Garden Scene Research Articles

Trees, Ballads, Iconoclasm and the Garden in Shakespeare’s Richard II

ABSTRACT This article reads Richard II’s garden scene in the context of early modern debates about sacramentalism and the created world. The garden scene reveals its awareness of these debates and the ways in which they occurred in genres both high (learned tracts, printed books) and low (oral cultures, cheap print). The gardener demonstrates his political and theological sophistication through his hands-on knowledge of gardening. In the same way, ordinary people off-stage participated in their culture’s most urgent controversies through popular genre that were frequently dismissed by their social betters.

The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo

The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo

Research on Outdoor Garden Scene Reconstruction Based on PMVS Algorithm

The three-dimensional reconstruction of outdoor landscape is of great significance for the construction of digital city. With the rapid development of big data and Internet of things technology, when using the traditional image-based 3D reconstruction method to restore the 3D information of objects in the image, there will be a large number of redundant points in the point cloud and the density of the point cloud is insufficient. Based on the analysis of the existing three-dimensional reconstruction technology, combined with the characteristics of outdoor garden scene, this paper gives the detection and extraction methods of relevant feature points and adopts feature matching and repairing the holes generated by point cloud meshing. By adopting the candidate strategy of feature points and adding the mesh subdivision processing method, an improved PMVS algorithm is proposed and the problem of sparse point cloud in 3D reconstruction is solved. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only effectively realizes the three-dimensional reconstruction of outdoor garden scene, but also improves the execution efficiency of the algorithm on the premise of ensuring the reconstruction effect.

Effect of a Virtual Reality-Based Restorative Environment on the Emotional and Cognitive Recovery of Individuals with Mild-to-Moderate Anxiety and Depression.

In this study, restorative environment theory and virtual reality (VR) technology were combined to build different 3D dynamic VR interactive scenes. We discuss the effects of a VR restorative environment on the emotional and cognitive recovery of individuals with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression. First, we built a VR restorative garden scene, divided into four areas: forest, lawn, horticultural planting, and water features. The scene was verified to have a good recovery effect in 26 participants. Then, 195 participants with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression were selected as experimental subjects. Through psychological testing and EMG (Electromyography) and EEG (Electroencephalography) data feedback, we further explored the differences in the sense of presence in VR restorative scenes and their effect on individual emotional and cognitive recovery. The results showed that (1) both the restorative environment images and the VR scenes had a healing effect (the reduction in negative emotions and the recovery of positive emotions and cognition), with no difference in the subjective feeling of recovery among the different scenes, but the recovery score of the VR urban environment was higher than that of the natural environment (differing from the results in real environments); (2) a high sense of presence can be experienced in different VR scenes, and interactive activities in VR scenes can provide a great presence experience; (3) the recovery effects of VR restorative environment on emotion and self-efficacy are realized through the presence of VR scenes; (4) a VR restorative environment is helpful for the emotional improvement and cognitive recovery of individuals with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression. VR urban scenes also have good recovery effects. In terms of cognitive recovery, self-efficacy improved significantly. In addition, from the perspective of EEG indicators, the VR restorative scene experience activated the prefrontal lobe, which is conducive to cognitive recovery in individuals with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression. In terms of emotional improvement, negative emotions were significantly reduced in the different VR scene groups. In conclusion, we further explored ways to help individuals with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression, in order to promote the development and application of mental health.

Indian Film Industry

In the era of theatre, no one thought that a virtual screen would make an appearance to change the complete concept of entertainment in the country. It all started with motion photography, in the late 1880’s called THE HORSE IN MOTION (1878). Later, after a year the world’s earliest motion picture was made in the year 1888 called the ROUNDHAY GARDEN SCENE. The following film was just 2.11 seconds. This motion picture was a short film directed by a French inventor Louis Le Prince. The first ever Indian film was made in the year 1913 named RAJA HARISHCHANDRA (Marathi) by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke who is also often called as the father of Indian film industry. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award which is awarded for lifetime contribution to cinema, was instituted in his honour by the Government of India in 1969. The following award is one of the most prestigious awards in Indian cinema and is the highest official recognition for film makers in the country.

Emotions, Pre-emotions, and Jesus’ Comportment in Luke 22:39–42

AbstractSince Neyrey’s important study on Jesus’ emotional state in Luke’s garden scene, many scholars have subsequently viewed the redactions as stemming, in part, from concern over negative Stoic passions (πάθη). The present author follows a similar trajectory but goes on to show that Luke’s removal of Jesus’ affective episode comports with a popularized misunderstanding of Stoic pathology but not with well-established and current Stoic teachings on pre-emotions (προπάθειαι). The author further demonstrates how Stoic sources allow for and even require early onset emotive reactions that do not threaten a sage’s moral integrity and how Luke, unlike Matthew, over-corrects his source material in an unnecessary way.

Augustine’s Conversion in his Confessions 8: Some Disputed Issues

In his Confessions 7, Augustine of Hippo explained how he came to accept some biblical presuppositions via Neoplatonic literature. Confessions 9 ends with Augustine’s baptism and the death of his mother, who had prayed much for his salvation. Between these two events, Confessions 8 focuses upon Augustine’s inability to turn his will towards God in his own power. While Augustine’s Confessions 8 remains the most cited section in his Confessions, it also has generated a lot of debate. For example, some scholars claim the book portrays Augustine’s conversion, while others say it narrates his call to celibacy and the monastic life. Some scholars have even denied the famous garden scene occurred, claiming Augustine invented the tale for rhetorical purposes. This article looks closely at the various debates that have arisen over Confessions 8, ultimately arguing that Confessions 8 narrates Augustine’s conversion, when God turned Augustine’s affections completely towards him.

English Literary Renaissance (Winter, 2017, pp. 1–192; Spring, 2017, pp. 193–323; Autumn, 2017, pp. 325–448)

English Literary Renaissance (Winter, 2017, pp. 1–192; Spring, 2017, pp. 193–323; Autumn, 2017, pp. 325–448)

Prefrontal cortical activation while viewing urban and garden scenes: A pilot fNIRS study.

Recent studies have shown that pleasant and unpleasant emotions could be detected through functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). This study investigates the prefrontal cortical activation in human subjects while they were viewing urban and garden scenes. A multi-channel continuous wave fNIRS system was used to record the prefrontal cortical activations from seven subjects. During the data collection, the subjects viewed 40 trials of video clips. In each trial, the subjects viewed a video of randomized urban or garden scenes for 30s followed by 30s of idle scene which showed a dark blue progress bar on black background on the screen. NIRS-SPM is employed to work out the changes of hemoglobin response and the prefrontal cortical activations were generated using group analysis based on the contrasts of urban versus idle, garden versus idle and urban versus garden. The activation for the contrast of urban versus garden showed an increase of oxy-hemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex with p <; 0.05. This preliminary result showed that the garden scene might provide a pleasant and less stressful experience as compared to the urban scene for subjects. This suggests the possibility of using a NIRS-based Brain-Computer Interface to detect subject preferences of different scenes.

The Traumatic Colonel: The Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr by Michael J. Drexler, Ed White

Reviewed by: The Traumatic Colonel: The Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr by Michael J. Drexler, Ed White Matthew Teutsch (bio) The Traumatic Colonel: The Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr MICHAEL J. DREXLER and ED WHITE New York: New York University Press, 2014 288pp. Serving as a referent instead of as an “actual” historical person, Aaron Burr, for Michael Drexler and Ed White, becomes a sign, sometimes indiscernible, of the fears circulating during the early years of the Republic over the issues of slavery and slave insurrection. In The Traumatic Colonel: The Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr, Drexler and White present the “thing called Burr” as a slippery signifier that never truly achieves full formulation, always changing and reemerging to varying degrees. However, the “thing called Burr” consistently arises as a representation of America’s racial unconscious. The Founding Fathers, in the authors’ argument, become a constellation that Burr never truly inhabits, [End Page 830] even with repeated attempts by some to place him among Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. The “thing called Burr” eventually becomes “the cipher it was repeatedly described as being,” not easily fitting into the Founders’ semiotic sphere between 1799 and 1804 and then becoming the “white” embodiment of possible racial upheaval between 1805 and 1807 (9). Before delving into the way that Burr comes to represent “a coded response to the consolidation of slavery” and becomes “Toussaint [L’Ouverture] in whiteface,” Drexler and White take the time to methodically plot out the mythical construction of the Founders and draw upon novels by Charles Brockden Brown and Tabitha Tenney to lay the groundwork for their position in the final two chapters of The Traumatic Colonel (10). Setting up the Founders in a semiotic framework that compares them with English counterparts, the authors posit that while initially Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton emerge in a manner that shows them as representations of certain traits, they eventually become persons entangled with “sexual and racial components” (40). When the sexual aspects of the Founders begin to emerge (Washington’s childlessness, Franklin’s sexuality, Jefferson’s scandals, and Hamilton’s bastardy) they become intrinsically intertwined with the issue of slavery. Drexler and White then expand the constellation and highlight how the Founders each occupy specific places in regard to the issue of slavery. After establishing the Founders’ constellation, the authors explore Brown’s Ormond; or, The Secret Witness (1799) and Tenney’s Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina Sheldon (1801), paving the way for their in-depth discussion in the latter part of the book on Burr as “the kernel of the Real” that pushes upon the unconscious of society. Drexler and White read Brown’s novel as a predictor of Burr’s emergence and the multitudinous formulations of the “thing called Burr” that arose at the turn of the nineteenth century. Zeroing in on specific relationships in Brown’s text, most notably the interactions between Constantia and Ormond, the authors “propose an Africanist presence as the object cause of desire” in the novel (43). Focusing on the presence of “secret witness” in Ormond, they then construct the novel into a symbolic system, as they do with the Founding Fathers, to highlight the underlying role that race plays in the “fantasy structure of republicanism” in the novel as the “secret witness” steps “out of fantasy to become a [End Page 831] social figure,” prophetically anticipating the part it will play during the new Republic’s formative years (74). By concentrating on the multiple marriage dramas in Tenney’s novel, the authors focus on the black slave Scipio as a tool that sutures the various dramas together, noting that the garden scene between Dorcasina and Scipio serves as the novel’s key moment because of Scipio’s construction as a “paternal surrogate” for Dorcasina and his “credible affection,” not as mere comic relief. For Drexel and White, Dorcasina’s relationship with the slave-owning Lysander serves as a symbolic representation of regional tensions during the period; specifically, they view Lysander in relation to Washington and note that Dorcasina and Betty’s debates on slavery...

Skepticism and Political Constancy:Richard IIand the Garden Scene as a “Model of State”

AbstractMany readers have taken the garden scene inRichard IIand the voice of its Gardener to constitute a relatively straightforward statement of Shakespeare's notions of good government and constancy in political conduct, in stark contrast to the political disorder depicted in the play. I argue, however, that read in the context of the political and moral issues Shakespeare explored, its value or even relevance to his political world is questionable. The choric voice of the Gardener was not necessarily Shakespeare's. The dramatic point may have been to present, without resolving, the dissonance between the Gardener's vision and the imponderables of political conduct lying beyond his tiny realm.

Eliot’s rose garden: Some phenomenology and theology in “Burnt Norton”

T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets respond to and gradually modify the experience that is evoked in the first part of “Burnt Norton”. Yet the well-known rose garden scene has been variously interpreted, the “presences” being either naturalized or regarded as supernatural entities. A phenomenological reading of the rose garden scene gives us a more secure, and also a more nuanced, understanding of what happens in the rose garden, and therefore allows us to develop a fuller and more reliable reading of Four Quartets.

Sexual Imagery as Unifying Factor in Razón de amor y los denuestos del agua y el vino

This article argues that Razón de amor con los denuestos de agua y el vino merges ideas from sentimental romance, courtly love poetry, Christian and classical imagery, and goliardic song to create a unified poem whose orientation is singularly sexual. While some critics have hinted at the sexual nature of the encounter between the two lovers and the subsequent debate between water and wine, a systematic reading of the images shows that the two sections of the poem follow a similar trajectory. They are, in fact, two versions of the same story, namely the sexual union of the poet/lover and his lady. The multi-layered narrative voices — the singer who introduces the poem and its poet, the poet/lover in the garden scene, and the personified voices of water and wine — present different perspectives on the themes of desire and sexual fulfilment. The anonymous poet manipulates the mystery and power of sexual attraction and its consummation in a unique blending of literary traditions.

The vanishing collectable: On economy, honour and the ‘English garden’

How is it possible to conceive a system of value and hierarchy, i.e. a collection, when the absolute can only be achieved when the collection vanishes? Using the dramatic events of the British garden scene in the 18th-century as a backbone, this article will argue that gardening in general and high-stake gardening in particular show in several ways the intrinsic aspects of what can be referred to as an honour economy, not guided by commonly accepted thoughts of utility and transactional value but rather driven by notions of loss and conspicuous activities such as consumption, leisure and waste.

The War of the Roses Part 1 and Part 2 (review)

The War of the Roses Part 1 and Part 2 Presented by Sydney Theatre Company at Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, Sydney. January 5-February 14, 2009. Directed by Benedict Andrews. Adapted by Benedict Andrews and Tom Wright. Set design by Robert Cousins. Costume design by Alice Babidge. Lighting by Nick Schlieper. Music and sound designed by Max Lyandvert, live music composed and performed by Stefan Gregory. With Cate Blanchett (Richard II, Lady Anne), Brandon Burke (Edward IV), Peter Carroll (Northumberland, Gloucester), Marta Dusseldorp (Queen Margaret), Eden Falk (Henry VI), John Gaden (John of Gaunt, Falstaff, York), Steve Le Marquand (Suffolk), Ewen Leslie (Henry V), Hayley McElhinney (Queen Isabella, Rutland), Amber McMahon (Queen Elizabeth), Robert Menzies (Henry IV), Luke Mullins (Hotspur, Clifford, Richmond), Pamela Rabe (Duchess of Gloucester, Richard III), Emily Russell (Warwick, Duchess of York), and others. The central symbol of the fragile nature of kingship in this production was an elaborate and carefully designed filigree crown that accompanied the actors throughout, beginning on Cate Blanchett's golden head for Richard II, and ending in the hands of a little girl on a grey, empty stage at the conclusion of Richard III. As it was handed through a sequence of seven kings, we were treated to something genuinely epic in conception, at times fragmented or inept, but just as often captivating and compelling. The brief as described in the publicity was that all eight of Shakespeare's plays telling the story of the wars of the roses were to be shown over two nights of about three and a half hours each. This is not quite what happened, as adapter/director Benedict Andrews's interest clearly lay with the two Richards, and he distributed the time accordingly: in Part 1, Richard II claimed the first half, and the Henries IV and V took over after the interval. For Part 2 the three Henry VI plays were compressed into the first half, and Richard III made up the second. The four segments had unifying elements, but were distinct in set design and performance style. This substantial project was chosen to showcase the Sydney Theatre Company's now-disbanded Actors' Company, an ensemble of twelve who have developed several shows together over the course of three years. Cate Blanchett and Robert Menzies were added as guest artists (along with several children in Part 2). The ensemble feel played a significant part in shaping the production, as actors switched roles without changing costume, or moved from one scene to another without exits and entrances. The women did not disguise their sex when playing male roles; all had feminine haircuts, with Pamela Rabe's dark, fringed pageboy style an amusing reference to Olivier's Richard III. With an array of t-shirts, tracksuits, jeans and button-down shirts giving a rehearsal-clothes look to most of the actors, Richard II's impeccable white suit was the only costume that contributed something to the interpretation. It told us instantly that we were watching someone fastidious, self-conscious, impractical. No other costume performed similar semiotic work, even when it would have been useful. Margaret's sole costume, for instance, was a cream, long-sleeved dress with an arrow-pleated skirt and gold high-heels--which made it hard for the audience to pick up that she had anything to do with leading Henry's armed forces. While it does any production a disservice to review what is not there, some acknowledgement of what was cut seems to be demanded here to give a sense of the overall picture offered to the audience. 1 Henry VI was effectively lost altogether (only portions of the rose garden scene and the capture of Margaret kept), and 2 Henry IV, Henry Vand 2 Henry VI were cut so heavily as to make only token contributions. So we saw none of Hal's tavern pals except Falstaff, no Joan of Arc or Jack Cade, and believe it or not, no battle of Agincourt. The moral of the story: it is possible to cut a three hour play down to less than two and still produce something that succeeds excitingly on its own terms, but it is not possible to compress three plays into that allotment of time and hope to show anything much of substance. …

Conservation of a nineteenth-century set design by Clarkson Stanfield

Summary The acquisition of the Bagshawe Collection by the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in 2000, comprising 80 newly discovered working designs and model pieces provides an important insight into the working methods of Clarkson Stanfield during his time in the Theatres Royal, Drury Lane and Covent Garden scene rooms. The mixed-media backdrop design of Handel's Acis and Galatea demonstrates a very modern approach in the use of materials and the immediacy of their depiction. The conservation required collaboration from many departments within the museum and enabled a new use of isinglass butterfly stitches to be developed. The eventual storage solution of individually shaped Plastazote® foam trays provided support for the many fragile pieces. These trays were then enclosed in acid-free corrugated board boxes that allowed for the stabilizing of environmental conditions.

Domestic Opportunities: The Social Comedy of the Shipman's Tale

Domestic Opportunities:The Social Comedy of the Shipman’s Tale Cathy Hume The Shipman's Tale and its comic equation of sex and money have long been read as a commentary on the late medieval merchant. Gardiner Stillwell and Albert H. Silverman saw the Tale as "a satire upon the merchant's serious, sober, business-like manner of living."1 V. J. Scattergood thought that it is pervaded by a mercantile ethos, which is being exposed as limited and worldly. Others have taken the view that it portrays the merchant's business practices as dubious and the impact of commerce on individual souls as damagingly sinful.2 At the same time the Shipman Tale's depiction of late medieval bourgeois life and mercantile practices has been praised for its realism and made the subject of detailed economic analysis.3 Although such analyses often recognize the merchant's wife as the most interesting character in the tale, much less attention has been paid to her situation—either as it functions within the narrative or insofar as it reflects the Tale's historical context.4 The closest analogues to the Shipman's Tale, Boccaccio's Decameron 8.1 and Sercambi's Novella 19, end with the adulterous wife tricked out of payment for sex by her lover's double-dealings, humiliated by him in her own home in front of her husband and servants, and morally condemned in the bargain.5 Chaucer, by contrast, allows the wife to keep the money, avoid all exposure, and finish the tale happy and uncensured. Moreover, he transforms the story from one about a lover's plan to dupe the avaricious object of his desire (where the focus, and our sympathy, is with the male lover) into one about a housewife's endeavors to pay her dress bill without arousing her husband's annoyance. This transformation means that the Shipman's Tale is distinctively focused on the wife's domestic situation and the opportunities it provides. The wife successfully uses her various roles as a bourgeois housewife to persuade the monk to lend her money, have sex with him without being found out, and finally keep the money for herself. Although these stratagems have been little noted by critics who see the [End Page 138] main source of comedy in the Shipman's Tale as punning language, much of the tale's comedy is created by the wife's clever manipulation of her roles: as hostess, social networker, housekeeper, business assistant, and status symbol. These roles appear to reflect late medieval expectations of wives and wives' real behavioral practices, as evidenced by late medieval advice literature for wives and by letter collections. Moreover, the financial arrangements between the merchant and the wife, which are crucial to the comic denouement in Chaucer's Shipman's Tale, differ from those in the analogues but are apparently similar to those of historical married couples in late medieval England. I intend therefore to argue in this article that the Shipman's Tale is a social comedy about a bourgeois wife's roles, and that that comedy is generated from contemporary social practices and expectations. In the course of my argument, I hope also to shed some light on why the word cosyn is repeated so frequently in the Tale; why the lover is a monk, when monk-lovers do not appear in the analogues or in almost any other fabliau; and why there is a child in the garden scene. The Wife's Roles: Hostess The merchant's wife is introduced in the third and fourth lines of the Shipman's Tale as follows: A wyf he hadde of excellent beautee; And compaignable and revelous was she. (VII 3–4)6 The entertaining, sociable side of the wife's personality is central to her presentation, and from the very outset there is a suggestion that these qualities may tip over into the illicit: compaignable and revelous could mean mere conviviality, or, in this context, juxtaposed with her beauty, could be euphemisms for promiscuity.7 In the Tale's opening lines this aspect of the wife is presented as an expensive inconvenience for her husband—"wo is hym that payen moot...

日本庭園における苑路歩行時の注視に関する研究

A pedestrian's gaze action is related to the feature of a sequence scene. It is thought that there are some garden scene elements which determine the course selection, and that those elements would have shown high fixation frequencies. This research, in order to confirm this assumption, aimed at clarifying pedestrian's visual recognition character over the garden scene elements by using eye-mark recorder in a Japanese garden. The results are as followings: Average gaze time was 0.15sec-0.2sec through the whole scene elements, pedestrian's once gaze time was quite short, and there was no differences in the each scene elements. However, the total gaze time to the flat and the of were in a higher rank among all scene elements, except plant leaves. Former two scene elements belong to the most important category in the element which forms the Japanese gardens. Since these two scene elements were frequently appeared as course selection motives by the questionary survey, it can be said that the bridge and the water surface are bearing the important role visually in the Japanese gardens. The total gaze time of pedestrian to the artificial scene elements area was higher than those of natural elements area in the scene for experiment. These results lead to the conclusion that different nature scene elements against the natural elements, which were easy to be fixed eyes on, are major factor for course selection.

Fly's Eye View: Introducing Young Children to Digital Art through Virtual Reality

This paper describes ‘Fly’s Eye View', a project devised and directed by David Smith and supported by a grant from the UK Techniquest Pantechnicon Millennium Awards (intended to help bridge the gap in public perception between science and art). ‘Fly’s Eye View' was specifically aimed at young children, aged 7–11 years (Key Stage Two of the UK National Curriculum). The project used a low‐level VR fly‐by system to represent a garden scene as it might be experienced by a dragonfly. The analogy between the mosaic visual ‘perception’ of insects and image representation in computer systems allowed some interesting explorations into what may be involved in ‘seeing’. This analogy was used as the starting point for a series of exploratory activities using digital art work. The paper reviews the outcomes of the project and discusses their possible significance in the context of current approaches to art education and the stimulation of creative thinking in young children.

Canadian Scene-Painter William Gill and the Survival of an 1892 Garden Scene

William Gill (1854-1943) was a respected and prolific scene-painter based in Halifax and Boston. Of his many works, only one known example remains--an Italianate Garden Scene sitting in a small theatre in Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia. This feature briefly outlines the career of a neglected Canadian artist, and provides for the journal's readers the images of his damaged, deteriorating, but still evocative legacy of scene design in Canada.