Dark Arts Research Articles

Architecture as Political Image: The Perspective of Advertising

In the realm of contemporary politics, the need to “communicate” is paramount. Some call political communication a process of manipulation, others a dark art of depict. Here, it will be examined as a form of promotion; as a form of advertising. However, it is an advertising typology that clearly appropriates architecture to its own persuasive ends. The world of advertising has been subject to numerous developments throughout the course of its history. In the last three decades this has seen what had become the standard mode of visual communication, semiotics, replaced by divergent and ever more sophisticated systems. These systems, we suggest, require the application of phenomenology as an analytical framework if we are to fully understand how they work. However, the importance of semiotic systems of communication has not evaporated. They remain core to advertising and, although obvious to a now fully visually literate public, a reasonably effective technique. They also remain evident in the realm of architecture, political communication and, as we describe here, the combination of the two. Examining two images of Barack Obama form the 2008 Presidential election in the United States, this paper underlines how core aspects of the standard semiotic system of analysis clearly reveal the promotional and persuasive techniques employed in “political imagery”. However, it also describes how they are incorporated into a broader framework of the politico-media-complex and how this has helped transform their communicative strategies into techniques which require the application of a phenomenological analysis. Employing the terminology of Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Judith Williamson, Noam Chomsky and Maurice Merleau Ponty it will describe these images in fully advertising terms; an approach that turns the politics in play into a form of commercial exercise and the candidate promoted into a “product”. The communicative techniques revealed are of course applied by all parties and individuals operating within the competitive political arena but these images of Barack Obama are perhaps the ones that reveal the similarities between the advertising and politics, and their use of architecture, most succinctly.

The Relevance of Accurate Comprehensive Treatment Parameters in Photobiomodulation

Photomedicine and Laser SurgeryVol. 29, No. 12 EditorialThe Relevance of Accurate Comprehensive Treatment Parameters in PhotobiomodulationChukuka S. EnwemekaChukuka S. EnwemekaSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:7 Dec 2011https://doi.org/10.1089/pho.2011.9896AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"The Relevance of Accurate Comprehensive Treatment Parameters in Photobiomodulation." , 29(12), pp. 783–784FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byEvaluation of the efficacy of a new low-level laser therapy home protocol in the treatment of temporomandibular joint disorder-related pain: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial19 April 2019 | CRANIO®, Vol. 39, No. 2Is there a measure for low power laser dose?6 November 2018 | Lasers in Medical Science, Vol. 34, No. 1Effects of different photobiomodulation dosimetries on temporomandibular dysfunction: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial30 May 2018 | Lasers in Medical Science, Vol. 33, No. 9Photobiomodulation optimization for spinal cord injury rat phantom modelTranslational Neuroscience, Vol. 9, No. 1The dark art of light measurement: accurate radiometry for low-level light therapy10 March 2016 | Lasers in Medical Science, Vol. 31, No. 4 Volume 29Issue 12Dec 2011 InformationCopyright 2011, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Chukuka S. Enwemeka.The Relevance of Accurate Comprehensive Treatment Parameters in Photobiomodulation.Photomedicine and Laser Surgery.Dec 2011.783-784.http://doi.org/10.1089/pho.2011.9896Published in Volume: 29 Issue 12: December 7, 2011Online Ahead of Print:November 9, 2011PDF download

Politics, quality and cost effectiveness

This newsletter has been written in the midst of the party political conferences. I was somewhat sceptical when informed I was expected to go to these, regarding them as perhaps a jamboree for policy wonks and the like. This scepticism was reinforced by several respected senior colleagues who counselled that the College was about improving standards and should not become embroiled in the 'dark arts'. I reflected on this advice but concluded that in order to do the former, national political engagement was essential. Hence I have embraced my attendance with enthusiasm although perhaps not with all-out fervour.

Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I

Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I

David Newnham has a cosy chat about the dark arts of statistics

David Newnham has a cosy chat about the dark arts of statistics

Proofiness: the dark arts of mathematical deception

Proofiness: the dark arts of mathematical deception

An Investigation into the Fundamental Drivers of Pricing of Residential Mortgage Products – A Risk Pricing Viewpoint

Residential mortgage products (also known as home loans) pricing has been long understood to be something of a ‘dark art’, requiring judgment and experience, rather than being an exact science. In the last decade, a lot has changed in this field and more and more lenders, primarily the larger lenders, are increasingly looking to make their pricing as exact as possible. Even so, inadequate pricing of residential mortgage products (in particular its substandard risk pricing) has been seen as one of major causes of the global financial crisis (GFC) and subsequent spectacular banking collapses. The underlying theme of the paper is to exhibit how contemporary lenders, in practice, price their residential mortgage products. While discussing elements of the pricing calculation particular attention was given to the exposition of how contemporary lenders price risks involved in providing home loans. Because of the importance of Basel capital accords to how financial institutions assess and quantify their risks, the paper provides an overview of Basel capital accords. The author envisages that the paper will (i) help enhance comprehension of the underlying elements of the pricing calculation and the ways in which these elements relate to each other, (ii) scrutinize how contemporary lenders identify and quantify risks and (iii) improve consciousness of future changes in interest rates

Consultant physicians for the future: Report from a working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the medical specialties

Workforce planning in medicine is at best an inexact science and at worst a dark art. Over the past year it has become clear that several forces influencing the consultant physician workforce are coming into play at the same time. Many of these forces cannot be easily controlled, but their effects are predictable and thus can be prepared for. Recommendations are made as to how the issues raised should be addressed.

The Gold Clause Cases and Constitutional Necessity

This Article presents a case study of how constitutional actors respond when the rule of law and necessity are sharply at odds and provides some background on Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1935, the Supreme Court heard constitutional challenges to the abrogation of “gold clauses” in contracts and Treasury bonds. Gold clauses guaranteed that creditors would receive payment in gold dollars as valued at the time a contract was made. Due to the deflation that followed the Great Depression, this meant that debtors were being forced to pay back much more than they owed originally. To stop a looming wave of bankruptcies, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring all gold clauses null and void.Following oral argument, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned that the Court would invalidate the Joint Resolution. He concluded that he could not accept this result, and thus drafted a Fireside Chat announcing that he would not comply with such a decision. This unprecedented statement, which invoked the New Testament and necessity as the grounds for rejecting the Court's decision, has never been closely analyzed until now.In the end, the Court did not hold that the gold clauses must be enforced. With respect to Treasury Bonds, however, a plurality of the Justices concluded that the Joint Resolution was unconstitutional but that the bondholders were not entitled to relief. This slippery reasoning (in Perry v. United States) harkened back to Chief Justice Marshall's approach in Marbury v. Madison – another case in which the Court was confronted with presidential defiance. By recounting how President Roosevelt and Chief Justice Hughes – the author of Perry – sought to defuse (or, in some cases, exacerbate) the gold crisis, the dark arts of constitutional are exposed.

The dark energy at the heart of the “dark art” of marketing

The dark energy at the heart of the “dark art” of marketing

The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness by Marlan, Stanton

<i>The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness</i> by <scp>Marlan, Stanton</scp>

Headlong into a genomic singularity

Headlong into a genomic singularity

Current burn wound management

Burn injury is common, but can have severe consequences for the individual patient. Assessment of burn depth, and the different ways of treating burns are topics which are often shrouded in mystery. Burn surgery is seen by some as a ’dark art’. This article attempts to shed some light on these topics.

Defense against the cyber dark arts

The perpetrator's intent is often perfectly rational, legal, and, depending how you look at it, good.

Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring (review)

Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring (review)

Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring (review)

Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring (review)

Book Review: Art of Darkness

Book Review: Art of Darkness

Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

<i>Jindabyne</i>’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

A dark art comes to the water‐cooler: a review of some key texts on RCTs for children's services professionals and researchers

The need for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to support evidence‐based services to improve outcomes for children is increasingly recognised by researchers and policy‐makers. However, this brings a pressing requirement to build research capacity for conducting RCTs and to address the concerns of practitioners who may be suspicious about the method. This article reviews a variety of texts on the subject, ranging from analyses of the historical and political context of RCTs, to concise introductions of the key methodological and practical issues, to more in‐depth discussions of complex designs and statistics. The article seeks to help readers navigate these resources by focusing on seven questions that seem particularly salient for those considering whether and how to commission, undertake, participate in or use results from RCTs.

Dark Arts and Diaspora

Exploring the relationship between diaspora and creolization, this article analyzes their shared theoretical foundation in the concept of community. With the premise that empirical evidence of social behavior is both a problematic and a necessity in understanding processes of diaspora and creolization, the article takes as its case in point a cultural phenomenon commonly known in the Atlantic World as obeah : magical practices using supernatural powers. Deriving largely from West and Central African religious traditions, but also from European and South Asian sources, obeah is consummately creole. It is found in various forms in virtually all Caribbean diasporas in North America and in other diaspora destinations such as the United Kingdom. Obeah’s fraught and complex four centuries of colonial history has rendered it as bane and succor at the same time, both embraced and denied by dominant as well as subaltern peoples. These qualities of ambivalence and ambiguity raise probing questions about the creation and role of “community” in producing diasporic identities and the transformational, creolized cultures they carry. The article will discuss obeah’s Caribbean slave plantation past and its diasporic present, asking how obeah, a creole/ized, simultaneously inclusive and divisive phenomenon, figures in the formation of community and thus in defining and interpreting diaspora.