Light Colour Line - Perceiving the Mediterranean


Book Description

Das Licht, die Farbe, die Horizontlinie sind Parameter für unsere Wahrnehmung des Mittelmeers. Wir müssen uns die Frage stellen, ob sich diese Wahrnehmung auch in den Erzählungen, in den Ritualen der „Anderen“, in ihren performativen und mündlichen Traditionen widerspiegelt. Narrative Formen der Vermittlung offenbaren im Vergleich mit der wahrgenommenen Realität Brüche und Widersprüche. Auf verschiedenen Wegen, die vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart führen, versuchen die Autoren zu zeigen, wie eine Verständigung auf allen Seiten des Mittelmeers möglich ist. The light, the colour, the horizon line are parameters for the perception of the Mediterranean. The key issue is how we can connect all the specific ways of perception which each of us necessarily has of the Mediterranean. All the different convergences need to reflect themselves and reverberate in the narratives, the rituals, the performances and oral traditions of our perception of one another. Perceiving the Mediterranean means to pursue a dialectical process in discovering the otherness of our counterparts at the other edge of the horizon which is not simply an aesthetic line. Using narrative forms of representation, literary, filmic and photographic media require modes of perceiving the Mediterranean that in comparison with perceived reality reveal fractures and contradictions – conflicting narratives. This book tries to offer different ways, topics and interdisciplinary methods, from medieval to recent times, to drive forward a mutual communication on Mediterranean issues.




Displacement, Environments, and Photo-Politics in the Mediterranean


Book Description

Focusing on the Mediterranean region from 2015 onwards, this volume explores photography’s engagement with displacement, a process that denotes the environmental and social breakdown of places and the forced mobility of people. The ongoing proliferation of photography of the displaced plays a crucial role in shaping opinions, by sensitising the public to the despair of displacement and hardening them to the trope through repeated exposure. Through a range of images by both established and amateur photographers, as well as ethnographic notes that draw from interviews with actors who are either displaced or working with the displaced, Parvati Nair questions the extent to which photography opens a space of possibility for the displaced in the face of globally dominant ideological drives that lead to the Anthropocene. Chapters focus on key aspects of this mass phenomenon, such as the question of crises no longer as exception but as historical process, the lived experiences of protracted relegation to borders and exposure to possible death, the prevalence of domicide and the spread of encampments, and the question of hope for the future. The book will be of interest to scholars in photography theory, migration and refugee studies, art history, Mediterranean studies, and political science.




The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual


Book Description

The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual is the leading venue for the critical reassessment of Eliot’s life and work in light of the ongoing publication of his letters, critical volumes of his complete prose, the new edition of his complete poems, and the forthcoming critical edition of his plays. All critical approaches are welcome, as are essays pertaining to any aspect of Eliot’s work as a poet, critic, playwright, or editor. John D. Morgenstern, General Editor Editorial Advisory Board: Ronald Bush, University of Oxford David E. Chinitz, Loyola University Chicago Anthony Cuda, University of North Carolina–Greensboro Robert Crawford, University of St Andrews Frances Dickey, University of Missouri John Haffenden, University of Sheffield Benjamin G. Lockerd, Grand Valley State University Gail McDonald, Goldsmiths, University of London Gabrielle McIntire, Queen’s University Jahan Ramazani, University of Virginia Christopher Ricks, Boston University Ronald Schuchard, Emory University Vincent Sherry, Washington University at St. Louis




Conflict and Collaboration in Medieval Iberia


Book Description

Studies of conflict in medieval history and related disciplines have recently come to focus on wars, feuds, rebellions, and other violent matters. While those issues are present here, to form a backdrop, this volume brings other forms of conflict in this period to the fore. With these assembled essays on conflict and collaboration in the Iberian Peninsula, it provides an insight into key aspects of the historical experience of the Iberian kingdoms during the Middle Ages. Ranging in focus from the fall of the Visigothic kingdom and the arrival of significant numbers of Berber settlers to the functioning of the Spanish Inquisition right at the end of the Middle Ages, the articles gathered here look both at cross-ethnic and interreligious meetings in hostility or fruitful cohabitation. The book does not, however, forget intra-communal relations, and consideration is given to the mechanisms within religious and ethnic groupings by which conflict was channeled and, occasionally, collaboration could ensue.




Ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea


Book Description

This book invites snorkelers and divers on an educational visit to the most important ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea. Keystone species from brown algae to dolphins are presented in their marine habitats and understood as part of a complex ecological system. Instead of grouping animals and plants taxonomically, we have organised them according to the eight main habitats of the Mediterranean Sea. Our journey starts with different types of rocky grounds, then takes you further to the Mediterranean’s sandy and muddy grounds, and finally ends with the fish and dolphins of the blue open sea. You will be introduced to 220 ecologically significant animal and plant species via the texts of Daniel Abed-Navandi, a long-time lecturer on the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea at the University of Vienna, and the photographs of Georg Glaeser, the master behind the camera, who captures marine life on the spot.




Colour and Form Perception: Straddling the Boundary


Book Description

Starting from psychophysics, over the last 50 years, most progress in unravelling the mechanisms of color vision has been made through the study of single cell responses, mainly in LGN and striate cortex. A similar development in the study of form perception may seem to be underway, centred on the study of temporal cortex. However, because of the combinatorial characteristics of form perception, we are also observing the opposite tendency: from single-cell activity to population coding, and from static receptive field structures to system dynamics and integration and, ultimately, a synthetic form of psychophysics of color and form perception. From single cells to system integration: it is this development the present Research Topic wishes to highlight and promote. How does this development affect our views on the various attributes of perception? In particular, we are interested in to what extent evolving knowledge in the field of color perception is relevant within a developing integrative framework of form perception. The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together experimental research encompassing both color and form perception. For this volume, we planned a broad scope of topics – on color in complex scenes, color and form, as well as dynamic aspects of form perception. We expect that the Research Topic will be attractive to the community of researchers whose work straddles the boundary between the two visual perception fields, as well as to the wider community interested in integrative/systems neuroscience.




Basics of Perception in Architecture


Book Description

This book makes the extremely complex process of architectural perception far more transparent and thus contributes to a better understanding of our built environment. Why is there so much debate about the appearance of our built environment, about the aesthetics of architecture today? Why do opinions about the aesthetic quality of buildings often diverge extremely even among experts? Why can’t we agree on architecture, on what is beautiful and what is not? Most areas of construction, such as statics and building physics, are measurable and can therefore be substantiated with objective arguments. Yet this does not apply to the unquantifiable aesthetics of architecture. Accordingly, judgments on aesthetics are always subject-specific, and strongly dependent on the viewer. Nevertheless, the aesthetics of architecture is not just a matter of taste. Many relationships between buildings as objects and viewers as subjects can be determined objectively with the help of perceptual psychology and information theory, as this book demonstrates.