Aesthetic Aspirations Research Articles

Enhancing aesthetic outcomes: The role of biomechanics in periorbital and eyelid cosmetic surgery.

Cosmetic periorbital and eyelid surgery is a commonly performed procedure in facial plastic surgery. Understanding the biomechanics of periorbital anatomy and its role in aesthetic surgery is essential for achieving optimal outcomes. This review explores the biomechanical processes involved in periorbital age changes and analyzes the impact of cosmetic surgery approaches on these processes. By maintaining the initial mechanical equilibrium of the brows, eyelids, septal fat, and blepharoplasty folds, periorbital and eyelid cosmetic surgery can effectively rejuvenate the appearance. Disruption of this equilibrium can lead to the migration of anatomic components, resulting in signs of aging. Surgeons, by applying biomechanical concepts, can tailor the forces exerted upon the different structures to manifest the patient's aesthetic aspirations. The key to success in periorbital and eyelid cosmetic surgery lies in re-establishing a dynamic mechanical equilibrium within the periorbital framework.

Achieving Bratz Doll Look with Lip Fillers: A Prospective Observational Study on Blunt Cannula Techniques.

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a blunt cannula technique using hyaluronic acid fillers for achieving the Bratz doll lip aesthetic, characterized by enhanced volume and sharp definition. Thirty volunteers, 22-40 years of age, were selected based on specific inclusion criteria at Albany Cosmetic and Laser Center for 6 months. The technique involved precise filler injections using a Steriglide blunt cannula. Pre- and postprocedure measurements of lip dimensions and angular changes were meticulously documented and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software. The procedure significantly increased the average height of both the upper and lower vermilion zones, with notable changes in angular measurements and the distance between the midline and oral commissure, aligning with the Bratz doll aesthetic. Importantly, none of the participants experienced bruising, a common side effect in traditional needle-based methods. The overall satisfaction rate was high, with an average score of 8.5 out of 10, reflecting the procedure's success in meeting aesthetic goals and ensuring participant comfort. The blunt cannula technique for lip augmentation presents a safe and effective alternative to traditional needle-based methods. The absence of bruising and high satisfaction rates underscore the technique's precision and alignment with patient safety and comfort. This study contributes to the field of cosmetic lip enhancement, offering a novel approach that balances aesthetic aspirations with health considerations, potentially influencing future practices in cosmetic procedures.

TRANSFORMATION OF ROMANTIC MOTIFS IN J. SCHUMACHER’S MUSICAL FILM THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

The article analyses how J. Schumacher’s musical film The Phantom of the Opera (2004), based on A. L. Webber’s musical, revises some elements of the artistic and aesthetic system of Romanticism. Since the musical was based on the novel of the same name (1910) by a French Romantic writer Gaston Leroux, this multi-step reinterpretation allows one to observe a special perspective of the "end of a century" – to track how the postmodern film adaptation reflects the artistic and aesthetic shifts of the late 18th – early 19th century (when Romanticism emerged) and late 19th – early 20th century (Neo-Romanticism). At the same time, in J. Schumacher’s musical film, the forms of art associated with special artistic and aesthetic aspirations (theatre at the beginning of the 19th century, cinema at the beginning of the 20th century) define certain stylistic dominants and become markers of time, its revolutionary and catastrophic changes, as well as moral and aesthetic constants.
 While the Romantic concept of the man and art is subject to reduction and profanation in G. Leroux’s epigonic novel, the context of postmodern film narration makes it possible both to enrich it with the artistic achievements of a two-century artistic evolution and simplify it to a universal formula. The artistic whole of the musical film The Phantom of the Opera reproduces the motifs peculiar to the brilliant authors of European and American Romanticism (G. G. Byron, E. T. A. Hoffman, V. Hugo, E. A. Poe) and epitomizes the ideals of humanism that reach their maximum in Christianity-inspired Classical Realism of the 19th century. The film neutralizes such traditionally associated with Romanticism oppositions as those of the ideal and reality or the artist and the general public. Art and life interact, creating a prerequisite for mutual understanding, harmonization, and escaping the tragic contradictions of being. This interaction enables reality to open up new opportunities, and art turns out to be the place of salvation and restoration of love-based relationships among people.

The Photographer’s Visual Grammar: Visual Rightness and Aesthetics of Artistic Photographs

Abstract We are living in a world where photography is everywhere, and almost everyone is a photographer (in the sense of producing photographs with some aesthetic aspiration). Yet, despite the democratic nature of the medium, which suggests that anyone can make great photographs, there are large differences in the aesthetic quality of photographs. Scientifically, we do not yet grasp very well what differentiates aesthetic from non-aesthetic photographs, and how this results in a different viewer experience. In this study, we explored the visual rightness of 21 high-quality artistic photographs, compared with their ecologically valid less-than-optimal variants (one to four alternatives). The high-quality photographs were selected from an online contemporary photography competition which is judged by experts (http://www.life-framer.com). The alternatives were variants provided by the photographers themselves. Participants () preferred the original photograph significantly more than chance level for the majority of the sets (13 out of 21), and significantly less than chance level for a minority of sets (three out of 21). This is in line with the visual rightness theory of picture perception, maintaining that artists are experts in creating visually right images, and that this is salient to nonexpert viewers. Yet, the preference for the original differed greatly between sets (range: 9.63–79.68%) and the original photograph was also the most preferred one in ‘only’ 12 out of 21 sets. Qualitative content analysis showed that preferences were influenced by many levels of photographic information (color, contrast, sharpness, composition, emotional expression, etc.), which were often working together. The most aesthetically powerful photographs reveal a skillful combination of medium, form, and subject matter levels, to produce an optimal visual message. Results have implications for empirical aesthetics, the photography practice, and for our understanding of photography literacy, a key topic in a world where there are many more photographs than humans that can appreciate them.

미디어 융합의 관점에서 스터디 위드미의 맥락 요소와 사용자 몰입도의 상관관계에 관한 연구

Being digital has become an unavoidable way of life for modern people, and the internet contexts are embedded and permeated in people"s work and study, especially for younger generations, through the screens of mobile intelligent terminal. Study with me live-streaming is an innovative online self-study mode, which context has become the key factor for media platform and institution to master users from the perspective of media convergence. The digitalization of content is just the initial stage of media convergence, while media content material and community interaction are the deeper stage of convergence. Study with me originated from the US, whereas it wasn"t till the COVID-19 pandemic that it had gained mainstream popularity in China. By far the most popular study with me web platforms are YouTube and China"s Bilibili. Young users, with the same exam goals, academic pressures, and similar aesthetic aspirations, are free to choose study with me room and study online with virtual partners. Study with me is readily available on mobile devices, creating interactive, good atmosphere, immersive virtual learning contexts. The paper seeks to investigate the relationship between the context elements of study with me and user immersion. This is to understand 1) what elements study with me contexts contain, and 2) whether the elements can help user feel immersed and thus improve their learning. For the purposes, an online survey was created. The survey was administered to 176 respondents from the most popular live-streaming rooms. The results from the survey displayed below. After extracting and naming the elements of the study with me context as “user"s real-time state”, “user"s inertia in life”, “space and environment”, and “social atmosphere”, the paper analyzes the correlation between the elements and user immersion. The significance p-values (Sig.) are all 0.000, which indicates a significant correlation between the context elements and the user immersion. The Pearson coefficient of “user"s real-time state” and immersion was 0.524, indicating that the two variables were moderately correlated. The Pearson coefficient of “user"s inertia in life” and immersion was 0.365, indicating that the two variables were weakly correlated. The Pearson coefficient for “space and environment” and immersion is 0.529, indicating a moderate correlation between the two variables. The Pearson coefficient for “social atmosphere” and immersion is 0.621, indicating a moderate correlation between the two variables. Therefore, the elements of study with me context can affect user immersion.

Ways of Conveying the Aesthetic Value of Tang Poetry in Russian Translations: A Case Study of Three Translations of Li Bai’s Poem “Thoughts on a Quiet Night”

Russian and Chinese languages belong to different language families, which makes it difficult to translate from one language to the other. The translation of one poetic language into another without making any changes is an especially difficult task, which is why conveying the aesthetic value of the original poem becomes the embodiment of an ideal adequate translation. The aesthetic values of Tang poetry lie in the integration of sound, thought form and the poetic world, that is, in the beauty of rhythm, the accuracy of the line and the expression of feelings depicted in the text. Rhythm, rhyme and poetic dimension belong to the form of poetry; the meaning of words, sentences and text together form the meaning of poetry; and the picture of life depicted in the text makes up the poetic world. If the Russian translation of Tang poetry can achieve conformity of form, equivalence of meaning and consistency of the poetic world with the original poetry, then it will be able to realize the aesthetic value of the original poetry and will relate to the ideal complete translation of poetry. The poem “Thought on a Quiet Night” is one of Li Bai’s masterpieces and it is included in Chinese language textbooks for elementary school. Due to the high aesthetic value of this poem, it has become a compulsory poem for Chinese elementary school students to study. To date, there are eight translations of this poem in Russia. This article mainly considers the translations by V. A. Alekseev, L. N. Menshikov, and V. F. Pereleshin. Through the comparative analysis on these three versions about the “Thoughts on a Quiet Night”, it shows that different translators with different aesthetic aspirations may produce disparate translation.

Vechnyj duh sozidaniya: ob ekologo-esteticheskom vzglyade na kartiny drevnekitajskih pisatelej

Ancient Chinese literati paintings artistically interpret the relationship between man and nature by introducing a sense of human morality into the consideration and treatment of the relationship between man and nature, the ecological aesthetic aspirations of individuals are expressed. The ecological aesthetic concept in ancient Chinese literati paintings still has modern significance.

Faking it deeply and universally? Media forms and epistemologies of artificial faces and emotions in Japanese and Euro-American contexts

Attempts to visually represent the human face in various media forms have a long history. Fairly recent examples can be found in techniques that are used in animated films and video games (performance capture) or in the controversial phenomenon of “deep fakes”. The article looks at the relationship between faces, the media forms that are used for their representation and simulation and the knowledge that is (re)produced about emotions and their communicative effects. It reveals a peculiar contradiction: the quest to create a synthetic digital face that would be universally recognisable in terms of emotional readability and response homogenises our understanding of emotion while disguising the challenging cultural barriers to this recognisability. The simulated face caters to a two-fold and hence paradoxical aesthetic aspiration that places it between uniqueness and universality. By elaborating on the somatic, affective dimension of communication via faces, the article compares culturally specific modes of producing and reading emotions. A Euro-American tradition of thought regards them as artefacts, constructed as antagonists of rationality, that can be controlled and objectively modelled and measured. The idea of the face as the locus of emotions, which can be represented in distinct expressions, contrasts with more ambiguous and relational meanings in East Asian, particularly Japanese contexts. The epistemological genealogy of the facial display of emotions, however, does not conform to a clear West/East divide and is at the same time highly interwoven with specific media forms of their representation. In order to deepen this dynamic understanding of artificial faces, the article looks at different examples of Japanese traditions and art forms. Examples such as portraiture and photography, the subtle illusions created in Nō theatre and the less subtle ones evoked by robotic faces shed a light on the complex meanings but also the affective reactions to artificial faces.

Vliyanie M. Balakireva na osobennosti traktovki fortepiannoj partii v romansah S. Lyapunova

This article offers a special perspective on the vocal creativity of S.M. Lyapunov - from the point of view of the creative influence of M.A. Balakirev on him. The artistic and aesthetic aspirations of the “Mighty Bunch” were close to Lyapunov and were reflected in his works. These points of influence are considered in the article on the example of a number of Lyapunov romances from the point of view of the specifics of the embodiment of various poetic images and features of accompaniments, which reflected the “Balakirev-Lyapunovpianism” (B.V. Asafyev).

A word about Mital

It is the first attempt to comprehensively study the professional activities of the Irkutsk architect K. V. Mital. The author follows typical features of life and artistic journey of a provincial architect during the change of historical epochs in the first third of the 20th century. The author reveals the specific features of adaptation of provincial architects to the new aesthetic aspirations of the time, their ability to reconsider their creative views on the basis of political and ideological factors. The article allows to expand the historical knowledge about the period of formation of domestic architecture in provincial cities, which are geographically distant from the centre of the country. Designed for architecture professionals, teachers, postgraduates, students specializing in “Architecture”, “Design of Architectural Environment”, “Theory and History of Culture”, “History”, “Cultural Studies”, as well as a wide range of people interested in regional architecture.

Linguistic Properties of Metamodernist Concepts in Anglophone Art Discourse (Case of Modern Scottish Prose)

Introduction. The article attempts to identify the main trends in the development of modern works of Scottish prose. The main aim is to consistently identify linguistic means and mechanisms for implementing the characteristic features of metamodernism, comprehending changes in the authors’ views on the text as well as their choice of tools for interaction with recipients. Methodology and sources. The starting point for the methodology is the description by Robin van den Acker and Timotheus Vermeulen of the key vectors of modern literature development under the umbbrella of such a phenomenon as metamodernism, which reveals both its inevitable kinship with postmodernism and its own philosophical and aesthetic aspirations. Results and discussion. When compared with writing samples exemplifying innovations and traditions of other times and related cultures, the set of modern Scottish prose texts under analysis reveals trends towards the regular use of such techniques as intertextuality, rhizome as a structural model, rejection of traditional methods for constructing time and space, rethinking of the motives and plots from the cultural archives. The introduction of innovative storytelling styles provides opportunities for addressing acute social issues and previously tabooed topics. Conclusion. It is the texts of Scottish literature that seem to facilitate a vivid illustration of modern metamodernist, and in particular neorealist tendencies: the desire to turn to the past in order to deconstruct it, experiment with genre, create opportunities for free reading. However, the culture and traditions of Scotland invariably manifest themselves in the literary practices implemented by the prose writers. Thus, in Scottish prose, the general literary trends and the cultural specifics of the country are intertwined in a unique combination.

The Heaven-and-Man Oneness Concept and the Style of Funerary Plastic Art During the Han Dynasty

The article analyses the Heaven-and-Man Oneness concept, which appeared during Emperor Wu of Liang's reign (汉武帝) and was important for the art of ancient China during the Han Dynasty. On its basis, the ideological thinking based on the Confucian view was formed. This philosophical concept explains the desire for a harmonious coexistence of man and heaven, where man and nature merge and mutually influence each other. The author emphasises that it is necessary to consider that during the long period of Confucian, Taoist and other teachings development, they constantly intertwined and mixed. Such a merger led to the fact that the Han Dynasty Confucian ideas, which combined the rituals of a strict social hierarchy and Taoist metaphysics, actively strengthened the consolidation of social stratification and the divine origin of the ruling class. Therefore, Confucianism was recognised and fully used by those in power. The Confucian teaching of the Han Dynasty, led by its primary representative Dong Zhongshu (1), exalted the Heaven-and-Man Oneness concept（天人合一), implying that man and Heaven are one. Sculptures in mausoleums are a product of the funerary culture. They bear the ideas of ancient people about life, death and the universe, at the same time being an essential part of the ancient China sculpture, which reflects the achievements and aesthetic aspirations characteristic of the ancient China art. Under the influence of the Heaven-and-Man Oneness concept and the cultures of small-numbered peoples from the north and the kingdom of Chu（楚国) from the south, a unique style of stone carving was formed. The era of the Han Dynasty is the period of the emergence of funerary plastics. This historical period is divided into Western and Eastern Han. Until now, only stone sculptures erected in front of the tombs of officials have survived. The sculptures from the burial of Huo Qubing（霍去病）are an example of stone sculptures of Western Han tombs. Here, attention was paid to the original texture and shape of the stone; processing was minimal; the imagery technique was used （意象）through which the ideological approach of the harmonious unity of man and nature with the heaven-and-man oneness（天人合一) was expressed. At the same time, funerary plastic art was influenced by the traditions of the nomadic peoples of Northern China. Such features as naturalness and roughness of the image were formed. In stone sculptures in front of the tombs of the Eastern Han, man's fantasies about heaven were expressed, as well as the desire to gain immortality after death. At the same time, the stone sculptures were aesthetically influenced by the mystical and romantic realm of Chu. funerary plastic art was influenced by the traditions of the nomadic peoples of Northern China. Such features as naturalness and roughness of the image were formed. In stone sculptures in front of the tombs of the Eastern Han, man's fantasies about heaven were expressed, as well as the desire to gain immortality after death. At the same time, the stone sculptures were aesthetically influenced by the mystical and romantic realm of Chu.

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

ԼՈՒՅՍԻ ԵՎ ՍՏՎԵՐԻ ԳԵՂԱԳԻՏՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ

The visual perception of the surrounding world takes place via imaginary highlighting of certain dots and fragments, which sometimes brings to aesthetic isolation. The human vision is by nature endowed with anticipation of visible models, which may bring to most unexpected arrangement of the visible reality. Reflection, viewed as an aesthetic phenomenon, quite often originates at a glance. Hence, the photography with its aesthetic observation and aspiration for resemblance. It’s all about the observant eye, being with and without light, craving for the invisible, and this instant link between contemplation and anxiety, the very point at which the significance of the visible reality vanishes, and things around us smoothly get closer and closer to man’s spiritual life through optical mediation.

ПРИРОДА ОБРАЗА В ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКОМ ИСКУССТВЕ СЕРЕДИНЫ XX В.: СВЕТОКИНЕТИЧЕСКИЕ ЭКСПЕРИМЕНТЫ ФРЭНКА МАЛИНЫ

For the first time in the Russian-speaking academic environment the authors of the paper analyze the creative legacy of the scientist, aeronautical engineer and artist Frank Joseph Malina (1912–1981). His working practices reflected the most important ethic and aesthetic aspirations of the mid-twentieth century, what became an important contribution to the development of modern visual culture. The pioneer of Lumino Kinetic art F.Malina created several unique electromechanical systems for the production of an image, the media infrastructure and technological nature of which would later become the visual standard of the digital age. The discovery of electric light as a new artistic medium allowed him to focus on the production methods, control and processing algorithms for light that produces images. The Lumino Kinetic experiments of F. Malina are based on understanding the new nature of the image, born during the era of scientific discoveries. Several decades before the iconic turn was proclaimed by academic science, they presented the image as a system of relations that is formed in acts of perception and that is not based on visible, but felt, ideated, imagined reality. While creating his works F. Malina dreamed of modeling qualitatively new perceptual conditions for the existence of mankind aimed at further progress and traveling to the stars.

Objects or Subjects? Pictoriality and Domesticity in Tess of the d’Urbervilles

In his entry for 1 July 1892, Hardy notes: “The art of observation […] consists in this: the seeing of great things in little things, the whole in the part – even the infinitesimal part.” His novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles stages the heroine’s struggle to comply with the Victorian ideal of feminine morality, as she strives for redemption after her initial “downfall”. One of the key features of that ideal was domesticity, embodied in the figure of the Angel in the House – a figure which Tess is desperately trying to impersonate throughout the novel. In that sense, the presence of household objects in Tess could be read as the presence of “little things”, insignificant details, hinting at “greater things” – that is, the struggle for domesticity. Yet the proliferation of objects leads the reader to see them also as a part of the aesthetic aspirations of the novel, which is fraught with pictorial reminiscences, such as genre paintings or still-lifes, in which objects play a key role, to the extent of sometimes becoming the sole subject of the picture. This study aims at exploring the way Hardy questions the frontier between subject and object by blurring the characteristics of animate and inanimate, the two being united in the motionless world of painting. Hardy’s novel leads one to wonder whether the way he lends a voice to what is ordinary, sometimes barely noticeable and perhaps almost insignificant, necessarily implies a reification of the human figures. In a word, can the object be a subject?

Worlds at Our Fingertips: Reading (in)What Remains of Edith Finch

Video games are works of written code that portray worlds and characters in action and facilitate an aesthetic and interpretive experience. Beyond this similarity to literary works, some video games deploy various design strategies that blend gameplay and literary elements to explicitly foreground a hybrid literary/ludic experience. We identify three such strategies: engaging with literary structures, forms, and techniques; deploying text in an aesthetic rather than a functional way; and intertextuality. This article aims to analyze how these design strategies are deployed in What Remains of Edith Finch to support a hybrid readerly/playerly experience. We argue that this type of design is particularly suited for walking simulators (or walking sims) because they support interpretive play through slowness, ambiguity, narrative, and aesthetic aspirations. Understanding walking sims as literary games can shift the emphasis from their lack of “traditional” gameplay complexity and focus instead on the opportunities that they afford for hybrid storytelling and for weaving literature and gameplay in innovative and playful ways.

Bilingual and intersemiotic representation of distance(s) in Chinese landscape painting: from yi (‘meaning’) to yi (‘freedom’)

AbstractThis paper studies cross-modal distance representation in traditional Chinese landscape painting in a contemporary museum context with special reference to the classic three axes of distance, i.e. level, deep, and high “distance.” It observes how an artwork’s “meaning” can be perceived through the bilingual presentation of the “distances” to bring about the realization of a “meditative distance,” or the artist’s aesthetic aspiration for a spiritual “freedom.” Informed by the theory of three meta-functions in Systemic Functional Linguistics and Arnheim’s discussion about distance cues, the study has closely examined a classical landscape painting in conjunction with its Chinese and English bilingual museum captions, with a view to tracing out their discursive meta-functions based on the visual-verbal coherence of distance representation. In so doing, the study takes museum discourse as a holistic multimodal interactive process of different sign systems at three levels of communication (i.e. extratextual, intersemiotic, and intertextual) to enable the modern viewer to better appreciate the aesthetic aspiration nursed by the meaning of the pictorially depicted distance(s) in an ancient landscape painting. The findings of the study will not only contribute to a better aesthetic contextualization of the traditional Chinese visual arts but also, in a practical vein, to the construction of a more informed museum discursive environment conducive to a spiritual journey, or a mental transcendence, that keeps the mundane world at a “meditative distance.”

Enhancing high-rise residential construction through design for manufacture and assembly – a UK case study

Buildings forms are often complex and a result of end user needs, local surroundings and aesthetic aspirations. The individuality of buildings has therefore posed challenges with respect to harnessing the desired mass production and standardisation linked with off-site manufacture. However, through design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), construction can be linked with industrial processes and deliver projects that are safer, cleaner and more efficient. Furthermore, successful DfMA projects minimise disruption within the local environment while delivering not only improved quality, cost and programme certainty, but also a more sustainable form of construction. The Two Fifty One project is a 40-storey mixed-use development in central London, UK, that has successfully embraced the principles of DfMA across all engineering disciplines. As a result, the delivery team has developed effective off-site construction solutions for superstructure, facades, bathrooms and mechanical and electrical services. All have been designed, coordinated and facilitated through advanced digital engineering and building information modelling techniques. Overall, the project has been delivered with reduced programme and cost, while simultaneously improving safety, quality and reliability in a more sustainable way through reduced vehicle movements and greater efficiency in site logistics. This case study describes this exemplary project and the design delivery model.

Immediate management of the single-unit extracted tooth in the anterior aesthetic zone – temporizing/stabilizing tissues

The loss of a tooth within the aesthetic zone presents surgical and restorative challenges to the clinician. The immediate management of the extraction site must meet the patients' aesthetic aspirations whilst optimizing the healing of the alveolar bone and gingival tissues, to facilitate future definitive prosthetic replacement. Arrays of clinical approaches have been proposed to promote optimal tissue healing with these techniques often combining alveolar ridge preservation techniques, soft tissue grafting and transitional prosthodontic stages. The aim of this article is to update the dental clinician on the socket-healing process, provide guidance on the surgical and prosthodontic options available to the clinician and offer insight into differences in outcome. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article is relevant to dental clinicians aiming to extract and restore single-tooth units.