Value Of Beauty Research Articles

Dynamic response of the scenic beauty value of different forests to various thinning intensities in central eastern China.

Forest management has a significant influence on the preferences of people for forest landscapes. This study sought to evaluate the dynamic effects of thinning intensities on the landscape value of forests over time. Five typical stands in Wuxiangsi National Forest Park in Nanjing, China, were subjected to a thinning experiment designed with four intensities: unthinned, light thinning, moderate thinning, and heavy thinning. People's preferences for landscape photographs taken in plots under various thinning intensities were assessed through scenic beauty estimation (SBE) at 2 and 5years after thinning. The differences in scenic beauty value between different thinning intensities were then analyzed with a paired samples t test for the two periods. The results indicated that the landscape value of all of the thinned plots significantly exceeded that of the unthinned plots 2years after thinning (p < 0.01) and that the heavily thinned plots were most appreciated, showing an average improvement of 9.71% compared with the control plots. Additionally, the heavily thinned plots were judged to be more beautiful than the lightly thinned and moderately thinned plots, whereas there was no significant difference between moderate thinning and light thinning. At 5years after thinning, however, the moderately thinned plots received the highest preference scores among the four intensities, displaying an average improvement of 11.32% compared with the unthinned plots. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model indicated that landscape value improved with increases in the average diameter at breast height (DBH) and with the improvement of environmental cleanliness in the stand, whereas the value decreased with an increasing stem density, species diversity, litter coverage, and canopy density. In addition, we found that the performance of a neural network model based on a multilayer perception (MLP) algorithm for predicting scenic beauty was slightly better than that of the MLR model. The findings of our study suggest that moderate to heavy thinning should be recommended to manage forests for the improvement of forest landscape value.

Islamic Nuance in Decorative-Ornament Architecture Art in Nusantara

The advent of Islam in Nusantara sparked new phenomena or changing not only in structure of building construction of religious places, residency and houses but also ornaments and decoration expressing value of beauty of that building. The result of this research tries to reveal how far Islamic influence is working without undermining local aspects of architecture and how Islamic architecture was influenced by other characters in ornament and decorative-ornament artwith various design and sense. Islamic nuances are substantially showed in traditional and contemporary mosque architecture, graveyard, residencies, palaces, historical building and soon and so forth. Although local elementsare clear, and so with Hinduism and Buddhism, animism, colonial influence and other foreign influences including Middle East, Africa, India and China, Islam shows its prominence in interior and exterior ornament as well as its tools.

Potensi Ekowisata Hutan Mangrove Di Desa Merak Belantung Kecamatan Kalianda Kabupaten Lampung Selatan

Merak Belantung village in Kalianda sub district of South Lampung regency is a village located in coastal area. This village has a big ecotourism potential especially in its mangrove ecosystem. Despite of Merak Belantung tourism resource potentials, no research has been conducted to study aspects supporting this area into mangrove tourism development, so that data and information about this village is too general. A tourism development of a particular area needs a deep study from various aspects. The objectives of this research were to find out potentials and attractiveness of mangrove tourism in Merak Belantung village and to estimate the values of beauty from these potentials so that this area could be developed into tourism area supporting natural preservation and improving people welfare around it. This research was conducted from April to Desember 2013. Data were collected with direct observations in the fields and direct interviews with respondents to give assessment to tourism beauty potentials. Data were analyzed using descriptive method and scenic beauty estimation (SBE). The results showed that potentials and attraction of mangrove tourism object in Merak Belantung village was the mangrove ecosystem, mangrove water flow, river downstream and beach, local dance art, and handy craft. Activities could be conducted were photography, swimming, bird watching, canoeing, mangrove walk and fishing. Mangrove potential and tourism attraction in Merak Belantung village based on scenic beauty estimation (SBE) were high with the following SBE values: beach was 42, mangrove water flow was 20, and mangrove downstream was 19.

Kalos kagathos, czyli o wartościach osobowych w sporcie

An object of the reflection in herein text is the reference to constitutive values of good and beauty in sport, as well as personal values in general. A specific nature of a man is described here: will by which a man controls his reactions, attitudes and efforts in execution of some goals and actions. It is represented by courage, persistence and consequence. It is therefore the grounds and enables reaching the values by a person who faces internal or external obstacles on its way. Raising the issue of personal values, in particular in reference to young sportsmen, one cannot omit the term of fair play. In general the rule defines the struggle for victory but not at all costs, unquestionable referee judgments, honesty, immediacy and maintenance of unbroken, law-abiding attitude in case where others do not follow the fair play requirements. A contestant must then be distinguished by respect for team colleague despite the win or loss and recognition of him or her as a essential partner in achieving overriding sport ideals, respect for a referee represented by the strive to cooperation during competition and afterwards. Personal values of a man actively involved in sport undergoings result from the level of recognition of self-esteem as a person. Knowing his or her own, represented values, pros nut also awarnes of cons a person becomes ready for a fight against obstacles and capable of withstanding stalemate situations. Such person would perceive reality from the bright side and is independent to the large extend, as well as executes own goals. A sportsman – as presented in the text – with considerable level of self-esteem is not only a cheerful and an open man but also a man of substantial personal values, as well as meets the requirements defined by the sports arena.

The Place and Role of Specific Aesthetic Disciplines Means in Curricular and Extracurricular Activities in Middle-school

The aim of this study is to verify the presence of specific Physical Education and Sports means in the educational process, trying to train the ability to perceive, internalize, and use the values of beauty, and that play a role in the education of the aesthetic sense in middle-school pupils. The research consisted in conducting an inquiry over a group of 120 pupils from three Bacau schools. At the end of the research, one can see that the pupils are interested and willing to use the aesthetic sense-developing exercises in the educational process, an improving intervention in this sense being welcomed, this confirming the hypothesis.

ORIENTASI POLA PENGASUHAN ANAK USIA DINI PADA KELUARGA MILITER DI ASRAMA KODAM KELURAHAN JATINGALEH CANDISARI SEMARANG

The research was conducted at Regional Military Family Military Boarding Village Jatingaleh Candisari Distric Semarang. The reason researchers do research on military families because of parental upbringing is different from other communities. The objectives of this study are: 1) Knowing how the orientation of early childhood parenting to military families in Boarding Jatingaleh Urban District Military Command Candisari. 2) Knowing what are the values that apply to military families in Boarding Jatingaleh Urban District Military Command Candisari.Data collection methods used were participant observation methods to see what is done to the child and parent demographics and topography of the place of research, in-depth interviews relating to parenting that parents do to children, and documentation. The number of informants who studied there were 12 parents of children aged 0-6 years old and was taken from each Neighborhood Association.The results illustrate the orientation of parenting parents almost the same democratic parenting gives children the freedom to engage in activities that do no harm, there is no difference in educating children, the absence of parental punishment to the child and the cooperation in determining opinion. However, there are also parents who apply authoritarian parenting. These values are applied to the same parents are religious values, the value of modesty, cleanliness and value the value of beauty. Democratic parenting is not a perfect upbringing, so it

The Leader as Artist

The Leader as Artist

ICT and Human Progress

Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the lives of people at the operative level; it is less clear in what ways and to what extent it has changed the way people feel and develop as human beings. We create excellent means, but are we feeling better and getting better, and by what criteria should we evaluate our progress? Operative power is needed for the human progress, but it is not enough. In this article we consider the traditional values of knowledge, goodness (ethics), and beauty (aesthetics) as the criteria of human progress, and how our embrace of ICT has affected our advance toward these values. We round up our discussion with reflections on aspects of human nature that lead people along the ways of knowledge, goodness, and beauty, and also those that hinder such advancement.

The performativity of Black beauty shame in Jamaica and its diaspora: Problematising and transforming beauty iconicities

Black beauty shame emerges within the Black/white binary because of the beauty values sedimented in our structure of feeling since African enslavement. This article does not start from white beauty as the ideal, but focuses on the performativity of Black beauty shame as it transforms or intensifies the meanings of parts of the body in Jamaica and its UK diaspora. Using extracts from interviews with UK Jamaican heritage women, the discussion illustrates how Black beauty shame produces such intensification. First, where white beauty is iconic and reproduces the Black other as ‘ugly’, and second, where the Black ‘mixed race’ body is constructed as ‘other’ because of Black Nationalist discourses on beauty. The women’s critique of the shaming event shows that shame is undone through dis-identification as speakers draw on alternative beauty discourses to produce new beauty subjectivities. Dis-identification illustrates the transformational potential of shame as new Black beauty positionings emerge within the diaspora, drawing on beauty ideologies and models from Jamaica and thus destabilising the Black/white binary.

Short-term effects of thinning intensity on scenic beauty values of different stands

Forest management has significant influences on the preferences of people for forest landscapes. This study attempted to evaluate the effects of thinning on the scenic value of forests. Five typical stands in Nanjing Wuxiangsi National Forest Park were subject to a designed thinning experiment from February to May 2007 with four intensities: unthinned, light-thinning, middle-thinning, and high-thinning. Next, people's preferences for landscape photographs taken in plots with different thinning intensities were assessed by a scenic beauty estimation (SBE) developed by using normal function theory (N-SBE) 2 years after thinning. In order to resolve shortcomings of N-SBE, another SBE calculation method based on weighted sum theory (W-SBE) was developed in the study, and it was demonstrated to have the same reliability as N-SBE by statistical methods. Then, the difference of W-SBE between different thinning intensities was analyzed by paired samples T test. The results suggested that it was significant, at the 0.01 level, between unthinned plots and all thinned plots, and significant, at the 0.05 level, between high-thinning and light-thinning, and between high-thinning and middle-thinning, while there was no significant difference between middle-thinning and light-thinning. Finally, a stepwise regression model was established between W-SBE as the dependent variable and some possible impact preference factors as independent variables. This indicated that landscape value was diminished with increase of tree density, canopy density, and opening of understory, while the value improved with the increment of average diameter at breast height and tree height, species diversity or uniformity, and also the improvement of accessibility and environment neatness in the forest.

Predicting scenic beauty of mountain regions

Scenic beauty of mountain landscapes contributes to human well-being. Valuation of natural scenery and specific landscape properties by perception studies is complex and time-consuming. Sophisticated spatial analysis tools can support the assessment of scenic beauty by quantitative methods. We implemented an innovative GIS-based modeling approach for mountain regions which combines objective methods with perception-based methods. Based on viewpoints, spatial patterns of visible landscape were analyzed by means of landscape metrics. A set of 60 landscape metrics were reduced by principal component analysis (PCA) to 11 components explaining 93% of the variance. The components were related to perceived scenic beauty values found through a perception study via stepwise regression analysis. We found that two components, shape complexity and landscape diversity, are positively related to visual quality (R2=0.72). In the Central Alps, especially areas above the tree line are characterized by high scenic beauty. Abandonment of agriculturally used areas implies a loss of scenic beauty, mainly in the valley bottom and in the subalpine forest belt, as a result of urban sprawl and natural reforestation. The GIS-based model offers a valid instrument for scenic beauty assessments of mountain regions as a basis for policy making and landscape planning.

The Value of Beauty in the Perspective of Eco-Systemic Thinking

The Value of Beauty in the Perspective of Eco-Systemic Thinking

The Value of Beauty in Theory Pursuit: Kuhn, Duhem, and Decision Theory

Should judgments of beauty play a guiding role in theoretical science even if beauty is not a sign of truth? In this paper I argue that they should in certain cases. If we analyze the rationality of theoretical pursuit using decision theory, a theory’s beauty can influence the utilities of the various options confronting the researcher. After considering the views of Pierre Duhem and Thomas Kuhn on aesthetics in science, I suggest that because we value freedom of inquiry we rightly allow scientists some choice in how they value aesthetic properties of theories and thus some freedom to use beauty to guide their research program.

Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China by Wen Hua (review)

Reviewed by: Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China by Wen Hua William Jankowiak (bio) Wen Hua. Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013. xiii, 253 pp. Hardcover $75.00 isbn 978-988-8139-81-1. Paperback $26.00, isbn 978-988-813-982-8. Plastic surgery is hot business and becoming something of a cool personal choice for Chinese females along with an occasional male. In this delightful study, Wen Hua provides a useful overview of the social and psychological factors that are [End Page 94] influencing women to modify their physical appearance by creating something of a blend of European and East Asian phenotypical features. Wen’s focused ethnographic study is constructed around interviews with a variety of age cohorts that range from sixteen to fifty-five with incomes ranging from 800 yuan to 40,000 yuan a month. Wen’s primary research question concerns female motivation: Why would women want to alter their physical appearance? Does the desire arise from wanting to please powerful men and, thus, uphold the patriarchal social system that objectifies female beauty, or does female motivation arise out of globalizes ideas that associated Western images as the prefer idealized image of beauty? Or does it rather arise from women, who wanting to be active agents, are in the process of reinterpreting their bodily image as part of their reconstructed personal identity? Wen finds support for all three motives, but prefers a cultural syncretic thesis in which Chinese women continue to value whiteness (i.e., skin), along with an angular nose and larger almond shape eyes. Many Chinese writers are hypercritical of this syncretic blend. They argue that women who undergo this type of cosmetic surgery are victims of patriarchal assumptions of beauty as well as being duped by newly introduced ideas of consumerism that highlights Western aesthetics over local cultural preference. Wen is adamant, however, in her disagreement. She argues for a more nuance evaluation that gives more weight to historical, contemporary, and personal factors. For example, she points out the emergence of surgeries reflects the changing ideas of female beauty in the 1930s in China that also favored large eyes and the removal of double eyelids. In contrast to contemporary China, which favors large breasts, women in the Republican era struggled over whether to stop the practice of wrapping their breasts. Whatever reluctance women felt toward altering their body image in the past has all but vanished from twentieth-first-century China’s single-child generation. “Today, more than one million cosmetic operations are performed each year making cosmetic surgery [e.g., double eye lid, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, and liposuction] a 2.4 billion yearly industry with a 20 percent growth rate” (p. 47). This growth has been accompanied with a burst of illegal clinics, which has led to an increase in botched operations. There is a need, like much else in China, of better governmental regulation. The age range of Chinese women undergoing cosmetic surgery is younger than for their Western counterparts. Wen reports that 18 percent of cosmetic surgery patients are high school and college females. It is understood that female physical attractiveness is essential for enhancing a woman’s erotic appeal and, thus, social capital. This was true in pre-1949 China as it was in the socialist danwei era. Beautiful women were valued and often economically rewarded. Wen is aware of the impact of China’s new consumer culture that highlights the value of freedom, independence, and personal choice. In the rush to become modern, engage in new life experiences, and embrace an ethos of consumption, women are intensely [End Page 95] motivated to transform themselves into physical objects the opposite sex finds most desirable. Sexual banter and more explicit sexual dress are increasingly popular. In this heightened erotic milieu, it follows that the value of physical beauty would be more consciously admired. In an intriguing analysis of the rise in popularity of the Barbie doll, Wen seeks to restate her thesis that Chinese women are not copying new images as much as blending a variety of images into a new synthesized whole. She points out that most single-child generation girls grew...

Seni Ala Sufu dalam Pendekatan Diri Kepada Tuhan dan Implikasinya dalam Psikioterapi Islam

Art is a medium for the achievement of spiritual truth, its position can be compared with philosophy. Religion, art and philosophy are among the world which allows people who regarded as the material can enter into spiritual nature or spiritual nurture. The totality of one’s self and consolidation to achieve the essence of the spiritual nature can be realized with the arts as a tool. Sufi worlds have proven how the servants of Allah SWT reach the creator through language and art activities. Al-Hallaj band al-Rabiah Adawiyah relied their live to God and explained the beautiful of ma’rifah through poetic. Likewise with Jalaludin Rumi, who enjoyed the existence of God through religious dances. Not all of us can understand the nuances of pleasure and mortality experienced by the Sufi’s, but to explore the beauty of language and meaningful religious dance, will make our souls fly to the spiritual sense. Sufi’s life was identical with the value of beauty in the art in the form full of philosophical meaning. The expressions of beauty and love are manifested in the form of Sufi poetry and dance, its aim to show how much love of Sufi to Allah SWT. In remembrance of a long and deep con-templation of the nature of the creator, the Sufis came to the place which enable them to open the veil between himself and their great creator, so that they reached the climax of human self-awareness; there was only themselves in the mortality together with their loved one. Kata Kunci: Sufi, Psikoterapi Islam, Kontemplasi

VALUE ORIENTED EDUCATION (VOE) IN CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The present study was carried out on Value Oriented Education (VOE) in relation to the most critical input to a childs growth. It brings out best of the child and moves close to the achievements. Contemporary system social values, national values, ethical and aesthetic values like truth, goodness and beauty ( Satyam , Shivam, Sundaram) which are the hub of a educational system; are being eroded speedily. This is happening all over the world. Every nation is awakened to provide significant importance to Value Oriented Educational (VOE) system. Different pedagogies and methodologies are to be applied for the transmission of accumulated normative values of truth, beauty and goodness to the succeeding generation for creating a noble and healthy nation.

Articles of Faith: Material Piety, Devotional Aesthetics and the Construction of a Moral Economy in the Transnational Sathya Sai Movement

Despite a broad and growing devotee base for the transnational Sathya Sai Movement, little research exists on Sai sacred objects: their meanings, their patterns of circulation and their production and exchange in the world of Sai devotion. This article offers a meditation on these Sai sacred artifacts, their visuality, their modes of acquisition by devotees and their multiple biographies in various realms. I analyze the hermeneutics of quiddity to demonstrate how ideas of transcendence and transformation are embedded within and shaped around the Sai objects, thereby creating a language and disciplined practice of material piety that shapes the ontology of Sai devotion. I examine how the sacred objects act, and are acted upon, to shape a “politics of visual materiality” in three ways: (1) as iconic magical devices to legitimate Sai Baba's long-distance charismatic authority for the transnational devotee base, through innovative “strategies of affiliation,” (2) as desirable objects that devotees cherish for their beauty and scopophilic value, creating a normative “devotional aesthetic,” and (3) as symbols of devotional status signifying “value” based on their mode of acquisition, engaging a “narrative of affect.” These maneuvers and devices invest the objects with a “strategic ambiguity” aiding in the construction of a global moral economy. The article is part of a larger project on the expansion of constructed religious experience in emergent transnational religious movements.

Shanghai(ed) Babies

Chick lit's emphasis on choice, agency and conspicuous consumption has been linked to the impact of Anglo-American neoliberalism. This paper argues that the similarly themed global chick lit, springing up in developing countries and ex-communist countries in recent years, works in tandem with the economic policies of global capitalism that breaks down national/geographical borders and promises a desirable world order of universalized choice and freedom. More than just the Western commodities and Western-defined and locally endorsed values of beauty and femininity, the global chick lit propagates the idea of a neoliberal, global sisterhood of chic, empowered, consumerist and individualistically minded women who find freedom through consumption and progress in following Western commodities and values. Here geopolitics and biopolitics combine together to aid the expansion of Anglo-American neoliberal ideas. This paper uses Shanghai Baby as an example of the global chick lit in China, a hitherto unexplored market. Set in China's most Westernized city, this novel portrays a new generation of young, urban, professional Chinese women who celebrate material pleasure and increased sexual agency in the context of China's market liberalization and the influx of global capital. While reflecting the impact of neoliberalism, the global chick lit also hints at the gaps between the local and the Western and the uneven nature of economic development, thus setting into greater relief the inherent race and class hierarchies and exclusions behind the neoliberal rhetoric of universalized choice and freedom.

A Deweyan Response to J. Baird Callicott’s Land Aesthetic

J. Baird Callicott suggests in Land that the environmental community would be well served to focus on the aesthetic value of natural ecosystems as a source of intrinsic value in nature. But Callicott's own Humean and biological account of aesthetic value is inadequate as a basis for understanding the aesthetic appreciation of nature. This paper argues that John Dewey provides a holistic and transactional account of aesthetic value that is easily tailored to fit the ecocentric requirements of a rich environmental aesthetics.1. IntroductionJ. Baird Callicott's work, In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy, and his subsequent philosophical essays on ethical obligations to the environment have had a significant impact on philosophers and their approaches to the environment. His work has turned philosophers' attention to Aldo Leopold's seminal work, The Sand County Almanac. He has made a compelling case for attributing intrinsic value to ecosystems. Finally, along with Holmes Rolston III, Callicott has been a central figure in developing an ecocentric philosophical approach to the environment. His writings have become essential readings within ecocentrism.Despite this, critics of Callicott's approach have raised significant concerns about his land ethic. This paper will outline Callicott's holistic and Humean approach to environmental ethics and discuss criticisms of this approach raised by Rolston and Hugh McDonald. Because, for Callicott, the land ethic is critically and explicitly associated with aesthetics, this paper then turns to analyze Callicott's analysis of beauty as discussed in his article, Land Aesthetic,1 arguing that Callicott's analysis falls victim to similar criticisms raised of his land ethic. These criticisms have the most force when addressing Callicott's discussion of intrinsic value and in particular the criteria of beauty, stability and integrity taken from Leopold's work. Finally, this paper presents and develops a reading of the aesthetics of John Dewey that complements and frames Callicott's land aesthetic. Dewey's approach, like Callicott's, is holistic and non-dualistic, but he avoids the dangers of homocentrism in aesthetic experience. Dewey emphasizes that experience is not a subjective term. As such, a Deweyan approach can preserve an ecocentric account of the aesthetic value of land without making aesthetic experience derivative of ecological or evolutionary knowledge.Dewey shares with Callicott an appreciation of the close relationship between ethical and aesthetic values. He comments favorably on Greek philosophers' appreciation of this relationship, writing, Greek emphasis upon Kalokagathos, the Aristotelian identification of virtue with the proportionate mean, are indications of an acute estimate of grace, rhythm and harmony as dominant traits of good conduct. Callicott also connects aesthetic value and ethical value. In the introduction to Land Aesthetic, Callicott argues that private landowners may prefer a land aesthetic to a land ethic because it emphasizes assets and rewards. Yet is also fosters conservation. He argues that ethical values, which he characterizes as a set of duties and obligations to an environment, are not appealing because they primarily emphasize prohibitions. Aesthetic values, values of harmony, diversity and beauty are more compelling and rewarding to landowners. But these aesthetic values also solicit ethically appropriate conservation of ecosystems.2. Callicott's Land EthicBecause of these close connections between aesthetic and ethical value, and because Callicott's (and Leopold's) land aesthetic is, at least in part, a means to achieving ethically appropriate conservation of ecosystems, a brief outline of Callicott's land ethic is necessary before focusing on his land aesthetic. Callicott has made a strong case that an environmental ethics must be based upon the intrinsic value of environments. …

A Manifesto of Living Self-portraiture (Identity, Transformation, and Performance)

In an era when blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are more and more becoming the ubiquitous means of expression for an entire generation, The Manifesto of Living Self-portraiture illuminates the potential and power of self-representation through the highly personal art practice of queer transsexual Nina Arsenault. Arsenault's unfolding creative work begins with the documentation of her sixty cosmetic procedures which transformed her body into a 36D-28-42 self-portrait of hyperfemininity. Her subsequent numerous nightlife appearances, photo shoots, videos, and theatrical performances chart the trajectory of her constant and perpetual transformations and by inference illuminate cultural values of beauty, sexuality, and the power of spirituality. Furthermore, Arsenault's discipline incorporates voice/breath/body training, contemporary self-help manuals, and ongoing research into art and mythology to vivify herself as living Goddess archetypes. Arsenault's life as self-portraiture, created at the nexus point of fantasy and reality, becomes a sacred drama of transfiguration in a society which seeks to minimize her passion and pathologize her identity.