High art as tourist art,tourist art as high art: Comparing the New Guinea Sculpture Garden at Stanford University and Sepik River tourist art

This paper compares two contemporary aesthetic expressions: tourist art from the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea and the New Guinea Sculpture Garden at Stanford University. Both aesthetic expressions undermine the conventional categories that classify art. Sepik River tourist art is motivated not by the drive to lend individual, subjective experience a material expression but by monetary desire. The New Guinea Sculpture Garden was expressly created so that Sepik artisans could expand beyond the confines of village traditions and create unfettered aesthetic expressions. But seemingly inauthentic Tourist Art actually represents many of the ideals normally ascribed to Western masterpieces, or High Art. Conversely, the High Art of the Sculpture Garden in many respects resembles inauthentic reproductions and the tenacity of traditional forms. Both tourist art and the sculpture Garden, however, have one key quality in common: they rupture conventional artistic cattegories.     

Abstraction and art

In a given social context, artistic creation comprises a set of processes, which relate to the activity of the artist and the activity of the spectator. Through these processes we see and understand that the world is vaster than it is said to be. Artistic processes are mediated experiences that open up the world. A successful work of art expresses a reality beyond actual reality: it suggests an unknown world using the means and the signs of the known world. Artistic practices incorporate the means of creation developed by science and technology and change forms as they change. Artists and the public follow different processes of abstraction at different levels, in the definition of the means of creation, of representation and of perception of a work of art. This paper examines how the processes of abstraction are used within the framework of the visual arts and abstract painting, which appeared during a period of growing importance for the processes of abstraction in science and technology, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of digital platforms and new man-machine interfaces allow multimedia creations. This is performed under the constraint of phases of multidisciplinary conceptualization using generic representation languages, which tend to abolish traditional frontiers between the arts: visual arts, drama, dance and music.     

Anthropologies of art

This paper discusses how different conceptions of the idea of ‘anthropology’ entail different views of the ‘anthropology of art’. The prevailing notion of anthropology as the Western study of small-scale non-Western societies leads to a conception of the anthropology of art as dealing with the visual arts of these societies or cultures. Anthropology is sometimes also interpreted as referring to a particular approach that is applicable in examining sociocultural phenomena in whatever culture, including its art forms. Both conceptions of anthropology may be considered subsidiary to a more encompassing view of anthropology as the multidisciplinary study of humankind. Following this view, the anthropology of art becomes the comprehensive examination of art in human existence. As such it would coincide with World Art Studies, conceived as the global and multidisciplinary study of the visual arts.     

Reflections in art

When artists depict a mirror in a painting, it necessarily lacks the most obvious property of a mirror: as we move around the painting of the mirror, the reflections we see in it do not change. And yet representations of mirrors and other reflecting surfaces can be quite convincing in paintings. Here, we will examine the rules of reflection, the many ways that painters can break those rules without losing the impression of reflection and the rules that cannot be broken. The rules that govern the perception of reflection are a small subset of the physical rules of reflection.     

The biological foundations of art: Denis Dutton’s art instinct

Bloomsbury Press, New York, USA; 2009; 288 pages; ISBN 978-1608190553     

The art of entrainment

The circadian system actively synchronizes the temporal sequence of biological functions with the environment. The oscillatory behavior of the system ensures that entrainment is not passive or driven and therefore allows for great plasticity and adaptive potential. With the tools at hand, we now can concentrate on the most important circadian question: How is the complex task of entrainment achieved by anatomical, cellular, and molecular components? Understanding entrainment is equal to understanding the circadian system. The results of this basic research will help us to understand temporal ecology and will allow us to improve conditions for humans in industrialized societies.     

South African rock art

The total number of rock art sites in South Africa certainly is in excess of 30,000. Collectively, they include well over a million images. However, fewer than 10,000 sites are listed on official databases. One reason for the lack of documentation is the high cost of establishing and maintaining recording programs. There is also a low level of public interest in rock art because both the art and the history of indigenous peoples have been neglected in school and university curricula. Matters are improving: At least one postgraduate university course dedicated to rock art will be offered at the University of the Witwatersrand beginning in 1999. Moreover, the gradual inclusion of cultural resources in heritage conservation and management programs is continuing. The significance of the oversight in the past is magnified if we consider the fragility of the art and the potential wealth of information it holds for understanding the evolution of South African society over the past 30,000 years. Rock art is an irreplaceable historical archive of extraordinary value. Although no one would dispute that this art must survive intact into the next millennium, research into its meaning is equally important if we are to convince the public that the art is worth saving. It is in this latter field that South African researchers have made a significant contribution to rock art studies in the past three decades.     

The art of otology

Management of chronic ear infections dependent on recognition of the differences (pathological and clinical) between tympano-tubal lesions and attico-antral disease. Chronic suppurative otitis media as a reason for rejection for military service. Statistics obtained from the Ministry of Labour and National Service. Relative incidence of tympanic and attico-antral disease in a series of 500 hospital patients at the present time. Resistant chronic tympanic disease still a problem. Relation to acute suppurative otitis media. Recurrent and relapsing attacks of acute otitis media. Does early chemotherapy interfere with development of immunity?Problems presented by acute otitis media likely to be elucidated by the general practitioner rather than by the otologist. The general practitioner's opportunities for research in this clinical problem. Incidence of ear diseases in average general practice.Training of medical students in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Methods of instruction followed in the teaching schools of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and attitude of the Examining Bodies to this subject. The contribution of otologists to the education of doctors.Some observations on facial paralysis. Importance of prognosis. Different criteria in early and late stages of paralysis. Reasons for abandoning the faradic-galvanic tests in the management of facial paralysis. Use of constant current square pulse stimulators in early days of facial paralysis. Electromyography of value in later stages.Present-day difficulties in acquiring skill for facial nerve surgery. Importance of the stylomastoid artery. Recent investigations on the blood supply of the facial nerve: gross vascular pattern and the interfascicular plexus. Further work necessary to relate these anatomical facts to the condition of Bell's palsy.