton Ticino. Nel secondo dopoguerra si determina dunque una condizione culturale di generale immedesimazione della questione dell’identità collettiva con la tradizione e con le tracce della storia, che sfocia nelle posizioni del postmodernismo internazionale in cui la critica al modernismo viene condotta principalmente in nome di una rivendicazione di identità della forma architettonica, di un linguaggio caratterizzato, in opposizione all’universalismo dello stile internazionale. Tuttavia in contemporanea con il fenomeno del postmodern, che invade la scena del mondo occidentale negli anni ’80 producendo stilemi e atteggiamenti storicistici universalmente spendibili, uno dei filoni teorici alla ricerca di una via di uscita alla crisi della modernità in architettura, rintraccia nei caratteri del contesto geografico e culturale delle diverse regioni del mondo occidentale, il principale spunto di riscatto della nuova architettura di fine secolo, interpretando in forma progressiva l’ancoraggio al luogo e alla tradizione. In questo filone si inserisce senz’altro il progetto di Álvaro Siza per la ricostruzione del quartiere di Chiado a Lisbona riconosce nel rispetto del ritmo lento dell’evoluzione della città, le ragioni di un progetto di recupero che disdegna i gesti eclatanti e individualistici in favore dell’accettazione e valorizzazione di una storia del luogo radicata e collettivamente condivisa.For architecture too, contemporary culture recognises the question of identity as one of the founding factors in the debate between positions.
Recognising in architecture an identitarian capacity is equivalent to attributing to it a representative value of the subject that realises it, and instinctively we are led to consider it as a value to be safeguarded and protected. However, with the exception of monumental or iconic cases that impose philological conservation, the rest of architecture, landscapes, spaces, urban ensembles, etc., can be considered the object of a processual valorisation that looks at identity as a dynamic concept, capable of moving with time, thus at the identity of a place or an architecture as a constant quest and its formal configuration as a concept in the making.
The Malaparte house on the island of Capri is an emblematic case of a real transfer of identity between the owner/co-author and the house itself. But the question of identity, in Curzio Malaparte's own words, seems to be corroborated in the dilution of individual authorship into collective authorship. Malaparte is aware of how much his house is authentically linked to the identity characteristics of local architecture. Later, in national and international critical circles, its identity trait is extended from the individual subject to our national characters. In fact, many have identified it as an eminent product of modern Italian architecture capable of bringing the way of designing and building back into the framework of a relationship between an architecture and its geographical and historical place. An example of how modernity can be declined in a local and specific key, detaching itself from the universalistic tension of modernity itself.
Post-World War II research and debate recognise in historical continuism and geographical rootedness, the profound sense of a correction of architecture's perspective. The now acquired and unquestionable forms of tradition or man's cultural inertia, which conditions the persistence of forms beyond the very reasons that determined them, take on a reference value.
There is a succession of research initiatives that deepen our knowledge of the typological and formal characteristics of historical architecture in different geographical circumstances. As evidence of a widespread and prolonged feeling, we can cite the exhibition conceived and curated by Pagano and Daniel for the VI Milan Triennale in 1936, the Inquérito on popular Portuguese architecture in the years 1955-61, Bernard Rudofsky's exhibition on anonymous architecture at the MoMa in New York in 1964 and the same research carried out and published in 1979 by Aldo Rossi with Max Bosshard and Eraldo Consolascio on the traditional architecture of Canton Ticino.
In the post-World War II period, a cultural condition of general identification of the question of collective identity with tradition and the traces of history was thus determined, resulting in the positions of international postmodernism in which the criticism of modernism was conducted mainly in the name of a claim to the identity of architectural form, of a characterised language, in opposition to the universalism of the international style. However, at the same time as the phenomenon of post-modernism, which invaded the scene of the western world in the 1980s, producing universally expendable stylistic and historicist attitudes, one of the theoretical strands in search of a way out of the crisis of modernity in architecture, traced the characteristics of the geographical and cultural context of the various regions of the western world as the main point of redemption of the new architecture of the end of the century, interpreting the anchorage to place and tradition in a progressive form.
Álvaro Siza's project for the reconstruction of the Chiado district in Lisbon undoubtedly fits into this vein, recognising in the respect of the slow rhythm of the city's evolution, the reasons for a recovery project that disdains striking and individualistic gestures in favour of the acceptance and valorisation of a rooted and collectively shared history of the place
Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use?
No full textIncreased pornography use has been a feature of contemporary human society, with technological advances allowing for high speed internet and relative ease of access via a multitude of wireless devices. Does increased pornography exposure alter general emotion processing? Research in the area of pornography use is heavily reliant on conscious self-report measures. However, increasing knowledge indicates that attitudes and emotions are extensively processed on a non-conscious level prior to conscious appraisal. Hence, this exploratory study aimed to investigate whether frequency of pornography use has an impact on non-conscious and/or conscious emotion processes. Participants (N = 52) who reported viewing various amounts of pornography were presented with emotion inducing images. Brain Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded and Startle Reflex Modulation (SRM) was applied to determine non-conscious emotion processes. Explicit valence and arousal ratings for each image presented were also taken to determine conscious emotion effects. Conscious explicit ratings revealed significant differences with respect to “Erotic” and “Pleasant” valence (pleasantness) ratings depending on pornography use. SRM showed effects approaching significance and ERPs showed changes in frontal and parietal regions of the brain in relation to “Unpleasant” and “Violent” emotion picture categories, which did not correlate with differences seen in the explicit ratings. Findings suggest that increased pornography use appears to have an influence on the brain’s non-conscious responses to emotion-inducing stimuli which was not shown by explicit self-report.© 2017 by the author
