Aesthetic Configuration Research Articles

Conformação narrativa em <i>Longa Despedida</i>

The following article discusses the aesthetic configurations involved in the cinematic construction of The Long Farewell (1971), directed by Kira Muratova. The objective is to position the film within the concepts of modern cinema and auteur cinema. To complement this, the methodology incorporates film analysis and research on creative processes, allowing for the concretization and emphasis of thought elements from the material and practice of filmmaking. To achieve this, historical trends and components of mise-en-scène are analyzed, together with testimonies and interviews of those involved in the creative process, resulting in two parts: the first part dedicated to gathering data on historical events, and the second part aiming to analyze the stylistic principles in an attempt to understand them as the authentic imaginative thought of the filmmaker.

Metaphysics of the sequence shot: the gathering and nihilating of being in Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse

ABSTRACT This article examines the philosophical implications of Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011) by attending to the thematic and aesthetic configuration of its sequence shots. The film’s durational images, I suggest, perform a gathering and nihilating of presence whereby the existence of the subject is repeatedly affirmed and questioned. I read this dynamic, over and above figurative and diegetic parameters, as metaphysical. In line with its Nietzschean framing and de-creational structure, and in distinction from the hermetic living that characterises Damnation (1988), Satantango (1994) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), I posit the film’s catastrophic vision of the end of the world as revelatory. Placing stylistic analysis in dialogue with film theory and the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, I argue that Tarr’s strategies of attention (on the subject) and reversal (of the action and cinematography) puncture narrative chronology, exposing the spatiality and temporality that structure our existence. For this, I align with Heidegger’s thinking on metaphysics and the relation between art and truth. I establish the grounds for a compatibility between Heidegger’s philosophy and the worthiness of cinema by appealing to the ontological purpose it attributes to certain works of art and technology. The presencing and absencing of The Turin Horse’s in turn phenomenal and abyssal sequence shots, I conclude, produces a renewal of ground that illuminates questions of human fragility, freedom and emancipation, attuning us to the responsibilities of our being in a shared world.

The Artwork as a Force Field: Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Configuration of Antagonisms

"In this paper, my purpose is to take into serious consideration Adorno’s explicit conception of the artwork as a force field. With this expression he intends to emphasize the inner constitution of the artwork as a movement of antagonistic tensions, a dynamic of elements that are not simply juxtaposed, but dialectically interacting with one another. In a similar configuration, the aesthetic experience of the artwork consists in letting their friction explode to its extreme, achieving a balance which remains nevertheless substantially precarious and inconclusive, ready to be immediately set in motion again. Thanks to the aesthetic trait of the force field, these tensions are brought to unity in a way that it does not suppress the enactment of antagonisms, but keeps their multiplicity alive: Homer’s tale of Penelope as an allegory of art. Keywords: Adorno – force field – antagonisms"

The Uncanniness of Intermediality. Joanna Hogg’s Eerily Self-Reflexive Cinema

Abstract The article argues for the relevance of the concept of the uncanny for a nuanced approach of intermediality. It identifies specific areas where the uncanniness of intermediality appears and examines Joanna Hogg’s three autobiographically inspired films, The Souvenir (2019), The Souvenir Part II (2021), and The Eternal Daughter (2022) from this point of view. The analysis does not offer a psychoanalytic reading of these films but focuses on aesthetic configurations that enable the affective performativity of intermediality in conjunction with particular strategies of reflexivity, and unravels the ways in which, ultimately, all these films speak about the uncanny, mutually haunting relationship between art and life. Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Hogg depicts the paradoxical nature of (post)trauma and the emotional turmoil of mourning feeding into artistic creativity. The Souvenir films revolve around the loss of a lover in her youth and weave together different styles and resonances across art history and many mediums. They reveal memory, imagination and palpable reality folding over in an uncanny and aestheticized construction of space and time. The Eternal Daughter presents a scenario of caring for her dying mother, and brings to the fore the tropes of the haunted house, ghosts and doubles, which were latent figures of the earlier films as well.1

Entre la tradición castellana y el lesbianismo queer: amor y erotismo en la poesía de Ana María Martínez Sagi

Abstract: Love, corporality, and eroticism, oscillating in their ethical and aesthetic configuration between tradition and modernity, are present throughout the seven decades of poetic production of the Catalan poet Ana María Martínez Sagi (1907–2000). It is so in her pre-war work, Caminos (1929) and Inquietud (1932) and, more prominently, in her work of exile and return to the homeland, on which this paper focuses on. Although Sagi's love poetry demonstrates her complex and contradictory debt to both the Castilian love tradition and modern poetics, it is through her approach to eroticism, the corporality and the subject's identity from where she definitively distances herself from them. She approaches heterodox spaces that destabilize that normative framework in which the critics of her time placed her. In her aesthetics, in her heritage, and worldview, Sagi demonstrates great modernity and relevance as a renovator, since the 1930s, of an alternative intimacy: profoundly queer.

Longman and Norton: The Anthologies of World Literature and the Effects on the Literary Landscapes

By establishing a critical dialogue with the observations of David Damrosch in Comparing the Literatures: Literary Studies in a Global Age concerning the challenges posed to Comparatism by the current state of the discipline, the question that we will address in the present work is, above all, a position on what it means to make a comparative study in a scenario marked by the reemergence of the phenomenon of world literature in literary studies. After directing our attention to The Longman Anthology of World Literature and The Norton Anthology of World Literature, we were able to see how both still describe an unequal system of legitimation and aesthetic configuration based on a Eurocentric division between the “inside” and the “outside.” And it is precisely in the ethical and political implications of this process of “opening” to the world that lies our proposal for approaching world literature.

LEVEL OF PATIENTS’ SATISFACTION WITH THEIR COMPLETE REMOVEBLE PROSTHESES

Taking into consideration the fact that new removable dentures are prepared for edentulous patients of varying ages to improve life-important functions, the dominant criterion for evaluating patient’s satisfaction is the patient's subjective feelings about the dentures. This study is aimed at assessing the level of satisfaction with new removable dentures, manufactures less than a year ago.
 The study included 40 patients with new removable prostheses manufactures within the time period of 3 months to a year before the enrolment. In order to determine patients' satisfaction with their complete dentures, we developed a questionnaire based on a five-level Likert scale, where each respondent could rate their satisfaction with a particular criterion for using complete dentures, from "completely dissatisfied" to "fully satisfied". The statistical analysis of the findings obtained was carried out using the standard IBM SPSS statistics (v.21) software package, employing various methods of descriptive statistics.
 The investigation has demonstrated that among the 40 removable denture wearers, men prevail. 45.0% of patients rated the restoration of the aesthetic configuration of their appearance after the placement of a removable prosthesis as the highest. The profile appearance of the prosthesis and the aesthetics of the false teeth completely satisfied 25.0% (10/40) and 20.0% (8/40) of patients, respectively. The functional effectiveness of removable dentures according to by the Lykert scale was 1.2 times lower for the total assessment of the aesthetic parameters of the constructs (p < 0.05). A quarter of the respondents appreciated the improvement of their chewing function and the quality of fixation of prostheses in the oral cavity.

Rehabilitation and restauration of the main façade of historical masonry building –Romanian National Opera Timisoara

A typical characteristic that generally defines historic buildings is certainly the age of the buildings. The life cycle of historic buildings is out of date, the vast majority being hundreds of years old. Naturally, as time has gone by, buildings have been subjected to the degradation process. The cultural and historical value of these buildings are the subject of a particular focus on finding rehabilitation and restoration solutions that meet both architectural and structural requirements. A lot of the historical buildings are buildings with structure from brick masonry walls, as is and the case of the Romanian National Opera from Timisoara. Thus, this paper aims to address the subject of the deficiencies faced by the materials that make up the facade of the historic masonry building - Romanian National Opera Timisoara in order to find the optimal solution for rehabilitation and restoration. In the first phase, the characteristics of the analysed building are presented as well as the historical context throughout its existence. The methodology of travertine testing is described, including pull-off and porosity tests and morphological and mineralogical analyses as well as a thermography of the façade. The results of the non-destructive and destructive tests carried out on the bricks extracted from the masonry wall of the Opera House as well as the testing procedure are also presented. A comparison of the methods of rehabilitation and restoration of brick masonry buildings was also made. The paper includes details regarding the initial situation of the building’s damaged façade, but the main scope is to evaluate the causes of the façade’s cracks which have led to the need of façade rehabilitation and restauration works. The deficiencies of the travertine plates that make up the façade as well as the structural walls are described. Thus, for the rehabilitation of the masonry walls, a reinforced plaster lining was chosen, at the same time the existing cracks were filled by injections of cement milk, while for the restoration of the façade, the existing travertine tiles were replaced with new tiles with the same aesthetic configuration. In conclusion, the focus is on highlighting the efficiency of the chosen rehabilitation solution as well as that of restoration works executed in order to prolong the building’s life cycle. The conclusions of the study also highlights the importance and necessity of preserving heritage buildings in Romania in order to complete the historical and cultural space.

A simulation-based design framework to iteratively analyze and shape urban landscapes using point cloud modeling

The topic of this paper evolves on the discourse of digital modeling in landscape design. Current design methods stagger to address physical forms and dynamics present in the environment. This status quo limits possibilities to integrate scientific evidence when developing spatial and aesthetic configurations in urban landscapes. Remote sensing technology such as laser scanning measures physical forms to reproduce them as geo-specific digital 3D models, while dynamic simulation is widely used to predict how scenarios will perform under given conditions. However, there is still a need for a holistic design process that is capable of integrating both the measured physical forms and physical dynamics. This paper presents a novel framework using point cloud modeling to shape design scenarios that are iteratively evaluated for their performance.The proposed framework is demonstrated through a case study in Singapore. New spatial configurations are tested for the site through an iterative and comparative analysis of the design performance. The case study exposes (1) a site-specific design approach by iteratively modeling a laser-scanned point cloud model, (2) a workflow to convert the geometric data from the point cloud models into voxels and meshes, (3) an integration of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation during design development as per-point attributes, and (4) a comparison of the configurations to identify best performing scenarios.This design framework can support city managers, planners, urban and landscape designers to better inform their decision-making process by relying on accurate scientific feedback. By guiding the design process with the consideration of the built environment as a complex adaptive system, it will be possible to improve how open spaces and ecosystem services perform in cities, and to design landscapes that can mitigate dynamic events such as urban heat islands.

Interpretation of Li Gonglin Ecological View of Landscape Painting Based on Chinese Soil Smoke Culture

Objectives: Cigarettes are not goods that have existed in China since ancient times, but consumer goods that were introduced into China by western countries and accepted and developed by Chinese people in modern times. The application of Chinese soil smoke culture in Li gonglin’s landscape painting is studied in this paper. Methods: From the perspective of art history, landscape painters in the Northern Song Dynasty, as a prosperous period of Chinese art history landscape painting, thought deeply about painting from the artistic form of nature, and integrated their own view of environment into their creation, forming many landscape aesthetic paradigms. Results: This paper focuses on the interactive dialogue between the literati and the environment with the involvement of how space planning and governance are allocated. It is aimed at the global perspective in the Anthropocene and a local position in the Northern Song Dynasty. Localization is not only the exploration of the ecological approaches of China and the West in space, but also the integration of the past and the present, observing its ecological image from the perception and practice of traditional environmental aesthetics to the harmonious coexistence of modern cities and nature. Conclusion: Local tobacco is not a traditional local consumer product. Under the public’s praise, it has gradually formed a unique thing in China - cigarette culture. People in the society are not only the observers of the environment, but also the participants of the environment. Through the aesthetic configuration of the classification of environmental belonging space and the transformation of the image and vision into such realistic or ideal landscapes as “Longmian Villa”, it goes towards ecological holism. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental aesthetics research, Li Gonglin’s paintings have research value.

Las relacionalidades estéticas de las configuraciones espaciales en el contexto de educación infantil: Ejercicios con cuerdas, trapos y cuerpos

El giro materialista traducido a las teorías pedagógicas nos ayuda a comprender el aprendizaje y el conocimiento en una relación material directa con el mundo. En el contexto de educación infantil, consideramos que la espacialidad y la materialidad son elementos fundamentales en el proceso de aprendizaje de los niños y niñas, y desde ese fundamento trataremos de analizar las potencialidades de las configuraciones espaciales como relacionalidades éticas y estéticas para la creación de sentido e identidad, pertenencia y autonomía. A su vez, las configuraciones espaciales como práctica artística realizada junto a los estudiantes del Grado de Educación Infantil, nos ayudan a pensar de manera crítica en el tipo de espacios, tiempos y formas de actividad que construimos, y en las formas de relación y experiencia que éstas producen o que podrían producir. En conclusión, a través de estas configuraciones estéticas trataremos la posibilidad de pensar un estar en relación con todo aquello que nos rodea y nos constituye.

A memória da ditadura em dois romances latino-americanos: a loucura e a glória

O objetivo principal deste artigo é apresentar uma discussão acerca da constituição da memória e dos possíveis significados evocados pelos relatos e pelas lembranças dos narradores-personagens nos romances Bêbados e sonâmbulos (1996) de Bernardo Carvalho e Duas vezes junho (2005) de Martín Kohan. Nesta análise, a loucura e a falsa glória, respectivamente, de contextos de governos militares no Brasil e na Argentina apresentam-se como temas contrastantes e, ao mesmo tempo, convergentes no que tange aos efeitos resultantes da configuração estética da memória em ambas narrativas. Deste modo, serão utilizadas, dentre outras, as concepções de Henry Bergson (1999) e Beatriz Sarlo (2005) sobre memória; de Maria José Rezende (2001) e Luis Alberto Romero (2012) sobre a reflexão historiográfica e filosófica dos contextos de ditaduras militares no Brasil e na Argentina, a fim de observar como se dá a estética da memória nos romances propostos para análise.

Numerical Method for Direct Solution to Form-Finding Problem in Convex Gridshell

AbstractElastic gridshell is a class of net-like structure formed by an ensemble of elastically deforming rods coupled through joints, such that the structure can cover large areas with low self-weight and allow for a variety of aesthetic configurations. Gridshells, also known as X-shells or Cosserat Nets, are a planar grid of elastic rods in its undeformed configuration. The end points of the rods are constrained and positioned on a closed curve—the final boundary—to actuate the structure into a 3D shape. Here, we report a discrete differential geometry-based numerical framework to study the geometrically nonlinear deformation of gridshell structures, accounting for non-trivial bending-twisting coupling at the joints. The form-finding problem of obtaining the undeformed planar configuration given the target convex 3D topology is then investigated. For the forward (2D to 3D) physically based simulation, we decompose the gridshell structure into multiple one-dimensional elastic rods and simulate their deformation by the well-established discrete elastic rods (DER) algorithm. A simple penalty energy between rods and linkages is used to simulate the coupling between two rods at the joints. For the inverse problem associated with form-finding (3D to 2D), we introduce a contact-based algorithm between the elastic gridshell and a rigid 3D surface, where the rigid surface describes the target shape of the gridshell upon actuation. This technique removes the need of several forward simulations associated with conventional optimization algorithms and provides a direct solution to the inverse problem. Several examples—hemispherical cap, paraboloid, and hemi-ellipsoid—are used to show the effectiveness of the inverse design process.

Gene mutations and disorders of dental hard tissues

Developmental disorders of dental hard tissues are important components of non-carious diseases, which mainly include amelogenesis imperfecta and hereditary dentin disorders with various subtypes. In the absence of effective intervention, these disorders would lead to tooth sensitivity, defects of tooth structure or even loss of tooth, affecting the masticatory function and facial aesthetic configuration. At present, many dental clinicians may not have sufficient understanding of the diseases, and it is urgent to pay attention to the diseases per se and the patients affected. Based on the summary of the current research progresses, this article focuses on the clinical classification, the disease phenotype and the pathogenesis of gene mutations, in order to provide reference and help for the dental clinicians as well as the patients.

Exile, Borders, and Poetry: A Study of Fang Xiaobiao's “Miscellaneous Poems on the Eastern Journey”

AbstractExile to Manchuria in the early Qing (1644–1912) is a peculiar historical, political, and cultural phenomenon whose scale and scope are unprecedented in premodern Chinese history. Among the exiles were some very accomplished writers who continued to write in the places of banishment, and their treatment of the trope of exile and exilic experiences in poems and prose writings is worthy of serious study. This article is a study of the exilic writings of the especially important yet understudied poet Fang Xiaobiao (1618–?), who in the wake of the examination scandal of 1657 was exiled to Ningguta 寧古塔, a remote town close to the borders of then Chosŏn Korea. The author conducts close readings of a series of poems titled “Miscellaneous Poems on the Eastern Journey” (Dongzheng zayong), written by Fang on his journey to Ningguta. The author studies not the historicity and historization of the actual exile event per se but, rather, the literary, aesthetic, and psychological representations of the exilic condition, to address the following questions: How is the uncanny psychic condition of the exile embedded in, and therefore reflected by, the literary and aesthetic configurations of the texts? How does the liminality of the exilic world interact with the liminality of exilic language? How do we understand and describe this “inbetweenness” historically, philosophically, and literarily? From these perspectives the author situates and fathoms the figure and voice of the exile turned poet, or poet turned exile. We can also see from these perspectives that the exiles are bound to encounter the “other” in the foreign landscapes, in the cultural and linguistic differences, and no less in the humbling experiences of themselves and their body and in the troubled subjectivity of the self.

Habitar el suelo. Aproximaciones estéticas hacia un habitar en relación

Este texto analiza diferentes materializaciones arquitectónicas y escultóricas contemporáneas que se distinguen por un acercamiento relacional y contingente hacia todo aquello que nos rodea. Desde un acercamiento y articulación sensible hacia lo que coexiste, las configuraciones espaciales expuestas aquí son muestra de una manera de hacer, de una ética y una técnica, que tratan de habitar este mundo en relación. Eso es perceptible en el acercamiento y escucha hacia el entorno de la arquitectura de Junya Ishigami o en la configuración junto a las cosas de la escultura de suelo de Josu Bilbao. Son configuraciones estéticas que exponen, rescatando las palabras de Judith Butler, el carácter irremediablemente relacional y contingente de nuestra existencia. Y desde la interdependencia manifiesta hacia aquello que nos rodea y condiciona, estas configuraciones son ejemplo de lo que Adriana Cavarero propone como «geometría inclinada». Esta autora entiende por inclinación un acercarse que, asomándose fuera de sí, tiende al exterior, en manifiesta interdependencia estructural del sujeto hacia aquello con lo que coexiste. En este texto se expone esa geometría inclinada a través de las configuraciones espaciales de Junya Ishigami, Ryue Nishizawa, Gordon Matta-Clark y Josu Bilbao, como posibilidad de habitar un mundo inestable.

The “And” of History: Thinking Side by Side in Rosenzweig’s Imagination of Eternity

Abstract Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption culminates in an aesthetic configuration of simultaneous presences: world, man, God, creation, revelation, and redemption are viewed in a metahistorical side-by-side, connected by the “factualizing power of the And.” But the idea of simultaneity, which is central to Rosenzweig’s configurative thinking, belongs to the historical imagination as much as it belongs to the theological “breaking through the shackles of time.” Rosenzweig’s “and” belongs to both a tradition of cosmic-aesthetic historicism (Meinecke) and the philosophical reconstitution of time as a simultaneous perception. In the co-presence of all historical moments, history’s hidden Gestalt, which only a people that is at once old and young can envision, connects the “and” of history with what Hegel considered history’s end—its ultimate self-recognition. Eternity, then, means neither flight from, nor resistance to, history’s naked fact, but the recognition of history’s Gestalt as an image that “does not tolerate epochs.”

La identidad campesina y la estética del arraigo como resistencia.

Las comunidades campesinas de la zona rural de Buga en las veredas El Placer, La Venta y San Agustín, tienen en común que la mayoría de sus primeros habitantes provienen de Boyacá y Santander. Para vivir allí han tenido que pasar por un proceso económico, social y político, en el que han logrado construir la tradicional finca campesina en el mundo moderno, con todos los desafíos que ello implica. Han tenido que resistir la incursión paramilitar del Bloque Calima y las políticas neoliberales del Estado Colombiano. Este trabajo pretende explorar cómo se ha forjado esa resistencia desde el punto de vista de la estética del arraigo, concepto que se construye a partir de la identidad campesina, la relación con el entorno y con los demás, y las configuraciones estéticas de la resistencia en un mundo donde ser campesino es cada vez más difícil. Para sistematizar la información recogida sobre la comunidad se utilizaron las orientaciones teórico prácticas de Jara Holliday. Se encontró que hay una estética del arraigo que ha tenido un gran desarrollo y logros significativos en la defensa del territorio y los derechos de los campesinos, y que mantener esta resistencia es cada vez más difícil por los retos que implica para los jóvenes campesinos permanecer en los territorios, pues el mundo moderno siempre los está tentando a salir del territorio, a adoptar otras estéticas y a tener otras perspectivas y otros sueños donde no figura el campo como proyecto de vida.

Hieratismo en movimiento: Rubén Darío, Stéphane Mallarmé y “La página blanca”

Under the drive of postcolonial and postmodern relativism of cultural studies and the geopolitical obsolescence of area studies, two recent interpretative paradigms have reinvigorated interest in Spanish-American modernismo. Both in terms of the agenda of a Latin Americanism focused on the discussion around world literature as for the one based on transatlantic studies, modernismo seems to be the seed of an internationalization of culture that reorganizes the local literary map. For these approaches, modernismo displaces the concern about national boundaries and identities towards the idea of a world composed by asymmetrical flows between centers and peripheries and a system, unequal as well, of legitimation relationships and aesthetic configuration. Taking as its basis an analysis of Rubén Darío’s literary project in the portraits of Los raros and in the poem “La página blanca,” this article aims to make a critical evaluation of the contact between the Nicaraguan poet and Stéphane Mallarmé in order to reconsider two important problems in the history of readings of modernismo: the translation of languages, aesthetics and semiotic systems, and the cultural networks, which trace, in modernismo, a virtual and future American polis.

Expresión del grafiti en el espacio urbano de Lima

This study develops a journey along the urban scenario of five places in Lima with at least two different socioeconomic characteristics and cultural contexts. Initially, it deals with the origins, types and expressive forms of graffiti, as well as with the meaning of this expression in different scenarios. It develops the basic elements of communication: text and image as basic components of its graphic language. The identification of writing and painting as the links of their future reference to a plastic and aesthetic language, elements that have gradually become the common thread of the aesthetic configuration of this expression. The fact that these expressions exist in contrasting socioeconomic scenarios implies, at least, a reflectionleading to the search for meanings beyond the visuals. Turning eyes to other districts, with very distinct social class and diverse cultural spaces has allowed a less subjective observation of this visual phenomenon.