Refiguring the Post-Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem and Ravenna

Book Description

This is a study of the "Christianization" of the city between the third and sixth centuries. The text traces changes in the meaning of urban space and in the ritual practices of Jewish, Christian and Graeco-Roman cults through an investigation of the art and archaeology of four important late antique sites: Dura Europos (mid third century), Jerash and Jerusalem (fourth and fifth centuries) and Ravenna (sixth century). Interwoven in the discussion of the monuments is an assessment of the political circumstances that controlled the writing of their history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Book Description

A critical analysis of contemporary environmental art and its basis in indigenous land use.

Customer Reviews:

Seeing the world through the places that mean most to us........1998-06-07

Our relation to the earth, to particular places, is an important element of our identity as individuals and as a country. Northrop Frye once asked: "Where is here?" Maureen Korp provides an original and stimulating route to exploring that question through an examination of how some artists confront the land. In clear and frequently witty prose, Korp explains first how the works of some artists in and around Ottawa and Hull opened her eyes to new ways of looking at "ordinary" places, which turn out to be not so ordinary. The artists' careful compositions guide the viewer to something beyond the immediate space. A chapter on Jennifer Dickson's photographs of gardens takes a further step towards sites where "there have been events of passion and intellect; the sites have history and they have names." This observation leads to considerations of "built spaces", such as Saskatchewan's Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel and other North American native earthworks, as well as six massive contemporary earthworks. Korp skilfully lays out a path that leads us to glimpses of understanding why some places strike us as significant, why simply being there we can be overwhelmed by their power by simply being there, and sometimes experience visionary states. They center us to the earth; they point our ways home. This book produced many flashes of recognition. It helped me make sense of my reactions when I first returned to my birth place, and of my responses to other places that have been important to me. Such spaces help us find ourselves in that world; that is why they have a touch of the sacred. Sacred Art of the Earth opened my eyes in marvellous new ways. Maureen Korp addresses profound issues in a wonderfully down to eath voice.

Excellent discussion of environmentally oriented artworks.......1997-06-24

There are areas on the earth recognizable as important, even powerful. They have been spoken of as sacred by some, "resonating" by others. Many years and several careers ago, while waiting for my Masters Thesis on a Quaternary topic to be signed off, I played around with studies of environmental perception. I did not, however, find an objective explanation for this phenomena of "sacred" landscapes. My own experiments consisted of tachistoscopic viewing of a large number of photographic slides. I asked fellow grad students to rate each slide, 1 to 10, as it was projected. I had previously measured each of the photos for percentages of color as well as features such as water, sky, vegetation, etc. The photos were, for the most part, of natural landscapes. I don't recall getting any meaningful results and the professor suggested that all I really wanted to do was show off my photography. Maureen Korp has done a much better job than I of analyzing such landscapes. In her new book, _Sacred Art of the Earth, Ancient and Contemporary Earthworks_ (Continuum, 1997 ISBN 0-8264-0883-4), she presents criteria for recognizing locations of "power" through analysis of a particular type of art, earthworks. For those of you unwilling to approach religious topics, don't be misled by the title. This is not a theological text. If you wish, think in terms of aesthetics rather than religion. Feelings of awe and wonder associated with "sacred sites" can and are experienced by atheists, agnostics and the devout; only the words used to describe such experiences vary. In the book, such dichotomies are discussed in terms of sacred and profane, cultural perceptions of art, the concept of "Mother Earth" and more. It took quite a while for me to get a copy of this book, but I finally did through a Barnes and Noble outlet (Amazon has it cheaper). My first reaction was that Maureen Korp has an excellent command of written language and if I wasn't careful I'd gulp it down in a single sitting (it's only 146 pages less the notes). After reading the first two chapters I'd realized there was much I needed to ponder in detail. Since then, I worked through the book in small bites. An analogy to fine whiskey may be appropriate here, it can be taken in a shot (at the risk of being overwhelmed) or sipped. One of the first points that made me pause was some terminology. I'd been with the US Army Corps of Engineers for some years and came to associate "earthworks" not with art but with such things as rivetments, canals and dams. She states: "...the earthwork. It marks the landscape, shapes our perception of the earth as a landscape. It creates a geography".(p19) This is not inconsistent with those engineered items I was familiar with albeit they were/are rarely considered aesthetic (except perhaps by engineers). Next, this use of the word geography. "Geography" has always been, for me, an abstract noun. During my graduate days, the definition I came to prefer was actually a verb, "geography is what geographers do". These are not particularly important points except that they helped cause me to read much slower. What I believe is central to this book is the idea that people have, from the earliest times to the present, recognized places that are somehow special. Different cultures in different times and places mark these areas in a variety of ways, denoting their power and significance. I thought one of the more intriguing points dealt with the variation between cultures with open horizons as opposed to those indigenous to closed or forested areas. Maureen Korp has this to say about the commonality of sacred sites: "..., like all other ancient sacred sites, share a set of common physical attributes that comprise the descriptors needed for a morphology of sacred place."(p102) The question then is what are these attributes. After the introduction, she takes us on a tour of European gardens. These gardens are seen through the eyes of Jennifer Dickson, an artist who interprets "sacred sites" with a camera. I pondered the applicability of this chapter in reference to the overall stated purpose of the book and was constantly drawn to an Ansel Adams print I have on my wall. Dickson takes photos of physically constructed landscapes whereas Adams' photo (this particular one is the 1944 _Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California) is a natural landscape. I was long puzzled by what appeared to me to be an incompatibility in definition of "sacred" landscapes. I could not accept that an artifactual garden could be sacred but the naturally majestic Sierra Nevada were not. The answer lies in Korp's view that the landscape is not naturally sacred, it is the combination of the artist's vision, the execution or realization of that vision along with the natural characteristics of the site that create sacredness. Photography is thus an appropriate medium for creating sacredness. I would still maintain, however, that such art as Adams' and Dickson's are not strictly speaking "earthworks". The inclusion of Dickson's work in this book thus becomes somewhat problematic. I do think, however, that such inclusion is justifiable in that examination of this art helps illustrate just what characteristics of landscapes are to be considered as significant. Discussion shifts to other, what could be termed, physical installations or "proper" earthworks. Korp discusses the siting of these works, the materials of their construction, reactions of visitors and a host of other factors pertinant to each. Leaving it to the reader to decide which if any of these works should be considered sacred. She states: "By no means are all contemporary earthworks sacred endeavors. Some fail. The artist may lack talent, or talent equal to the artist's vision. The artist may lack the simple opportunity to do the work. Some earthworks are just what their sponsors claim them to be - land reclamation projects, gardens, parks, playgrounds, or other sorts of outdoor sculptural installations." (p129) Further on, she provides this synopsis: "The sacred place is described generally as an architectonic space that is enclosed or set aside in some way; it is a place that has a point of entry, requiring the visitor to go from here to there along some directed path. The sacred place is animated: it is a site where something important happens, where our everyday sense of time and place collapses." (p130) Included in this book are examples of ancient New World sculptures: the serpent mounds near Cincinnati, Ohio and at Rice Lake, Ontario; various petroglyph sites; and ancient astronomical observatories. She takes us on a visit to the Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel, in Saskatchewan. She has drawn extensively from the writings of Mircea Eliade and a wealth of others. There is an extensive bibliography provided and the book is indexed. The single most significant omission that comes to mind is the lack of discussion of Frederick Law Olmstead, perhaps America's most important landscape artist. Many of his works, I feel, fulfill the requirements. There is a point along the road from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, named after this man, that is well known for creating feelings of awe and wonder. Finally, Maureen Korp has provided us with a work of art, in its own right. This is a book about a form of art, a book about cultural expression, a book about the dicotomy of religion and aesthetics. It is also an important book about living with as well as on the earth.

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Camera Fiends & Kodak Girls: Fifty Selections by and About Women in Photography, 1840-1930
Peter Palmquist
Manufacturer: Midmarch Arts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia (Cultural Frames, Framing Culture)

ASIN: 1877675008

Book Description

A celebration of women in photography— the pioneers—many famous, some less familiar—presented through poems, memoirs, lectures, and essays.

Book Description

Cracks the code of Corporate America's Funniest Double Agent. Most readers assume Dilbert is on their side in a tough workaday world. But Dilbert is a fraud.

Are you surprised that Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, actually favors downsizing?

Are you suspicious when Xerox uses Dilbert in its employee handbook as an offbeat sugary coating to help the corporate medicine go down?

Are you tired of the sweeping portrayal of office workers as lazy idiots? Of the running gags that stay inside the moat of the corporate castle?

Do you worry when "rebellion" and "revolution" are redefined as the ability to overcome corporate bureaucracy to make more money for your boss?

Do you wonder why Dilbert avoids tackling so many real problems at work?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you'll find Norman Solomon's funny and brazen attack more refreshing than a trip to the water cooler.

Customer Reviews:

Dilbert is fine.......2005-10-13

Norman obivously hasn't read enough dilbert strips to understand the true meaning of the strips. He got a quote
he could turn into a bad thing, and then wrote a book around it. Dilbert is funny. Whydaya HAVE to knock it?
Good concluding chapter though.

Late to the Game.......2005-01-12

Sorry this review is so late, but I just re-read "The Trouble with Dilbert," and realized that it got an unfair shake from the Amazon reviewers. I never did think that Dilbert was funny, and I really can't understand why it's still on the front page of the Sunday comics in my hometown paper, the Boston Globe. The humor is crude, obvious, stupid, but worst of all, geekishly violent. There is something about nerd threats of violence, something about the Star Trek viewer saying, "do you want me to smash your face in?", that I find nauseating and terrifying. The crux of it is, doesn't Darla or whatever the hell her name is, realize that she couldn't really smash anyone's face in? Don't office geeks understand that a lot of the people they work with would wipe the floor with them? I guess they don't, which is what makes the Dilbert strip such a joke. As Solomon notes, all of the frustration of modern capitalism, all of its meaninglessness and emptiness, expresses itself in workers' loathing of each other. And while there is much hatred of bosses portrayed in Dilbert, there is no political element to it. The comic strip simply allows reader-employees to engage in low, chuckling fantasies of violence perpetrated on their bosses, without any intimation that there might be another way to channel that rage.

I guess my problem with Dilbert, which Solomon captures beautifully, is that its subject is ripe for true satire. Office life screams for subversive parody, a la the movie "Office Space." But what we get with Dilbert is not satire, but awkward, junior high school fantasies of violecne, fantasies with no connection to social or physical reality. When I read Dilbert, the first image that springs to mind is Columbine, which is no comic matter.

The Trouble with Norman.......2004-10-09

In a supposed effort to warn cubicle-dwellers abroad that Dilbert is doing nothing but making fun of work and "taking money from the enemy", Norman Solomon fails spectacuarly by coming across as an idiot with absolutely no sense of humor. In other words, he gives a perfect image of himself.

What I can't figure out is how Norman got this so-called "information" in the first place. In THE JOY OF WORK, Dilbert creator Scott Adams explains that a NEWSWEEK reporter asked him something like, "With all the negative images of downsizing that you portray in your strip, can you possibly think of anything GOOD about downsizing?" True, Adams should have said no, but he instead gave an unbiased opinion -- something anyone would have done -- and said that a company's stock will sometimes benefit from downsizing. Solomon saw this, took Adam's quote out of context, and twisted it around so that Adams was suddenly "in favor of downsizing."

Which he is NOT. Please, nobody waste your money on this book. It will only go to Norman Solomon so that he can furthur promote his idiocy and inefficiency. You should by something WORTHY instead, like THE JOY OF WORK. Please. Thanks.

Solomon misses by multiple miles.......2002-05-20

Several years ago there was a British lecturer who, in order to win a competition for the most boring lecturer of the year, wrote -and delivered- a Marxist analysis of a fairly ordinary joke about a coconut. The lecture went on for several highly tedious hours.

Mr Solomon's "attack" on Dilbert and Scott Adams reminds me of that lecture.

Mr Solomon makes an error common to many so-called media critics. They over-value their own importance and fail to identify terrible faults in themselves. Whilst, mysteriously, being able to see minor (or imaginary) faults in others.

Mr Solomon further attacks Scott Adams for making money from his intellectual properties. Mr Solomon's attack on Mr Adams would, therefore, only be valid if he criticises from the position of a man who writes entirely for free.

Unless Mr Solomon does work for financial reward?

In that case it would be very easy to dismiss Mr Solomon as a self-serving hypocrit and to ignore anything else he has to say on any subject.

For people night suspect that "once a self-serving hypocrit..." But that would be an unfair attack on Mr Solomon,would it not? Almost in the same way that Mr Solomon made an unfair attack on Mr Adams.

I don't read Dilbert anymore - but Solomon isn't the reason.......2001-09-06

About three years ago, I bought a Dilbert-a-day desk calendar. Every day I ripped aside the previous day to reveal today's comic. It was great up until around August or so, when I realized that Dilbert was still stuck in his cubicle, and so was I, and I couldn't stand the thought of having my nose rubbed in it every day for the next four months.

I threw the calendar away.

In "The Trouble with Dilbert," Solomon professes to have "cracked the code" of Dilbert comics, revealing that Dilbert is actually intended to keep workers complacent. This hurt Scott Adams' feelings, as Norman was accusing him of acting in the best interests of everything he stood against. Who's right? Both of them.

If one considers the entire body of Dilbert comics as one very large text, then it may seem significant that the protagonist (Dilbert) does not evolve as a character. By all rights, a protagonist should be affected by their experiences, and if they steadfastly remain constant, then one must assume there's a good reason for it. The most facile conclusion one might reach is that the character hasn't changed because the character likes things just the way they are.

One might then take the extra step, add a dollop of good old-fashioned paranoia, and assume that Scott Adams intends Dilbert to serve as an example. To subliminally assert that "Things are just fine" would indeed, make Scott Adams a tool. Quite a loathsome tool, to boot, because he's clever enough to disguise this message in what seems (to the uncritical eye) to be a scathing daily condemnation of corporate politics and practices.

But here's where things fall apart: Dilbert does not evolve because he is a character IN A COMIC STRIP. I don't say this to mean "it's too trivial to analyze" - that's simply not true. I say this because a standard convention of the art form known as the comic strip is that its characters do not evolve.

If comics were expected to behave like proper literary texts, then Garfield would have been put to sleep years ago, after suffering from incontinence, arthritis, deafness, cataracts, and kidney disease (not necessarily in that order). Jeffy would be a card-carrying member of the AARP, and Andy Capp would be either incarcerated for spousal abuse or knifed to death in his sleep, take your pick.

Dilbert caught on quick and big because it says funny things about familiar situations. Cubicle-dwellers (like myself) were hooked on Dilbert after that first shock of recognition; the "Oh my god, that's EXACTLY what it's like here!"

Recognition provides comfort, and Dilbert reassures most people that they're not the only ones made miserable by corporate life. In short, Dilbert feels your pain.

Scott Adams feels your pain, too. He's put in his cubicle hours, and honed his insight and humor to a keen edge through years of personal experience. Scott Adams knows just what it's like, and he wants you to feel better. His job is to coax a laugh out of millions of people every day (and he gets paid rather well for it, to boot).

I've almost entirely switched from Dilbert comics to Scott Adams books. Adams has written several books - BOOK books, not just collections of comic strips - which serve as roadmaps to cubicle life, complete with helpful tour suggestions. I have gradually molded my work life into a perfect expression of Adams Fu (translates as "The Way of Adams"), gleaned primarily from "The Joy of Work," which is one of my favorites.

In his books, Adams essentially advocates screwing the company any way you can. A full third of "The Joy of Work" is devoted to various strategies you can use to buy yourself free time at the office. I can whole-heartedly attest to the efficacy of these strategies, as I use several of them in conjunction to buy myself roughly four hours of free time every day. At Adams' suggestion, I have studiously put this time to good use; for example, I'm currently using my free time to write this very essay.

If one considers Dilbert in the full context of Scott Adams, then no, Dilbert is not a tool of the corporate elite. And yet I don't read Dilbert anymore. I just can't; even the occasionally half-glimpsed Dilbert comic makes me want to curl up on the bathroom floor and cry.

If I could take over Scott Adams' brain (and drawing hand), I would create a story arc wherein Dilbert escapes corporate life once and for all. He strikes out on his own and carves a new niche for himself. Several years pass, and one day he returns to his old office to taunt Pointy-Haired Boss. Maybe Dilbert (no longer shackled by notions of corporate propriety or threats of political retaliation) drops his pants and moons the PHB in front of the entire staff. Maybe he sets fire to the building (a la Stephen Root in "Office Space"). I haven't exactly worked that part out yet.

I suspect that part of the reason Scott Adams was blindsided by the Solomon's accusation is that the scenario I just spun out is, essentially, the story of Scott Adams' real life. Adams started drawing from his cubicle, and ten years later - presto! - he's king of his own empire. Safely insulated within the happy life he's built for himself, Adams can well afford to look back at cubicle life and laugh.

Me, not so much.

Book Description

Presenting a radically new approach and technology for setting reliability requirements, this superb book also provides the first comprehensive overview of the M/F-FOP philosophy and its applications.
* Each chapter covers probabilistic models, statistical and numerical procedures, applications and/or case studies
* Comprehensively examines a new methodology for problem solving in the context of real reliability engineering problems
* All models have been implemented in C++
* The algorithms and programming code supplied can be used as a software toolbox for setting MFFOP
* Case studies are taken from the nuclear, automotive and offshore industry to provide 'real-world' applications.

Download Description

Presenting a radically new approach and technology for setting reliability requirements, this superb book also provides the first comprehensive overview of the M/F-FOP philosophy and its applications. Each chapter covers probabilistic models, statistical and numerical procedures, applications and/or case studies Comprehensively examines a new methodology for problem solving in the context of real reliability engineering problems All models have been implemented in C++ The algorithms and programming code supplied can be used as a software toolbox for setting MFFOP Case studies are taken from the nuclear, automotive and offshore industry to provide 'real-world' applications.

Computer Simulation in Financial Risk Management: A Guide for Business Planners and Strategists

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Computer Simulation in Financial Risk Management: A Guide for Business Planners and Strategists
Roy L. Nersesian
Manufacturer: Quorum Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Corporate Finance | Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Computer programs that simulate complex processes in the real world can provide a quantitative tool for determining how much debt can be added safely to a company's capital structure. The increasing number of bankruptcies and defaults in today's international business arena result from debt overload and point to major shortcomings in the conventional financial evaluation process. In this book, Roy L. Nersesian describes why current methods of risk management fail and how computer simulation can be employed to determine the safe level of debt more accurately. Because the decision to add debt to an organization requires favorable, and essentially independent, decisions from both the borrower and lender, it is necessary to quantify both perspectives. Through actual examples readers will learn how to do this and to translate an actual business situation into a simulation model or program. Current evaluation systems, according to Nersesian, fail to incorporate the cyclical nature of business activity. They result all too often in an overly optimistic projection of cash flow. Simulation techniques are better able to incorporate the transience of good times and put quantitative analysis of risk on par with quantitative analysis of reward. Simulation techniques also reduce the role of speculative, and highly subjective, judgment. For example, decisionmakers who are not familiar personally with a particular business area, assign more risk to that area than those who are. A quantified risk management system enables executives to rank projects by the degree of risk much as they currently rank them by degree of profitability. The book presents the concept of simulation in terms that can be understood by generalists in corporations and financial institutions. At the same time, it provides computer programmers with an understanding of risk management principles. It will provide a valuable resource for: financial executives, planners and strategists in corporate and governmental organizations; bank lending officers; and computer programmers working with these organizations.

Book Description

Allison Zippay charts the decline of displaced blue-collar workers, part of the fallout of the past decade's dramatic economic shift from manufacturing to an expanded, service-based economy. She challenges the widely held assumption that these workers have been absorbed into the post-industrial economy and raises questions regarding the real nature of their occupational transition. Actually a case study of the Shenango Valley in western Pennsylvania, where an estimated 6,600 jobs were lost due to plant closings, From Middle Income to Poor is unique in its coverage of the vital issue of economic dislocation. Zeroing in on long-term unemployment and income loss, Zippay finds that many of the displaced workers remain unemployed or underemployed and have slipped in status from middle-income to poor. The volume uses data gathered from interviews to explore how persons with a history of steady blue-collar employment have coped with economic dislocation and downward lifestyle shifts, and in the process presents a path-breaking community portrait of industrial displacement. Early chapters focus on blue-collar workers in the 1980s and the economic and social dimensions of the manufacturing decline. They describe the Shenango Valley community setting, mill work, mill workers, and how the lifestyles of the local residents have been shaped by long-standing blue collar traditions. Later chapters investigate the changes in income and employment that prompted a downward slide and examine the processes of rebuilding. Chapter Seven cites incidences of depression and other emotional distress as well as changes in perception of self and community. The final chapter discusses the implications of the findings and recommends actions that could improve the displaced workers' social and economic well-being. Sociologists, policy analysts, social workers, and those in the fields of labor relations, social welfare, and social economics will find that this intense scrutiny of the Shenango Valley has far-reaching implications for the national economy in the 1990s and beyond.

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