Reception Hall Research Articles

Conservation of a commemmorative monument to the Emperor Commodus in House H21c in Marina el-Alamein

Current maintenance conservation work by the Polish–Egyptian Conservation Mission in Marina el-Alamein occasions a revisiting of the history of the archaeological discovery, interpretation and original conservation and anastylosis of a commemorative monument dedicated to the Roman Emperor Marcus Antoninus Commodus. The monument, a rectangular masonry structure with colonnaded front, was built inside a presumed dining or reception hall of building H21c near the harbor of the ancient Graeco-Roman town. The original project took place between 2000 and 2007 (Czerner and Medeksza 2010). Maintenance conservation after a decade created the opportunity for a more in-depth analysis of the dimensions of the monument and the individual architectural elements of which it was composed.

Investigation of Changes in Physico-Chemical Parameters of Composting Plant Leachate in Isfahan

Background & Objectives: Leachate from solid waste in uncontrolled landfills can have many effects on the environment and human health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the variation of physical and chemical properties of leachate from Isfahan Compost Plant Reception Hall during time. Methods: In the present study, samples were collected from leachate of a compost plant in Isfahan for 12 months during the years in 2016 and 2017. Different physico-chemical properties including biochemical oxidation, chemical oxygenation, total soluble solids, total suspended solids, nitrate, total nitrogen, phosphorous, pH, EC, sodium, calcium and potassium, as well as concentration of 9 metallic elements of iron, lead, nickel, chromium, cadmium, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese in the leachate were measured during the time. Results: Concentration of potassium, calcium, sodium, sulfate, nitrate, phosphorus, total nitrogen, TSS, TDS, COD, BOD in leachate samples was in the range of 2150-5216.04, 698-70000, 1530-4600, 1302-4547, 192-3944.30, 0-4149, 7-7900, 9614-87000, 8368-77850, 71200-116800, 47800-75000 mg/l, respectively. The pH and EC of the leachate varied in the range of 4.23-5.30 and 21.30-49.7 dS/M, respectively. In addition, the concentration of heavy metals of iron, lead, nickel, chromium, cadmium, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese, ranged from 49-220, 0.57- 23, 0.5-0.25, 0.5-7.5, 0.1-0.94, 0.03-2.50, 566-1090, 12.50-39, 0.28-9 and 3.50-33 mg/l, respectively. Conclusion: The amount of BOD5 and COD was higher in April and March, in which the average rainfall was higher than other months. Also, TDS in June, with zero rainfall, was higher compared to other months. Comparing the mean concentration of elements (except chromium), the physical and chemical parameters of the leachate with the effluent discharge standards of the Iranian Environmental Protection Agency indicated that the concentrations was several times higher than the standard limit. The results of leachate analysis showed that leachate from municipal waste from the compost station line of Isfahan had a high potential of environmental contamination, which should be controlled and monitored continuously.

Trial Trenching and Discovery of a Columned Building in Bazeh-Hur (North-East Iran)

ABSTRACT The Bazeh-Hur archaeological project carried out in May–June 2017 led to identifying the limits of the settlement is bounded by chahartaq and Qale Dokhtar respectively in the north and south. The investigations have also shed significant lights on the structure and plan of a columned building abutting the eastern side of the chahartaq. Excavations at this area revealed some remains of the round columns that might have once supported the ceiling of a 16-columned building. Considering the comparable Sasanian monuments, the unearthed columned building of Bazeh Hur was served as an ayvān or reception hall dating back to the second half of the Sasanian period.

The Marble Bases of Kunya Ark and Tash-hauli Palaces in Khiva During the 13th AH/ 19th AD Century

Abstract:Khiva is one of the most important cities in Central Asia and it has great geographical, historical, commercial and cultural significance. The architectural style of Khiva was characterized by use of the graceful carved wooden columns inside and outside the buildings in the city, whether religious buildings such as mosques or civil buildings (i.e. palaces and houses). These wooden columns were often used in the covered mosques for supporting the ceilings or in mosques that combine the summer and winter mosques to carry the arches of the outer aisles and the ceilings of the iwans. As for the schools, we do not find a common use of the columns due to their architectural design which depends on the court and rooms with arched iwans. As for the palaces, we find them frequently used due to the multiplicity of architectural units inside them between reception halls, official units, administrative, residential buildings and others. These columns are usually based on marble or stone bases, not wood. Marble and stone are characterized by hardness, strength and durability in carrying wooden columns and protect them from damage due to humidity, rain and snow in the winter.Marble bases are one of the main branches of marble products industry in Khiva, in addition to the manufacture of cenotaphs, tombstones, foundation plates, Fountains and others.Therefore, the architect was keen to use them primarily in the construction, but also paid attention to their design and decoration using different decorative elements. Such art is as equally important as any other decorative arts (i.e. ceramic tiles that cover the walls or wooden ceilings covering the buildings). It is considered a monumental record and has great artistic and historical significance as it chronicles some of the important buildings in the city, which are mostly attributed to the 13th /19th century. Where the wooden column consists of a wooden block based on a marble base known as Bay Uston, decorated by many decorative elements and inscriptions such as some poems, songs, advices and proverbs, the names of manufacturers who were not refered to in sources and references, as well as history of the buildings and manufacture of those columns.The study will be limited to the marble bases inside Kunya Ark and Tash-hauli Palaces in Khiva. In these fortified palaces, the Khorezmian aristocratic class such as khans of khorezm, the rulers of cities and the princes of some independent emirates lived. On the other hand, the marble bases were in good condition, characterized by their distinctive unique style and give us a clear picture about the marble bases in Khiva during that period, but also highlight the most important features of engraved marble in Khiva. This research aims to study the marble bases in Khiva through two models of the most important remaining palaces in Central Asia from the 13th/ 19th century , namely Kunya Ark and Tash-hauli Palaces to identify the general shape of these bases, raw materials, the manner of their formation and decoration and the most important decorative elements such as the floral ornaments, geometric shapes, architectural elements and reading of inscriptions and analysis of their contents.

Energy analysis of Bahrain’s first hybrid renewable energy system

ABSTRACTIn 2011, Bahrain Petroleum Company inaugurated the country’s first Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) as a demonstration project, which partially supplies the electricity required for the reception hall of the company’s park. Data collected from the system for a full year were analyzed to assess the performance of this grid-connected HRES, which comprises of two primary renewable energy sources – a photovoltaic panel and a wind turbine – with a total-rated capacity of 5.7 kW and three secondary/backup systems – batteries, hydrogen/fuel cell, and public grid. This article presents the results of the conducted analysis which included assessment of the energy supply and demand, the different components’ efficiencies, the effect of dust on the PV panel performance, the contribution of the batteries, hydrogen storage system, and the fuel cell, the amount of CO2 avoided and emitted due to operation, the cost of energy produced, and finally upgrading the system for autonomous operation. Although the system was not economically feasible, it well served the community by creating public awareness of renewable energy and by providing an opportunity for researchers to gain hands-on experience of different renewable energy technologies and to study the challenges associated to implementing such technologies in the region.

The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript

The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript

Trakya, Philippopolis Eirene Mozaiği Üzerine

The present article deals with the mosaic pavements of one of most significant residential complexes in Late Antique Philippopolis – the Domus Eirene. The name of the complex refers to the personification that is the main element in the decoration not only of the reception hall, but the entire building. An analysis of two main aspects is made: one concerning the transformation of the image of the personification into a Christian saint, and another which concerns the transformation of the complex itself into a domus episcopalis and how that is reflected in the mosaic pavements. In the case of Eirene the image may have well been connected with historical events, contemporary or nearly contemporary with the time when the mosaic was produced, and also with political and religious propaganda.

Techniques for fixating dry media on paper in the 19th century – a study based on cartoons (1871–72) by Eduard Bitterlich

This study focusses on arttechnological aspects of eight cartoons from the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. The cartoons were created in 1871/72 by Eduard Bitterlich as templates for ceiling paintings in the reception hall of the Palais Epstein. During the research project they were studied in detail, focusing on the documentation and interpretation of traces that provide insight into their manufacturing process and usage. Special attention was given to the fixation of the drawing. During the thorough examination of the cartoons in normal and UV light, a number of observations were made which are indications for certain fixation techniques. A subsequent review of 18th-twentieth century sources on drawing techniques provided a general overview of the range of different materials and their application for fixating dry media on paper. A selection of the most commonly used techniques were then reconstructed in a series of tests, studying their handling properties, practicability and their ability to fixate particles of dry medium to the paper surface. Phenomena observed on the samples in normal and UV light were compared to the original cartoons, and suppositions could be made regarding the different fixation media and their application technique. Some results could be confirmed with FTIR analysis of small droplets of the fixation medium.

Nea Paphos. Seasons 2014 and 2016 Appendix 1: Note on the pottery from circular basin S.1/16 Appendix 2: Glass

Excavation below the ancient ground surface of the main courtyard (1) of the “Hellenistic” House in Nea Paphos proved its construction to be later than the beginning of the 2nd century AD. A large rectangular basin and a smaller circular one were found under the western part of the courtyard and east of it. The larger basin had two phases, the first phase being more than a meter deeper than the second one. Strata under the floors of corridor A and room B were shown to belong to the Late Classical and incipient Hellenistic periods. Exploration also continued of a cistern in the southeastern part of the courtyard and of a well in the northeastern corner of the corridor. The building sequence of the porticoes in the main courtyard was investigated in a probe dug in the southwestern corner of the court, whereas the relation between the large reception hall with mosaic floor (10) and the so-called Roman House was tested in a trench dug in corridor 29. Further fragments of “Nabatean” capitals and other decorated blocks were found in pits that had been cut in the courtyard surface in antiquity. Finally, minor excavation at the southwestern corner of the House of Aion revealed a sequence of floors against the southern elevation of a building uncovered under the late Roman street B.

The Gallery of the Castromediano’s Castle. Three-dimensional reconstruction and virtual representation

The Ducal Castle Castromediano–Limburg was built around the sixteenth century in the historic centre of Cavallino, a town renowned for its excellence in the arts and culture, located in Salento south of Lecce (Italy). The Castle, also known as Ducal Palace, was the home of the illustrious Duke Sigismondo Castromediano, a man of great culture, archaeologist, writer and indomitable patriot of the Italian Risorgimento. The Gallery, which is one of the most important part of the castle, is a magnificent reception hall richly decorated and adorned by numerous sculptures. Today, the magnificent Gallery shows the signs of aging and improper use. Therefore, a restoration of the spaces has already been planned. The Gallery of Castromediano’s Castle, classified as heritage of significant cultural and artistic importance, was the subject of a digital acquisition project, a three-dimensional reconstruction and virtual representation performed by CEIT (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Technology Innovation for the Cultural and environmental Heritage and Biomedicine). The high-resolution 3D digital acquisition was performed using a time-of-flight 3D laser scanner and a campaign of photographic shooting of the frescoed surfaces. A 3D model, at two different levels of detail (LoD), was created, in full color, along with the animation of the model according to a predefined path that allows the user to enjoy, by various media, a virtual tour of the Gallery in a guided, detailed, complete and full-immersive way. The high-resolution 3D model will be a useful tool for the future conservation and restoration of the Gallery. It can be consulted and\or updated remotely for in-depth studies of historical and artistic nature.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OTTOMAN TRADITIONAL HOUSES IN THE LIBYAN OLD CITY OF GHADAMES: CASE STUDY OF DA BABANEI HOUSE

Ghadames, lies in an oasis, is located at the most western Libyan populated city near the bounders with Tunisia and Algeria. Now it is known as the city of Ghadames, of which the old walled city represents a unique example of the covered pre-Sahran cities in the world. This paper aims to study the ottoman domestic architecture in Ghadames in the light of author’s visit in 2014, with special focus on the house of DA BABANI, or Hadji Abdul Salam Shemila house (the current owner), as a case study. It is dates back before the 12th A.H./18th century C.E. The exterior of the houses of Ghadames is simple and non-adorned while few of them have small and high windows. Foundations and walls, upmost one meter high, are constructed of sandstone, while the rest of the walls are of mud bricks. Palm wood is used extensively in Ghadames houses for both construction and decoration. Ghadames houses are characterized by a vertical division of functions: the ground floor (or level), used to store supplies; then the main floor for the family, and, at the top, there is an open-air terrace comprising the cooking-place (kitchen). Ghadames house includes, from the architectural spaces point of view, stores, main reception hall, living places, a kebba (a small room with a specific use, only on two occasions, by the lady of the house), a toilet, a kitchen and passageways and stairways as well. The most characteristic features of the traditional Ghadames house that there is no an open-air internal courtyard; which gives the houses of Ghadames those main features comprising the vertical division. Also there is a unique use of the open-air terraces, at the top of the houses, which reserved for the women, and used as a network of passageways connecting all the houses of the old walled city of Ghadames. Also, the form and content of the decoration characterize the Ghadames house. Furthermore, this paper discusses the influences of the Sharia (Islamic rules or Fiqh) on the design of the Ghadames house, and illustrates the precise features of the pre-Sahran traditional domestic architecture of Ghadames in the light of its comparison with more alike settlements clarifying the similarities and differences as well.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OTTOMAN TRADITIONAL HOUSES IN THE LIBYAN OLD CITY OF GHADAMES: CASE STUDY OF DA BABANEI HOUSE

Ghadames, lies in an oasis, is located at the most western Libyan populated city near the bounders with Tunisia and Algeria. Now it is known as the city of Ghadames, of which the old walled city represents a unique example of the covered pre-Sahran cities in the world. This paper aims to study the ottoman domestic architecture in Ghadames in the light of author’s visit in 2014, with special focus on the house of DA BABANI, or Hadji Abdul Salam Shemila house (the current owner), as a case study. It is dates back before the 12th A.H./18th century C.E. The exterior of the houses of Ghadames is simple and non-adorned while few of them have small and high windows. Foundations and walls, upmost one meter high, are constructed of sandstone, while the rest of the walls are of mud bricks. Palm wood is used extensively in Ghadames houses for both construction and decoration. Ghadames houses are characterized by a vertical division of functions: the ground floor (or level), used to store supplies; then the main floor for the family, and, at the top, there is an open-air terrace comprising the cooking-place (kitchen). Ghadames house includes, from the architectural spaces point of view, stores, main reception hall, living places, a kebba (a small room with a specific use, only on two occasions, by the lady of the house), a toilet, a kitchen and passageways and stairways as well. The most characteristic features of the traditional Ghadames house that there is no an open-air internal courtyard; which gives the houses of Ghadames those main features comprising the vertical division. Also there is a unique use of the open-air terraces, at the top of the houses, which reserved for the women, and used as a network of passageways connecting all the houses of the old walled city of Ghadames. Also, the form and content of the decoration characterize the Ghadames house. Furthermore, this paper discusses the influences of the Sharia (Islamic rules or Fiqh) on the design of the Ghadames house, and illustrates the precise features of the pre-Sahran traditional domestic architecture of Ghadames in the light of its comparison with more alike settlements clarifying the similarities and differences as well.

Unexpected challenges of luxury residential building acoustics

Building acoustics involving sound enhancements, noise abatement, and vibration control for luxury residential properties can present more than just technical, performance, and mitigation issues. The normal noise control issues dealing with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems are common in commercial and multi-family residential projects. However, ultra-expensive, highly customized, single-family residences are a very different situation, both from the expectation of quality and the much larger and more varied types of noise producing systems. Such custom homes of entertainment and movie stars, corporate moguls, and sports personalities include features and systems that would never occur in the typical single-family home. Large in-home theaters with fully outfitted sound systems, indoor swimming pools, large entertainment centers, dance and reception halls, etc., present very challenging acoustical and noise control challenges. Many such estates also have commercial or industrial type mechanical systems, multi-fueled emergency power generators, and very large water storage and pumping systems that generate significant noise control issues both within the owner’s property and for adjacent neighboring properties. This paper summarizes a few such challenging projects and reviews the often unusual situations that occur during concept and project design, specification and bidding phases, construction, redesign, change-orders, and essential inspections.

Hotel Geopolitics: A Research Agenda

This article sets a new agenda for research into the geopolitics of hotels. Moving beyond the study of hotels as neutral sites of leisure and tourism, hospitality mediated by financial exchange, we argue that hotels need to be researched as geopolitical sites. Hotel spaces – from conference rooms to reception halls, from hotel bars to corridors and private rooms – are connected to broader architectures of security and insecurity, war- and peacemaking. We present six themes for this research agenda: hotels as projections of soft power, soft targets for political violence, strategic infrastructures in conflict, hosts for war reporters, providers of emergency hospitality and care, and infrastructures of peace-building. We conclude that the geopolitical potential of hotels emerges from two spatial dimensions of the relation of hospitality: hotels’ selective openness and closure to their surroundings, and their flexible material infrastructures that can facilitate and mediate geopolitical processes. Research on geopolitics, and its engagements with the everyday materialities that shape war and peace, must take seriously the hotel as a geopolitical space.

The manifesto as genre in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman

This article examines John Gabriel Borkman’s neo-aristocratic performance of power and authority in Ibsen’s eponymously titled play (1896) . After his downfall, John Gabriel has retreated into his once grand reception hall wherein he has become like a petrified relic from a preceding era. His performance within the “fading glory” of the upstairs hall– a veritable theatre for his delusions of grandeur – is one of an outmoded type of bourgeois “hero” whose flagrantly illicit dealings are no longer tenable as capitalism becomes ever-more “rational” and bureaucratic in its facade. The article focuses on John Gabriel’s performance of a “sovereign” or charismatic authority and examines his future visions as “manifestos”. The manifesto is a form belonging to a feudal era of rule by divine right – one that is necessarily “theatrical” in its performance of a legitimate authority. Assuming the voice of the sovereign, John Gabriel attempts to address the needs of the iron-ore miners – a desiring, albeit latent force in Ibsen’s text. The desires of the workers, however, are continually effaced by the bewitching powers of capitalist abstraction, which account for the alienation of family and individuals in Ibsen’s play. Comparing John Gabriel’s manifesto with Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto not only accounts for the end of an age of neo-aristocratic bourgeois decadence, but also marks labour as the definitive socio-political issue of the late 19 th century. Where John Gabriel uses a dramaturgy rooted in past models of rule to address the workers in his vision of a benevolent “kingdom”, the Communist Manifesto heralds the death of his class and replaces the voice of the “sovereign authority” with the self-authorising voice of the workers themselves. Borkman’s fatal flaw then is failing to sufficiently address the plight of the iron-ore miners with whom he claims intimate acquaintance but with whom he is grossly out of touch. Ibsen shows us his inevitable failure and the disappearance of the John Gabriel “type” of Romantic industrialist in favour of corrupt lawyers such as Hinkel, who are more adaptable to capitalism’s ever-changing incarnations.

Late antique domus in Skelani (Municipium Malvesiatium)

During June and July 2014, at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, archaeological investigations of the late antique building were carried out, whose rooms were first discovered in the course of archaeological excavations in 2008. The building has a rectangular base, of a northeast-southwest orientation, with the discovered part measuring 20.90 x 30.90 m. What is distinguishable within the asymmetrical base is an entrance, along with eleven rooms, two of which have apses, and a peristyle, i.e. an inner courtyard with a roofed corridor surrounding it which connects all the rooms of the building. During the archaeological excavations, entrance thresholds and extremely well preserved mortar floors with mortar skirting were noted in most rooms, along with traces of fresco painting on the walls and mosaic floors, executed in the opus tesselatum technique, observed in several rooms, the peristyle and the encompassing corridor. The discovered mosaic fragments are decorated with geometric motifs in the form of a swastika, a Solomon?s knot, a square, a rhomboid, overlapping circles, etc. and floral motifs of ivy and petals, as well as a double braid motif. Small but, unfortunately, fragmented pieces of a mosaic with a figural representation were discovered in the central part of the peristyle, while the mosaic in room K was decorated with a motif portraying the winged head of Medusa. Two construction phases were noted, an older and a younger, with the walls, which were two Roman feet wide and built from dressed stone, and the older mortar floor belonging to the older construction phase, and the second, younger construction phase comprising mosaics, fresco painting, the younger mortar floor and two furnaces. Contemplating the planimetry of the building, one gets the impression of the rooms being divided between two parts - public and private, whereby the public part of the building would be located near the main entrance hall and would comprise rooms A, B, C, D and F, with mortar floors and traces of fresco painting on the walls. The other, possibly private, part of the building would include five rooms G, H, I, J and K and the inner courtyard. Rooms I, J and K had floor and wall heating, while rooms G and H had an arched apse and possibly functioned as a reception hall and/or a stibadium. The hallway with mosaics, which flanks the inner courtyard, was most likely roofed. Traces of burning in the north-western corridor testify to the destruction of the building in a fire. Based on the architectural elements and the traces of fresco painting and mosaics in the building at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, it can be deduced that this is a late antique building which can roughly be dated to the period between the end of the 3rd and the mid-4th century AD, and whose lavish decoration implies that it was owned by an affluent resident of Skelani from the aforementioned period.

Isolation and characterization of some multi-antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens associated with nosocomial infections

Nosocomial infections are frequent complications of hospitalization, caused by opportunistic pathogens that gain access to hosts undergoing invasive procedures. This study was carried out to investigate the presence of antibiotic resistance bacteria from hospital environment of Damietta, Egypt. Two hundred and six clinical bacterial isolates were collected from different samples (sink, floor, bed, bed cover, toilet floor, bed pan, ward wall and hospital staff apparel (protective gowns, hand groves and face-shield) within reception hall, maternity ward, convalescing wards, surgical theaters, intensive care, dental unit, pharmacy and laboratory) from (Kafr Saad General Hospital and El-Azhar University Teaching Hospital). Four bacterial species were identified as Bacillus subtilis , Bacillus cereus , Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter aerogenes using standard morphological, biochemical tests and sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. Eleven antibiotics (Trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole (25 ,u g); Rifampicin (5 ,u g); Piperacillin/tazobactam (110 ,u g); Ofloxacin (5 ,u g); Nitrofurantoin (300 ,u g); Imipenem (10 ,u g); Gentamicin (120 ,u g); Ceftriaxone (30 ,u g); Cefotaxime (30 ,u g); Amikacin (30 ,u g) and Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (30 ,u g) were tested against the bacterial isolates using disc diffusion method to determine the multi-drug resistance bacteria. Imipanem was found to be as the most effective drug against Klebsiella pneumoniae while ofloxacin, amikacin, piperacillin/tezobactam, gentamicin and rifampcin had low effect against Klebsiella pneumoniae and no effect of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, nitrufurantion and trimethoprim/sulehamethoxazole was recorded against Bacillus subtilis.

From The Sideshow Called Fine Art

From The Sideshow Called Fine Art Kinoshita Naoyuki (bio) Translated by Michael P. Cronin (bio) The excerpt “Long Arms, Long Legs” is a chapter taken from Kinoshita Naoyuki’s book The Sideshow Called Fine Art (Bijutsu to iu misemono, 1993), prefaced by a brief section from the book’s introduction that summarizes the author’s general argument. It is difficult not to see Kinoshita’s work in relation to the work of Kitazawa Noriaki (also excerpted in this issue), since he similarly interrogates the discourse of art and its adaptation in the 1800s, but their accomplishments differ dramatically. Kitazawa examines the centripetal process through which art was institutionalized, while Kinoshita conducts a centrifugal study that goes beyond the definitional borders to enter the domain of early modern popular entertainment industries that were subsequently disqualified from the territory of fine arts. Many media that developed in the margins just outside of art proper appear in Kinoshita’s narrative: photography, the panorama, sculpture, painting, and others that defy classification. In each chapter he searches for moments in which bijutsu, or the fine arts, cuts into these formative fields to sanction divisions. For instance, panoramas, which were at first seen as a medium of entertainment during the Meiji period (1868-1912), were eventually lifted from the popular sphere and elevated to the realm of fine art, where they could serve as a tool of education. The Sideshow Called Art, then, is a study of outcasts, outmoded means of expression, and half-breeds that emerged out of experiments during a period of cultural adaptation. Some made the cut, while others would fade back into the amorphous background of daily trivialities and leisurely pastime. This historical moment of flux is at the heart of Kinoshita’s fascinating study; he tirelessly points out that the narrative of art is not necessarily one that moves through official channels, and much of his text wanders through the labyrinth of popular desire. He rails against the current culture of art that still does not recognize this particular past: [End Page 165] [E]ither way, Western oil painting and silk cloth painting were not oil painting proper, much as Nezumiya Denkichi’s “stone figure” wasn’t exactly a sculpture because it was a doll made of chicken wire. I understand the temptation to cast them aside as mere sideshow attractions and not call them “Western oil works” (seiyō edakumi). But it is undeniable that oil painting and sculpture of the Japanese had to begin precisely at this very site. If the oil paintings of sideshow stalls were not considered art, then which oil paintings would have satisfied [critics]? Would these have been the works that hang in exhibitions? Museums? Galleries? Art schools? Yet none of those places yet existed in Tokyo in Meiji 7 [1874].i It is possible to read this text as a means to recover an audience that took to playfulness, which was part of the constituency of “art” before modernism. And to an extent, this audience still haunts the borders of art without gaining entry. Therefore, The Sideshow Called Art is just as much the story of a lost audience as it is a glimpse into the world of skills and activities before fine art. Implicitly, the book suggests a link between the lost constituency of misemono (sideshow attraction) and the contemporary significance of otaku and subculture in Murakami Takashi’s Superflat. But if Murakami looked to the Edo-period painter Itō Jakuchū to perform a return to culture that had already been sanctioned within the domain of art, then Kinoshita sneaks out of “fine art” proper to join the gregarious crowd, reveling in their uproarious laughter and irreverence. In this fashion, the book constantly folds the profane into the sacred to show that separating the world of “fine art” from the everyday has always been a tenuous project that could come undone at any moment. Kinoshita recalls a moment when he encountered a room made for the imperial family, only to discover in it yet another misemono: I entered the oldest Western mansion in Osaka, called the Senpukan (built in 1870), the reception hall of a dormitory facility for the Japanese Mint Bureau, which was...

Wedding Organizer Order Management

This information system is used as a solution that can help to meet the requirements of the couples. The research methods are data collection, analysis and design. Data collection method implemented by surveys including interviews with 58 clients, 15 vendors, and 12 WO (Wedding Organizer) and by literature study that includes books and journal related. Object oriented is used as the method for system analysis and design. The result is a web based information system that connects vendors and clients in one online place. The web based application can be used to book the reception hall, catering food for guests, entertainments, bridal, car loan, prewed and receptions photos. The benefits of the web based applications are user can costumize or choose the packages, check the price information and get reports related to Wedding Organizer Order Management business process. The results of the qualitative interviews to 58 clients who already used the applications is the client get shorter time compare to clients who manage their own wedding reception.

Marriage of Necessity: Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Protections

Since the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry and U.S. v. Windsor, the number of states recognizing same-sex marriage has exploded. Even though the Supreme Court “stopped short of deciding whether the Constitution guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage,” the Court’s basic newly enacted legislation as well as judicial decisions recognizing same-sex marriage. The net effect has been to erase a boundary that had largely confined same-sex marriage to the Northeast. In jurisdictions that voluntarily enacted same-sex marriage, religious liberty protections for religious objectors who adhere to a heterosexual view of marriage — exempting them from requirements to facilitate marriages inconsistent with their religious beliefs, by providing a reception hall, for example — proved vital to the legislation’s success. In many Enacting Jurisdictions, more robust protections resulted in successful legislation where a bill with thinner or nonexistent protections had failed just years before. Even though same-sex marriage recognition in the Enacting Jurisdictions has thus far been yoked to religious liberty protections — delivering important gains to supporters and opponents alike — prominent voices on each side now caution against compromise. Buoyed by their recent judicial victories, some supporters have hardened against compromise. With the recent spate of favorable judicial decisions, compromise may simply appear increasingly unnecessary. Opponents are hardening in their stance, too. Far from folding in the face of the momentum carrying same-sex marriage across the country, some thought-leaders urge opponents to double down on their opposition. These opponents see only one way forward: fighting to the bitter end. This Essay contends that we stand at a critical moment in the same-sex marriage movement. A clear-eyed examination of the marriage movement’s success — and the challenges facing it going forward — reveals that both sides will benefit from remaining at the bargaining table, although the gains to each will be different. For same-sex couples, voluntary recognition of same-sex marriage by legislation delivers the benefits and security of marriage today. True, many believe that the juggernaut of lower court decisions requiring same-sex marriage will lead in the near term to a favorable Supreme Court decision. Although that result is increasingly likely, it is nonetheless not assured. Moreover, the unanimity of decisions striking marriage bans may, ironically, delay an ultimate resolution by the Supreme Court, which often declines review until a meaningful circuit split arises. For marriage equality opponents, the voluntary embrace of same-sex marriage permits legislators to consider competing considerations, including concrete ways to permit those who adhere to a traditional view of marriage to continue to do so without facing civil lawsuits or government penalty. Part I shows that same-sex marriage has spread across America through three different avenues: judicial decisions, state laws enacting same-sex marriage, and ballot initiatives — with judicial decisions being fraught with risk for religious dissenters while legislative or popular enactments offer important, if flawed, protections to religious organizations and individuals. Parts II and III document that a “perfect storm” of characteristics favoring marriage equality in jurisdictions that voluntarily embraced same-sex marriage, together with extensive bargaining around religious liberty, nudged same-sex marriage legislation over the finish line. Even with these favorable conditions, marriage equality bills just barely squeaked over the line to enactment, helped by religious liberty exemptions. That advantageous political terrain is now nearly exhausted, as Part IV documents. Going forward, one would reasonably expect more robust religious liberty protections to play a central part in any legislative compromises over same-sex marriage, at least for the near term. Part V evaluates the impulse of some opponents of same-sex marriage to dig in, resisting same-sex marriage at all costs. In part, opponents rely on constitutional bans against same-sex marriage. Constitutional bans may well not survive judicial challenge. However, even without court action striking a ban, constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage do not provide the bulwark against change that some assume since many can be repealed almost as easily as enacting ordinary legislation. Part VI concludes that, in the tougher political terrain that looms, those who care about marriage equality can continue to sew up legislative victories — but the price tag in the short term will be to agree to robust religious liberty protections for dissenters. Those who wish to protect religious objectors from the unintended consequences of same-sex marriage should act with all deliberate speed to lock in robust religious liberty protections, because the window for securing them is almost certainly closing.