Postmodernism free essay sample

Different material, methods and media’s have been used in postmodern art, such as painting fine art, technology, architecture and fashion. A study of various types of powerful societal changes through time is tackled through art. These changes comprise of gender identity, globalisation growth, political power etc. Introduction The expression of Art has always been influential; many artists use it as a tactic to exploit political truths and ideas. Postmodernism is a â€Å"movement reacting against modernism, especially by drawing attention to former conventions† (pg821). This form of art allowed a new way of looking at reality in a society that is constantly reassessing its culture and values. Postmodern art focuses on a mixture of high and low cultures and dominant ideas; it went against repression, sexism, racism, political power, and violence. Deconstructing truths criticises and analyses contemporary issues. These deconstructionist feed on controversy, artists such as Alessandro Mendini, Andy Warhol, Jenny Holzer create colourful and ruinous, luxurious and outrageous artwork. The art allowed radical freedom to design, funny gestures confrontation and occasionally absurd. It was a style that has new self-awareness. Postmodernism rebelled against modernism; it was an attack on what had come before as it explored and disparaged any unspoken leading concepts and social customs. The disillusionment from World War II heavily influenced postmodern art. The style doesn’t have a clear central hierarchy or organising principle; it uses melancholy, extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity and interconnectedness. Loud colours, bold patterns, historical quotation and whit are used. During the 60s, critical practices of postmodernism were applied mainly in Italy. The idea of ‘Function follows form’ is abandoned. Exaggerated proportion and outrageous texture for the sake of decoration. Designers such as Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini who challenged social norms and the traditional taste of design. Italian born designer and architect, Alessandro Mendini played a part in postmodern design. He creates graphics, furniture, interiors, paintings and architectures. His work of ‘Destruction of the Monumento da Casa (Household Monument) is an enlarged photograph of a modernist chair. This literally displays the destroying of the past, the end of modernism and the beginning of postmodernism. It was an attack on what had come before, Mendini brought the chair to a stone quarry and set the chair on fire, photos were captured during the process in 1974. Popular culture, irony, historicism, eclecticism and pluralism are embraced by postmodernism. The artist believed that something new design would grow from the burning remains. One of the most iconic post-modern designs is the Proust armchair by Alessandro Mendini. He chose to add Signac painting as the pattern on a ready-made replica of an 18th century armchair. American language conceptual artist, Jenny Holzer is famous for her short statements. The postmodern fashion in the 80’s was a time when women were in power and this was mirrored in physicality and clothes. The artist uses modern information to expose and address the politics of discourse. The ‘Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise’ by Hozler is one of her many controversial artworks. Jenny Hozler worked outside the regular conventions, as she believed that simplified phrases are the quickest way for everyone to comprehend. A lot of Jenny Hozler’s work victimises the woman, this method allows the audience to basically read the violence male dominance against women. Words such as ‘Crack the Pelvis so she lies right, this a mistake. When she dies you cannot repeat the act†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ the brutal yet vivid words suggest male power over women. In order to communicate to foreign countries, her work was translated multiple times. Hozler’s techniques include a range of multimedia, posters, hats, T-shirts and L. E. D signs on large architecture. She received many negative feedbacks by the public, therefore, withdrew from her career until 1993. The postmodern artist came back with a new approach to immaterial; she is still driven against murder plus sexual pleasure, hence initiated a new series named ‘Lustmord’. Fine Art is also found in post modernism. Techniques found in painting were super-realism, mannered, academic, neoclassical, decorative, and self-conscious stylization. Originality had ended and there is a lot past styles referencing. Postmodern artist, David Ligare paintings looked extremely realistic. He focused on still life painting, Ligare believes that there is no limit and virtually anything now could be considered art, hence makes him a postmodern artist. David Ligare does narrative paintings based on Greco/Toman culture. Marcel Duchamp’s artwork incorporated jokes to add humour to his visual. Duchamp has made numerous pastiche works; his most famous is the ‘L. H. O. O. Q’, which stands for ‘Elle a chaud au cul’. It was a rebel against traditional art was the dominant idea of the time. Duchamp’s added moustache and beard to the postcard with the Mona Lisa, which contradicts regular conventions of the time. He wanted to take artistry lightly; it was an act of rebel against convention. This technique became known as ‘appropriation’, it is the idea of manipulating famous historical art pieces. This practice has become common in today’s art. Andy Warhol works exemplifies the final stage of postmodernism. Warhol’s paintings had always had something controversial, as theorist Fredric Jameson states, ‘they ought to be powerful and critical political statements’ Andy Warhol is a contemporary artist, which expresses the postmodernism of society though his artistry. Through his artwork, his expression seems to be very anarchy and chaotic, especially the major use of the primary and bold colours whereas in the mainstream artistry it is very subtle due to the dark or complimentary colours which can often be seen as conservative. Warhol’s ‘Dollar Sign’ from 1981 deconstructs the truth about money. The painting suggest money’s strength, its addiction and tactic for conspiracy, His artwork were powerful and held critical political statements because they were billboard-like images. One of his pieces was of the North Korean leader, Kim John IL. Normally in society Kim John IL would not be even spoken of due to the high political power he has over North Korea. And the fragility between other nations that Kim John IL has. Andy Warhol has done a piece of this leader using contrasting and chaotic colours that seemed random and unusual. Warhol used appropriation, taking and creating pastiche references. As Andy Warhol states, â€Å"Art is what you can get away with†. Yasumasa Morimura uses humour with referencing to historical art. His postmodernist artworks have the idea of rejecting a single fixed meaning in an image or artwork. He is a controversial Japanese artist who displaces societal currents in Japanese culture. Western assimilation, capitalism and gender values are shown in his designs. Yasumasa is an illusive creator with no boundaries; this sets his work off to a guttural response. He is best known for mimicking great subjects, in particular western art. One of his works uses historical art as reference is the ‘Blinded by the Light’ 1991, which was inspired by the ‘ Parable for the Blind’ by Pieter Brueghel in 1568. Morimura symbolises a satirical message on Western invasion. Yasumasa Morimura caused controversy by highlighting historical influences and transforming into the postmodern art world with eastern and western culture, sexuality and gender identity. His background influenced Morimura’s, he was an outsider dominated by western culture and art. Technology advancement such as digital editing allowed his work to become flawless. In the racist imagination of western culture, they perceive Asian men with weak physically, equivalent to a little white girl. Morimura embraces his influences and mixes his sexual influence with modern culture. This is reflected in his series of self-portraits, e. g. Morimura as Monroe. Throughout the postmodern period, globalisation had become widespread, the artist felt as if he was invaded by foreign ideas and culture. In response, he invaded western culture through their art, by slapping his face on the Mona Lisa or the Infanta Margarita. Famous artist, Barbara Kruger exploited truths through her works of being a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor. Rather than creating her own images, she uses images and juxtaposes them. She used her techniques and skills of being a graphic designer and worked on political, social feminist provocations, religion, sex, racial and gender stereotypes, consumerism, corporate greed, and power. Her techniques consist of using media sources and words and directly collaging them over each other. Her signature look comprises of cropped, large-scale, black and white photographic pictures against black, white and red sans serif letterform. They hold raucous, pithy, ironic sayings. The poster, ‘Your Body is a battleground’ proposes the idea of re-conditioning gender stereotypes. Originally, the image was used in Washington DC to advocate a pro-choice position and reproductive rights for women. This raises the issue of power, patriarchy, stereotyping and consumption. The poster has a black and white image of a woman’s face that is split symmetrically with direct eye contact. The positive and negative space could highlight ‘good vs. bad’. Judging from the woman’s hair and makeup, she appears to be a housewife. The image represents that women cannot be sold, it illustrated a political setting and subsequently their identities are favourably polished.

Music Of The 70S Essays - British Rhythm And Blues Boom Musicians

Music Of The 70'S Freewheeling War mixed rock, jazz, and soul influences into a spicy stew throughout the '70s, resulting in a series of R&B and pop hits sporting funky melodies and politically aware messages. Born in Long Beach in 1969, the large combo initially served as rocker Eric Burdon's group, backing the ex-Animal on his 1970 million-seller Spill the Wine. Bidding Burdon adieu, the band signed with United Artists in 1971 and enjoyed its first smash the next year with Slippin' into Darkness. Tapping into a sizzling, horn-fueled rock/soul synthesis, The World Is a Ghetto, The Cisco Kid and Why Can't We Be Friends? all went gold during the mid-'70s. Despite numerous personnel and label changes, War remained eminent throughout the '80s. In the early '90s, War experienced a revival, partially due to the fact that all of their albums were reissued. But the group was also acknowledged as a primary influence on contemporary R&B and hip-hop. War returned to recording in 1994 capitalize on their new-found popularity. While 94's War wasn't a blockbuster, it was a moderate success, enabling the group to continue recording into the late '90s. War may be available for your next special event. Call us! Please note that the above images may not accurately portray current band membership. Specifically, Harold Brown and Howard Scott do not play in the group WAR any longer. On January 11, 2001 we were informed that the ownership of the name WAR is currently in litigation in the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Music Essays

What To Do On Your Last Day Of Work

What To Do On Your Last Day Of Work You’ve quit your job. You’re saying goodbye. Hopefully this means you’re moving on to something bigger and better. But no matter what, there are a few steps you need to take to make a dignified exit. No matter what you do, don’t burn any bridges. Resist the temptation to say all the nasty things you’ve been bottling up all this time, and exit with grace and poise. Here are 7 steps to leaving with grace and class.1. Transfer your files.Make sure to shore up any files you need to pull from your work computer before you formally leave. Make sure to put all files that might be relevant to the company or your coworkers somewhere accessible (i.e. a shared drive), then wipe out your computer for the next guy. Clear your browsing history, delete unneeded personal documents, etc.2. Write your farewells.You’ll want to write a sign-off letter to your coworkers and friends thanking them respectfully for their work during your time at the company and lett ing people know how they may contact you in future. Resist the urge to pen that feel-good vindictive bomb of an email telling everyone just exactly what you think of management or the company itself. That can only come to disaster. Remember, don’t express your resentment, no matter how righteous. This is a networking opportunity. Don’t pass it up.3. Write your boss.Even if you dislike your boss, it’s good form to write a thank you letter, articulating what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown. If you have a good relationship and aren’t totally full of rage, it’s often nice to offer your help in the transition of your replacement.4. Shore up projects.Make sure you aren’t leaving anybody hanging. Change your voicemail message. Set an auto-response on your email. Make sure clients and colleagues will all know who to contact upon your absence to get their needs met and projects completed.5. Clear out your desk.Take only what belongs to you. Return things as necessary to IT. Resist temptation to steal the stapler or that sweet external hard drive. And don’t be the jerk who takes their keys. They will be useless to you going forward, but will cause someone  extra work if you skate out with them. It’s best to wait to do the actual clearing out of your desk until the end of your last day- unless you have a massive office full of your effects.6.  Leave  a great impression.If you’ve had a good relationship with your coworkers here, consider bringing in cupcakes or something on your final day. Go out on a happy note!7. Give a good exit interview.If your company has an exit interview procedure in place, great. This is your opportunity to be honest about your criticisms. Again, don’t be resentful. Keep it concise, and try writing it out beforehand to make sure you’re not speaking in anger. Keep your tone respectful and don’t forget also to include your praise for the bett er aspects of your experience at that job. Be professional, no matter what. Honesty is great, but try to stay positive.A few other things to keep in mind: Even if you’re super excited to be out of there, you shouldn’t be too unrestrained in your excitement. Remember all the people  you’re leaving behind! Instead focus on the positives and be respectful of the people who will continue to work at this company long after you have left.Avoid saying all the (possibly true, but mean) things you want to say, like â€Å"I was not the problem,† or â€Å"You are a terrible manager,† or â€Å"Thank goodness  I’m getting off this sinking ship.† Honesty isn’t necessarily your best policy on the way out. You don’t, for example, want to tell your annoying coworker that you never liked working with them. There are plenty of things that can remain unsaid- at least until you go out and celebrate your escape with non-work friends.Keep it classy, close the door, and start your new chapter with a good attitude and only positivity behind you!

Medieval Peasants Were More Important Than Monks And Knights Essay

Medieval Peasants Were More Important Than Monks And Knights - Essay Example Daily lives of the three social classes explain their relative significance in medieval society. Peasants belonged to the lowest social class and were despised, despite their contribution to society and their direct help to members of the higher social classes. Even though peasants were not entitled to large pieces of land, they had an opportunity to own land from their respective lords. They could offer labor as a price for ownership and this meant that as long as a peasant could work and be motivated towards land ownership, they could own as much land as their efforts could allow. Consequently, the peasants could meet their needs from land ownership, especially with respect to basic needs and this established significant equivalence between members of the social class and members of higher social classes. ...it activates in the absence of the monks and the knights while the monks and the knights could not offer labor into some of the society’s economic activities.1 Understan ding the roles that the monks and the Knights played in the society also explains the relative significance of the peasants over monks and knights. Core objectives of the monks, as their three main vows suggest, were to ensure eradication of poverty, to ensure chastity, and to ensure obedience. Unlike the peasants who offered labor in an almost capitalistic scope and therefore ensured production of goods and services towards their master’s desired volumes, the monk's economic activities focus on eliminating poverty but not wealth creation. These factors identify more economic significance peasants than the monks because the monks economic activities were limited to â€Å"necessary supplies of vegetables and grain†.2 The monks’ other points of focus, chastity, and obedience, are also secondary needs and this identifies more significance of the peasants in resource creation towards meeting people’s basic needs. The monks’ areas of operation were also limited to monasteries while the peasants contributed to a wider scope of the society. Lives and functions of knights were also limited to the lives and interests of the noble class and not on the community’s basic needs. members of the social class focused on wars that their lords fought and spent most of their times preparing their weapons and keeping themselves fit to defend their lords from possible attacks and to attack enemies as deemed by the lords.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Essay Example Scott Fitzgerald. That was when I took the time to read all the 18 pages of the short story, walking away from it in awe of the imagination of the writer and feeling robbed by the way the movie of Brad Pitt disrespected the original. The novel itself was quite interesting because it took place in an era of America that paid all too much attention to the social status of a family in the community. As with the Buttons family in the story, the image of a financially well-to-do family in the community is always coupled with an upstanding name that is cared for over generations. But that was not to be the case with Benjamin. His family became the object of ridicule for many years due to the circumstances of his birth and yet they managed to endure as a familial unit. The character of Benjamin is one whose origin story is quite complex and, in my opinion, lacking in character development and backstory. That is because even though we were introduced to Benjamin as a newborn old man, we neve r found out how such things could occur. If there was no scientific explanation for it as mentioned in the story, perhaps a backstory of a cursed birth or something would have helped. I just found it important as a reader to understand how such a pitiful life could have been bestowed upon an innocent child by the forces of the universe. Surely Benjamin's parents must have done something terribly evil to incur the anger of the gods thus being bestowed with a cursed child right? But I guess F. Scott Fitzgerald did not want to bother or perhaps bore the readers with such backstories. Which is why he also had a tendency to gloss over decades of Benjamin's life for no reason. His glossing over the life of the man-child and not paying attention to greater details of his development leaves one wondering as to why he became the sort of man that he did. It is almost like reading the life of Jesus with the missing 20 years. It just did not make any sense to me. That said, I would have to say that the story still managed to retain the interest of the reader in such a manner that these oversights could easily be forgiven. It did not remove from the enthralling tale of the life of an old man destined to die as a new born at all. It puzzled me though that the mother in the story was never mentioned as I am sure that Benjamin needed to have been born of natural means. So why was the mother not mentioned at all in the story? Did she die during childbirth? Was she driven mad by the sight of the newborn son being old enough to sit on her lap and then some? I imagined the birth would have been horribly painful for her and traumatizing and yet it was never even touched upon in the telling of the early life of Benjamin. Rather there was a concentration on the relationship of the boy and his father who did not accept him for who he was when he was born. The cruelty of a parent during that era of history seems so much that he actually wished his son were born a negro so he could hav e left him at the slave market. That part of the novel I remember reading and thinking, â€Å" What a cruel father he is to want to give away his child under the worst circumstances. He would have probably killed the child if he could have.† After reading the book another time though, I began to get the humor in the writing of Fitzgerald. In fact, one might say that the book was written tongue in cheek since the events has he related them could never take place in real life. Yet as a short story, the concept actually made sense. I mean, if it did not, then Hollywood would not have tried and failed miserably to rip it off. Towards the end of the book, when Benjamin began to grow into his baby years, I could not help

Act Violations in Afghanistan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Act Violations in Afghanistan - Assignment Example I also found it interesting that despite USA’s great investment in establishing peace in former war-torn Sudan (Sudan and South Sudan), there has never been any penalty as a result of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in that country. Last but not least, the ability of the interactive map to provide information about FCPA violations penalties in both numerical and visual item such as color and boxes was quite captivating and fun to me. I was very surprised by the magnitude of fines associated with FCPA violations in the Consulting sector. This figure was the largest among all the sectors which recorder payment of the penalties. I was also amazed that the Health & Pharmacy sector highly contributed to bribery in South America which is a continent adversely affected by poor health systems and status. Bribes increase the cost of operations and thus, bribery costs must have increased cost of health care in South America. This is quite a surprising and a saddening statistic. I agree with Linda about fictitious revenues. They are simply revenues reported that never occurred. This means that they could be inflated revenues or just fakes revenues. To add on her exhaustive post, I would like to add on the ways in which these fictitious revenues can be identified. One of the major red flags is an unusual increase in assets aimed at concealing these non-existent revenues. Contact details of customers such as physical addresses and phone numbers also become unavailable. Lastly, fictitious revenues can be detected by drastic changes in ratio patterns due to fictitious revenues. On the other hand, I disagree with Adrienne’s post.

Standardization of Polyherbal Formulations for Drug Analysis

Standardization of Polyherbal Formulations for Drug Analysis Standardization of polyherbal formulations is essential in order to assess the quality of drugs, based on the concentration of their active principles (markers or standards). As Mentat tablet (MT), a herbal formulation consist of natural multi-ingredient formula with active constituents responsible for treatment of neurological disorder and improvement of mental health, therefore it is worthwhile to take it as a model for standardization of polyherbal formulation. In this work, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of 28 major bioactive constituents. Multiple-reaction monitoring scanning was employed for quantification in positive and negative mode. The analysis was accomplished on Waters AQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column with linear gradient elution of acetonitrile 0.1% formic acid with water 0.1% formic acid solutions at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The comparative a nalysis of samples was carried out by hierarchical cluster analysis and principle component analysis. The proposed method was applied to analyze 4 different batches of marketed formulation with acceptable linearity (r2, 0.9984-0.9999), precision, stability and recovery (RSD ≠¤ 3.74 %), evaluated under optimum conditions. The developed method is capable of controlling quality of polyherbal formulations having similar markers and herbs. Herbal medicines (HMs) refer to one herb or complex mixtures, which usually contains hundreds of chemically different components. Their curative effects are principally based on the synergic effect of their multi-targeting and multi-ingredient preparations [1, 2]. Consequently, quality control becomes a troublesome issue for crude drugs and their medical preparations. Therefore, the method that employs pharmacologically active components to evaluate the quality and authenticity of the complex preparations is confronted with severe challenges and better analytical strategies to assure their efficacy, safety, and consistency are in great demand [3]. Moreover, the chemical compounds in the poly herbs in HMs products may vary depending on harvest seasons, plant origins, drying processes and other factors. Thus, it seems to be necessary to determine most of the phytochemical constituents of herbal products in order to ensure the reliability and repeatability of pharmacological and clinical research, to perceive their bioactivities and eventual side effects of active compounds and to enhance product quality control [4, 5]. Currently, selection of a single or a few specific components from a certain herbal medicine as markers for quality assessment is a widely applied strategy. However, it cannot afford sufficient quantitative information for the other medicinal compositions and cannot accurately reflect the quality of HMs products. All the HMs compositions play important roles in the therapeutic effects. Therefore, selecting multiple constituents from different medicinal herbs as evaluation markers has been gradually applied for the quality control of HMs [6, 7]. Mentat tablets (MT, commercial product) is a polyherbal medication with each tablet composed of extracts (136 mg of Bacopa monnieri, 70 mg of Centella asiatica, 52 mg of Withania somnifera, 52 mg of Evolvulus alsinoides, 52 mg of Nardostachys jatamansi, 50 mg of Valeriana wallichii, 50 mg of Embelica ribes, 50 mg of Prunus amygdalus, 42 mg of Acorus calamus, 36 mg of Tinospora cordifolia, 36 mg of Terminalia chebula, 36 mg of Emblica officinalis, 32 mg of Oroxylum indicum, 32 mg of Celastrus paniculatus) and powders (80 mg of Bacopa monnieri, 18 mg of Withania somnifera, 18 mg of Mucuna pruriens, 18 mg of Elettaria cardamomum, 18 mg of Terminalia arjuna, 18 mg of Anethum sowa, 18 mg of Ipomoea digitata, 14 mg of Zingiber officinale, 14 mg of Terminalia belerica, 14 mg of Myristica fragrans, 10 mg of Syzygium aromaticum). MT is a unique all-natural multi-ingredient formula that promotes brain health. It improves the mental quotient, memory span, concentration ability, stress threshold and exhibit significant anti-parkinsonian activity. MT also offers protection against convulsions, which is beneficial in insomnia with its sedative and tranquilizing effects [8-10]. There are various pharmaceutical manufacturers that produce herbal formulations with similar herbs combinations to treat various neurological disorders. Chemically, bacosides the saponin mixture of Bacopa monnieri and triterpenoid glycosides in Centella asiatica have been considered as the key active components. [11-14]. Phytochemical investigations show important classes of bioactive constituents in selected plants as in combination of MT that are responsible for the bioactivity [15-20]. Literature survey reveals that, analytical methods including thin layer chromatography (TLC) [21], high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) [22, 23], liquid chromatography (LC) [6, 24, 25], liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) [26-29], nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) [30] have been developed for the quantitative analysis of the bioactive constituents in HMs to assess the quality of the complex preparations. Natural alteration in preparation processes and climate affects the safety and batch-to-batch uniformity of HMs products. Highly sensitive analytical methods are thus required to identify ingredients and evaluate lot-to-lot consistence. To the best of our knowledge, there is no method have been reported for the simultaneous estimation of selected 28 multi-markers in herbals by UPLC-ESI-MS/MSand no such formulation approach has been explored on this important drug combination for quality consistency evaluation of this herbal preparation. Compared to conventional TLC, HPTLC, HPLC–UV method which will take a longer analysis time, UPLC-ESI-MS/MS method in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), tandem MS scan mode offers detection effectively with more powerful approach, to rapidly quantify multi-ingredients in complex sample matrices due to its rapid separation power, low detection limit, high sensitivity, selectivity and specificity. The methods used or reported in literature only contained one or two compounds, without consideration of other active ingredients. This paper describes for the first time a simple, accurate and reliable UPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of 28 bioactive multiple components from different polyherbs including: bacoside A (mixture of bacoside A3, bacopaside II, bacopaside X and bacopasaponin C), withanolide-A, withaferin-A, asiaticoside, madecassoside, jatrorrhizine, palmatine, magnoflorine, curcumin, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, ellagic acid, rosamarinic acid, ursolic acid, catechin, apigenin, luteolin, quercetin, rutin, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, corilagin, chrysin and chlorogenic acid with single runtime of 10 min. The results indicated that the developed method is fast, sensitive and convenient to show the real quality of the polyherbal preparations. Therefore, this proposed method could be reliable and feasible for quality assessment of MT and all other herbal formulations manufactured by various pharmaceutical manufacturers with similar herbs combinations containing either these 28 markers or less. The method was also applied to analyze the multiple components in MT different batches from same manufacturer. Our results will facilitate the comprehensive quality control of MT and other similar related preparations. The quantitative results were further analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis i.e., hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principle component analysis (PCA) to provide more information about the chemical differences and batch-to-batch uniformity.