Artistic Production Research Articles

SHAMANISM AND BRAIN ILLNESS IN ROCK ART PRODUCTION

Among the many generic explanations offered over the past two centuries for rock art production, those involving several brain illnesses and shamanism are selected for detailed analysis. These proposals are reviewed in light of the aetiologies of the psychiatric conditions linked to rock art. Some are related to the assumption that palaeoart was introduced through shamanism. Although no simplistic link between shamanism and brain disorders has been demonstrated, relevant susceptibility alleles might be involved in some shamanic experiences. No connection between rock art and shamanism has been credibly demonstrated to date. Moreover, the assumption that neuropathologies and shamanism preceded the advent of palaeoart also appears to be mistaken. It derives from the belief that palaeoart was introduced by ‘anatomically modern humans’ and on the discredited replacement hypothesis. These interlinked issues are discussed.

'No Long Shadows'

‘No Long Shadows’ is a parafiction project developed between 2018 and 2020, made up of 4 photographic installations and an essay film. The project was built from an extensive body of research exploring historical connections between chemical science, military technology, and artistic production, with specific focus on the sordid history of the DuPont chemical company.

Hand and Eye: Study on the Relationship between Painting and Photography from Benjamin's Perspective

The birth of printing brought great changes to literature, and the continuous fragmentation of printmaking media allowed pictorial art products to flow into the market. However, no one could have imagined that just a few decades later, the birth of photography would remove the human hand from the main artistic task of image reproduction, which would henceforth be reserved for the eyes staring at the lens. Walter Benjamin, as an early scholar among Western intellectuals in the 20th century, paid attention to the study of the relationship between photography and painting. The Small History of Photography and Works of Art in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction written by him can be regarded as classic works of photographic theory, modern cultural theory and modern art theory. His focus is on the juxtaposition study of photography and painting, two art categories that are both visual image presentation, which is pioneering, original and foundational. Although the paper is not long, the game between symbol and image, politics and economy, and subjective and objective is particularly wonderful. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to dig deeper into Benjamin's theoretical connotation and fully reveal his value in all aspects. The combination of the relationship between painting and photography has also injected impetus into the construction of contemporary visual culture.

Circulation of Queer Ideas in State Socialist Hungarian People’s Republic

Inspired by Agata Jakubowska’s Circulation of Feminist Ideas in Communist Poland (2008) in the paper, I undertake the case study of Russian-born Hungarian artist El Kazovszkij (1948–2008) to discuss the circulation of queer ideas in state socialist Hungarian People’s Republic. Cold War-era queer cultural production is primarily associated with the then-establishing cultural and political agency of sexual minorities in the West. Nonetheless, despite the hiatus of queer movements or public dialogue in state socialist Hungary, there were still plenty of related works produced and circulated in both alternative and official cultural scenes. However, the lack of knowledge about the socialist era queer lives led to a homogenous image of socialist states: the individuals in question are still seen as absent or viewed as mere victims of the system, who had also no access to knowledge on non-normative sexualities. Therefore, artistic production addressing queer themes is either overlooked or interpreted as manifestations of the artists’ personal struggle, which implies an essentialist understanding of queer art, excluding critical or political connotations of the works and oeuvres in question. My aim is not to prove that queer discourse was thriving in state socialist Hungary. Yet, I argue that queer ideas circulated in Europe between the East and West as well as among socialist countries, offering crucial reference points to artists. Through the case study on El Kazovszkij, it is possible to reconstruct a fraction of these examples from the field of literature, film, visual arts, music, etc., which could contribute to the theoretical and methodological approach to further investigate queer lives of socialist and post-socialist East Central Europe (ECE). Beyond the art historical perspectives, the outcome could become a further step in cultural decolonialism and Piotr Piotrowski’s horizontalism to defy the East-West dichotomy within the cultural history of non-normative sexualities.

Towards a Critical Pedagogy for Inclusion: Disability-led Arts and its Radical Promise in Singapore

ABSTRACT The inclusion of disabled people in Singapore (and globally) is gaining traction given the dominance of transnational instruments like the United Nations Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities. Yet, in the absence of disability rights legislation, inclusion in Singapore has taken on markedly different forms, based on ablenationalist notions of productivity and meritocracy. Situated amidst these global and national frameworks of social inclusion, we consider the recent emergence of disability-led arts in Singapore. These disabled-led initiatives have proliferated in the past five years and have afforded new opportunities to challenge existing meanings of inclusion and to impart new forms of knowledge about the disabled body. In this article, we analyse recent disabled-led art productions put up by Access Path Productions, a disability-led arts creative organisation. In pivoting to the disabled body/mind as a generative form of knowledge and embodiment, these disabled-led performances offer new artistic practices spanning both digital and physical forms. Importantly, these initiatives have engaged with existing art and cultural spaces and institutions in Singapore, transforming existing ways of doing, thinking, and knowing about disability and offering a critical praxis aimed at (re)educating the public on the meanings of disability.

Hubungan antara Islam dan Kebudayaan Jawa

The discussion on the relationship between Islam and Javanese culture in Indonesia is intriguing. Culture is defined as a complex system that encompasses values, norms, beliefs, language, art, customs, institutions, technology, and creative products of humans. The focus od the research is on Javanese culture, which is prominent in Indonesia. The connection between Islam and Javanese culture is reflected in a long and diverse history, influenced by various ethnic groups, religions, and cultures united within one nation. This research adopts a literature review method, analyzing information from various literary sources such as books, research journals, and scholarly works. The conclusion indicates that the relationship between Islam and Javanese culture is inseparable, despite some contradictions. A thorough study of Islamic teachings is necessary to ensure proper integration of religious values and cultural traditions in the daily lives of the Javanese community.

Epic Sock Puppet Theater : artistic tactics for mitigating online disinformation

This case study presents the artistic research and production process for an interactive installation, Epic Sock Puppet Theater (ESPT), that uses artivist tactics to engage with the divisive socio-political content of online disinformation campaigns. The project allows viewers to interact with a dataset of social media posts made by “sock puppets” or imposter accounts used as part of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns so the viewer can become better equipped to recognize disinformation in their own social media feeds, less susceptible to its negative effects and less likely to unwittingly share it. The project is based on inoculation theory, a biological metaphor for building resistance against future disinformation through careful preemptive exposure to disinformation messages, as well as research that found that the revelation of a sock puppet account helped social media users identify other sock puppets spreading disinformation. In this case study, we summarize our research, user testing, and artistic process as a resource for others who may be interested in combining research, art and activism. Through our research and experimentation, we carefully selected artistic tactics, focusing on techniques from Brechtian epic theater to present emotionally and politically charged content that is designed to polarize viewers in a way that allows for critical reflection. The result is an artistic solution to a socio-technical problem: an animatronic sock puppet theater that simultaneously helps to familiarize and distance the public from online sock puppet disinformation, to creatively mitigate its negative effects.

Is the local origin of a food product a nexus to better taste or is just an information bias

The origin of a product is an indication of its quality and can also be an indicator of taste. Geographical Indications (GIs), one of the most important food quality instruments of the European Union, are based on the impact of origin as an important information stimulus in consumer behaviour. This study examines the feasibility of establishing GIs in Kosovo, based on consumer preferences for five artisanal cheeses from the five regions of Kosovo known for cheese production. The method used to assess the impact of origin on product evaluation is the Disconfirmation of Expectations Theory. The results show a contrasting behaviour for the most preferred origin, revealing at the same time high expectations for the Sharri and Rugova origins. Nevertheless, the low weight of origin (the highest is 11%) in the overall evaluation of products is due to the perception of low safety of artisanal cheese products. In this respect, GIs are an opportunity to reinforce the good taste of artisanal products while protecting traditional recipes, which are often compromised by industrially produced foods.

Attitudes towards natural wines among Spanish winemakers: Relationship with environmental awareness

There is an important movement in the wine industry towards the production of alternative and more sustainable wines. Natural wine (NW) is a controversial category of alternative wines, which needs to be further explored. Given the role of technical experts as opinion leaders, the present work aims to explore the attitudes of Spanish winemakers towards NW and their relationship with their overall environmental awareness. Therefore, 307 Spanish winemakers completed a questionnaire to evaluate: (1) their attitudes towards NW by scoring their agreement with 31 statements, (2) their ecological awareness by evaluating 11 items, (3) their frequency of consumption and interest towards NW, and (4) their sociodemographic profile and general information about wine production. PCA with varimax rotation calculated on 28 of the 31 statements related to their attitudes showed six independent dimensions. Further hierarchical cluster analysis calculated with the six dimensions showed five clusters of wine experts with different attitudes towards NW. Results show that there is a major negative attitude towards the flavour of NW, their ageing capacity and their quality-price ratio, but a positive one in terms of economic impact for the wine industry. Aspects related to the role of NW in tradition, social identity, ecology, health, artisanal production and economic feasibility mark differential attitudes. Interestingly, the dimension related to winemakerś attitude towards tradition, social identity, and ecology of NW was positively correlated with their overall ecological awareness and thus their life style. This paper sheds light in the understanding of the behaviour of Spanish winemakers regarding ecological transition and provides tools for policymaking regarding NW certification.

Aesthetic Considerations on György Ligeti’s Works

This article represents a revised chapter of my book György Ligeti’s Creation in the Stylistic Context of the 20st Century, published in 1999. It shows the divergent and contrasting aspects of the com poser’s pieces, their synaesthesis and their preference for allusions and illusions. Ligeti’s whole work is a large spectrum built with associable musical structures that are also found with other composers or even in extramusical artistic productions. But despite this, it remains original and innovative, not belonging to any stylistic orientation of 20th century music.

Issues of Using Phraseologisms in Italian Language Teaching: a Linguoculturological and Linguodidactic Study

Phraseological units are considered a product of folk art. As an important branch of linguistics, the main focus of phraseology is on the study of the nature of phraseologies and their categorical signs, as well as on determining the laws of the use of phraseologies in speech. The most important problem of phraseology is to differentiate and distinguish phraseologisms from word combinations that are formed in speech (that is, not ready in advance) and to determine the signs of phraseologies on this basis.

In/secure childhoods: Children and conflict in Kashmir

This paper focuses on art productions by children participating in an art-based wellbeing intervention project in Kashmir. Drawing on feminist security studies, we conducted narrative analysis to explore how children represent in/security. The locations of in/security were the environment, the body, and the socio-political realm. Children articulated nuanced and complex representations of the natural and social world, influenced by local and global forces, and created their own meanings and practices of in/security.

Upaya Mengenalkan Produk UMKM Damar Kurung Melalui Studi Independen Sekolah Ekspor

Damar Kurung is a typical Gresik city art product and has considerable market and export potential. With the Export School Independent Study program "Be a Digital Exporter", it is expected to be able to introduce Damar Kurung products to local and international markets. Efforts need to be made to be able to utilize the potential that exists in regional MSME products, one of which is the Independent Study of the Export School "Be a Digital Exporter" held by Merdeka Campus. The research method used a qualitative approach with a descriptive method. Data collection is carried out using observation and documentation techniques from the results of observations that can be concluded. The results of this study are Through the Sang Damar company created in groups in the Independent Study program of the Export School, we introduce and try to market Damar Kurung products. It is hoped that in this way it can boost the development of regional MSMEs in Indonesia, especially in Damar Kurung products typical of the city of Gresik.

Abitudine, contingenza, oralità: per una letteratura “viva” a partire da Leopardi


 
 
 What is the relationship between habit and literary creativity? What role does the notion of habit play in the process of composition and, in general, in artistic productivity and the aesthetic experience? How do the terms habit and improvisation, habituation and contingency relate to each other? To answer these questions, crucial for aesthetics, this essay moves from the discussion of some significant passages in Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone. On the one hand, the notions of habit and habituation will be discussed, understood – in the specific case of their application to poetry – as the poetic work of giving oneself a form; on the other hand, I shall analyze the notion of environmental or contextual contingency as the input that activates the poetic composition, in terms of a so-called “deliberate improvisation”. Against the background of these interconnected concepts the issues of the relationship between book and orality, performativity and recitation, lowbrow culture and highbrow culture will emerge, in a dense web of cross-references that defines, at least in its general lines, one of the axes of Leopardi's theoretical thinking around the 1820s.
 
 

Composition System in the experience of the artist Georges Braque

Our research deals ( Composition System in the experience of the artist Georges Braque) addresses Based on the importance of research as an effective energy, the diversity of material and experimentation carried out by the artist George Braque , through his transitional phases in his constructive system between analysis and composition in his artistic output. In its methodological frameworks Chapter I highlighted the problem of research and its importance and came up with several questions for the problem: What constructive composition system is followed by the artist in his achievements for his artistic experience? What techniques and mechanisms do I adopt in shaping his artistic achievement? Influential or associated references in George Braque artistic experience that contributed to the creation of those intellectual variables or theses through his transition stages within the artistic achievement? Is the artist’s experience, an extension or a reference for many contemporary art products, which we are witnessing today in the arena of art formation?.

Making and interpreting: digital humanities as embodied action

Digital technology has created new spaces, new realities and new ways of life, which have changed the way people perceive and recognise the world. In particular, the production, dissemination and reception methods of literature and art have been impacted upon significantly. Acknowledging humanities scholars have been engaged in conducting research while theorising and debating what Digital Humanities (DH) is/is not in the past two decades, this study extends current thought on DH by connecting it with the concept of sociological body, particularly thinking bodily interaction in relation to digital technologies in DH practice. The increasingly deepening integration of body and technology allows DH practice to become an event, in which embodied bodily action is situated in the (digital) environment that impacts on knowledge production. Acknowledging contemporary discourse regarding the two waves of DH, the article pays attention to the presence of the body whereby DH practice is bodily inclusive as mediated by digital technology, in which bodily interaction in producing knowledge via technologies reflects haptic experience and cultural constraints upon the sociological body. At the same time, technologies are not an innocent medium but an active contributor, so much so that we claim knowledge produced with the substantial involvement of digital technology is ‘digitised’ knowledge, as our critical interpretation towards a possible DH 3.0 practice that is subject to the core value of the humanities.

Art festivals in Japan: Fueling revitalization, tourism, and self-censorship

ABSTRACT This paper critically considers large-scale contemporary art festivals that have become a significant force of art tourism in Japan. While many of these projects got their start in socially conscious endeavors with a focus on machizukuri, or local community building, the increase of government-sponsored revitalization initiatives and heightened pressure from the tourism industry has shifted the output of these festivals over the years. As such, this paper aims to situate such festivals within their shifting genealogy, observe some of the ways that today’s artists and their artwork may be subject to precarious positions of instrumentalization and censorship, and raise points of critique for audiences to keep in mind around the topic of rural revitalization – i.e. what are some of the challenges that artists, curators, and organizers face today? While reflecting on factors at stake for art and cultural production in a hyper-touristic context, this paper also highlights the work of Shitamichi Motoyuki, an artist disrupting this paradigm in ways reminiscent of earlier forms of machizukuri art practices.

Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry

ABSTRACT The late 20th century saw a phenomenal integration of the production and consumption of clothing between the Global North and the Global South. While global integration of mass manufactured garments has been discussed at length, this paper investigates the gender subjectivities within artisanal production of globally-oriented ethnic wear within the garment value chain. This ethnographic case study focuses on the women entrepreneurs animating the large-scale Nepali garment subcluster. This subcluster, with its origins in fringe tourism and development expatriatism became so integrated with its global counterparts that some entrepreneurs became prominent national names. The market conflated female and male designers and entrepreneurs. In this process of symbiotic absorption, and the dominance of garment production in the national economy, female entrepreneurs saw their careers sidelined and their contributions overlooked. This paper draws on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork encompassing the period from 1990s to the first quarter of the twenty-first century to explore the evolving dynamics of the Nepali public sphere in response to profound changes within the Nepali state. These transformations encompass the shift from a Hindu monarchy to a Maoist revolution, resulting in a secular, republican and federal state. The paper further examines the implications of these shifts for the female entrepreneurs in Nepal who have played a substantial role in Nepal’s industrialisation.

“I Walked Out”: Perambulatory Poetics, Authorial Independence, and Isabella Whitney’s Poetic Voice in A Sweet Nosgay

ABSTRACT The act of walking energizes the formation of Isabella Whitney’s poetic voice in her second volume of verse, A Sweet Nosgay (pub. 1573). Walking out of her house, trespassing in Plat’s garden, and traversing the perimeter of Bedlam are just a few of the striking scenes that depict Whitney’s perambulation. To examine the connection between walking and the formation of her poetic voice, I suggest that Whitney’s walking operates in two distinct registers. Firstly, walking is a thematic concern that exposes her interest in the contours of intellectual independence, the process of artistic production, and the vulnerability occasioned by impecunity. Secondly, walking operates as a form of poetic performativity, figurative of her trajectory towards print publication. This essay expands discussion on Whitney’s mobility, suggesting that perambulatory poetics are a crucial component of her authorial self-presentation in A Sweet Nosgay.

Archives as forms of resistance

ABSTRACT This visual essay explores a number of artistic and curatorial practices in which the archive acts as a primary tool for rereading histories. Contemporary art reveals a growing interest in the use of archival material and in the formation of new archives inside and outside institutions. Considering the archive as a series of documented and preserved knowledge, one motivation for such attentiveness could be the merging of artistic productions with curatorial practices. Building my argument on Irit Rogoff's analysis of curatorial practice as an “epistemic structure”, I examine how archives have the potential to produce knowledge against historical forgetfulness. Furthermore, the process of sustainable changes within the museums, as discussed by Peter Osborne, is studied here as another motive for the increasing use of archives in contemporary art. This is done by focused examinations of a research-based exhibition, Karnameh: Visual Culture of Iranian Children (1950-1980); two curatorial projects (one temporary and one ongoing), respectively Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art's Poster and the Archaeology of the Final Decade (AOTFD) and lastly an installation art piece, Documentation. Through these examples, I argue how working with archives, especially in conflicted places, is crucial to help with recovering erased histories and accumulating shattered memories.